slipped her hand through the thong on the hilt and strapped the belt around her waist.
A dozen or more drakini were in pursuit, but they couldn’t keep up with Ixabrax. The other dragon could, however. Abigail looked back and saw a blue dragon almost half again as big as Ixabrax flying higher and faster, gaining on them with every stroke of its enormous wings. Riding atop the terrifying beast was Zuhl, although Abigail was certain it wasn’t the real Zuhl but another simulacrum. She suspected that the reclusive mage hadn’t actually set foot outside of Whitehall in centuries.
Zuhl released a spell, sending a shard of ice six feet long and a foot thick toward them with frightening speed. It struck Magda’s shield with such force that it exploded, sending splinters of ice in every direction and collapsing her shield in the process but harming no one.
She finished her spell a moment later. Dozens of blue orbs appeared nearby, floating around Ixabrax in a dizzying array of erratic orbits.
Zuhl sent another shard of ice at them but one of Magda’s orbs broke off from its orbit, streaking toward Zuhl’s spell and meeting it in the open sky, shattering it into powder.
Ixabrax narrowly dodged a jagged mountain ridge before diving sharply to evade the onslaught from above. Zuhl unleashed another spell, or possibly expended some enchanted item, tossing a stone into the air and pointing toward Ixabrax. When the stone reached its apex, it burst into dozens of crystalline splinters, exploding in all directions before arcing toward Ixabrax, each trailing a streamer of unnatural black smoke.
Magda’s protective orbs rose to the defense, streaking toward the incoming barrage of missiles, each orb targeting a stone splinter with unerring precision and shattering it into powder … but there weren’t enough orbs.
The rain of missiles crashed into Ixabrax, several punching through his wings, leaving tattered holes in the flesh membrane stretching between the bone struts, several more glancing off his scales. Two struck Anatoly in the back, shattering against his dragon-plate armor as he hunched over Abigail to protect her from the sudden attack. One pierced Magda’s shoulder, driving cleanly through her body and ricocheting off Ixabrax’s scales, trailing a streamer of blood in its wake. She gasped in startled agony, losing the focus necessary to finish the spell she’d begun casting.
Ixabrax dove for the chasm, narrowly escaping the unnaturally cold breath of his own sire as he crashed into the opposite wall of the rift in the glacier and fell, slowing his descent with a combination of his unfurled wings and claws against the frozen wall, creating a spray of powdered ice that served to both obscure their position and lower the temperature even further.
Abigail held on for dear life, the cold penetrating into her bones, her lips and knuckles turning blue while her mind raced, formulating a strategy to defend against the coming assault.
They hit hard, jarring them all and eliciting a gasp of pain from Magda. Ixabrax wasted no time carrying them into the cave, away from the threat of falling ice or an attack from above.
Abigail quickly dismounted while Anatoly helped Magda to the ground. She muttered a few words and a pair of glowing orbs appeared above them, softly illuminating the cave. She was bleeding seriously and looked to be nearly at the end of her strength.
“What now, Human?” Ixabrax growled.
“Now we’re in a confined space where we might have a chance against whatever Zuhl sends against us,” Anatoly said, wrapping a bandage around Magda’s shoulder.
“I cannot best my sire in single combat,” Ixabrax said.
“You don’t have to,” Abigail said, drawing the Thinblade. “All you have to do is give me a chance to cut that collar off.”
Anatoly finished bandaging Magda and helped her to a place behind a large rock before he spun his axe up into his hands and faced the cave entrance with Abigail and Ixabrax.
The air grew cold and still, tension rising as they waited for the assault, but it didn’t come.
“I don’t understand,” Abigail said. “He was right behind us, why isn’t he attacking?”
“Might have something to do with that sword of yours,” Anatoly said.
A moment later they heard drakini coming down the chasm.
Anatoly tossed a vial of the magical liquid to Abigail and trotted back to Magda with another, drinking a third as he took up a position at the side of the cave entrance opposite Abigail.
The drakini came quickly, several rushing into the cave and breathing frost