“Which one should I destroy next?” Ariok asked. “Ceere’s closest, but Terkou has more people. It makes for a difficult decision.”
Balear had to stop this. No one else could. There were no other Dragon Knights for hundreds of miles. He had to subdue Ariok’s consciousness.
But he had no idea how. Ariok’s mind had overwhelmed his own, and the dragon’s strength only grew as it pulled more magic from the Auryozaki.
That gave Balear a desperate idea. During the battle with Feng, Rondel had tried to defeat the dragon by knocking the Fire Dragon Sword away from Feng’s body. Without the connection to his Ryokaiten, the dragon couldn’t sustain a physical form.
Balear attacked Ariok’s mind. He wormed his way into the part that controlled the dragon’s front leg. “Throw away the sword!” he commanded. “I won’t let you destroy Lodia!”
Ariok’s mind was a hammer, one stronger than the Fubuki’s. It smashed against Balear’s consciousness, and he knew that if he blacked out, he would never wake up. He would die, as Amroth had died.
Even so, he wouldn’t give up. He’d sworn to protect Lodia. Amroth had trusted him to do it. Rondel had trusted him to do it. And for the first time, he realized his father had trusted him to do it too.
With the full strength of his will, Balear took control of Ariok’s front claws. It was all he could manage, but it was enough. With a mental scream, he forced them open. The Auryozaki plummeted.
Ariok roared and shot down in pursuit of his fallen Ryokaiten. At the same time, he threw his will at Balear. The dragon picked up Balear’s mental form and threw him. Balear’s vision failed, and his only sensation was that of falling into a black, endless abyss.
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
Ultimate Defense
Minawë’s eyes flicked to Iren and Rondel. Their fight hadn’t started yet; they were still circling each other. She needed to stop them, but as long as Hana was here, she couldn’t.
There was no point in hesitating. Minawë drew back the Chloryoblaka, and the bow created its own arrow. The shot struck Hana between her nose and upper lip.
The arrow splintered on impact. Its remnants clattered to the ground. Hana smirked, unharmed. “Is that it?” she asked.
Minawë readied to shoot again, but then the ground rumbled. Two walls of stone rose on either side of her. She jumped back just before they slammed together. The impact shattered the blocks, and shrapnel flew in every direction. Minawë shielded her face, but she still received cuts on her arms and legs.
Rock shards struck Hana too, but the Maantec didn’t flinch or even blink. The pieces bounced off her.
Minawë couldn’t understand it. Hana wasn’t wearing armor. She couldn’t take all those hits, not to mention the arrow from earlier, without injury.
Incensed, Minawë pulled back the Chloryoblaka and loosed three arrows in quick succession. Hana remained motionless, and once again the arrows snapped when they struck her.
“How many arrows can that thing make?” Hana asked. “Why don’t you shoot them all now and be done with it? I’ll stand here and let you attack.”
Minawë grabbed the bowstring, but then she thought better of it. Hana wanted to drag out their battle to keep Minawë from intervening with Rondel and Iren. The first four arrows hadn’t worked. The rest wouldn’t either.
A sinking feeling grew in Minawë’s stomach. Maybe she couldn’t win. After all, even Rondel had failed to wound Hana. Attacking at full strength had only resulted in her mother breaking her hand and dagger against Hana’s stone armor.
In this fight, though, Hana didn’t have stone wrapped around her. She just stood there, barefoot, with that arrogant smirk on her face.
Then Minawë understood. Hana was wearing armor—her skin. With her feet in contact with the ground, Hana was using magic to draw the rock’s strength into her body. She’d hardened herself to the point that nothing could wound her, not even an arrow.
That defense had to have a weakness. If Hana were truly invulnerable, she would have invaded Ziorsecth and wiped out the Kodamas long ago.
Still, the armor was formidable. Worse, Minawë didn’t have the magic of Ziorsecth or Aokigahara to support her.
Perhaps, though, there was more power here than appearances suggested. Grasses and shrubs filled the plain where they stood, and farther up the hills, scraggly pines and hardwoods grew. None of them had much magic, but if Minawë could combine them, she might have a chance.
