Anna felt herself freeze up. She tried looking beyond the soldiers and bandits for Andrew, but she still couldn’t find him. Most of the strike force had been archers, with only a few heavy infantry ready to stand by Peter. She spotted Peter and one of his soldiers still fighting. Peter glowed blue as he fought, his blades flashing as he parried and struck between several enemies at once.

  In that split second, the enemy mage seemed to realize reinforcements had arrived. He spun in the air to look at them quizzically. Anna was surprised to see he was an elf with blond hair that flared up at his shoulders. The only part of his gear that didn’t seem standard was the belt around his waist. Five gemstones studded it. Three glowed quite faintly, but the one in the center pulsed with his every move. The final one on his left grew brighter as he held out his hand. The arrows around him flashed into the reinforcements.

  Anna flinched as the arrows screamed through magical protection on one of the mages. She turned to see the man fall face first to the ground.

  “He’s boosted by them, too,” Anna managed, unable to pull her eyes away from the dead man. “He’s boosted by the Wisps, and he can control so many different spells at once.”

  “Anna! Get back!” Captain Yamada shouted. Anna felt herself shoved to the side as the captain interposed himself between her and one of the raiders. “Focus on your Wisps!” Yamada continued through gritted teeth. “See if you can have them boost us as well!”

  Anna blinked. “They don’t listen that way,” Anna said.

  “Just do it!” Yamada roared. He struck his opponent down, but the one who appeared next had the red glow of Wisps flowing off him.

  Anna felt something zap from her own Wisps. Halcyon was at her shoulder. Green light flashed deep around his core. She could feel his focus and his calm fighting through the chaos to help her. She doubted he’d understood the specifics, but she thought he knew there was fighting going on.

  Anna forced herself to her feet and dashed back behind a tree. The best way she could help would be to keep out of the fighting and try Yamada’s idea. At the very least, she could be a control center for her own sides Wisps through Halcyon. She thought about trying to undo the other mage’s spell, but she dismissed the idea. Even if he didn’t notice and kill her immediately, the chances that it would backfire and destroy everything beneath him were too high, especially when it was Peter who was beneath him. And Andrew, if he was still there.

  Anna shook her head, drawing on Halcyon’s calming influence to focus. She couldn’t let her imagination run wild. Andrew would be fine. She was sure. So long as they could knock that mage out of the air.

  “You’re a lot more competent than the others were!” Anna heard the enemy mage call down. She risked a peak around the tree and saw he was sparing with the last of the Ryukyuujin mages. She couldn’t tell what he was doing. Even trying to observe his magical patterns, they were incredibly complex. As far as she could tell, the Ryukyuujin mage was massively slowing down anything that came close. The arrows the mage had caught and slung at him. The blades of the raiders. Nothing got close. They all slowed down to a crawl, before the mage sidestepped the people and the arrows moved.

  He didn’t seem strong on the attack, though. At least, he didn’t seem fast. Anna was sure the combat mages each had several gemstones, but going up against a mage who could use five at a time was a lot. Then again, both of their main spells, the flight and the slowing, seemed to function more like enchantments than traditional combat spells. Perhaps both, like her, would specialize in enchantments.

  That thought went up in smoke when the enemy mage hurled a barrage of fire down on the soldiers. Men took cover on both sides to avoid the flames. Scrub burst alight around the clearing.

  “Watch it, Elias!” one of the raiders shouted. “You’re hitting our stuff, too!”

  “Please,” the flying mage said. Anna could almost hear the sneer in his voice. “Don’t you see who’s with them? This is an excellent opportunity. They don’t even have their dragon with them.”

  “Let’s fix that then!” came Peter’s voice over the din. There was a pause, “Jarn! Veithi! We could use some help here!”

  A roar rolled over the field in reply, followed by a second a moment or so later. Anna risked peaking around the tree in time to see the flying mage, Elias, spin to glare down at Peter. Peter was still fighting several raiders at once, but he wore a savage grin that he flashed up at the furious mage.

  “Kill him already!” the mage shouted. “Before the beasts get here!”

  “Stop them!” Captain Yamada bellowed in response. The soldiers surged forward. They outnumbered the enemy by quite a bit, still. But where Peter was the only combatant boosted by Wisps on the soldier’s side, Elias and several other raiders glowed with the light of the Wisps.

