Ruban snapped a new magazine into his pistol as Shwaan unleashed another fire shell on their unsuspecting enemies.

Two of the vankrai closest to them went down in a blaze of preternatural flames. The others scattered in all directions, so as not to present Ashwin with a single target.

Ruban flung a sifkren, catching one of the fleeing vankrai between the shoulder blades. Seconds later, Kaheen finished the job with an energy shell, sending the vankrai spiraling into a steep, jagged hillside.

Ruban sighed. His left shoulder burned with agony, and he could barely feel anything below the ribcage.

They were alone for the moment, but he knew the vankrai would soon rally for another round. They were relentless, their numbers seemingly inexhaustible.

And powerful as Ashwin’s fire-shells were, he couldn’t afford to use them near the castle, lest he accidentally burn the whole thing down.

Sooner or later, the vankrai would notice that. For all he knew, they already had. And Ruban didn’t know what they’d do when the vankrai began using it as a shield, coordinating their attacks from the immediate vicinity of the castle to avoid retaliation.

A bloodcurdling howl had Ruban twisting in Ashwin’s arms.

Ashwin whirled, a hand outstretched and ready to attack. But there was no target to strike.

Ruban got no more than a glimpse of the Aeriel as it flew past, both arms wrapped around a screeching human.

Janak Nath.

He was still alive.

As the vankrai flew past them, Janak flung an arm out in Ashwin’s direction.

Ashwin shrank back, but not fast enough to evade the sifblade clutched in Janak’s hand.

Seizing the opportunity, Janak buried the weapon to its hilt in Ashwin’s wing, before being whisked away by his Aeriel mount.

Ruban shot at them as they flew away, the light from Ashwin’s wound all but blinding him. Nonetheless, he plugged Janak right above the elbow.

No sooner had the bullet left his pistol than Ashwin plummeted earthward with a grunt of pain.

Ruban spiraled downwards through the darkness. One of his hands clutched Ashwin’s cloak, the other trying to reach the sifblade so he could pull it out of the injured wing.

This was easier said than done, because Ashwin’s wings flapped – desperate and uncoordinated – in a futile attempt to stay adrift. But with the sif draining him of energy by the second, Ruban knew there was no hope. Not unless he could reach the blade and…

The night sky lit up in flames.

Something large and fiery lunged after them.

When it was almost parallel with them, Ashwin spun in the air and grabbed the back of the firebird’s arched neck. He pulled himself onto the creature’s back, dragging Ruban with him.

With a triumphant screech, the firebird surged upwards.

Dizzy with relief and confusion, Ruban was momentarily glad that the blazing bird hadn’t set his pants on fire.

Then, shaking off his bewilderment, he twisted in his fiery seat and reached for the sifblade buried in Ashwin’s wing.

“This is going to sting,” he muttered, pulling the blade out with a single, powerful tug.

Ashwin sagged forward with a sound that hung precariously between a sob and a sigh. Ruban wiped the sifblade on his thigh and sheathed it, replacing the one he’d lost at the castle.

Only then did he look up – eyes searching for Simani and Kaheen – to see that it was raining firebirds.

It wasn’t just firebirds, of course. There were Aeriels there as well – nearly a hundred of them – although they were largely obscured by the sheer brilliance of the birds that accompanied them.

“Mir, darling, you made it!” Ashwin cooed, petting the firebird’s giant head over Ruban’s shoulder. “I thought I’d never see you again.”

The creature squawked indignantly, circling the castle.

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“Mir?” Ruban held on to its flaming neck for dear life. “You mean, this is Miranki? The one I saw back in Vaan last year?”

“The one and only.”

“But-but it wasn’t this large the last time I saw it.”

“They can change size, obviously.” The red and yellow flames on Miranki’s head burned brighter under Ashwin’s tender caresses. “Wouldn’t be much of a ride if she always stayed the size of an overgrown chicken, would she?”

“What? But how?”

Ashwin nudged the side of Miranki’s neck, and the bird swerved sharply to avoid an incoming energy shell. “They’re literally made of fire, Ruban. All you have to do is turn up the heat.”

Another shell flew past them, close enough to singe his ear, and Ruban gave it up for a lost cause. He’d been trained to kill Aeriels. Understanding their metaphysical gibberish was not his area of expertise.

He looked ahead, squinting into the darkness, and finally spotted Simani and Kaheen fighting a horde of vankrai in the distance. Other, smaller skirmishes had broken out all around them, Aeriels and firebirds clashing with the vankrai, their shells illuminating the night moments at a time.

He elbowed Ashwin and pointed silently in their direction.

Like a fine-tuned race car, Miranki swerved immediately and dove for their target.

Fighting in perfect coordination, Ruban and Ashwin made short work of the vankrai surrounding their friends. Simani’s right sleeve was ripped and crusted with blood. The lower edges of Kaheen’s wings looked scorched.

