Mellary knew her shields were good. They were ethereal, beautiful and deceptively fragile creations that had stopped more than one opponent cold. Layered and intricate, the wards were almost indestructible. No one had ever broken through.

Raelia had breezed through as if her wards hadn't existed.

No, she realized when she checked her wards. They were still there, shimmering with their own light, whole and untouched. The elf witch had bypassed them.

Impossible.

"How?" she asked.

"How?" Raelia repeated archly. Her lips curved in a small, mocking smile. "How do I know your name, or how did I stop you despite those wonderful shields of yours? How did I know that you were a Rider? How were you aware of my name? So many questions, Meladania."

Am I in your head? The elf's lips didn't move, but Mellary heard the words ringing clearly through her mind. You think you have control over your own thoughts, but do you really? Unbidden, her legs straightened and she rose to her feet. How can you be sure, when I have the power to reach into your mind, when I can change anything I want? The room spun as her fingers drew her dagger from her waist.

No! Mellary shrieked in her mind. Her hand trembled as she fought the command, the compulsion that had her slowly raising her wrist to the blade of her dagger. She stared at the silvery steel, her muscles locking with effort. The chill in the air bit into her exposed skin and coated the blade with a layer of frost.

Mellary! Emerald fire raced down their bond and exploded into her mind. It chased out the shadows that had been clouding her thoughts and blazed across the surfaces of her shields, making them shine.

Her nerveless fingers unclenched and the knife clattered to the icy floor. Mellary leapt back, drawing her sword as she did.

Is another weapon… is that wise? Embrald asked.

It is better than being unprepared, Mellary responded.

Those black eyes narrowed on her face, ignoring the weapon in her hand. Mellary flexed her ungloved fingers, feeling the cold in the air settling into her joints. The feel of her sword in her hand centered her chaotic mind, just enough for a piece of fall into place.

'Names have power, and I have power over names', the elf had said.

"The stones….crystals… give the power of control through naming," she said slowly. "That was how you stopped me. That was how I knew your name."

"Clever, much more clever than most who make it all the way out here," Raelia said sounding gleeful. "You are partly correct. The magic concerns knowing, not simply naming."

What does she mean?

The magic lets her know things she normally wouldn't be able to. For example, someone's true name.

"You cannot receive many visitors up here," Mellary commented, trying to sound offhand.

"No," Raelia agreed. "Although, when he found me, that began to change. I was languishing before." She pressed the back of her hand to her forehead, drooping into a dramatic pose.

What do you know, an actress.

Humor is inappropriate, Embrald told her primly.

Humor is always appropriate… wait.

"He?" she asked.

"The ursuper. The butcher. The bloody king, whatever you call him in the unforsaken living world."

"Not… Galbatorix?" she asked, dread settling in her stomach.

"That was his common name," Raelia mused. "He was not particularly polite, but he respected my power. And I respected his mission." Her grin was feral.

"He wanted to destroy the Riders," Mellary said quietly. "And he had the power to do it."

"It's not about power, young one. He could not match the power I wield if he lives a thousand years. It is about opportunity. Focus. To hold this level of power, I had to remain at the wellspring. And I will admit that I became a little… distracted, once I finally found it." The elf giggled. Her eyes were swirling with stars.

"You knew this was here?" Mellary asked, gesturing to the crystals with the tip of her sword."

"Of course. I would not risk my life crossing some barren wasteland if I did not think that there was a goal at the end." A fierce anger bordering on rage clouded the elf's face. Mellary found herself taking a step back. "Even then, I would not throw my life away." The anger vanished as if it had never existed, and the stars reappeared in her eyes. The swirling galaxies were drawing her in, slowly and relentlessly.

"Then?" Mellary found herself asking.

"I lost everything during the war," Raelia said, almost to herself.

Stars were glimmering in Mellary's mind, despite her reinforced shields. She had checked them for fissures, found them whole, and still these little bits of impossible knowledge floated through her head.

"You fought in the Dragon Wars," she said, almost absently as she tried to put the pieces together.

That's impossible. No one is that old.

With this amount of magic, anything it possible, Embrald reminded her.

Mist was drugging her mind again, making it difficult to think. "You lost someone?"

"We lost many good elves during those wars," Raelia snarled. Mellary's mind struggled sluggishly to process the sudden flash of emotion. The stars in the elf's eyes were holding her captive. "Then that idiot finds a dragon egg and suddenly, we have peace? Suddenly, we have to forget everything they did? Those beasts razed entire cities to the ground, burned man, woman, and child. And because of one wretched hatchling and a magical bond, I'm supposed to forgive the murders of my family, my betrothed. I think not." At the last words the stars flared, and power snapped like a whip. In her mind Embrald screamed, and in the distance she heard the bellowing echo. Mellary gripped her sword with one hand to keep from dropping it as she clutched her head with the other.

"Get out," she snarled. Green and white fire slammed outward, rebuffing the elf. Raelia hissed in pain, dashing away a trickle of blood that leaked out of the corner of her mouth.

The sudden strike had snapped Mellary out of the spell that Raelia had been weaving around her. She glared at the elf without meeting her eyes, unwilling to get caught again.

"You were angry, so you came looking for….. something. How did you know that this would be here?" she asked, trying to take Raelia's mind off of her dragon before the elf struck again. She poured more power into her shields, trying desperately to keep the elf out. Raelia had reached back along her connection to Embrald to strike at the green dragon; if she could just keep her out, then Embrald would be safe. Hopefully.

