Kheda ducked away from the razor-sharp splinters of stone ripping through the air, shielding Risala with his body. The old woman dropped to lie huddled in the cave entrance, wrapping her skinny arms around her grey head and drawing up her legs like a frightened child.

Velindre dragged her head up to regard the wild mage with weary disfavour. 'Is that the best he can do?'

'Let's see.' Naldeth wiped an open hand across the still air and a defiant breeze sprang up. It scooped dust from the ground which glowed even in the bright daylight. A flick of Naldeth's hand dismissed the smouldering golden cloud and it drifted away towards the trees.

The wild mage threw darts of sapphire fire at this new threat, tearing holes in the shimmering fabric. It made no difference. The tattered magic flowed together again. It parted briefly to flow around him where he stood alone and drifted irresistibly towards the savage spearmen now huddling in the questionable shelter of the twisted trees.

The glowing haze surrounded them and the wild warriors began wailing, rubbing frantically at their faces, heedless of weapons fallen to the ground.

Kheda saw white-hot flashes in the shadows. 'What are you doing?'

'Blinding them,' Naldeth replied calmly. 'Just for a little while. Undermining their faith in their wizard.'

'Just kill him.' Velindre still looked quite dreadfully pale, with smudges like bruises under her eyes. Then she doubled over, racked with coughing.

Kheda opened his mouth to ask what was wrong just as a similar paroxysm seized him. Risala gasped and began

coughing too, as did the old woman still lying curled up in the cave. Cough after cough tore at Kheda's lungs until his throat felt raw and his chest burned. Through tear-filled eyes he saw Naldeth send a burning shaft of red gold straight at the wild mage who dodged it with contemptuous ease.

A crack of thunder sounded in the empty sky and Kheda gasped as the coughing fit fled. A fresh salt-scented breeze offered the illusion of relief but in the next instant, the air was as still and heavy as if the worst storms of the rainy season were about to break over them.

Kheda tried to draw a breath but found he couldn't. It was as if bonds had been wrapped tight around his chest. He strained until his ribs ached with the effort and the blood roared in his ears. Velindre slumped over, hugging herself. Risala sank to her knees, panting like a trapped animal. Her eyes widened with terror as she clutched at her throat and Kheda reached for her. Even that slight effort made his arm ache as if he were lifting an iron bar. The old woman lay still as death. Dimly, as his vision blurred, Kheda heard Naldeth talking to himself again, his tone still quite conversational.

'He has some impressive mastery of the air. Still, as Dev told Velindre, these people have no idea of blending elements.'

The fragments of rock that the wild wizard's magic had broken from the outcrop sprang into the air. They instantly glowed as red as if they'd fallen from a furnace. Naldeth sent the incandescent shards shooting towards the skull-faced mage with a flourish of his hand. The constriction crushing Kheda's chest vanished as the wild wizard summoned up a white whirlwind that swept up the stone fragments and quenched their fire.

Naldeth chuckled and the stones began to glow again within the spiral cloud. He raised a hand, palm out

towards the wild wizard. The whirlwind writhed this way and that. Naldeth leaned forward and the cloud sank lower. It touched the ground and began sucking up dust and stones. The vapour darkened from pristine whiteness to a dirty, menacing grey. Clinging to the earth, it grew squatter and darker, the incandescent stones pinpricks of scarlet within it.

The wild wizard screamed with rage and thrust both hands up at the sky, calling down a blistering bolt of lightning to shatter the treacherous whirlwind. The spiral cloud exploded into dust and debris that was tossed this way and that by the tortured breeze. But the burning stones didn't fall to the ground. Released from the whirlwind, they flew straight at the skull-faced mage, sure as slingshot.

He flinched and ducked, half turning away. Where the Stones struck his cloak, the feathers flared into lurid crimson flames. Where they landed on naked skin, they instantly burned deep holes, black as the sockets of his skull mask. One smouldering stone hit the skull between its empty eyes and the bone split to leave the two halves of the mask hanging askew. Burning gashes were spreading across his muscular thighs and down his corded arms, rimmed with scarlet sorcery. Another strike wholly obliterated one of the horns and then the whole skull fell away in ruins.

Thus revealed, the wild mage looked little different from any other savage. The man screamed and fell to his knees, hands pressed vainly to his belly. His fingers began burning as they sank into the scorched void opening ever wider to reveal his entrails. He looked at Naldeth, screaming, pleading, his face contorted with agony. His whole midriff was ablaze now, the flames licking up his forearms to blacken the skin and melt the flesh beneath.

A death like Dev's. But without the ecstasy.

Kheda turned away, nauseated. Then he saw Velindre sprawled on the ground and all thoughts of Dev's fate fled. Convulsions gripped the magewoman, her eyes rolling back in her head, blind and white, as her mouth frothed with spittle. Blood stained the back of her dirty cotton tunic.

'What's wrong with her?' Risala was on her knees frantically sweeping away the vicious shards of shattered rock lying all around to save Velindre from any further lacerations.

'I've no idea.' Kheda skirted the magewoman's thrashing limbs.

There's more danger of injury if I try to restrain her than if I let the convulsion run its course. If she bites her tongue, with luck that will heal. Only a fool would put something in her mouth. She won't thank me for breaking her teeth. Though I'd risk my fingers if I had a draught that might stop this. But everything that might help is in my chest aboard theZaise.

'I left enough of them unblinded to witness their mage's fate.' Naldeth sounded unexpectedly sad as he gazed at the savages beneath the trees. 'They can guide the rest back to wherever they live. They'll be able to see again tomorrow.'

'Never mind them.' Kheda was incensed. 'Velindre's ...' he found himself lost for words '... stricken.'

'What?' The young mage wheeled around, horrified by what he saw.

'Can you shift us to the Zaise with your magic?' Kheda was watching intently for any signs of Velindre soiling herself. 'Perhaps I can—'

The magewoman's convulsions ceased as suddenly as they had begun. She lay limp on the dusty ground, sweat beading her forehead and soaking through her cotton tunic.

Risala used the edge of her sleeve to clean the dirty foam from around Velindre's mouth. 'Kheda, water.'

Kheda uncapped the brass flask and knelt to trickle a little of the precious fluid between Velindre's lips. The magewoman's perspiration smelled rank, as if she had spent days in a fever. 'Naldeth, what's wrong with her?' he demanded.

'I don't know.' The young wizard's voice quavered.

Velindre startled them all with a groan.

'Help me.' Kheda nodded to Risala and between them they rolled the magewoman onto her back, lifting up her head to rest against Risala's thigh.

'Drink, just a sip.' Kheda held the neck of the brass flask to the magewoman's blood-caked lips.

Velindre squinted up at him, her breathing fast and ragged. 'Did we win?' she whispered faintly.

'T did.' Concern twisted Naldeth's face as he looked down at her. 'You were right. He could use his air against my fire affinity but when I bound the fire to stone, the antipathy of earth to his own element defeated him.'