Firebrand

“Stay back,” Karigan said, joining Daro and Brandall to shield her.

More whirlwinds filled the space left by the one they’d destroyed, and the Riders faced them, their weapons glinting in the lamplight. Karigan swung her staff and smashed a creature against the wall.

“Well done!” Brandall shouted.

Karigan grinned mirthlessly and crushed another beneath the metal handle of her staff. It took at least two good whacks to stop one. When the cloak of swirling ice fragments fell away, the creatures always held a dagger ready to stab at the first opportunity.

“What are these things?”

“No idea,” Daro replied, her gaze never leaving the creatures.

Down the corridor, other Riders put their special abilities to use: Ylaine lifted the creatures with her mind and smashed them into the wall. Carson had a new shielding talent to prevent himself from being stabbed, and young Gil summoned a wind in an attempt to push them back.

“Kari!” Aunt Brini cried in warning.

She pivoted just in time to smash a creature that had approached on her blind side. She was showered with ice as she destroyed it.

“Is it my imagination, or are they getting bigger?” Brandall asked between gritted teeth.

He was right. The whirlwinds were growing taller. They had started out knee-high, but now they were about hip-high.

“And faster!” Daro said before slicing through ice bones.

Karigan closed her mind to her aunt’s half-hysterical sobbing behind her, and focused on what she needed to do. Fortunately, she’d been working with Arms Master Drent since her return and her condition was good, allowing her to keep up with the onslaught of growing, faster whirlwinds.

Daro cried out beside her, an icicle dagger jammed into her thigh. The jaw of the creature opened revealing jagged sharp teeth and clamped on Daro’s leg. Her cries of pain mingled with Aunt Brini’s screams. Karigan hammered the ice skull with her staff, and shards of it flew in all directions. Brandall turned to catch Daro, but she did not fall. Her bleeding wounds crystallized, turned to ice that spread rapidly, freezing her wounded leg, then creeping upward to her hip.

“Daro!” Brandall cried, but he, like Karigan, had to fend off attackers lest they, too, get stabbed and bitten.

“So cold,” Daro moaned. Though she struggled, the ice continued to creep up her torso, and her movements became slow, labored. She could not move her lower body at all.

Karigan watched helplessly and in horror, not knowing how to help Daro as she stopped moving altogether, her hair frosted over, her face frozen in an expression of pain. Her cries turned to silence, and her sword slipped from her stiff hand. The ice continued to thicken over her in layers. Karigan slammed away another creature, her attention and Brandall’s divided between their attackers and Daro, but there was little they could do for her. The ice had turned her into a frozen statue.

Fire flared down the corridor. Balls of it flew through the air—Mara! The din of battle died as she progressed toward them. Flame grew from her hand, the one with the missing fingers, and she molded it into roiling balls and splashed them into the creatures. Bones of ice melted into slushy puddles.

Brandall smashed the last of the whirlwinds, and the corridor was filled with the panting of tired Green Riders. Mara made her way to them, her face wet with sweat, her eyes feverish.

“Thank the gods,” Karigan said. She turned to put her arm around her aunt’s trembling shoulders to comfort her.

“They are everywhere throughout the castle,” Mara said.

“What about Daro?” Brandall asked, reaching to touch the hand of their friend.

“Don’t,” Mara said. “If you accidently push her over, she will shatter on the floor.”

They all took a step away from Daro.

“But, is she still alive?” Karigan asked.

“I don’t know.”

A moment of horrified silence passed among them.

“Couldn’t you just thaw her with your ability?” Brandall asked Mara.

“I don’t dare risk it. I don’t know the nature of this magic, and I could too easily burn her.”

“The king . . .” Karigan began.

“Yes,” Mara replied, “we need to reach the king. We need to organize, sweep the castle, and wipe these things out. If it is possible.”

“If?” Brandall asked.

“They are magical and anything is possible.” Mara called to the other exhausted Riders to join them. “We need to regroup.”

As Mara assembled the Riders, Karigan rushed her shocked aunt back to her chamber, making sure there were no other creatures along the way. She pounded on the door. “It’s me! Me and Aunt Brini!”

Her father flung the door open, and Karigan thrust her aunt inside and into the arms of her anxious sisters.

“Karigan,” he asked, “what is happening?”

“No time,” she said. “I’ve got to go. Aunt Brini will tell you.”

“I am coming with you.”

“No! You need to look after my aunts. Here!” She thrust her staff into his hands. “Use this if you need to. Don’t let anything in!”

“Anything?”

She slammed the door shut in reply and ran to rejoin Mara and the others, who were making plans near the grotesque ice statue that was Daro Cooper. Karigan found Daro’s sword and hefted it in her hand. It was lighter than what she had become accustomed to, but it would serve.

“I’ll take good care of it,” she promised Daro. “I’ll bring it back to you.”