Silvon’s POV

“Hey, are you listening to me?” Mirina shouted.

“Cut him some slack Mimi, your brother hasn’t had much rest in a while.” Lumia said gently. Her voice was more throaty than usual and it rumbled like thunder which told me she was in draconic form.

My eyes snapped open as I realized I’d been dreaming.

I was leaning on a thick stack of furs with Mirina sitting beside me. She was pouting and staring up at Lumia who walked along beside us.

“So what, he should listen when I talk!” Mirina retorted resolutely.

It took me a moment to orient myself with my surroundings. We weren’t in the jungle anymore. This was still the beast plains, but we seemed to have entered some kind of marsh. For a moment I was worried that the wagons wouldn’t be able to cross, then I realized that they were already doing so. We were rolling along easily over a level and dry path.

“Anything is possible with magic.” I unconsciously said out loud.

Mirina turned to me immediately, glaring as if I’d just insulted her. “Are you ignoring me, Sam?”

I shook my head, “Of course not.” With a gentle smile I added, “Sorry Mimi, I think I passed out around when you mentioned that thing about the boy who couldn’t cast spells.”

The way she crossed her arms and looked away made clear she wasn’t satisfied with my response.

“What was it you said… he claimed his magic was just beyond your understanding.”

Throwing her hands in the air, Mirina shouted, “he told everyone I was under his spell and every spell I cast was actually his.”

I couldn’t help but snicker at her animated reaction.

Lumia goaded, “But you didn’t let him get away with it right?”

“Oh no!” Mirina assured. “I blasted him right there with an earth bullet and laughed. Then Fri’za asked him what was wrong with his magic. Every time he tried to answer, I shot him again.”

“Mimi!” I exclaimed then covered my mouth as I tried to hide my laughter. “That’s not how…”

“I know; mom gave me like five lectures about it.”

“What did dad say?” I asked without thinking.

Mirina went silent immediately. Her smile slipped into a frown and she pulled her knees to her chest. As her chin rested on her knees she mumbled. “He told me ‘next time aim for his mouth.’ Then mom hit him.”

I nodded. “Yea, sounds like something dad would say.” We both inhaled deeply then Mirina leaned against me.

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Time passed slowly as we traveled deeper into the marshlands. Thick mist hung all around making it impossible to see more than a few feet beyond the cart. Everything was so quiet that it felt like we’d crossed into the land of the dead.

Mirina scooted closer to me, wrapping her hands around my arm. "You're cold,” she complained.

"So are you," I replied, “like ice.”

“This mist isn’t natural,” Lumia said, flaring her nostrils. “I can’t smell or even sense anything nearby."

My senses were definitely effected, but it wasn’t a total loss. I could smell something like rotting flesh quite strongly. I could also feel little tremors in ambient mana, something was moving around in the mist, but I couldn’t pin it down.

“Lu, take my sister and find Silvia.” I said firmly. “Get them out of the fog and keep them safe.”

“What about you, Silv?”

I knew why she was worried. I was still struggling with my curse. Even if I could defend myself, there was no telling when I might slip up and lose control. Lumia could help keep me grounded, but I still had Melinda.

“I’ll be fine Lu, besides it’ll be easier to stay calm if I know their safe.”

She nodded, but Mirina squeezed my arm tighter.

Looking at my sister I smiled wand kissed her forehead. “I promise Mimi, I’ll be okay.”

Mirina shook her head. “No Sam! I don’t want to go.”

Something zipped by, floating just over us. It couldn’t be seen, but I felt it. There wasn’t time to try and convince her, so I lifted her in my arms and hoisted her onto Lumia’s back. “I’ll go with you, at least until we reach mom.”

She nodded, releasing my arm and grabbing hold of Lumia’s neck. I climbed on behind my sister and Lumia took off immediately. She flew very blow to avoid losing sight of the convoy. As we rushed by, I realized most of the elves were resting. No one seemed to notice the danger we were in; since no orders were given, I suspected that the council hadn’t noticed yet either.

“Hurry, Lu. Get to the front!” I shouted over the rush of wind.

She was already flying as fast as she could without picking up altitude; I knew that, but every second was vital.

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“What the…” someone shouted from a cart as we flew by.

A woman screamed, but the sound was cut off by a squelch. At the same time, I felt another disturbance in ambient Mana. The woman fell over the edge of the wagon into the mucky swap. Another woman reached after her, but missed. She brought her hands to her face as tears burst from her eyes. She must have known there was nothing more she could do.

I lost sight of her then as we hurried on and her cart was swallowed in the fog.

“Full speed! All carts at full speed.” The general’s voice echoed ahead. His order came too late; more than one wagon had already stopped. That aside I was pretty sure most of the convoy couldn’t hear him. Under normal conditions his voice would’ve carried to the back of the convoy, but here it only traveled a few dozen yards.

Finally reaching the council’s wagon, Lumia landed and ran alongside it. Melinda was maintaining a barrier around the wagon as it raced along a path generated by Lady Sienna. Making such a long road at high speed must have been exhausting. There was no way she could keep it up forever, but if she couldn’t last long enough to get out of the fog, then the elves might all die here. Lumia could save some, but only a small number of them.

