Just then, Inama came running around the dragon’s tail. She and Ophelia grabbed the dead weight of the tail that was pinning him to the ground and lifted. Thomas watched his leg rise up, still stuck onto the spines on the tail. Ophelia pushed down on his leg and it slid off the spikes, falling to the ground. Thomas rolled onto his back. Ophelia and Inama dropped the dragon’s tail off to his side.
“Ophelia, what do I do? I can’t feel them,” Thomas cried.
Ophelia held the sapphire near his leg and he watched the light glow and his bleeding slow.
“The surgeon,” Inama said. “He could help.”
Ophelia grabbed Inama by the arm and shook her head. Thomas stared at her with a blank expression. She glanced at him with a quivering lip and again focused on holding the sapphire over his leg.
“Ophelia,” Thomas said as calmly as he could. “Is Rune...” he started but stopped when she snapped her head up to look at him.
She handed him the crystal, “He’s gone.”
Thomas remembered seeing the dragon’s paw swipe over his head toward Rune. He stared at the blood on Ophelia’s shirt and realized where it had come from.
“Come on, let’s get you up,” she said.
Thomas put the sapphire back around his neck and took hold of Inama and Ophelia’s shoulders. They lifted him up to his feet.
“Can you walk?” Inama asked.
Thomas tried to move his legs, but they didn’t respond. He shook his head.
“Over there,” Ophelia pointed to the one open street that led into the city where the army was currently based.
The two began walking Thomas over to the street while his legs dragged uselessly behind him. As they walked a bright light exploded from the east beyond the frontline. They stopped and watched as a shockwave of white light rippled out toward them.
“Anders,” Thomas whispered.
***
Anders pushed against Merglan’s shield barrier that held him in place. He could see Maija clinging to Killdoor’s side, yet no matter how hard he tried with his magic, he could not break through Merglan’s barrier. Merglan was too powerful.
“No!” Anders shouted as he watched magic fly from Merglan’s hands toward Maija.
Killdoor howled in pain and the barrier keeping him back fell instantly. Maija fell through the sky and Zahara raced after Merglan. Anders saw Raffa scoop under Maija. She’s not dead! he thought seeing her grab onto Raffa and move along his neck.
Confused, he focused on Killdoor and Merglan. The dragon’s wing was badly severed; blood poured from the injury. Merglan continued to skillfully divert magic to keep them from spiraling out of control.
We can take him, Anders said to Zahara as he sent magical attacks at the pair, bombarding them as fast as he could summon the energy.
More magic streamed in from behind Anders, bombarding Merglan and Killdoor. Maija? He thought, then saw Hannah and her purple dragon flying alongside them.
Keep him preoccupied, Tarron scolded Anders for losing focus. Don’t allow him to heal that dragon!
Anders doubled his efforts, using Tarron’s knowledge of spell work and the combined magic from Zahara and the sapphires they carried. This was the moment they had been saving their stores for.
Merglan crashed to the ground, leaping down from Killdoor to attempt to heal him. Anders and Zahara continually smashed and pressed down with all their magical might on the evil sorcerer. Hannah attacked with them. Together they kept Merglan from healing his dragon.
It’s working, Tarron said. He’s breaking under the pressure. We can finish him now. Let me cast the spell.
Anders continued to pressure Merglan while Tarron created the final spell. He hardly noticed Raffa and Maija joining them. Crystals cracked and popped from their hemorrhaging flow of magic into Anders’ efforts.
Now, we need to do it now, Zahara called to them.
Anders saw Merglan buckle to one knee under their pressure. Zahara was right, they needed to take action this moment.
Anders felt Tarron reaching for him to pass the spell through his mind and out of Anders’ body. Zahara swooped up and turned to fall directly on the evil sorcerer. Not knowing why, Anders reached into the pouch on his saddle and pulled out the wooden cube. Using his magic, Anders accessed all of the remaining crystals’ energy and allowed Tarron’s spell to work through him. With the cube held tightly in one hand and his blade in the other, Anders felt the explosion of energy coursing through his body. He swung Lazuran down. Tarron’s spell ran through his mind. Anders put everything into the attack they hammered on Merglan.
Light flashed in the explosion when Anders’ energy blade struck. He felt the flood of magic plow through the barriers protecting Merglan, then abruptly stop. Zahara was ripped away from him and he tumbled to the ground. Anders bounced onto his feet and found himself standing face to face with Merglan.
Merglan’s mind pierced his like a sharpened blade, stabbing through what he thought was a protective barrier. Give it up, Anders, the voice sounded in his mind.
Anders struggled to force him out.
The hate is strong in you, Merglan said. Stronger than your father’s.
Anders could see the orb of light encasing them. He had nowhere to run. Zahara clawed at the outside of the sphere unable to break in. He was trapped.
