The thing that Bara Khalja raised had at one time been a dragon. It's eyes were now empty, the skin stretched tight over its bony frame was unnerving. Despite whatever it may have once been, it was now a terrifying enemy at Bara Khalja's fingertips.

Spaulder did not take it well.

At our backs, I could feel Spaulder's fury even before he made a move. It blasted through me and I grabbed Schula's hand just before the impact of his roar hit.

A loud, low blast of anguish roared from Spaulder. It was unlike any sound I had ever heard before, and the sound from the ear I had injured weeks ago flickered in and out of deafness as my natural healing attempted to repair the damage as it came.

Schula and I were knocked from our feet, tumbling forward until Schula froze a jagged wall to stop us. And that was a small portion of the damage from Spaulder's furious roar. His head was over us as he let loose the powerful lament, so the brunt of the force was actually directed to Bara Khalja.

The force from Spaulder was tremendous. It ripped the rare marshland trees from their roots. It knocked most of the enemy army down, sending their prone forms tumbling through the scattering muddy water.

'Abomination!' Spaulder roared and I knew his furious words were ripping through every conscious mind for miles around. 'Wicked necromancer! You disturb the slumber of an elder dragon! How dare you sully the eternal sleep of one who's life has ended gloriously on a battlefield? You will die for your sins!'

I barely got to my feet in time to see Spaulder's charge. Throwing his weight forward and pushing his wings until he left the ground. He sped forward towards Bara Khalja in a viscous lunge.

As Spaulder charged at the warlock, the raised dragon with its horrid empty eyes and bone complexion, rammed itself into Spaulder's side. In the clash, Bara Khalja was practically thrown from the mountainous pile of earth the raised dragon had emerged from. I nearly lost sight of him as he slid down the side of it, but he regained himself enough to come out at the bottom still standing.

I ran in the direction of where Bara Khalja had ended up, feeling Schula right on my heels. The sloppy ground slowed us down some but I climbed and clawed my way through the marsh waters and grasses with all of my strength, my vision tunneling to the image of Bara Khalja and nothing else.

Fueled by my own anger and rage over what he had done, to the Wyldes, to my mother, I threw fire in his direction the second I thought he was close enough to hit.

"Watch out!" Schula screamed, pulling me down into the muddy water just as a huge white tail slammed onto the grass where I had just been.

I came up sputtering and cursing, sparing a glance to the dragons locked in a furious, raging fight.

The horns sound again. A ringing clash of battle sounds somewhere beyond my vision of Bara Khalja. Whoever it is, I held hope they could distract the army while my triquetram dealt with the real problems on this battlefield.

Spaulder roared again, shaking the ground as he threw himself into the white dragon, slamming them both into the mud.

I clamored onto my feet, pulling Schula up with me before taking off again to charge at Bara Khalja. The warlock's eyes met mine in a greedy viciousness as he turned his staff my direction.

"You do not scare me, little girl," he called as I drew closer. "Your powers may have saved you from my plague, but they will not save you from my army!"

In a waving motion with his staff, he ushered a swarm of his risen dead in our direction.

Schula stiffened behind me, her voice low and icy. "You sent that plague upon the Wyldes for Wren? No other reason than Wren?"

"I did, just as your father requested." Bara Khalja's eyes slid to Schula, his lips turning up in a wicked grin. "Killing off all those fae was simply an added bonus."

"Don't listen to him." I grabbed Schula's wrist, eyeing the approaching lines of dead soldiers. Some still in armor, some blackened by their time in the marsh waters since their long-ago death. Their empty stares were singular in goal as they came to kill us.

Schula's face twisted in pain and hate, breaking my heart. But there wasn't time to help her as the enemy drew closer. I had to let go of her wrist as I started throwing fire into the enemy ranks.

Somewhere to the left Spaulder roared his fury again, thrashing about and sending more water and earth flying. As he shook the marshes, it became even more difficult to stay on my feet.

"Why?" Schula screamed. "What do you get out of this? DuVarick will only kill you when he's done with you! What does a human want in the Wyldes?"

I threw myself into the task of keeping the enemy off us. I was drawing a constant stream of fire from within, shooting orange flames into deadened flesh with no reaction but the sizzling burn as it cooked away their skin and muscle. Tendons popped in the crackling fire, bones burned and flaked. But as they walked through the water, the fires went out and what remained of the charred dead marched on.

