“Krekk!” The white stone fell to the ground and skidded across the slick blanket of fallen leaves, down an incline. The Eld soldier loosed a stream of colorful swearing and shook his smashed thumb.

“Son of a pole-shriveling bone-hag. Miserable cherviljaffing, krekk-gobbling rultshart.” The corporal stuck his thumb in his mouth and sucked on it as he stomped after the fallen stone, which had come to rest near a small rocky outcropping. “I’ll bet they’ve already found him. I’ll bet they’re roasting his Hells-flamed Fey changeling ass over Mage Fire right this very moment, and I’m missing out on the lot of it.” He snatched up the fallen stone.

He stopped short, his gaze freezing on the shadowed outline of two pairs of booted feet visible within a translucent gray veil of stone. “What the… ?” He squinted and stepped closer. The boots were connected to legs and whole bodies. It looked as if two people had been entombed in the stone.

Understanding, unfortunately late, bloomed in the young man’s brain as he looked up, straight through the weak Spirit weave into Rain Tairen Soul’s glowing eyes.

The chemar dropped from the corporal’s nerveless fingers.

“Krekk.”

CHAPTER TEN

Eld ~ North of the Heras

Rain’s Fey’cha flew true, burying hilt-deep in the Elden soldier’s throat. Tairen venom did its job. The young man’s eyes rolled back instantly, and he dropped to the ground.

A shout rang out from the squad farther up the road.

“Come on!” Rain grabbed Ellysetta’s hand, launched out of their hiding place, and headed due south. The time for backtracking to a safer crossing was over. They needed to get to the river—and fast.

He sent a blast of Fire up the road and whispered his return word to retrieve his red Fey’cha from the fallen soldier’s throat. As they sprinted across the dirt road, Earth rumbled to Ellysetta’s command, shifting beneath the feet of the squad of soldiers. A chorus of screams rose as trees toppled down on top of them, and another gout of flame lit a deadly bonfire.

One of the white stones on the trees began to glow as Rain and Ellysetta ran past, and a glowing rune appeared in its center, as if written in fire.

“What is that?” Ellysetta pointed at the glowing stone.

“I don’t know, but it can’t be good. Run faster, shei’tani.”

She put on a burst of speed, then faltered as a wave of ice washed up her spine, and her knees went weak. “Rain… My legs…” Her legs abruptly folded, and she went sprawling into the bracken. Rain circled back and snatched her up off the ground, but her trembling legs would not hold her weight. She collapsed against him, clinging to him to hold herself upright. “I’m sorry.”

“Las. There is nothing for which you should be sorry.” He scooped her up against his chest and continued to run. Behind them, the screams of the burning soldiers died out, leaving only the crackling of Rain’s Fire.

Ellysetta’s trembling increased until her entire body shivered uncontrollably with the familiar sensation of ice spiders crawling up her spine. Her temples ached, and there was a strange pressure at the backs of her eyes, not unlike the burn of unshed tears. She stared over Rain’s shoulder as he ran, and watched in horror as a black spot began to widen in the place where the glowing chemar stone had been.

“Rain! It’s the Well! The Well of Souls is opening!” Her fingers clawed into his shoulders as a sudden, powerful blast of cold, gagging sweetness swept over her. Robed Mages rushed out of the Well, globes of deadly blue-white fire whirling in their hands.

“Run!” she cried. She flung a series of five-fold weaves behind her, but the sel’dor weakened her threads, and the Mages easily batted them aside.

Rain clutched her to his chest and raced across the rolling hills of Eld. The exertion opened his barely healed wounds, and drops of bright scarlet marked a trail that would be all too easy to follow. Of course, with Mages at their back, leaving a visible trail was the least of their worries.

Ellysetta didn’t think the situation could get worse, then two—no, make that three—new portals opened. She saw one of the white stones with the fiery rune glow bright, just before a fifth portal opened where the stone had been. “It’s the stones! They’re using those stones to open the portals.”

The Eld were gaining on them. Carrying her as an extra burden slowed Rain down too much. She squirmed in his arms. The tingling, ice-spider feeling was still strong, but the initial rush of weakness had faded. “Put me down. We have no chance of outrunning them if you keep carrying me.”

He set her on her feet without breaking stride, and she landed running.

«If we can make it to the river, we might have a chance at escape.» The Heras was fed by the powerful faerilas Source at Crystal Lake, and its waters worked like acid on Mage flesh. Even with their magic tightly leashed, Mages avoided wetting so much as their smallest toe in the fierce waters of the Heras. «The river won’t stop the Mages completely, but at least it might slow them down.»

They raced through the trees, leaping over small rocks and fallen tree trunks. As he approached a final, small ridge, Ellysetta could smell the brisk, clean waters of the Heras and hear the rushing burble of its swift current.

Almost there. Five more tairen lengths, and they would be over that last ridge and speeding down its slope to the protection of the river and away from those gods-scorched chemar stones that were spitting out Mages by the dozens.