He didn't care how many people she had carried. After riding on Kimpo and Deebee, Ban felt like he and his armor were about to drag Saveen out of the sky. In complete disregard of his expectations, Saveen carried him towards the summit of Mount Vorti.

    "It's not too late to turn back," Ban said.

    "No. I want to help Kimpo."

    "If Almo really is your father..."

    "That's not important," Saveen interrupted. Her head drooped a little as she sighed. "Well, it is, but I don't want to think about that right now."

    "Your choice," Ban said. "I understand, though."

    She glanced back at him. "You do?"

    "More like I can imagine I understand. I didn't spend my life thinking my father was dead."

    Saveen snorted. "I'd always thought of Trell as my father. Then I find out he just wanted me to be his mate, and the dragon who might be my real father has been hiding in Sholis for the last twenty years."

    "Begs the question, how'd the Watchman get your egg?"

    Saveen kept quiet, but Ban had an inkling of what was running through her head. He knew next to nothing of her story, but he'd heard enough for his insight to put some of it together.

    "I was named for my mother," Saveen said. "Trell said he gave me her name so I could honor her memory. Now, I think he must have been infatuated with her, and he tried to groom me into becoming a Bastion he could control."

    Ban grimaced in disgust. "Deebee's been telling us for weeks the Watchman's more rat than mighty. You say he wants to serve Elise, got bonded to Master Deveaux, and on top of all that, is a fifth-tier pervert. Well, needless to say, I won't let dragons like him into our beloved's service."

    "It's not needless," Saveen said. "It's a comforting thing to hear."

    Ban reached out and patted the side of her neck. "Enfri will be beside herself to meet you. The thought of dragons being forced to serve Elise weighs on her, so one escaping will make her day. Just prepare yourself. Enfri's going to dote on you something awful. I don't need oracles to see that."

    A pleased ripple passed over Saveen's knobby scales. "What's she like? The real Dragon Empress, I mean?"

    "Deebee says it best. Enfri's like the sunrise."

    "Are you in love with her?"

    Ban chuckled. "You're not the first to ask, but no. Not in that way, at least. Rippling Moon is my blue."

    "Blue?"

    Ban ran his hand across the top of his helmet. "Waves. Remind me later, but we'll have to give you a crash course in how to talk to fey."

    "Oh! Blue as in girl. No, I get it. Ogres lived near my home. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that a giant like you is mated with an ogress."

    "Moon's a goblin," Ban said flatly.

    "What? A goblin? You're going to squish her!"

    "Come off it. I will not."

    "I've always wondered. Are goblins like a human or a deer down..."

    "Saveen the Bastion, bite your tongue." Ban shut his visor to hide his blushing. "Waves and tides. Is it the assassins, the vampire, or the blood runner that's the bad influence?"

    "Probably Starra, but I was making Krayson get red in the face long before we ran into her."

    She said it with such pride. Just what was Ban unleashing on Shan Alee by bringing her into the fold? Whatever the case, Ban had no doubt that Saveen and Moon would get on like a house on fire.

    The ring of blockading dragons was close, the outward edge of where Kimpo was being allowed to fly. Through the beating wings and flashes of spellcraft, Ban caught glimpses of Kimpo as she charged towards the mighty barring her way. Each time, she was rebuffed by superior numbers. The Huntress was the fiercest warrior among the mighty, but even she couldn't fight over a dozen at once, and the mighty were being careful after seeing Draxa down three dragons and their knights.

    "I don't want you getting close to her, Saveen," Ban warned. "She's strong, and I'm not the scrivener I used to be."

    "What do you need me to do?"

    Ban chewed on his lower lip as he surveyed the situation. Deebee was trying to get above Kimpo and close enough to seize her wings. Once she managed that, the others would rush in to hold Kimpo suspended in the air while Reyn did her job. Ban had his doubts that Reyn could force herself to place the spike while so high up, but there were no other options.

