By Courage and Love

by najex

"Honestly, I should probably be used to this by now. Waking up in a strange new land with no memory of how I got there? Perhaps I should just accept that I am not meant for a quiet life." Fem!Harry

21. Blood on stone

Special thanks to my beta CerialReader. With such a long chapter there were also a lot more mistakes to shift through, and I admit I got a bit tired towards the end, creating even more mistakes that needed to be corrected. Again, I can't thank him/her enough for his/her patience.

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Helena tried to activate her previously sleeping mind as she was being shaken to consciousness.

"Wassaa?" she groused out unintelligibly, tossing, turning, and stretching in her sleep bag in order to wake her body.

"Please, hurry. You must go!" The owner of the unfamiliar voice tried to pull her upright.

Helena was up and walking before she had even properly registered what was happening. Luckily, she had gathered enough of her wits to not just stumble out of the cave and fall to the ground ten feet below. Breaking her neck because she was too sleep addled to notice where she was going would have been an embarrassing way to die after all she had been through.

'I would have woken you myself, but your mind was in too deep a sleep for anything but a physical disturbance to work. The dwarf could do that safer than I,' Godric let her know. He jumped out of the cave after her, landing on Isidar Mithrim next to Saphira.

Outside, Eragon was already waiting. Only the lanterns that hung from the walls illuminated their surroundings, letting Helena know that it was still deep into the night.

She blinked and shook her head. "Morning." Her voice was slightly slurred. Eragon returned her greeting. "What's happening?" she asked. The urgency she could sense in the dwarf that had climbed up to the cave was making her nervous.

Before Eragon could reply, the dwarf spoke hurriedly. He had just jumped down the last few steps from the ladder. "Hrothgar sent me to get you. He said to hurry and that there was great danger. Ajihad has also been summoned."

Interesting power dynamic there.

They took the familiar path that led towards the lift.

"The trolley system normally doesn't work at night," the dwarf who hadn't bothered to introduce himself explained. "But this was important enough to have a crew ordered awake."

"Are you telling me that this machine is pulled upwards by dwarves?" Eragon asked.

"Yes, but it isn't as hard as you think," the dwarf answered. "A series of leverages were built to make the work easier."

When they reached the bottom, they walked towards the central chamber where the dragons – who as usual had to take a detour since they were too large – were waiting for them. From there they were moved to a large room that was just a few turns away from Hrothgar's throne room. The unnamed dwarf waved them inside and didn't follow.

The room was very large. Much larger than Ajihad's study had been. A very large square table stood in the middle. Hrothgar, Orik and a few other dwarves that she didn't recognize sat on one side of the table. Ajihad and some unfamiliar humans and one of the twins sat opposite them. Arya was also present, though she sat apart from the others, alone, at one of the remaining two sides. Godric and Saphira made themselves comfortable by lying behind their riders on the ground.

"Good. You are here," came Hrothgar's gruff voice. "Please sit." Eragon and Helena sat down on the one side of the table that wasn't yet occupied, opposite Arya. They noticed that a giant map was rolled out on the table that covered it almost entirely. "Let's get the introductions out of the way. Riders and Dragons, be known to Thirlo–" He pointed towards a lanky looking blond dwarf who looked, by human standards, to be in his fifties. "– of Dûrgrimst Knurlcarathn. He knows the network of underground tunnels better than anyone."

"Greetings," the named dwarf said. Even from just that one word, it was obvious from his thick accent that he rarely spoke the common tongue, or English as Helena still called it.

"And this is Hirol of Dûrgrimst Ingeitum," Hrothgar continued, while motioning towards a broad bald dwarf who was taller than any dwarf Helena had ever seen, about as tall as she was. "He is in charge of our garrisons in Tronjheim."

Though Helena had her suspicious before, she was now sure they had entered a war council.

"Well met," Hirol's voice almost as deep as Hrothgar's.

"Well met," Helena and Eragon echoed.

Ajihad and his retinue were up next. "Eragon and Helena, meet Jörmundur, my second in command." Jörmundur wasn't a particularly tall or broad man, but his bare arms were pure muscles. They exchanged greetings. "Next, please meet Sabrae, a member of Varden's council of elders." Sabrae was the only other woman at the table besides Helena and Arya. She had dark circles under her eyes and looked both tired and worried, but introduced herself all the same.

"I am tasked with acting as a representative of most non-combatants and bring any concerns they may have to Ajihad's attention. It is honor to meet you both."

"Likewise," Helena said, followed by Eragon. Helena wondered what this dainty looking woman was doing here. She seemed out of place among all these warriors. "What is happening?"

Hrothgar answered. "About half an hour ago, a dwarf ran out of one of the many abandoned tunnels that go under the Beor Mountains. He was bleeding and nearly incoherent, but he was able to tell us what was pursuing him: an army of Urgals, maybe a day's march from here."

The dwarves didn't seem surprised, indicating that they had already been informed. Ajihad just let out a weary breath, indicating that he probably had already guessed the bad news.

"How large a force?" Jörmundur asked.

"Our arguably lucky informant understandably didn't have a chance to count heads, but it is likely that it is the same army that our scouts spotted a few days ago," Hrothgar answered. "If we are lucky, it will be only that force, and it won't have just been part of a larger army."

"Let us just pray that Galbatorix hasn't reinforced the Urgals with his own forces. There will be no hope of stopping them if he has," Ajihad commented. "Let us hope that he doesn't want his alliance with Urgals known yet either, or fears dissent within his own army if he forces them to cooperate with such a long time hated enemy."

"The force our scouts spotted earlier numbered nearly eight thousand," Hirol said gruffly. "that is already more than we can muster together on such short notice, but if that is the total of their strength, our defensive position should more than make up the difference. If there are more armies of similar size that we missed joining the battle then. . ." he trailed off ominously.

"I know your race has more warriors at their disposal than that," Jörmundur responded.

"Ever since we received word of the Urgal army to the west, we have been recalling troops from our bordering territories, but that takes time. We will not be able to muster the full strength of our people before we are attacked. Just over two thousand men. If we even had half a week more to prepare we would have over ten thousand, but we don't."

"Why did it take so long to get word to us?" Jörmundur asked, with furrowed brows.

Thirlo answered the question. "The route the Urals are taking is part of an old mining zone that was abandoned when it ran dry, completely uninhabited. The only dwarves that go there are eccentrics that don't wish contact with anyone or banished criminals. We were lucky we learned about them more than an hour or two before they would be upon us."

"Nobody ever foresaw an army using these routes as a way of attack?" Eragon wondered.

Everyone at the table gave Eragon a look that said they were surprised he had spoken up. Under the scrutiny, Eragon looked like he regretted saying anything at all.

Ajihad came to his defence. "It is a good question. It does look like a massive hole in our security doesn't it?" He had a small self-deprecating smile on his face.

"Not as much as you would think, sir," Thirlo said. He pointed at an area west of Farthen Dûr. "The network of caves under the Beor Mounthain is a labyrinth for those that do not know the way. There is a very real chance that the Urgal army will simply get lost, never to be seen again."

"We can't count on that; especially not with how far they have already come," Hrothgar grumbled.

"Not only that," Thirlo continued, "but those particular passages are supposed to be impossible to access from the surface."

"They are old," Orik spoke up for the first time, "it is possible that some of the tunnels have caved in, making them accessible from the surface. You are right though, rider, it is something that we should have seen coming."

"What's done is done," Ajihad stated. He leaned forward on the map and pointed at several lines of different colors that were drawn on the map. "Are these possible routes that the Urgals are taking?"

"Yes," confirmed Thirlo. "Based on their spotted location I made several guesses of their most likely route, depending on how well they know the area. I wasn't exaggerating that the Urgals could simply get lost if they don't know the way. If they do know, however, then those red lines indicate their most likely route. "

"Could we intercept them?" Jörmundur asked.

Helena kept her silence and simply watched the proceedings. It seemed that Hrothgar and Ajihad were both content to mostly let their advisers take the lead and only saying something when they felt they had something to add.

"We could, and we already have," Hirol answered, with grim amusement, "but those will be but small skirmishes meant to take advantage of small chokepoints before falling back. We could do more with them, if we had the time, but again we don't. We must stop them here."

"You have already decided on a plan," Jörmundur stated.

"Collapse any tunnel the Urgals can use to get into Tronjheim and Farthen Dûr, save three near the edge of the flats outside of Tronjheim and channel them there, and so prevent them from bringing their numerical advantage to bare."

"Why not collapse all the tunnels?" Eragon spoke up again. There was noticeably less surprise this time.

"Then the Urgals will be forced to clear a hole, and we won't be able to predict where they come from."

"This plan seems to rely heavily on wishful thinking," Jörmundur argued. "What if the Urgals don't do exactly what you want, and dig a hole regardless of what we do?"

"It is a weak point in the plan," Hirol admitted, "but time is on our side, and the Urgals must know that as well. If the Urgals take too long, we can mobilize the full might of our armies against them. We are hoping to tempt them with an easy way of attack, even knowing that it will probably be a trap. Knowing Urgals, they might even take that as a challenge and be even more inclined to attack us there."

The council women spoke up next. "Why not simply abandoned Tronjheim and wait until reinforcements arrive?"

The moment the words 'abandon Tronjheim' passed her lips, Helena could see the outrage on Hirol and Thirlo's face. Hrothgar simply looked contemptuous.

"It is because we gave you shelter that we are under attack in the first place!" Hirol snapped. "If we flee from here, then the Urgals take Tronjheim. Even ignoring the sheer humiliation of such a thing, we would be surrendering a defensible position to the monsters, if they don't simply destroy the place. We might never get it back."

"We will stay and fight," Ajihad said calmly, "We will not repay the generosity of the dwarves with cowardice. Beyond that, if the Urgals have thrown their lot in with Galbatorix, will need to face them eventually. If that is so, better to do it from a defensible position with a chance of catching the enemy between two armies if they blunder." He turned to Sabrae. "But your suggestion has merit, and it is why I invited you here. We must evacuate any non-combatants into the surrounding valleys, and further into Surda in the event we are defeated here. I need you to organize this – logistics and all. Rouse whomever you need for this task, but you will only have a token force of warriors to rely on; we can't spare any more. Please recruit Nasuada for this task as well. hopefully, that will placate her when she learns she won't be taking part in the battle."

Sabrae inclined her head. "Of course sir. It will be done. Am I excused?"

"The sooner you begin, the better," Ajihad said, and with that, the woman left the room.

"Do we know who is leading this enemy?" Jörmundur asked.

Hirol was the one who answered. "While we do know the names of the some notorious Urgal war leaders, the short answer is no."

For the first time since they arrived, Arya spoke. "There is a very high probability that the Shade is leading them. Galbatorix would want one of his own subordinates in charge, and Durza is the only one who we know has commanded Urgals in the past."

"If the Shade does show up. . ." Jörmundur trailed off with a meaningful look at Eragon and Helena.

"No!" Arya said harshly, who even in her anger seemed to keep her composure. "They are not ready. If he does show up, I will face him. It is my right." After a few seconds of heavy silence, she added, "I would appreciate help, of course."

"Common wisdom holds that one must outnumber and swarm a Shade to defeat them," Hrothgar commented. "All Shades are vicious and cruel, but most are little more than savage beasts who destroy all in their path. It is rare for a Shade to be intelligent or reasonable – reasonable by some standards anyway - to command soldiers like this Durza seems to be able to do. I doubt he will simply consent to being put in a situation where he is both outnumbered and needs to face you."

Arya remained unmoved. "It is believed that a Shade's intelligence rises with his power. We must look for an opportunity." She looked at the dragons behind Eragon and Helena, and addressed them. "A dragon's assistance in particular would be invaluable in this endeavor."

'You will have our support,' Saphira spoke for both dragons. Godric didn't contradict her.

"That means that we will be there as well," Helena said.

"I know." And her tone indicated that she wasn't pleased by the admission. "I had hoped to not risk you in such a struggle until after your training was done, but we clearly don't have a choice. Come with me once we are done here so we can. . . talk about how best to use your abilities."

She means wards, Helena guessed.

"Speaking of magic," Ajihad said, guessing at what Ayra had meant by 'abilities', and addressed one of the twins who had both so far remained silent. "Make sure that our magicians are as well rested as they can possibly be once the battle begins. We will need them to face the Urgal magicians."

"The Urgals call them Shamans," the twin said in a tone that indicated he found that funny somehow. "They will be no match for us."

"Urgals can use magic?" Eragon asked. That news came as an unpleasant surprise for both Riders.

"Some can, just like with humans," Ajihad confirmed.

Arya decided to add to that. "While they lack the inherent magical ability of elves, the ratio of magic users amongst the Urgals is actually higher than with Humans or dwarves?"

"Why is that?" Eragon asked.

"I am no expert, but I heard that amongst the Urgals, magic users are encouraged to sire many offspring, so as to increasing the number of magic users they can count on."

Eragon cursed at that bit of news and he wasn't the only one.

"Fortunately for us, Urgals don't have the academic mindset that is needed to excel in magic," Arya continued. "They use it like another hammer instead of a scalpel."

"As interesting as this is, we need to get things moving. Helena!" Ajihad addressed her, "From what Arya has told me, you would be particularly useful in helping the dwarves collapse the tunnels."

"Probably, yea," Helena looked at Arya, wondering if she would need to go with her first.

"I only need Eragon for now," Arya answered the unasked question.

You can't use our magic anyway, so teaching you would serve no point for now, was what Helena suspected Arya meant.

"I have a suggestion," Helena said, and continued after a nod from AIihad. "Give Murtagh the chance to fight in the battle."

"It would be a good way for him to prove himself," Arya backed up her suggestion.

"What if he turns on us?" the single twin asked.

"He cannot use magic, the danger he poses is. . . acceptable," Arya argued.

Ajihad looked to Hrothgar to see if he would object. The king shrugged. "I won't have him fighting in any battalion that I am commanding, but if you want him guarding your back, I won't object."

"We are outnumbered," Jörmundur reminded Ajihad. "This entire battle will be risky. We can't turn aside help because of maybes."

"So be it. I will send someone to inform him of his options."

Helena opened her mouth to offer to do that herself but Ajihad stopped her with a glare. "You have other duties to attend to. If this Murtagh is as trustworthy as you think he is, he won't need you talking him into this." He seemed to square his shoulders. "If there is nothing else, we all have our duties to see to."

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They all went their separate ways after that. Eragon and Saphira went with Arya while Helena and Godric took to the air above Tronjheim, looking for those Ajihad had said could use her help. If it wasn't immediately obvious, she would ask someone for direction, but that didn't turn out to be necessary. Through Godric's eyes, she spotted a group of dwarves hitting the ground with pickaxes.

Godric landed near the group of startled dwarves. After dismounting and trying to get the mandatory greetings out of the way as fast as possible, she explained why she was there.

They told her there was a tunnel directly underneath them, about four yards deep.

"Alright, everyone clear the area, I got this!" she yelled motioning with her hands to get the group of workers to get out of range. A lot of the dwarves looked excited by that the promise of a magical display.

She herself also moved backwards, making sure that all the dwarves were standing behind her. 'Reducto!' she called out in her head. A blast of red light went into the ground and a loud cracking sound could immediately be heard, along with the sound of rocks grinding against each other. The ground slid inwards and only stopped when the ground sloped several yards downwards.

Helena crouched low and carefully made her way to the effected area and felt the ground. She scooped up a bit of the previously solid rock and allowed it to flow between her fingers. It had been reduced to mere sand and tiny pebbles.

She turned around and took some pleasure out of the awed looks on the onlookers' faces. She noticed that Godric seemed to echo her feelings.

With her help they managed to completely seal off all tunnels in little over an hour. Most of that time was spent just running from one tunnel to the next; the actual collapsing didn't take any time at all. The only tunnels that hadn't been sealed were the three where they were hoping to fight the Urgals and one exit that was still being used to evacuate all those who weren't going to fight.

Judging by the dark sky above Farthen Dûr, dawn still hadn't arrived yet, but despite that, she could already see groups of people gathering in front of Tronjheim, preparing for their departure. The groups comprised mostly of woman, children, and the elderly.

A lot of them seemed as uncomfortable with her staring at them as she usually was with being stared at, so she looked for something else to occupy her.

She walked over to a group of human soldiers that didn't look too busy. After getting through the pleasantries, again as fast as possible she asked, "Where can I find the armory?"