“Yoo-hoo!” Hana called. “Come up with any ideas yet? Well, don’t expect me to wait. I get impatient.” The three pebbles floating in front of Hana lifted another foot in the air. “You shot me,” she said. “It’s only fair that I get to shoot you.”
Faster than any arrow, the stones crossed the distance between Minawë and Hana. Minawë leapt and avoided the pebbles by inches. On instinct she shot another useless arrow, but Hana wasn’t even looking at her anymore. The Maantec’s eyes focused past Minawë, who had the good sense to look behind her. The stones were coming back.
She dove aside a second time, but the rocks seemed ready for her moves. They circled in midair. Minawë readied to dodge again, but as she was about to jump, pain filled her right arm. A fourth stone, trailing blood, flashed into her line of sight before starting its own return arc.
Minawë fled, zigzagging to avoid the rocks. Hana laughed and increased the number of pebbles to ten. Minawë cursed. The stone that had struck her had only landed a glancing blow. If one hit her directly, it would pierce her body even worse than an arrow would.
She had only one hope of survival, let alone victory. She dropped to her knees and placed her palm on the ground. Her magic radiated out and tapped into the nearby plants. Under her direction, they knit their roots together so they linked up like the shared roots of Ziorsecth.
Hana’s pebbles converged for a final strike, but as they neared, Minawë didn’t leap out of the way. Instead, she held firm and commanded the plants in their strange language, “Protect me!”
Vines sprouted around her, and from them ten leaves unfolded. Each appeared in front of a pebble so that it caught and held the stone in its grasp. The leaves twisted, bent, and pushed against the stones. At last the rocks dropped to the ground, their momentum spent.
Minawë looked at Hana and mimicked the Maantec’s smirk. “I should thank you,” she said. “Because of you, I figured out how to win this battle.”
Still kneeling on the ground, Minawë unlaced her boots and removed them. She stood up, barefoot like Hana.
“What, you’re going to throw your shoes at me?” Hana asked.
Minawë didn’t bother replying. She had to concentrate for the next part of her plan. She sent magic through her feet into the soil and called to the plants she had connected. Their roots wrapped themselves around her legs.
As if lightning had struck her, a surge of energy ripped through Minawë’s body. The plants’ power was incredible. Even when Minawë had drawn magic from the plants in Aokigahara, it was nothing like this. Though smaller than Aokigahara’s trees, these plants had a hardiness that gave them unexpected strength.
They were also far more numerous. The circle of plants Minawë had connected was wider than what she’d used against Azar. It was almost overwhelming.
Minawë looked across the expanse between her and Hana. More than a hundred feet separated them, but the distance mattered little. Minawë’s circle extended well beyond Hana. She wouldn’t have to get close to the Stone Dragon Knight to attack her. She wouldn’t even have to move.
Minawë half-smiled. Considering the way Hana had fought up until now, Minawë’s strategy had an irony to it.
She melded her magic with the energy surging through her from the plants. Rather than speak, she relayed her instructions as pictures, and the plants changed to reflect her desire.
In front of her, a knee-high shrub grew in seconds to a giant maple. It barreled toward Hana. The Maantec blinked twice in astonishment, but otherwise she remained
motionless.
Then the maple smashed into her. It swung with its largest branch and caught Hana in the stomach. For the first time, the Stone Dragon Knight stepped backward.
Now Minawë understood why Hana had added another layer of stone when she’d fought Rondel. Hana’s hardened skin was tough, but it wasn’t invincible. A powerful strike could break it, and if that happened, Hana would have no time to recover before the blow landed.
The tree raised a second limb to strike again, but this time Hana ducked low and avoided it. She placed a hand on the ground.
Energy pulsed through Minawë’s feet. It felt different from the plants, and Minawë realized it was Hana’s magic.
The plants near Hana were tugged upward. She probably wanted to raise a rock shield for extra protection. Minawë put her own magic into strengthening the plants’ roots. She pictured them thick and vibrant, gripping the soil and holding it in place.
