“He can destroy Noi runes with a flick of his wand. Even advanced military runes. He killed the Vu Trin’s most elite portal sorceress, Chi Nam.” My voice roughens around the memory, the lash of grief bitingly sharp. “There was nothing I could do to stop him, since the trees...they’ve bound up my power.”

A jagged flash of lightning forks through my brother’s affinity aura. “Keep low and I’ll land somewhere hidden.” He casts me a poignant look and I realize, in one dizzying swoop, why we need to hide. He’s being closely watched. Because he’s my brother.

He swerves, angling up, and as the skiff tilts I get a glimpse through the lessening haze of the river’s western bank. Fright punches through me.

The knot of scorpios on the river’s western bank has grown, rain-blurred shadows from this distance, but their insectile motion is unmistakable. A bolt of lightning flashes down toward them as the horned, winged man swoops in, the creatures shrieking and scattering as they’re mercilessly cut down.

“Those scorpios,” I say to Trystan, my voice a rasp as I shiver from the damp. “They’re after me.”

He throws another fraught glance my way. “The Gardnerians managed to set up a portal and sent a number of those creatures through. The Vu Trin shut it down, but we’re still dealing with those things. Hold on tight.” He gestures toward a wooden handhold.

I grasp hold of it as the skiff swoops up dramatically and my body skids backward, the river rapidly contracting in size as Trystan flies toward the storm band atop the Vo Mountains. The monstrous mass of clouds enlarges, lit up by streaks of lightning. Trystan taps the controls, and a translucent sapphire shield flows over us, encasing the skiff, rain driven back as Trystan swipes the chilling moisture away from our clothes with a flick of his wand.

We penetrate the storm band and the skiff begins to vibrate disturbingly, the storm a battering roar, roiling clouds pressing in. We abruptly dive downward, and my stomach lurches as Trystan points his wand skyward and murmurs a spell.

A blast of air streaks out from his wand through the shield, blowing the storm back to form a cloud-dome around us. Then Trystan arcs his wand downward, blasting out air to extend the cleared space, a landscape of jagged black peaks becoming visible below.

He guides us into a rocky depression, huge shards of pitch-dark stone rising around us as he lands. Then he points his wand straight up and draws the storm-dome down until it forms a curved ceiling of lightning-spitting chaos just above our sheltered fissure. He taps a rune on the control board, and the skiff’s runic shield as well as all other light blinks out save one small rune. Bathed in dim sapphire light, Trystan sheathes his wand and turns to me.