Page 140 of Mountain of Mirrors and Starlight
The manticore strained against its bonds, sending down showers of rock. Aislinn swerved out of the way of its wings and paws, slicing where she could, diving when she could not. She could not get to its belly.
Caer arrived at her side, tearing through one of the wings. A second later, darkness came again. She heard Caer cry as the manticore batted him away, sliding into the dark.
She skidded towards him. He was unhurt, but his eyes stared sightlessly at the black ceiling. He could not see in this dark. He should not have come.
“Visio nocturna,”she whispered, and blew in his eyes.
A simple, ancient spell for night vision. It would not last long. Aislinn didn’t have the power for it or any of the ingredients that might tether the spell to him for longer.
But it was better than nothing, and she could not help the others.
She raced back to the manticore, Dillon still holding on for dear life, and vaulted onto its back while Caer kept it occupied. It struggled, trying to buck her off. Desperate, she drove her sword into its flank. Not a killing blow, but if she could remove it—
The creature roared. It finally flung Dillon off its tail. The barb shot forward—
Caer leapt up, seizing the tail in his hands. “Move!”
Her sword was stuck fast. Another jerk and she flew to the floor, landing awkwardly on her arm. She dived for Caer’s sword, but a huge paw swiped her to the ground. It held her there, her throat pinned between two giant claws.
The huge, fanged face hovered over her.
Aislinn struggled, hands moving between her neck and her body, searching for the rest of her blades, refusing to give up.
She couldn’t reach them. She couldn’tmove.She was going to—
The creature’s eyes rolled back in its sockets, and it slumped to the floor.
Aislinn scrambled free. Caer stood at the end of the monster, still holding its tail, panting hard. Caer who’d raced into battle, blind as he was, to grab a venomous tail.
She walked towards him as the others finished off the bats and gathered their weapons. “Why did you do that?” she asked.
Caer winced, breathing carefully. “I’m afraid I would do a lot worse, for you, and you’re just going to have to accept it.”
Aislinn leaned forward, resting her head against his shoulder, her arms grazing his back, only slightly, as if a stronger action might shatter them completely. “All right,” she said. “All right.”
Dillon came back holding two of the wargis. The others were trickling back, hopping out of the way of the scuttling creatures on the floor.
“We can’t dawdle here for long,” Minerva said swiftly. “Looks like the manticore was keeping some other nasties at bay. Have we got the wargis?”
“One’s dead,” reported Dillon, voice careful.
Minerva groaned, too stressed to be sad. “Luna, double up with Magna. No, don’t complain at me, Mags, you’re the lightest. Come on.”
Aislinn turned back to Caer, resting against the wargi Dillon had given him. “Can you get up by yourself?”
“I think so.” He dug his foot into the stirrup and swung, each muscle taut. His skin gleamed with the effort. Aislinn inched forward, hand on his saddle instead of his fingers. “I’m fine,” he insisted.
The scuttling increased. There was no time to argue. The others were already racing out of the cavern. She scrambled up onto her own mount and charged after them, keeping her eyes on Caer the entire time. There was another wound in his shoulder, and he was obviously in pain—masking it because they could not stop.
She wanted to. She wanted to stop them all so badly. She wanted to tear open a portal and take him somewhere safe and never let him leave that place again, no matter the cost. No matter if it meant he hated her, or never learnt to control his powers, or they could never touch again.
But of course, she did not.
They rode through caverns, past tar pits, over bridges so brittle each step was treacherous, slowing only when they had to, trying to put as much space as possible between them and their enemies. Aislinn’s heart stayed in her throat, and her gaze on Caer. He sat rigid in his saddle like a piece of coiled wire.
Finally, they halted. Minerva pulled them into the first cave she could find, skidding the wargis to a stop and belting out instructions to erect some kind of barricade.
“Are we safe now?” Caer asked, voice shaking.
