Page 17 of The Sundered Realms

She whirled, screaming and throwing the knife.

The demon enveloped the knife, its center going concave to absorb the magic while tendrils around its edges all at once grasped toward her—

A powerful whoosh of air knocked her feet from under her. Liris scrambled back to her feet to find she could see clearly.

A translucent silvery sphere surrounded the demon. It lashed against the bubble, and Liris jerked back.

“It can’t hurt you.” Lord Vhannor was at her side in a flash, and Liris was unreasonably warmed by his unperturbable, decisive presence. What must it be like, to be that confident in any situation? “Not as long as the protection spell is up. It might manage to eat through it eventually, but I have more protection spells prepared.”

Liris breathed shallowly, frozen in the aftermath of knowledge that in a few more seconds one of those tendrils would have lashed her.

“Sorry I lost your knife,” she managed.

To her surprise Lord Vhannor said distractedly, “Under the circumstances, I’m glad to lose it.” He narrowed his lavender eyes first at the demon, then at the distance to the portal, then at his own pad of spells.

“Can’t you kill it?”

His jaw tightened. “Yes, eventually. I’ll need stronger spells, but I can write those. The problem is the portal is already too big, and I can’t both contain the demons that come through and also dispel it. I could spell protection around the demon portal to keep more demons from entering through it, but then I can’t be inside to unwork the portal itself without being vulnerable to whatever comes through.”

Liris’ heart pounded as she met his eyes. “But could you keep the demons off me if I dispelled it?”

Lord Vhannor’s head whipped around. “Don’t be foolish. What just happened was dangerous enough. You have no training for this.”

The bite of his first words faded as the rest followed.

Well well, the icy Lord of Embhullor was worried about her. Under other circumstances she might have been flattered. And maybe touched.

“I have plenty of training,” Liris countered. “I can perform all the dance steps and execute the equations and translate the words, and if you think you can memorize a pattern that I can’t—“

“Serenthuar’s ambassadors don’t train with magic,” Lord Vhannor interrupted her, then when she gaped, snapped, “I’m not any stupider than you are, and it’s the only explanation for your combination of skill and ignorance that makes sense. This is not your responsibility.”

Shadowy claws gripped the edges of the black spell, another demon heaving through it.

Lord Vhannor snapped off another spell that hit the demon like a punch of silver energy, then another protection spell to contain it.

His jaw tightened. He knew this wasn’t a solution.

Liris waved her hand at the spell, and the Gate beyond it. “Obviously this is my responsibility! But you’re right, I’m hardly an expert on spellcraft. What’s your plan that doesn’t involve me?”

Lord Vhannor scowled. An actual expression; she was inordinately pleased by that. “This is a terrible idea.”

“Worse than the last one?”

He actually swore. Ha, got him.

“Serenthuar,” Liris said, “believes tests are the best way to learn.”

“That’s asinine.”

She shot him a quick grin. “Maybe. But it’s what I’m used to. So.” Liris held out a hand for a pen, fingertips tingling with the promise of a challenge.

Her arm was perfectly steady.

She met his gaze and said, “Test me.”

Lord Vhannor studied her again. “You memorized the whole dispelling pattern?”

“Perfectly.”

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