Page 38 of Sun Elves of Ardani

“Have you ever channeled magic from a conduit before?” Kadaki whispered to Eliyr as they padded across the moss.

His brow creased. “No.”

She bit her tongue. She had only done it once, herself, and given her weakness, she was not hopeful she’d be able to do it again. “It will not be easy. It will feel like you’re being ripped apart. You need to hold steady through the discomfort,” she whispered.

He nodded. If he had objections to being given orders by a human, the seriousness of the situation had made him set them aside.

They knelt in the shelter of the tree’s gnarled roots. Across the cavern, Kadaki could just see Neiryn and Roshan in the shadows on either side of a small building.

“You must keep the flow of magic controlled,” she said under her breath. “Don’t let it overwhelm you. Taking in too much could cause… damage.”

Eliyr’s mouth was tightly closed, and he was breathing deeply. Kadaki went silent as she spotted a flare of light on the other side of the cavern.

A tree was on fire. It started as a small flame flickering at the base of the trunk and quickly began climbing up the bark. For a moment, Kadaki was aghast at the destruction of something this rare and beautiful. But she would choose their own lives over the trees, if this was what it took for them to escape.

The magic-eater swung its huge head in the direction of the fire and emitted a low growl as it warily started toward it. When it reached the other side of the clearing, Kadaki gathered her courage and stepped out from behind her tree. She raced toward the obelisk, her bare feet patting lightly against the stone. Eliyr’s hard-soled boots seemed incredibly loud as they struck the ground behind her, but the beast didn’t turn.

The magic-eater had caught sight of Neiryn. Kadaki’s heart hammered as she watched him back away, blasting flame at the beast. But he was tired. The flames bursting from his hand were smaller than before, and they didn’t have the dramatic effect on the creature that they’d had earlier. The magic-eater merely staggered, shaking its head in annoyance, before rounding on Neiryn again.

Before it reached him, Roshan appeared behind it, shouting and waving his arms. He was holding some kind of metal rod and was banging it on the wall beside him to draw the magic-eater’s attention. Kadaki realized, with a tiny spark of amusement, that it was Neiryn’s seeker. The tip of it was flaring so brightly that it was blinding to look at. It bent as Roshan hit it against the stone.

Neiryn ducked through a doorway and the magic-eater whirled toward Roshan. But then Neiryn was running down the other side of the clearing, casting blooms of fire beside him as he ran, setting more trees on fire.

Gods damn him, he was going to set the whole forest ablaze, but it was working. The magic-eater seemed confused by the fire.

Kadaki skidded to a stop beside the obelisk. It was several feet wide, and its white surface was unnaturally smooth except for the cracks through which vibrant plants grew. Magic shimmered around it like a physical presence, like dense fog. It created distortions in the air, like the waves that came off heated stone. When she raised her hand, it felt like pushing through water.

“Ready?” she asked Eliyr, her voice shaking. It didn’t matter if he wasn’t, so he nodded.

There was a shout from the other side of the clearing, and Kadaki looked up in time to see Neiryn being flung against a wall by a swipe of the magic-eater’s bony claws. He slumped to the ground and didn’t get up.

Kadaki gritted her teeth, then pushed her hand against the obelisk.

Her head jerked back as if she’d been hit. Hurricane winds buffeted her. Magic surged. As she opened the conduit, power poured into her, tearing through her body.

Beside her, Eliyr was grimacing as he struggled to maintain his own hold on the obelisk. The magic began to spark around him, wild and uncontrolled. The muscles in his arm quivered. His nose began to bleed.

“Stop!” Kadaki shouted. Her voice sounded distorted by the magic flowing through her. “Let go!”

There was another spark, and Eliyr jolted backwards. He fell to a heap on the ground, gasping. He rolled over and expelled the contents of his stomach.

Kadaki braced herself. The magic continued filling her, drowning her.

Except she wasn’t drowning. She was swimming. She was in control.

The magic didn’t overwhelm her. The power flowing into her body was hers. For the first time in years, she didn’t feel weak—she felt strong.

A strange calm filled her in the midst of the pain and fire and sparks. She slowed the flow of the conduit’s magic, then sealed it off. She slowly pulled her hand away from the obelisk, and the magic in the air became tranquil again.

She looked down at her hand, watching particles of magic dance over her fingers. A thrill went through her when she twitched her fingers and the particles moved like extensions of her own body, obeying her will the way they were supposed to, the way they hadn’t done in far too long.

She glanced down at Eliyr, who was staring at her. He swallowed hard.

On the other side of the clearing, orange light flickered through clouds of dark smoke. Half the forest was on fire, and the cavern had been transformed into something resembling a demonic plane. Through the smoke and flames, she spotted Neiryn, still lying on the ground as the magic-eater closed in on him. He raised a hand and shot flames toward the beast, only to have them dissolve into smoke. He’d reached the limit of his power. His fear was plain on his face.

As the magic-eater bent toward him, its jaws opening, Kadaki took a sharp breath and raised a hand, the movement quick and controlled. Magic rushed to follow her command, shaping into a spell as it flew across the clearing.

It hit the magic-eater with crushing force. Bones snapped as it shot across the cavern and smashed against the far wall.

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