Andrew whirled around to see his brother dismounting the horse and dashing toward Jarnvaror. He wheeled his horse around to cut Peter off. “What do you think you’re doing?” he said.

  “We need to stop her,” Peter said. “Or whoever the mage up there is, anyway.”

  “And you think charging in is a good idea after last time?” Andrew demanded.

  “Yeah, I think we should catch her off guard,” Peter said.

  “That’s not what I said!” Andrew snapped. “This time, we should have her cornered. We need to think of a plan. Fast.”

  As he spoke, Anna rode up to them with the queen just behind her. “Your excellency,” one of the queen’s attendants was saying, “we cannot put foreigners in charge of this!”

  “We’re not,” the queen replied. “We’re making use of their expertise.” She turned to Andrew. “Your companion tells me you’ve fought this mage before.”

  “I don’t know,” Andrew said. “At least we encountered someone using the same spell. She pushed us around, but ran away when the dragon showed up.”

  Queen Talitha nodded. “Well, hopefully we can repeat that situation.”

  “We cannot have a dragon fighting in our forest,” her attendant objected. “It may start a fire that burns for miles from this point.”

  Andrew rushed through his mind, thinking what they could do. He examined the guards, the small number of mages, the queen had with her. Then he nodded to himself. He looked at the others. “We’ll ambush her. Peter and I will be bait on Jarnvaror. The rest of you, stay with Anna and try and get as close as possible without the mage noticing.”

  “We won’t be able to sneak as such a large group,” the said the elder warrior.

  “Hopefully, with Jarnvaror holding the mage’s attention, you won’t need to try too hard,” Andrew replied.

  “Hold on!” Anna said running up to them. “If she’s cornered she probably will strike at you, however scared she is of Jarnvaror.”

  “We’ll just have to deal with that,” Andrew said. He grinned, without much humor. “Maybe we should have had Jarnvaror join in when we practiced avoiding your magic.”

  “Maybe, but I was actually thinking something else. Peter, let me put one of the enchantments I’ve been practicing on your sword.”

  Peter drew his second sword and handed it to Anna. Another wave of magic rippled through the air above as Anna focused on the gemstone in the hilt. Andrew saw it flash blue green from the Wisp inside for a moment. Anna looked up at them. “It probably won’t help Jarnvaror too much,” she said. “But I think that will prevent her from just pulling the two of you out of the saddle, as long as Peter doesn’t drop it.”

  “Have I ever dropped a sword before?” Peter asked.

  Andrew nodded his thanks to Anna. He grabbed Peter and pulled him over to the dragon. “Tell him the plan, and lets get going,” Andrew said.

  They mounted up, Peter explaining for the dragon what had just happened. The beast let out a low rumble, eyeing the edge of the cliff. Then he started walking along the ground.

  “Why isn’t he flying?” Andrew asked.

  “It’s a lot easier to land through dense branches than to take flight through them,” Peter replied. “He’s going to climb up.”

  “Wonderful,” Andrew muttered. He braced himself as the dragon reached the cliff and began climbing. He was careful to make sure his quiver didn’t tip over. He wanted plenty of arrows for the encounter.

  The dragon let loose a roar as his head snaked over the top of the cliff. The waves of magic wavered, and even though he couldn’t see the mage, Andrew had a pretty good idea of what was happening.

  “Okay, Jarn, jump off!” Peter said.

  The dragon obliged. Andrew felt dizzy as the dragon spun through the air, rising up, going upside down and to the sides until the world reoriented itself, with the dragon hovering a dozen meters or so over the edge of the cliff, his wings beating down and stirring up the dust on the ledge.

  There was indeed a fountain at the top. The whole cliff was a plaza, jutting out from pillars that seemed to hold up the entrance to a cave that stretched inside the mountain. At its center was the fountain and tree with glowing leaves. Almost a hundred Wisps were flowing through the air, unaffected by the wind of the dragon’s wings. The mage standing by the fountain had braced herself against it, her cloak billowing behind her, her hood thrown off. The blond hair of the elvish mage was tossed about around her face as she glared daggers at the dragon and his riders.

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  They stayed like that for a moment. Andrew sought the name that Lord Sallowain had told them back in the Crimson Wood. “Lady Sheil!” he called. “Lay down your staff! You can’t win this fight.”

  He saw the mage stiffen. Then the mage raised her staff. Faster than Andrew could process, strands of magic shot out of the gemstone, forming a net which rushed at them. Andrew’s gut rose into his throat as the dragon allowed himself to fall underneath it. Then the pressure increased as he rose back, higher, dodging another blast of magic.

  “I am no noble!” the Elf woman shouted up at them. Instead of sending another ball of magic at them, she sent out strands like ropes. Andrew flinched, recognizing the spell that had sent his brother flying into the air before, and knowing there was no surviving it from this height. “I refuse to be a noble in that country!”

  The strands shot around the brothers and tightened. The hilt of Peter’s sword flashed white. The magic strands froze almost a foot away from each of them, as if they’d closed over a ball. Andrew could make out the brief look of astonishment on the Elf mage’s face, just as Jarnvaror dived at her.

