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“Wide enough for equus if we lead them.”

“Where does it rejoin the road?” I ask.

“Beyond the next turn.”

The next turn lies outside the waira trap.

“You are certain?”

“I gathered rirzed there every summer for nine years.”

A creature below the road howls. The others answer.

We have little time. The lower waira are nearly level with the road, and continued use of chaos strengthens the cold under my scar.

I look toward the split tiphe. Beneath the drift, a slight depression angles upward.

Fiona has found the only route the waira have not closed.

“Joran,” I call. “Move the forward rank to the tree. Clear the path.”

He sees it after Fiona points. “Four shields forward. Move.”

The guards advance in pairs while I hold the upper slope.

Chaos surges from both hands. Black light cuts across the ridge and opens a fracture through the stone. Snow and broken rock cascade between us and the waira above. The barrier will not hold them indefinitely, but it gives the party room to move.

The curse bites deeper.

My right hand falters.

Only once.

Joran is too occupied to notice. Fiona is watching the route.

“Dismount,” she tells the nearest guards. “The equus will slip if you ride them up that grade.”

She passes her reins to a soldier and leads the pack equus toward the hidden path. Her boots sink nearly to the knee, but she keeps moving. She uses a fallen branch to test the snow ahead, avoiding a hollow where stones lie loose beneath the surface.

Competence, not chance.

“Follow her,” I order.

The delegation leaves the main road. Guards lead the equus single file past the split tiphe. Fiona guides them around the hidden hollow and up toward the charcoal clearing.

The waira realize what we are doing.

Two climb over the rockfall. Another three race along the slope to intercept the head of the line.

I unleash chaos without restraint.

The air turns black.

Power catches the creatures, lifts them, and hurls them against the ridge. One vanishes inside a burst of fractured stone. The others fall beneath Joran’s soldiers.

Agony spreads from my side into my back.

I keep my posture straight.