Page 89 of Galadon
The sorcerer pushed his glasses up his nose with his free hand. “This one is a little more complicated than the last, but I’d estimate ten to fifteen minutes if I’m not interrupted again.”
“We need to do something about that smoke box,” Rayna said, gesturing to where Conrad stood guard over it with his sword upraised.
A red dragon snapped at him, and he slammed the flat of his sword onto the beast’s head so hard she could hear the clang from a hundred feet away. His target slumped to the ground. More and more of their forces were developing red-rimmed eyes and turning on those who lacked them.
Galadon grabbed one of the infected shifters in human form who came their way and tossed him into another, both going down. “The slayer needs to bring it here, so we can try disrupting the box’s smoke while protecting Morgan.”
Rayna pointed at the cluster of growling red dragons between them and Conrad. “He’ll never get through them.”
“Can you stun them with your lightning?” he asked.
She counted at least two dozen who’d need to be downed. “Only one at a time on my own, and it will only last a few minutes.”
“Perhaps I can help.” His brows drew together as magic filled the space around him, but nothing happened. “The dome has closed us off from the elements that I need to create a storm.”
Dammit. She only now noticed that there was no wind inside, though the trees beyond the barrier swayed from a breeze. Astaroth had succeeded in blunting one of their most effective weapons.
“Okay, I’ll do the best I can with small strikes,” she said and stretched out her hand.
Rayna zapped several of the turned shifters nearest to them in succession, but it grew harder with each one. The static in the air wasn’t enough. Like Galadon, she had to pull elements from her surroundings, but they were limited within the small confines of the dome. By the time she hit the fifth one, there wasn’t anything left to draw upon except…oh, shit, the shifters themselves. All living beings had a small charge in their bodies that kept their hearts beating.
She cast Galadon a horrified look. “I’m out of elements now, too, except pulling the charge from their bodies. If I do that, I’ll be killing the ones I take from to stun the others.”
He clenched his jaw as conflicting emotions warred within his mind. She could feel it through their bond. He had to weigh the pros and cons, with no easy answer. At this point, they still had seven minutes left until Morgan finished taking down the dome. Two-thirds of the shifters had turned, and they were converging on them and Conrad. They had seconds to act.
“Can you restart their hearts afterward?” he asked.
Rayna had only used the trick a few times when she began learning to use her powers years ago. The first time, she’d killed her target by taking all the charge. The second time, she didn’t extract enough because another dragon distracted her midway through the process. That beast eventually recovered while she fought for her life, and she’d had to kill both with lightning strikes.
“No.” She shook her head. “But if I concentrate hard enough, I can leave just enough spark that they can recover on their own.”
Rayna lost her grip on Titan as he and Galadon swatted the nearest dragons away, sending them careening into the others. They were out of time. Too many were coming, and they couldn’t continue using non-lethal methods to keep them away.
“Do it,” he commanded.
She took a deep breath, knowing this was going to be difficult since she hadn’t done it in a long time and never with such high stakes. “Okay.”
Rayna outstretched her arms toward the infected dragons. She concentrated on the front row of twenty shifters and found their sparks of life. Carefully, she pulled three-quarters from them the way one might draw medicine from a vial, using a syringe. It was painstaking, considering they weren’t exactly standing still for her, and some she had to target as they attacked Galadon and Titan. Finally, they collapsed, some mid-fight.
Holding the small electrical balls in her palms, she reshaped the charges and sent thin zings of lightning toward the center line of dragons behind the fallen first rank. A little over half crashed to the ground since her strikes weren’t as powerful as when she could draw energy from the air. Still, it removed a dozen more of them from the battlefield and took some pressure off the uninfected trying to defend themselves.
She drew in ragged breaths because that had been extremely difficult to do, and her head already ached from the effort. Galadon came behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. “Let me help.”
Rayna had no idea what he meant, but when she started targeting the next batch of shifters, she felt his power join hers. The tendrils of her magic spread twice as far so they could grab more, and it didn’t hurt as much to extract the right amount.
He stayed with her every step of the way as they bundled those charges and sent them rushing back out to hit the next round of infected dragons. There was now an additional forty or so taken out of the fight. Relief spilled through her. She’d been so scared she’d end up killing some of them, but Galadon’s centuries of experience with magic had allowed him to study her methods and boost her abilities rapidly.
“Thank you,” she said.
He squeezed her once before stepping away. “Of course.”
Conrad didn’t waste a moment before running between all the downed dragons. The ones they had left alone would turn any minute, and Rayna would have to get back to work on them. He dropped the box next to Galadon.
“I tried bangin’ on the damn thing with my sword, but it keeps leaking that fog no matter what I do,” he said, breathless.
Galadon kneeled to study the device as she prepared to target the next batch of shifters whose eyes had just turned red. A few at a time would be much easier than the large masses of the previous rounds. As Galadon went to work on his new project, she stayed focused on hers.
“Fuck, man,” Conrad swore. From the corner of her eye, she could tell he was looking beyond the dome to the battle raging outside. “We gotta hurry. They’re getting decimated out there and ain’t gonna last much longer without us.”
