Zynda’s easy smile vanished as her gaze went to Jepp, contemplating the scout. “Hmm,” was the only sound she made.
“Did your dragon fire work on it?” Jepp asked pointedly.
With an annoyed turn to her mouth, Zynda shook her head. “You saw it didn’t, which is irritating, because dragonfire works oneverything. The ash does avoid my magic-nullifying presence though—we noted that much.”
“But goes right back when you’ve passed,” Ursula said.
Zynda acknowledged that glumly.
“Zynda.” Marskal took her by the shoulders, facing her with a serious expression. “You’ve said that you don’t like to use sorcery because it takes creatures out of the cycle of life—but Illyria’s undead arealready unnatural. Wouldn’t eliminating that ash be restoring balance?”
She frowned at him, searching his face. “A neat argument,” she finally replied, “and I’m not sure your logic is entirely correct, but you all seem agreed there’s no other way to stop this stuff?”
“No,” I answered, taking charge as Captain of Ordnung’s defense. “And it’s coming this way. It doesn’t matter if we close thegates, the walls won’t keep it out. If you won’t do this, Zynda, then we need to come up with other options fast or everyone here will die.”
“I’d be happier with an enemy I could cleave with my sword,” Kral growled.
“Or take apart with daggers,” Jepp added.
Ursula threw them both an appreciative look. Something settled inside me, a realignment of sorts, that we were all the same side. Hlytihad guided my footsteps to this time and place—and these people—but so too had it brought Kral. Two points of the triangle, bound together.
With a third still out there. For the first time in years and years, I entertained hope that Jenna might also find her way here. If we survived this.
“I’ll do it,” Zynda decided. “Though I’m unprepared, so it will take a bit to build the necessary powerto clear an area this big.”
She became a hummingbird again. Jewel bright, she zoomed to the watchtower, where hopefully Dary wouldn’t be too startled.
Ursula shaded her eyes, staring up at the tower that now held two women. “She didn’t wait for instructions,” she complained.
“She knows what to do,” Marskal murmured beside her, mirroring her stance. “Your Majesty,” he added belatedly, then grinnedat whatever Ursula muttered under her breath at him.
“She’s used a lot of magic today already,” Ursula noted, a hint of worry in it, “lots of shapeshifting and healing.” She deliberately didn’t look at me. “I hope she’s up to this.”
“She is,” Marskal replied definitely. “Dragon form has launched her into a new level of ability—beyond what any of us might have predicted.”
“Is that so?” Ursulalooked over to me at last, raising her brows. “Finally, some good news.”
I smiled back at her.
She and Marskal fell into conversation, discussing countermeasures should Zynda’s effort fail. He summoned several Hawks and they sent them running with messages to secure people in parts of the castle without outside egress.
I scanned the strange battlefield, the fallen on the ground, the prowlingsmoke creatures. Groups of guards herded people toward town, giving rides to stragglers. A cadre of messengers on fast horses burst from the castle, moving too fast for the smoke monsters to catch them, the dust of their wake quickly settling, unlike the unnatural ash. We could take Ursula out of the castle the same way. I glanced at her, taking in her wide stance on the walls of Ordnung, in herelement as she made fast decisions and crisply issued orders.
I’d never pry her out of her castle either.
The only people left on the road were the three young women, who were clearly winded but still struggling up the incline to the castle gates. A cloud of clawed creatures emerged from a copse of trees, advancing on them from the side. All the other troops were engaged elsewhere, leaving themunprotected.
Measuring their relative speeds—the exhausted young ladies in their fancy slippers not meant for such rigor, and the billowing humanoid ash figures—I knew the women would never make it.
I couldn’t stand by and do nothing. With Ursula focused on protecting Ordnung, I stepped back, then shimmied down the nearest ladder and ran.
With any luck, I’d be back before she noticed I’d left.