But they were both still breathing, still fighting. And that was more than Ruban had dared hope for, in these last few minutes that seemed to have lasted an eternity.

“What the hell is going on?” Simani demanded between quick, shallow breaths, as the last of her opponents went down in flames. “What-Who are these Aeriels? Where did they come from? And why’re they fighting the vankrai?”

“They’re Shehzaa’s soldiers.” Ashwin hailed another firebird and thrust both Kaheen and Simani onto its back. “I suppose they’re here for me.”

Simani yelped, trying to jerk away from the fiery creature. Kaheen refused to let go of her, however, and both of them soon straddled the bird. Her arms encircling Simani’s waist, Kaheen grabbed the firebird’s flaming withers, directing it efficiently with her touch.

“What are these things?” Simani’s voice was shrill, her eyes fixed on Ruban.

“The firebirds of Vaan.” He craned his neck to look at the scuffling Aeriels all around. “You’ve heard of them.”

“I’ve heard fairytales about them. As a child. That’s not the same thing.”

Ignoring Simani, Ruban turned his accusing glare on Ashwin. “You knew this was going to happen. That’s why you wanted us out of the castle, isn’t it? You knew your sister would send reinforcements.”

“I hoped she would.” Ashwin parried an attack by a band of harried-looking vankrai, expertly maneuvering Miranki to dodge their shells. “The last time I saw her, Shehzaa told me that my sister had spies among the faction of the Exiles still loyal to Tauheen and her cause.

“I wasn’t sure if that was still true, so I didn’t want to get your hopes up. But if it was, then somebody would’ve reported to Safaa, the moment Janak’s ‘new recruit’ told his allies where I was being held captive.”

“And you wanted to make it easy for Shehzaa and her troops to find us. That’s why you dragged us out into the open.”

An unapologetic grin lighting up his features, Ashwin shrugged. “Safaa has her virtues, but keeping her nose out of my business isn’t one of them. If she knew where I was, she’d come to get me. Or, at least, send Shehzaa to get me. I never doubted that.”

The vankrai – finding little success in their tiff with Ashwin ­– turned their attention to Kaheen and Simani.

Kaheen maneuvered their firebird deftly, though her control wasn’t quite as fine as Ashwin’s. Simani downed one of the vankrai with a volley of sifkren. The other three fanned out promptly, fencing them in.

Kaheen swerved to avoid one of their shells, only to be struck in the back by another. Her control slipped. They careened towards the castle, their firebird’s agitated squawks ringing in Ruban’s ears.

Ashwin shouted something in a language that sounded vaguely familiar. Old Vandran? Not for the first time since they’d met, Ruban regretted sleeping through his theory classes at Bracken.

Moments later, a throng of Aeriels and firebirds had surrounded Kaheen and Simani, halting their descent.

At Ashwin’s signal, some of them disengaged from the main group and gave chase to the fleeing vankrai. Before they’d so much as cleared the valley, the three vankrai were overtaken and captured.

Miranki sailed closer to Kaheen and the others.

As Ashwin directed the remaining Aeriels, Simani raised a quizzical eyebrow at Ruban.

“They seem to be taking his orders well.” She leaned closer to be heard over the din of the battle.

Ruban shrugged. “He’s their commander. Or general. Or something along those lines. Although, I think Shehzaa’s the real deal.”

“Everyone seems to agree on that front.” She looked around, brow furrowed. “But where is she?”

Ruban had never laid eyes on Shehzaa, so his guess was as good as hers. But before he could tell her as much, Ashwin pulled Miranki away from the group, directing her towards the hills.

With Shehzaa’s troops at his back, he’d soon flushed out most of the remaining vankrai, as well as the handful of Qawirsin thugs who had survived the carnage at the castle. For once, the numbers were on their side. And the fight that followed was as short as it was destructive.

The vankrai that couldn’t be captured were killed, and the human survivors were negligible in number. The cratered hills were littered with mortal and Aeriel corpses alike. The scale of the devastation was almost unimaginable.

There was no way something of this magnitude could be kept secret from the media. The arrival of the firebirds alone would’ve been visible for miles around. Somebody somewhere was bound to have caught it on camera.

And once news of this battle got out…

Ruban closed his eyes. He didn’t want to imagine the endless primetime debates and political tirades that loomed in his future. And just in time for the enhanced sifblade formula to be finally rolled out for trial runs. As if the public discourse wasn’t sufficiently inflamed already, with Tauheen’s atrocities last year still fresh in everyone’s memory.

Still, there was no point in borrowing trouble from the future. He had enough of it for the time being. A commotion near the castle had them heading back to the valley. Leaving Heiqaa in charge, Ashwin directed his forces to deal quickly and severely with any remaining vankrai. If they couldn’t be captured, they had to be killed.