‘Put him in,’ he said.
•
The water curled about his toes, belying the depths that lay beneath. Around Corlas some two hundred of his best warriors fanned out atop the river’s surface, watching the battle that stretched from the shore into the distance. A shadow mage dashed past on the bank, shooting bolts at fleeing Varenkai. He glanced in their direction and stopped suddenly, his targets forgotten as he squinted at them. Old Magic would not shine in the perceptions of light or shadow mages, but at such close range it seemed this one had picked up some hint of the invisibility spells that hid the Sprites, or the water-walking that supported them.
‘He senses us,’ said Nindere.
‘Yes.’ Corlas made a grasping gesture. Water shaped like a giant hand reached from the river to seize the mage, and dragged him flailing into its depths. As his head plunged beneath the surface, Corlas made a fist, crushing the slight resistance offered by shadow magic as he squeezed the air from the man’s lungs.
‘They are so weak!’ cried Charla, delighted.
‘Not so brash,’ said Corlas. ‘We may be stronger, but they outnumber us greatly.’
He narrowed his eyes as he pushed his sight into the distance. The sphere was flashing mightily, enclosed around his other boy, the one he had never met, never even spoken to. Would he soon? No, for if the one called Losara was put back together with Bel, neither of them would be the same.
‘That is Lord Battu?’ said Charla, also watching the unfolding scene.
‘Yes.’
She reached to grasp his bulky arm and gave it a squeeze. ‘I will thank him, if I get the chance.’
‘What?’ he said, wrenching his gaze away to hers.
‘Without him you’d never have been delivered to the wood,’ she said. ‘Or to me.’
She smiled, and Corlas felt the hard look disappear from his eyes.
He saw a blond woman ride up to Fahren and Battu – and there, turning in the air behind her, was Bel! His son did not seem happy or compliant, and Corlas’s immediate instinct was to rush to him …but he dug his toes into the water, as if he could root himself to such shifting stuff.
‘It is as the Lady said,’ announced Nindere excitedly. ‘The players are in their rightful places. Soon the blue-haired man will be reborn! And then …’
‘And then he comes with us,’ said Corlas.
•
Bel knew there was no point struggling, yet he couldn’t help himself. As Elessa drove him forward, the glowing sphere loomed wide in his vision. The fight still called to him noiselessly under the constant clamour, threads of the pattern still wavering from him, looking for an enemy to latch onto …and then suddenly they twined and thickened to one, leading straight and true into the heart of the globe. He stared into the pulsing light, suddenly calm.
That’s right , he thought. This is how I’m supposed to win.
He passed through the surface – a warm touch on his skin – and, as Elessa’s hold disappeared, landed on his feet. There sat Losara, cross-legged on the grass.
‘Hello, Bel,’ he said.
‘Hello,’ said Bel.
‘How are you?’
Bel stretched his arms. He hadn’t realised how covered in blood he was. ‘Good,’ he said. ‘Never better.’
•
‘They are returning,’ muttered Battu, and Fahren knew what he meant. From every direction, the briefly dispersed shadow mages were swarming back towards them.
‘We cannot cast through the sphere,’ said Fahren.
‘Order it dropped, and we will stun them.’
Fahren nodded. He did not like treating Bel this way, but there wasn’t time for anything else.
‘Are you ready?’ he said.
‘Yes.’
On my mark , he sent his mages, cease your casting. A blue bolt sizzled past, hitting someone behind him. The shadow mages were back.
One , he sent …two …three!
The streams of light feeding the sphere abated and it disappeared. For a split second Bel and Losara were revealed, Losara sitting on the ground while Bel stood – and then Fahren and Battu channelled a shockwave that set Losara on his back and Bel to his knees.
‘Now,’ said Fahren.
Please, Arkus , he prayed, let this work.
Together, he and Battu sent forth power to seize both Losara and Bel …and discovered that through the Stone, their magic seemed to consider the blue-haired men a single target. A good sign!
‘ Stop them! ’ came a shout, and he saw Tyrellan frantically rallying shadow mages. While Fahren felt sure the Old Magic ward would keep them protected, now was not the time to leave anything to chance.
Attack , he sent his mages, and light spells began to flash past.
Battu grunted and shielded his eyes. ‘Curse you all,’ he muttered.
Groggily Bel and Losara floated towards the Stone. It began to throb, so hard and fast that Fahren felt pain in his eardrums. Threads crackled from it, the darkest shadow and the brightest light, sunset orange and the grey of dusk. He raised the staff as high as he could, fearing the vortex that was forming. As Bel and Losara drew closer, they began to grow translucent. The next moment their bodies were overlapping, though the outlines of each remained visible. Power jumped at them from the Stone, their heads thrown back as they were seized by it. Fahren flinched as there sounded an almighty crack, the staff shattering in his grip, the Stone flying off to land in the grass. He raised his eyes, then glanced from side to side.
Bel and Losara were nowhere to be seen.
Part Three
Unbroken
It is true that the whole world once had a name, though by my time it had become rare to hear it used. So long had Kainordas and Fenvarrow stood divided, with so little common ground between, that not even a unifying word survived. It was us and them, neighbours living in separate lands, broken so long we had forgotten what it was like to be whole.
Ah, but how things change. How they fade away.
The Third Power
Lalenda’s wings gave out and she fell the last pace to the ground.
They had done it. They had stolen her Losara.
Tears threatened to burst from her scrunched-up eyes. She forced them back, raised her head, hardly saw the shadow mages around her mustering attacks.
‘No!’ she screamed, scrambling to her feet, and raced towards the place Losara had been sucked into the Stone. As she was just about to clear the mages, an iron grip caught her wrist and swung her about.
‘Do not,’ said Tyrellan, ‘get yourself killed for no reason.’
She wrenched her eyes back to the field. On the grass, about halfway across the clear area between the lightfists and the shadow mages, lay the Stone. Fahren was labouring towards it, his body wreathed in protective light, against which shadow spells drummed repeatedly.
‘Where is he?’ she demanded.
‘Nothing has emerged yet from the Stone,’ said Tyrellan, and for a moment she heard in his voice a note of the worry they both felt. As he stared hard into her eyes he seemed to reach some conclusion, and released her.
‘Go and get him, then,’ he said. ‘Assedrynn guide your steps.’ Then he turned and shouted. ‘A shadow ward for the Mire Pixie! As for the rest of you, beat back that filthy grasping light mage lest he steal our Shadowdreamer .’
As she moved onto the field, a darkness settled on her. She had never been the subject of a shadow ward before, but it was as if she stood just inside a tunnel mouth looking out. Fahren was closer to the Stone but slow under the rain of blue bolts and shadows. As she came to be about the same distance away as he, light spells began to break across her field of vision. The shadow mages must have actually attached the ward to her somehow, for when it juddered so did she. A blazing hot beam momentarily pierced the darkness, and she rolled as it passed overhead, flattening her wings as she felt the heat of it along her back.