“If you only knew, Skylord,” Sentar spat. “If I had the power, I would revisit every moment of our brothers’ suffering onto you.”
“At least you finally acknowledge you aren’t all powerful.” Evrin smiled.
As Sentar opened his hands, Evrin spoke a series of swift words, and his robe shifted in nature. The pale blue developed a pattern, a mottling like the skin of a lizard as interlocking scales shifted up and down, coating Evrin’s body and limbs, rising up Evrin’s chin and covering his head.
A jagged bolt of black lightning shot from each of Sentar’s hands, but splashed off Evrin’s scaled armor. Sentar frowned and called on more of his power; each hand now projected two streams of dark fire, then three.
Evrin’s armor began to smoke, but he chanted continuously, adding more scales to replace those that fell away. He pointed his empty left hand at Sentar and added two sequences to his chants, blending more inflections into his steady stream of activation runes.
A silver and gold bracelet appeared on his left wrist and a matching ring came into being on his index finger. The bracelet and ring flared brightly and a bolt of blue energy shot forward, followed by a second, and then a third. Sentar raised one of his palms in a warding motion and a field of solid air flattened in front of him, Evrin’s beams diffusing across the field’s surface.
Sentar’s other hand continued with the stream of crackling fire, and Evrin called on more scales to replace those that now fell in a steady stream to the ocean below. He knew his robe wouldn’t last long.
Evrin expended the energy of the twin devices on his left hand at a prodigious rate. He could see Sentar’s protective field fading, and he increased the power of the bolts of blue energy to the limit.
Evrin felt heat touch his skin.
“Give . . . up . . . old man,” Sentar said through gritted teeth.
Evrin’s robe began to smoke and smolder. The skin at his chest, closest to the twisted streams of black lightning, began to sting, and now no more scales replaced those that fell into the water, striking the surface with a hiss.
“Last . . . chance . . .” Evrin gasped.
The blue robe caught fire. Evrin screamed in pain, and with the cry of agony he choked. His voice ceased chanting, and the robe began to disintegrate.
Evrin looked at the golden scrill in his right hand.
Everything until now had been a distraction.
“Finistratas,” Evrin gasped the single word.
The scrill became a handle, and a long line of flickering blue fire, a strand of shining silver, now dripped from its tip, reaching down to the water below. Evrin lifted the handle and jerked his arm backward and then down. The blue line curled through the air, reaching around behind Sentar Scythran. The silver strand curled around Sentar’s waist.
“Almothar,” Evrin intoned.
The scrill fused to Evrin’s hand. He could never let it go.
“Neveran.”
Evrin’s robe took on sudden weight; it was now as heavy as a mountain. Sentar’s expression registered shock, and the onslaught of black lightning became stronger. Evrin’s hair burst into flame.
Fighting the pain with all his strength, Evrin could only breathe the last of the activations sequences.
“Endara.”
The golden stairway of ethereal light disappeared, vanishing as if it had never been.
Evrin plummeted, weighed down by his dragging robe, and in his right hand the golden scrill could never be released.
He’d built the device to do one thing, and one thing only. Evrin had built the coil of silver to grab hold of Sentar Scythran and never let go.
Sentar screamed as the two men fell through the air, writhing and kicking, with limbs flailing in all directions. Evrin hit the water first and Sentar a heartbeat later; immediately they sank.
Water was everywhere, light filtering through the surface but struggling to reach the depths as the two figures plummeted to the bottom. Evrin pulled with his right arm even as his lungs heaved and his body thirsted for air.
Sentar rolled over and over, trying to untangle himself from the glowing wire. Evrin grabbed hold of the man he’d once called brother and tried to hold him as the two men hit the sandy ocean floor.
Sentar attacked Evrin in a frenzy. Evrin felt hands clapped to his head, and excruciating pain wracked his skull and spine, filling his consciousness with fire.
Evrin’s vision closed in until all he could see was a white tunnel with a warm golden light, beckoning him at the end.
His love called.
Evrin Evenstar, Lord of the Sky, followed her down the tunnel.
30
Ella watched in horror as the stairway of light vanished and Evrin and Sentar plunged into the water. For long minutes, only bubbles and hisses of steam indicated where they’d fallen.
Ella gripped Layla’s hand with savage intensity. “Evrin!” she screamed. She was standing now, though she didn’t remember getting to her feet.