Sarien panicked as he rode the water down the short fall to the ground, and landed in a growing pond of water, coughing and gasping for air. It was dark, but the night still showed men and tents all around him.

No, not men. Rhinn.

Instead of screaming for help, he slammed his mouth shut and waded through the water to find Lana. The only part of her above water was her eyes and the top of her head. She peered back at him, obviously understanding their situation. Kax coughed and cursed nearby, but Heylien got to him before Sarien could, silencing him with a hand over his mouth.

“We need to move, now,” Ein whispered in the dark, handing over Sarien’s dropped spear.

“Thank you,” Sarien murmured.

Kax and Heylien swam to join them. “Did we get it?” Kax asked.

“I think so,” Sarien said. “Let’s move. Do you still have your swords?”

“Sorry, I dropped Kax’s into the water,” Heylien said.

“I have both,” Kax replied. “Caught it. Told you I’d want it back.”

Lana raised her head above the water so she could whisper, “That’s actually impressive.”

“Don’t sound so surprised,” Kax muttered.

“We’re going to drown here if we stay much longer,” Heylien said. “Or the rhinn will realize we’re here and that’ll be the end of us.”

“Let’s go,” Sarien agreed. They made their way to the edge of the water, crawling the last bit to get to dry land, then hurried to the nearest empty cluster of tents.

A fire crackled in the middle of the camp. Each of them was packed with sleeping rhinn. Sarien cursed under his breath and turned away from the firelight so they wouldn’t be spotted.

Rhinn moved around them, but no one glanced in their direction. The enemy’s focus was entirely on the growing lake in the middle of their camp. From what he could tell, there weren’t even any patrols. Not that it mattered when they were in the middle of a damn army. They’d be caught eventually, no matter how incompetent these invaders were.

“There,” his father whispered, grabbing Sarien’s shoulder.

“Are you sure?” Sarien asked. The tent Ein indicated to was much larger than the ones the rhinn were sleeping in, big enough to fit furniture, and, worse, it was dyed a deep red.

Ein nodded. “If we can get our hands on a pyromancer’s robe or two, that’ll let us move around and get out of here without being questioned.”

“What if there’s a pyromancer inside?” Kax asked.

Lana drew a dagger from her belt. “I’ll take care of that.”

“We better hurry,” Heylien said. “There’s a whole lake forming here. How much water does Tyralien even store?”

“It’s connected to a river,” Ein muttered. He looked to Sarien. “It’s your call, son.”

Sarien straightened. There was only one option if they wanted to get out of the rhinn camp alive. “We go for the pyromancer.”

They slowly made their way over to the pyromancer’s tent. The rhinn soldiers were distracted by the hole in the air gushing water into their camp, and Sarien only had to tilt his head down whenever one rushed past to stay hidden. When they approached the tent, Sarien was surprised to find that it wasn’t guarded. He heard voices from within, familiar, and not the lightly accented tones of the rhinn. They were human. Pyromancers.

Lana cast Sarien a questioning look, and he nodded firmly. She slid another dagger out, one for each of the firemagi, and entered without making a sound.

From where he stood outside, Sarien only heard a gust of wind followed quickly by two grunts. Lana’s arm came out of the tent flap, waving them in. Both pyromancers were dead, each with a dagger punched through their forehead. Judging by how deep they were stuck, Lana must have used tremendous force.

“Do you recognize them?” Heylien asked, looking to Sarien as they de-robed the old men.

Sarien shook his head. “Most pyromancers were out of the tower before I arrived.”

“You went to the tower?” Ein asked.

“I did.”

His father winced. “Right, we’ll talk about that later.”

Sarien and Ein were designated as the group’s pyromancers. Ein for the obvious reason that he was a pyromancer and Sarien because of his black flames. If they were stopped by the rhinn, they hoped the invaders weren’t knowledgeable enough about pyromancy to know the difference between a true flame and Sarien’s own versions.