    "Keep circling the formation," he said. "Stay outside the perimeter, and try to keep at a high vantage."

    "Easily. I'm a lot stronger than I used to be. After flying the others from Leyrshore, carrying you is like having no rider at all."

    Ban smirked as they rose in altitude. "Don't try to impress me. You did that just by showing up. Now's where you show me you can follow orders. I don't want you anywhere near the fighting. You hear me?"

    She made a small sound of discontent.

    "I mean it. You haven't learned our formations or tactics, and you're still a dragonet. I don't send untrained squires into battle."

    She perked up. "Is that what I am? I'm a squire?"

    "You don't get special treatment just for being a dragon. The mighty need to prove themselves capable just like anyone in the army. It'll be a while before Enfri should even consider giving you a bond. After the one you already have is taken away, that is."

    "I'm not in a hurry. I just want to be of some use to my beloved."

    Ban smiled behind his visor. "You and Enfri can sit down and sort out your place among us as soon as we get back. You can train to fight, take up a trade, or even go off on your own if you want. You're free to choose for yourself now."

    Saveen went quiet as she absorbed that.

    "However, while you're with the empress' legion, you're under my command. You'll follow my orders. Understood, Bastion?"

    "Understood, Marshal."

    "That's what I like to hear."

    Saveen took them high above where Kimpo and Deebee spun around each other. Kimpo's claws slashed towards Deebee's neck, but the silver performed a swift spin to avoid the blow. Ban winced in sympathy for Reyn and hoped Moon had her harness attached during that maneuver.

    From this distance, he couldn't make out either rider on Deebee's back. Nobody was calling out a rider overboard, so Ban assumed no one was thrown into the open air. "Deebee's a floundering good flyer, but Kimpo's better. Best we can hope for is for Kimpo to tire herself out, then we can... Waves and tides."

    "What is it?" Saveen asked.

    Ban grit his teeth. "Take us over the formation, Saveen. I'm a waves-cursed idiot and should've realized sooner."

    She obeyed but shot furtive glances over her shoulder towards him.

    "I know Kimpo better than anyone but Deebee and should've seen this. She won't just keep throwing herself at the blockade until she's too weak to move. Waves take me, but she's doing the same thing Kastus did in Ecclesia."

    "I don't understand."

    Ban urged her to go faster. "When I fought General Kastus, he let me think I had the upper hand. While we danced around, he was drawing a sigil in the stones beneath us with his feet. If I hadn't held back, he'd have blasted me to pieces. Kimpo's just as cunning as Kastus ever was."

    "What can she do? Kimpo's a wizard, not a scrivener, and wherever she goes, your dragons keep her surrounded."

    "Exactly," Ban said. "When she charges the blockade, they reposition to keep her in the middle. She's put us exactly where she wants us to be. Take me over Kimpo and Deebee. I'm getting off."

    "You're what?"

    "Return to the armsmen on the slope," Ban said. "Relay my orders. Full retreat. Get as far away from Mount Vorti as you can. Kimpo's going to wake the volcano up and take us all out with one spell."

    Saveen swallowed, and her scales pressed flat against her body. "Flames. She wouldn't. She, Draxa, and Cardin would get caught in the eruption."

    "Wiping out half of Enfri's forces in the process. She won't hesitate. Get my people out of here, Saveen. That's an order."

    Her red eyes turned hard. "As you say, Marshal."

    "We'll make a soldier out of you yet." Ban gave Saveen a parting nod before pitching himself overboard and into a free fall. She watched his plummet for a moment before swooping away towards the army. Ban looked downward and fell headfirst.

    The wind howled as it swept across Ban's visor, making it difficult to keep his eyes open to aim his dive. He unslung his full blade from his back and held it parallel with the ground below him. Ban drew his half blade with the other hand, holding it pointed downward.

    This move was purely theoretical this morning. Let's see how it works in practice.

