"Finally." smiled Murtagh and Leonor saw that strange shine in his eyes.
"Oh, no. Now it's getting dangerous." thought Leonor and felt Diamond's presence in her mind.
"What are we going to do now?" asked Diamond nervously.
"Just wait until Saphira comes closer. Then you and Thorn will have to capture her." said Leonor.
"But how will we capture her?" asked Diamond, confused.
"Like we trained once. Don't you remember?" asked Leonor surprised.
"Umm, not really." said Diamond, feeling bad about it.
"Diamond! How could you forget?" asked Leonor and got in mental connection with Thorn "Thorn, do you remember how we trained to capture Saphira?"
"Not really." said Thorn and started to laugh "But you were wearing that cute black top that day."
"Thorn! The war will start! We don't have time for fun and especially not for mistakes! Then you will just have to bring Saphira close to Murtagh and me and we will be able to get her with magic. And remember this. If we, for some reason, don't catch Saphira or let her go, then you two will have to keep her busy and away from Eragon!" said Leonor.
"No problem!" smiled Thorn.
"Thorn, Diamond! This is serious. It's not a game. And you will have to protect yourself. It probably won't be only Saphira who will attack you. Just try to avoid Eragon and magicians." said Leonor.
The army was approaching really fast and not much time passed by when the battle started. From the place where they were standing, Leonor and Murtagh were able to see everything that was going on. The scene wasn't really nice thing to see; every few moments someone fell on the ground, dead. There was blood everywhere, screams of the soldiers and light of the fire. Murtagh realized that the army of the Empire won't last long. The Varden didn't have so many soldiers but they were winning because they were fighting with all energy they had. Their desire to win was helping them, while the army of the Empire was lost in not knowing for what they are actually fighting. Most of them wanted to run away. Murtagh went to the battlefield and killed many soldiers of the Varden, some with magic and some with Zar'roc. Leonor couldn't watch that and she just went to a safe place under the mountain. She concentrated and discovered the magicians of the Varden and killed them with magic. Then she saw Diamond and Thorn in the air, fighting with Saphira. The fire was everywhere and Leonor was shocked when she saw how fire almost got Diamond.
"I need to find Eragon." said Leonor to herself and went to the battlefield. She killed few soldiers on her way, but she couldn't see Eragon.
"Do you see Eragon?" asked Leonor when she got the mental connection with Murtagh.
"I don't know. I still haven't seen him. Call Galbatorix!" said Murtagh.
"Already?" asked Leonor surprised.
"Yes! He will need time to come and we will be ready for him by then." he said while killing one of the soldiers. Leonor didn't say anything. She just concentrated and sent message with her mind to Galbatorix. Then she saw Arya climbing on the mountain. Some soldiers were following her and the soldiers of the Empire were waiting for them. Leonor decided to go after her, but there were too many soldiers in her way. She had to fight her way through. Suddenly almost all soldiers of the Empire dropped dead in front of her. And the soldiers of the Varden went to attack her.
"Eragon probably did this." thought Leonor, shocked and ran to another side to avoid them.
The dragons were still fighting in the air. Thorn and Diamond almost caught Saphira but she moved away in the last moment and they almost crashed at each other. Then Thorn somehow managed to bit Saphira's leg and she hit Diamond in the head with her tail.
"Don't fight me! Help me and Eragon!" said Saphira, breathing fast.
"Why don't you go to the ground and wait with us that this stops?" asked Thorn.
"Why would I do that? Diamond, you understand me! Please, help Eragon! Leonor would want that!" said Saphira, avoiding quickly Thorn's attack.
"Saphira, it's you and Eragon who have to understand what we are planning to do!" said Diamond, realizing that his left leg is bleeding.
"You are following orders of the crazy man!" said Saphira angrily and sent fire on Diamond. He managed to avoid it and Thorn somehow burnt Saphira's leg. The dragons kept fighting.
Suddenly Leonor saw Eragon standing and fighting at the left end of the battlefield. She immediately contacted Murtagh and went to find a way to get to Arya without passing through the middle of the battle. Murtagh finally found Eragon. He killed the soldier who was standing next to Eragon with magic. Eragon looked at him angrily and showed him a place near where they could fight, without others around. When they got there, Murtagh pointed his sword at Eragon. In that moment Eragon raised his sword and whispered something in ancient language. Murtagh looked at him and started to laugh, breaking the spell easily with just one word. Now Murtagh whispered something but Eragon was ready and nothing happened. Eragon could see surprised look on Murtagh's face. They stared to fight with their swords, trying to break into each other's mind. But since they were equally strong, they couldn't concentrate on using stronger spells.
