Iriana’s eyes were huge and round. ‘That was Windeye magic? What was that beautiful silvery stuff you were manipulating?’
Now it was Corisand’s turn to stare in astonishment. The vision the Wizard had gained was not the normal sight of her birth world, but was clearly very similar to her own Othersight. Did that mean Iriana could also—
Without warning, a bolt of fire struck down from above. Aurora, her great wings with their swirling colours outstretched across the sky, could clearly be identified through swirls of the fog. Diving forward, Iriana shoved a stunned Corisand aside just as another jet of flame shot from the glittering eyes of the eagle to tear a smoking scar in the shrivelled moss, just where they had been standing.
‘Aurora, stop,’ the Windeye yelled with both her physical and mental voice. ‘It’s me.’
The only reply was another sizzling zap of flame, close enough to singe their skin and crisp the ends of their hair. ‘What’s wrong with her?’ Corisand panted. ‘Taku would—’ She was forced to throw herself aside once more as the next lance of fire came down.
‘Split up,’ Iriana shouted. ‘Confuse it.’
‘No, don’t—’ But Iriana had already shot away from the Windeye’s side, zigzagging to avoid the incandescent bolts. ‘Taku, help us, please.’ Corisand jerked out the cry as another fiery missile came down inches away, its hot, concussive blast hurling her backwards. She rolled and scrambled to her feet, her head ringing. Iriana was a shadowy wraith, away in the mist to her right, and Corisand saw a further explosion of flame drive her further away. ‘Don’t lose sight of me,’ she called. ‘We’ll never find each other again.’
Once more she cried out to Taku - and this time he answered. The spectral head of the great serpent appeared, eyes shimmering intensely blue through the mist. The relief that flooded Corisand curdled into disbelieving horror as a glittering spear of ice hit Iriana, piercing straight through her body. Instantly she was covered in a glistening frozen carapace, transfixed like a ghostly statue, her face contorted in a rictus of agony, her clouded eyes staring open as if beseeching the Windeye for help.
Not Taku! Corisand was stunned by such betrayal - then suddenly everything became clear. The attacker was not the Evanesar but Hellorin. He had ambushed her in the guise of her friends, even as she entered the Elsewhere.
Another fusillade of ice spears came hurtling down to form a glacial palisade that surrounded Windeye and Wizard. Corisand felt the cruel cold beating at her, felt the skin on her face tightening and her limbs growing numb, but the outward pain and peril seemed insignificant, overwhelmed by the colossal surge of anger boiling up within. ‘We’ll see about this,’ she growled. Now that she knew her opponent, she could fight. Using her Othersight, she pulled in warm air from outside the chilling barrier of Hellorin’s ice wall and fashioned it into a dome fused with adamantine will, to protect herself and her stricken friend. ‘I know you now, slavemaster,’ she cried out in challenge.
‘Much good will it do you, beast-begotten interloper.’ The Forest Lord’s voice crashed like thunder against her ears. ‘The Fialan is rightfully mine, and I will have it back.’
‘Oh, will you?’ Corisand muttered. Spinning her mirror of Othersight as Taku had taught her, she made a window through the fog and looked upon her foe as he really was.
The images of Taku and Aurora vanished. In their place stood Hellorin, taller than a tree, towering into the cloudy sky above, the crowning antlers a silver shadow above his brow. Quickly, the Windeye wove a net of air and shadow, hurling it at her foe with all her strength. As it flew through the air it expanded to cover the titanic figure, wrapping him in a clinging shroud, finer than cobweb, stronger than adamant. It covered him from head to foot, stifling his missiles of fire and ice.
Hellorin roared with rage as he struggled against his bonds, his face contorted from the strain and his eyes ablaze with hatred. Corisand threw herself into keeping the bonding taut, pitting all her magic against his power. She knew she had little time. Her strength was no match for that of the cunning, ancient Lord of the Forest. Each moment seemed to stretch into hours as she strove to contain him. Pain and exhaustion spasmed through every nerve and muscle, setting her entire body alight as her will was battered over and over by the thrust of Hellorin’s mind. Soon it would crumble, she knew, like the walls of a fortress under siege - yet what could she do? He had forced her into a manoeuvre that was essentially defensive, and she dared not relax that defence for a single instant or her imprisoning spell would crumble and all would be lost. Her initial plan had been to keep tightening her net until the physical and psychic pain forced her enemy to flee, but she had overreached herself. Lacking the strength to overcome him entirely, she was now locked in a deadly stalemate from which she could not escape.
Hellorin knew it. A cruel laugh came from within the concealing web as he increased the pressure on her will still further. Corisand could only look on in horror as the meshes slowly began to fray and unravel, loosening their steely grip. He was almost free . . .
Once the Windeye had bound Hellorin, he could no longer maintain Iriana’s imprisoning carapace. As his concentration wavered and the ice that had held her so remorselessly shattered and fell away, Iriana saw Corisand locked in a desperate battle. Letting her powers sing free within her, she pitched into the fray. Suddenly the land itself rose up against the Phaerie Lord. The ground beneath his feet cracked and crumbled, breaking up into great boulders that she lifted into the air and hurled at him, hammering his tottering form. As she pulled the pressure of his fearsome concentration onto herself, she saw Corisand’s net tighten once more, and increased her assault to keep him off balance. A veritable whirlwind of earth and loose stone, called up at her behest, surrounded him in a lethal fusillade.
Her face set with ire and determination, she clasped the end of her rough wooden staff in a white-knuckle grip and fixed her eyes on her foe with deadly concentration. Then she squared her shoulders, lifted the staff and brought the heel down hard upon the ground. The earth gaped open, a great, dark, jagged maw that engulfed the Forest Lord, and closed over him with an echoing boom.
As Hellorin’s assault was banished, Corisand staggered from the recoil of her own magic. The remnants of her web tangled into a snarl of silvery filaments that melted back into the air. Iriana sagged against her staff, panting, as her storm of earth and boulders thudded to the ground.
The Windeye was looking at her, her eyes round with awe. ‘Is he . . . did you destroy him?’
‘If only I could.’ Iriana abandoned the unequal struggle and sat down abruptly. ‘With luck, however, it should take him a good while to find his way out of my spell. I took him by surprise that time, Corisand. Once you bound him, his concentration was on you, and I managed to get loose from that dreadful freezing spell. He won’t let it happen again.’ She shuddered. ‘Now that’s an experience I don’t want to repeat in a hurry. It bloody hurt.’
Even as they were speaking, the mist was starting to fade and clear. The last tatters swirled away to leave them on the beautiful shores of Taku’s lake, mysterious in the soft evening light. Iriana gasped at the sight. ‘It’s amazing. A whole new perspective. All those extra colours . . . I never guessed it would be so beautiful. No wonder you fell in love with this place, Corisand. You must—’
Out of nowhere, the Evanesar were suddenly there. Iriana’s eyes narrowed. She leapt to her feet, staff in hand, and Corisand acted just in time to stop her flinging another spell at them. ‘Wait, Iriana!’ She seized the Wizard’s hand. ‘It’s not Hellorin this time.’