A few minutes later she found herself standing in front of the Varden's weapon-master's home, which also doubled as the armory. The armory was one of the few houses that stood in the plains outside of Tronjheim, strategically placed right next to the practice fields that were brimming with activity. It also didn't have a roof. There is no real weather inside Tronjheim, so I guess it doesn't need one.

Naturally, she attracted a lot of attention. Considering the looming presence of Godric right behind her, there was no way for them not to know who she was.

Someone barked at the masses to stop their lollygagging and get back to work before one of them worked up the courage to approach her. Helena was thankful for that

Another minute later she found herself standing in front of the Varden's weapon-master, a muscular man with an unkempt beard.

"Name's Fredric, nice to meet you. Are you really going to be in the battle?" He looked down at her small frame. His skepticism seemed to be more out of concern than condescension, so it didn't bother her as much.

"Yes," was her succinct response. She presented him with Brom's staff. "Can you put a spearhead on top of this?"

"Hmm, a bit on the small side for a spear," Brom's staff was higher than she herself was tall. "But with your frame, I suppose it fits." Helena resisted the urge to grit her teeth. "Are you sure you want me to transform that into a tool of war?"

"What's wrong with it?" she asked, more indignant than worried.

"There is nothing wrong with it, quite the opposite actually. Those carvings seem too ornate and well-crafted for you to risk this staff in a real battle. Swords are one thing, but staffs and spears tend to break faster, but they are more easily replaced as well."

"There is no need to worry about that," she said. "I can use magic to reinforce the wood and I will make sure to renew the spell before the battle."

She had charmed the staff to be unbreakable and, now that she mentioned it, made a note to herself to remember to renew that charm before battle was joined.

And on that note, she made sure to surreptitiously remove the spell now so that Fredric could actually do what she asked of him.

"Magic ey, well I assume you know what you are doing. Very well then– oh by all means stay and watch if you want. It won't take long."

She follow the man inside where he placed the staff on a table between two metal pieces meant to hold the wood still. She sat down on a stool across from him. After taking the staff's measurements, he took out a device that she guessed was designed to drill a hole. It was made of a large wooden length, a small nail protruding from one end, a clay circle attached to the lower half of the long shaft, a rectangular square bar, also made of clay, crossing the middle. The square bar seemed to capable of moving up and down the length of wood and was connected with fiber wires to the top of the device, the wire seemed to circle around top of the shaft several times.

He balanced the metal tip of the nail on her staff and then grabbed the clay bar. He then pushed it downward. A wooden scratching sound could be heard as the spinning nail pushed against the wood and the wire at the top unwinded as it was stretched. Whenever the clay bar was at the bottom and the wire completely stretched, he pulled the bar back up again, and the wire seemed to spin around the top of the wooden shaft out of its own accord. When the wire was back in its spun state, he pushed down again and the process repeated itself.

If Helena had paid any attention to Vernon Dursley when he talked about his drill-making company, she would have been able to identify the device as a simplistic pump drill, but she hadn't. So, she just watched the device spin in fascination.

"How does the wire rewind itself?" She knew that there was no magic in place here, so how was the wire re-spinning itself?

"The shaft keeps spinning even when I am not exerting pressure. That rewinds it. You just move the handle upwards to allow it," Fredric explained.

Now that it was explained to her it seemed really obvious and she felt silly for having asked the question. She had assumed that the lifting handle was responsible for the rewind, but that wasn't the case.

It was good example that even without modern technology, muggles were smart.

"Will this be your primary weapon?" He didn't pause in his work. "I ask because in the stories most Riders wielded swords."

"My primary weapon is and always will be magic. This is just a fall back." she said.

"Not all that fond of all that mystical mumbo-jumbo mi'self. Steel always seemed more reliable, noble and honest to me, but whatever keeps you alive I suppose."

Helena didn't comment. The man had a point that using magic on someone who couldn't reciprocate in kind wasn't very noble, or. . . well as much as fighting and killing others could ever be noble.

"Any special reason for your choice?" Fredric asked.

"My tutor recommended it for me after I showed little aptitude for the sword," she answered. Would she need to justify her choice of weapon every time it came up?

"Staff and spear does require less training to use effectively, but it also provides less potential for mastery."

"Less training required is good. Time is of the essence."

"If your weapon is just a fall back, why not use magic combined with a shield?" he asked curiously.

She had considered it on occasion, though not very seriously. Hold a shield in one hand while using magic with the other sounded like a feasible option, though it sounded very unorthodox, and she didn't want to try something so strange and untested when faced with a big battle.

She told him as much.

"Why not carry more than one weapon?" he asked. "You are a rider are you not? Heavy cavalry usually let their horses carry multiple weapons with them, so they always have the best tool available. Why can't you do the same with your dragon?"

"His name is Godric," she chided him automatically, "and I don't know. As I said, this seems a poor time to experiment." In a fight, you usually had only a split second to response, which meant following your training or gut feeling, both of which would make her reach for a defensive spell rather than some new equipment.

"True enough my lady Rider." He had finished drilling his hole, and now stood up to fetch a spearhead from a shelf. "Do you know how to sharpen the metal point?"

"I'll just use magic for that," she shrugged.

He frowned, but didn't comment. Some may think that she should learn how to do things without magic, but that was like telling a modern-day muggle that they should learn how to live without technology; it just wasn't going to happen. As far as she knew, there was no way that someone could take her magic from her. Magic could only be suppressed under extreme circumstances like in Merope Gaunt's case, and now that her wand core had become a part of her it was even less of a concern. So why bother learning to do without? Hermione would disagree, but unlike her bushy haired friend, Helena had been eager to leave the muggle word behind, fully embrace the wizarding word's way of doing things, and leave her old life in the past.

It didn't take Fredric long to put the spearhead on the staff. He put a metal bar through the hole and the spearhead and then put a thick bolt on the two sides.

He handed her staff/spear back and she couldn't resist swinging it dramatically around herself, ending with the point pointing towards the ground, her hand around the middle, and the shaft behind her back.

"I am sure the Urgals will be terrified of you," Fredric said dryly.

"As they should be," Helena said, puffing up her chest in faux-arrogance. She reapplied the unbreakable charm on her now improved weapon.

That gave her an idea.

"Should I try and charm all the Varden's weapons?" she asked. She wasn't going to hold any skills back in the coming fight. Secrecy was all well and good, but the better she performed, the less casualties their side would have.

"Now, don't you go using your strange magics on other people's weapons without permission!" he said harshly, and then his gaze flicked towards the looming presence Godric above them. His claws were on the walls of the house and his face looking down at them through the roofless ceiling. Helena followed Frederic's gaze. Godric wasn't doing anything particularly scary at the moment – mostly because he knew that she wouldn't like that – but well. . . a dragon was a dragon.

"I don't feel comfortable making such a decision," Fredric amended. "Best you bring up that possibility with Ajihad and those infernal twins of his." He scoffed. "Honestly, how someone like Ajihad can stand to have those two so close, I have no idea."

Right before Helena was about to leave to talk to Ajihad about her idea, Orik stormed into the house. "There you are. I am to take you to Arya and Eragon."

Right, that needs to happen too. She hoped there was enough time. . . oh who was she kidding? Even if Ajihad agreed, even temporarily enchanting all the weapons of the Varden would probably take days.

"Wait!" Fredric stopped them right as she was about to step outside. "Won't you need some armor?"

"That's already been taken care of," Orik said, peaking Helena's interest.

"Have you ever been in a battle like this," Orik asked her as they set a hurried pace that was just short of a jog.

"I have fought in one, more or less," Helena answered. Unlike most of her friends, she hadn't been on the frontlines that often during the battle of Hogwarts. She had spent most of her time running from place to place, trying to find and destroy the final two Horcruxes. None the less, she had some experience with battles that lasted a long time.

"A battle like this could last for hours upon hours, well into the night, possibly even the next day," Orik warned her.

Alright, so she had never fought continuously for that long a time. Still, felt she was better prepared for it than Eragon.

Orik continued to lead her back towards Tronjheim, and if Helena's memory was correct, they were heading towards Arya's room.

She was proven right a few minutes later when she saw the scratches on the wooden frame that Godric and Saphira had left there.

When she and Orik entered, they found Arya and Eragon in a heated discussion.

They both stopped when they noticed the new arrivals.

"Good you are here," Arya spared her an impassive glance, "we were discussing who between Eragon and me is going to be responsible for your wards."

"Does that matter," Orik asked impatiently.

"The one who casts the wards would need to be as close to her as possible. Magic becomes more costly with distance."

"So that means Eragon is obviously the best choice, isn't he?" Helena wondered. "With Saphira, he is the only one that can follow me and Godric if we move around the battlefield with speed."

"That's what I have been saying," Eragon said.

"And you are not wrong," Arya said pointedly, "but there are a few other points to consider. If–" and by the amount of emphasis she placed on the word it was a big if "– Godric would be willing to carry me along with his rider, I would be even closer than Eragon and Saphira would be. I would be able to protect her as easily as I can protect myself. Not only that, it would give me a way to quickly move to any part of the battlefield to counter Durza if he were to show himself. I am the only one who is a match for him at present."

To Helena's surprise, Godric seemed to actually be considering it. 'Having an ally with supernatural strength and speed close to you would increase your safety.' He told her.

"But on the other hand," Arya continued. "Considering her abilities, it would be best for Helena to stay away from the front lines and attack from a distance. It would also make it harder for any enemy magicians to attack you that way. I on the other hand would be of the most use on the front."

Helena thought about suggesting that Arya just kept shooting with a bow while sitting behind her on Godric's back, but she feared that might be stereotyping again. For all she knew, Arya was much better with a sword than with a bow.

"So what do you think is best then?" Eragon asked.

"I think that you should be the one to support the wards," Arya told him. "I will need all the strength I can save, and in terms of pure energy, you are stronger than me." Though I am better at using it, was left unsaid.

Eragon seemed pleased with that conclusion and he looked to her, showing of his marked hand. "May I?"

"I would like to know what this will protect me from exactly."

"And now we run into another one of the issues when it comes to wards," Arya lectured. "Ideally, we would use the wards to prevent any magic from effecting your body, but even if we could do that, that would also stop any beneficial magic, including healing. If you had cast the wards yourself, you would be able to turn them off, though even then there would be problems if you were unconsciousness and somebody needed to heal you."

"So add a few exception clauses," Helena said as if it was obvious, which she thought it was.

"There is more. One cannot simply have a ward make you immune to all magical attacks."

"Why not? Just say: block all magic except for that of myself, Eragon, and Arya." She didn't know all the words for that, but she assumed Arya did.

"There are two problems with your suggestion. One: one cannot use common names like 'Eragon' or 'Arya' in a spell like this. If you want to include the name of a person in a spell, it has to be ones 'true name', but that problem is relatively easy to get around by using pronouns like 'I', 'you', 'she', or they. It is not as safe as using a more specific word or one's true name, but it will do so long as your mind doesn't wander at the wrong moment. More importantly, there is no word for 'magic' in the Ancient Language."

"What?" Helena asked incredulously.

"Well, the word exists but it has been lost." Arya clarified. "Since the Ancient Language has been bound to magic, the name of one is the same as the name for the other. Therefore, you can't just stop all 'magic' with a ward. You can only defend against the specific effects magic might cause."

"Which could be almost anything."

"Yes, and one must be careful not to get too broad in their defense. Let's say you want to stop any object that approaches you at a high speed. Now, if you have a ward with that wording and you fall from a large height, your ward would effectively try to 'stop' the planet. Needless to say, it would kill you instantly."

Did they have time for all these explanations? "Just tell me what it will and won't protect me from," Helena demanded.

Arya sighed in clear disappointment. "It will protect your body from extreme conditions like an abnormally high amount of pressure, electricity, or temperature. It will prevent some of your most important nerves and blood vessels from being severed and vital organs from being too damaged. The magic tries to keep whatever keeps your body alive working."

"It heals?" Almost everything was possible with this magic.

"No. Automatic healing is, again, too dangerous and incredibly costly. It is best to prevent the damage from being inflicted in the first place."

Helena was still confused on how far she could rely on this thing and decided to focus purely on what she considered important. "Does it stop arrows?"

"No. You will have armor for that. If you make a ward to stop the concussive force of an arrow hit, then the one who made the ward will–"

"Does it stop a fire ball?" Helena interrupted.

Arya gave her an annoyed look. "It stops your body from rapidly overheating, yes, but it can still be dangerous. The point is, it will hopefully prevent you from being killed with but a simple word, but the best you can do is still try and avoid any damage in the first place."

"So just do what I did before, except without the fear of un-dodgeble instant death spells?"

"Indeed. Any such attempt will now force an attacker's spell to overcome Eragon's power, which will be more than any common magician can handle, at least on their own. A group of magicians or Durza might still have a chance of overcoming your defenses, especially if you stray too far from Eragon."

"I have a question," Eragon said. Arya nodded at him. "Why doesn't the Shade just cast a ward over his heart? Either the ward protects it, or the magical drain will 'kill' him before his heart is pierced. Either way, it would make him invincible, wouldn't it?"

That is a very good question, thought Helena.

"That is a very good question," Arya echoed her thoughts. "And the answer is that a Shade is immune to any and all direct magic."

That thought troubled Helena. "There was this one spell that I hoped might work against it."

"Well there is no harm in trying. . ." Arya gave her a sharp look, "so long as there is no harm in trying."

"As I think I mentioned before, my magic doesn't risk harming me in case of failure." Most of the time.

"Then by all means try if you get the chance. Though if you do end up being present if and when I fight Durza I remind you that you need to keep your distance. That goes for both of you."

"I was planning to," Helena agreed.

Eragon seemed more reluctant. "I will try."

"You could be taken hostage otherwise. Also, if I do win, you must create as much distance between you and it as possible. Have you ever wondered why only two people have ever survived killing a Shade."

"No." "I didn't even know that," Eragon and Helena responded respectively. "But I assume it is because they are so powerful," Eragon added.

"You are partly right," Arya said. "While killing a Shade is an enormous feat in and of itself, surviving the aftermath is more difficult still. When a Shade dies, it releases the spirits that possessed it who then try one last time to kill their attacker by throwing all their mental power and malevolence against their enemy. For that reason, I don't want you to be present for such an event."

"But what about you?" Eragon asked, sounding concerned.

"I will be fine," Arya said, sounding strangely like Helena in that moment. "I am the only one here who has a chance of surviving such a thing. I have already written some letters to be delivered to Islanzadi in the event of my death. You won't lose the support of the elves because of me, I assure you."

"That was not why I asked," Eragon said pointedly and with a frown on his face. Helena reminded herself that Eragon was naturally a nice person and that just because he showed concern for a woman that wasn't her, that was no reason to get jealous.

"It should be," Arya mimicked Eragon's expression. "Victory is all that matters and I am more expendable than you."

Helena opened her mouth to object but Arya silenced her with a glare. Looking on Arya's expression it was clear that nothing she would say would convince her.

"Now then. . ." Arya didn't say anything more as she proceeded to glare at Orik, who had been mostly silent standing in a corner, out of the room.

Orik sighed deeply. "You elves and your qarzûl secrets," he muttered. "I will wait outside until you are done."

He really is remarkably dedicated. I would have complained more.

Arya spoke some words that Helena recognized as a spell to prevent eavesdropping and addressed Eragon. "Alright. Use the same words on her that you used on yourself, except with the pronoun of 'ono' for 'you' instead of 'eka' for 'I'. If you can't remember the words, just pause and I will remind you."

Arya did need to help Eragon on several occasions and no wonder, the spell took several minutes to say in its entirety. Helena understood enough of the words to know just how much detail went into this spell. More attention was put into what it wasn't supposed to block than what it was supposed to block. Furthermore, a sort of safeguard was put in place every few lines to make it very easy to remove all the spells or just small parts of it.

Helena remained silent during the whole process. She felt it every time a new layer of protection was added to her, but the sensation vanished rapidly as she grew accustomed to the feeling and she didn't notice them after a few moments unless she really concentrated. Just like last time, it was like a smell that you became inured to.

"Alright. We are done," Arya said. Eragon's shoulders slumped and he sighed with relief, causing Arya to shoot him a glance. It wasn't a particularly disapproving look, it was just. . . a glance. It was enough, however for Eragon to school his features and straighten his back again. "In the even that you need to remove some of the protections around Helena if the drain becomes too much, warn her first. If that should happen, Helena, come to me immediately."

"Yes, ma'am," Helena did her best impression of a military salute. The slight smile on her face probably subtracted from the image.