Ein called for the nearest rhinn as soon as they exited. When they arrived, he spoke in an arrogant tone that would set anyone on edge. “Fetch us three rhinn uniforms to fit these people.”

The rhinn kept their eyes downcast and soon returned with the requested outfits. With that, they blended in with the crowd. Ein, his spine straight and with a look of haughty disdain on his face, took the lead through the mass of rhinn crowding around the ever-expanding lake. Soldiers jumped out of their way.

“Shouldn’t I close the gateway?” Sarien asked as they walked through the camp.

Ein shrugged. “They won’t be able to enter through there. With the blockages fully open, you’ll drown the city if you close it at this point. The flow will have to be cut off first.”

“What?”

His father looked at him as they walked side by side through the increasingly frenzied army. “The plan didn’t include us getting sucked in with the creature and dumped into the enemy camp. I thought we’d have time to fix this. No worries, I’m sure it’ll be fine. Tyriu doesn’t have all that many lakes and you can’t deny it’s messing with the rhinn camp, can you?”

“Guess not.”

Kax, Heylien, and Lana walked behind them with their hoods drawn up, covering their faces. No one stopped them when they exited the camp and the groups of rhinn moving between the city wall and their camp didn’t bother them either. They all became disinterested as soon as they were near enough to spot the red robes in the dark.

“How are we going to get in?” Lana asked. “We don’t have Emeryn with us.”

“Sarien’s da can do what Emeryn can, right, Ein?” Kax asked.

“Emeryn?” Ein asked.

“A friend and geomancer,” Sarien said. “There are others in our party, Tom and Goslin. We had to split up.”

Ein stopped and blinked. “The southern gate is open. Not a good sign.”

A screech came from back at the rhinn army camp, loud enough to make them all jump and spin.

“Was that what I think it was?” Kax asked.

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Ein turned to Sarien. “You didn’t wait until it was through?”

“I did!” Sarien protested. “Most of it! Had to close the gate before it was all the way through, or we would all have been sucked through with it!”

Ein shook his head in disbelief. “The Xzxyth’s main body can regenerate from the smallest of pieces. The whole rhinn army might be nothing more than meat puppets by this time tomorrow.”

Kax chuckled. “Sounds good to me.”

“I’m sure it does,” Ein said, anger in his voice. “Except it will come for you next. This tiny continent you call Maydian will be consumed if we don’t stop it.”

Sarien’s face burned and he was thankful for the darkness. “I didn’t know.”

Ein sighed. “It’s fine. There’s nothing we can do about it now. Let’s just get back inside the city so we can formulate a plan.”

Several rhinn soldiers stood at attention by the opening where the gate used to be. It turned out it wasn’t opened but torn apart and burned to ash. The soldiers glanced at them but said nothing.

As they made their way up what looked like one of Tyralien’s main streets, it became clear that the city truly had fallen. Sounds of combat were infrequent and the rhinn quickly dealt with whatever pockets of resistance that still held on by sheer force of numbers. At least they weren’t harming civilians or rioting in the streets. Sarien saw the occasional pyromancer walking the streets with a contingent of rhinn bodyguards.

“Trym?” A voice from a side street made them stop dead in their tracks.

Sarien’s father looked to their right, then blinked. “Mats? What are you doing here?”

A single pyromancer surrounded by rhinn soldiers stepped out into the wider street to join them. “I was just about to ask you the same. Haven’t seen you for years! When did you get here? And who is this?” He nodded to Sarien, who kept his expression blank, trying to look bored and disinterested.

“Arrived just a few hours ago,” Ein answered, putting an arm around Sarien’s shoulder. “This right here is my son! They grow up so fast, don’t they?”

Mats stared, dumbfounded. “Son? Since when do you have children?”

“Just the one,” Ein corrected. The surrounding street soon emptied as rhinn soldiers chose to go down side streets rather than walk past the three pyromancers. The rhinn accompanying Mats shuffled and glanced back and forth, clearly uncomfortable. Sarien guessed none of them had volunteered for the service of protecting a human.

