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It was Jona.
And my parents?
They are safe for the moment. But you must hurry.
I could feel the distress of all the people inside the city. There was still life and hope here, but there was fear too. And fear was growing while hope and life were being sucked out. Above us the sky grew steadily darker. What the people needed here, I realized, was new hope.
WE COME.
Yesenia sailed up over the wall, and her brothers and sisters flew beside and behind and over her.
We flew into the darkness.
I
spoke words of power. Lebensfreude! Licht! Hoffnung! From the edge of my drawn sword light pierced the darkness, like a beacon. Into the death and despair and darkness we rode, Carolina, Yesenia and I, bringing hope and love of life and light again to the forgotten city.
We were not alone. Beside me in the darkness shone forth Woltan’s blade, and Kara’s sword, and the staff of Arboris was a great beacon in the artificial night. The dragons shone like suns with light that was both magical and natural: natural living light to combat this chemical darkness of death.
In front of me rose a ghoulish rider on a frujen, undead riding the undead, and he hissed a word through yellow dried and dead lips: Herr. Without a further word I smote him with my sword, and the sword cut through the ghoul like butter, and through the frujen like smoke, and the ghoul fell apart, and the frujen, riderless, vanished.
Yesenia spat fire at another rider, and it burst into red flames. They do not want to be here, and take their own leave. They fear dragons above all else. Destroy the undead riders and we will be rid of their demon steeds.
But there were too many of them. The foul dark air, even with our blazing swords and the fire of the dragons, grew colder and colder. I clenched my teeth to keep them from chattering as I swung my sword and spat out from it a word of power. Zuruck!
A line of green power ran out from my blade and cut through the frujen and their undead riders. I had acted without thinking, trying to send the massing dark forces around me back away from me, but many of them vanished, and the others became faint and indistinct. You’ve sent them back to their plane, Anders!
But more frujen fell in to fill the patch of light that I had created. We must act together, and send a great patch of them back. Somewhere there is a rift where they are entering, and we must seal it too.
I felt Woltan and Elias, fleetingly on the edge of my mind. We will find the rift, Anders. You and Kara and Ulrike and the rest must send them back.
But they were closing in on us from all sides. Don’t let them touch you. I remembered what Yesenia and Carolina had told me, and thought my shield was solid.
But then a Rider swooped down on me, pushed at my shield and stuck his dead arm through.
Your magic protects you against the living, rider. Feel the kiss of the dead.
Its shriveled head pushed through my magical shield, its dry yellow lips pursed. Zuruck! I screamed with my sword, and the sword cleaved head and arm from body as the rest of the rider and steed became transparent and then vanished.
But it had taken longer for the spell to work this time, and around me the dark air grew even colder. They are becoming resistant, or we are weakening.
Carolina moved my blade for me, knocking new frujen away. They are growing stronger. The colder it gets, the more the sun is blocked out, the stronger they become. The more that come through, the more they can block out the sun and freeze us all. Our only hope is that Woltan and Elias close the barrier. Jona is with them, helping from the ground, but she is weak.
I spoke another spell. I dug down deep in myself, felt the energy of the forest around the forgotten city, of the trees and shrubs within. Sonnenlicht! Lebenslust! I swung my sword around, and the spell burst forth from it, life and light and sunshine and heat, and dragonfire burst from Yesenia’s mouth as she turned as well. I felt the freezing despair melt around me, felt the undead riders shield their eyes and the frujen turn away, blinded.
Carolina spoke to us then. To Elias and Jona and Woltan now, Yesenia. They cannot fight off the attackers and close the rift at the same time. They must be defended.
With blazing sunlight and burning dragonfire, we clove our way through the mass of frujen. Herr, their minds whispered at me. But they drew back or were burned away or cloven asunder as we moved forward. Still it was slow going. Yesenia could barely fly, for fear of touching one of the foul things.
I twisted around in my harness. One of the frujen was about to bite at her tail. Zuruck! The frujen was blasted back and faded into nothingness.
We could not go on this way.
We were surrounded, and no further to helping Woltan and Elias than we had been five minutes ago.
There had to be some way to protect us all, to make my shield meaningful. It needed to be hot, and bright, and burn away cold dead attackers. Finally, it hit me.
Sonne! I spoke the word of power through my whole body, through Yesenia and through my sword, willing the spell to be all around us, in a circle: and we were surrounded by a globe of burning natural light and heat.