Arya simply blinked at her once before telling them to go with Orik.

This has to be one of the most stoic individuals I have ever met. Or maybe she just smiles so rarely, so that people will work harder to make her smile? That last thought was probably just the envy talking, Helena realized.

Helena and Eragon rejoined Orik outside where he took them to back towards the gathering place for the army where they could eat something. "The dining hall has been sealed off along with all of the lower levels, so food is being handed out outside," he said. When they arrived, they found that a pile of dried meat had also been prepared for Godric and Saphira. Eragon and Helena received simple bread and water. Helena was glad of it. Receiving the same rations as all the common soldiers made her feel more like she belonged.

Once they were done, Orik led them back towards where she had gone to get her spear upgrade but now a large tent that hadn't been there before had been propped up a few yards away from the roofless house. A pile of metal pieces were lying on the ground next to the tent. A man who stood guard outside saw them and pulled the flaps that served as a sort of door apart to presumably tell whomever was inside that they had visitors.

Both Ajihad and Hrothgar came out of the tent and waited until their group had reached them.

"Good. You made it," Ajihad said curtly. "Hrothgar has a gift for you."

A gift? Helena wondered. I didn't think he liked us enough for that.

Some of the confusion must have shown on her face because Hrothgar snorted, though the smile on his face indicated that it was amused and not derisive. "A gift, yes, that is also a weapon. A weapon that I am sure you could put to better use than we can."

Ah, practicality. That explained it.

"That, right there," Hrothgar motioned to the pile of metal plates. "That is dragon armor."

Helena felt a jolt of excitement run through Godric, who now watched the pile of metal with new interest.

"This was sold to us many years ago by a dragon who had outgrown this suit. A dragon is always growing so armoring them is a difficult and costly task. If our estimations are correct this should fit reasonably well for Saphira." Hrothgar's eyes flicked to Godric, correctly guessing that he would be upset by this. "I am sorry, but we only have one pair and it is more Saphira's size than yours."

Godric was at this point somewhat smaller than Saphira. Not only was Saphira older, but according to Brom's lessons female dragons tended to be slightly larger and more ferocious than their male counterparts.

"I think I may be able to get around that problem," Helena said.

Everyone looked at her quizzically, so in answer she walked over to the pile of metal and strapped leather bands, raised her hand and incanted. "Geminio." Various popping sounds could be heard as a double of every part of the armor suddenly popped into existence.

She turned around and took great joy in Ajihad's and Hrothgar's astonished expression.

"Is that permanent," Ajihad asked, wide-eyed.

"The copy tends to decay over time but it should hold for a day. I can also use my magic to shrink the pieces so that they will fit, along with some other enchantments."

"Won't this exhaust you?" Hrothgar asked; he sounded concerned. "I am no mage, but I know what magic can and can't do."

Arya must not have told him the results of her testing.

"No. My magic doesn't work like that."

Hrothgar gave Ajihad a stern look.

"I said her abilities were unusual. I couldn't say anything more without breaking my word to keep her abilities a secret."

"Considering she just displayed her abilities in front of half of the army she can't have considered it that important," Hrothgar retorted.

Helena looked behind her and found that, indeed, several men were observing the scene with interest. These men actually seemed less astonished than Hrothgar and Ajihad were. Probably because they don't know enough about magic to understand why this isn't supposed to possible. It was just one more weird and supernatural thing to them.

"We are about to enter a fight for our lives. I am not going to hold anything back at this point just to gain an advantage in a future that won't matter unless we win," she defended.

"A fair point," Hrothgar acknowledged.

"Do you have any idea of the implications that this has," Ajihad said in a low voice. His jaw was tense as if he had to hold himself back from exploding on her. "Half of warfare is supplies and logistics. With this we could. . . this is a huge advantage. I received Arya's report but I don't think I ever really grasped all the implications until now. Can you do the same with money or valuable and tradable gemstones?"

"I could," she mused, "but that would be theft since everything I conjure will decay over time. There are many regulations about what you can conjure up where I come from and this would definitely be considered illegal."

"Still, if we could make sure that all the fake wealth enters the empire in exchange for taking some of their recourses," his voice was soft so that none but those present could hear him whisper the words. There was faint smile on his face as he considered how he could put her abilities to use. "I will think on this some more after this battle is done."

"Now that we are on the subject, I might be able to charm some of the weapons and armor of the Varden to be lighter and unbreakable."

"How fast can you do this?" Ajihad asked.

Helena had to pause and think for a moment. Mass producing magic like this was rarely done were she came from. "If you just need a charm temporary charm it takes just a few seconds. It all depends on how fast you can organize all the pieces be brought to me. It would need to be done just before the battle since enchanting something permanently takes a great deal more time and effort, more than we have available."

"I wish we had known about this sooner," Ajihad complained. "Let's start with that dragon armor and then we will see. Your own protection must come first."

After they made sure to separate all the duplicates from the original to avoid the risk of mixing them up, Helena started levitating pieces of dragon armor and asked the group at large where they thought it should go when it wasn't obvious. Eragon, Orik, and surprisingly even Hrothgar and Ajihad, worked together to put all the pieces where they needed to go. A few attendants ran over to help, but Ajihad waved them away, telling them to go help Jörmundur. After every piece, Helena charmed the metal both unbreakable and featherlight, promising herself to reapply the magic just before the battle started. Whenever Godric received a piece, Helena also shrunk the metal to make it a better fit. Together they had both dragons armored in less than half an hour.

'How do I look?' Godric asked eagerly once they were done. With the exceptions of Godric's wings and lower jaw, all parts of his body were covered by metal to varying degrees. There were large holes in the armor to allow the spikes along his neck to poke through. His tale was the lightest protected since there needed to be a lot of interruptions and hinges to not hinder his flying.

He was crouching low to the ground, claws digging into the soil, his teeth showing, and he looked ready to pounce. Helena knew this was purely to show the most intimidating image that he could. At times like these, she was reminded of how young he was.

'No matter how scary you try to look, to me you will always be that adorable little hatchling that I used to chase around the forest.'

She could feel Godric trying to fight back a small wave of pleasant embarrassment. His pride didn't allow for such things.

Saphira was also preening though with slightly less dramatics. She had her front legs outstretched and her wings spread to make herself look bigger.

"We planned to properly outfit both of you as well, of course," Ajihad said, "and I planned to see you," his gaze flicked to Helena, "properly armed as well, though I see you already took care of that. Follow me." He motioned towards the armory and led them inside. Hrothgar excused himself by this point, saying that he needed to see to his men.

Inside she found Fredric the weapon master again. "Been a long time, hasn't it," she said ironically.

"Ha! I should have predicted that you'd be back soon. The order to find you and you're lover something to wear into battle came only minutes after you left."

"But now I am wondering if it will even be necessary," commented Ajihad who stood next to her, giving nobody a chance to comment on the 'lover' part. "How true to its name is this 'unbreakable charm'?"

"As long as the charm isn't directly addressed by an opposing magic user it is completely accurate."

"Best to have some form of protection then, if only so it isn't too obvious what you are doing." He motioned with his hand to Fredric, "Continue."

"Yes sir. Now most armor for important figures such as yourself are all custom made so it fits your form perfectly. It keeps the weight down, ye see? That said, I am sure I will be able to get Eragon something that fits almost as good; his size isn't that unique after all. Helena on the other hand will be more difficult. She could almost pass for a tall male dwarf if it wasn't for how thin she is. I don't think we have anything in her size."

Helena was about to suggest she shrunk something with magic again, but Ajihad spoke first.

"Do you have a padded doublet for her?"

Fredric blinked. "I think so yes. I think we have one lying around that was used to train our youngest recruits. We don't keep those here though."

"Send a runner to fetch one. I doubt such a thing was considered essential enough to be taken with the evacuation."

As they waited for the runner to come back, Eragon donned his armor. He pulled a thick vest over his head that Ajihad said would be similar to what Helena would be wearing. "That vest is actually the most important part of the armor," Fredric commented. "It is almost impossible for an arrow to go through that many layers of linen and it offers decent slashing and bludgeoning protection as well. The downside is that it is very warm. Even in winter, it might start sapping your strength if the battle lasts long enough. It also isn't as durable without the mail that goes with it. It protects you to be sure, but it gets damaged in the process and would need replacing often. That is probably why Ajihad thinks Helena can do without the mail if she can magic it properly." Ajihad nodded at this.

"I lied," Fredric continued as he took three different pieces of headgear from one of the shelves. "The vest isn't the most important part of the armor. The helm is. Engrave this into your mind, Riders, if you only take one piece of armor with you into battle, wear a helmet." It was apparently so important that his head protection consisted of three different pieces. First a leather cap, then mail coif, and finally a gold-and-silver helm that covered Eragon's whole face except for two eye slits and a few holes in the lower sides so he could breathe through it. They had to replace the helm once with a different size when he complained that the eye slit wasn't at the right height for him.

"How do I look?" he asked and his voice was slightly distorted by the helm. It looked somewhat mismatched to her. The helm was something that belonged to someone in full plate, yet the rest of his body was mail. She supposed that the head did merit greater protection.

"I prefer to look at your face, but I like the thought of it being safe even more."

Eragon removed the plate helm, so now his face was surrounded by the mail coif, leaving his facial features visible. His face was red and bashful, like he didn't know what to say.

She heard Ajihad clearing his throat and found him frowning at them.

"Arya has told me that for your magical protections to be effective, you two need to be close together on the battlefield. If that wasn't the case, I would insist you fight in different battalions. I don't object to your relationship on principle, but we can't have you constantly focusing on your partner to see if he or she is okay to the detriment of your own safety. Can you trust each other to look out for themselves without your help?"

'They won't need to look out for themselves,' Saphira commented. 'They have us.'

"If there is one thing I know about Godric, it is that he will never allow Helena to get hurt," Eragon said. "He will protect her better than I can."

Helena could tell that Godric was pleased by the assessment and hoped that this indicated that Eragon and he were warming up to each other.

"I feel the same about Saphira," she said.

"I hope that is true. We need your focus to be on the battle and not each other."

Her own armor arrived not long after that, though it didn't look like what she imagined armor to look like. It felt more like a winter jacket than armor. As Fredric had warned, it was warm. They were lucky that winter still hadn't lost his grip on the weather. She also received a helmet just like Eragon. She imaged her outfit must look even more mismatched than that of Eragon, wearing only plate on the head while the rest could pass for casual wear. She shrunk the helmet and put it into her magical pouch. No sense in wearing something so uncomfortable until the battle starts.

"If we had more time to prepare, we would have gotten you something more impressive and befitting of your station, but it will protect you; that's all that matters for now. And on that note, I want no heroics from either of you. If we win this battle but lose one of you, that still counts as a loss. If we look to be losing, then blast your way past one of the collapsed tunnels and flee north towards Du Weldenvarden. Bring Arya with you if you can, but if you can't, just go without her." Ajihad pulled three envelopes out of his pocket and handed them to her. "If the worst should happen, give the first of these to the first elf to intercept you when you travel through the woods, and the other two to Islanzadi when you see her. One is from me, the other from Arya in the event that she doesn't make it."

"I am not sure it is in me to flee, even if we look to be losing." Eragon grimaced.

"Not even to save her," Ajihad motioned towards Helena.

A flash of anger went through Helena as someone once again tried to use her to get Eragon to do something he didn't want to do.

"I am staying," she said in voice the brokered no disagreement.

Ajihad gave her a considering look. "This is only a worst case scenario. We must of course do everything in our power to make sure such a thing isn't necessary. To that end we should discuss how we could best use you. What are your thoughts? Will you fight from dragonback?"

"I will be restricted to fighting with my bow if I do that," Eragon said. "I will be up too high for an Urgal to reach, but I won't be able to reach them either."

"Not all. A Kull could grab you and throw you from your saddle if you are not careful."

"What is a Kull?"

"You don't know? Urgals come in two general sizes. All Urgals are stronger than the average human, but a Kull can grow larger than eight feet tall. They have legs like tree trunks and arms that can rip a man in two."

"I had– have a friend who is eleven feet tall," Helena said idly.

Ajihad gave her a look that said 'explain'.

"He was a half-giant. Though he was one of the nicest people you will ever know, so I don't think he would have much in common with these Kull."

"Indeed not. I understand that Kull are often groomed for leadership and are always trained to fight, so don't expect them to be stupid. I am afraid there will be plenty of Kull; with a force this large it is almost inevitable. They will likely seek you out as the most worthy opponents."

"Lucky us," Eragon mumbled.

"I am not sure if fighting from the air would be a good idea. You would attract Urgal arrows like crows to a corpse," Ajihad warned.

Helena wasn't sure that warning applied to her. If she flew high enough, she could try to rain spells down from the sky while. . . how high could an arrow fly anyway? And how many Urgals would have practice in shooting something that was right above them?

She asked the question.

"If they expect you to be here, which they might, then they might have practiced some, and even if not, they would adjust quickly. As for how high? Well I don't know exactly, but I think it won't be much different from how far an arrow can shoot. Let's say 250 yards. I suppose if you can use magic from such a distance, it would be a viable tactic, but I heard from Arya that your magic needs to be aimed. Could you do so from so far away?"

"Maybe not," Helena admitted. If she could rain down heavy explosions, then that would be something, but she had been warned to never use such anywhere in Farthen Dûr.

'And I won't be able to fight at all if we do that,' Godric told her, making it clear he would be disappointed by such a thing. If he were human, Helena would imagine him pouting at this moment.

"I will have one of the twins on standby on the top of Tronjheim where he will have a good view of the battle and relay any information through his brother to me. We will use them to communicate with each other. If you see anything unusual or important, you inform him."

Helena grimaced. "We didn't exactly get off on the right foot." She told Ajihad about the twins offer in the library.

Ajihad sighed with a mix of exasperation and tiredness. "That does sound like them. I will order them not to press you for an answer to their offer before the battle. They will act professionally today, I assure you. They know they have to answer to me otherwise and their necks are as much on the line in this battle as anyone else's. Afterwards, well a partnership with the twins is a terrible idea, you were right about that, but improving the quality of our spell casters might have some merit. We will discuss it later, so don't waste any effort thinking on it now."

A small smile tucked at the corner of Ajihad's lips. "You will no doubt be pleased to know that Murtagh has been released from his cell and will be fighting with us this day. You can thank my daughter for convincing him."

"He has agreed to join the Varden?" Eragon asked, he sounded as surprised as Helena felt.

Ajihad's smile disappeared. "He never actually said that, but this is a good start. Report to Jörmundur's battalion. Murtagh will be there too. You'll be able to talk to him before the battle, I am sure."

"Good luck," Eragon said.

Saphira moved her nose a little closer to the talking humans. 'May your metal stick strike true and the wind stay at your back.'

Godric followed up Saphira. 'We shall show them our hearts in this battle, and we shall show them theirs as we tear them out."

"I will be disappointed if you die just as I am starting to warm up to you," Helena said, giving him as stern a look as she could, though her 'stern' was often simply called 'cute' by most others.

Ajihad snorted. "Once the battle is over you will be back to trying to bite my head off, no doubt." He looked at them with a surprisingly soft expression. "You four bear a heavy burden. I know the expectations upon you seem daunting, but from what little I have seen, I think you will live up to them all. Stay safe, and remind the world just why the Riders were revered in their time."

xxxxx

The forces of the Varden were divided into two battalions, each positioned in front of one of the three remaining tunnels. A third battalion comprised entirely of dwarfs guarded the third, commanded by Hrothgar. At the exits themselves, cauldrons of hot pitch were prepared to dump on the coming invaders and pitches and stakes were being built to further hinder them.

The three armies were separated by two empty fields over 200 yards wide. Close enough to support each other if needed, but still far enough apart to tell that they were different groups. At the moment, they still looked like a disorganized mess.

"Our sentries will give us some warning before the enemy is here," Orik said in regards to that chaos. "In the meantime, there is no use in worrying ourselves out of our courage. Better our men spent what time remains before the battle talking and japing amongst themselves."

They found Murtagh talking with animated gestures to an excited looking bunch of men. When he saw them, he made his excuses and ran over to them.

"Making friends already?" Eragon commented wryly.

Murtagh said nothing, merely motioning with his head to a secluded area where they would have some measure of privacy. Guessing the intention, both Saphira and Godric lied down next to them, encircling them with their bodies to hide them from view.