    From the start, Ban had known that a confrontation with other dragon riders was inevitable. He and the other bonded knights spent the last week coming up with tactics to combat the mighty. This maneuver was the most downright insane one to come of their brainstorming.

    Ban aimed for Kimpo. Her wings were unfurled and hammering against the air to hover in place. She and Deebee traded spellcraft and counters as they tried to disable each other.

    He shouted as he closed the distance and collided with Kimpo's port wing. He flared his sigils and slid his half blade up the full blade, using them as a pair of massive shears. Between the cutting edges of his swords and his velocity, Ban tore through the thick wing membrane and left a gaping rip in his wake. Kimpo roared in pain as she was no longer able to keep herself aloft.

    Frantically flapping her one good wing, Kimpo barely kept herself from falling uncontrolled. She spun in a tight circle downward as Ban continued to hurtle towards the mountain. Ban was forced to admit that he hadn't thought things through to this point.

    Waves. Now what?

    He needn't have worried. Deebee dove alongside him, and Moon held her hand out. Ban tossed his half blade away and extended his hand to her. He fell just short, their fingertips brushing but unable to find a grip.

    Reyn grabbed Ban's wrist, her longer arms making all the difference. Moon grabbed Reyn by the waist and together they heaved Ban onto Deebee's back. The silver pulled up well before they reached the caldera of Mount Vorti.

    "It worked," Ban crowed in triumph once he had a dragon underneath him.

    "Fool man," Reyn snarled. "What were you thinking, leaping into the sky?"

    "Ban knew we'd catch him," Deebee said.

    "Let's say I did and leave it at that."

    "Ban is rocker." Moon clung to him and shook with relief. "Stone-sighted rocker with more courage than thinking."

    Ban chuckled and lifted her chin to look him in the eye. "Would you have me any other way, lasichka?"

    "I would have him with hooves on earth and not in wind," she snapped. Her lip twisted as if about to admit something she didn't want to. "But this is why I sight him as mine."

    It occurred to Ban that Moon felt about his lunatic actions the same way he felt about hers. Waves, but he loved this woman. It took all of his willpower not to remove his helm and kiss her.

    Deebee sped out from underneath Kimpo as she half-glided and half-plunged onto the surface of the lake within the caldera. Ban watched her sputter back to the surface and swim her way to the water's edge. He looked up to the dragons descending on Kimpo like a swarm.

    "Knights of Shan Alee, retreat!" Ban shouted. "It's a trap! Regroup with the armsmen and fall back to five leagues east of here. Wanderer with us."

    The dragons hesitated before complying. They wheeled away and went out of sight as they flew down the slope. The sharp notes of the riders' signal whistles faded into the distance.  Tormaka the Wanderer broke from the formation and flew to meet up with Deebee.

    "Trap?" Reyn demanded. "What do you mean this is a trap?"

    Ban got into position at the nape of Deebee's neck. "Vulcanamancy," he said. "Deebee, put us down on the edge of the lake before Kimpo gets there."

    Reyn grabbed his shoulder. "And the part about it being a trap?"

    "I didn't fly all day and get walloped by some street kid just to give up on Kimpo when we're this close. What do you say, Deebee? Are we getting her back or turning around?"

    Deebee scoffed. "Don't ask foolish questions, boy."

    "Good to hear." Ban reached behind him and found Moon's hand. He held on with a tight grip as he looked to Reyn. "Wait for your chance, then spike her."

    "C'est de la folie," Reyn muttered in Old Gaulatian. She clenched her jaw and held a Dekaam spike in her fist. Ready, despite her obvious displeasure over it.

    The sulfur-infused water reached nearly to the outer rim of the caldera. Deebee set down in the shallows, the water lapping over her claws. Ban and the others disembarked, and he splashed into hot, knee-deep water that stank of rotten eggs. Moon was swamped up to her thighs.

    "Black penitent comes," Moon said. She kept an arrow knocked to her bowstring, but she didn't draw it. "Ban, what is path? We will not end black penitent, will we?"

