Page 39 of Sun Elves of Ardani

As the creature’s roars went silent, Kadaki’s ears were filled with the sound of roaring flames and breaking wood. She looked back toward Neiryn just as a large burning branch fell from the nearest tree straight into his lap. He struggled to push it off.

Kadaki ran to him, raising a hand to levitate the branch and toss it aside as if it weighed nothing. Neiryn was cursing as he batted flames and embers from his clothes. Kadaki brushed at the fabric until the flames were gone. There were several new holes burned in his vest.

He cringed in pain as he looked down at his hand. Through the soot covering his skin, Kadaki could see the bright, raw red of the burns he’d sustained while trying to move the branch.

She took his hand in both of hers, shaping a healing spell to encase it. “This is what happens when you light everything on fire,” she said. “It’s dangerous, you know.”

“I know,” he said solemnly. “We all know.”

The spell worked almost instantly. She let go of him, and the skin on his hand was new and unmarred again, without any scarring, as if it had never been damaged.

Neiryn flexed his healed hand once, then stared up at her. “Kadaki,” he said, “you’re glowing.”

She looked down at herself. She was emitting a faint shimmering bluish glow, a bit like the obelisk had been.

“Is that supposed to happen?” he asked.

“I… don’t know.”

“Kadaki!” Roshan called, running up behind her. Eliyr was close behind him. “Please tell me you can get us out of here.”

“I can,” she said, and this time she didn’t have to feign her confidence. “Hold on to me.” She crouched to put one hand on Neiryn’s shoulder and held her other hand out to Eliyr and Roshan. Another branch crumbled above them and fell to the ground in a shower of embers.

Then, a clicking sound cut through the noise of the fire. Through the veil of smoke and flame, the hulking shape of the magic-eater loomed. It wobbled on broken and cracked bones, still fully alive despite being in pieces. Its skull was caved in on one side, it was missing half its legs, and its spine was twisted unnaturally, but it was still coming toward them.

Roshan and Eliyr looked at Kadaki, panicked. Neiryn had placed his free hand on his forehead and was murmuring a prayer.

Kadaki shut out everything and let her eyes shift to the layer of magic that was dusted over the world like frost. She murmured to it, commanding it, and it jumped to obey, forming the spell that would shift them through space as if they were weightless and massless.

The spell glowed bright as it came together, and then they were somewhere else.

Chapter 11

The spell was no more comfortable than it had been the last time Neiryn had experienced it. The world spun around them, tossing them this way and that like leaves in a whirlpool. Then, with an explosion of light and crackling energy, they were slammed down on a soft surface.

Neiryn winced in the sudden sunlight. As his head stopped spinning, he opened his eyes to narrow slits. The magic-eater was gone. They were in a field, and the dull blue evening sky hung over them, huge and broad and open. He stared at it. He hadn’t thought he would ever see it again.

He propped himself up on his elbow to look over at the others. Kadaki, Eliyr, and Roshan were sitting nearby, looking as shaken as he felt.

All four of them. They were safe.

The tension in Neiryn’s body all released at once in the form of a bewildered laugh.

Kadaki looked over at him. Slowly, she smiled.

“Holy goddess,” Eliyr murmured. “We made it.”

Roshan grinned and put his arms around Kadaki and Eliyr, pulling them into a tight embrace. “Thank the gods for mages. Thank the gods for you, Kadaki. Sweet mother of Astra…” They all cheered and laughed, almost hysterical with relief.

A series of shouts nearby interrupted them. Looking up, Neiryn saw that they were sitting a few dozen steps away from the dig site. A huge crowd surrounded the sinkhole. Rhian stood at the front of them, with all the miners behind her, as if she’d taken charge of them after Roshan had been sucked into the sinkhole.

A few of the miners had been digging nearby, and paused with shovels and picks still in their hands. Others appeared to have rigged up some kind of rappelling gear for descending into the hole.

On the other side of the miners was what looked to be half the town. Dozens of sun elves, some in uniform and some not, stood near Rhian and were helping dig or holding flames for light, and the locals were doing the same. They had carefully arranged themselves on opposite sides of the dig site, as if afraid to intermix with one another despite their shared purpose.

Rhian wore a look of astonishment and then relief as she laid eyes on Neiryn and the others. She hurried toward them, and the rest of the crowd followed. Eliyr quickly shrugged out of Roshan’s embrace, and Neiryn didn’t miss the look of hurt that crossed Roshan’s face as he did so.

Kadaki turned to Neiryn, raising her hand to his chest as she took stock of his injuries with her healing magic. She seemed to do it automatically, without thinking about it. Neiryn sometimes forgot that she had been primarily a healer for a long time, during her years in the army. It explained why she compulsively assessed the injuries of everyone around her.

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