“She was right!” Lachonus shouted as he fell. “This is madness!”
The fear in his voice matched the thudding in Fire’s chest, and Fire realized that for the first time he was afraid. Water had been right, and with his reduced magic, this attempt was as likely to get them killed as get them inside the fortress of Xshaltheria.
He closed his eyes and fought the tremble in his fingers. He was weak, not broken, and despite the separation, his magic would keep him alive. Or he would be dead. He gathered his courage and fought the burgeoning panic.
They breached the clouds and Fire lost all sense of direction, except down, because he could feel the earth reaching for his body, like it wanted to drag him to a crushing demise. The clouds passed in a blur and the wind whipped at Fire’s cloak, the material snapping above his head before abruptly ripping free. Lachonus flailed nearby, struggling to keep his feet pointed downward. The clouds came to an end and the pair burst into the open.
Directly beneath them, Xshaltheria approached at shocking speed. Their tiny forms were quickly noticed by Gorewrathian, which sat on the lip of the volcano. He released a below of warning and leapt into the air, fire kindling in his throat.
“It’s going to be close!” Fire shouted.
He extended his hands but the motion caused him to spin. He used bursts of fire from his fingers to help stabilize his fall. The surface of the fortress approached and he sucked in a breath, cringing at the approaching impact. Then he brought his arms into his chest just as they streaked past the battlements—and plunged into the central vent.
Fire pointed downward and released a blast of fire from his hands. Above him, the pack he’d crafted for Lachonus did the same, the flames exploding downward and filling the vent that passed from the top of the fortress to the base.
Fire strained to push the fire downward, the superheated current of flames slowing their descent. The fortress was tall, but arresting their plummet required all his strength, and they gradually began to slow.
“Brace yourself!” he bellowed.
He shoved every ounce of fire he possessed down the vent. They passed through the opening at the base of the column and entered the great chamber at the base of the citadel. They fell the last hundred feet through the flames Fire had conjured and slammed into the ground, waves of fire exploding outward.
The impact drove Fire to his knees, the explosion scattering fiends like leaves caught in a cyclone. They were tossed in all directions, and tumbled over the edge of the platform. Their shrieks were lost in the roar of fire and flame, their bodies falling into the magma of the volcano.
Fire groaned as he stood, his body aching. He stumbled to the side, grimacing in pain and sharp relief. Then he noticed Lachonus. The man was on his hands and knees, the pack on his back spurting flames. Wincing, Fire closed the gap and reached for the soldier, and then heard him laughing.
“Are you well?” Fire asked.
“I can’t believe that worked,” Lachonus said.
Fire extinguished the magic on the man’s back. “That was the easy part.”
“The easy part?” Lachonus grunted as he stood. “We just dropped from five thousand feet into a hole barely ten feet across and landed on a platform filled with fiends hanging above a live volcano.”
Fire grinned. “Like I said, the easy part.”
He pointed to the Dark Gate. The arch rested at the edge of the platform, the silver liquid visible behind the inferno still burning. Defiant screams came from within, suggesting the blast of fire had passed through the Gate.
“The firewall won’t last long,” Fire said. “You need to shut the Dark Gate.”
“And you?” Lachonus asked.
“I give you time,” Fire said.
He clapped Lachonus on the shoulder and then hurried to the stairs ascending to the chamber’s entrance. At the top of the stairs, howls came from the fortress, and Fire could hear the fiends rushing to reach the intruders. Fire stepped to the entrance and gathered the abundance of heat from the volcano and filled the tunnel with fire.
Fiends turned the corner at the end and charged into the flames, dying by droves. Fire stood his ground, knowing that if he failed to protect Lachonus, there would be no victory this day. Lachonus had to shut the Dark Gate, and Fire had to keep him safe until he did.
Fire cast a look over his shoulder—and then snapped around to get a better look. Lachonus had approached the Dark Gate, but a new figure had materialized on the circular platform. Crafted from light, shadow, heat, water, and mind magics, the figure resembled Lachonus, right down to the frown on his features. The mirage stood across from Lachonus.
“What’s going on?” Fire shouted.
“I don’t know,” Lachonus called back.
The soldier stepped to the side, and the golem matched the motion with exactness. Fire grimaced as a siper leapt through his firewall and his jaws clamped shut on his arm. He blasted the beast down the throat and kicked him over the edge. Then he poured his magic into the opening, strengthening the barrier against the charging fiends, who had grown so thick their bodies pressed against each other in their haste.
Fire turned back and watched Lachonus circle the mirage, and it was impossible to tell which was real, and which was replica. More disturbing, the mirage duplicated the motions of Lachonus with absolute perfection.
Lachonus closed the gap in a rush and swung, almost losing his head when the mirage attacked with the same technique. Fire sucked in his breath as the two combatants placed their swords on each other’s throats, and he realized the purpose of the sentry.
“It’s Draeken’s final defense,” he shouted.
Lachonus reached his sword out and cautiously nicked the mirage’s arm, the mirage nicking his own arm in turn. On the top corner of the Dark Gate, the black material cracked, like a blade had cut the stone.
“I think it’s linked to the Dark Gate,” Lachonus called.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Fire shot over his shoulder, straining to keep the fiends at bay.
Lachonus didn’t answer, and Fire realized the truth. Draeken had laid a singular trap. To close the gate required killing the mirage—but killing the mirage required the ultimate sacrifice. Fire cursed Draeken’s tactic and called over his shoulder.
“You have to fight,” Fire called. “Draeken is powerful but not perfect. Surely he left a flaw in that thing. You can find it.”
The clang of blades indicated Lachonus had begun to duel, and Fire turned the whole of his attention to the entrance corridor. Lachonus needed time, and Fire would give it to him. As fiends poured in his direction, Fire shoved them right and left, using fire hammers to knock them over the edge of the steps. They fell past the edge of the platform and into the magma. Distantly he heard dragons roaring and Senia’s scream, but could not join their aerial duel. He had his place, and he would not be moved.
***
Senia pulled on the dragon’s spines, and Isray responded to her mental direction. The white dragon folded one wing and rolled into a dive, evading blasts of fire from two red dragons. They swung above the fortress and Senia caught a glimpse of Lachonus through the vent shaft. But there were two soldiers, fighting each other. Then Isray was forced to bank left when a volley of skorpian bolts came for his wing.
Is Lachonus battling himself? Isray asked.
