Tarahn was still explaining the finer points of a Binding Spell to a rapt Falcon when Daimira got over her embarrassment and left her room. At about the same time, someone knocked on the door.

"Oh. I'll get it," Falcon said, standing up.

She found Ayther, Ranick, and a man she didn't recognize standing outside. All of them had gloomy expressions.

Tarahn suddenly appeared behind her. "Your Majesty. Is something wrong?"

“There’s something...strange,” Ayther said vaguely. “Will you come with us up to the parapet?”

“Why?”

“You’re a Mordran so perhaps... Please, just come.”

Tarahn looked questioningly at Daimira, who shrugged. “All right.”

“Just what are we supposed to see up here?” Tarahn asked Ayther a bit irritably some time later when they emerged into the steady drizzle. They had just climbed up to the highest tower in the castle, and none of them had enjoyed it.

Ayther pointed to the east. “Can you see that?”

Tarahn squinted at the cloudy sky. “What? That’s just one really dark cloud against more clouds.”

“No, it isn’t. We’ve never seen anything like it. And it’s moving too fast.”

Daimira suddenly gasped and put her hand to her ears.

“What is it?” Tarahn asked her anxiously.

“Can’t you hear it? That noise...”

Falcon winced. “I can hear it, too. Where’s it coming from?”

Tarahn blinked at the two of them. “What’s going on with you two?”

“Those things...” Daimira looked suddenly up at the rapidly approaching black cloud. “Look closely! They’re...”

“Machines,” Falcon finished.

Ranick frowned. “What? Machines? How can you tell from so far away?”

“It hurts!” Falcon groaned, covering her ears. “I’m going back down!”

Ayther was confused. “I don’t understand. Machines? Are they Mordran?”

Daimira shook her head and lifted a hand toward them, her eyes were filled with pain but she didn’t run away. “No. They’re not completely mechanical. They have magic in them. And they’re...” Her face suddenly paled. “Get everyone to shelter. As many people as you can!”

“What?”

She turned and started to run. “You have to hurry! They’ll be here in fifteen minutes, maybe less! Your people are in danger!”

“Wait! What do you mean? Where are you going?”

“To find Lake!”

“What?” Tarahn shouted. “Pri- Daimira, come back!”

She ignored her and ran across the parapet.

Tarahn groaned. “Wait!”

Ayther grabbed her arm as she ran past. “What’s going on?”

“I don’t know! But I suggest you do as she says. Now, excuse me.” She pulled her arm away and ran for the tower steps. “I have to get her back!”

Tarahn didn’t know what she hoped to accomplish by running after Daimira – other than dying a certain and messy death, that was. Ali-Zar was a relatively small city, but she still had as much hope of finding Daimira as she had a grain of rice in a sand castle. It was even harder now, with the entire city in such a state of fear and confusion. She had been right on the other girl’s heels only seconds before and now, all of a sudden, she was nowhere to be seen.

She stood in the middle of a street while frightened citizens rushed past her, pushing and squeezing their way through the palace gates. The sentries Ayther had assigned to bully them into the castle walls were barely able to control the confused mob.

That girl...for someone so tiny she moves so damnably fast.

Then she heard it. A steady whirring sound that blurred into a high-pitched whistle. It rose above the noise of the crowd and seemed to grow louder with every passing second.

A mournful cry, like that of a hawk, pierced the air, and Tarahn reluctantly lifted her head.

“What are those?” she heard someone ask fearfully behind her.

She looked up at them and recognised their design: small metallic birds no larger than sparrows. But appearances were deceiving. She should know. Her clan had created the original weapon. However, she could tell that these were slightly different. They didn’t have the oily shimmer of machines. Instead, they crackled with magic.

The machines brought death. Death from the skies.

Daimira paused in her running to stare up at the sky. She stretched out an arm in the suddenly abandoned street as if to stop the oncoming objects and tentatively pushed her mind against them.

Bombs.

