He ran from the chamber, shouting for Ancaladar.
* * * * *
IT was nearly midnight. He was tired.
He could not afford to be tired.
Lightning crackled across the sky in a nearly-constant display now, more of it natural than belonging to any High Mage spell. He had sensed the High Mages die, one by one. Less than a third of the Allied Army remained alive.
Above the battlefield, the Starry Hunt rode, lending their strength to the battle. The eldritch Riders struck down as many of the foe as did their mortal comrades in arms, and still it was not enough.
The Endarkened were coming in force.
But now it was time.
The Demon Prince himself was taking the field at last. "Shalkan!" Kellen shouted. He vaulted from Valdien's back, slipped as he found himself thigh-deep in mud. Staggered.
Saw radiance come galloping toward him across the battlefield. His first friend. His comrade. With him now, at the end.
He threw himself into Shalkan's saddle sometime, during the past hours, someone had helped Shalkan into his gear.
He drew Light At The Heart of the Mountain and Shalkan leaped forward. There was no need for words.
* * * * *
ZYPERIS saw the Knight-Mage come riding toward him on the white unicorn. He snarled in anger and lust. A unicorn! But the pain would be worth it. He would kill them both, do what his Queen, mother, and lover had been too shortsighted to do.
Then he would destroy the City.
He spread his wings and launched himself forward.
* * * * *
THE Demon towered above them, nearly eight feet tall in its glittering black armor. Its scarlet wings were spread wide, and Its sword flared with black light.
It threw back its head and howled.
Water Mind.
The most dangerous gift of a Knight-Mage. To move through the currents of a battle like a fish through water, to be able to fight beyond exhaustion. To fight at the top of his strength until he died.
Kellen leaped from Shalkan's saddle. The unicorn spun away, moving as if he were Kellen's reflection. The Demon hesitated, seeing two targets where there had been only one a moment before.
Kellen feinted, drawing the Demon's attention. It attacked him. Kellen slipped away.
The utter calm of Water Mind enfolded him. He was no longer Kellen. Shalkan was no longer Shalkan. The Demon was no longer a Demon. The three of them were partners in a dance, all moving as the Wild Magic willed.
Kellen was at peace. Utter peace.
All was as it was meant to be.
This was the moment he had been reaching toward from the moment he first drew breath.
Shalkan struck. The Demon howled in fury and in pain.
Kellen did not know why he was here. His sword could not slay the Demon. Any cuts his blade made would instantly heal.
He only knew that this was where he must be. Here. Now.
The Demon Prince turned on Shalkan. Kellen struck. His blade sliced deep. He could not kill, but he could wound, and the wounds were painful ones, angering the Demon Prince. Turn and cut.
There were only seconds before It chose to ignore one of them and kill the other.
It did not matter.
* * * * *
IDALIA opened her eyes.
The blade flashed down.
Struck.
Savilla's mouth opened in a scream of horror and despair.
* * * * *
SUDDENLY the sky was filled with light. Light everywhere, and Kellen was filled with an uprush of Power so great it made him scream, ripping him from Water Mind with the force of a sudden drench of ice water. It was the power he had felt at the Black Cairn, but a hundred, a thousand, times stronger, and this power held nothing of the Dark. Only Light. It filled him, filled the blade in his hands, filled Shalkan, filled everything he could sense save the black Void before him.
He struck, plunging the radiance in his hands into the Darkness before him. He felt the Light fountain through him, filling the Darkness, filling the Void, obliterating it as utterly as sunlight destroys shadow.
Blinding him.
There was a scream. He heard it with more than his ears. He seemed to hear it with every sinew of his body. It stopped his breath; it seemed to stop his heart, just for a moment.
And in the midst of that light, he heard the echoing thunder of celestial hooves, as the Starry Hunt, the work for which it had been summoned complete, swept across the battlefield one last time…
And was gone.
When he could see again, when he could breathe…
The Demon Prince was gone as well.
Gone.
"Dead," Shalkan said. "Get up. We have a chance now."