Page 101 of Sun Elves of Ardani

“We know she’s strong,” Felmai said after a moment. “But what about the other humans?”

“They don’t have magic,” Neiryn said. “They need us to watch their backs. Keep an eye on them and draw the magic-eater away if it turns on one of them.”

“They shouldn’t be here,” Eliyr said flatly. His lips were tight, his eyebrows drawn together as he watched Kadaki. Eliyr had tried to convince Roshan to stay behind, and Roshan had refused. There had been an argument, and they’d not spoken again since.

“We’ve planned this out,” Neiryn said. “Everyone knows their place. It will work.”

“Goddess, I hope so,” said Felmai. Neiryn didn’t miss the way she bent down as if to straighten her armor and surreptitiously touched her forehead in prayer. No one wanted to appear to be lacking in confidence. Visibly beseeching the gods would probably not be good for morale. But prayers were certainly not unwarranted at the moment, and they all knew it.

“She’s still going,” Eliyr said under his breath, still watching Kadaki. His expression was verging on worry now. Kadaki’s hand was still on the obelisk, but her body had grown visibly rigid. Her eyes were narrowed, her mouth held in a grimace as she forced more magic through her body.

Neiryn frowned as he watched her. The plan was for her to take as much as she possibly could. And while he knew she would need everything she could get, he also knew that she had a grand history of overdoing things.

Sparks and lightning-like discharges of magic began to spray from the obelisk as her control over the flow of magic grew more tenuous. Wind cycloned around her, picking up her hair and cloak. She blinked hard against the flashes of light.

Surely there was only so much magic a mortal body could contain. Neiryn clenched his teeth, willing her to stop.

With a jerk, she finally stepped away from the obelisk. The swirl of magic dissipated, and when she turned around, she was glowing faintly. She cracked the knuckles of the hand she’d had on the obelisk.

“Ready?” she asked. Neiryn might have been imagining it, but her voice seemed to have a multidimensional quality to it, as if the magic was distorting it.

“Yes,” Rhian said, drawing her sword. “Take us up.”

“Everybody hold on to someone,” Kadaki said, and flicked a hand.

The world tilted as they shifted to the surface. And then they were in a dark room, and Neiryn could hear rain pounding outside. Judging by the hollow sound of them all crashing to the ground, it was a wood floor. A few people groaned.

“Quiet,” Rhian hissed, and obedient silence followed. A very dim ball of mage light appeared. They were in The Smiling Dragon. All the tables and chairs had been pushed against the walls, and the place was utterly empty and dark. It should have been daytime, but there was only darkness beyond the windows.

As Rhian and the others padded toward the windows to peer out, Neiryn went to Kadaki’s side. Magic swam so thickly around her that her face appeared to waver, like she was underwater. His breath caught as he looked at her.

“Are you well?” he whispered.

She gave an almost-smile. “Now is not the time to be overprotective, Neiryn.”

“I disagree.” He took her hand, and magic tingled against his skin. “It’s exactly the time.”

She squeezed his hand. “I’m well. Let’s kill a monster, shall we?”

“No sign of it,” Rhian murmured, turning away from the windows.

“It will sense the magic in me,” Kadaki said. “It will come.”

Rhian nodded and opened the door, which creaked on its hinges. Outside, a storm still raged. Sheets of rain had continued to fall, and claps of thunder threatened to deafen them. Water ran ankle-deep over the street. The flashes of lightning and bursts of spontaneous flame were the only sources of light in a darkness so complete that they may as well have all closed their eyes. Kadaki brightened her mage light and directed it to hang in the air high above the street, casting flickering light through the rain.

They spread out in pairs, one elf and one human each, in all different directions, taking cover in the shelter of eaves and doorways on either side of the road. No one would be caught alone this time.

Neiryn was the only one without a partner, because he was watching Kadaki.

It did not take long for the magic-eater to appear. A glow at the end of the street heralded its arrival.

Neiryn had not been prepared for what he saw when it rounded the corner. It was as tall as the building beside it, and magic rolled off it in great waves, spiraling off into showers of sparks. The air shifted and flashed around it, and Neiryn almost thought he could see images forming in those flashes, as if they were pieces of some other place, perhaps windows into whatever Other plane it had come from, or a sign of reality itself beginning to unravel in its presence.

Kadaki calmly studied it, and he wasn’t sure whether she looked more like a panther planning an attack, or like a deer caught in the path of a hunter’s arrow. She stood perfectly straight, her hair and clothes clinging to her. She casually lifted a hand just as a bolt of lightning shot toward her, effortlessly redirecting it away from her.

The magic-eater charged. The ground shook beneath it. Kadaki raised her hands, and the hair on the back of Neiryn’s neck stood on end as magic sparked in the air. The bones that formed the magic-eater’s front right leg snapped and crumbled into dust. The creature stumbled, but kept coming. Kadaki jerked her hands again, lips moving as she murmured under her breath, and the magic-eater’s left leg exploded as well. It roared, a sound that speared through the air and forced Neiryn to cover his ears, but the bones were already coming back together.

A cone of flame shot from the adjacent alley, hitting the magic-eater’s side. It flinched as the weaker bits of detritus that held its corporeal form turned to ash.

---