"They don't know who I am," Murtagh said. His expression became more guarded when it was just them which Helena meant the smile from before hadn't been real. Orik was busy getting some men to stand guard over their group so that they wouldn't get swarmed with well-wishers, questions, or people wanting some words of wisdom from them. "All they know is that I traveled alongside you for over a month. They want to hear all the stories of our journeys. I was just telling them how you both fought your way past the entire army at Gil'ead to rescue the fair maiden Arya from the clutches of the evil shade."

"Did you have to do that?" Helena whined piteously.

Murtagh gave her a too cheerful smile. "It was either that or start talking and lying about myself."

"So have you decided to join us then?" Eragon asked.

"Us? I guess you mean the Varden?" He continued after a nod from Eragon. "Maybe. Maybe not. I am still not sure this is the right thing to do, but Urgals are everyone's enemy. There is no moral dilemma with killing them, and if by doing so I get my freedom and the chance to repay some of the debt I owe you, all the better. Besides, if I had refused, Helena would come to look at me with that sad disappointed expression. I wouldn't be able to stand it."

"Prat."

"Well I for one am glad you are here," Eragon said.

"And I am glad to no longer be locked up, so I guess we all win. Now if you will excuse me, I need to go tell the story of how Helena managed to shame a group of bandits into a life of celibate virtue by staring into their eyes." Murtagh made to leave, but Helena stopped him.

"Wait!" Murtagh looked back at her curiously. "Let me improve your armor first."

She laid her hand on his mail shirt and charmed it feather-light and unbreakable, giving Murtagh a brief explanation about what she was doing. She attempted to do the same to his blade, but Murtagh complained about the balance, so she restricted herself to the unbreakable charm. He thanked her, leaped over the end of Saphira's tale and ran back towards the group of soldiers.

She hoped the spells would hold for long enough, but she would try to redo it if given the chance. And on that note, she should probably start using the remaining time to throw some spells around.

She found Arya sitting with her back against a rock, her eyes were closed. Probably trying to save her energy, Helena figured.

Helena walked over to her and used her spells on her after getting her permission. Arya went right back to resting afterwards.

Afterwards she did the same for Orik, who then suggested that she inform Hrothgar and Ajihad of her intentions and do the same for them before the battle. Before she could do so however, there was a commotion with one of the guards that Orik had placed to keep too curious soldiers away, a duty that he seemed to be having some trouble with.

"It's alright we know her," she told the beleaguered looking man.

"Well it's about time," Angela the herbalist huffed and strolled towards them. By the armor she was wearing, it was obvious she planned to participate in the battle.

A fact that wasn't lost on Eragon. "You are here?" he sounded somewhat incredulous.

"Of all the questions you could ask me, you ask one that you already know the answer to. Shame on you Eragon. A Rider should know better."

"No, I mean, don't get me wrong, but shouldn't you be. . ." he trailed off.

"With all the rest of the woman, children and wrinkled old people leaving the city?"

Helena decided to help Eragon out before he embarrassed himself further. "She is a magic user Eragon. It is the ultimate force equalizer. I would be astonished if there aren't more female magicians around like her."

"Like me?" Angela sounded offended by being lumped in with the other magic users again. "I am worth more than– how often does one need to multiply an infinitely small number to get anything? Bah doesn't matter! I came to see history being made and I can't do that from the 'safety'–" her lips were pursed and her voice was low mocking tone, making it clear what she thought of that 'safety' "– of the valleys between the Beor Mountains. Besides, when I tell the tale about what happened here, the question of 'were you there?' will inevitably come up. What would I say then? No mister nosy, I was with the other people who couldn't look after themselves. The humiliation! Can you imagine it?"

"Euhh. . ." Helena said, not sure what to say to that. That sounded like a stupid reason to get involved in a large scale battle like this. "Nice equipment," she said for lack of anything better to say. It was true. Angela's armor was an elegant looking piece consisting of several metal plates colored green and black. It looked much better than her own padded shirt. In fact, Helena found herself being somewhat envious of Angela's attire. It even looked to be the right size for her. "Where did you get it?"

"From my own personal possessions recently, and from a grumpy old blacksmith not so recently. As for the blade." Angela twirled her blade between her fingers. It too was unusual being comprised of a long wooden shaft with a sword blade attached to each end. "I won it from a dwarven priest in a game of riddles."

"It looks impressive," Eragon commented. "But doesn't the second blade hinder you more than it helps, unless in some very specific circumstances maybe? It doesn't look very practical in this situation, is all."

"It isn't," Angela admitted merrily

"Then why. . .?"

In answer, Angela pointed towards a group of dwarves in the distance who looked to be glowering at her. "Normally only priests are allowed to use these, and they hate the fact that I have one, consider it blasphemous even. Oh, that look on their face!" Angela breathed in deeply through her nose with her eyes closed, an expression of bliss on her face. "It warms the heart it does."

"You would put your life in jeopardy just to annoy some dwarves?"

"I put my life in jeopardy every time I drink my mushroom tea, or try out some new spell, but I am not going to stop doing that either," Angela shrugged.

"That explains so much." Helena shook her head. Though she had never heard of 'mushroom tea', it definitely sounded like something Angela would drink, and probably even invent. "Anyway, do you want me to make your armor and weapon almost weightless and or indestructible?"

"You do realize I will be examining the magic behind this right?" Angela asked with a serious glint in her eyes, though she kept smiling.

"You won't be able to use it yourself."

"That doesn't mean I won't learn anything from it."

Helena simply shrugged. After she was done, she figured she should spend some of her remaining time doing the same for as many people as she could.

It was extremely awkward for her to just walk up to random strangers and ask if she could use magic on their armor. No-one refused. The few magician's amongst the Varden she met seemed especially eager. There was no way she could even do this for a small fraction of the army, but that was no excuse not to try. She was repeatedly warned not to the overwork herself right before the battle, but she said it was no great effort. Every single time she charmed someone's equipment, she tried to imagine that she could have just saved a life. As soon as news of what she was doing spread, Orik helped set up a queue system to make it go more smoothly and so that she wouldn't get swarmed. It soon became really monotonous work. Considering that a certain amount of will was required for her to do any magic, this boringness became more of a problem the longer it went on. She pushed through it, though she had to rethink the warning not to overwork herself. Mass-producing magic like this just wasn't done where she came from. A few notable people were able to jump the queue, like those that passed for officers in the army, including Hrothgar, Jörmundur, and Ajihad themselves. This relieved her, since it saved her the trouble of having to go look for them.

As she was doing this, she noticed that the humans were in general a lot poorer equipped than the dwarves, showing a lot more wear and tear. She chalked this up to the poverty that Ajihad said the Varden suffered from.

Eragon and Saphira had left soon after she started on her task to go, in their own words, 'try and find something useful for them to do'.

After several hours, the risk of impending attack grew too great and everyone was forced to move to their positions so there was no chance of them metaphorically getting caught with their britches down.

Eragon soon found her again. He brought some simple bread and sugar along with two large jugs of water.

"I was told to warn you to make sure to quickly 'do your business–" Helena could practically hear the air quotes "–before the battle. Arya promised she could arrange some privacy for you."

We never had to deal with this stuff in the Battle of Hogwarts, Helena complained to herself. That battle had happened so fast, there wasn't any time for such thorough preparations. Or perhaps she was simply unaware of it since she only directly participated during the end. It was also the only major battle of its scale of the second blood war. Wizards and witches weren't used to war like that, so there were no 'common wisdom rules' for it like there were here. Standing here among all of these career warriors she felt like there were a hundred unspoken rules that she wasn't aware of.

"I will just pop on over to Tronjheim and back once I finish eating," she decided.

Once she had finished her food consumption and secretion she settled down to wait next to Eragon, who immediately tried to engage her in conversation again.

"Some of the Varden had the idea to piss and shit right outside the exit were the Urgals are going to enter."

Men, she scoffed internally. "At least you allowed me to finish eating before telling that story," she said dryly.

Eragon looked contrite. "Sorry."

"No, please continue. It is better than waiting and worrying."

Eragon paused for a long moment. "As I was helping some of the Varden with digging a giant trench in front of our line – to help break a charge you see? – I got asked the question why I wasn't with you doing magic, instead of such mundane work."

Helena said nothing.

"I get the feeling, they thought you were more powerful than me, or at least more advanced."

"Are you jealous?" she asked and immediately hoped there was no accusation in her tone.

Eragon paused just a moment too long before replying. "No."

Helena kept silent again, waiting to see if more was coming.

"Well. . . " Eragon began again after several seconds of silence. "I do wish I could use my magic like you do. Indiscriminately protecting people with it without consequences."

Helena still kept silent, but more for not knowing what to say rather than hoping for Eragon to continue.

"Helena I. . ." from the tone of his voice, Helena knew that this was going to be the 'possibly goodbye' part. "If we don't make it out of this alive. . ." From the way Eragon's mouth moved without speaking, it was clear that he hadn't prepared anything.

It jarred her because she had never seriously considered the possibility that she might die here. Maybe she had escaped death so many times that it became the normal assumption. Because well. . . she wouldn't fall before she had even faced Galbatorix himself, surely? She was also better protected than almost anyone else in this army, so even when confronted by it, she considered the chance of her own demise here small.

Helena moved closer, putting her hands on the cold metal of his armor, wishing that she could feel the cloth and skin beneath. "I know. And I love you too." As soon as she said it, she started to wonder if it was true. They had been dating for just over two days now; that couldn't be enough for 'love' could it? The bond she shared with Eragon was still weaker than what she felt for Hermione or even Ron. Bah! She was probably just overthinking it. Apples and oranges and all that.

"And I you." They exchanged a soft kiss and then the moment was over, and their thoughts again turned to the coming danger

Helena and Eragon both tried to get some rest before it started. Tried being the key word. Helena couldn't speak for Eragon, but she knew that she couldn't relax with all this tension in the air.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

It was late in the afternoon when the scout came running out of the tunnel, screaming that 'they' were here. Helena was relieved; at least the waiting was over.

"It's about to begin," Orik confirmed what she already suspected.

Eragon did seem to have succeeded in getting some rest if the way his head jerked to sudden alertness as if a history of magic class had just ended was any indication.

The whole battlefield which hitherto had buzzed with nervous chatter grew deadly quiet.

Both Eragon and Helena were positioned at the back of the army. Apparently Ajihad didn't want to risk them in the initial clash of armies. On a dragon's back, their mobility was second to none, so it didn't really matter where they started from. As long as they didn't receive any specific orders via the twins, they had been instructed to just go where they felt they could do the most good.

From her elevated potion on Godric's back, Helena could look over the army, the field of stakes, and into the dark mouths of the tunnels beyond.

The first sign of the Urgals was the soft sound of thousands of voices that acted like one long battle cry becoming louder and louder. Soon, the first of the grey skinned shapes burst out of the tunnel and the cries of courage turned into cries of agony as boiling tar poured down on them.

Helena felt herself momentarily looking away from the sight, but soon the burning Urgals vanished from view as new Urgals overtook them. Every Urgal seemed to be armed to a different degree than the rest, and overall, there equipment seemed much more individualized.

They did not charge immediately with the small column that passed out of the tunnel, instead filling some of the space between the exits and the combined human/dwarven forces. Some of the Varden at the front tried to taunt them into attacking by screaming insults, though with so many voices yelling over each other, it was hard to make out the words.

With a shouted command from Jörmundur, the Varden – Eragon included – used the opportunity to shower the gathering horde with a rain of arrows. The Urgals all seemed to be carrying a shield of some kind, however, and they were able to weather the attack with minimal difficulties.

Helena decided to join the effort and summoned a few rocks from the ground to her hand. Godric reared up, balancing on his hind legs so that Helena could fire over the heads of her own army without, or at least minimal, risk of friendly fire.

She held one of the rocks in her marked hand which she held outstretched towards the organizing Urgals. "Engorgio," she said in terse voice. As the small rock was changing in her hand, she immediately called out her next spell 'Depulso'. The rock was blasted from her hand and grew rapidly in size as it flew across the sky in an arc. Out of fear of hitting her own allies she had aimed a little higher than was needed, and the rock hit the back of the gathering force instead of the front. Sadly, after injuring one unfortunate Urgal who was a little too late to jump out of the way, the rock reverted to its original small size when it hit the ground. It wasn't due to any magic on the enemy's part, but her own spell failing as the rocks structure was broken by the impact. The destruction of an object tended to remove the magic of the object. Sometimes. It wasn't an absolute rule.

To address the issue, she added the unbreakable charm to the next rock she launched. She had never quite appreciated just how useful some the more basic charms were. If she did this against another witch or wizard, it wouldn't really matter since a small rock is just as easily deflected as a large one, unless you were talking truly monstrous size, and a simple curse was more effective and clean at any rate, but against a mostly muggle army. . . She wondered if this sort of thing had been common before the statute of secrecy.

As she prepared another attack, several of the Varden who were startled by over a ton of solid rock flying only a few yards above their heads, decided to crouch on their feet in fear of her making a mistake.

The next boulder bounced and rolled after hitting the ground and did more damage. While it did seem to cause some distress among the Urgals, there were many of them and it seemed like her stone was only a small pebble thrown into a pool of water. Disruptive sure, but it didn't seem to make any noticeable change. The following boulders did less damage as the Urgals soon began to anticipate her attacks and dodge out of the way of her projectiles with remarkable reflexes.

Once the Urgals had gathered a sizable force, enough to almost equal what the Varden had available, they slowly advanced towards the line of Varden, shields still raised to protect themselves from arrow fire. The tactic surprised her. By their reputation she would have expected them to charge in with full speed.

The reason for it became clear once a few of the Urgals were brought forth, carrying wooden planks. By their broken edges, she guessed they must have been broken pieces of furniture or something. Once they arrived at the large trench in front of the Varden's line, they threw them down and used them to cross the hazard.

They knew about our defenses, Helena realized. They wouldn't have known to prepare for the trench otherwise. The Varden had hoped that trap would help kill at least a few hundred as they tripped into it during the initial charge. Instead they knew and acted more carefully, gathering forces before committing themselves. That way the trench worked for them since it also prevented the Varden from charging at them as they were still organizing. The trench had been a purely defensive tactic based on the assumption that the Urgals would charge recklessly, as they were known to do.

It seems the spy in our midst is still causing trouble.

The clamor of metal on metal had replaced the challenging taunts and Helena pocketed some of her remaining rocks in her clothes. Firing them when the Urgals and her own allies were so close was too risky for her comfort.

'Then it is time. Brace yourself,' Godric called out to her as he crouched low and tensed his hind legs. Helena made sure that her legs were sticking to her saddle with magic. 'Lean forward and hold on. This will be rough.'

Helena pressed her body and legs against the saddle, grabbed onto two of Godric's spikes with her hand, and mentally informed Godric of her readiness.

Godric pushed himself forward into the air and roared his intentions for all to hear.

Because her face was pressed to the back of Godric's neck, Helena didn't realize that Godric had landed in the middle of the Urgals' ranks until the distinct growling noises that she had come to associate with the horned race came from behind her.

Helena temporarily lost her sense of location as Godric moved with a speed he had never done while she was on him. Her surroundings became a blur as Godric turned and shook and crushed Urgal bones with his movement. All the while Helena sensed Godric's elation at finally coming face to face with one of his enemies. To have a problem in front of him that he could just tear apart without her cautioning him away. Helena heard a roar from behind her and knew that Saphira had joined the fight, but Helena could only catch a brief glimpse of her as she had to focus on keeping her muscles stiff for fear of literally being shaken into an injury. When Godric slowed down enough for her to take stock of her surroundings she noticed that all the Urgals around them had retreated to a safer distance, the only ones still remaining close to them being either dead or dying. The sight of all the broken and bleeding bodies filled her with a quiet horror. She did her best to ignore it.

Just for the record, she raised her hand and shot a stunner at the ranks of Urgals. The one she was aiming at dodged, but that just meant the one behind him got hit instead. As expected, the Urgal was protected and her magic did nothing.

Godric took a step forward and one of the larger Urgals – though not a Kull – gave a command and then they backed away.

'Cowards,' Godric complained to her.

They will melt before him and if Godric gives chase he will be surrounded. When given a second look, Helena noticed that Godric had only jumped a little into the Urgal ranks and safety was still only a single short jump away. They wouldn't have such safety if they pressed deeper.

They could still probably get away with it – dragons could fly after all – but Helena didn't see a reason to risk it when she could attack from a distance.