Imagine what we could accomplish if we worked together, Merglan said.
I’ll never work with you, Anders replied, retreating deeper into his mind.
He heard Merglan laugh, There’s nowhere in your mind that you can hide from me.
Anders looked for an escape, for some deep hole where he could block his thoughts from Merglan, but every path seemed to be blocked.
He suddenly became aware of Merglan walking toward him. Anders still held Lazuran in his hand. He tightened his grip and prepared to swing at Merglan.
You shouldn’t, Merglan said, stepping closer.
Anders almost retaliated, but from somewhere in the back of his head he could hear Ivan’s voice. It whispered, repeating the same two words, Let go. Against everything that he wanted to do by attacking Merglan, Anders gave in. No matter who had helped him, no matter how much magic he had used, nothing he had done had stopped Merglan. Anders pitched his sword off to the side, leaving himself exposed and unguarded.
What’s this? Merglan asked, lowering his blade and stopping before Anders.
The voice in the back of his head whispered, Understand the source. It was what Ivan had been trying to tell him when the elven dragonrider was attacking him. In that instant, Anders remembered one of his first lessons in magic. Solomon spoke of the force that flowed around them.
What are you doing? he heard Merglan ask, his voice sounded far away in his thoughts. It’s not possible, was the last thing he heard.
Anders looked out at Maija, smiled, and let go. He closed his eyes and felt his hatred for Merglan melt away. His body felt fuzzy and he opened his eyes. Anders’ entire body was glowing and shifting in a translucent light in front of Merglan. Zahara’s form shifted and swirled at his side. He looked back and saw that he was a misty form that extended outside of his physical body. The sight didn’t make him panic though. Anders felt more whole now than he ever had. Merglan held out his hand, trying to stop Anders, but the energy emanating from Merglan could not stop him. Instead it seemed to be an opening to Merglan’s soul. He moved toward the sorcerer and entered.
Suddenly, Anders could feel and see all of Merglan’s emotions and memories. Days spent with Ivan in the castle. Finding his dragon, Killdoor, and riding him into Northland. He felt all of Merglan’s rage and the anger he felt toward everyone. Anders saw Merglan’s memory of the day he killed Magleen, Zorna’s instructor. Thinking he’d beaten her prediction of his downfall, he began his hostile takeover of Kartania. Anders witnessed Ivan’s dragon, Jazz, fall under his power. Merglan could’ve killed Ivan then, but decided to torture him by killing his bonded and sinking the ship that carried Anders, his mother and his older brother. After learning of their survival and how they were plucked from the ocean by another ship carrying people to the far north, Merglan tried again to stop them. They’d passed the barrier and he spent the next two years abandoning his efforts to control the world and focused on killing Ivan’s child for fear of the prediction of his death.
Unable to learn of a new way to come back if he came to Northland, Merglan attempted to open the only way through the barrier that his instructor had shown him. Merglan used all of his magic and instead of breaking his own spell, he destroyed the time paradox. Unintentionally, Merglan had ended the faster timeline Northland had been subjected to when Asmond banished the riders. Merglan’s anger soared to new heights and he spent the next eighteen years trying to harvest as many inhabitance crystals to attempt an attack on Ivan’s royal descendants in Northland. It wasn’t until he learned Ivan’s youngest son had survived and been living somewhere in Westland that he abandoned his efforts on Northland. With the paranoia of a human king rising to power and leading the armies of the world against him, Merglan devised a plan to conquer Kartania and kill Anders. After he’d done that, he could focus on Northland again. Anders felt the madness bottled up in Merglan’s mind driving him to seek a more powerful source when he failed to kill Anders.
As Anders sifted through the memories in Merglan’s mind, he finally understood why Merglan had not been able to do what Anders could. It was what Ivan had been trying to tell him, what Ivan must’ve figured out after his magic had been taken from him. To Anders it was as if he could hear what the powers he’d been using since he bonded were trying to tell him. Hate could never be bent to magic’s true form, no matter how alluring its sensation could be to a sorcerer. The forces of evil could shape and use the energy, but a sorcerer driven by hatred could not do what one with love in his or her heart could do. All Anders had to do was let go and allow his soul to become a part of the natural flowing magic that constantly surrounded them. Only when the forces of hate and evil were faced with love and hope could a bonded rider’s soul pass into the form Anders had taken.
Anders forced his knowledge into Merglan’s mind, showing him that no matter how hard he pushed against him, Merglan couldn’t become more powerful than the thing he sought to control. Fear crippled Merglan’s thoughts. Anders withdrew from Merglan’s mind allowing his mist form to return back into his own physical body. He rose from the place where his body had fallen and stared at Merglan. The orb of light surrounding them had broken. The dark sorcerer stared back at Anders in disbelief.
