If Firra was satisfied, Angelique wasn’t going to worry about it. She let herself focus on the fight, rolling her magic through her fingers and into spells in a familiarrhythm.
More goblins marched on the village, but Sir Isaia and his horse stood between them and the closest entrance. The knight with his sword and his mare with her hooves and teeth cut down packs of the monsters. Sir Isaia’s expression was determined as he held his ground, defending the burnt village—and PrincessRosalinda.
Firra held the chimera off with walls of fire and threw fireballs at random at the mages—usually whatever one Donaigh wastaunting.
The war mage streaked around the battlefield. He knocked over the nameless female black mage—at whom Firra threw an orb of fire. The enemy mage rolled away, but the fire spell passed so closely to her that her hair caught onfire.
Angelique shuffled through her repertoire of magic, creating craters in the ground, smashing the mages with boulders, splashing their faces with water and then flash-freezing the moisture to their faces, and doing everything she could to harry them. (She tried hitting them with lightning, but apparently her previous strike had greatly offended Carabosso, for he roared with wrath and produced a thick shield that protected them from thestrikes.)
The battle raged on as Angelique twisted her magic, creating innocuous-appearing puddles around the blackmages.
“Firra,” Angelique called. “Give me somefire!”
“On it!” Firra’s brow puckered as she threw at least half a dozen molten fireballs. They slammed into Angelique’s puddles, sizzling and producing hot—and noxious-smelling—steam directly around the blackmages.
It technically gave them a chance to scheme while out of sight, but Angelique didn’t think it was likely given that they couldn’t see each other, much less Angelique, Firra, Donaigh, and SirIsaia.
It’s worth the gamble, she thought, noting the strain that was starting to show in the tense muscles around Firra’s eyes and the tightness of Donaigh’ssmile.
The two mages slumped with relief—though Firra strengthened her firewall around thechimera.
“Brilliant job thus far!” Donaighdeclared.
“I don’t know about that,” Angelique muttered. “Once Rosalinda and Delanna get everyone out, I think we need to flee. We don’t have enough forces towin.”
“I agree,” Firrasaid.
A quick check on the mist revealed the hazy shapes of Carabosso and the two less-powerful mages that accompanied him, but Suzu wasmissing.
Where could she have gone?Angelique carefully traced the battlefield, but the purple-robed sorceress was nowhere to be seen. Instead, she spotted a few villagers—an old couple, an injured man, and parents with two children—mounted on horses, fleeingsouth.
Rosalinda must have foundthem.
Carabosso reclaimed her attention when the mist faded enough that he could see again, and he threw an orb of raw magic ather.
She hastily raised an iridescent shield. When the red orb hit the defensive spell, it shed sparks and filled the air with the foul smell of singed hair. It was persistent, shoving into the shield with such strength, Angelique’s palms ached as she held the shield up, funneling more magic into thespell.
Donaigh zipped back and forth between the male and female black mage, stabbing at them with daggers. His strikes never made it past their shields, but it kept the pair occupied. “Firra, helpAngelique!”
Firra was still holding off the chimera with walls of fire, but she swiveled and shot a fireball the size of a boulder atCarabosso.
Carabosso blocked it, but it shattered his concentration, breaking the red orb. His face froze in a snarl as he stretched out his hand, and red and black flames gathered in hispalm.
As Carabosso chucked the spell at Firra, Donaigh barreled into him, making the spell goawry.
Firra still had to leap out of the way and ended up flopped on the torn-up ground, loosening her grip on the fire that held the chimeraback.
With roars, the multi-headed animals bounded into thefight.
Angelique turned toward the beasts, but the female black mage snarled and threw a ball of angry red spellwork at her. Angelique couldn’t tell exactly what the attacking spell was, but it felt dark andancient.
Panicking, Angelique loosened a bit of her raw magic, which enveloped the spell in silver before slicing it topieces.
Sir Isaia’s horse screamed in rage as the knight hacked off the snake heads of two of the chimera, then swung around and retreated back to Angelique, Donaigh, and Firra, closing ranks with them. “If something doesn’t happen to change the tide, we’re going to get overrun,” hesaid.
Angelique saw movement out of the corner of her eye and turned in time to see a woman mounted on a horse, leading a second horse, which carried two boys on its back. They fled the battlefield and the village, safely outrunning thebattle.
Moresurvivors…
