Molten rock consumed the central plaza situated before the now-shattered Great Dome. The earth shook so hard buildings swayed and collapsed throughout the city. Lava exploded up through the breach and soared three hundred feet into the air before raining down upon the Inner City.

  The concentric circles of power that made up the shield matrix around the palaces bent at Kevlin's command and funneled that falling lava down between the various palaces and onto the Spokes. The air became blisteringly hot and poisonous fumes hung over the deepening lava collecting on the wide avenues.

  Then the lava began to flow. Slowly at first, and then faster as it was driven forward by the weight of lava still pushing up from below, it began to run down the Spokes. The depth increased as the free-standing shields Harafin had placed all down the Spokes like invisible tubes prevented the lava from spreading out into the rest of the city.

  Rivers of molten rock poured through the gates of the Inner City. The gates burned like living torches proclaiming the entrance to EnKur's domain. The lava flowed through the wall and the depth rose to fill the high passageway. It crept inexorably down through the upper city, with the thickest concentrations on the Silver and Iron Spokes.

  Molten lava rolled down them, through the center of the city, and eventually reached the arced stone bridges over the River Tam. There the shield tubes ended and the lava spilled over the edges of the bridges and into the wide river. Water boiled and clouds of steam rose a thousand feet into the sky and drifted over the city, driving inhabitants into any shelter they could find.

  Lava consumed the famous Golden Road before torching the gate in the outer wall and flowing out to consume the docks. It continued past that inferno and plunged into the Formal Port. The violent contact of the elements rocked the harbor and covered the ships still at anchor with a sheen of superheated steam and ash.

  A similar scene of devastation flowed down the long Port Spoke as lava ran the length of the boulevard above the sea until its path ended violently in the Common Port and the mouth of the Tam River.

  Universal panic enveloped the city as superheated rock divided the empire's greatest metropolis and hemmed those sections on either side. The deadly steam clouds forced everyone indoors. Many people gathered their families around them and clung together in what they assumed would prove to be their last living moments.

  Kevlin felt the fear radiate up through his magnified senses as a quarter of a million people trembled and faced the very real possibility of death. The weight of it reinforced his determination to save them.

  The earth continued to shake and lightning arced overhead. The sun darkened behind the vapors and steam, and the city shook from the roaring of battling elements. Soon newly formed islands rose in the River Tam and in both ports. In the river, the islands of steaming black rock grew and fused with the stone bridges and blocked the river entirely. In the ports, they flowed far out into the water.

  A sudden rain squall poured torrents of water out of the sky, as if the air were rejecting the vast quantities of magic recently released into it. The rain pounded down so heavy it filled the air to saturation, making it difficult to breathe.

  The squall lasted several minutes and blew itself out as the flow of new lava slowed to a trickle. The air began to clear from the clouds of steam as a strong wind picked up off of the sea. The ground settled and the buildings of the city ceased their terrible shaking.

  Calm settled over the city, so complete it was as shocking by its contrast as were the terrifying elements unleashed upon the city. People dared to hope that they might live out the day.

  #

  Kevlin fell to his knees. He felt empty, so far beyond exhaustion he could not describe it. Only a little magic remained creeping through him. Despite its healing effect, his body burned with a thousand pin-pricks of pain.

  Between the Tai Pari and that final effort to preserve the city from total destruction, he'd been burned raw. He had ventured into realms from which he should not have returned, and his body paid the price.

  Now that he knew the city would survive, he could hold on no longer. He fell to the warm stones of the floor and wished Leander were here to heal him.

  Indira was here.

  That thought brought his head up with a painful creak, and he sought the gentle healer. Their eyes locked across the room, and he wished he hadn't looked. The expression of haunted fear on her tear-streaked face would haunt him all his life.

  He had tried to kill her.

  He might have saved most of the city, but he would find no comfort. Even as he tried to grasp the magnitude of his crimes, a rustling of cloth caught his attention.

  Masego.

  The fat man stood and faced Kevlin. The hard lines of his face looked confused, but not afraid. If anything, he looked hungry.

