DARKLIGHT

- 16 -

"If we're lucky," Kaces panted, "they'll think I've taken you back." We were running away from the prison in another direction, and the landscape had shifted considerably. A forest was building around us, and the distant mountains were far closer now.

Kaces had turned back into his more familiar human state as soon as we appeared, and had ordered me to do the same and stay low to the ground. Questions were still racing through my mind. I couldn't understand why Kaces was escaping from his own side, why he was helping me, or where he intended to go.

The dry grass raked against my pant legs and got under the cuffs, making my ankles itch. It seemed like the prairie would go on forever, but as I looked back to check our progress, I saw that the prison was quite far away. That made it difficult to tell if we were being followed, though. One could easily mistake a Dark arkaetre for the shadow of an occasional tree or bush.

"Light your symbol," Kaces told me suddenly, "and be ready to transform."

I glared at him. "Why?"

Kaces growled in frustration. "Now is not the time! If you don't listen to me, you'll be caught!"

"You mean you'll be caught."

"No! Siderion, do you think you can escape without my help?" He looked at me with such an honest expression that I had to consider his question.

"Is there a barrier out there?" I asked him. Kaces nodded solemnly, and I realized he was right. Without the kind of magic he had used to break into the Order, I had no chance of passing through the magic that we were inevitably approaching. I still didn't want to listen to Kaces, but I saw that I had no choice. I lit up my symbol, and he breathed a faint sigh of relief.

Kaces was gaining speed and moving lower to the ground, ready to get his wings back. I followed his lead and we transformed next to each other, then lifted off in unison. "You need to listen closely to me," he said. "I'm going to start an incantation. Say each word after me, and try your very best to stay accurate. We've got no time to lose."

I nodded. The trees below us already looked greener and less sparse. It seemed for all the world like we could keep on flying to the mountains, but the air was starting to look distorted, far ahead of us. Kaces lifted his front legs and began to incant. "Gelistirme," he chanted, and I repeated him. "Civata," he continued, and I said this word as well. My focus was entirely on his voice.

Dark energy began to form around each of Kaces's dragon hands and on my front claws. Out of fear as well as utter exhaustion, I reached for Anahid's energy and started collecting it as the words enhanced the spell's power and focus.

Kaces grew suddenly louder, and he gestured forward at the continuing forest canopy, where a thin layer of magic rose up and backward towards the prison. We said the final few words of the incantation. Then Kaces slammed his claws together and released the spell, which jetted forward in a colossal beam of magic. I followed his lead, and the two bolts melded to form one single force, pounding ahead of us. We flew through the shock waves that it formed, and Kaces oriented himself on the blast's path. "Get behind me, quickly. We only get one shot at this."

I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and pumped my wings as hard as I could. We would hit the barrier soon. That, or the magic would be enough. I was counting down the seconds. Five... Four...

"Get ready!" Kaces yelled back.

One... Zero... The zero surprised me. I'd expected to have hit something by then. That's promising. I cautiously opened one eye and saw that we were flying over the forest, past the barrier. "What happened?" I asked in awe.

"We pushed the barrier aside to get through," Kaces explained. "That's the most this spell can do against such strong barriers. They'll never know we left here." He glanced over his arched shoulders and wings. "It's sealing up already. Take a look."

He was right. Where we had gone through the shield, a large hole remained in the magic, but it was already far from dragon-sized and new magic seemed to be folding out from the incision. It looked encouraging, but I knew it would take far more than that to fix what we had just done.