Tas landed on his hands and knees on the ground. He climbed to his feet and looked around, thinking for a moment that the spell hadn't worked, everything was exactly the same.
"Come through the door!"
Tas turned at the sound of a man's voice and found himself standing behind a man with black hair and black wings…wings? What kind of a man had wings? Tas shook himself, remembering he had a job to do. He spotted Savina sitting on a rock, her head in her hands.
The black-winged man was apparently annoyed, with his hands on his hips and his dark eyes narrowed. He glared down at Savina, "you can't get back through the door, if I could open it for you, I would, but you're dead and you need to accept that, like the billions who have died before you."
Savina didn't raise her head, she stared grimly at the floor with a stubborn look on her face, "I'm not going through that door, the only door I'll be going through is the door back to my friends."
The Darkangel's eyes narrowed, "how do propose we open that door?"
Tas stepped foreword, "don't worry about it, some wizard showed up and opened it," he looked at Savina, "come on Savina!"
Savina stared at Tas in complete shock, then jumped up and stared at the stone door behind Tas, "that…that door goes back…?"
Tas nodded and held out his hand, "come on, the wizard can't keep it open for long…" he trailed off as the winged man's thin face contorted in a look of anger.
Than grabbed Tas by the elbow and shook him, "she's dead, you filthy little beast, you can't take her back!" He raised his fist to strike the Kender dead, but looked down in surprise to find the Kender gone. He blinked in confusion, thinking vaguely about filthy little Kender always slipping their slimy ways out of everything, then lunged at Savina and wrapped one surprisingly strong arm around her waist, "you're coming with me," he grunted and started to drag her toward the door that led to death. At a muttered command, the door flung open and Than pushed Savina toward it as hard as he could.
Savina stumbled, falling as if in slow motion, and teetered in front of the door like a tightrope walker. Then she caught herself on the sides of the door, turned around, and pushed herself away from the door, kicking Than in the groin at the same moment he fell unconscious to the ground. She stared down at him for a moment, then noticed the Kender standing over him with a rock in his tiny hands.
Tas tossed the rock away and grabbed her by the sleeve, "hurry! The door-"
Savina glanced up and noticed that the door Tas had come through was becoming translucent and seemed to be flickering in and out of existence. She followed Tas to the door and flung it open.
Tas stepped back to let her pass through first, an act that inadvertently saved her and doomed himself.
Savina was halfway through the door when she heard a cry and turned to see that Than was back on his feet, his eyes glowing an unnatural red and his white hand closed around Tas' brown ponytail. Tas was struggling, but the grip of the Darkangel was like iron, and not even the nimble little Kender could get away.
Tas' eyes, usually wide and innocent, where narrowed and unnervingly wise, he looked straight into Savina's eyes and yelled in a clear voice, "get through the door before it closes!"
Savina couldn't leave her friend, she turned back and leaped back through the door, but it closed in front of her and she landed on her hands and knees in the dust. Blinded by tears of sorrow and guilt, she was distantly aware of a wizard in a white robe collapsing to the ground near her. She heard Aragorn's calm voice and Gimli's booming one, and she glimpsed, for an instant, the fair face of Legolas before the darkness overtook her.