She swallowed hard. She could try to do something, but she was afraid that it would go wrong and cause more damage. She glanced down at her hand. She wasn't really any good at physical magic. She didn't dare use her powers in a situation like this.

But still, it had to be better than just standing around waiting to die.

The bombs came closer and she realized they looked like large, metallic birds, their steel wings whirring and flashing silver, the rain giving them an unreal and somehow beautiful appearance.

Then a half dozen of them clipped a northern tower and, to her shock and horror, exploded violently, destroying half of it and scattering burning rocks onto the streets. She heard people screaming but couldn’t move.

Then she blinked, her mind snapping into focus. She had to do something. Something...

Her hand throbbed, reminding her that she had yet to find Lake, though that had to wait. After all, she had to make sure they both survived.

But before she could move, before she could even release the breath she didn’t realise she had been holding, a strong wind nearly knocked her off her feet and threw her against a building.

The whistling and the whirring were now so loud to be almost unbearable, the birds too close for anything she did now to help. She covered her ears and knelt on the wet cobblestones, expecting to die.

One, two, three- She winced, waiting for the explosion.

It didn't happen.

She hesitated and then dared to look. The birds hung about two feet before they could touch anything else, straining their wings and beating them harder. They seemed to advance an inch, then stopped again. An invisible, unyielding barrier stood between them and the city and the whistling rose until her hands were no longer able to muffle the noise. She could see clearly that some of them were coming apart, their wings tearing off. There was a spark, then an invisible wave of pure power that knocked her to the ground. The birds, because of that one spark, exploded in an instant, with a blinding flash of light and heat and a deafening noise, like a million concerted thunders. Shards of burning metal remained suspended in the sky for a moment and then fell to the ground, as gentle as the rain.

She glanced down at her hand. In her fear, she hadn't noticed that the throbbing had stopped, and her sense of Lake's presence was gone.

Tarahn grimaced as one of the metal shards grazed her cheek, but it fell so gently that it left no mark at all.

She felt a hand on her elbow, helping her up. All around her, people were getting to their feet after that strange invisible blast that had sent them all sprawling.

“Are you all right?”

She blinked and found herself looking up into the deep blue eyes of Ranick. “I’m fine. What just happened?”

Ranick looked around. “I don’t know. Ayther sent me to get you and Daimira to come back, and then...”

“Daimira,” she murmured, pushing her hair out of her eyes. “I have to find her.” She turned and started running once more.

“Daimira...She’s a mage, isn’t she?” Ranick asked her, keeping up easily. “That’s how she saved Xandra.”

“Yes.”

“Could she have saved us?”

Tarahn frowned worriedly. “She doesn’t really have that kind of power. But if it had been her...”

“What?”

“She could be badly hurt or weak and exhausted.” She vaulted on top of an overturned barrel blocking a narrow street, balancing atop it easily. “Go back to the palace, Ranick. You and your King have a lot of more pressing problems.”

“I—”

“The Kalcene Queen will know her attack failed,” Tarahn interrupted. “You have to think of a way to protect your people from the next wave. Go! I can find one girl alone.”

Ranick hesitated. “What makes you think it’s the Kalcene Queen?”

“Look around you! Her answer to Malcor’s summoned beasts and dark magic are more magic and machines. Who else could be responsible for such madness? Now stop wasting time and go.”

Ranick nodded and ran back the way he had come.

Tarahn jumped off the barrel and wondered where to begin.

She found Daimira a while later, sitting quietly in an alley. At first, she’d feared that she’d been injured, but aside from having dust on her cheeks, Daimira turned out to be completely unscathed. “Daimira?”

She looked up with wide grey eyes. “Tarahn,” she said hollowly, her expression lost.

“Did you find him?”

She shook her head.

Tarahn studied her closely. Fear hovered in Daimira’s eyes. “But you can track him, right?”

She shook her head again and looked down at her hands. “Tarahn...I can’t even feel him.”

“What do you mean? The Binding Spell...”

She shook her head. “I don’t feel anything. He was nearby, but then after the explosion— Tarahn, he could be dead.”