The man blinked, but nothing more. Singe bit back a curse-this was why he preferred fire spells! — as the mercenary pulled back his bowstring.
Ashi was quicker. Someone had abandoned a mesh shopping bag containing the still wet body of a good big fish on the street as they fled the mercenary attack. The hunter snatched it up, spun around twice, then let the bag fly. It hurtled through the air and struck the mercenary, slapping him completely off the soarsled. His arrow snapped out of the bow to strike the wall of the tower over Moon’s head. A spray of amber light burst from it, coating a broad patch of the wall in a honey-like sheen. The mercenary hit the ground with a hard thump and lay still. His soarsled-and the fish-tumbled down beside him. Mithas let out an angry shout.
Moon didn’t even move. There was a weird, hungry look in his eyes. Singe felt goosebumps rise on his arms and followed his gaze.
One of the other mercenaries, also armed with a bow and the shimmering arrows, had gone after Dandra, but she had simply stepped up onto the air. Gliding above the ground, supported by her power, she twisted and turned with matchless speed and grace. In order to have even a chance at hitting her, the man had to keep his soarsled in constant motion.
Moon’s eyes followed Dandra’s every move with a frightening intensity.
The sweep of a shadow overhead forced Singe’s attention back to Mithas and the remaining two mercenaries. They circled him and Ashi like vultures. Both held swords rather than bows and seemed reluctant to land and use them, but Mithas held the slim stick of a magic wand in his fingers. He watched Ashi in a way that reminded Geth of a farmer inspecting prime livestock.
“Surrender!” he called down.
Ashi spat a few words in the tongue of the Bonetree clan. Mithas may not have understood the words, but he clearly understood the tone. His face twisted into a savage grin, and he flicked the wand at Singe.
The wizard tried to throw himself aside, but dodging magic wasn’t quite the same as diving away from an arrow. The spell that leaped from the wand didn’t produce a tell-tale glowing ray, but instead seemed to bend the sunlight in the air around itself. For something with no apparent substance, however, the lancing beam carried a powerful punch. It caught him on the side, and his dodge turned into tumble. He ended up on his belly beside the fallen mercenary, staring across the filthy stones of the street as pain radiated through his side-it felt like he had taken a blow deep into his soft tissues.
His fall gave openings to Ashi and Dandra, though. He watched in a daze as Ashi sprinted forward and jumped up, grabbing for the edge of a soarsled that had drifted too low. Energy crackled around the hunter’s fingers, and the disc tilted wildly, but the mercenary on the sled managed to keep his footing, though his sword dropped to the street with a ringing crash. As Mithas whirled to flick his wand, Ashi gave a mighty twist and kick, pulling herself up onto the sled. The invisible bolt bent the light where her feet had been. Heedless of the disc’s wild rocking, Ashi grappled with the mercenary.
Dandra put on a burst of speed and darted directly underneath the soarsled of the mercenary who had been stalking her. The mercenary’s head twisted as he tried to follow her, and when she stopped, he brought his soarsled skimming around in a quick movement, bow already drawn and aimed. Dandra’s eyes narrowed in concentration. The air between her and the mercenary rippled as she spun out the force that kalashtar called vayhatana-and the man jerked to a stop, captured in midair by the power of her mind.
His soarsled, however, didn’t stop. Momentum carried it away from his feet, the crackling energy faded, and the disc arced down to smash into the street below. The man’s eyes went wide. He stared at the empty air under his feet, then at Dandra, and in an instant his bow joined the falling soarsled as he raised open hands in surrender.
The remaining mercenary sent his sled darting for his suspended comrade. Dandra swung her captive-who screamed like a girl-at him, but the movement was sluggish and more a threat than anything else.
Mithas’s wand wavered between Ashi and Dandra. Both were easy targets.
Singe forced himself up. The bow of the first mercenary Ashi had knocked down lay beside him with blunt, amber-tipped arrows scattered all around. The wizard grabbed for the bow, laid an arrow across it, and pulled the string back. “Mithas!” he shouted. The sorcerer turned. Singe loosed the arrow and grabbed for another.
The shot was wild, of course, but he would have been happy if the arrow had gone anywhere near the man. All he needed was a moment’s distraction for the chance to aim the second arrow more carefully. His first arrow, though, found a target after all.
It struck square in the back of the mercenary struggling with Ashi. The man stiffened as honey-colored light wrapped around him, freezing him in place-and the disc dropped for the ground with Ashi caught in the paralyzed man’s arms. Dandra gasped, her face tightened, and vayhatana rippled again, slowing the soarsled’s fall.
But Mithas flicked his wand and air bent like a counterstroke to the ripples of vayhatana. The beam struck Dandra in the belly, flinging her backward as everyone she had held in the air dropped to the ground. Singe gasped-and it was utterly swallowed by a heart-rending shriek from Moon. Mithas’s wand, already aimed for Singe, rose and flicked toward the terrible cry, but the sorcerer was too slow. Silver-white light exploded onto the street, overwhelming the afternoon light. Mithas flung up an arm to shield his eyes-and Singe watched in amazement as the fabric of his sleeve fell to shreds. Spots of blood burst across the flesh of his arm, across his chest, across his face. Red-soaked rags were all that remained of his clothes. He screamed in pain, and Singe saw his eyes blaze with rage. He thrust out his hand in an arcane gesture, abandoning wand for spell.
The second arrow still lay across Singe’s bow. He lifted the weapon almost without thinking and loosed the arrow.
The expression of surprise on Mithas’s blood-streaked face was caught behind the honey light that surrounded him. His soarsled stayed aloft, and he bobbed in the air like an outraged amber statue.
The last mercenary, still uninjured, took one look around and shot up and away into the sky.
Singe dropped the bow and dragged himself to his feet, his side aching. Ashi, her face twisted in pain, was extricating herself from the embrace of the paralyzed mercenary. The mercenary Dandra had snared with vayhatana and the mercenary Ashi had felled with a fish were groaning and stirring feebly. Dandra was sitting up, rocking slowly as she clutched at her belly. Singe met her gaze, and they both looked up at Mithas. The wounds that the sorcerer had suffered reminded Singe of what Erimelk had done to him, only far worse and more extensive. He turned to look at Moon.
The young kalashtar stood rigid, his body trembling and his skin pale, as if the energy he had put into the psionic attack had left him with barely enough strength to stand. Singe would have gone to him and offered him support, but he wasn’t certain that he wanted to. He’d seen terrible magics unleashed during the Last War. He’d killed people with his fiery spells. He would gladly have killed Mithas. Somehow, though, seeing such a bloody power projected from Moon’s young body left him deeply shocked.
As if he could sense that shock, Moon focused on Singe and gave him a strange smile of grim triumph. The smile of a rival who had proven himself.
Then the smile was gone, and Singe had to wonder if he’d even seen it. Moon shook himself, strength seeming to flow back into his limbs, and he stepped past Singe to offer his hand to Dandra. “We should go. The Watch will come.”
Dandra looked stunned too, but she allowed Moon to help her up. Ashi came to Singe’s side. The struggle had wrenched her scarf askew, and she was tucking it back into place, though Singe still caught a glimpse of a long, bloody scrape across her jaw. “What happened?” she asked. “I saw a flash of light, then Mithas just started to bleed. Was that Moon? Is he that powerful?”