  Anna saw most of the glowing fighters rush at Peter. She could feel her horror at seeing him outnumbered that way reflected through Halcyon’s influence. She wanted to go and protect him, to be able to weave a spell like Sol that would stop the raiders from reaching him. She started to weave her spell of wind. It only needed to be a distraction.

  She felt power surge around her as she wove the spell. Halcyon was responding. He, and several other Wisps, were pouring power into her unfinished spell. It didn’t improve her speed. She’d gotten good at this particular one over her travels, to the point where it only took her a few seconds. But those seconds were too many, by the time the soldiers reached Peter.

  “You should be helping him, not me!” Anna thought as she desperately tried to put the spell together.

  Almost without warning, two dozen blue Wisps exploded out of her braclet and rushed across the battlefield. They circled Peter, startling the raiders that had charged him. The blue Wisps dimmed, and Peter began to glow brighter.

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  “Oh, this is great!” Peter said. He moved like a lightning bolt, each swing of his blade traced in the air by the light flowing from him. He struck down two of the enhanced fighters in front of him. Then the others recovered and began defending themselves. He wasn’t fast enough to overwhelm them all. But he was too fast for any of them an opening.

  Anna felt her wrist tingle, and she realized she’d left weaving her spell for too long. With the extra power the Wisps had dumped into it, she wasn’t sure if she’d be able to control it. But she was sure if she dropped the spell the way she normally would, it’s extra power would still be released. She didn’t like the idea of being so close to it as it went off. She had to finish it. Her eyes darted, looking for the best place to complete the spell. She found a place in the back line of the bandits, where she completed the spell, hoping to disrupt the raiders.

  She was not disappointed. Invisible though it was, a wedge of air appeared with pop in the middle of the group. Several were knocked to the side, yelling in confusion.

  “You’re the problem!” came a livid voice from overhead. Anna looked up to see the mage Elias glaring down at her. He raised his arm, and a collection of tiny balls of flame appeared in the air over him. He flung his hand out, and they rained down at her.

  Anna stumbled back, not sure if she would be fast enough. Then she felt something catch by her belt and yank her down behind one of the trees. She hit the ground with a thud and blinked for a moment, then found Andrew sitting at the tree next to her, breathing hard. He had an arrow sticking out of his left arm, and his face was drenched in sweat and blood. Otherwise, he seemed fine.

  Anna heard Elias shout more commands, but she wasn’t sure who they were for or why. The relief filling her that Andrew wasn’t dead took all the strength out of her. “You’re okay,” she managed. “I didn’t see you, and I thought…”

  “Later,” Andrew said, wincing. “We need to figure out how to deal with that mage.”

  “We just need to hold out until the dragons get here,” Anna said.

  “I doubt it,” Andrew muttered. “I’m not sure the Emerald dragon will understand why Peter called Jarn deeper into her territory after saying we wouldn’t.”

  “Do you think it was the wrong decision?” Anna asked.

  “Don’t know,” Andrew said. A great wind rushed through the tree branches. Anna looked up to see Jarnvaror’s shadow as he passed over the clearing. Veithi wasn’t far behind. The trees shook with the pressure of the two dragons in flight. “And we don’t have time. Just keep your head down,” Andrew said.

  “Looks like we’ve got the sky back!” Peter’s voice rose up in between wing beats. A dragon’s call rumbled through the air. “Sorry, Veithi. I needed the help, and didn’t want you to think we were invading.”

  “All these tricks of yours, with the Wisps and the dragons,” came Elias’s voice. “I’m so glad I prepared for them.” There was another roar, then a flash of light and heat. Anna moved to peak around the tree, but Andrew stopped her. Suddenly the heat vanished, and the dragons chorused in a sound of utter frustration.

  This time Andrew wasn’t able to hold her back as Anna rolled to look around the tree. She saw the dragons beating their wings to keep themselves in the air as they drifted blindly back and forth. Blind because of the rings of light circling around each of their heads, blocking their vision.

