Canyon
When they felt ready, Arokh flew up to the top of the canopy and looked around for the three-headed monster, but there was no sign of it. With Rynn on his back, he shot past the treeline and up into the sky, twisting aside as lightning once again shot at him. He flew a couple of ragged circles as Rynn scanned the forest for Morghus and Ebontyne.
"I can see the place where you froze the trees," Rynn shouted to him, holding tight as he tilted to one side. "But there's no one there."
"Maybe we should take a closer look?"
They did, but Rynn was right. No one was there. The trees bordering the frozen clearing weren't holding any vine-wrapped bundles either, so it could only be assumed that Morghus and Ebontyne had escaped.
Rynn and Arokh ascended again and resumed the journey west. They'd crossed the border and were flying above the skeleton forest when a black shape took off from the ground a short distance north.
"It's them," Arokh said, stopping to fly in one place. "What happened?" he roared to the approaching pair.
"When we regained consciousness," Morghus replied, still gaining height, "there was no sign of either of you. We didn't burn the forest for fear of frying either of you, so we crossed the border and waited here." He hovered next to his brother. "I take it you got away unharmed."
"Barely," Arokh told him. "Lead on to Gholek's and we'll tell you what happened."
* * *
The flight took them to a mountainous area with scanty vegetation. It was all very bare and rocky, but Rynn wasn't observing the scenery. After Ebontyne had learned of her successful fire spell, the War Mage had offered to teach her some more magic. "After all," she said, "the more you know, the more chance we'll have of destroying Navaros."
So from dragonback, the tutelage had begun. They had focussed on fire at first. Rynn learned that this was the easiest element to summon so long as emotions were running high. For this reason, though, the resultant flames could often be hard to control and unpredictable in their intensity. Ebontyne thought the magical fire might have some relation to the emotions fuelling it. Pretty soon, Rynn was excitedly throwing small fireballs into the sky. Arokh wryly asked Ebontyne if he'd become obsolete when she was finished with her.
The second element they tried was water, which was usually just as easy as fire for the reason that human bodies contained so much of it. Ebontyne demonstrated by creating a large globe of water between her outspread hands, then tossing it aside. Rynn watched it fall like an oversized drop of water to make a tremendous splash across a cliff.
"Just remember to draw the water out of the air, not yourself or Arokh, or me or Morghus," Ebontyne warned her. "You don't want to dry any of us up, nor kill yourself. Don't think that water magic isn't without its dangers just because it can't incinerate you."
"Do you ever use water magic to fight things?" Rynn asked, frowning as she tried to duplicate Ebontyne's spell.
"Sometimes. Ice spells are most useful against monsters born of fire, like hellhounds or efreetis. But knowledge of water is crucial for healing spells."
"Like making potions?"
"No, that's entirely different. To heal someone, all you need is your own strength. If you have power over water you have power over blood. If you can control air, you can make someone breathe. If you know how earth works, you can mend bones. A combination of all three of these magics can make one a potent healer."
"But not fire?" Rynn beamed as a water globe blossomed between her hands, then threw it overboard.
Ebontyne nodded her appreciation of the spell, and said, "No, fire has never been used in actual healing. It can be useful to cauterise wounds, but skilled healers have no need of that. Their magic can close the wound and heal it just as fast."
"Are there only the four elements? When I was in Rimril's Belltower, I got the impression there was one more."
"One more, reserved for those who have mastered the other four. They were still trying to figure out a name for it when I was in the Order," she added with a faint smile. "Rift, void, ether, spirit..." she shrugged. "You get what I mean."
"So which elements are you able to control?" Rynn asked curiously.
"And which can I teach you?" Ebontyne raised a brow, but her smile was a little more genuine. "Fire, water and earth comprise a War Mage."
"Navaros is a War Mage, isn't he?"
"As categorised by the Order of the Flame. I think he's gone somewhat beyond that, however. There's no name for what he is now."
A canyon opened beneath them and the dragons paused above it.
"See them?" Morghus asked.
"I do," Arokh said. "You take the left and we'll handle the right?"
"Sounds good."
They flew down and veered off to either side of the canyon, fire pouring from their jaws. Rynn saw a wartok ballista explode and debris went everywhere. Arokh evaded a flying spar and a volley of ballast before attacking another war engine. Its wartok crew went running and the red dragon flew in, tore the ballista from its foundations and threw it after them.
"Ooh, wait, there's a cave," Rynn shouted, hitting Arokh's massive shoulder. "Drop me off. I want to look around."
"I'll come back when the other ballistae are destroyed," Arokh said, and dropped down level with a projecting ledge. "Watch out for those wartoks."
Rynn stood carefully and jumped to the ledge. "I will." She drew Runeblade and made her way past the wreckage of the last ballista as Arokh flew off again. The cave was an unnatural opening, she noticed. Wooden beams supported it, and she could see a lantern burning inside. She snuck inside, glancing around. A wartok was limping down the single passage, its back to her. She stole after it, quickly and quietly, then dispatched it from behind. Taking a red potion of healing from its belt, she crept further down the passage and reached a medium-sized cave.
Three orcs and lots of crates and barrels. A storage cave, she decided. Most of the ballistae would have one of these, probably. She hoped she'd find something useful in here besides ballast and wartok rations.
Rynn jumped into the room and spun, Runeblade cutting a silver circle in the air. Two of the orcs fell instantly with loud cries, the third scrabbled backwards and seized a spear. The creature thrust it at her and she swung her sword down onto the shaft. The spear broke in half, and its owner, grunting angrily, charged at Rynn with its fists.
Rynn killed it, absently wondering how stupid an orc could actually be. Then she had a search through the barrels. There was a great deal of stuff that was useless to her, but one crate yielded some longbows and yet another several quivers of varying types of arrows. Smiling triumphantly, Rynn shouldered two of the bows and stripped the rest of their strings, which she put in a pouch and attached to her belt. She went through the quivers and put as many arrows as she could into two of them, which she picked up and carried out of the cave.
The others were waiting outside. "All done?" Rynn asked.
"Gholek's cave is at the end of the canyon and the way is clear," Morghus said.
"What did you find?" Ebontyne asked.
"Supplies." Rynn grinned and handed her one of the bows and quivers before jumping astride Arokh. "They might come in useful. Now I can actually do something when we're fighting a flying enemy."
"That was the idea of learning magic," Ebontyne reminded her.
"Well, I might be too tired to use magic."
Ebontyne sighed.
"Let's go," Rynn said, and they flew deeper into the canyon. Down the bottom and at the furthest end was a yawning cave with stalactites lining its top lip. A good deal of green smoke was hissing from the opening, and it sent both humans and dragons into a fit of coughing.
"Gas," Arokh muttered. "Maybe we should just try calling her and see if she'll come out." When the others nodded he took a deep breath of fresh air then roared into the cave, "Gholek!"