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“Actually, it just saved her,” Logan noted in awe.

Sandy snatched Logan up in one hand and hurled him like a spear. Shouting, Logan spiraled up toward the cliff top. He tried to see where he was going, but everything was a concentric blur. Just when he was losing momentum, topping the arc, Eir snagged him out of the air and dragged him onto the cliff.

Below, Rytlock looked dubiously at the golem. “That’s not going to work for me. I weigh more than—”

Sandy grabbed his wrists and ankles and swept him off his feet, so that he hung like a hammock between the golem’s hands. Rytlock roared in humiliation as the golem spun around, building up momentum. At last, it flung the charr. Rytlock whirled like a horseshoe, wailing all the while, toward the top of the cliff. When he reached it, though, he was turned the wrong way, his back striking the icy edge.

“Damn.”

Down he slipped, plunging toward his death—

Except that Eir grabbed his arm and hauled, and Logan latched onto his armor and pulled as well. They scraped him up the ice edge and dumped him safely atop it.

“Thanks.”

“Look out!”

Rytlock rolled away just as a black dire wolf materialized out of the darkness, bounding onto the ice sheet where the charr had lain. On the wolf’s back rode a red-faced asuran apprentice.

Eir made a quick visual check. “We’re all here except Sandy.” She turned to Snaff. “Climb Sandy out!”

But the asura master didn’t seem to hear. He was running in place, his eyes gazing into the darkness.

Eir knelt before him and said quietly, “We’re all safe. You can climb him out now.”

Snaff’s head shook briefly, and he kept running.

“We lost,” Eir admitted. “That thing’ll rip Sandy apart.”

Still, the asura ran.

“It’ll take his body and use it. It’ll take your mind!”

Snaff stopped running.

Rytlock held out his flaming sword and craned over the cliff’s end. The fiery light faintly sketched out the figure of Sandy far below, plunging into the huge cyclone of ice. Boulders and hailstones pounded him. At first, they only dented the golem, but then a huge chunk of ice smashed into Sandy’s arm, ripping it off.

“Get him out!” Eir implored.

It was too late. The cyclone ripped away more of the golem. Powerstone-laden sands eroded into the vortex. Sandy stood only a heartbeat more before the final crystals were torn away.

Gone.

Snaff went rigid, his eyes wide, gazing into horrors. Then he began to spin as if he held a dance partner. He picked up speed, turning faster and faster.

“It’s got him for sure,” Rytlock said.

“No,” Zojja broke in, watching with wide eyes. “No. He’s got it.”

And then they saw: The cyclone flexed like a giant arm and shoved up against the ceiling of the cave. The ice moaned. The storm whirled tighter. The ceiling cracked.

The cavern shook.

“He’s trying to bring the place down.”

Snaff crouched down for a moment, then thrust his arms up again.

The vortex gathered itself like a spring and then launched upward. It smashed into the ice, and a thousand cracks radiated out.

The ceiling slumped.

“We better get out of here,” Logan said.

“Not until he’s done,” Eir replied.

Snaff crouched down and launched himself upward again, and the cyclone did likewise.

It bashed through the ceiling.

Gigantic icebergs hailed down. They smashed through the cyclone, dispersing it, and shattered the icebrood and continued to cascade, filling the chamber..

“He’s done,” Rytlock said, scooping up Snaff.

“Let’s go,” Eir agreed, hoisting Zojja.

The companions turned and ran, blown forward by a gale as the cavern collapsed. Hunks of ice pummeled their backs.

Then sparking blue energies swept out around them.

“Ball lightning!” Eir shouted, ducking one sphere.

“Don’t let it touch you!” Zojja yelled. “It’s the leftover essence discharging!”

More spheres shot out through the chamber and rebounded off the icy walls. Lightning arced from sphere to sphere. The companions ducked and weaved as they ran amid the glowing globes. Stray tracers lashed them or jolted into them, each stinging with