She moved her still raised hand towards a group of Urgals who looked to be packed a little tighter together. "Incendio!" she yelled, and a stream of pure-red fire hit the horned creatures. Their flesh sizzled as it burned and the Urgals let out a terrified scream that tore right through the young witch. Her magic was based on intent so when the horror at what she was inflicting hit her, the fire stopped flowing from her hand.

Helena started breathing heavily and irregularly and she feared she was on the verge of a panic attack when Godric's mind seemed to engulf her. He didn't soothe her, he wasn't in any state of mind to offer that sort of soft comfort at present, but he did offer something else.

After a long moment's hesitation where the world itself seemed to stand still, waiting for her decision, she accepted his offer, and engulfed herself completely in Godric's state of mind. This is no time for my weakness. Helena now felt Godric's bloodlust as if it were her own. The sight of the carnage around her no longer filled her with dread but with a sense of satisfaction.

The Urgals in front of them might be unwilling to face them, but unless they wanted to retreat entirely, they would still have to close with the Varden, so Godric moved sideways along the line, and fired a blast of fire via Helena at the Urgals in front of him. Godric couldn't breathe fire himself yet, though he felt he might be close, but through her he could still call on the element of his race.

Outside of combat, Helena had always taken the lead whenever decisions needed to be made. Godric wasn't ignored, per se, but he was content to let her set the course.

When fighting together, it turned out, their roles were reversed. Helena could and had fought in the past, but she wasn't a natural warrior or killer; Godric was.

Right now, she allowed herself to be swept along by his mind and become an instrument of his will the same way he had been hers before this moment. He knew what she was capable of and how she could best use her abilities to help him.

If anyone cared to look, they would find that Helena's pupils had a lizard-like slid to them at that moment.

Godric fell on a group of Urgals that were fighting the Varden to their left, crushing two by stepping on them and letting his massive weight do the rest, and injuring a third by striking out with his jaws like a snake and biting an arm off. The rest soon retreated just as those from before. Helena felt her annoyance increase. Or were those Godric's feelings? It was hard to tell.

"Carpe Retractum!" she yelled at the Urgals who were trying to keep their distance. 'Carpe Retractum' was a bit of an oddity among spells since it required the caster to actually have some physical strength to make use of it. The spell could send ropes of light at a target, capture it, and allow the caster the pull it towards them like a lasso. That last part was where the muscles came in since the spell didn't help with the pull, only the capture. It was a sort of 'Accio Light' and normally only used on small objects and animals. What made it useful in this case was that it didn't use magic directly on the target and was more likely to bypass any wards.

Several translucent ropes of red light shot out of Helena hands. She was able to make a minor alternation to the spell to get the ropes to circle around Godric's torso and neck before they shot forward towards the Urgals. A few managed to dodge or disrupt the spell by slashing at their bonds but three had their bodies encircled.

Godric reared backwards, pulling on the bonds and sending the captured Urgals flying towards him. He grabbed one in his jaws and flung him at least a dozen yards into the air, crushed one with his claws, and allowed Helena to pierce the last one by grabbing her spear which had been secured to his saddle, magically lengthening it and skewering the prone victim through the chest. Helena immediately returned the spear to its normal size once its work was done. She stuck the spear back to the saddle once she had no immediate use for it. With the way Godric was moving, she thought it better to keep at least one hand either gripping a spike or the edge of the saddle for balance and the other hand was better used to fling spells around, so she came a hand short if she wanted to also keep her mundane weapon.

Seeing that there was no way to safely keep their distance from the Rider Dragon duo, the Urgals swarmed forward instead.

Helena sent a stream of fire at them and the Urgals either tried to get around it or, in the case of one particularly brave one, raised a shield in front of his face and charging through it. Godric and Helena couldn't help but admire that one's bravery, though that didn't stop Godric from sweeping him aside with his claws.

His sacrifice had bought the others enough time to move in close however, and there were now two on either side of Godric. When they came too close with war axes raised, he reared up on his hind legs to protect his wings from being threatened. There was no way to protect a dragon's wings with armor without severely limiting his flying capacities so they became one of the most obvious weak points Godric still had.

Helena saw a good opportunity to try out some of the spell she had prepared for a large battle against a large number of possibly warded opponents. "Titillando! Rictusempra!" Both spells struck home at a different target and they both seemed to have the same effect as they caused their target to spasm uncontrollably with laughter. The sight of two Urgals bursting out laughing in the middle of a battle was surreal for all who saw it.

The Tickling Hex (Titillando) and The Tickling Charm (Rictumsempra) both did the same thing through different means. The Tickling Charm effected the target directly, charming them into laughing uncontrollably, while the Tickling Hex caused purple hands of light (or red in her case) to wrap around the target and start tickling them. Helena had expected for the former to fail and the second to succeed since only one effected the body directly, but it seems the wards weren't as excessive as she had feared.

Godric quickly made short work of the two Urgals who were now in no position to defend themselves, but new Urgals soon took their place, and one brazen one on his other side took the opportunity presented by Godric lowing himself back to the ground to jump on his side, climbing towards Helena.

Godric moved suddenly into a jump, sending the clinging Urgal falling back to the ground. Because of the direction he was pointing in, Godric jumped forward and over the sea of Urgals. He opened his wing and tried to turn back closer to Varden's ranks. The Urgals had predicted that a dragon might want to take to the air, however, and had archers prepared to fire in just such an eventuality. Luckily, Godric had spotted them and so Helena was able to stop the arrows before they could potentially skewer Godric's wings and force him to land amidst a large number of enemies

Once Helena had prevented their potential demise, they took a moment to observe how the battle was going. They were high up enough to get a good picture of their own battalion, but not high enough to get a good view of how well Ajihad's and Hrothgar's group was doing.

Their attention was immediately drawn to Saphira. She was surrounded by Urgals who were jabbing at her with their spears and seemed to be struggling. Helena was dismayed to not find Eragon on her back. she knew that Eragon had begun the battle mounted there. It didn't take Godric long to spot Eragon a short distance away, fighting beside Murtagh and trying to rejoin Saphira. They also spotted Orik nearby who was swinging a heavy two handed axe at the Urgals, seemingly having no trouble in challenging multiple opponents at the same time. They caught a brief glance of Arya, but she moved so fast amidst the ranks that it was hard to keep track of her. You could follow her progress by following the trail of corpses she left behind though.

When they looked around themselves at the battle as a whole, they noticed that they were doing well so far, especially where Godric or Saphira had recently been, but the Urgals were still pouring through the exit, replenishing their numbers.

Remembering Arya's instructions regarding wards, Godric tilted his wings so he was gliding back towards Saphira and Eragon, Helena raining stunners down on the enemy on the way just to batter against the hostile wards. They landed and fell on a group of Urgals who were threatening Saphira's sides. The wrath of two dragons was too much for the attacking Urgals to handle and they were forced to retreat or perish. A little safe zone was created around the dragons and so Eragon took the opportunity to climb back on Saphira's saddle. The two riders acknowledged each other with a glance. The Varden's army behind them surged forward to take advantage of the destruction Saphira and Godric had wrought, though they gave both dragons a wide birth as they did so. It gave the dragons and riders a brief reprieve from combat however as the Urgals focused their attention on the Varden instead of them, though Helena still took the opportunity to fire spells at the enemy.

'Please don't run off by yourself again. We must remain close if my magic is to protect you,' Eragon mentally contacted Helena, but it was Godric who responded.

'I was never far, and we were ever only a few seconds jump away from you,' he said.

Eragon seemed momentarily surprised that Godric had spoken to him, something he rarely did. Godric ignored him and focused on Saphira. 'How bad are those injuries?' he asked, referring to the bloody spots were Urgal spears had jabbed at her.

'Flea bites,' she scoffed dismissively, 'They will not hinder me.' Both she and Eragon looked at the battle where the Varden were killing a group of terrified Urgals who were hindered in their ability to defend themselves by their feet spontaneously bursting into a tap-dance, curtesy of Helena. The effect would be hilarious if it wasn't for the killing.

'Will you dance with me Saphira,' Godric asked, putting himself into a ready pouncing position and sporting a vicious grin with his bloody teeth for all to see.

'I will give you the honor,' Saphira responded teasingly before leaping forward, followed immediately by Godric.

Together, there seemed to be very little that the Urgals could do to threaten the two dragons, especially with Helena casting spells under Godric's direction to hinder the Urgals by sticking their hooves to the floor with jelly, more spontaneous dance numbers, binding them with ropes, sending a flock of birds to attack them, causing a panic by shrinking or enlarging their horned heads or other such ridiculous effects that no magician had thought to guard against. Helena had spent a good time on the road trying to find just such spells for just such an occasion. Following Godric's direction, fire also became one of her staple spells.

Arya's advice for keeping Helena away from the front lines lay forgotten as Godric decided that Helena would be able to better use her abilities from closer up and that he would be able to protect her. Besides, doing as the elf suggested would require him to keep his distance and sit this battle out again and that wasn't going to happen.

Eragon spent the time on Saphira shooting arrows or deflecting blows from the occasional Urgal who ventured too close to Saphira's side. Once Eragon's quiver ran out, Helena summoned a new one from an Urgal corpse and levitated it to him; something she would repeatedly end up doing whenever Eragon was in danger of running out. He rarely used magic, except in those rare cases where there were too many enemies for him to shoot at once; then he tended to use 'brisingr' to have fire explode in their faces. All in all Helena felt that the battle became very. . . unfair. There were very few moments where Godric and Helena felt that any of them were in actual danger because combined they were just so much stronger and more powerful than their opponents. Any armor an Urgal chose to wear became meaningless in the face of a dragon's massive weight and muscles. It became almost routine for Helena to use some spell to limit mobility or balance and then for Godric and Saphira to take advantage of it to kill them. Eragon focused his attention on the few who managed to get in close enough and Godric's eyes were sharp enough to find any archers before they could fire and direct Helena's attention towards stopping the arrows. This was mostly enough to stop all threats, and when it wasn't they could easily jump back to safety. At this point, the greatest threat to both riders appeared to be getting a whiplash from their dragons' fast movements. Godric and Helena found it amazing that so many Urgals still seemed willing to challenge them after it became clear that doing so would likely result in their deaths with nothing to show for their sacrifice.

From their perspective it seemed as they were easily winning this battle; at least until the twin who served as their means of communication with Ajihad ordered them to go to Hrothgar's part of the army.

Saphira and Godric both rose above the range of arrows and could now see the battle in its entirety. While the part of the battle where they had been was going well, almost having pushed the Urgals back half of the distance back towards the caves, Hrothgar's and Ajihad's section of the battle had been going poorly. The melded mind of Godric and Helena observed that, not only did the Urgals outnumber their forces, they were individually better warriors than the humans or dwarves. Both of the battalions that had fought dragonless were being forced back towards Tronjheim. Godric's first instinct was for Saphira and him to separate so they could go help both armies, but, remembering the rules for her wards, decided against it.

Speaking of which. . . 'Eragon, how much have the enemy magicians been taxing your powers?' The red dragon asked.

'They haven't,' Eragon answered.

Helena and Godric both found that suspicious. According to Arya, the Urgals had more magicians than the Varden so there had to have been some among the Urgals they just fought. So why didn't they engage them with magic?

Remembering Ajihad's instructions to report anything odd to him, they sent their observations to the twins to see what he would make of it.

'Count yourselves lucky. It seems Galbatorix still doesn't want you dead,' the twin responded. 'My other half is coordinating the efforts against the Urgal shamans and I can assure you that they are here in numbers. Of more interest is the lack of Kull we are facing. Statistically, there should be more of them.'

Godric and Helena had no further time to think on that mystery as they had reached Hrothgar's beleaguered army and fell on the Urgals in a tempest of claws, jaws, fire, magic, or just plain making use of Godric's massive body weight to slam into the enemy. They could hear Saphira and Eragon doing the same a little ways off. Their arrival seemed to have emboldened the dwarves and they fought with renewed vigor. Godric and Helena briefly caught a glimpse of Hrothgar, but, remembering that there was a third army that would need their help soon, decided that they couldn't take the time to greet or observe him and instead focused on killing as many enemies on this side of the battle while there was time. It was here that they encountered their first Urgal shaman. Unlike the human and dwarven spellcasters who Helena knew were all but forbidden from engaging the enemy in melee to preserve their strength, the Urgal shamans didn't seem to have any such reservations. Helena wouldn't even have known that the Urgal was a spellcaster if the dwarf he was fighting didn't inexplicably seem to go blind, allowing the shaman to decapitate him. Godric rushed towards the shaman with Helena shouting the somewhat silly named incantation 'Mimblewimble.' The shaman tried to cast some spell only to find that his tongue was stuck to the roof of his mouth. The Urgal died with his guts having been torn open by Godric's claw, still desperately trying to get some word through his cursed tongue.

It wasn't long until the twin contacted them and proved that their urgency to kill as many Urgals as possible had been the right decision. 'Go assist Ajihad. His army is breaking down.'

Godric wasted no time in taking to the air, ignoring the last few Urgals that Helena had floating in the air by their ankles. Helena looked back with her own eyes at Hrothgar's army and noticed that their brief assistance had allowed the dwarves to – if not regain the ground they had lost – at least make a structured line of defense again. Behind them, Helena saw Saphira flying after them. They didn't spent any time rising above archer range, instead making a beeline towards Ajihad's army. They soon discovered that 'breaking down' meant that a large part of the battle-lines had, and were, dissolving. a large melee now took place instead. That was bad, considering that Urgals seemed to favor individual combat, but considering that Godric and Helena had assumed 'breaking down' meant 'being routed', they simply felt relief that the Varden were still putting up a fight.

There were more dead here on both sides than there had been on the previous battlefields. Seeing a broken Urgal body was different than seeing the same done to humans who looked like her, and would have normally sent Helena retching, but in her current state, it barely warranted a glance.

Godric landed on top of an Urgal who had previously been locking shields with a human that Helena didn't recognize, Saphira joining them only a moment later, but before they could go and search for new opponents, the twin's voice called out to them again.

'Ajihad commands you to not just fight, but lead! Inspire them!'

Eragon and Helena shared a glance and the witch pointed at Eragon's throat. 'Sonorus,' she intoned.

"Your voice has been amplified!" she yelled to be heard over the clamor of battle. Considering that she was constantly chanting spells, amplifying her own voice did not seem wise.

It did gave Godric an idea however, so at his direction Helena put her hand on his neck and used the same spell again. Godric reared up and roared so load that the earth shook. Helena immediately berated Godric for his actions as she briefly lost control of her body as her head was spinning dizzily and her ears were ringing. She remembered that Orik specifically told them not to cause any earthquakes in Farthen Dûr.

It did seem to have some positive effects as all around them the fighting had briefly stopped as warriors on all sides froze with primal fear. The pause in the fighting was long enough for Helena to regain her bearings. She first removed the spell from Godric and then sent large sparks of light into the air.

"To me Varden! To me!" she yelled. Considering the silence that had taken place right after Godric's display, she was heard for over a long distance, even without magic to aid her.

"To me! To me!' Eragon echoed her in his amplified voice, though it paled in comparison to what Godric had displayed.

That finally seemed to snap the snap everyone out of their stupor and those that could soon rushed to their position, Saphira and Godric making short work of any individual Urgals that tried to chase them. They soon had a sizable collection of troops following after them and cheering.

'Get them back into formation!' the twin demanded. 'Your goal is to shore up that army so it can look after themselves, not have them act as your personal cheering brigade!'

Neither Helena nor Eragon liked the twin's tone or his voice in general, but it was good advice. Soon Eragon had them again forming a line. They led them to a section of the army that still held strong, even before they had arrived, the reason for which soon became apparent as they saw Ajihad himself fighting at the front, shouting challenges to his enemies and encouragements to his comrades.

The two groups merged and they once again had something resembling a proper formation going, with every man covering the flanks and backs of every other man. Seeing that the immediate threat of defeat had passed, Ajihad made his way to Eragon and Saphira. Godric and Saphira were close enough, and Ajihad spoke loudly enough so that they could hear what was being said.

"You came just in time. I asked Jörmundur to send some of his troops this way. I'd appreciate it if you would stick around until they arrived."

"I am glad we got here in time," Eragon responded, still with his amplified voice. "I wish we had known sooner that you were struggling."

Helena removed the Amplifying Charm from him with a quick 'Quietus' now that she saw it wasn't needed anymore.