Leonor found another way to come to the place on the mountain where Arya and the soldiers were. She slowly came behind their back and killed them with magic. Arya didn't even notice that those who followed her were dead. She was looking in front of her, ready to fight the soldiers of the Empire. Suddenly they dropped dead on the ground. While Arya looked surprised at soldiers, realizing that someone took their energy, Leonor whispered a spell behind her back and it pushed Arya over the edge of the cliff. A smile appeared on Leonor's face.
In that moment, Eragon looked up and saw what was going on.
"Arya! No!" he screamed and ran to the place on the mountain while Murtagh was killing the soldier who came behind his back. Then Murtagh followed Eragon. Soon they came high on the mountain and Eragon saw Leonor. He looked shocked at her.
"You…" Eragon wanted to say but then he realized that Murtagh is standing behind his back. He moved fast and pointed his sword at Murtagh.
"It doesn't have to be like this." said Murtagh while he was fighting with Eragon.
"It's true. Let me defeat you!" said Eragon, blocking Murtagh's attack.
"Leonor! Use your magic on the army!" Murtagh yelled to Leonor and she did what he said.
"Why are you doing this? Innocent people will die!" said Eragon, attacking Murtagh.
"Yes, if you don't accept our plan." said Murtagh and avoided the attack.
"What plan?" asked Eragon angrily.
"That you join us and together we defeat the Varden." said Murtagh and cut a small part of Eragon's shirt.
"No! I won't help you and Galbatorix." said Eragon angrily and attacked again.
"Who said anything about Galbatorix?" smiled Murtagh and easily moved away, avoiding Eragon's sword.
"I don't care what it is! I'm not making a deal with you!" said Eragon and managed to cut Murtagh's right arm. Leonor looked at them surprised and wanted to help to Murtagh.
"Leonor! Concentrate on the army and magicians!" yelled Murtagh to Leonor and she looked down at the army. The situation didn't look good for the Empire. Leonor looked again at Murtagh, little bit worried, but then she concentrated on the rest of the magicians. They were actually very strong.
"It's better that you accept. Or I will have to hurt you really bad." said Murtagh. Eragon and Murtagh were breathing fast and their efforts to get into each other's mind were useless.
"No! You will be the one who will get hurt!" said Eragon angrily and he attacked Murtagh once again and again. They were fighting for a few minutes. Suddenly Murtagh looked confused and found it difficult to stop Eragon's attacks. Leonor stopped using her magic, because she was already too tired. She just took energy from one soldier, enough to recover. Then she looked at Murtagh.
"No!" she screamed when Murtagh fell down on the ground and Zar'roc fell in front of Eragon who picked it up and threw his old sword. Leonor took her sword and ran to Eragon. She started to fight with Eragon. Murtagh was still on the ground, trying to get up. Leonor attacked Eragon few times, but he blocked it all. He attacked her and she somehow moved away from him. Eragon looked angrily at her and started to attack her really fast. Suddenly he looked at her shocked. She looked at him surprised. The pain passed through her body. The only thing she could see was blood. Murtagh got up and pushed Eragon, who was still standing there shocked, away with magic. Leonor fell down on the ground. Murtagh looked at her shocked. He took her in his arms and pulled out Zar'roc from Leonor's chest.
"No! Leonor!" he said, ready to heal her.
"Don't!" she said, her body was shaking "Don't. The wound is too big. You need energy…"
"Leonor! You can't die!" he said and held her closer to him.
"I want…to say…" she tried to catch her breath; tears were going down her face "I…love…you."
"Leonor? No, you won't die!" said Murtagh desperately "I…I love you too, Leonor. And I will save you!"
He placed his hand over her wound and yelled healing words. The blood stopped running, but Leonor's condition didn't get better. Eragon was just standing there, still in shock. Suddenly Saphira appeared and before she went to fight with Thorn and Diamond, she dropped someone. Eragon couldn't hide his surprise. It was Arya. She was alive.
"You are fine!" yelled Eragon happily.
"Saphira saved me!" smiled Arya and then saw Murtagh and Leonor. She looked at them, worried.
"Can we save her?" asked Eragon.
"I'm afraid we can't." said Arya when she saw Leonor "This wound is too big. Someone would need a lot of energy to do it."
Suddenly Eragon, Arya and Murtagh were pushed away with magic. They couldn't see much. Just the darkness.