But for now, more immediate concerns crowded his mind. Below and to his left, three of the Brood Naik had isolated a Kaan from his attack phalanx. As he watched, helpless, the young dragon, twisting through every evasion move he’d been taught, caught blast after blast of flame. Eventually, the heat ignited one wing, the thin membrane gushing to fire as the oils which both lubricated the wing and provided a barrier against dragonfire were driven off, scorching bone and breaking sinew and muscle.
With a cry of mixed pain, defiance and fear, the young Kaan fell from the sky, spiralling out of control, one wing trailing smoke, the other beating in a vain attempt to steady its tumbling body, the tail coiling and straightening reflexively, head twisting as it sought aid. None would come. Sha-Kaan did not look to see the end but he knew what to do.
‘With me,’ he pulsed to his wing-guards. He dived steeply, silent, wings angled back and in, bulleting through the air, reaching a velocity at which he would kill or be killed. The three Naik had no inkling of what was coming. Sha-Kaan’s jaws latched on to the right wing of one, pulling it wildly off balance and dragging it groundwards, his huge body barely in check as it collided with his enemy, the sound of the impact clattering dully across the sky, scales grating together. The smaller beast, flailing talons, tail and free wing, barked its fury and fear, unable to turn its head fast enough to see its assailant, flame wasted on empty sky.
Sha-Kaan’s momentum took them in to, for him, a controlled tumble, dragon falling slowly over dragon until with a sharp twist of his jaws, Sha-Kaan freed his victim. But the freedom was short and agonising. The Great Kaan opened his mouth again and unleashed a torrent of fire, taking the disoriented dragon across the head, neck and along the left wing.
Half-blinded, the Naik breathed a choking gout, scorching nothing but air. Sha-Kaan’s jaws snapped open again and this time the fire dragged the Naik from head to tail, critically injuring wing and tail muscle. Unable to fly, the Naik dropped to its death.
Sha-Kaan barrel-rolled, bellowing triumph and vengeance. He twisted his neck to assess the progress of the battle, picked another target and flew.
‘The question really is, was rip formation an unavoidable side-effect of the Dawnthief casting?’ Styliann’s question was not criticism but observation and Denser’s reactive tensing eased when he saw the Lord of the Mount’s expression.
The four mages still sat around the fire. Denser’s pipe smouldered in his mouth and it was an effort even to suck to keep it vaguely alight. He rested in Erienne’s lap, she absently stroking his hair, and Ilkar sat with them, poking at the embers with a hardwood stick. Styliann, his dark hair brushed back into its more usual tight ponytail, sat alone on the opposite side of the fire.
Out in the square, the rest of The Raven stood with Darrick, discussing the most accurate way to measure the noon shade. They hadn’t long to come up with a solution. It would soon be midday.
Those of Darrick’s cavalry and Styliann’s Protectors not involved in guard and sentry duties had been detailed grimmer tasks. The city had to be cleared, corpses burned and every building searched for hidden enemies. Parve had to be returned to its dead state. Not a soul could remain save the volunteers Darrick would have to find to measure the shadow day by day and commune their findings.
For the quartet of mages, their talk was the heart of the problem. How could the rip to the dragon-dimension be closed before the Kaan strength collapsed and Balaia fell victim to a deluge of fire?
‘To answer your question, my Lord, we’ll have to pull out every text of Septern’s held by the Colleges,’ said Erienne. ‘It seems obvious now that the basis for Dawnthief’s power is the creation of a rip into a vortex in interdimensional space. Presumably, the complete casting opens a rip big enough to suck everything in, hence “light-stealer”.’
‘And my training focused solely on control of the casting parameters, not on withdrawal,’ said Denser with a shrug.
Ilkar ceased his prodding of the fire. ‘So what you’re saying is that there could have been a way to close off the vortex as you shut down the mana shape.’
‘Yes, but that was not detailed in the main casting texts. It might be in the Lore somewhere. Septern’s understanding of dimensional magic was very deep.’
‘Well, it wouldn’t ever be in the casting texts,’ said Erienne. ‘If you think about it, closing the vortex at both ends, which is what you’re talking about, requires a new spell.’
‘You’re assuming that nothing in the Dawnthief text and shape formation produces the same effect,’ remarked Ilkar.
‘Well, there isn’t.’
‘And what makes you so sure, Dordovan?’ Styliann stared at Erienne straight down his nose.
‘Oh, please, Styliann, we can do without your pious condescension, ’ snapped Ilkar, surprised at his tone with the Lord of the Mount. ‘This is far bigger than any one College. Just listen to her.’
Styliann bridled but Denser cut across any words.
‘My Lord, Ilkar is right,’ he said. ‘Erienne is an Arch Research Mage.’
‘You have studied Septern?’ asked Styliann.
Erienne shrugged. ‘Of course. He was Dordovan.’
‘By birth alone,’ said Styliann.
‘Dordovan,’ affirmed Erienne. ‘But you don’t need research to get my point, just common sense. Listen, and don’t interrupt. I’m not criticising anybody.’ She laid a hand on Denser’s arm. ‘All right?’ Denser nodded, frowning.
‘Good,’ said Erienne. She breathed deep. ‘Sha-Kaan was right in that, technically, Denser’s casting of Dawnthief was inaccurate.’ She squeezed Denser’s arm as he tensed. ‘But we mustn’t forget Septern’s original vision for the spell, though we might question why he created it.’
‘He was an experimenter,’ said Ilkar. ‘He just wanted to see how far he could go.’
Erienne nodded. ‘Probably. Dawnthief, properly cast, by which I mean at full creation, duration and power, would open a vortex capable of sucking in the whole of Balaia and that includes the Southern Continent too. Let me ask you this. Would you write into the spell a method of closing the vortex when you wouldn’t be around to use it?’
‘So what did you do, Denser?’ asked Ilkar.
‘I just dismantled the shape. Rather hurriedly, I admit, but the drain on my mana reserves was critical,’ said the Dark Mage. ‘I considered that to be safer than simply withdrawing from the spell and shutting out but there was a balance. Had I not dismantled as quickly as I did, there was a danger that the shape could have grown beyond my control and I couldn’t risk a backfire. Not with Dawnthief.’
‘And you’re sure there were no other ending options?’ asked Ilkar.
‘You’ve not studied the texts beyond the mana theory, have you?’ said Denser. Ilkar shook his head. So did Styliann. ‘No. When you examine the casting, it’s quite unlike anything else you’ll see. Every spell in your teaching deals with creation, catalyst if necessary, intonation, placement, duration and deployment. And that’s it. When the spell shape is released, it is stable because that is built into the lore construct.
‘With Dawnthief, it was different. Because there was no proper provision written for anything other than a full strength casting, limiting the power as I trained to do makes the mana shape inherently unstable. That meant I couldn’t release the shape because it would have collapsed, and that is what drained my mana stamina.
‘The way I had to cast meant the spell had no end other than crude reversal through dismantling. I defy anyone to come up with a better solution.’
‘Academic, Denser, since Dawnthief can never be recast,’ said Styliann. ‘Besides which, we are all second to your knowledge of the spell. Unfortunately, it means we can’t use it as a basis for our current predicament.’