"We had hoped you might ravage the force opposing Jörmundur enough to break them, allowing him to take both of the other Urgal armies from the sides. Alas, these creatures don't lack for courage. By all rights they should have broken after losing so many. As it is, with you helping us, we seem to be perfectly matched. If this goes on, I fear both sides will cut the other to pieces, which might be exactly what Galbatorix wants. Maximum casualties on both sides."

There was no more time for talk as a nine foot tall Kull tried to bash Ajihad's skull in with a two handed sword that was more a metal club than a blade. Helena was able the knock the blade out of the Urgal's hand with a disarming charm, but it proved to have been unnecessary when Ajihad jumped to the side to dodge the very blow that Helena had averted. The Kull tried to grab Ajihad with a gauntleted fist, but the Varden leader surprised the Kull by jumping forward and stabbed the large Urgal in the face. Godric directed Helena's attention back towards her own battle and she lost sight of Ajihad.

Helena and Eragon planned to follow Ajihad's request and stick around long enough for Jörmundur's reinforcements to arrive, but the twin told them go support Hrothgar again before that happened.

The battle continued as Godric and Saphira jumped from army to army, going wherever they were most needed. Eventually they even had to go back and support Jörmundur after going so long without dragon support. It felt as if the dragons and their riders were trying to prevent a barrel of ale with three holes it in from spilling by blocking the holes with their fingers; except in this analogy they only had one finger. Godric and Helena lost track of time as the battle continued, until at one point they looked up and noticed that night had fallen without either of them having noticed.

It was during one their rare visits to Jörmundur that the twin contacted them for a different task. 'There are loud noises coming under Tronjheim. I suspect that the Urgals are trying to dig their way up to the city. We need someone to collapse any tunnels they are excavating.'

'What if it is a trap?' she asked.

'It's possible,' he admitted, 'but if you don't do this, the Urgals might take Tronjheim and strike from there. I know that you are an amateur when it comes to large scale battles, but I hope I don't need to tell you what happens when an army is surrounded from all sides. Take Arya with you for safety.'

"I'll go," Eragon shouted to her from where he was fighting on Saphira several yards away. "You can do more good here."

'The wards. . .' Godric protested.

"Haven't been used since this battle started," Eragon finished curtly. "You don't need me here, and you can get teleport to me if needed."

"Or I can apparate to the tunnels and be out in but a few seconds," she retorted.

Eragon made a frustrated growling sound from the back of his throat. "We can't stay to delay and argue about this and I can't stop you. I guess we'll both go."

"I don't know where you are going," Arya spoke up, and if Helena didn't know better, she would have thought the elf had apparated with how suddenly she appeared before them seemingly out of nowhere. "But if you are leaving, I am going with you."

"We were told to bring you regardless, though I am glad we don't need to look for you," Eragon said before giving his hand for her to climb onto Saphira's back; a hand she ignored as she climbed smoothly into Saphira's saddle behind Eragon without any help.

They made several long jumps, staying close to the ground, until they reached one of Tronjheim's four main gates. Unfortunately, the gate was closed for the first time since she could remember.

Helena tried alohomora but it had no effect. "The door must be barred or something."

"Destroy it?" Arya suggested.

The dwarves will just have to live with it. "Bombarda!" The spell hit the large door and seemed to do nothing. "It's not working."

'This is getting more suspicious by the moment,' Godric complained and Helena didn't disagree.

"But we have to do something!" Eragon said impatiently.

Every second we delay is another one that the Urgals can use to take over Tronjheim. This is a bad, and it will only get worse the longer we wait. Helena got an idea. She knew that it wasn't a good idea, but it was an idea.

"I'll get us there," she said and jumped from Godric's back. "Arya, grab my hand." Since this was probably a trap, she decided that the fewer people went, the better. Besides, though she disliked admitting it, Arya was both more capable and, by her own words, more expendable.

'Helena don't!' Godric protested, even as Arya jumped from Saphira and grabbed her hand. Helena planned to apparate in the middle of Tronheim's great chamber. From there went two tunnels which Helena knew led to a network of underground roads, but if she could just seal those two, she hoped to seal off all of Tronheim's lower levels from the upper levels.

Eragon seemed to have grasped her intentions as well. "I don't know exactly what you are planning but –"

Helena didn't hear what else Eragon was going to say as her world spun into the familiar feeling of apparition. She managed to hit the ground with her feet, but before she could even take stock of her surroundings, a gauntleted first punched her in the gut. Helena would have collapsed to her knees if a Kull didn't lift and hold her up by her right forearm. her captor was so tall that her feet were dangling several inches above the ground. She started to struggle and something cold pressed against her wrist. "If I see that hand of yours glowing, I will cut it off," a guttural voice said from behind her. It was the first time she had heard an Urgal speak in English. She looked up and found a knife poised to remove her marked hand.

The mystery of where most of the Urgal Kull were was answered as large eight-feet-tall horned creatures guarded all three exits out of the main chamber. Normally there were four exits, but the two underground tunnels had been collapsed before the battle, though one of those had now been dug open again. More Urgals were still pouring out of the one open underground tunnel and spreading outward, some going up through the endless staircase, some running through one of the two main entrances from which you could access all of Tronjheim's ground level.

That wasn't the worst of it though; Durza himself stood in front of her, fully armored and with sword in hand, giving her a disappointed look. "That was easier than I expected," he said drolly. "I would have at least expected you to jump to a point that was inconspicuous, not the main hall. Don't even bother trying to teleport out; I made it so you can get in but not out. Sad that your male counter–" whatever else he was going to say was cut short as the shade brought his blade up to deflect Arya's strike. Durza moved backwards, holding his sword close to his body and a pleased smile appeared on his face. "At least you returned my favorite prisoner to me, and with you as our captive, I am sure we can get. . . Eragon was it? I am sure we can get him to surrender peacefully, or at least launch a doomed rescue where we can capture him."

A dead Urgal was lying in a pool of his own blood not far from where Helena was left dangling. She thought he must have tried to capture Arya like what had happened to Helena, but the elf's balance and reflexes were clearly better than the witch's.

Helena heard a slam from far behind her. It was the sound of heavy metal colliding with metal. She suspected that both Godric and Saphira were using their armored bodies as battering-rams to hopefully break through the door. 'Stupid! Stupid girl!' Godric shouted at her. 'Stay alive until I get there.' The sense of bloodlust that she had felt ever since the beginning of the battle was slowly leaving her now that she was separated from Godric.

"Enough," Arya snarled, and there was nothing of her usual composure on her face. With a cry of rage she lunged forward towards Durza.

This was the first time that Helena saw what a true sword fight between two supernaturally strong and fast beings was like and the sight was mesmerizing.

Their swords flashed like lightning; you could hear the sounds of it, but the blades moved too fast for the eye to follow. Their feet moved and changed directions so fast that it should be impossible for them not to slide over the ground as if it was ice due to a lack of grip, yet they did. The Urgals didn't interfere with the fight; they seemed just as taken with the spectacle as she was, if a lot more enthusiastic about it with the way they shouted in their strange language. Helena caught only brief glimpses of the facial expression of the two combatants, but what she did see wasn't encouraging.

Durza had a mocking smile on his face while Arya's expression was contorted in one of frantic fury. Helena knew enough about combat to know that – even without the cycle of positive reinforcement that her magic gave her – adding anger to your fighting was a chancy gamble at best. It enhanced your strength and stamina to be sure, but it also made you sloppy and predictable.

After one particular clash of swords, Helena noticed a lock of Arya's black hair falling towards the ground, and knew that the elven princesses had just come very close to having her head shopped off. Helena suddenly remembered that even if Arya could have defeated Durza if she was in top form, the Shade was fresh and at his best while Arya had just spend who knows how many hours fighting Urgals, and that was ignoring the fact that she only had three days to recover from a week long coma after getting tortured for a month. There was no way she could win this without help.

She tried to think of a way to escape her captor without the telltale sign of magic on her gedwëy ignasia betraying that she was about to try something. She knew of no spells that didn't make her hand glow red. Even spells that were normally colorless were no exception.

Except maybe her Animagus transformation? She wasn't sure about that one; she had never really payed attention to her hand during that process. 'Don't try anything else stupid,' Godric instructed, 'Not until I get there.'

'They will use me as a hostage if I don't get free first,' she pointed out.

'I will figure something out,' he said, and then he focused all his attention back on breaking down the door with Saphira.

'Only if Arya can hold off Durza for long enough.' Even as she thought it, there was a metallic snapping sound, and a metal shard flew spinning through the air. Everyone present looked at Arya's sword which had broken at about the middle of the blade. Arya tried to lunge forward with the broken sword, but Durza simply stepped into the blow and it bounced of his armor, unable to penetrate without the pointy end of the blade. 'We should have given her Za'roc,' Helena thought, angry at herself for the oversight. Or she could have renewed the unbreakable charms on the blade since it had clearly expired.

Durza sent Arya flying to the floor with a punch to the jaw, a trail of blood flying from her mouth and making a red line on the marble floor. Helena thought she could see a teeth bouncing and rolling over the floor.

"Now that that is settled," Durza said, casually patting and brushing his armor as if to wipe away the dirt. "We should wait until the other Rider and the dragons get here." He gave Helena a curious look. "I need you alive to keep the others docile, but I don't need you whole." His gaze drifted upwards to look at her captor's face. "Cut her hand off," he ordered.

She froze as a jolt of pure terror washed over her. All of her magic wasn't focused on her hand, but without it she wouldn't have a focus; without it she was nothing.

The air exploded above her.

The Kull that was holding her released her as a blast of wind knocked both of them of their feet. Helena rolled with the blast to hopefully get some distance on her foes.

Godric had appeared in the air above them in a bang of twisted space that was unmistakable to her as anything other than apparition, if a more violent version of it due to sheer size.

Godric fell down, crushing two Urgals in the process; the one that had been holding her amongst them. Helena was almost sure that if she hadn't moved from her spot when she got the chance, she would have been crushed as well. She doubted Godric's fall had been all that controlled. Right now she was positioned just to the side of him, right under his wings.

The Shade stood farther away from them now, gritting his teeth in frustration; either having been blown away or intentionally created some distance, Helena wasn't sure.

Godric reared up his neck and there was a deep rumbling sound from deep in his belly. Helena recognized the movement and sound as that which proceeded a wyvern breathing fire. Durza seemed to recognize it too since he raised his hand in front of him.

"Skölir edtha fra brisingr!" he cried, and Helena was able to translate the spell as 'shield me from fire!'.

Godric's head came down, his jaw opened wide, and a torrent of green, yellow, red and brown sludge shot forward as her dragon partner vomited the contends of his stomach out in front of him.

The room was deathly still as everyone looked at Durza. He stood frozen, his arm still outstretched in front of him. He was absolutely covered in bile. Drops of the disgusting liquid fell from his chin and his outstretched elbow and any other part of his body that was pointed at the ground, making soft dripping sounds on the floor.

Helena used the brief pause in the fighting to quickly reapply her unbreakable charms both to her own equipment and Godric's armor. 'Don't worry about the vomiting Godric,' she tried to reassure him. The whole absurdity of the situation made the witch feel strangely calm. 'It happens to the best of us after our first apparition. I've seen it dozens of times.'

'I doubt I will be able to replicate the feat,' he said without taking his eyes from the foe in front of him.

The smell of vomit washed over her and nearly made Helena gag, but she was wary of provoking a reaction by using magic to get rid of it.

Helena scanned the room until her eyes fell on Arya. The blast had rolled her several yards away from where she had fallen. She had pushed her face from the ground using her elbow as support. Helena had a good view of the elf's bloodied face from where she herself was lying. Arya was looking at Durza's sorry state as if she had never seen something so beautiful in her entire life.

Durza finally lowered his hand. He seemed to calm himself as he breathed in deeply through his nose. Then his eyes crinkled and an almost angelic smile appeared on his face, yet he suddenly looked scarier than he ever had before. "Galbatorix is going to so disappointment by what I am about to do."

'We will need Saphira. See if you can open the door from here,' Godric ordered.

'I am not–' she began but was interrupted.

'Now Helena!' and for the first time since she could remember, Godric sounded legitimately furious with her. It was enough for her to turn around, transform into her husky form and run towards the gate. At the same time, Durza jumped forward towards her only to be have to jump backwards to avoid getting ripped apart by Godric. "Stop her!" he yelled to his Kull followers.

Dog Helena was able to run through the legs of two Kull before they realized what was happening. Arya needed no prompting to follow her, going from a prone position to a full on sprint in an instant. Helena briefly switched to human form so she could see more than thirty feet in front of her and look at the gate. She could hear that Saphira was still pounding at the door, making it shake, but it had been barricaded by several thick wooden bars. She also took the opportunity to take out and throw her own spear at Arya who had already caught up with her. She has more need of a weapon than I do. Helena fired off a bombarda at the wooden barricade – just in case it wasn't protected like the gate was – and turned back into a dog so she could better evade the Kull who were coming to block her path.

She saw Arya get past one by feinting which way she would try to dodge, and Helena was able to evade a kick from that very same one.

The next one Arya was able to kill by piercing his throat, all without pausing her stride. Behind her, Helena could hear the whooshing of air as Godric tried to strike at Durza and the clash of metal on metal as Durza's blade failed to pierce Godric's armor.

Considering the lack of explosion coming from the gate, her spell must have failed.

There were five more Kull who stood between them and the gate, and they worked together by standing shoulder to shoulder.

Seeing that they wouldn't just be able to run past these, Helena briefly turned back to human. "Tarantallegra!" She had found out throughout the battle outside that if the number of enemies were low enough, and she could see them as a single group of people – something that was easy to do in this case – she could sometimes affect all of them by hitting only one of them.

As soon as her spell hit, the Urgals cried out in dismay as they were forced to squat low, put their firsts against their midsections, and start kicking the air in unison like in a Russian folk dance.

It's amazing how useful the Dancing Feet Spell has proven to be tonight.

Arya didn't slow down to kill them, instead throwing the spear into the air before putting her hands on the shoulders of one of the Kull and pushing herself upwards to fly over his head, catching the spear back in her hand before it touched the ground.

Helena just went under their legs again. The dance kicking made it risky, but it was set to a predictable rhythm.

When Helena arrived at the door, Arya was already busy trying to remove the wooden bars from the metal hooks that were built into the wall. These metal hooks, she knew, had already been present before the Urgals arrived, built so that defenders could barricade themselves in. She wondered if it were even the Urgals who had barricaded the door and not the Varden to make sure no one could get in while they were out on the field.

The bars looked too heavy for her to lift. Out of habit, she reached out to try and lift the things with magic, but found herself blocked again. Helena took out one of the small rocks that she had picked up back when the battle started, enlarged it, and then proceeded to levitate and ram it against the wooden obstructions. Arya stood watch after she noticed that Helena could do this more effectively than she could. When there was only one bar left that hadn't been reduced to splinters, it broke apart on its own when Saphira's ramming on the other side became too much.

'Get on!' Saphira commanded angrily at them. Arya jumped on first with her usual supernatural athletics and she then gave a hand for Helena to use to pull herself up. Eragon turned to face them in the saddle; he looked pale.

'He tried to open the door with magic,' Saphira offered as a way of explanation.

"Did you at least not make it a 'succeed or die' kind of spell?" Arya asked pleadingly.

Eragon didn't respond.

Helena sighed. "You and I are made for each other." She put her hand on Saphira's armor and silently applied what had become her standard buff spells.

Eragon gave a weak chuckle. "Hold on to something," he said. Helena stuck her pants to the saddle and wrapped her arms around Arya, who did the same to Eragon.

Saphira shot forward towards the center hall. She paid no more heed to the Urgals she bowled over on her way than she would to a flower, trampled during a landing. She arrived where Godric and Durza were fighting in a matter of second.

The fight between Durza and Godric looked like a very dangerous cat and mouse game. With Godric being the cat. Durza knew that if he allowed Godric to match him strength for strength he was done for. Despite that, Godric's wing had been cut near the outer wing bone while Durza still looked unharmed.

'Get off,' Saphira demanded. 'Three passengers is too heavy for me to fight unhindered.'

Arya stood up in the saddle and jumped off. Helena briefly went husky and jumped from the saddle to Saphira's hind legs to the ground before reverting the transformation.

"Let's focus on preventing any Urgal reinforcements from helping," Arya suggested, and Helena noticed that the elf indeed had one of her teeth knocked out. "Leave Durza to the dragons."

