“Ivan?” Nadir asked, interrupting Anders in surprise. 

Anders nodded, “Merglan closed us inside a sphere, blocking Maija and Hannah. Ivan spoke to me and told me what to do and...” Anders tried to find the right words to describe what he’d done. Shrugging finally, he finished, “I broke him.”  

“You killed him,” Nadir said. 

Anders shook his head, “No, Maija did.”  

“But you broke him?” Nadir asked. 

“Ivan guided me in how to break through to Merglan’s soul, to show him why his hate could never overcome our hope. I tried to talk him down, but he moved to strike me with his sword and Hannah got between us. I came at him and, well, that’s when Maija slit his throat.”  

Nadir shuddered, “And now it’s all over, just like that.” 

“Yeah,” Anders said hardly believing it. “She saved us all.” 

“You each did your part. Maija acted as any of us would’ve,” Nadir said. 

Maija glanced away from Natalia and asked, “What?”  

Anders chuckled slightly and pointed to his ears, “Back to normal?”  

She nodded as Nadir asked, “So the Norfolk rider has a claim to your throne? That’s going to need sorting out.”  

Dwarf King Remli Madhammer jogged up from among the survivors in the field. “Anders!” he bellowed as he strode toward them, dropping his stained warhammer and spreading his arms wide.  

Anders met the dwarf with open arms, “The dwarfs are not left without a King!”  

“I thought you knew? It takes more than an army of orcs to bring me down,” Remli replied. 

“There were a more than a few,” Nadir said. 

“It was a bit touch-and-go for a while there at the end,” Remli admitted. “But thanks to you two elves,” he said waving a finger between Natalia and Nadir, “We pushed them back and held on until the riders could do their work.”  

“Your daughter?” Natalia asked, getting Remli’s attention.  

“Alive,” he answered. “See for yourself,” he said, pointing toward a group of dwarfs behind them. “Maylox is there near my wife.”  

Natalia grinned and ran to see the dwarf princess.  

“So, we’ll be needing to have a sit down and talk about how things will be between us from now on,” Remli said.  

Anders nodded, “That’s one thing that will have to wait. For the time being, I’ll be with my friends and family.” Anders stepped away from the two leaders to stand by Maija. “Now it’s time to face the reality.”  

“I didn’t want to be the one to say it,” Maija replied. 

“Who’s still alive?” Anders finished.  

Anders looked into Maija’s eyes, “No matter who comes up missing among our loved ones, we’ll have each other.”  

“We’ll always have each other,” Maija said. 

Anders felt Maija’s hand grip his tightly and they walked toward the group of allied army survivors.  

*** 

“Thomas,” he heard someone call out somewhere behind him.  

Thomas looked over his shoulder, away from the wound he’d been healing with the poudrettite. The Lumbapi soldier was responding nicely to the treatment.

“Anders!” he shouted, as his cousin walked into the healing area now stationed next to the former medic tent.  

Anders hurried over to him and stood waiting for Thomas to stand. When he didn’t jump up, Anders leaned in for a hug, then asked, “Too busy working on your patients to give me a proper hug?”  

Thomas shook his head, “No. I would stand if I could.”  

Anders seemed to see him more clearly now. He asked with concern, “What happened to you? Your clothes are…” he started, but Thomas cut him off. 

“Melted,” Thomas responded.  

“How?” Anders asked. 

“The dragon that burned down the medical tent,” Thomas said, pointing to the dead red dragon not far from where Thomas sat on the adobe rubble.  

Anders turned to look at the creature. Inama came into view, having seen Anders. She said, “Thomas saved us all.”  

Thomas felt a warmth rise into his cheeks as Anders looked at him in shock.

“You did that?” Anders asked. 

“Not alone, and at great expense,” Thomas replied seriously. He felt ashamed at wanting Anders to be proud for what he did. So many people died trying to stop the creature; he had just gotten lucky.  

“You can’t use your legs?” Anders asked. 

Thomas shook his head, “It happened when...”  

“When he was saving thousands of lives,” Inama finished for him. 

“Has Rune taken a look?” Anders asked. 

Thomas frowned, “No.”  

“Well I can try to heal you,” Anders said. 

Thomas sat still while Anders looked at his back. He felt a warmth on his lower back and a few moments later Anders said, “How’s that?”     

Thomas tried to move his legs, but they wouldn’t budge. “I felt warmth on my back, but they still don’t work,” he said.