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The swordswoman yelled again, her voice stripped of uncertainty and pain. It was the cry of a warrior certain of her eventual victory.

Kiril fell upon the creatures' flanks as they attempted to smother the monk, who in turn protected Adrik's prostrate form.

When her blade contacted the flesh of the first nilshai, she not only hewed through its tissue, but the cerulean flame from her blade immediately set it alight so robustly that its destruction was a small explosion. Flaming, white-hot bits were propelled in every direction. The nearest nilshai also caught fire, and a moment later, it too was consumed by Angul's cleansing influence.

Rarely was her blade so effective-only when Angul's true enemies were flushed from dark corners. These were aberrations! And Angul was forged for one purpose before all else: the eradication of all atrocities such as these whose mere existence so tainted the world.

The final, cowering nilshai uttered an ululation that Kiril understood as terror for its evil soul. She swept het blade through its abominable carcass, consuming flesh and spirit simultaneously with her unforgiving length of steel.

The last abomination continued to hover above the ridge. It spoke, and its voice was a synthesis of high-pitched squeals, grinding teeth, and tentacle flesh tasping across itself. Kiril heard it say, "I foresee my end. As I foresaw the deaths of my lesser sisters you've just slain. But I rejoice! For each death, even mine, is another stone in the path that leads ineluctabiy to Xxiphu's emergence! Even as I breathe my last-"

Kiril reversed her grip on Angul's hilt, then launched the burning blade as if he were a javelin. Angul punched through the air tip-forward, a series of ever-widening, flaming halos in his wake. The prophesying aberration's body was consumed in the cleansing inferno that followed contact.

Raidon Kane bent to one knee to support Adrik's head. The sorcerer shivered and gasped, "My arm! It… it hurt like fire, but now it's numb."

The monk examined the man's injuted limb, easily visible • through the shredded sleeve of his robe. Sucker marks made i ugly circles across his flesh. At the center of each circle beaded | a tiny drop of blood. The arm's color was fading toward a sickly green hue.

"Poison runs in your veins," declared Raidon. "Hold still." So saying, he tore away Adrik's shredded sleeve and used it to -i tie a tourniquet around the sorcerer's arm above the elbow. | He cinched it tight, making the man wince. He hoped it was J tight enough to slow the venom. Better the loss of a single arm than death.

The swordswoman walked up, her sword already tucked in her belt. Her blade had surprised Raidon with its incredible display. He wondered why the sword had been so ineffective when he'd first met Kiril at the Mere.

In her arms, Kiril carried the tiny creature she called Xet. Its iridescent color was slowly returning, and its wings flexed. The swordswoman cradled it with a tenderness Raidon hadn't guessed belonged to the elf.

He observed, "You said before that 'threats' wandered Sildeyuir. Are these what you spoke of?"

Kiril said, "Yes. The nilshai. Damned monsters that wield formidable sorcery. They are recent invaders, only becoming a nuisance in the last few years. Word of monsters in the lonelier stretches of the forest circulated, though most thought these 'nilshai' stories were jokes."

The swordswoman scowled at the burnt cinder that was once Moonveil Citadel. "Soon enough, we realized the nilshai were all too real. We discovered they were poisoning Sildeyuir for years."

"Poisoning?" asked the monk.

"They kill our children and steal away tracts of land that are never seen again."

Concern clutched Raidon's stomach. He had discovered his mother's home realm only to find it under attack by vicious invaders. Was she safe?

Adrik looked up from his ravaged, darkening arm. He asked, his teeth gritted against pain, "Where do they come from?"

Kiril gazed at the burning citadel. She said, "No one ever knew. Our sages said they hailed from a spectral reality that