    Kimpo was pulling herself out of the deep water. Her eyes fixed on Ban and Deebee, she stalked forward and emerged out of the steaming lake. Her brow was furrowed and her eyes hardened. Kimpo bared her teeth as she approached, ready for a fight.

    "We're here to help her," Ban said. "Even if she thinks she doesn't want it."

    Reyn gave up on trying to limit how sodden her leggings became. "You sound like the Highest King."

    "Watch it," Ban growled. He loosened his shoulder by giving the full blade a twirl.

    He'd darkened his sigils after his fall, but his ether was returning much slower than it used to. Ever since his Huntress was torn from him, and a piece of his soul along with her, he was changed. It wasn't just his diminished abilities. Something else, something impalpable he couldn't yet identify. Standing here, ready to bear arms against one of his dearest companions, Ban felt discarnate. Not whole. He couldn't help but wonder what about him had changed. However, it wasn't the time for self-reflection.

    Tormaka landed behind their position. White dragons were relatively small for their age, and the Wanderer was six paces long from haunches to shoulder. A crest of spines adorned his head like a crown, and his arrowhead-shaped face glittered with translucent scales. He wasn't bonded and had flown with just ten armsmen in his crew. No one rode him now; the soldiers were with the rest of the army.

    "Orders, Marshal?" Tormaka asked with a salute.

    "Be ready to give a sending to Paladin Rav," Ban said. "You're our line of contact."

    Tormaka acknowledged the command and spoke the opening couplet for a sending. He backed up to the rim of the caldera.

    While he and Ban sorted out communications, Deebee took a step further into the water.

    "Kimpo, stop this," she said. "Please, my love, let us help you. That beast has muddled your head. You're not thinking straight."

    "You don't understand who has the advantage here." Kimpo gave her head a sharp shake, suddenly pained. The rip in her wing began to knit back together. She was drawing healing, and it looked like Elise was exacting a toll through the bond as chastisement. "My beloved warned me of the Storyteller's poisoned words. I won't heed them. You're my enemies."

    "We're your family," Deebee pleaded. "Do you truly not remember?"

    "I am bound to serve the Dragon Empress. I was nothing before her."

    "That's not true, Kimpo," Ban shouted. "You were something to me."

    She turned her eyes on him. The fury within them wavered but only for a moment. Her mouth curled into a sneer. "I know of you, Bannlyth Karst. Last of a fallen house, hated throughout the Five Kingdoms. Traitor's blood runs through your veins, faithless and weak. You change your loyalties as others change clothes. Was it true dedication to the usurper that led you to abandon your city, or were they pleased to be rid of you? You bow to my empress' niece because no one else will have you."

    Ban choked back his words. He couldn't deny what she said. All of it was true.

    "Black penitent is clouded," Moon cried. "Her name is taken. She is penitent no more when Iron Kiss holds her name."

    "Penitent?" Kimpo scoffed. "I've slain hundreds of your kind in my time, gnat. I spent a decade cleansing the frozen lands of your filth, and the only reason I went to your wretched tribe was to learn the location of the goddess. I have nothing to seek penance for, no more than the lioness seeks forgiveness from the insects she crushes underfoot."

    "False words. Her name is taken, but she scents of her own pain. She is ash-blessed and has only forgotten. Old wounds clouded by new wounds. She forgets, but we have not."

    "Fool creature," Kimpo roared. "I sought nothing from your kind but where I could get a true answer for my empress."

    Deebee stamped her foot. "Enfri was that empress. Not Elise."

    "Don't speak her name, traitor! You're unworthy of it. Our true beloved has claimed the holiest name of her bloodline and made it her own. She, not your usurper, will shepherd the mighty into the next era. She is Elise Alinwe, Dragon Empress of Shan Alee returned!"

    Kimpo charged. She barreled through the shallows, her wake rising above her shoulders. Ban tensed, seeing that anyone smaller than a dragon was about to get crushed by a veritable tidal wave.