Helena nodded. It was unlikely that Godric or Saphira could be precise enough to pierce the Shade's heart, but at this point she would take a partial victory of Durza disappearing again.

She pointed her open palm at the dug open tunnel exits. "Reducto." The spell hit a point just above the cave and it collapsed again.

"It wouldn't take them long to dig their way through that, but it will do," Arya judged, and then looked at the fight. It hadn't yet been ten seconds, but it was clear that Durza was having trouble evading two dragons at the same time. He had his pale sword moving between pointing at Godric and Saphira's heads. Godric pounced, and when Durza dodged the left, Saphira went after him. Durza pushed himself off the ground and half jumped half fell even further to the left. He cursed and fled up the spiral staircase.

"He is running away," Helena said disbelievingly.

"He knows he is outmatched," Arya said, giving Helena back her spear and picking up a sword from one of the downed Kull, which to him had probably been no more than a dagger.

Above them, Eragon was shouting taunts at the Shade as he continued to run up the stairs that hugged the circular walls. Saphira and Godric were using some of the archways that connected various hallways on opposite sides of Tronjheim as landing points to continue to chase after Durza. Soon the dragons found a point where one of the archways crossed the staircase and blocked the Shade's path.

"We've got him," Helena said.

"There are doors all along the stairs where he can disappear into one of Tronjheim's upper levels, but yes, we won," Arya sighed and smiled with relief and satisfaction.

As if he had heard them and wanted to prove them fools, Durza yelled. "Now!"

The sound of multiple explosion drew the eyes of all present to the top of Tronjheim. It actually took Arya yelling "Run!" with true fear in her voice for Helena to realize what was happening. Isidar Mithrim – a gemstone four hundred feet in diameter – was falling towards them. When it encountered its first stone archways, the stone shattered without slowing down the gemstone, adding to the debris. After that, they could hear another stone archway shattering every few seconds. Arya pulled Helena to her feet and started pulling her away, but it didn't look like they were going to make it. Helena stopped and pointed at the gemstone. "Arresto Momentum." Her spell didn't seem to have any noticeable effects. It's too large, she thought. The gemstone reached Godric and Saphira and then they were falling as well. Durza had pressed himself to the edge of the room to avoid the danger.

'Not enough time,' Helena realized as she had only seconds remaining before over ten tons of gemstone would squash them. Helena put her hands on the ground at the same that Arya pointed at Eragon.

"Reducto" and "vëoht" They both cried.

The floor fell away beneath them.

xxxxxxxx

"You have to get up!"

Helena felt someone shaking her, knowing that she had lost consciousness. It was a feeling she had become annoyingly familiar with. She opened her eyes. Dust scattered the light coming from lanterns, making it very hard to see anything. She knew that they must have survived the falling gemstone, but her last moments were fussy.

"You're alright," Eragon beamed as he looked down from beside her. "Thank the stars," Helena could hear Arya whisper weakly from right beside her.

Helena's head turned to look at Arya, surprised at how faint she had sounded. One of the elf's legs was bent in an unnatural angle, there was blood on the side of her head, and there was hardly any part of her skin that didn't look red. luckily, it was the red of a skin newly made.

"What happened?" the witch asked as she crawled upright.

"I saw it happen. She broke your fall with her own body. I used magic to keep her alive, but I can't do more," Eragon answered to Helena's dismay; Arya had been their best combatant not counting the dragons. Speaking of which. . .

"Where is Godric? And Saphira?" She knew they weren't dead; she would have known if Godric was gone.

'I am okay, as is Saphira, but we are trapped,' Godric told her. 'The armor you charmed unbreakable saved our lives.'

"Saphira is alright," Eragon answered, unnecessarily now.

"Where are we?" she asked.

"Look there," Eragon pointed.

Helena followed his finger and found herself staring at Hrothgar's throne.

Helena waved her hand. "Ventus." A gust of air spiraled outward from their position and the dust was swept away. She could now see all the statues of kings, sitting on their stone thrones, neatly lined up in two rows. She saw the forest of stalagmites surrounding the outer part of the room. The ground was littered with shattered pieces of stalactites who had fallen from the ceiling. Some of the lanterns that hung from the wall and ceiling had broken lose and had fallen to the ground. Above them was a deep hole – almost more a tunnel – about three yards in diameter and ten yards deep; at the end she could see the red sheen of where the ruby rose would have crushed them if she had been a second too late.

"How long have we been here?"

"A couple of minutes; I am not sure," Eragon answered.

"You can't stay here," Arya said hoarsely, trying to sit up straight by leaning against Hrothgar's throne. "Durza is still out there."

"You can't move," Eragon pointed out.

The look Arya gave both riders said what she thought of that complaint.

"We can't leave you here," Eragon said stubbornly, and this time Helena didn't feel a spike of annoyance at the concern Eragon showed. Helena was in full agreement with him.

"Don't waste your energy arguing for something you know we won't do," Helena added when Arya opened her mouth to respond. "We'll keep you safe."

"Morons," Arya slurred.

Helena had the oddest feeling that they had just become friends.

"I can seal and protect the door," Helena said. "We can hold them of indefinitely."

"No," Eragon said firmly, at her questioning look he continued. "If they can't reach us, they will go after Saphira and Godric, who can't defend themselves at the moment. Besides, our mission hasn't changed. If we stay locked up in here then the Urgals take Tronjheim, and the Varden will be surrounded." He swallowed and looked away stubbornly. "I am done with running and hiding."

The sound of heavy footsteps could be heard just outside the door.

Sorry Ajihad, but we are not running. "Alright then," she agreed. "Besides, there is one thing I still want to try."

Helena took a deep breath and remembered how Eragon risked his life to open the front door to Tronjheim, how Arya did all within her power to protect both Eragon and herself, how she herself was willing to jump right into a possible trap in order to protect a group of strangers that were fighting outside. Many of these actions had been idiotic, she knew, but she also believed that foolhardiness didn't, or shouldn't, take away from an act's inherent nobility and heroism. It was still something to be proud of.

The door flew open and a dozen kull moved into the throne room, Durza calmly walking in after them.

'Godric, be ready.' "Expecto Patronum," she yelled, and a dog of translucent silver light sprung from her hand and ran towards the enemy. Helena felt her head grow light with euphoria, but Godric was able to pull her emotions back to normality within seconds. One of the Kull swung a giant great sword that no normal man could lift at the dog and it passed right through the translucent canine, nearly causing the Kull to fall when the resistance he was counting on never came. When her patronus reached Durza, something unprecedented happened. Durza kicked and her patronus was sent flying through the air, yammering piteously.

"That's not supposed to happen," Helena said numbly. A patronus either did nothing or repelled an enemy, it shouldn't be able to interact with the physical realm.

"Get them," Durza hissed, apparently willing to stand back and watch his minions do the fighting for him.

"Tarantallegra," she tried, but her spell hit the enemy without any apparent effect. It seems Durza improved their protection.

Arya tried to stand up, but her one good leg couldn't support her weight and she fell back down with a pained yell.

Eragon stepped forward, Zar'roc in one hand, a shield in the other

"Titillando," she tried, and the one Kull she hit did have translucent hands of red light tickling him all over, but he fought through the distraction and continued to charge, and then there was no more time. Eragon deflected an axe with his shield, twisted around one Urgal so he kept his back to one of the stone statues and the forest of stalagmites so as to not be surrounded from all sides. The next Kull to challenge him seemed to suddenly go mad as he clutched his head like he had the worst case of migraines ever. A short glance at Arya who had her eyes closed and a focused expression on her face let Helena know who was most likely the culprit behind that. Eragon was able to pierce the Kull through the heart, Za'roc all but ignoring the armor of iron as it went through. Arya gasped and clutched her own heart. Eragon was able to cut deeply into the arm of a third Kull, but there were obviously too many for him to keep this up.

Helena's eyes roved over the room, desperate for something she could use. Her eyes were immediately drawn to the most eye catching of objects in the room. She had an idea, but it required the use of a spell she had never fully mastered.

If there is anything of the people you used to be in you, please help us. Help us protect your city and you're people.

"Piertotum Locomotor."

A wave of light moved through the room like an inflating sphere. The eyes of all forty-one statues started to glow red, and then the sound of stone grinding could be heard as they all moved from their thrones. Helena herself was astonished by what she had accomplished. This was way beyond what she thought she could do.

The stone likeness of King Dóndar – the one that Eragon had put his back to – reached over Eragon's shoulders to grab one of the Kull and threw him the way he had come from and straight into another Kull who fell down from the impact.

The group of Kull froze as they looked around and realized that they were now the ones who were outnumbered.

King Korgan – the very first of the dwarven kings and the one who stood closest to the throne of the current king – walked over to where Arya and Helena watched him with trepidation as he reached to grab them. "Ilf gauhnith," he spoke in a rough but surprisingly gentle voice. Helena had no idea what that meant, but it was obviously meant to be reassuring so she relaxed minutely and allowed herself to be lifted from the ground. The stone likeness of Korgan proceeded to place the comparatively tiny woman on his shoulder. The stone king looked at Arya and seemed to decide that moving her with at least two broken bones was unwise. He looked at one of his fellow kings and barked a command in Dwarvish. The one that was spoken to stepped in front of Arya and then stood still like a sentinel, watching with baleful red eyes to all who dared approach.

The rest of the statues – some of whom had picked up the fallen stalactites to use as clubs – had all moved to surround the Kull. At some unspoken signal they all fell on the Urgal invaders at once. Swords and spears slid or bounced off their stone bodies. Only the Kull who brought clubs – about half of them – could form any meaningful resistance; one even managed to turn a stone arm into rubble. The outcome was never in doubt, however, and soon the ground became slick with blood as it was filled with the broken bodies Kull.

Durza meanwhile stood in the doorframe of the entrance watching the slaughter with a dumfounded expression, but as soon his eyes fell on Helena, he led out an inhuman cry of anger. "Eitha bak eom slytha," he barked.

The light in all of the stone statues went out one by one, starting with the one closest to Durza and moving further outward. Helena put her hand on King Korgan and tried to focus. "Locomotor," she whispered and soon her magic came into direct conflict with Durza's power. She met the challenge and made her power stand in direct opposition to the Shade's magic. She met Durza's eyes and suddenly it was like they were back in Gil'ead.

The only difference was that this time she had nowhere to run to.

All of the statues stood motionless, as lifeless as they were before. Only Korgan still seemed capable of movement and then only lethargically.

Durza grinned and started walking forward, drawing his blade from his scabbard.

Eragon moved to stand between them and held Za'roc out in challenge.

Durza's grin grew wider.

'We are with you in spirt,' Godric and Saphira spoke to them, and they meant that literally as they slammed their minds against Durza. Arya, too, closed her eyes and added her strength to the assault, even leading the attack since she had more experience with such things. Durza grimaced and paused briefly as he clutched his head as both dragons tried to assault his mind. It didn't stop him long as Durza jumped forward, but the self-assured sense of invincibility was gone from his face. Helena didn't consider that a good thing; enemies being cocky tended to be helpful.

Eragon brought his shield up in time to deflect Durza's blade. "Megin," he whispered and then bashed Durza with his shield, making him take a few a backwards. "Fœri," Eragon said next, and Za'roc shot forward faster than it ever did and nearly caught Durza in the shoulder.

The words Eragon used, Helena recognized as 'strengthen' and 'speed' respectively. Getting supernatural physical skills can't be that easy can it?, Helena wondered.

"Just delay him," Helena shouted from the back of the room.

Eragon heard her and tried, relying mostly on his shield to deflect Durza's blade and keep him back, but despite the dragons' and Arya's best efforts to distract and slow Durza down with a mental assault, the Shade used the pommel and cross guard of his blade to pound against the shield, forcing Eragon to give ground or be forced to his knees. That was, until Durza seemed to lose patience and grabbed the edge of the shield and threw it behind him with a wide gesture. Eragon was able to keep his balance, but he now only had Za'roc to rely on. Helena's patronus, who was still around, attempted to bite Durza's ankles, but only received another kick for her troubles.

Still, it seemed that Durza was increasingly growing weaker the longer the fight dragged on, and Durza's expression slowly became more inhuman the longer the fight dragged on. Eragon wasn't used to his own new powers, however, and he proved that by overextending himself and stumbling after his sword. Durza on the other hand proved that he didn't yet know that Helena's powers required extensive concentration and immediately went for her, instead of trying to finish of Eragon which would have certainly broken Helena's spell. Eragon cursed and made to follow after him, but he seized up and fell to his knees as if all his muscles had cramps. It seemed that using magic to directly force one's body to go beyond its normal capacity had its risks.

Helena still had Korgan – slow though he now was – and the height advantage of sitting on his shoulders and the spear that she now held in one hand.

Durza reached Korgan in four great leaps and jumped for her with his sword arched behind him, preparing to strike. Helena held the tip of her spear to intercept Durza, but he annulled the attack and instead grabbed her weapon and tried to pull himself up. Helena let go of the spear without even intending to; Durza was simply too heavy for her to hold with one hand without a great amount of effort. She pulled up her legs and tried to keep the lowest point of her still as high as possible, leaning heavily on Korgan's head with her now free hand to do so.

Korgan stepped back, holding his hands out in front of him wardingly. Durza threw her own spear back at her like a javelin, but if there was one thing besides magic that was good about her, it were her reflexes and the spear flew over her shoulder and bounced against the wall behind her.

"Brisingr," Eragon yelled from behind the fighting and a fire exploded in Durza's face perhaps only an inch away. He stepped back with high pitched scream and clutched his face. He looked at Eragon with hate, but gritted his teeth and focused back on Helena who could see the blisters on his pale skin. He dodged Korgan's sluggish attempt to grab him and went under his arm and started climbing from the side of the statue that Helena was on. The witch wanted to circle around the stone head to keep as much distance as possible, but it required too much maneuvering for her occupied mind to accomplish.

And then the statue of Korgan – with a small burst of movement that the animation spell couldn't entirely account for – plucked the Shade from his body as if he was no more than an annoying child and then the fight was over.

Korgan lifted Helena from his shoulder with his other hand and placed her back on the ground. The animation spell around the stone king ended seemingly out of its own accord, and he froze in place, his hand still clutched around Durza.

"Finish it," Eragon said from behind her in a hoarse voice that spoke of immense pain.

Still in somewhat at a daze at the sudden end, Helena reached out a grasping hand and summoned her spear back to her hand.

She looked from Durza who seemed to have lost any semblance of humanity and was now trashing about like animal. His features contorted in expression that were too exaggerated to be human.

"End it," Arya echoed Eragon's words.

Helena looked at Arya. 'It is my right,' she remembered the elf saying back in the war room. She walked over to her and offered her a hand. "You should do it," she said.

"I. . ." Arya hesitated.

"You deserve it more than we do," Helena said. "Now, hurry up before he gets loose or regains his senses."

Arya grabbed her hand and with the smaller girl's support was able to limp the few feet towards the captured Shade. The look on her face was strangely vacant for someone about to receive her much wanted revenge.

Ayra didn't have the strength to do anything more than fall forward, but that was enough for the enchanted spear point to pierce the black scale armor and lodge itself into the Shade's heart.

The inflicted wound didn't spill any blood as would be the norm, instead a black smoky substance – like a black version of a stored pensive memory – began to leak out of the wound. Durza's face and hands – the only part of his skin that was visible under his armor – began to dissolve into that same fluid gas.

Arya abruptly led go of the spear and turned towards Helena. With a push she tried to shove the smaller woman away from her, her eyes were wide with fear. "You have to go!" Helena still didn't led go of Arya, acutely aware that she was the only thing keeping the injured princess standing; this combined with Arya's shove made both women tumble towards the floor.

It would have been too late regardless, as the sublimation of Durza's body suddenly sped up. A whirlwind of darkness surrounded both Helena and Arya.

Visions of horror appeared before Helena's mind as the spirits that had been Durza assaulted her being. Emotions that were not her own threatened to engulf her, to change her.

"Helena!" she could hear Eragon yelling as if from very large distance. Godric tried to protect her, but it was as if a veil had been lifted between the pair and he found himself unable to reach her.

As abruptly as the darkness had come, it left again as a bright light began to circle the witch and the elf. It only took Helena a second to identify the light as her own patronus which still hadn't faded after being physically kicked away twice. The luminescent dog ran over the air like it was solid, and sprung towards the darkness that was now floating above them. The darkness dissipated into three smaller clouds of dark and fled into three different directions, all disappearing through the walls.

Helena looked up at the face of the statue of Korgan; the one who had saved them. 'Would they. . .'