“Thought you’d be among the traitors. Sorry to say,” Mats continued. “Don’t take no offense or nothing.”

Ein barked a laugh. “Me? A traitor?”

Mats chuckled along. “Just that we haven’t seen you at the tower in ages. I think there’s even a warrant out for your arrest.”

Ein laughed even harder, bending over at the waist. Sarien couldn’t help but smile too, and even the rhinn around Mats grinned. Ein’s laugh suddenly fell away. He straightened and rammed a dagger through Mats’ throat in one smooth motion.

The pyromancer clutched at the dagger as he died, choking on his own blood. Kax drew both of his swords and cackled as he fell upon the shocked rhinn soldiers. There were six of them, but none had time to even draw their weapons or lower their spears.

Kax killed two in one swing of his swords. Lana felled two more with her daggers and Heylien made short work of the last soldier with the use of Sarien’s spear.

Sarien spun, expecting other groups of rhinn soldiers to be running towards them. Instead, if anything, they kept an even greater distance. Apparently, two pyromancers fighting was not a conflict they wanted to get involved with.

“I never could stand that guy,” Ein said, turning to Sarien. “It’s not right to kill people, son.”

Sarien blinked. “What? After all this? Your fatherly advice could use some work.”

He caught a glimpse of Kax’s hand and whatever mirth he felt died. “Kax. How are you doing with that?”

Kax looked down at his hands after sheathing the swords. The obsidian coloring from back in the tunnels had spread and now covered half his hands. “I don’t know. There’s no pain or anything. I feel great.”

“Father, do you know anything about this?”

Ein’s brow furrowed. “No. I’ll take a look later. We should go. At some point, someone will arrive and wonder why we’re standing around a bunch of corpses.”

Lana bent down and pulled the dagger out of Mats’s throat before wiping the blood off on the dead pyromancer’s robe. She put it away and then glared at Ein. “Ask next time.”

They moved quicker than before, feeling the attention of the rhinn. Even if no one approached them, those who’d witnessed the event with Mats kept their eyes on them. Best be away before the situation turned ugly.

More rhinn patrolled the streets the closer they got to the inner wall, but as far as Sarien could tell, they didn’t appear interested in the keep. Singing rose from one of the streets and a couple of rhinn soldiers wobbled forth clutching bottles of wine.

A screech could be heard in the far distance. “Does not bode well,” Ein said, shaking his head.

Heylien hurried up to walk beside Sarien and Ein. “Doesn’t it look like the rhinn are pulling back? Some of them, at least?”

Sarien looked around at the nearby soldiers, then down the street. “Some look like they’re moving out to the southern gate again.”

“Because of the Xzxyth?” Heylien asked.

“It’s possible,” Ein said. “Let’s hurry to the keep.”

Rhinn waypoints opened up as they passed and rhinn soldiers disappeared through, presumably, heading back to their camp. “Would be great if we could hinder them from using those gates.”

“They’re a tactical advantage, to be sure,” Heylien agreed.

Kax looked at each of them in turn, then grinned. “I can take a hint. I’ll see what I can do!”

“What? No!” Sarien exclaimed. “That’s not what I meant.”

Kax was already a few steps away. He turned, still smiling. “It’s still dark, and it’s not like I’ll be of any use here. You go ahead, I’ll be fine!” He didn’t wait for an answer before disappearing in the direction of the closest waypoint.

“That insufferable arsehole,” Lana said. “He better not die.”

“Something tells me Kax will be fine,” Heylien said.

“Youth,” Ein muttered.

Sarien watched as Kax disappeared around the corner of a baker’s shop, then he turned back to the keep. “We better go find the others.”

Once they got near enough to the keep’s main gate, they saw group of rhinn soldiers standing guard. “How do we get in?” Lana asked.

“I’m not seeing any pyromancers,” Sarien said. “Want to knock?”

Ein smiled. The expression was strangely nostalgic to Sarien. It was the same smile he’d used when Sarien had laughed with joy the first time he was allowed to ride. “That’s my son.”