For a moment her magic and Hana’s clashed in the ground, invisible to anyone observing. The pair of them were motionless, yet their wills dueled against each other.
Distance determined the outcome. Hana was closer to what she was manipulating, so her magic triumphed. The plants’ roots ripped apart as the rock around Hana launched itself up. It surrounded her in a stone cocoon.
Minawë put a hand to her chest. The pain was immense. It felt like her own limbs had been ripped off when the plants died. She recalled the time, shortly after she’d become the Forest Dragon Knight, when she’d sensed a cougar kill a deer. When something died that she was connected to, she felt that death as if it were her own.
Recovering, Minawë directed her efforts back to her maple tree. It swung two limbs into Hana’s rock shield. The shield pushed forward at the same time. Wood and stone slammed together, and their combined might shattered both. Splinters, rock shards, and dirt erupted over the battlefield. The debris engulfed Iren and Rondel.
As it did, Iren lunged. He had taken advantage of the distraction to attack Rondel. Their battle had begun.
It wouldn’t last long. With their speed, the winner could be decided any second. Minawë needed to end this fight now. She poured energy into the plants and created a tangle of vines each thicker than her calf. She would use them the same way she had against Azar. Hana’s armor wouldn’t survive such a crushing force.
But Hana was ready for her. Minawë felt the Stone Dragon Knight’s magic through the ground again as Hana raised dozens of rocks and sent them to crush the vines. The plants retaliated by smashing the stones into dust. It all happened without either woman moving at all.
Amid the barrage, Hana counterattacked. A hailstorm of pebbles converged on Minawë from every direction.
The assault didn’t worry her. Minawë had given the plants closest to her standing orders to protect her in whatever way they needed. She was momentarily surprised when a tree sprouted beside her and deflected the stones, but then she refocused on her attack.
Seconds passed, then minutes. The battle was going nowhere. Minawë gritted her teeth. She and Hana were evenly matched, each with defenses too flawless for the other to breach. Both stood as motionless as they had throughout the fight, yet all around them the ground had churned into fine sand as their magics clashed.
Then Minawë felt her heart stop. A glint of metal reflected in the sky. Rondel’s dagger arced through the air and landed on the ground.
Minawë screamed. She was about to lose her mother a second time.
Rondel, however, ducked Iren’s beheading strike and placed her hands on Iren’s chest. Minawë couldn’t tell what Rondel did, but Iren’s body shook like a just-caught fish and then flopped to the ground, unmoving.
“No!” Minawë cried. She tapped into the grasses beneath Iren. She could feel him breathing. He was alive.
He wouldn’t be for long. Rondel retrieved her dagger and walked back to him.
Minawë had no idea what to do. She wanted to stop them. She had to stop them. “Stop,” she murmured as Rondel raised the Liryometa. “Stop,” she repeated, louder as the dagger fell.
“Stop!” The ground shook with the word.
Rondel paused, her blade an inch from Iren’s neck. The old Maantec retreated from her attack and glanced around in concern. Minawë shifted her gaze to Hana, thinking the vibrations were some trick of hers.
But the Stone Dragon Knight looked as surprised as Minawë. Whatever this magic was, no one on the battlefield was creating it.
Then Minawë dropped to one knee. Her strength plummeted. Her breath came in gasps. Her vision tunneled, and she threw up. She didn’t understand. Magic poured out of her, but she hadn’t ordered the plants to do anything.
The tremors increased. Finally, like a great beast ripping free of the earth, a swarm of vines erupted from the plain. Five ensnared Rondel, restraining each of her limbs as well as her neck. Others wrapped around Iren and covered his body in a shield of plant life.
In a flash, Minawë realized what had happened. She had given the plants an order: “Stop.” Stop Rondel from killing Iren.
Now that Minawë knew the devastation was her own doing, she felt more in control. She was exhausted, but maybe, just maybe, she could last long enough to finish this battle.
She couldn’t kill Hana. The Maantec’s armor wasn’t invincible, but it was stronger than what Minawë could throw at it.
