“Yes, she’s very impressive. She’s also intelligent and beautiful, but perhaps now is not the best time to discuss it,” Korbyn said dryly. “Let’s move.” From the side, he wrapped his arms around Liyana’s waist. Jarlath mimicked him on the other side. She felt the breath of both boys on her neck.
Ready? Liyana asked Bayla.
Do it.
“Hold tight,” Liyana said. She let the magic flow into her. She expanded herself into the cyclone. She became the cyclone. She played with the wind, raising it higher and sinking it lower. As it sank low and wide, she stepped on top of it, pulling Korbyn and Jarlath with her. The wind bashed into them, and they were shoved up into the air. Wind whipped under her feet, and she felt as if she were skimming over water. She held the boys as tightly as she could, and she steered the cyclone toward the mountains.
Ahead she saw a sky serpent glow fiery red and orange and then white. Cracks ran through its body, and it shattered with a sound like thunder. Glass shards flew in every direction.
“He’s heating the sky serpents fast so they’ll explode,” Jarlath said.
Another sky serpent exploded, raining shards over the boulders below. Glass cascaded down the mountainside. Fire is one of their few weaknesses, Bayla said. Sendar knows this as well.
He has fought sky serpents before? Liyana asked.
Bayla was silent for a moment. He knows the sky serpents because we created them.
You . . . what?
We knew we could not protect the lake ourselves, not without a constant presence in the world, so we created the sky serpents to guard the mountains. It required the full strength of every deity outside of the Dreaming. We seeped magic into the sand, fused it with enough fire to harden. . . .
If you created them, then call them off! Two sky serpents dove at them. One skimmed near the top of the cyclone. Another plunged into it, and then spiraled up toward them. He spun out of the cyclone, roared, and dove again. Tell them to attack Mulaf, not us!
Alas, we cannot control them, Bayla said. Like the sand wolves—
You are to blame for them as well?
“Liyana!” Korbyn shouted in her ear.
Liyana saw a mountainside rushing toward them. She steered the cyclone to the left, around the serrated edge, and then she gasped at her first view of the mountain range.
Ahead was an expanse of peaks that stretched so high that they looked like they cut the night sky. Half the moon was visible behind one of them. It shed a silvery glow over the black rock mountains.
“Up ahead!” Jarlath cried. “The sky serpents are slowing him!” She veered through the peaks, around the rock faces and the spindly trees. In her wake, boulders rolled down the mountainsides and cliffs collapsed. She felt the wind pound her body as they rode the cyclone.
Suddenly Mulaf’s cyclone disappeared.
Faster! Bayla shouted. She poured more and more magic into Liyana. Liyana felt as if her skin would burst open as the pressure increased faster than she could pour the magic out. The cyclone whipped beneath them.
She saw shards of bright glass fill the sky ahead as sky serpents exploded above the peaks. More circled in, diving down between the mountains.
Set us down on that cliff above the lake, Bayla ordered. But do not miss. The lake water is death to the touch.
Liyana let the wind slow and then die, and the cyclone slowly lowered them onto the cliff. Mulaf was directly below them on a wider cliff. All his concentration was fixed on the sky serpents. As each one dove at him, he roared at it and swept his arms. It heated to white hot and then exploded. Glass rained on the valley below.
Each flash of light illuminated the sheer, granite cliffs, the oval lake, and the overflow of greenery and flowers that existed nowhere else in the mountains or the desert. As the flare faded, the valley plunged into shadows, and then it flashed again as the next sky serpent died.
The lake looked exactly as she’d pictured it.
“It’s beautiful,” Jarlath breathed.
Liyana couldn’t speak. She watched the white-hot glass scales rain on the lake and the valley. When a scale hit the water, the lake glowed for an instant. Steam curled up. And then it darkened as the scale sank beneath the surface.
“He hasn’t seen us,” Liyana whispered.
“Or he’s too busy with the sky serpents to care,” Korbyn said. “They seek to protect the lake. It is their purpose. They won’t quit no matter how many of them he explodes.”
“We need a plan,” Liyana said. Her knees shook, and she was grateful that Jarlath and Korbyn still held her. Without them, she thought she might fall into the deadly water below. The magic was gone, and she felt empty and breathless. She gripped their arms.
“Simple is best,” Korbyn said. “He can outmagic us.”
Attack him, Bayla said. Liyana repeated her words out loud.
Jarlath nodded. She couldn’t see it, but she felt it. “On the count of three,” he said. “One. Two . . .” Another sky serpent exploded. As its light faded to darkness, Jarlath said, “Three.” They jumped from the cliff.
As another sky serpent dove to attack, they crashed down on top of Mulaf. He was knocked backward, with Korbyn pinning his legs. Looking past them, Mulaf raised his hand up, and the sky serpent exploded. Shards plummeted around them.
Liyana felt a shard graze her arm. She bit back a cry. Shielding her head from the falling glass, Liyana recoiled. Both Korbyn and Jarlath were forced to dodge as well.
Mulaf got to his feet and raised his hand to point at them. Korbyn and Jarlath lunged at him at the same time. Korbyn hit first, and then Jarlath knocked them all backward. They crashed onto the edge of the cliff. Mulaf’s torso extended over open air. Liyana dove forward to catch Korbyn’s legs, adding her weight to keep them from tumbling off the cliff.
Bayla yelled, Watch for—
Korbyn and Jarlath were tossed backward by wind. They slammed into the granite wall. Still prone, Mulaf defeated another sky serpent. He then rose and advanced on the two boys. “Fools!” Mulaf said. “You could have saved yourselves. Now, you and the lake will be buried in this valley.”
“Don’t hurt them!” Liyana stepped in front of them. She felt Bayla pour magic into her.
“Desert princess, your magic cannot hope to compete—”
He expected her to use magic against him. So she didn’t. She slammed her fist into Mulaf’s face. Blood stained his upper lip. As he teetered backward in surprise, she pulled out the sky serpent knife and stabbed him in the stomach.
Her hands shook as she stared at the blood that spread over his clothes. Dark, it blossomed over his torso. Releasing the hilt, she stumbled backward.
He pulled the blade from his stomach, and Korbyn and Jarlath dove at him. His flesh was beginning to heal as they both rammed into him. He toppled over the edge of the cliff, and they fell with him.
“No!” Liyana shouted. She ran to the edge and used Bayla’s magic to send the wind screaming underneath them. It swept them toward the grasses and away from the deadly lake. She leaped into the wind, and it blew her down with them. She hit the ground and rolled.
Healed, Mulaf walked toward the edge of the water. It reflected the moon in its ripples. He raised his hands toward the cliffs. Rocks began to shake. Liyana got to her feet and ran toward him. Jarlath and Korbyn were on their feet and running too. Above, sky serpents circled and cried, looking for their prey.
Jarlath reached him first. He tackled Mulaf from behind.
Mulaf fell forward. His hands slapped the water. Ripples spread from them. His body submerged face-first, and then Jarlath’s arms sank into the water, pushing Mulaf down. Jarlath’s body stiffened, and he collapsed into the water. “No!” Liyana shouted. As she reached for him, the lake water splashed onto her hands.