After an hour of her soldiers pounding on the accursed wall all Morana had to show for it was a throbbing headache and a restored core. Hopefully the defenders were suffering from the noise as much as she was. Morana touched the crystal ring with her thumb and began to form the order for the soldiers to stop. She changed her mind and dug out the urn. If her crystal demons could keep the defenders distracted it would make the task of flying up onto the wall that much easier.

She wrapped herself in an invisibility shield and tried her best to diffuse her soul force. With three people up there capable of detecting her Morana doubted the precaution would make much difference, but she saw no reason not to try.

Hugging the wall of the pass, she eased her way slowly up to the edge of the wall. She was going to make it. The pests would never know what hit them.

A blast of soul force slammed into her, bouncing her off the wall of the pass. Her invisibility vanished. Morana spun, unharmed but enraged, to find the sorcerers both flying a little ways away. The younger one was smirking like an idiot. Maybe she’d just kill that one and send the other back to Connor alone.

She dodged a blast from the young one and flew toward the wall. If she could just make it up on the battlements. Another blast battered her shoulder, but didn’t make it through her shield.

Ten feet from the wall she ran into an invisible barrier and stopped cold. A line of soul force connected it to the older sorcerer. Curse the woman. She must have known Morana couldn’t use the urn and her powers at the same time.

Morana slapped a third blast aside, channeled power to her shield, and slammed into the barrier. It flexed under Morana’s assault, encouraging her to push even harder.

“Help me!” the older sorcerer shouted.

The barrier’s strength increased when the younger one added her power to it. Morana focused and poured more energy into her effort. She had to get through. It didn’t matter how much strength she had left.

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“It’s not going to hold,” the younger one said.

She was right. Morana smashed through the barrier and landed on the battlements.

The younger one rushed down.

“Amanda!”

The instant she landed Morana sent a blast of black lightning from the urn into the girl. She twitched and collapsed.

The older sorcerer circled above her, well out of range. She raised her hands and sent a blast of golden lightning at Morana. The urn absorbed the attack like it was nothing. The sorcerer nodded as though she’d confirmed something.

Morana smiled an evil smile. Her opponent was clever, but would she be ruthless enough to sacrifice the younger sorcerer to save herself? Morana walked toward Amanda, drawing a curved dagger as she went. She would cut the girl’s throat with considerable pleasure.

Morana only managed a handful of steps before the unconscious woman began to move. She couldn’t have recovered already. Then Morana noticed the threads of soul force the older sorcerer was using to drag Amanda to a safe distance. Morana brushed them away with the urn’s power and continued to advance.

“If you want to save her you’ll have to come down here,” Morana taunted the annoying sorcerer as she moved closer to the helpless Amanda.

Morana stopped, one foot on either side of the unconscious girl. The older sorcerer made no move to descend. Perhaps she’d underestimated the woman’s will to survive. She crouched down and a blast of holy energy hammered her back and sent her skidding across the battlements.

Morana scrambled to her feet. The paladin stood over Amanda, her hammer glowing. Why hadn’t the urn absorbed her attack? She looked down at the urn feeling like her best friend had just betrayed her.

Morana’s lips twisted into an ugly snarl. She pointed the urn at the paladin and sent black lightning screaming towards her. The glowing hammer went up and the lightning struck a white shield and vanished.

“No!” Morana sent more lightning streaming into the paladin’s shield to no effect.

“My power negates yours,” the paladin said, her calm tone enraging Morana further.

Bitch! Nothing could stand against her urn. Its power was absolute.

The woman strode through a storm of lightning toward a terrified Morana. No, no, no! Her trump card was useless against the holy knight. The paladin was only a few steps away when Morana ended the lightning and used the fraction of her power remaining to fly straight up and back toward her soldiers, dodging a pair of weak blasts from the older sorcerer. As she went she willed the crystal demons to attack.

She may have lost the battle, but she’d still managed to eliminate one of the defenders. Only three remained now. It was only a matter of time before she wore them down.