The three hunters we hired were on the cart as well, except one of them was missing. In his place there was a dead man with a tail, and scales covering his body. It looked he was struck from behind by elven magic. A vine burrowed into his back, forced its way out from his chest then wrapped tightly around his body.

“Silv, can you do anything about this fog?” Silvia shouted.

“I can try," I answered. "But I need you to trade places with me."

Silvia frowned as her eyes dropped. Then she looked me in the eyes and spoke firmly. "Silv, no."

"Mom, please. Lumia can take you and Mirina to safety, then-"

"Then you can fight while we run away?" She shook her head. "Sam, you're my kid too! I won't leave either one of you behind. Besides, I also have a responsibility to the elves."

I wanted to argue, to tell her that I'd already lost one mother to duty. That Mirina and I both lost a father. I didn't want to just leave the elves either, but between them and family I would chose my family. Still Silvia wasn't a child. I couldn't just force her to do as I wanted like I did with Mirina.

"Bring the child inside the barrier," Councilman Odel barked, "Then you and the dragon do what you can to help our people."

Gnashing my teeth, I growled, "Shut up old man! What have you done for the elves? What right do you have to tell me what to do?"

Odel didn't respond, but his dismissive expression told me it wasn't my words that stilled his tongue, not in the way I desired. He shook his head and turned away. General Ivor scoffed, muttering somethign under his breath, and Sienna snorted.

"Silvon, They're trying to help." Lumia said, her voice gentle and kind, "We should let them."

Nodding reluctantly, I wrapped an arm around my sister. Melinda dropped her barrier and I jumped from Lumia's back with my sister. When I handed Mirina to Silvia, our mother's face softened somewhat and she gave me a small smile.

"I know this is hard for you Silv, but I promise you nothing will get through my barrier," Melinda said with a similarly gentle expression. I nodded a silent thank you, then she continued, "Now hurry up and go so I can put it back up."

With a deep breath I jumped off of the wagon. I was still worried, but the people on that wagon were the strongest mages among the elves, plus two silver rank hunters. The dead hunter was also silver rank, but he was caught by surprise. If we'd known of the danger in advance, I was certain the man wouldn't be dead now.

I took another deep breath as Lumia came up by my side. Without words we could sense each other's intent and each of us burst into action.

Spreading my hands above my head, I sent mana along my mana veins to both hands. In my right hand I condescend a chilling orb of mana, while ferocious winds coalesced together in the left. Bringing the two together, I combined the two magics into a freezing wind; then I threw it up into the air. As soon as I released the magic, it burst out like a bomb.

Freezing winds lashed out violently, pushing away the fog and clearing an area roughly three football fields across. Twenty or more lizardmen were revealed when the mist was forced back. Those closer to the epicenter of the blast were frozen in place, those along the perimeter were affected only temporarily.

I reached for Stylnyx, but the blade wasn’t at my side. My father’s sword was still with Zidg and would remain so until he completed the body for Stylnyx. Improvising, I began molding ice mana into a spear. I didn’t particularly care for polearms, but it was faster and easier than trying to make a sword with an edge capable of cutting.

Lumia was already ripping through lizards one after the other. She ignored those frozen by my spell, instead chasing after the escaping lizards. I followed after her, using the spear to the vitals of frozen lizardmen. Soon the area was cleared of enemies, but we hadn’t reached the caravan yet. If we kept going at this pace everyone might be dead before we reached them.

Lumia returned to my side again, kneeling low. Sliding a leg over her back, I settled into position and let the ice spear dissolve.

Feeling frustrated by my limits, I groused. “If I had magic like a dragon then I could—”

“You have me, Silv.”

“Yea, but you’re a light dragon right? Like Illudrasile.” I winced as a stabbing pain in my head spiked then faded in the same breath.

“What’s wrong?” Lumia asked, “What was that?”

“You felt it too?”

“Not physically, but through our bond.”

“That hasn’t happened before,” I said. “Did something change?”

“I don’t know, but we need to focus. This is probably a good spot.”

“A good spot for what?”

Opening her mouth wide, Lumia released a mighty roar. Along with her roar, surge of mana poured from her mouth in the form of wind. The gusting force was immensely powerful, blowing away what must have been at least a mile of fog. We had clear sight of the full convoy now, and also of several dozen lizardmen.

I was stunned. “Why didn’t you do that earlier?” I asked.

Lumia answered simply, “Take another look.”

I understood almost immediately. Her wind didn’t just blow away the fog, it also pushed many carts from the path into the marsh. Elves and lizardmen alike were knocked down, thrown, and some were probably even crushed.

I started to regret being in such a rush, I wanted to help, not harm the people.

“It was the right call, Silv. If we didn’t do it then more would have been killed and injured by those creatures.” Lumia replied calmly. Then descended toward the nearest wagon.

Creating the blast took a lot of her. I could feel her exhaustion, and it was plain to see in the lopsided way she glided down to the ground. I leapt from her back when we were still ten feet off the ground, then she transformed and fell.

“Lumia,” I called, but was too slow to catch her. Fortunately the ground was soft so I was sure she wasn’t hurt too badly.

Already recovered from the blast, a lizardman launched out of the shallow water bordering the path. The creature tackled me, knocking me away from my bond as two more lizards slithered out of the water behind it. Grabbing her by the horns, one of them began dragging her back.

“Lumia!” I shouted, then the first creature struck me in the face.