"DuVarick is a willing partner in my plans for power," Bara Khalja laughed. "Did you think a mad king would be too much for me to handle? He sees his enemies everywhere, and I as his only true alliance. I will suck the powers I desired right out of the Wyldes, and when your precious lands of volatile creatures is no more than a husk, I will steal the bones of your loved ones and march on the rest of the world."

My gut wrenched, even as I continued to fight off the oncoming horde.

"You, you killed everything within your grasp on the western plains. Why?" I screamed as I thrust more fire at his dead warriors.

His eyes slid to mine, and I looked up just long enough to see the viscous flicker in them as he smiled. "Bodies, my dear. Fodder."

Schula screamed, throwing her hands out and pushing shards of ice into the water to crawl to where Bara Khalja stood. The necromancer only laughed as he struck the ground with the butt of his staff, shattering Schula's attempts.

Spaulder thrashed, rolling our way in his tumble with the raised dragon. He clawed a merciless hole in one of its wings while the dead beast had its teeth sunk deep into Spaulder's neck.

"Spaulder!" I called, but he was too entrenched in battle to hear.

Schula turned her efforts to the risen dead that were now dangerously close to us. Pushing shards of ice into the water and grabbing a fistful of ice-encased reeds. Wielding her dangerously sharp makeshift weapon at the nearest enemy, she cried out as she thrust it forward and through its heart.

"Move!" I squealed, pulling Schula to the side as an errant white dragon wing came smashing down where we were standing. We tumbled into the water as it splashed a wave of muddy water over us before lifting away again.

I was barely back on my feet when the risen dead arrived. Now within reaching distance I ignited both hands to push them back. There was no longer a threat that they would extinguish in the water while I had my hands on them, but they still had the opportunity to overwhelm us with their numbers.

Bara Khalja laughed as he ushered a new wave to us, busying himself raising more fallen from the ancient battlefield to renew his assault.

I could see little outside my narrow field of vision, only paying attention to what was in front of me lest the enemy take me down. But I could hear the newcomers approach as their horns sounded.

Thwack. My first glimpse at our allies was the arrow shaft now protruding from the eye socket of the closest dead fae. It didn't stop the thing entirely, but it stalled it enough that I could finish it off with fire.

Panting and slick with sweat and mud, I turned my head to see who was here.

My eyes widened as I took in the emblem on their armor. The greens of their clothing dancing in a sea of fae. There, on the back of some giant beast I couldn't have imagined, something like a stag with six legs and moss-covered antlers, was the king of the Spring court. His copper skin glistening in what little light the unclaimed Wyldes allowed to fall over the marshes.

"King Diamid," Schula said, just loud enough for me to hear.

Then our attention was brought back to the dead in front of us.

Horns continued to call their cry of war as more and more arrows found their way into the skulls and hearts of the risen dead. The numbers in front of us thinned, buying me enough time to look up at Bara Khalja. Even he was having to pay attention to the incoming Spring court as they loosed their barrage of arrows on the necromancer.

There! An opening. I could finally go after Bara Khalja while he was distracted. My fingers itched with the fire that I would use to burn him into a pile of ashes. It was better than he deserved, but I and so many others sought his end, so I would deliver it the moment I could.

"Wren!" Schula called, then as she was trying to say something else her words were covered up by a horrible screeching roar.

Spaulder.

I hadn't even fully turned my head toward him when my body started moving. The pull to my triquetram, my love for him and need to be there for him fueled me as I lunged his way. My eyes fell on the scene of him still coiled in battle with the risen dragon, but the dripping gash down his neck struck my heart with ice.

"Spaulder!" I screamed, moving as fast as I could through the sloppy terrain, Schulz on my heels.

The Spring horns sounded again, but I couldn't bring myself to stop and look. Whatever they were doing it would have to be enough to keep the enemy off our backs, right now we had to get the dragon off of Spaulder.

The white dragon thrashed, sending wet grass flying over us as we made our way as close to Spaulder as we could.

"How do we help?" Schula called, keeping her hands in front of her, ready to call on her ice if need be.

I chanced a look behind us to make sure nothing had followed. My stomach dropped as I swept my eyes over where Bara Khalsa had been. He was nowhere to be found, but instead a cluster of risen dead fae were locked in combat with the Spring court.