  "The power you stole from me could not have fueled all this. What did you do?"

  Gabral stepped through the charred remnants of the door on the far side of the room behind Masego. He was caked with dust and debris, and blood ran down his face from a cut to his scalp.

  He glared at Masego. "Wrong question. You should be worried about what I am about to do."

  He pointed the Mace at the possessed Sentinel. The long, top spike fired off the ball and shot across the room, directly at Masego's heart.

  Masego extended a hand and the spike wavered in its flight and deflected past his shoulder, so close it rippled the fabric. Masego lifted both hands to unleash his powers back at Gabral, who was not yet protected by the fiery shield from the Mace.

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  Nothing happened.

  Masego rounded on Kevlin and scowled. "You've exhausted nearly every scrap of latent power from the area, boy."

  When Masego turned his back, Gabral sprinted into the room and, with surprising agility, traversed the cracked, broken floor toward Masego. He lifted the Mace high, and blue fire burst to life around the mighty weapon's head.

  Then the fire flickered, and slowly faded out.

  Gabral stopped and stared in disbelief at the Mace. He shook it a couple of times, but no fire reappeared. His face fell and his shoulders sagged.

  Then rage replaced despair and he shouted angrily at Kevlin, "What did you do to the Mace?"

  "Just about all the magic in this area's been used up, including yours." Sounded reasonable. Maybe Gabral would believe it.

  Adalia stepped away from Indira and knocked an arrow. "Thank Jagen. Now I kin shoot this rabid dog."

  She loosed the arrow at Masego.

  He made a flicking gesture with one hand like he had the first time she tried to shoot him, which now seemed so long ago. It twitched, deflecting just wide enough to scrape his shoulder instead of impaling his chest.

  "You're a dead man, Kevlin," Gabral promised before leaping a hole in the floor and resuming his charge across the cracked expanse toward Masego.

  He hefted the Mace high. "You die first, villain."

  Masego retreated, and for the first time looked worried. He threw out one hand at the charging Gabral, and the Mace bearer slipped and fell sprawling.

  Masego dodged away, but Adalia fired another arrow at him. It slowed just enough for him to dive aside. He regained his feet near the shattered outer wall of the tower.

  Gabral advanced again.

  Masego held up both hands and shouted, "Stand back, or the keisara dies." He pointed at the injured monarch, and a light green mist began to form around her head.

  Gabral skidded to a halt, and Adalia paused, bow drawn and aimed.

  Kevlin forced himself to his knees and rallied the shreds of his strength. All he wanted to do was collapse to the comforting stones and sleep for a year. He hated Masego now more than ever. Couldn't he see they needed a break?

  With thoughts rattling like a spar with a loose line, he tried to focus the little bit of magic he still possessed. He grabbed up a chair with trembling fingers of power and threw it at Masego.

  It struck the fat man in the back, knocking him stumbling. The green mist dissipated from around the keisara.

  Gabral lunged, but Masego's features shuddered and softened, and his eyes cleared. Felix held up his hands in surrender and shouted, "Gabral, thank the gods for you, man."

  Gabral slowed to a stop two strides away. He frowned at Felix and held the Mace half-raised. "Where's Masego?"

  "Gone. Help me, and we can make sure he never returns."

  "Kill him," Jerrik said in a hard tone. "He can't be trusted."

  "No, wait," said Kevlin.

  Felix had always been a powerful ally. If they really could free him from Masego, they could accomplish a double blow against the forces of evil. Besides, after the devastation he'd unleashed upon the city, Kevlin hated to think anyone else needed to die.

  "What do you propose?" Gabral asked Felix.

  "Lend me the Mace. With its power, I can . . ."

  Gabral's face turned red with rage and he lifted the weapon high. "The Mace is mine!"

  The enraged Mace bearer swung a mighty blow that would have ripped apart Felix's head and shoulders.

  Felix's face hardened into the features of Masego, and he rolled back from the blow. Light flashed between them, and Gabral shouted a loud curse and stumbled back several paces.