  Elias seemed to be holding in laughter as he bobbed his way slowly to another spot in the clearing. He almost casually, continued to fire bolts of flame at the Ryukyuujin soldiers, or catching the few arrows that were still shot his way. Peter, who’s fight had paused as the dragons arrived, had resumed his duel with the other enhanced raiders.

  Anna staired up at the mage in horror. “He was ready for us,” she said.

  “You think Sol set us up?” Andrew asked from around the tree.

  For a moment, Anna considered it, her legs trembling. Then she recalled their fights with Sheil in Selasem and the Crimson wood. She shook her head. “No. Daniel knows what we’re capable of. After the fights we’ve had with the Wisp Seekers it makes sense they would prepare for us all over.”

  Andrew nodded. “Makes sense. I’m no mage, but he seems like he really only prefers those fire spells.”

  Anna nodded. She’d seen Sol fly. He could be faster than the wind. This mage seemed totally unused to being in the air, given how slowly and how little he moved. In fact, she realized that four of his five gems were now glowing as anchors for enchantments. The last only lit up when he conjured and threw new fire balls.

  Anna set her jaw. “He trained to fight dragons, to keep out of the range of an enhanced fighter like Peter, and to throw off your arrows with enchantments,” Anna said. “But he can’t do anything against me.”

  “Are you going to bring him down?” Andrew asked. “From here?”

  Anna nodded. “The Ryukyuujin won’t be able to fight until he’s down. If he falls, the whole fight is ours.”

  “You’re sure this won’t explode like in Prohr?” Andrew asked.

  “Maybe,” Anna said. She thought to herself that she could use some help. Immediately, she felt Halcyon’s attention. He bobbed at her side, waiting. She focused on him, curious for only a moment. She was sure he couldn’t understand her words, but the idea in her mind was more a desire than anything else. She didn’t need much help, after all.

  She reached out to feel the magic Elias was using to keep himself in the air. He noticed right away that something was prodding at one of his spells. He spun to face her. “That is a very bad idea, little lady!” he called, raising his hand to shoot more fire.

  Right away, Captain Yamada, his mage, and several of his heavy infantry managed to force their way over to her. The flames burst against their armor, or swerved to avoid them in the case of the mage and the man standing closest to him. Those who were hit groaned in pain, but they remained standing.

  Anna looked at them worried. She’d hoped with Halcyon the process would go a little faster. Maybe it would, but the men would need to protect her while she worked. They may not have been strong enough.

  Anna felt something from Halcyon in that moment. It was as if something had rushed out from the small blue wisp. A moment later, every other blue Wisp that wasn’t helping Peter condensed around Captain Yamada and the nearby soldiers. Each had more than ten. The Wisps dimmed, as they had for Peter. And the four men lit up with blue light.

  “What is this?” Captain Yamada asked.

  “I think they’re helping you for me,” Anna said.

  “You think?” the mage repeated.

  “I’m not sure now’s the time for questions,” Andrew said.

  “He’s right,” Yamada said. “Protect Anna!” The men stood, shoulder to shoulder, cutting off Elias’s view of Anna.

  “This is getting tiring!” the flying mage shouted. He tried to lob flame over the heads of the soldiers, but the Ryukyuujin mage stepped back, holding out his arms. His spell caught the fire and sent it harmlessly into the soil.

  Anna closed her eyes to focus. She fixed her mind first on Halcyon. His presence helped calm her. Then she returned to Elias’s spell. She examined it. It felt slow, painfully slow, even though she was working as fast as she ever had to dispel. She didn’t want the huge backlash after all. She just needed him to fall.

  After a few moments of feeling around his spell, she managed to make out the pattern. She reached out, almost as if with Halcyon’s hands, to take hold of it, of the loose ends where it interacted with the world, and to begin unwinding. She had to do it right to avoid a backlash. She had to finish to avoid that.

  But just starting was enough to disrupt it’s affects. Elias began to wobble in the air. He bobbed up and down, attempting to stabilize the spell. When he realized he wouldn’t be able to, he tried to cast it again. But he was slow. Perhaps not as slow as Anna often was when she wove her own spells, but slow enough that she could intervein as he tried. He panicked, pulling back from all his magic.

  Then the spell broke. There was a pop that rang out through the clearing, just as Elias fell out of the air, into a group of soldiers waiting to receive him.