Fortunately, she didn’t have to kill Hana to get what she wanted. With a grim smile, Minawë sent all the vines not holding Iren or Rondel against the Stone Dragon Knight. Hana raised new rock walls around herself, as Minawë had expected. Instead of attacking the shields, she directed the vines to wrap around them. She then had the plants rise as high in the air as they could so that Hana, stone barrier and all, separated from the ground.
As Hana’s cocoon floated higher, a long-hafted war hammer fell. It was the Maantec’s Ryokaiten. Throughout the battle, she had kept it underground, her foot in contact with it at all times.
Without her connection to the Stone Dragon, Hana had only her own magical reserves to draw from. She could attack or block, but she couldn’t do both. Minawë knew as much from her experience with the plants. During the fight, she had combined her magic with those of the Forest Dragon and the plants themselves. It took all of them together to maintain the constant blend of offense and defense.
Hana sensibly settled for defense. The rock attacks against Minawë stopped.
Minawë was almost out of magic. She was furious that she couldn’t defeat Hana, but helping Iren and Rondel was more important. They had to escape before more Maantecs showed up.
Severing her connection with the plants’ roots, Minawë threw on her shoes and ran to Iren and Rondel. When she reached them, she saw that her vines, in their mindless zeal to carry out her orders, had squeezed Rondel to the point where the old woman had lost consciousness. Fortunately, though, they had left her alive.
Minawë released the magic controlling the vines and let them settle back into the ground. Retrieving the Muryozaki, she slid it into Iren’s sheath. She knelt and heaved both Iren and Rondel onto her back.
They were too heavy for her to carry as a Kodama, so Minawë transformed into a horse and galloped off the battlefield. She ran for hours, not stopping until Hana and the terrible Maantec city Hiabi were far behind.
At dusk Minawë spied a cave in the distance. She walked inside it, changed back into a Kodama, and leaned Rondel and Iren against a pair of stalagmites. Then, her strength long exhausted, she collapsed on the cold stone.
CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
A Reminder
Night had fallen by the time Lord Melwar saw fit to find Hana. She was still clenched in that Kodama’s accursed plants. Her only window was a small opening she’d left in front of one eye too narrow for the vines to penetrate.
Lord Melwar adopted the faintest of smiles. “Let me go out on a limb here.”
“That’s not funny,” Hana snapped. “Would you mind helping me down?”
&n
bsp; He shrugged. The darkness around him deepened, then split into half a dozen knives. Each was as long as Rondel’s Liryometa, and each was black.
Hana shuddered as they appeared. She remembered, years ago, the feel of those knives slicing through her armor like it was wet rice paper. Afterward, she’d lain in a pool of her own blood as it leached out of cuts all over her body. She would have died had Lord Melwar not kept a healer at the ready.
The knives floated in midair as they cut away the vines with ease. They also carved through the walls of earth Hana had constructed around herself. She dropped to the ground unharmed.
As she landed, though, one of the knives brushed against her sleeve. The blade sliced through her clothing and hardened skin. It left a shallow scratch on her bicep.
“Thanks,” she spat. She brushed herself off even though she wasn’t dirty. “What was that for?” She pointed at her arm.
“You spoke rudely just now,” Lord Melwar said. “I felt you needed a reminder.”
Hana’s expression turned leaden. She had let her frustration get the better of her. “I remember,” she murmured.
Lord Melwar half-smiled. “Yes, it is hard to forget your first and only loss. I suppose today will help with that.”
A sudden anger took Hana. “Someday I’ll drive you both to your knees.”
“Perhaps,” Lord Melwar replied. He shrugged again. “Until then, please keep in mind who owns that pretty body of yours.”
Hana clenched her teeth. “That,” she growled, “I promise you.”
Lord Melwar put his back to her, and Hana had a flash of an idea to attack him. She could call up two stone walls and crush him before he had a chance to respond.
But his casual stance unnerved her. He knew she might attack, and he didn’t care. He knew that whatever she did, he could escape it and slay her.
Instead of murdering him, then, Hana asked, “Why didn’t you come with us today? We could have used your help.”
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