For anyone else, it would have been suicide. But Var seemed to hover for a second in the night air, the magical construct horse vanished, and his form blurred. What replaced him was an extraordinary sight—enormous and reptilian, winged and clawed. He confirmed what Kihrin had long suspected: that he was the dragon Kihrin had seen briefly in Kharas Gulgoth before Relos Var had shown in up person. That indeed, the morgage hadn’t been mistaken when they had depicted nine draconic shapes—not eight—leaving the site of the botched ritual that had created Vol Karoth. His hide glimmered with metallic rainbow shimmers in the predawn light.

Gasps and some screams echoed from those realizing two dragons were now on the scene. Relos Var was clearly smaller than Morios, but that didn’t make him small. And since there had never been such a thing as a good dragon, no one could be blamed for assuming the new dragon’s motives were equally malevolent.

Urthaenriel sang Kihrin a song of hate.

“Not yet,” Kihrin whispered to her. “Not yet.”

Relos Var banked, caught a crosswind, then turned and soared back toward the city. He was silent as he glided in toward Morios …

And slammed into the other dragon. Morios’s metal spikes screeched against Relos Var’s more elegant serpentine armor. Then both monsters tumbled backward, sailing over Atrine and splashing down into Lake Jorat, out of view.

“You know he was the only one of us here who can open a portal, now Thurvishar’s run off somewhere,” Janel pointed out.

“He was also becoming impatient with our insistence on ‘saving lives,’” Kihrin said. “Now he has something interesting to distract him, so let’s help these people, shall we?”

Ninavis trotted up next to Janel. “You have this handled?”

“It’s even easier, now that we don’t have to worry about the shanties blocking our way. We should be fine.” Janel gave Ninavis a significant look. “You know what you need to do.”

Ninavis waved to the riders behind her. “Come on, people, let’s move!”

The rest of her group rode with her, entering the city even as the last crumbling remains of the wall turned to dust.

Star gave Kihrin a salute as he passed.

“You lot!” Janel shouted at the guards. “Come over here and help with this. Right now!”

To Kihrin’s utter astonishment, they did. The dragon was probably just more shock than they could handle, and they would have done what anyone had ordered.

People began streaming toward the bridge from the city—not questioning their sudden lack of wall but fully willing to take advantage of it. Many were bloodied and covered in stone dust from collapsing buildings or were coughing from smoke inhalation.