The creatures jaws slavered with the prospect of the kills to come. Their eyes focused with hatred, and Devin could see one of the beasts muscles bunching to leap.

He wasnt sure what happened then. It was like something in the fear, the certainty of his own death, flicked some kind of switch in him, changed something in him in a way that seemed familiar. Devin recognized this feeling, because hed felt it once before. He tried to reach down into it, tried to remember the sensation of it. In that moment, looking at the world, he could see something close to another world layered on top of it, a place composed of writhing energies, and with things there that moved like shadows on the edge of sight.

Devin understood in that moment how to pull the energy of that other place through himself, knew how to do it the same way that he knew how to breathe. He reached out, and, as easily as if he were pulling aside a curtain, he ripped aside a fragment of the barrier between the two places.

In that instant, power spilled out into the world, in a wave of force that rippled out, sending the wolf-things reeling back. They toppled over one another, and they werent the only ones, because Rodry and the others were also knocked from their feet. Only Devin seemed to be able to stay standing there, perhaps because hed been the one to do this.

He looked at his arms, and he could see something that looked like black fire flickering around them, down along his limbs to the tip of the blade he held. The wolf creatures rose and stared at him, then turned as one with a whimper and ran, back away from the stream. Devin couldnt understand it, couldnt begin to guess what was happening, but he watched them run nonetheless, and he knew they wouldnt be back.

As suddenly as the flames had come, they were gone, extinguished with a whoomph of inrushing air. Around him, Devin could see the world as it was, with no sign of that other place, just the thickness of a thought away. All that was there was Rodry and the others, who were finding their feet again after being knocked flat.

What, Rodry asked, just happened?

He and the knights were staring at Devin, Rodrys expression caught somewhere between shock and awe.

What just happened? Rodry repeated. What… did you do that?

I… dont know, Devin said, because he wasnt sure that he could explain it all to the prince. I… maybe.

Those things were there one moment, and we were all knocked flat with them running the next, Halfin said. They just ran. Twell?

The other knight shook his head. Ive no idea. He looked over at Devin. How did you stay standing? Did you do something?