Regg caught Trewe's gaze, and held up his hand. Trewe, perhaps too exhausted to raise his own arm, merely nodded.
The ten or so shadowwalkers flitted among the giants' bodies, crushing the windpipes of any that still breathed. Regg was too tired to protest. Besides, he could take no prisoners.
The dragon, its enormous, shadow-shrouded form sprawled over the field, with bloody pieces of giants still clinging to his teeth and claws, inhaled a rattling breath. Regg staggered to his side, along his neck, noting the gashes, the spurting blood. The wyrm's eyes were open. Ribbons of shadow and ragged breaths leaked from his nose and mouth. The slits of his pupils dilated to focus on Regg.
Regg removed his gauntlet and put his hand on the ridge over the wyrm's eye.
"I have seen nobility in strange places this day."
The dragon's chest rattled, perhaps in a laugh.
"The one who rode me, Abelar, was at peace," the dragon whispered.
"I know," Regg said, and tears wet his face. "Be at peace also."
Regg stared into the dragon's eye until it closed.
"Dawn dispels the night and births the world anew," Regg said. "May Lathander light your way and show you wisdom and mercy. Today you were a light to others."
Shouts turned Regg around. The members of his company looked past Regg and into the sky, pointing with their blades.
"Sakkors!"
Regg looked up and saw the floating, shadow-cloaked Shadovar city emerge from the darkness.
Cale felt the tell-tale tingle behind his eyes, the displacement of his own consciousness as Magadon shared his senses. The mental energy racing through his brain surged, driving him to his knees. His mouth opened to speak but the voice was not his own.
"Kesson Rel!" Magadon screamed through him.
Use all of the power in the Source, Mags, Cale projected, cursing himself for the words. Kill him if you can and we can save you.
Cale knew that those words would stain him forever, that he might have just surrendered his friend to mental slavery to the Source. He vowed to himself that he would do whatever he must to save Magadon.
But first he had to survive.
I am saved, Magadon said. But I will kill nevertheless. First him, then Rivalen, then you.
Kesson Rel!
Regg heard the deep voice in his mind and felt as if his head must come apart. He gritted his teeth and groaned. Sparks exploded behind his eyes. Moans from the men and women of his company told him they were experiencing the same thing.
Beside him, Nayan stood with one hand held to his brow, his mouth fixed in a hard line, and his eyes half-closed as if against a storm.
"The mindmage," Nayan said
In the air above, the shadows and wraiths, bent on annihilating one another, wailed and keened.
The pressure diminished in moments, leaving only a dull throb in its wake. Regg watched in awe as a faint orange glow haloed the edifice upon which Sakkors stood. The air around him felt charged. His hair stood on end.
The entire company exclaimed as the mountaintop upon which Sakkors sat began to sink rapidly toward the earth, as if the power keeping it afloat had failed, or been diverted.
The power churning through Cale's head lit his body afire. The shadows around him spun wildly. Sakkors and its flying mountain flared with Magadon's power, glowing orange and red like a tiny sun as it sank toward the ground.
I am hate! Magadon shouted. And I am power!
Above them, Kesson's chanting gave way to a scream of agony. His horns shattered, and blood poured from his nose, his ears, his eyes. The shadows around him spun. He grabbed hold of his head, screamed again, and fell face-first to the ground.
"Now!" Cale said, and staggered forward, bent as if against a gale.
Riven and Rivalen, blades bare, did the same. Both men bled freely from their nose and ears.
Sakkors shined red and orange as it slowly sank, its light chasing the pitch of the Shadowstorm, overwhelming the shroud that surrounded Sakkors. To Regg, it seemed an artificial dawn and he fell to his knees.
"There is light even in darkness," he said.
Lathander had provided him another sign. His work was not yet done. He stood and looked around the glowing plains.
Through the rain and darkness he saw four forms in the distance, and marked them as Erevis Cale, Riven, the Shadovar, and Kesson Rel.
He grabbed Nayan by the arm. "There! Can your men take us there?"
Nayan looked, saw, nodded.
"Roen, gather your priests!"
Cale, Riven, and Rivalen stumbled forward to execute Kesson Rel.
But Kesson, his head haloed in red light and bleeding from his eyes, ears, and nose, with pulsing veins tracing a throbbing web on his brow, rose to all fours.
"No!" he said, and made a cutting gesture.
No! Magadon shrieked, and Cale heard madness in the tone.
The red glow around Kesson's head winked out. Cale cursed, lunged forward, and raised Weaveshear high for a killing stroke across the back of Kesson's neck.
Kesson threw an arm out blindly behind him and power exploded outward from his form. Black energy slammed into Cale, Riven, and Rivalen. It blew all of them backward five paces, cracked bone, opened flesh.
Exhausted and bloodied, Cale rose to all fours, knowing they had missed their opportunity, knowing they were all going to die.
He found himself staring at a booted foot. Hands took him under his armpits and lifted him to his feet. Regg stood there, looking past him, through him, to Kesson Rel. Nayan stood behind the Lathanderian, his expression unreadable.
Cale glanced around and saw Roen and the priests of the company, ten in all, arrayed in a circle around Kesson Rel, who rose haltingly to his feet.
Warmth suffused Regg's body. The armor and shields of Roen and his fellow priests glowed orange in the setting sun of Sakkors' fall. He thought of Abelar, of faith, of friendship. The thoughts lit a fire in his spirit and he dropped to one knee, brandished his battle-scarred shield, and channeled the divine light of his god. The seed Abelar had planted in his soul bloomed fully.
"Dawn dispels the night and births the world anew," he began, and the rose on his shield began to glow.
Roen fell to one knee, held forth his own shield, his own rose, and joined his voice, and his light, to Regg's.
"May Lathander light our way, show us wisdom…"
The remaining priests fell to one knee, held their shields before them, and joined in the Dawnmeet prayer.
"… and in so doing allow us be a light to others."
The shields of Lathander's faithful glowed with a brightness to rival a dawn sun. Regg's spirit soared to see their faith so embodied in the symbol of their god. He wept as the holy luminescence exposed the darkness of Kesson Rel.
Kesson, already weakened, screamed in the blast of light, fell to the ground. Their light burned away the shadows that shrouded him. He writhed on the ground as if he were afire, shrieking.
"Finish it," Regg said to Cale.
The light from the Lathanderians made Cale queasy but he endured. He watched Kesson fall, shriek, watched the darkness around Mask's First Chosen fall away. He took Weaveshear in both hands and stepped into the circle. Riven did the same.