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"I don't know if we can win this without them," Murtagh said, obviously referring to the dragons and their riders. "Even if the Urgals are more disorganized now."

"Have a little faith in your friends," Nasuada scoffed, and loosed another arrow from the slightly elevated piece of soil she stood on.

If her father thought she was going to waste her time babysitting the group that had left before the battle, then he was sorely mistaken. They didn't need her help anyway. for all that Sabrae tended to see her as nothing but a child – not that surprising since she had been part of the Varden's leadership and had known Nasuada before she had even learned not to piss in her cradle – she was a good organizer and an old hand at putting desperate people at ease.

She had helped the old woman organize the evacuation just like her father said. Specifically, she had counted just how much water, food, and blankets would be required to get few hundred or so people to reach Surda's eastern border. The task was complicated by the fact that the majority of people leaving weren't humans, but dwarves, who would in all likelihood go somewhere else, but would need looking after as well. Luckily, she had a few contacts among the dwarves, even outside the Varden, and was able to sort out that problem with some help. A sizable portion of the dwarves were resentful of the human presence in their city, but Nasuada had been amongst them since she was a child and nobody trully could hate children. That she no longer qualified as such was a fact conveniently forgotten by most. So far that had worked in her favor.

Sabrae had given her two hours to count and collect all the supplies they would need and gather them before one of Farthen Dûr's less used exits.

Nasuada had done it in fifty minutes.

Next – after weaseling the content of the war meeting out of Jörmundur – she pulled rank, as undefined as it was, on the man that Ajihad had sent to ask Murtagh to help them. Knowing her father, the man probably had instructions to be as curt with Murtagh as possible. A simple yes or no question and that was it, perhaps with a subtle threat attached to it. Her father had very little patience or respect for those that needed to be talked into doing the right thing. That was more her area of expertise. Perhaps Ajihad would even respect Murtagh more if he continued to defy him.

She loved her father dearly but he could be a bit dumb sometimes.

Convincing Murtagh wasn't that difficult once she figured out how to do it. The trick with him seemed to be allowing him to think he was somehow doing you a favor. . . which to be fair he was, but he was also helping himself. If you acted like the action you were convincing him to take was selfish, he would get defensive; if it was purely selfless he would get embarrassed and also defensive. Or perhaps it was more like he hated being forced into anything, good or bad? Whatever the reason, once she gave him enough hints – 'the Varden will need all the help we can get', 'the coming battle will be dangerous', 'Ajihad won't admit it but he is worried' – Murtagh offered to help them of his own volition without her even having to come out and ask it. It was always nice when you got people to do what you wanted while somehow letting them think it was their idea all along.

Once that business was done, it had been time for Sabrae and her flock to leave Tronjheim. She purposefully arrived just before they were about to leave. She allowed herself to be seen by a young girl that she drafted as a messenger to tell Sabrae that she had arrived and that they could leave, but that she would bring up the rear to make sure nobody would fall behind. She then promptly assigned that task to someone else and snuck back out to the plains of Farthen Dûr. By time that Sabrea would realize what she had done it would be too late.

Next, she dressed herself in a half plate outfit that she had stacked away beforehand to hide her feminine form. A helm to hide her face and nobody would recognize her.

She had never grown up among the wandering tribes, but her father had taught her some of the traditions. She thought most of those were silly, but 'leaders should be willing to suffer for and alongside their people' was one of the only lessons from her father's old tribe that she herself still adhered to. If she was going to run away right at the dawn of the Varden's greatest challenge thus far, what would that say about her?

She had decided to join up with Jörmundur's part of the army. Hrothgar's part was mostly comprised of dwarves so she would stand out too much if she went there. Her father's had been an option, but if he discovered her in the middle of the battle he might waste valuable men that were needed elsewhere to protect her. If Jörmundur discovered her, he would be practical enough not to waste time arguing for her to leave. She hoped. It was a moot point anyway, since he hadn't ended up discovering who she was. The truth would eventually come out of course – it probably already had now that she had started speaking in a voice that was umistakably female – but asking forgiveness was a lot easier than asking permission in this case.

She didn't manage to jump the queue to have the lady Helena cast her spells over her weapons and armor like she had wanted to. If she even had a handful of trusted men in her pocket she might have been able to arrange something, but there was not a single man that she could trust not to betray her secret to Ajihad. The men's unquestioning loyalty to her father was something that had always reassured her, but in that instant it had been a problem.

No great loss; she hadn't planned on being on the front lines anyway. Instead, she stayed back as an archer. It had gotten her more than a few jeers from her fellow Varden, calling her a coward, but she ignored them. They didn't know her reasons, and the less she spoke the less chance of her voice betraying her gender. She was under no illusions that she was some great warrior. She could hit a target with an arrow more often than not, and could draw a knife faster than most, but put her against any decently trained soldier, or any situation where she didn't have the element of surprise, and she'd be outmatched. Just because she decided to take part in the battle didn't mean she was going to sell her life cheaply.

She had a good view of the battle from where she was and had been quietly awed by the ferocity that both Saphira and Godric showed. For the first time she truly understood just how the Riders had been able to enforce order on the known world for two and half millennia. The dragons alone would have been enough to cow most of the world. Helena had been interesting as well. 'I am more dangerous than I look', she had said. Considering that Helena looked mostly harmless with hardly any air of danger that came with most warriors, that could mean anything. Even most female magicians that the Varden had, had a more dangerous air about them than Helena. Besides her eyes, Nasuada reflected. They had such an uncanny green brightness to it that it might throw some people off, but even that didn't really make her seem dangerous. At least as far as Nasuada had been able to judge in what little time they had together.

'I have some special talent when it comes to magic,' Helena had told her in the private bathhouse.

Some special talent when it comes to magic indeed. Most magicians she had met used their talents sparingly and when they did it was often subtle or left them barely able to stand. What she had seen Helena do today would have killed all the magicians in Du Vrangr Gata – the twins included – a hundred times over. Even the fire that Nasuada had first attributed to Godric ended up being her doing.

Was this what the Riders of old were capable of? And Helena had only very recently become a Rider and if she was already this strong. . . but then again, she had said she had been a 'witch' before becoming a Rider hadn't she? There was no way to tell, besides asking her how much of her powers came from being a Rider. Nasuada was aware of Helena's claim of otherworldly origin and Nasuada was starting to believe it. Surely, if there was a group of people that were capable of using magic in this scale, then they would be well known. Surely?

From what little she had seen of Eragon, he was an excellent fighter and marksman, but that was all. Nasuada had, like many, assumed that Eragon was going to be the most dangerous of the duo, but after today that wouldn't be the case anymore. He would still be considered dangerous of course, but that was more because of his association with Saphira. Both dragons had been terrifying to watch. And Shruikan is reported to be the size of a small cathedral. Now there was a truly terrifying prospect.

She, unlike many, had tried to keep informed about how well the other two parts of the army were doing, so she hadn't been surprised when Godric and Saphira had left them to go help the others.

When the call from Jörmundur for a group to go help Ajihad came, she had managed to follow them. What she did would have had her court-martialed normally – leaving her post to join a mission without getting anybody's permission – but she wasn't supposed to even be in the battle in the first place, so this would be the least of her transgressions, and she doubted Ajihad would see her flogged in any event. She had been there when Godric – she almost sure it had been Godric – had shook the very earth with his roar and when both Eragon and Helena started yelling 'to me!'.

Those idiots, Nasuada had thought. With how loud they were being it was likely that both Hrothgar and Jörmundur's sergeants would at that moment be having trouble keeping their troops from abandoning their post to go rushing towards the dragons. Helena and Eragon were lucky that obedience to one's commanders was considered one of the most important virtues a Varden could have, else any semblance of order would have been lost in those armies that still had them. To their credit, it had rallied the scattered forces of Ajihad's battalion, so that stunt had at least accomplished what it set out to accomplish.

Once Nasuada had confirmed that her father was still alive and fighting, she had looked for an opportunity to return to Jörmundur's part of the battle. Mostly because the spot where her father had been fighting had fewer hills from which to fire her bow in relative safety, and that part of the battle had been going better for the Varden and so offered more safety in general. Again, it would have been something that others would have called her a coward for if they hadn't been so occupied with their own fights.

The next few hours were some of the most difficult and nerve wracking of her life. She had only ever practiced with the bow for an hour at a time, at most, and now she had to keep shooting for more than four hours, almost without pause. The bards, or at least the stupid ones, would have you believe that the bow was a weapon for those with more dexterity than strength. The truth was almost the opposite. Pulling a bowstring required significant arm strength if you want to shoot hard enough to penetrate armor. The vain part of Nasuada had always been annoyed at how her right arm was more muscular as a result of her training than her left. It was why she preferred long sleeves, even in summer. After four hours of shooting, even while taking regular breaks, her arms felt like lead. Thankfully she was able to use those 'breaks' to find new arrows once the two dozen quivers or so that she had prepared ran out. The field was littered with arrows from both sides so there were plenty to find. Those excursions did inevitably bring her closer to the Urgals than she had wanted, and she had needed to defend herself two times already. She also took the opportunity to stab any targets who were to occupied too notice her approach.

It was during one of those opportunities that she ran into Murtagh. He made for an intimidating sight, covered with blood as he was; Nasuada doubted much of it was his own. As usual, he started with a comment that you could take as both compliment and, or, an insult depending on how you looked at it. 'My, my, a little snake slithering all over the sand; striking those unfortunate enough overlook it. I didn't know the Varden recruited those shifty types. I am truly impressed.'

Nasuada was reasonably sure that Murtagh liked her more than he liked her father, which meant that she didn't need to hide her identity for once.

She had lifted her visor so he could see her face. Nasuada took some satisfaction in how Murtagh's eyes had widened. 'Shows how little you know about us,' she had greeted him with, doing her best to mimic his own wry expression. People tended to respond better to those who shared their sense of humor.

From that moment on, Murtagh had insisted on acting as her bodyguard. Nasuada objected once and only once for the sake of propriety. One was supposed to turn down a gift the first time. It was like an 'Oh! You shouldn't have!'. Murtagh naturally argued and Nasuada gave in immediately. In truth, she was very glad for the extra protection. With the dragons needing to split their attention between all three armies, the battle was significantly harder, at least for the Varden.

That encounter had happened two hours ago.

The dragons and their Riders had left for Tronjheim to do who knows what half an hour ago. Normally, Nasuada would have informants aplenty to keep her in the know, but since she wasn't even supposed to be here, she was as in the dark as any common footman. She had heard a sergeant yelling that they would return soon, but Nasuada couldn't be certain that wasn't simply moral boosting.

The men had been holding still, but this had always been the army that had done the best from the beginning, mostly due to having more 'dragon support time'. Nasuada worried about how Ajihad and Hrothgar were holding up.

The sound of crashing stone coming from Tronjheim about twenty-five minutes ago hadn't been reassuring either.

Then something strange happened.

All of Urgals seemed to seize up suddenly. Many of the Varden took advantage of the temporarily stunned state to kill their enemy, though the moment didn't last long. All of the Urgals seemed confused afterwards, though that too didn't last long and they soon started fighting again, as vicious as ever. Things were different though; before that moment, the Urgals seemed to work together more than they did now. Since she never saw any Urgals issuing commands, Nasuada had assumed that either this Durza was commanding them from afar, or some Urgal shaman was relaying orders telepathically. That this had stopped was a very good sign. it meant that whomever was commanding them had been killed or otherwise incapacitated.

That didn't mean that the Varden had won yet. The Urgals were still as dangerous and numerous as ever. Nasuada knew that Urgals tended to fight amongst themselves, but they would still make common cause with each other when faced with humans and dwarves. Perhaps the Urgals would turn on each other if they won and there were no other threats to face, but since that would mean that the Varden would be dead, that wasn't a comfort.

"Did you hear that?" Murtagh asked.

"The sound of people screaming and dying?" Nasuada said dryly.

"I am serious," Murtagh's gaze became distant. "Like footsteps, but heavier."

"The dragons?" Nasuada suggested, though she knew that was unlikely; they would be flying instead.

"I don't think so," Murtagh said, and now Nasuada could hear it too. The rhythm was definitely that of running footsteps, plural, but the sound itself was. . . rocky.

Then the sound that they had been waiting for came.

"Rrrrrrrrraaaaaaahhhhhh," came the sound of both Godric and Saphira roaring.

"Charge!" yelled the magically enhanced voice of Helena.

'Again, she issues orders without understanding the battle,' Nasuada thought, annoyed at the smaller but more powerful woman. You don't order a charge when melee has already begun and the enemy hasn't been broken yet.

And then two giant stone statues ran past them, slamming into the Urgal ranks like a sledgehammer on clay.

What. . .?

Godric and Saphira darted for her father's part of the army, no doubt causing all sorts of mayhem there, but Nasuada couldn't take her eyes off of the. . . yes those were definitely the stone statues that were supposed to be sitting in Hrothgar's throne room. Nasuada had seen them often enough to recognize them.

"That's new," Murtagh said nonplussed.

Nasuada could tell that the battle was over now. The Urgals. . . no they weren't breaking, but they were focusing on retreating. Nasuada didn't blame them.

'I need to find Orik,' Nasuada thought. She didn't know Orik well, but he was the only dwarf on this battlefield that she knew well enough other than Hrothgar. When dwarves tried to find an explanation for what happened here, it was crucial that it was: 'And so the kings of the past rose up to defend their city and aid the Riders in their hour of need' and not 'And so one of the Riders used their magic to force the statues of dwarven kings to do battle on their behalf.'

If Nasuada acted fast enough, she was sure she could spin this in positive light. Hrothgar would see the sense of spinning the story in a positive light as well, though perhaps he would leave the 'support the Riders in their hour of need' out of it. So she hoped.

When the cheering began, it really dawned on her that they had survived. Many were dead and wounded, but they had survived with more than half of their number still standing. Considering the odds they faced, that was an achievement, even with two Riders and dragons helping them. And they aren't even fully trained yet.

A small shiver went through Nasuada as she for a moment understood just why the dwarves were so wary of them. If our race is to have any autonomy after this war, it only because they allow us to have it.

It was only for a moment though. Even from just the small amount of interaction she had with them, she knew they weren't the kind of people to lord their power over others. 'If someone must have such power, let be them,' Nasuada thought to herself. 'And please do not let me be wrong about their character.'

Nasuada started running, looking for anybody that might point her in Orik's direction.

"Hey! Hold up, it isn't safe yet!" Murtagh yelled as he ran after her, but Nasuada wasn't listening, too caught up in her own thoughts.

Before now, they were a vain hope. We believed in them, because the alternative was too horrible to contemplate, but now it will be different. They are more than a promise now.

'Now, they are our heroes.'

---

Dwarvish:
qarzûl: cursed
Ilf gauhnith: it is safe

AN:
So this is the part were the first book of Inheritance Cycle ended. I am planning to post one or two more chapters (until the part where they leave for the elves) when they are finished before I go on a hiatus, partly to get a surplus of chapters. School will likely be about to begin again for me by then. I first went to university for two years, failed, then had a yearlong depression followed by two and a half year of trying to muster the will try something new again. In September I will start a chemistry coarse, and though the start of a school year is usually not that heavy in work load, I want to try and create some good habits early. Point is, I have no idea how all of that will effect my writing speed. Now enough about my personal life! That is so not what you are here for.

The more I think about it, the more I understand just why the concept of a 'magical core' is such a popular trope in HP fanfiction. Without it, shit starts getting OP fast. Meh, nothing for it now.

Yes, in canon, a word for magic exists in the Ancient Language, but wards just seem to easy that way and my explanation makes more sense to me.

That part about a Shade being immune to magic was first proposed to me by Synthesis, so credit to her for that. I had no idea how not to make a Shade completely indestructible by putting a kill switch on their own bodies. I also made it that a Shade gets more animalistic as they lose power – hence Durza's behavior towards the end. Having only one way to die permanently is just such a huge advantage that I felt such a nerf was in order. Also, I wanted a quiet moment so Arya could get the kill. Let's face it people, Durza was more her enemy than anyone else's.

I also might go back to my earlier chapters and fix them up a bit (and beg my Beta to help me do so). 'Now najex,' you might be wondering (though probably not), 'didn't you say in a AN a few chapters ago that you didn't like to change chapters after they had been posted?' Well, you are right, ofc, but you forget one thing. I am not a politician and so am allowed to change my mind as many times as it pleases me.