"Where is he?" I called.

Spaulder roared again, drawing my attention. I cursed, coming back to his side.

"We have to take that white one out," Schula said beside me.

"Without getting crushed," I replied. "Easy."

Spaulder roared again, the earth around us shuddering under his fury.

"Right," Schula murmured, "easy."

In a moment where Spaulder overpowered the other dragon, I rushed forward. Throwing fire at the beast's hide, I did little damage to the thick scales.

A white tail thrashed, knocking me back and onto my hands and knees.

"Wren!" Schula screamed.

I raised a hand, showing I was still well enough to move while I spit the mud from my mouth. "I can't hurt it, try ice!"

Schula turned to face it, lunging forward in a moment while the thing was in motion. She pushed her hands into the water, raising huge spikes of ice from it right as the dragon rolled into them.

Thrashing, the dragon didn't seem to care at first. It just kept up its assault on Spaulder who was still dripping blood from his neck. Schula gritted her teeth while I scrambled back on my feet, and she pushed a new spike of ice into its flesh. This time, the one large spike penetrated it, and the great beast thrashed in protest.

"I pierced it!" Schula called.

It was the opening I had hoped for. I ran forward, running relatively low on my inner fire and instead drawing on the nature around me. Purple flames crawled over my fingers, roaring to life and consuming my hands, my wrists, my arms, as I clawed my way to the thrashing dragons.

"Wren, careful!"

'What are you doing, little one?' Spaulder roared in my mind, panic in his words.

I didn't respond, instead using all the focus I had to keep the fires blazing hot and fierce as I plunged my fingers into the open wound.

Schula dice melted away with a hiss, and the dragon was more enraged than before as my fire burned it from within. Thrashing and flailing, I was lifted off the ground as I held on by the scales hide at the edge of the wound, pushing more and more into it as I could.

But one great thrust knocked me away, a white clawed foot sending me flying as Spaulder roared and Schula cried out.

I landed hard on my shoulder, swallowing water until I could push myself up and out of the water despite the searing pain.

I coughed as I watched the aftermath. The dragon continued to burn from the inside out. No longer was it putting up such a horrendous fight for Spaulder, and the great black dragon sank his teeth deep into the neck of his enemy.

Thrashing and flailing like gosh freshly pulled from the lake, the two dragons were a hazard to anything near them. Schula retreated to where I had landed, pulling me to my feet and pressing cold fingers on my banged up shoulder.

Spaulder roared one more time, a triumphant call to victory as the white dragon sank to the ground. With one last pull from his teeth, Spaulder removed the remnants of the white dragon's neck, bits of spine included. Finally, it lay still.

Panting, I twisted where I leaned with Schula's help, and inspected the battle behind us.

The sloppy hillside had been decimated. The mound of mud was now covered in dead from both sides. The carnage was horrid, the smell mixing with the already pungent marshes grew sharp to my elven nose. I gaged, but I kept looking for my true enemy.

Bara Khalja had disappeared.

The Spring horns sounded again as they pushed more of the enemy forces back. My eyes swept over the marshes again, this wasn't all of them.

So where did they all go?

"Wylde witch!" The booming voice of king Diamid called to me.

I locked eyes with the Spring fae. I hadn't seen him since his strange behavior towards me in Dwellonmar a year ago.

He inclined his head toward me before pointing his bow in the direction of the lost elven city.

"We will clean up here and meet you," he called. "Chase that monster to his end."

I nodded to the king. It would seem he was finally showing his intentions in this war. Now was not the time to dwell on secrets, it was the time for efficient battle strategy.

"Meet us at the fallen elven kingdom," I called back. "DuVarick is coming."

He nodded, then turned his bow onto the enemy, loosing an arrow into the throng and striking down two at once.

I turned back to my triquetram. 'Spaulder, are you alright?'

'Come, Wren! Schula!' He snarled as he rose to his feet. 'My vengeance is Bara Khalja. We fly to his death!'

I looked over the battle once more as Schula helped me walk to our beloved and furious dragon.

The end was so close. So very close. The end of a long and strange nightmare to which the threads were finally pulling together.

And we flew over the marshlands at a terrible speed.

To the final battle with the warlock.