  Masego snarled, "Your lack of vision seals your fate." He started to raise a hand to cast whatever final remnants of magic he'd scrounged together.

  An arrow punched through his hand and pinned it to the wide expanse of his belly.

  Masego howled as the unexpected blow turned him half around. Adalia knocked a second arrow in record time and drew again. Even as Masego tried to lift his other hand to use his powers, the fiery little archer released. The arrow drilled through his other hand and drove deep between his ribs.

  Masego stumbled and fell to one knee. He groaned with pain, and his eyes glinted with panic.

  "Enough," Gabral commanded. The short colonel advanced on Masego and said, "For your crimes, you are sentenced to death."

  He struck.

  Masego howled, and with a convulsive move, ripped his hands outward. Flesh tore and blood sprayed as the wounds gaped open and he yanked his hands free.

  He lunged under Gabral's swing and caught the Mace bearer by the throat. The two of them swayed together and staggered to the very edge of the outer wall. Thick darkness gathered around them until only vague outlines of their forms were visible through the deepening shadow.

  Kevlin tried to draw more power from Tia Khoa, but he lacked the strength, and the magic slipped through his mental fingers like water. Before he could try again, Adalia drew a third arrow.

  "Indira, protect Gabral," she said.

  Not waiting for a reply, she loosed the shaft.

  The arrow leaped into the darkness, and someone screamed.

  The shadow dissipated. Gabral fell to his hands and knees, coughing. The Mace dropped with a dull thud to the floor beside him, and his entire body shook.

  Masego, his empty eyes staring up at the open sky, with the third arrow sticking out from his neck, stumbled back one fatal step . . .

  . . . and fell out through the open outer wall.

  Kevlin’s brothers rushed to the edge in time to witness the fat man strike the ground far below. Kevlin managed to stumble over a moment later and peeked over the edge. Masego’s body had ruptured on impact, and even from such a great height, Kevlin grimaced at the grisly scene.

  He turned back to Gabral. The Mace bearer still knelt on the floor with a wild, haunted look in his eyes. He hugged himself with his arms, and his body shook with another tremor.

  Indira dropped to her knees beside Gabral. "Are you all right?"

  He opened his mouth twice before words came. "I . . . I am fine. He . . ." he glanced out the broken wall where Masego fell and shuddered again.

  He coughed again, then straightened, his eyes clearing. He waved Indira's proffered healing hand away. "I'm fine now. See to those who can best use what limited resources you may be able to draw upon."

  Gabral stood and lifted the Mace from the floor. He rounded on Kevlin and pointed the heavy weapon at Kevlin's heart. "Fix this, mercenary, or I swear to the gods I'll kill you."

  "I'll take care of it," Kevlin promised.

  He had no idea what to do. Harafin had talked about needing latent magic to draw upon when one's inner powers were exhausted, but they'd never discussed what power Tia Khoa or the Six used. Was it the same? Could he have broken it?

  Drystan dropped to one knee beside Adalia to bring his head down level with hers. He took her hands in his. "That was a great shot."

  "Aye. I'll drink to that," Jerrik said from where he was helping Marjani to her feet. She was awake, but looked around in open amazement. She'd slept through the whole thing. Lucky.

  She gasped and leaped past Jerrik. Kevlin and the others turned to follow her as she sped across the room.

  The keisara. Marjani slid to a halt beside the fallen monarch, kneeling in the blood-streaked floor. While she checked the unconscious woman's pulse, Indira joined her.

  Kevlin wanted to stare at Indira, but the sight of her brought his horrific memories back to life and he couldn't bear to think of that.

  Could he ever hope to look her in the eye again?

  "She lives," Marjani cried.

  "Let's keep it that way," Indira said. Her hands began to glow and her soft chant filled the devastated room. The sound was sweet torture to Kevlin.

  He turned away and the enormous weight of everything that had happened, everything he'd done came crashing home. He'd pushed his battered body too far, and collapsed into welcome blackness.