The whip lashed out again and the end snapped on open air as the Romani dove forward and rolled, avoiding it. He sprang up at once, and Phae saw the Shade had reappeared elsewhere, his bony frame and tattered cloak on the other side of the glen. The howling of the hounds picked up, their incessant baying making Phae cower with fear. Shion was near her, tracking the Shade with his eyes, keeping her just behind him.
Kiranrao launched himself at the Shade, his movement so fast she couldn’t follow. As his dagger plunged down, the Shade vanished again, only to rematerialize right next to Kiranrao. She watched in horror as a dripping maw opened up in the blank, sack-like face. It wasn’t a mouth. It was too stringy, like pulling through melted cheese. The void opened up where a mouth should be and a horde of black moths, tiny and quick like jiggering gnats, engulfed Kiranrao in a cloudy pestilence. There was a shriek of pain and the Romani staggered away, flapping his arms to ward off the cloud.
He stumbled backward, going down, and Phae saw with blooming sickness that his skin was shriveling like parchment just as her father predicted, the muscles of his arms desiccated and frail. The Romani tried to scramble, but his limbs were suddenly grotesquely thin.
“Khiara, save him,” Tyrus ordered. “Shion, Baylen—help cover her.”
Khiara’s staff whirled and struck the Shade of Aunwynn from a distance, sounding like the clatter of wood against wood. She spun the end around and jammed it into his middle, trying to knock him away from Kiranrao so she could heal him. The cowl turned and faced her and then it vanished again.
“Tyrus,” Annon pleaded, “we cannot kill this creature!”
Khiara looked swiftly and then rushed to Kiranrao’s side, dropping low and placing her palm on his chest, her head bowed in determination. Her hand glowed orange and then bright, like a sudden glimpse of sunlight peeking through the clouds. Kiranrao’s mummified skin was restored again, flesh and muscle filling out. His eyes, though wild with pain a moment before, calmed as her powers swept through him.
Then the Shade was back, appearing nearby. The whip lashed out, wrapping around Khiara’s neck, and he yanked her toward himself. She was choking, her eyes wide with fear, and she dug her boots against the exposed roots of the oak trees, trying to find a foothold. But his strength overmatched hers easily, and he drew her inexorably closer. The maw opened again.
Shion rushed forward, faster than a snake, Baylen just behind him. Phae felt instantly exposed, her protector gone to save the Shaliah girl. She wanted to scream, but she also wanted him to save Khiara. Would the Shade’s magic affect him? Would he also fall to another immortal’s power?
Shion reached Khiara, grabbed the taut whip with one hand, not heeding the barbs, and slashed against it with his dagger. The whip severed and Khiara tumbled backward, still choking for breath.
The dripping maw opened again and the Shade flung one of his arms wide, belching out another cloud of moths that surged into Shion and swarmed him. Phae stared, unable to tear her eyes from him. Shion pulled himself closer, wrapping the whip around his hand and wrist, binding himself to the length, pulling at the immobile Shade. The gnats vanished and Phae gasped with relief when she saw that their disease had not altered Shion at all.
Aunwynn pulled back on the whip and jerked Shion off his feet like he was nothing more than a small bag of flour. Shion did not sail loose like Kiranrao had because he had wound the whip end around his wrist and forearm. Instead he crashed into the forest floor with jarring impact.
Shion rolled to his feet and hurtled his knife at the Shade’s body. It whistled sharply in the air and was deflected away harmlessly, clattering into the brush nearby.
The Shade heaved again on the whip and Shion flew up and over in a dizzying arc, landing with a bone-rattling fall onto the mess of roots and packed dirt.
“Go!” Shion said, wincing. Phae wasn’t sure if he was hurt or not. “I’ll catch up!”
The two were connected now. Phae realized that by holding on to the end of the whip, the Shade wasn’t able to disappear and reappear again. Maybe his magic would not allow him to bring someone else when he vanished. Without letting go of the whip himself, the Shade was fixed to that location.
From the radius of the woods, the hounds attacked again, rending the air with their shrill barks, coming to the aid of their master. Tyrus shouted in warning and Phae summoned the words to tame the fireblood in her mind. Shion had kept her safe during the last battle and she realized she was unprotected. The dogs had no eyes and so her Dryad powers were completely useless.
Her fingertips glowed blue and she saw the ravening pack charge into them again, collapsing on all sides, howling and shrieking.
“The Tay al-Ard!” someone shrieked.
Not without Shion! Phae wanted to scream back.