"Surrender now and release your magic!" Sheriff Hueller called. He moved next to Jimmy.

The rogue mage looked first at Sheriff Hueller, then Jimmy, then Camilla, then Jacob, weighing each of them in turn. He said nothing. In the valley the three other deputies still pounded away at the chameleon. The faint sounds of the fight drifted up to them.

"Give me the boy, and you all get to walk away from this." The rogue mage's voice didn't waver. There was no question in his words, no accusation or angry declaration. It sounded as though he were calmly asking for someone to pass him a plate at dinner.

"You tell us your name, why you're stalking this boy, and why you are illegally feeding Consumers to cross them over, and then we can discuss the terms of your surrender. My deputies and I will not harm you, and the Order will give you a fair trial."

The rogue mage looked at Sheriff Hueller as if he had sprouted another head, then laughed. Jacob's blood chilled.

"It appears you misunderstood me, Sheriff Hueller. If you do not give me the boy within the next ten seconds, you and your deputies and that girl there will all die. My quarrel is not with you, and there is no need for unnecessary fighting."

"I'm afraid we don't negotiate with terrorists." Sheriff Hueller said. Jimmy tensed.

"Terrorists?" The rogue mage frowned. Anger flickered across his face. "Terrorists?" He turned to Jacob. "Boy, I am not going to kill you. I need you for a magical experiment because you have the same magical signature as I do. I promise that I will not intentionally harm you, and if you come with me, I will not hurt any of your friends here."

"Do not reply!" Sheriff Hueller warned Jacob. "Experimenting on other mages is forbidden by the Order. If you have a benign experiment you wish to perform, you must clear it with the Order first."

"The Order this. The Order that." The rogue mage stomped his foot. "You think I don't know their narrow-minded rules? Most of the magic you Rangers use was discovered by procedures they now deem 'illegal.' I-" The rogue mage visibly cut himself off and took a deep breath.

A great hissing roar echoed from the valley. The chameleon reared up on its hind legs, then fell over on its side, twitched once, and lay still. Xavier, Ola, and Millicent turned and ran back up the hill towards them.

The rogue mage sighed. "Why do I even bother?"

He leapt back across the hilltop, face grim. He whipped his hand out to the side. A surge of magic stronger than anything Jacob had ever felt echoed out from the rogue mage. It was so intensely crimson that for a moment all Jacob's brain could process was that exact colour, even though it wasn't visible.

Flickers of red light swirled around the rogue mage's hand. A column of fire wide as a car tire lanced out from it, blazing, spawning shadows in that sunless world and casting the flowers on the hill and the face of the rogue mage in a hellish glow. It tore down the slope, singeing the ground. Jacob felt the heat tingle across his face. Ola was in the lead. She threw up a ward, but even from this distance Jacob could see it was thin, wavering. The pillar of fire flooded onto the ward, covering its surface. Millicent and Xavier threw themselves to the side. The column of fire powered through the ward, through Ola, and gouged into the hillside opposite. Then it winked out. The top half of Ola's body was a charred, smoking ruin. Her burnt corpse stood for a moment, then toppled over onto the ground.

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Stunned silence. Camilla gasped.

A trail of smoke rose up into the sky from Ola's corpse.

Jacob couldn't believe his eyes. His heart pounded in his skull. This couldn't be happening. Ola couldn't be dead. She just couldn't. He hadn't just witnessed a murder.

A freezing horror that slashed to his core took ahold of him. The faint myth of safety he'd felt since reaching the Sanctuary dropped out beneath him like a trap door leading into darkness. The invisible shroud of shelter he'd unknowingly lived beneath his whole life was torn away as if by a rough giant, and for the first time in his life he was naked, completely vulnerable and aware of his own fragile mortality. He could die. He was going to die. They were all going to die. That psychopath was going to kill every single last one of them, just like he'd destroyed every single one of the Arturos. And there was nothing he could do. He was powerless, useless, a complete victim of the rogue mage's whim.

While Jacob stood frozen with abject horror, Jimmy recovered. "No!" He screamed and threw himself at the rogue mage.

"Ola!" Sheriff Hueller whirled and brought his hands up, light blue magic pouring out of him. A shelf of rock jutted up out of the ground at the rogue mage.

The rogue mage flicked his hand. A second shelf of rock emerged from the ground, smashing into Sheriff Hueller's and grinding it to a halt. Chips of rock and shattered flowers exploded into the air.

Jimmy impacted the rogue mage a moment later, whirling a kick at the man's head. The rogue mage threw both arms up in a block. Jimmy's foot smashed into it. The rogue mage slid back, heels digging grooves in the ground. Jimmy spun forward, not giving the rogue mage a moment to recover. The rogue mage dropped into a fighting stance, one hand held out in front of him.

Jacob could only just follow the blur of their movements. It was as if someone had put a fight scene from a Bruce Lee movie on fast forward. In the corner of his eye he saw Sheriff Hueller casting a spell, and Xavier and Millicent had recovered and were coming up the slope.

Jimmy whirled a kick at the rogue mage's head. The rogue mage deftly turned it aside and lunged forward. Jimmy blocked the man's left jab, but the rogue mage was already shifting low and swinging. Then Jacob felt another surge of power. The rogue mage's rising right hook ripped through Jimmy's abdomen and out the backside. His forearm thrust out Jimmy's back halfway to the elbow, covered in blood. Blood splattered the rogue mage's face and white t-shirt. Jimmy twitched, barfed up blood. The rogue mage unclenched his fist, then pulled his arm back through the gaping hole in Jimmy's back and let Jimmy fall to the ground like an unwanted toy. One of Jimmy's hands raised limply, then fell to the ground with a wet slap, and all the tension went out of his body.

Jacob would have fallen if Camilla hadn't caught him. He thought he was screaming but all that came out of his mouth was a low whine. This couldn't be happening. This couldn't be happening.

Sheriff Hueller screamed and hit the rogue mage with a huge thrust of rock that sent him flying back across the hilltop. The rogue mage bounced on the ground and rolled to a stop in a heap.

Then the rogue mage struggled to his feet and started back towards them. He wiped the blood off his face with the back of his clean hand and licked his lips.

Sheriff Hueller looked back at Jacob and Camilla. His face had curdled in rage and something Jacob hadn't thought the stone-faced man capable of feeling. Fear.

"Run!"

Camilla yanked on Jacob's arm, and then he was running, hardly able to process what was happening, hardly able to feel his legs moving, just knowing that they were.