“Didn’t you just complain about impulsive youths?” Lana asked.

“I don’t remember that.” Ein answered with a grin that looked an awful lot like Kax’s.

Just as Sarien figured, the troops by the front gate dispersed when Ein ordered them to move. He sent them back to camp to deal with some monster that appeared out of nowhere. The rhinn looked uncomfortable at the prospect of confronting any pyromancer, so they did not object as they walked down the main street in an uncoordinated line.

They stood before the main gate alone.

“Now what?” Sarien asked.

Heylien looked up at the guard towers. “You said it yourself. We knock.”

Sarien shrugged and banged on the huge metal gate with the back of his fist. It barely made a sound, so he tried again with more force. No reply came.

Sarien swore and kicked the door and shouted up at the seemingly empty guard towers. “Let us in!”

“Shouldn’t have done that,” Lana said.

Sarien looked over his shoulder and saw quite a few rhinn obviously interested in what they were doing. Light from torches flickered throughout the city, most of them moving in the direction of the rhinn war camp. That wouldn’t matter if the few hundred soldiers in the area decided their behavior was suspicious enough to question, despite the red robes Sarien and Ein wore.

“Want me to jump over the wall and open the gate from the inside?” Lana asked.

Heylien peered up at the top of the wall, high above them “You can do that?” he asked, impressed.

“If Sarien’s dad gives me a boost, maybe,” Lana admitted.

Ein shook his head. “I have never been much good with wind, I’m afraid.”

A loud click followed by a scraping sound of metal against metal came from the other side of the gate, and then a smaller door inlaid in the gate opened.

“Get in!” someone hissed. The four of them complied and hurried through and out into the courtyard beyond while the soldier closed the smaller entrance behind them. Sarien raised his hands as at least twenty spears were pointed at him. Nervous defenders clutched their weapons so hard the tips swayed right in front of Sarien’s nose.

“Now tell us, what are two pyromancers thinking coming in here? Have you brought terms?” The man who spoke was a little older than the average soldier, and the bottom part of his chest armor bulged outward. Two stripes on his right shoulder denoted some sort of rank, but Sarien knew little of Tyriu military customs.

“We’re not actually pyromancers,” Sarien said. Lana and Heylien lowered their hoods to show they weren’t rhinn, but his words did little to soothe the anxious defenders. “Is Goslin of House Steerian here?” he asked. “From Eldsprak?”

“He’s off bathing,” a voice said from behind the huddled soldiers. “It’s fine, they’re friends.”

The men hesitated, glancing at their ranking officer, before lowering their weapons and dispersing back into the night.

“Tom!” Sarien yelled. He ran up and threw his arms around the tall Vatner, squeezing hard. “I was worried when we saw the state of the city.” Sarien stepped back. “You said Goslin’s bathing. Not surprising. Did Emeryn make it, too?”

Tomford smiled mischievously. “She’s good. Em went to take a bath too.”

“They’re both bathing?” Lana asked. Then her eyes widened and spots of flooded her cheeks, prominent enough to be visible even in the dim light of flickering torches. “Oh.”

Tomford clapped Heylien on the shoulder, before turning to Ein. “And you must be Sarien’s father?”

Ein shook Tomford’s hand. “That I am.”

“It’s a strange son you’ve raised,” Tomford said, chuckling.

“I’m not strange!” Sarien protested. His father just winked at Tomford without saying anything.

“Where’s Kax?” Tomford asked, a frown on his face. “He isn’t…?”

“He’s fine,” Lana said.

“Last time we saw him he was setting out to hunt the rhinn who can make gateways,” Heylien added.

Tomford nodded, satisfied. “Sounds like him.” He waved for them to follow. “Come, we have a lot to talk about. The rhinn look like they’re pulling back. Something happened in their camp. A whole lot of water is still gushing out there.” He looked at Sarien. “Did you have something to do with that?”

Sarien cleared his throat. “We might have a bit of a situation on our hands.”