Rynn was too shaken to sleep. When the moons had risen and the starlight shone on the rippling water, she left her blankets in the Belltower and went outside. The cold night wind hit her immediately and she shivered as she belted Runeblade over her shoulder.
"The succubi are abroad tonight," a dragon's voice rumbled beside the gate, and Rynn jumped. It was Kang-shi. The female dragon's golden scales glittered silver in the moons' light and her emerald eyes regarded Rynn gravely. "I heard them flying."
"Arokh and I can handle a few succubi."
"So I've heard. Where are you going?"
"Alwarren." Rynn looked around for Arokh.
"He's up there," Kang-shi said, lifting her great head to look up at a mountain, "sleeping. I could take you, if you want."
"No offence but, after you threatened me the other day, I don't entirely trust you."
Kang-shi smiled, baring a good number of pointed teeth. "Entirely understandable. If I were you, I wouldn't trust me either." When Rynn stared at her, she continued, "You have an odd assortment of companions, Rynn. Arokh, last dragon of the Order of the Flame. Morghus and Ebontyne, who believed Navaros would free Drakan from the Order's 'enforced peace'. Star, who believed the same and now doesn't. Nashiva, who would have remained in the Order had Star not joined the Dark Union. Then you have Glaive and me."
Rynn let the silence draw out before asking, "And what of you two?"
Again the dragon smiled, and Rynn recognised a dangerous predator when she saw one. One without morals or fear. "We believed in ruling Drakan."
"'Believed'? So you don't any more?" Rynn was glad her voice was holding steady.
"My dear humanling," Kang-shi said, rising to her feet and craning her neck forward so that her eyes were level with Rynn's, "that would be telling." Then she backed up a few paces and leaped into the air. Rynn saw her shadow merge with the greater darkness of a mountain, and a moment later another shadow was descending towards her.
"Good evening," Arokh murmured, landing in front of her and stretching his wings. "Or is it morning? Kang-shi said you were looking for me."
"I don't trust her," Rynn muttered.
"Yes, she said that too," Arokh said and lowered one wing for Rynn to mount. When she was seated, he took to the skies and headed for Alwarren. "What do you want to know about her?"
"Do you trust her?"
"Trust is earned, Rynn, rarely given. No, I don't trust her yet. I don't fully trust the others either, though."
Remembering the look Ebontyne had given her after showing what the shadowshiv could do, Rynn had to agree. "I don't like it. I feel like I always have to be watching my back."
"I wouldn't worry about them at the moment. To me at least, they seem intent on defeating Navaros. We're allies for the time being, and they need our help." He fell silent as the sound of distant laughter reached their ears. "Succubi," he whispered. "Let's keep quiet until we reach Alwarren."
The dead city was as they had left it. The underground river burbled quietly as Arokh coasted over it, and the subterranean plants bathed the caves in a phosphorescent glow. The dragon landed near the entrance to the city and walked in, keeping a sharp lookout for any flame knights or goblins they might have missed on their last visit. A short time later, they reached a crest set into the floor in imitation of the symbol of the Order of the Flame. A Bonded named Tuirii had used or created this crest to cast the Great Spell of Protection.
"How does the spell work, Arokh?" Rynn asked. She dismounted and walked over to the crest, its magic dead since she'd broken the spell to reach the bellhammer.
Arokh let out a deep sigh and sank to his haunches. "Rynn, you must be an Archmage of no small power-"
"I'm working on that. How do you cast the spell?"
Seeing she wouldn't be swayed, he bowed his head slightly. "First you must draw the symbol of the Order where you intend to do the casting. The closer it is to where you want the barrier, the less difficult it will be to complete the spell.
"Second, you must stand in the middle of the crest and summon the powers of all four elemental magicks, all four Cycles at the same time, and hold that force within you while speaking the spell's incantation."
Arokh closed his eyes and spoke slowly, as though reciting words long ago bound to memory. "'This spell of my casting, I cast for the hope of the future.
"'This power I summon is in the face of true danger,
"'A decision founded on my own integrity,
"'Until justice can be done and the spell broken.
"'I vow that I have the courage to face death,
"'And that I honour life.
"'In me, my words and my strength, my companions trust.'"
The cavern echoed with his words and Rynn repeated them in her mind, trying to memorise them.
"If you speak that incantation truthfully and do not doubt, the prisms will form in the crest and you must then summon the powers of the Rift to create the barrier," Arokh said. "As far as I know, you need only reach out with your mind and place the barrier, shaping and sizing it as you would a lump of clay. When you are done, say:
"'By Fire, Water, Air, Earth and Ether, I put this place under my protection.'
"As soon as the prisms are removed from the crest, the barrier will form and nothing will be able to pass through it."
"That's it?" Rynn asked. "I thought it was more dangerous than that."
"Ah," said Arokh, eyes opening and glinting at her. "Now we go into consequences. If your concentration wavers and you lose control of the elemental magicks you've summoned, they will sweep out around you, uncontrollable, and destroy anything they touch. Just look at Alwarren."
"Tuirii levelled the entire city?" Rynn asked, aghast. "I thought she completed the spell!"
"Oh, she did. She just had some trouble doing it. In trying to protect this place, she virtually razed it to the ground, buried it beneath the earth..." He shook his head. "You get the picture?"
Rynn found herself swallowing hard. "What else can go wrong?"
"That's it, but it's enough. Everything else that happens to you is meant to happen. When the Great Spell of Protection is complete and the barrier in place, you will feel what hits that field as though it has hit you. And so will I."
"Would Tuirii have felt pain... as a soul shadow?"
"I don't know." Arokh stopped talking and looked at his Bonded, evidently waiting to see if she still wanted to cast the spell.
Rynn, not entirely sure herself, decided not to enlighten him either way. "Let's get back to the Belltower." She mounted, and Arokh flew her up to the cave entrance that led back out into the fresh air of the islands. "Thanks... for telling me about the spell."
"You're welcome."
Arokh spread his wings and soared into the open skies once more, the light of the moons casting the dragon's fleet shadow over the waters.