“If that makes you feel like a better leader, I’ll not nay-say you.” Misha ducked a goblin making a clumsy grab for him and instead tripped the creature so it fell into one of its cohorts, knocking both of themflat.
“Angelique!” Fright paled Odette’s skin as she pointed across the field atSuzu.
The sorceress stood with the female black mage—they were teaming up on the Legendary Knight of the Lance. (The male mage Angelique had thrown fire ants at was now screaming and rolling on theground.)
Angelique inhaled sharply. She gestured, calling down a bolt of lightning—an attack that was swiftly becoming her favorite spell. Suzu blocked it with a shield of tarry blackmagic.
Do I use my powers?she wondered, the magnetic pull of her core magic tickling her.But it’d be in front of so many people…what if I hurt one ofthem?
“Blaze…Faro!” Briarshouted.
Light lambasted the battlefield, casting white oneverything.
Angelique vainly held a hand up to block the light as she squinted through barely-openeyes.
Sir Isaia now held the two-handed sword Odette and the others had retrieved from the palace. As she watched, the sword sucked up the intenselight.
The knight turned toward Suzu and swung the sword—which released the white-hot light it held in its blade and sliced through the earth. It carved a path through the ground, creating a deep gouge, then hit Suzu with such force, the sorceress was flung off her feet. She hit the ground with a splat and appeared dazed as spasms wracked herbody.
“Well,” Rosalinda blithely said. “That workednicely.”
Angelique watched long enough only to confirm that Sir Isaia jumped on his horse and urged it intobattle.
The new Legendary Knight changed the morale of thebattle.
While the arrival of the Magic Knights had turned the tide, the fight was still dark and grim. But with his two-handed sword still glowing like the sun, every time Sir Isaia leveled his weapon, enemies toppled likeflies.
Angelique breathed easier—there was no question who the winner would be now. She scanned the battlefield, looking for signs of Carabosso and—more importantly—Suzu.
I can’t let herescape!
She saw the sorceress—still shaking and unable tostand.
Angelique pushed her magic into the ground, and roots shot out of the earth, encasing Suzu in a tangled root system that held herfast.
Angelique started to smash her way to the sorceress when she barely heard Firra shout above the din of battle, “Angelique!”
Angelique spun, quickly locating Firra, who was holding back a hoard of goblins as the Magic Knights rushed to take care ofthem.
Her face was pinched with worry. “It’s Donaigh—can you take a look athim?”
Angelique glanced back at Suzu—who struggled feebly against the roots—then looked toDonaigh.
The war mage was still splayed on the ground, pale andbleeding.
Angelique wanted to scream. But Donaigh had always treated her with respect and understood the toll of what the continent asked ofher.
With a tortured growl, Angelique shifted her path and instead joined Firra. She threw herself to her knees, already twisting her magic into one of the most powerful healing spells sheknew.
Donaigh was worse than she had thought. He had a hidden wound on his back, in the left shoulder, which had been bleeding out into the torn earth beneathhim.
Angelique sucked air in through her teeth as she concentrated on hermagic.
Healing magic is so very difficult because I can’t let even a whiff of my core magic survive it—it would kill whomever I’m trying toheal.
Her palms grew clammy and her hands shook as she focused on the war mage, tuning out the goblins’ savage battle cries and the roars of the MagicKnights.
Odette and Firra guarded Angelique as she slowly dribbled healing magic into Donaigh’s shoulder wound—cleaning it and starting to staunch the bloodflow.
