The dweomerworkers lined up behind Dallandra, then walked around the outside of the circle deosil. They made one full circum ambulation, then began another. As they reached each directional point, the woman whose station it was stopped there. Once everyone was in place, Dallandra nodded Branna’s way as a signal to begin.

“I stand in the north,” Branna said, “the station of Earth and darkness.”

“I stand in the south,” Grallezar said, “the station of Fire and light.”

“I stand in the west,” Valandario said, “the station of Water and the setting of the sun.”

“And I stand in the east,” Dallandra said, “the station of Air and the rising of the sun.”

“And I,” Arzosah rumbled, “represent the Aethyr and the Portion of Wyrd.”

Dallandra raised her sword high. “May the Kings of the Elements lend us strength, for we come in the name of the Light that shines behind all the gods. We would set right errors made in its name.” She lowered the sword and pointed it at the ground.

Although the sun had long since gone behind the western hills, the light within the circle suddenly brightened, a pale blue light that glittered on the dragons’ scales and turned Avain’s face a pasty white. The Kings had heard and agreed.

“All powers, you have my thanks.” Dallandra walked into the circle and laid the flat of her sword upon Rori’s neck. “The unwinding begins.”

Branna, Grallezar, and Valandario all knelt to conserve their energies. Besides the maintaining of the ritual circle, their primary task was to lend Dallandra some of their own life force should the senior mage require it. Branna summoned her dweomer sight and saw the auras of the three within the circle: Arzosah’s strong dragon etheric double, Avain’s weak one, and Rori’s human form, hovering uncertainly above him.

Dallandra sent a pulse of blue light along her sword that burrowed into the dragon’s body just at the joining of his spine with his skull. A line of light sprang out from the space just above and between his eyes in answer, a tendril like that of a vine seeking purchase on a wall, waving back and forth, reaching for Dallandra’s aura. She held up the sword and caught it, then turned and tossed it Arzosah’s way.

The dragon caught it on a line of light emanating from her own aura. The two began to tangle, but Arzosah’s dweomer had vast strength behind it. As Branna watched the two tendrils separated again and floated downward toward Avain. Arzosah used a spear of light from her own aura to manipulate the thread from Rori’s aura and fasten it to Avain’s solar plexus.