Out near the center of Lake Jorat, a searing beam of white fire soared up into the sky, turning the lake and all the surrounding land bright as day. People screamed and covered their eyes. Kihrin winced and looked away, but still saw ghosts dancing in front of his eyes. A second later, Relos Var and Morios both erupted from the water, clawing and biting at each other.

As far as Kihrin could tell, Relos Var had done no damage at all to Morios. Unfortunately, the reverse wasn’t true. Great rents in Relos Var’s hide streamed silver blood into the water, and he was clearly not doing well. Normally, Kihrin would have cheered, but …

If Morios ended up killing Relos Var, even if it was (as Var claimed) temporary, Kihrin had no idea what the rest of them were supposed to do.

Kihrin shook his head to snap himself out of it. One disaster at a time.

Janel had been working nonstop, herding people toward the now open gate, and it didn’t seem like the crowd would ever slow. Scandal and Arasgon both helped, keeping people from trampling each other in the rush to reach safety.

Every time Janel saw a Joratese soldier, no matter whose colors they wore, she pressed them into service.

Kihrin was slowly making his way over to her, when Janel froze. A group of Joratese nobles, resplendent in red and gold, were making their way in her direction with their entourage. Then Kihrin remembered what those colors meant. The Malkoessians. Markreev Aroth of Stavira. Janel’s former liege, Dorna’s ex-husband, Star’s illegitimate father.

Kihrin picked out the Markreev easily enough. But Aroth Malkoessian was the man who did a double take when he first spotted Kihrin, probably because his coloring did indeed resemble his son Oreth’s.

The Markreev and Janel stared at each other for a silent, tense moment, then Janel motioned for him to pass through the portal with the rest of his family.

He did.

Kihrin let out a breath he didn’t realize he’d been holding.

Just in time to see Relos Var’s bleeding draconic form fly over the bridge, falling straight over the side of Demon Falls.

56: THE ARMY WITH EIGHT GATES

Atrine, Jorat Dominion, Quuros Empire. Three days since Jarith Milligreest found out that his father was an idiot

Morios turned his attention back to Atrine.

The crowd had never been exactly calm about evacuating, but now their panic redoubled. Thurvishar was sweating from the strain of keeping the portal open for so long. Presumably he’d have had a much easier time of it if they’d had a Gatestone, since that seemed to help the House D’Aramarin mages. Then a second gate opened next to the first, and Senera walked through, gingerly touching her head. “We need to leave.”

“I can’t argue with that,” Kihrin said. “Janel, it’s our turn! Let’s go.”