    "Stand aside," Reyn commanded him. She got in front and pulled a silver chain around her neck up from beneath her shirt. The pendant was broad and flat, like a stone from a riverbed. It was carved with a number of sigils, and Reyn lit three overlapping patterns of runes.

    The sigil was complex with fifth-tier runes in configurations Ban had never seen before. His brief glimpse as the sigils became infused with white etherlight revealed Ameka, a rune of water, within Ordakal, rune of anathema. A water ward, but Ordakal was fifth-tier, far more powerful than a simple warding. Reyn was creating the highest form of a ward, an interdiction, and she was doing it with a floundering necklace.

    "This magic is black," Moon murmured, her nostrils flaring.

    Ban stepped towards Reyn. Moon was right. Use of Ordakal was discouraged by the magocracy, much like Shoveth of decay. Fell magic, and potentially deadly to the user.

    "Do not interfere," Reyn said, her voice dark. Another sigil on her pendent lit, and it altered the spellcraft of her interdiction. "Whatever you do, do not move a muscle."

    Ban stopped short. Her tone didn't leave room for argument, and he wasn't about to disregard explicit instruction while he stood within an interdiction. Spells like this had a tendency to unravel and rewrite the laws of the universe itself, and there was no telling what the effect would be.

    This was scrivener magic unlike Ban had ever seen. Even Kastus never used sigils carved over each other. It shouldn't have been possible, the spell failing at best and causing disaster at the worst. Reyn was selectively channeling ether through the lines she wished and eschewing the ones she didn't need. That level of control was... inhuman.

    Kimpo reached them, but the massive wave heralding her arrival broke around Reyn and the others as surely as if they stood within a steel bubble. The water stilled and didn't move past them. It was like the wave had never existed in the first place. Then, the water reversed course and smashed against Kimpo, knocking her prone.

    "Winds, girl," Deebee gasped. "What did you do?"

    "Kinetic absorption and release, attuned to water essence." Reyn darkened her sigils and lit a different set. These were simpler wards against fire and kinetic force. "The spell reflected the motion of water as with light off a mirror."

    Ban squinted at her pendent. Where Ameka had shone before, there was now a darkened mass of etched lines that could also become Lothya, Ingtar, or Tarnak if Reyn lit the correct sequences. "Who was your master again?" Ban asked.

    "Hamish Folio, a paper maker. Go, Storyteller. Subdue the Huntress."

    Deebee threw herself at Kimpo. The dragons snapped at each other as they struggled, churning the water around them. Deebee remained on top and in control. She gripped Kimpo's forearms to prevent somatics, and her weight kept Kimpo from rising much higher than the water's surface.

    Ban lit the sigils on his greaves and ran forward with a high-stepping gait. Kimpo was much stronger than Deebee and would overpower her if given the chance.

    Before he could get close enough to lend aid, Kimpo's tail snapped out of the water and struck Ban across the chest. The blow sent him hurtling through the air, and he hit the lake surface hard. It was like smacking against a limestone wall.

    This wasn't the shallows. He was in deep water, and his armor was pulling him downward like an anchor tied to his ankles. Water closed in on him, filling his armor and weighing him down further. He didn't have a chance to pull in a breath before his helmet flooded with hot water.

    He flared his sigils, trying to get himself upright. Foul water gagged him as he fought to pull his head above the surface.

    Moon reached his side and yanked the helmet off his head. She held him up as best she could, but Ban still couldn't pull in a full breath. His breastplate was caved in, the sigils ruined. The dented metal pressed down on his chest and made it that much more difficult to breathe. And he was still sinking. Moon kicked her legs frantically to keep him above the surface, and he was helpless to save himself.

    Reyn dove into the water and swam towards Deebee and Kimpo. Her arms were held in front of her, using undulating kicks of her long legs to swim surprisingly fast. She reached the dragons, and Ban couldn't see what happened as he floundered. He barely heard Kimpo's cry or Deebee's shout that Reyn had placed the spike.

