Kalen was busy forming a spell of his own, taking advantage of the azi’s speed to create the largest rune I’d ever seen across the sky. As the army drew near, he made a quick, cutting gesture, sending a concentrated wave of knifelike wind that took down whole columns of soldiers, bowling them over before they could cast their own magic. At the same time, the azi snarled and turned, its spiked tail whipping the nearest soldiers and tearing several of them in half. Likh made a gagging sound beside me and squeezed her eyes as Khalad held her, shielding her from the horrific view. Kalen’s spell had taken out hordes of men, mowing them down like stalks of wheat, and the others immediately scrambled for safety. Several of the spellbinders had held back though, and now their spells came spiraling toward us.

I didn’t stop to think. I pushed my thoughts, the azi’s still tied to mine, and wove both the Raising and Puppet runes in quick succession. Almost immediately, the fallen soldiers righted themselves, their features blank, and rushed before us, taking the brunt of the magic that sizzled through their bodies and creating a human barrier that gave Kalen enough time to construct a Shield rune of his own.

I ordered other undead toward their comrades, and soon the Drychta were fighting their own previously deceased. The azi raised its three heads, adding fire to the chaos, and the line holding the Drychta defenses faltered. More soldiers turned and fled, leaving only their dead behind.

“How did you raise so many?” Kalen asked me, chest heaving from his exertions.

I stared at the Drychta dead. I heard their protests and sensed their resistance; I felt them struggling against me, unwilling to give me power over their bodies.

And yet I could.

I let go, and the babble of angry voices faded from my head. The soldiers dropped, dead in every sense of the word once more.

“Was this one of the gifts of Stranger’s Peak that Agnarr mentioned?” he asked.

I should not have been capable of raising so many fighters, even with the Puppet rune and the azi to draw strength from.

“Let’s talk about this after we see Kance,” Kalen suggested, though the worry didn’t leave him. I nodded and glanced back at Khalad and Likh to see how the two were faring, finding them shaken but unhurt.

The Odalians had not joined our efforts when we engaged the Drychta, but neither had they retreated. Instead, they stood some distance away, warily eyeing the azi, who snorted and ignored them. One of them rode forward cautiously, and I saw, to my surprise, that it was General Lode.

“Milady,” he greeted us uncertainly. “This is the last place I expected to see you again.” He turned his gaze to Kalen. “It is equally surprising to see the Duke of Holsrath.”