It took all Kayla just had to hang on.
Arataas flew low and fast, banking hard. The effect sent Kayla's mind spinning. The force of his turn felt so violent and pulled so much that she closed her eyes and grit her teeth to hold in a scream. She heard the rustling of trees, telling her that the Dragon's talons, or wing scraped the treetops.
Just hold on a little while longer, she thought.
She felt him even out. She opened her eyes, and the main road lay straight in line with their flight path. The mist barrier, taken down, the full beauty of Green Haven lay to her left. The battle, just in its infancy, raged on.
"Do you see him?" asked Kayla.
"No," said Arataas. "Wait, yes, I see him. Just there at the north end."
"Shall we say hello?" asked Kayla.
"Love to," said the Dragon.
Arataas began his dive.
"Careful of our own down there!" she warned him.
The wind rushed all around her, she leaned forward, eager for the inevitable.
The Dragon loosed a burst of fire, striking a flaming line across the rear guard of the enemy. Two spears went flying over Kayla's back, but the enemy launched them far too late. The surprise attack worked.
"Heading down," said Arataas, "get ready."
Kayla fumbled for her charcoal and crushed two large pieces in her hands. "Prasidius Arsonas!" Her protective shield covered her as well as her extra ring of fire that banded around her.
Arataas came in low, then flared his wings at the last moment in a practiced technique. He landed so quickly that Kayla could not hang on. She went flying from her saddle, crashing to the ground.
The Wizard tried to suck in air to breath, but the impact took the wind from her. She scrambled to her feet. Arataas roared in a crack of lightning. The sound of his vicious cry frightened even her. He breathed his dragonfire at something she could not see.
She felt for her satchel and a touch of its strap comforted her. She stepped to see what lay before the Dragon. She saw Orcs in dark armor running from him, leaping over his first line of flames, their fear taking hold as they ran for their lives. Not even a wall of fire deterred them.
Then she saw him...it. A creature of vile black ichor and twisting vines and roots. He shot them forth as Arataas smashed him down with a single claw, like a cat playing with a mouse.
"Now Kayla!" Cried Arataas. "The spell!"
The spell, yes, of course, she thought.
Dazed, she dug into her satchel and removed three items: a blackened skull, a cloth sack of her ground ingredients, and Kellis Vöhl's gauntlet.
She poured the fine powder from the bag into the skull like an ugly mixing bowl. She then picked up Kellis' ebony gauntlet and shook his fragile hand bones into the skull.
"Where did you get that, Witch!" Shouted Lord Vöhl staring at her now. "That is mine!" He snapped a wicked vine at her.
Arataas lifted his claw and stopped the vine. The end of it wriggled and fought to get to Kayla.
In his new found freedom, Vöhl tried to roll away. But the Dragon slammed him down with his right claw, crushing him to the earth once again.
"Blast you!" screamed the fiend and struggled to free himself. "I'll kill you just as I did Slate." The dark being shot forth more vines, wrapping them around Arataas' clawed feet.
"No!" cried Kayla. "Stop!" She reached out to Arataas.
It all happened so fast. The vines grew and stretched and wrapped up the Dragon's leg.
"Stop!" cried Kayla.
Arataas turned his head to her. "Kayla! The spell!" He looked back to Vöhl, bringing his headed even nearer, then roared his dragonfire from his deadly maw directly onto Vöhl. But the aberration just cackled as the flames died around him. His red eyes flared. He snapped his arm forward and vines wrapped up to the bottom of the Dragon's mouth and growing fast.
Kayla felt the heat of the flames and lurched back on instinct. She heard two loud snapping sounds. Arataas roared in pain. Kellis Vohl laughed again.
The ballistas, thought Kayla.
"You've failed, Dragon," said Lord Vöhl. "This is your end. And your Fire Witch is next!" The vines worked their way into Arataas' mouth and eyes. In a desperate attempt, the Dragon tore at the being with his other claw. He split Vöhl in two, but the dark being kept laughing and his vines continued to crawled further into the Dragon's body. Arataas writhed, but held Vöhl down.
Arataas looked over, giving Kayla a desperate stare.
Kayla held her hands out, one holding the blackened skull, the other empty.
"NO!" She shouted.
A tingling, powerful force erupted from the bottom of Kayla's spine, travelling through it all the way to her mind. It spread to her toes and then her fingertips. Her heart jolted to the sky. She rose into the air, floating off the ground now. Her hands lit up in black and blue flames. Her eyes flashed and flared, her vision changed from normal sight to shades of blue crystal. Her robes faded from emerald green to slate grey with emerald border and embroidered with golden glyphs. Her hood cast a shadow over her face in a cowl now. She rose higher still. The Wizard held the skull up with one flaming blue hand, and pointed at Vohl with the other. Only then did she recite her incantation. The complex spell that took so very long to understand, decipher, and construct before, sat before her now as a children's rhyme in comparison.
"Ta blud al Kellis Vöhl och frigir sjal! Skitta tillbaka daemun Bazzyk och keda hom evigheten!"
Lord Vöhl's laughter changed to a gurgle. He stuttered and coughed. The black ichor started pooling in a puddle, slowly distancing itself from the construction of roots and vines.
The black vines around Arataas turned brown and fragile. He twisted his mouth and broke free from them.
"What's...happening!" growled Vöhl in a fearful whimper. Except the voice no longer came from the vines, but from the puddle of ichor before her.
Kayla kept stern focus on the wavering ichor. Soon, tiny droplets of red blood rose from the black ooze. She closed her hand, and the droplets collected into a single mass the size of a tea cup. She brought her flaming closed fist towards her, guiding the blood in her direction. She willed it to fall into the skull, mixing with the dry powder and bones. She opened her hand and passed her palm over in small circles. In but a moment, the skull burst skyward a flare of blue flame.
The Wizard tossed aside the skull and gently pushed her hands toward the pile of black ooze. "Arsonas." She whispered the magical word, but the spell came forth as a means of utter destruction. Black and blue flames erupted from her palms and incinerated the pool of black ichor.
A voice attempted to cry out, but Kayla's fire cut it short.
Arataas slumped forward.
Kayla, still hovering many feet off the ground, looked over and saw two spears stuck out from his side. The rear guard had already reloaded two of their ballistas and stood ready for another volley. Over twenty Orcs found their courage with crossbows firing at her and the Dragon.
The Wizard sneered. "Arsonas Besil!"
Screams of pain shrieked through the air as the very armor that the Orcs wore to protect themselves turned red hot, then yellow like the sun. Soon, it ran liquid and melted, leaving behind gruesome pyres of melting flesh and bone.
Kayla willed herself to the ground, then she doused her blue flames, yet her eyes stayed alight in crystal blue fire.
She tried to calm the injured Dragon. "Arataas, you must hold on. I will get Otis."
The Dragon tried to stand, but collapsed in a weak groan.
Kayla looked into his eye and black ooze swirled inside. She let out a Kowluun curse.
The Dragon could do nothing, but steady his breathing.
"I know," she said. "I'm tired too." She breathed out and closed her eyes. "But I'm not going to lose you. You must hold on!"
Arataas gave the slightest of smiles and that gave her hope.
She stretched out her hands and they lit once more in black and blue flames. She remained calm, though. She moved into the battlefield. Each burst from her hands found targets. When she saw clusters of the enemy, she hurled great round discs of blue fire at them. Slowly, methodically, she made her way to the Guardian of Panadahe.