Page 140 of Cry of the Firebird

I stand on your threshold,

Between the spaces of the world.

I stand on your threshold,

And offer all that I am.

I stand on your threshold,

And hold your door shut.

That space to Hero land,

I hold closed.

To those who are unworthy,

They cannot pass.

I am the Gate’s strong keeper,

Rune singer and Magic wielder.

My magic, my blood, my voice

Commands you,

Tells you to close.

With blood spilt over,

Where the Gates have broken.

Join like flesh together,

And bless it into its place.

With words and blood,

I command you."

The aurora of the gates flared bright as Anya's magic roared out of her and filled it. The frays and tears in the light began tomend and seal, closing Mir off and the glimpses of Skazki. Power was still riding her as the aurora began to fade. She could feel the power in the land, in the forest, in the rising sun, all the magic of the world singing to her.

A note of discord broke the song apart, and Anya's attention snapped to the tree line as a man walked from the forest on her side of the gate. A cloak of shadows and night was flaring around him, and Anya could sense the fear and darkness of his power as he smiled at her.

"Vasilli…"

Aramis staredin wide-eyed wonder as Anya slipped deep into the gate's magic and went to a place none of them could follow. He kept his shields up around her, just in case bullets started to fly again.

"What's happening to her?" Trajan demanded.

"I'm not sure, but don't touch her whatever you do," Aramis warned him.

Magic was pulsing through the earth at his feet. The Twins started laughing at the heady power filling the air.

"She's drawing on the power of her ancestors," Chayton said. "I can see the spirits around her but not clearly."

Whatever Anya was doing was working because the gates were shuddering as their power was replenished. The Illumination and the Darkness were eyeing each other off on either side of them, weapons drawn and ready, waiting for orders. The Darkness operatives who had been following them dropped back as soon as the Illumination arrived.

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