    "This is black!" Moon shouted in his ear. Her voice was past the edge of panic. "Help us!"

    With a surge of strength, Moon heaved to bring Ban's head above the water, and he gasped for air.

    Tormaka was coming, but he was a long ways off. Even as he took flight, he wouldn't reach Ban before he drowned. Deebee rose from where Kimpo lay in an ethershocked heap. She turned her head towards Ban and Moon, her eyes going wide. "Hold on, I'm coming!"

    "Traitor!" Kimpo roared. Her claw snapped out to seize Deebee by the neck and drag her down. Kimpo stood and held Deebee's head under the water. "I have a bond with the empress. Seal my ether, take it away, my beloved will only give me more!"

    Tormaka shouted a warding incantation, but it came too late. Kimpo's spellfire smashed into him. He was blasted from the air and struck the rim of the caldera.

    Deebee changed form to escape Kimpo's clutches. A fish, probably. It saved her, but it freed Kimpo to remove the greatest threat to herself. The Huntress grabbed Reyn in her claws and squeezed.

    Reyn's cry of pain was cut short by the sound of bones snapping. Kimpo flung the body away. Reyn hit the water near to Ban and sank below the surface.

    Deebee became her true form again right next to Ban. She emerged from the water with him and Moon on her back.

    Ban was on his hands and knees while Moon knelt beside him. He coughed, and half the lake flowed out of his lungs. Gagging, he looked for Reyn and felt cold despite the scalding burns covering every inch of him. There was no sign of her. He'd brought her here against her will, and now she was dead.

    "Enough of this," Kimpo snarled. "My life is a small thing to give to my beloved. I will bury you all in ash and fire!"

    Her claws began working through somatics. The lake began to churn as the ground shook.

    "Tormaka, get out of here!" Deebee shouted.

    "The army hasn't had a chance to reach safe distance," Tormaka called back. He was injured, but he was back on his feet. "If the volcano erupts, it'll take everything inside a league with it!"

    "Kimpo, no!" Ban wheezed. "Don't do this."

    "I will not be captured," Kimpo roared. "I will not be defeated. If I am to fall, I will take the usurper's most powerful servants with me!"

    Ban's heart broke, and he understood that it would never be fully whole again. His soul was destined to remain scarred forever. "We yield."

    "Ban!" Deebee gasped.

    "We yield!" Ban repeated, louder. "Draxa and her knight will be freed. You can leave Sholis unchallenged."

    Kimpo's claws went still. She held her vulcanamancy in check and didn't complete the spell. "You're lying."

    Ban got to his feet with Moon's assistance. "Tormaka, give sending to Rav that he's to let the Inamorata and her knight go free."

    "Marshal?"

    "At once, Wanderer. By order of the First Knight."

    Tormaka relayed the command through his sending, his expression disbelieving.

    Only then did Kimpo lower her hands. The churning waters settled, and Mount Vorti returned to its slumber. "Next time we meet, Bannlyth Karst, the battle won't end so easily."

    Ban shut his eyes. "I know."

    In the distance to the east, a dragon came into sight. Draxa and her Moonstone Knight rose into the sky and made for the north. Kimpo bellowed a roar as she leapt into the air to join them. For the second time, Ban watched as his Huntress flew off and left him behind.

    Defeated and weary, the last vestiges of his hope disappeared. There was no end that could make this right anymore. Elise had broken him, and she destroyed Kimpo. His Huntress was dead with a hollow slave left in her place. There was nothing left of her to save.

    Climbing down from Deebee was a painful ordeal. He'd broken ribs when Kimpo's tail struck him, and hitting the water had worked him over even more. Moon had to take on some of his weight to keep him standing.