  She recovered before Jarnvaror could bite down. Using a different gem than the one in her staff, she wove a strand of magic into something like a whip and lashed out at the dragon. Jarnvaror hissed, pulling away before he reached her. He spat fire at the mage. With a flick of her wrist, the fire whirled, spinning away from her in thin streams.

  “I’ve been practicing to deal with this one!” she yelled. The magical whip shot out and curled around Jarnvaror’s jaws, twisting shut. Whatever Anna’s enchantment had been, Andrew thought, it looked like it could only protect himself and Peter. Jarnvaror tugged and thrashed in the bindings. The mage struggled, but she held his mouth closed. She started pulling them closer, and Andrew was sure they were almost within range of the Wisps’ influence now.

  Andrew knocked an arrow. “You really don’t want to fight us all,” he yelled.

  “The three of you are nothing at this… point…” the mage said. Then she trailed off, as if suddenly realizing Anna wasn’t with them on the dragon’s back. Even as she realized, the Selasi forces were reaching the top of the cliffs. They spread out across the plaza, weapons lowered.

  Queen Talitha took a step beyond the front line. “You’re surrounded, Elf mage,” she called. “Surrender your gems, and we will question you softly. Fight, and we will not guarantee your safety.”

  Andrew saw the mage curse under her breath, still struggling to hold on to the dragon. “I will not be a prisoner,” she hissed back to the queen.

  “Very well,” Talitha said. At a gesture, her soldiers began to move forward. Anna was among them, Halcyon glowing at her shoulder, and a few other blue Wisps bobbing behind. Andrew was too far to feel their influence, but it did him good just to see them. An idea occurred to him, and he leaned to whisper to Peter.

  “Could you tell Jarnvaror to hold back while he’s resisting, just a little?” he asked.

  Peter looked between Andrew and the dozens of Wisps buzzing around the fountain. “She’ll drag us into the influence,” Peter said. “I really don’t feel like being in a mess like that again.”

  “Just a little,” Andrew said. He aimed and shot at the mage. She deflected it with a second spell, but Andrew was already drawing to shoot again. “Until I give the signal.”

  “Alright,” Peter said. He conveyed Andrew’s message to the dragon. Andrew fired several more arrows as the soldiers approached the mage within Anna’s protective bubble. The mage revealed a third gem as she cast more spells to defend herself on both sides. She created a net of light, which she launched over the Selasi troops. An incandescent pillar appeared over the soldiers, catching and breaking the net. One of the queen’s mages, Andrew assumed.

  The shards of the Elf mage’s net dissipated, replaced by another whip much like the one binding Jarnvaror. She lashed the soldiers in the front ranks with it, and they stumbled back. In response, the pillar twisted, moving forward and swinging at the Elvish mage like a great club. Andrew was sure it would crush her.

  The whole thing seemed to be caught in a new, much larger knot of magic.

  “How many spells can she cast at once?” Andrew muttered. He saw the Queen’s second mage step forward, throwing lightning, only for it to be caught by one of the ropes the Elf cast. She must have at least six spells active, he thought. He hopped it wouldn’t matter.

  He’d stopped shooting arrows, And Jarn wasn’t being pulled with as much force as before. The Elf’s eyes were fixed firmly on the gathering army. “Now,” Andrew said,” Have Jarn jump back over the cliff.”

  His brother grinned, understanding the plan, and shouted to the command to the dragon. Sheil’s head snapped toward them as Jarnvaror began yanking on the muzzle again with all his might. She stumbled, and Andrew swore. He’d hopped the magical bond would just break. Instead, it seemed like the two would still be bound. The mage stumbled, trying to hold on to the dragon, and his mouth closed.

  Behind her, the Selasi soldiers charged. Sheil realized her mistake too late as they tackled her. Several held the Elf down, taking every piece of jewelry, every gemstone they could see, and collecting them in the hands of one of the other mages. The spells holding Jarnvaror and the pillar vanished.

  “Does she have any more crystals?” Talitha called to her men.

  “We’re still searching,” one called.

  There was a popping sound. Everyone turned to look to the fountain. Andrew saw the gems she must have placed before the army had arrived, just like back in the forest. One by one, he saw them burst. Dozens of Wisps, glowing red, yellow, and orange, began streaming out and away, like a hurricane of flames. Pressure and buzzing filled his head as their influence slammed into him. Jarnvaror let loose an earsplitting roar.

  An image of a tower, or a castle, flashed in his mind. Then it was all gone.

  He found himself blinking a moment later, looking down to see Anna under the dragon. “Are you alright?” she called up to him.

  “I think so,” Andrew replied, looking around. Peter checked in with Jarnvaror, then gave her a thumbs up. “What about the others?” he asked.

  “Halcyon helped us,” Anna said, pointing back. Most of the soldiers seemed to be coming too, as if they’d taken a heavy blow on the head. Others looked shaken, but alright. These were gathered around the prone figure of the Elvish mage.

  “Good,” Andrew muttered. “She didn’t get away.”

  “Yeah,” Anna said. “But she made sure we weren’t able to help any of the Wisps either.”