Her large eye quivered for a moment, then opened. Anders asked, “Are you okay?”

She closed her eye and lifted her head. Rolling over onto her stomach, she got her four feet under her body and opened her eyes again. Anders stood with his hand on her neck trying to support her. She pushed herself up, wavering slightly. Realizing she was on the edge of the cliff, she took several steps uphill before sitting down.

Are you ok? Anders asked again, this time silently.

I think so, she said and, seeing Anders’ torn clothes and face covered in blood, added, You don’t look so good.

Anders put his hand up to his forehead again and then looked at the sticky blood on his hand, Yeah, but I feel good enough. He sat down, his body sore and tired, his head still throbbing. Together they remained still, taking a moment to recuperate from the crash.

Where’s Ivan? Zahara asked.

Anders shrugged, I don’t know.

I’ll search for him with my mind.

“No, don’t!” Anders shouted aloud, raising his arms and waving his hands. “We were attacked when our minds were searching before. Ivan said Merglan could still be out here and I think he might have been the cause of our crash. We shouldn’t take the chance of being attacked again.”

Okay. We should find him then.

Yes, Anders agreed, groaning in pain as he stood up.

The two went back to the indentation in the side of the mountain where they’d crashed. Anders remembered seeing Ivan fly off at the same moment that he did, so they stood in the tilled soil and looked in the direction he would have gone. Anders looked over the cliff edge into the darkened area before them. First, he eyed the area at the base near the spot where he had landed. It took awhile to search the space below through the darkness, but after not seeing anything on the ground, he decided to run his gaze across the trees that rose up in front of him. It didn’t take them long to spot Ivan climbing down from a tall tree.

“Ivan!” Anders shouted. Ivan looked around and saw Zahara and Anders standing on top of the cliff. “Are you okay?” Anders asked, cupping his hands around his mouth to make his voice carry farther.

Ivan waved and shouted back, letting them know he was not seriously injured from the crash. “Stay there. I’ll meet you at the top of the cliff,” he called back.

Anders and Zahara did as he asked, taking the time at the top of the cliff to rest up. Before Ivan reached them, Nadir ran down from the ridgeline above.

“Are you okay?” he asked, his face furrowed with concern. After making sure the two were not terribly hurt, he asked about Ivan. Anders pointed over the cliff and told him Ivan was on his way up.

“What happened?” Nadir asked. “I was following you and all of a sudden you started faltering. Before I knew it, I saw you plummet over the mountainside.”

“I don’t know exactly what happened,” Anders replied, still mystified. “We were searching the area with our minds and I think we were attacked. It could be that Merglan is still in the area and attacked us while we were vulnerable.”

Nadir drew his sword and looked around at the tree line along the meadow, ready for an attack at any moment.

“I doubt he’s that close,” Anders said. “He would’ve attacked by now if he was going to. We’ve been exposed for awhile.”

“I’m not going to take any chances,” the elf said, gripping the handle of his sword tightly.

Just then Ivan’s head emerged over the horizon line of the cliff. He had climbed the same chute Anders had to get to Zahara. Anders and Zahara rose back to their feet.

“What happened to us?” Anders asked him. “Were we attacked by Merglan?”

“In a way,” Ivan said, walking up to them and brushing the dirt and pine needles from his body. “We must have hit some form of an airmine.”

“An airmine?” Anders asked confused as to what exactly that meant.

Rubbing more dirt and needles from his hair, Ivan said, “Yes, an airmine. It’s a technique only the most skilled sorcerers can use to knock their enemies out of the sky. He must have placed one here when he was being pursued by the other riders.

“You can create a sphere of energy around a particular location that will disrupt the minds of other sorcerers. A trained magic user can see them coming from a mile away and avoid them. It is a desperate attempt to shake your pursuers or attackers.”

How come you didn’t see it coming? Zahara asked, her voice sounding in both Ivan and Anders’ minds.

“As I have told you before, after the loss of my dragon, my abilities diminished greatly. The only things I can still do fairly well are sense and locate people, not traps laid by powerful magicians. You two are not yet at the level of training that you would have noticed it. It was lucky that we weren’t severely injured in the crash.” As the words came out of Ivan’s mouth, he noticed the blood covering Anders’ face and gave him a strange look.

Anders noticed Ivan’s reaction and said, “It looks worse than it is. Head wounds bleed a lot, I guess.”

Is it safe to continue searching for the others? Zahara asked.

“Yes, I don’t feel Merglan’s presence in the immediate area. I think we’re safe to continue our search,” Ivan said. “How are you holding up?” Ivan asked Nadir, noticing he was still clutching his sword.

“I’m fine. A little slower than you, but I’m enduring just fine,” Nadir said, placing his sword back into its scabbard on his back.

“Good. Well, if we have all recovered, then we should continue our search. Given the airmine, it seems we are on the right path,” Ivan said.

Anders nodded, “Yeah. I just hope there aren’t any more airmines around.”

“If Merglan’s near, airmines are the least of our worries,” Ivan said cautiously.

Zahara crouched, letting Anders and Ivan climb up onto her back. Once they’d properly seated themselves as best they could without a saddle or ties to hold them on, she pounced, spreading her wings as she leapt over the edge of the cliff. Gravity did most of the work as she took flight while Anders tried to keep himself from sliding forward as she gained speed.

Glancing behind them, Anders caught glimpses of Nadir as he ran below, rushing in and out of the forested mountainside. Carefully and with a very short, one-directional advance, Anders used his mind to search for any signs of the missing dragonriders. Zahara circled high over the mountaintops, forcing Anders to expand his reach when he thought he felt something. Homing in on the large object, Anders thought it wasn’t a part of the natural landscape, yet it wasn’t living either.

“I think I found something,” Anders said, calling to Ivan over the roar of the wind.

“Where?” he asked.

“Directly in front of us and down below the midpoint of the mountainside,” Ander replied.

Zahara dipped toward the location Anders had described. Ivan soon acknowledged that he felt it too.

“Do you have it?” Ivan asked Zahara.

Yes, I do, she said as she angled herself over the spot.

“Land us close, but not directly on it. It could be another trap,” Ivan said to her.

She did as he asked and landed in a close gap among the trees, just wide enough for her body to slide in. Climbing off Zahara’s back, Anders nearly fell under the ache of his body. He caught himself on a tree and gave Ivan a nod to assure him he was okay to continue. Ivan led as they crept quietly through the forest.

Do you think I should stay here? Zahara asked Anders with their mental link.

Yes, you stay here and wait for Nadir. I’ll let you know what we find and if it’s safe to continue. Okay, be careful.

Anders continued to focus his senses on whatever thing lay in waiting among the trees before them. As far as he could tell, it was massive and motionless. As they drew closer, Ivan stopped, putting his arm out to the side and motioning for Anders to do the same. Anders watched Ivan’s face as he squinted through the darkened forest. His eyes widened and mouth slackened, opening with horror.

“What is it?” Anders whispered.