    Deebee assumed her human form, staring after Kimpo with a haunted look in her eyes. "I can't believe it," she whispered. "How could this happen? Winds and flames, our Huntress is gone. Truly... gone."

    Ban couldn't bring himself to look at her. "I'm sorry, Deebee. I failed you. I failed her."

    She turned towards Ban and embraced him. "Place blame where it belongs, love. The fault isn't yours. It isn't even hers, but we can't let Elise have Kimpo. Whatever it takes, even if it means..." Her voice broke. Deebee cried on his shoulder, holding him tight. "We'll have to kill her, Ban. We have to kill our Huntress."

    There was no other way anymore. What was dead could never come back. The only thing left to do was to lay the departed to rest. Ban's chest tightened beneath a monstrous anger he thought he'd left behind in the Protectorate.

    Put them to rest, and avenge them.

    Moon's eyes were downcast. Something caught her attention, and she gave a startled cry. Before Ban could ask what it was, she waded further out into the lake. Moon dropped under the water and resurfaced with a sputtering bundle in her grip.

    "She lives but is blooded!"

    "Reyn!" Ban cried. He tried to go assist them but nearly keeled over from the pain in his ribs.

    Tormaka splashed into the shallows. He took Reyn from Moon in gentle claws and held her against his chest as he returned to the shore. As he came to Ban and Deebee, he assumed his human form. He carried Reyn as easily as he would a child. "I swore I heard every bone she has break. Did the empress give her a bond without telling anyone?"

    "I'm tougher than I look," Reyn said in a small voice. Her arms were discolored and about to turn purple. Both arms were deformed from her bones being broken, but her legs looked undamaged. The skin on her face and neck were red, scalded from the hot water. She hadn't been killed, but she was by no means unhurt.

    "She needs green one," Moon said. "She will be ended without aid."

    "Reyn was under the water for a long time," Deebee said. "How did she not drown?"

    "Breath," Reyn whispered, on the verge of falling unconscious. "Breath goes a long way."

    "Waves," Ban cursed. "We have to get her to Enfri. We'll put her on Grimdar for now. I think Knight-Lieutenant Valuris keeps a healing potion or two on hand."

    Tormaka nodded and turned back into a dragon. With Reyn cradled in one hand, he flew off.

    "She's a brave young woman," Deebee said as she became her truest form as well. "Reyn might have succeeded in keeping Kimpo ethershocked had I not blundered."

    "It wasn't your fault. I'm the fool that pulled your attention away from where it needed to be."

    "Rockers," Moon scolded. "Ban and Deebee speak clouds. Must not look for what head carries more blame. Blame walks on us all. Speak of this no more. Path we walk next is what must be spoken of."

    Deebee regarded her with surprise. "Moon, you said my name."

    "Does she not wish me to speak this?"

    "No, no. Please do. It only caught me off-guard."

    Moon took Ban by the hand. She spoke in a soft voice. "Mighty were ended this day. Reyn is not whole. Neither is Ban. All are blooded, and we must take long path back to green one. Green one must hear what is."

    Ban nodded. A pit opened up in his stomach and tried to swallow what was left of his heart. The army had lost good people. Sheeku the Architect and Knight-Captain Gerard. Isya the Delver and Paladin Shorin. Zanda the Executioner was maimed, and Paladin Galen was clinging to life by a thread. Reyn might not survive to make it back to Temradel. By every possible measure, Ban had failed in his mission.

    All he had to show for it was a blue dragonet, a vampire, and a pair of assassins that would need to be watched at all hours. What the Rampart did next was anyone's guess. Not to mention there was a blood runner that claimed to be bringing a bloodsong to Enfri. The way Ban's fortunes were going, Joshuan Krayson and his companions could prove to be an elaborate ruse sent by King Cathis.

    Ban let Moon help him onto Deebee's back. He sucked in a sharp breath as he settled in. Hopefully, Jin would be able to put his ribs back together again. "Waves and tides. How will I explain this to Enfri?"

END OF ACT THREE