[quote]"I am here. Let Peck go home with his people and we can be alone as you requested. He has no need to die today; none of them do. You can wait for their proper time. Is there any need to force it?"[/quote]

[i]"Peck!"[/i] one of the riders shouted from behind, alarmed at their comrade's pale face and frightened eyes. The rider began to rush forward, but shouted in surprise when a horror of ghostly hands broke out of the ground and wrapped cold fingers around the riders' ankles. Lightning shocked and flashed while the riders hacked at the spirits with their enchanted swords; the cavern brightened with electric light, but the spirits' grip held tight.

[i]I don't need their deaths,[/i] the Lord of Shadow's hissing voice echoed all around, over the beating of the dark-dripping heart. [i]And they are no threat to me. I asked you to come alone in order to minimize the casualties you leave in your wake, Lady of Light.[/i]

More translucent spirits climbed out of the ground, shifting and off-balance, and wrapped their hands and arms around each of the riders' throats.

[i]I've noticed your sign of protection on this young fool, but for these soldiers of yours there is no --[/i]

One of the riders roared in defiance, and he flashed with warm sunlight borne from Anise's light. The shade holding him disappeared, and the hands around his ankles slunk back into the ground. The other riders followed his lead, they concentrated on the light and drew it out; one by one they flashed like beacons and were released from the shadow-minions' hold, illuminated by their own willpower.

The Lord of Shadow's voice chuckled appreciatively, a rumbling echo. Peck stared with pleading eyes at Anise and shook his head, silently urging her to leave as quickly as possible, but unable to speak and warn her of the coming disaster.

The blue egg presented Anise with new knowledge: Anise knew that the heart and the petrified bones before her had belonged to the Dragon -- the mountain itself was the tomb of the Dragon's titan body. The liquid darkness pumped through the Dragon's abandoned heart, forcing it to beat again with a new kind of life. She knew, just as the Dragon realized it, that this had been what the Lord of Shadow had wanted all along.

Something dark skittered along the wall; the Lord of Shadow was not physically here at all, but only his voice spoke through the medium of a huge dark spider that clung to the rock.

Behind Anise, the riders advanced with weapons drawn to protect her, shimmering with light and strengthened with new trust in the Lady of Light. Electricity spiraled around them with the gleam of sunlight, ready to strike on her command.

[i]Anise Sinclair,[/i] the Lord of Shadow's voice called out with glee. [i]Allow me to introduce you to the Lady of Stone.[/i]

A shattering rumble like thunder rolled and shuddered all around them, trembling in their skulls and vibrating in their chests; an explosive, deafening CRASH announced that the cavern entrance had caved in behind them. There was no way out.

Dust and pebbles rained down on their heads before great boulders of broken stone dropped among the riders; they shouted and leaped away just before house-sized boulders smashed into the floor where they'd been standing, and more were raining down throughout the cavern. The walls cracked and split, the floor twisted, wide fissures gaped beneath their feet in the dark. The riders each called on Anise's light in order to see the stones before they hit, to see they weren't walking into a new fissure, and so Anise's own power was draining. Her human body wasn't enough to maintain that connection for much longer.

The water-rune on her hand began to glow and tingle.

Dark liquid dripped along the exposed petrified bones of the Dragon, while the wall that held it captive cracked and crumbled.

Finally, Peck broke out of his petrified state, and he wheezed a moment before he leaned forward on his knees, coughing. "It's a trap!" he croaked. Too late.

[hr][quote]But then Nura took off, and Artemis was in the sky.[/quote]

The Kith girl stared up at the retreating wings of the gryphon, and Artemis soaring off among the stars -- and she tilted her head with a ghost of a smile. The battle raged closer, and an explosion ripped a gash in the temple garden, raining dirt down on the girl where she stood. Pirates, draped in black, swarmed toward her, crackling with electric vengeance, certain that she was responsible for calling the attack on the city. And maybe she was. The girl curled her hands around the collar at her throat, and concentrated.

Up in the sky, Artemis' right hand began to shimmer; an elegant green rune appeared on her skin and glimmered like the rune of the Lord of Flame. Artemis would feel like there was energy being drained from her -- it was only enough to cause a perceptible dizziness, but definitely unnatural.

Back at the Temple, the Kith girl was growing horns, and her eyes glowed green with a concentrated effort. Rough barky vines broke out of her skin and curled around the collar, squeezing and pulling it til it collapsed and twisted apart. At this moment, the Pirates descended on her, their lightning-bolts flashing -- but the moment the electricity crashed into the rooftop, spraying splinters of tiles, the girl had gone.

A vine snaked down the side of the temple, and the Lord of the Wood stepped into the forest -- small, horned and glowing. The child no longer had a gender, or maybe was both.

Below Artemis, through the eyes of the rabbit mask, she could see that the shifting treetops began to shimmer and glow a dim green; the new light rippled out of the battle she left behind, flowing in waves toward the Mountain that rumbled and thundered and echoed in the distance. The rune on Artemis' right hand glowed a little brighter, and now her energy returned tenfold, as thanks from the Lord of the Wood. She knew, instinctively, that in combination of the rune and the mask the forest itself would bend to her will.

Pieces of the Mountain crumbled and broke away; fissures opened in the ground throughout the island, and everything shook. The shimmering trees swayed violently. The water in the Lake swirled and surged in great torrents toward the Mountain, flooding between the trees.

While Artemis soared safely in the air, she might witness the top of the Mountain crumble away, and a great bony wing emerge, shimmering with a black pulsing oil.

The only place that seemed unaffected by floods or earthquake was a second, smaller mountain on the west coast of the island. Several other gryphons and their riders sped past Artemis and Nura, not giving her more than a passing glance, flocking toward the outpost village atop that stationary mountain while, to the North, the greater Mountain was being ripped apart from within, filling the island with a deafening thunder of falling rock.