"As you well know, the libraries of the elves are extensive."

"I've spent a lot of time there, and I never came across any references to this," Mellary protested, gesturing to the floating crystals with the tip of her sword.

"You must know where to look. But much has been lost over time, and much has been deemed… subversive." Raelia shrugged. "It matters little. I needed a weapon, a power to defeat the creatures, and I believed this would serve." She held out her hands, palms facing each other. A shimmering ball, the deep royal blue of the ice that arced over their heads, formed in her hands. A moment later, it vanished.

She could have succeeded, Mellary said quietly. With this much power, she could have wiped out the dragons if it wasn't locked here.

"Galbatorix found you," she said. "And you saw the opportunity. In him, to do what you couldn't."

Raelia bared her teeth in a vicious smile. "He was so eager to learn, so full of rage. So very pliable."

She could have told him anything, Mellary realized. The magic from the crystals is about knowing. She could have taught him all sorts of black magic….that's how he does it. That's how he can control so many people at once, enslave the Urgals. How he finds Names. She told him how.

There are things that are not meant to be known, Embrald said grimly. Not even by the dragons. Some things are sacrosanct.

Power and rage have a tendency to make people heedless of the consequences.

"Does he have wise things to say, your dragon?" Raelia asked snidely. She tipped her head to the side and studied Mellary with her star-studded eyes. "That miserable lizard aside, you and I are not that dissimilar."

"I don't follow."

"Knowledgeable. Powerful in our own right. Distant. You and I, we are meant to be alone. It is the only thing we know how to do."

Mellary's fingers tightened on the handle of her sword until her knuckles were white. "Did the stars tell you that?"

Raelia's look was pitying. "They did not have to. It is in every movement you make, the scars that mark your face, the distrust in your eyes."

Mellary snorted. "I don't trust you. What way do I move?"

"You move as if you know no one is coming to help you."

The words were said quietly, but they took her breath away. "It saved my life more than once," Mellary muttered. "And I'm not alone anymore." Affection rolled down the bond at her words, her conviction, and spread a gentle warmth through her. She had been alone for so long, she hadn't realized how much it had deadened her inside.

She couldn't go back to being that cold again. Mellary had long ago known that she would always live a solitary existence, but Embrald had proved her wrong, had shown her that she didn't have to be alone.

No, she would never survive going back.

"Ah yes, your beast." Raelia tapped her chin with a nail, looking thoughtful. "You would make a good pet for the bloody king, as strong and skilled as you are." She made moved closer without Mellary noticing, close enough that she could see the blacks of her eyes expand outward across her pupils. The magic that moved in lazy currents throughout the chamber surged with predatory intent. Stars bloomed in tiny bursts across the velvet darkness. "But I see no need for yet another Rider." She hissed the last word. "After all, you are perfectly useful without him."

Every internal warning Mellary possessed wailed in alarm. She spiked power into her shields, as much as she dared without weakening herself. Mellary lunged forward, sword striking out at the elf who had moved so close.

Raelia flicked her fingers. "Stop, Meladania!"

Mellary froze in mid-motion, perilously extended and vulnerable. Pain spiked through her head as a terrible force assaulted her shields.

"Clever, to mix your magic such that I could not break through," Raelia said. "However, I'm afraid it's not going to help this time." She threw her head back, her voice rolling through the lofted room, every syllable vibrating with magic. "Embrald of the winged kin, holder of the ancient blood, hear your Name and obey my command!" She spoke then, something that sounded like a crack of thunder and the scream of storm winds.

The green fire in her shields vanished as her bond to her dragon went flat. Mellary's breath caught in her throat.

Raelia spoke a single, terrible word. "Fall."

"NO!" Mellary didn't know if her instinctive protest was verbal or mental, and she didn't care. In that special, guarded part of her mind where her connection to Embrald was anchored, she felt his wings fold, felt gravity take hold and begin to pull.

She didn't stop to think. Leaving her body behind, Mellary shoved down their bond. They had shared minds before, during the Dagshelgr. If she could lend Embrald enough of her mind, enough of her soul, they might be able to throw off the elf's control. All she needed was a split second….

Power surged wildly as they struggled against the velvet chains of Raelia's control. Her vision spun sickeningly as Embrald tumbled from the sky, wings trailing uselessly behind him. A dark chasm in the ice sheet yawned below, as if ready to swallow him whole.

Come on… Mellary whispered desperately, willing his wings to open.

Mellary, you cannot, Embrald snapped. It is too dangerous.

Shut up, she hissed desperately, her mind moving farther from her body, becoming entrenched in his.

Their wings trembled as the mouth of the chasm closed around them, starting to slide outward, to catch the wind. The muscles at the base strained hard against the force of the fall.

Even as she tried, she knew it was too little, too late. The bottom of the chasm was roaring rive of icemelt, studded with upturned spikes too close together to avoid. It was rushing up far too quickly.

I won't let you die too, Embrald said, almost gently. Remember, I love you. Green fire hit her hand, slamming her out of his mind.

Mellary screamed as a massive force rent down her spine as pain exploded across her back and spiked deep into her skull. A cold deeper than anything she had ever felt engulfed her. The bright emerald fire that she had come to treasure was snuffed out in a single instant, leaving only a heart rending, soul searing, vicious and eternal darkness.