Izar neighed and stopped. He didn't like the intrusion in his speed.

Bianca looked at Caleb and said, "Uncle, we have to divide Kar'den's army. By dividing the army, we will be able to defeat them better. I want to strike the chambers where Sedora has kept the Shadows. And that can be done only when there is less protection around her. Once those chambers are destroyed, half the battle is won. The other half is Sedora… whom I want to meet desperately!" And kill. She nudged Izar to move forward.

​​

Caleb pursed his lips and started trotting aside her.

"You should not fret so much Caleb," Lazarus said in his cold, arrogant voice. "From what I feel, most of her Shadows are already dead! It's just a matter of time now."

"There is one thing I noticed," she said as her horse trotted above the ground. "The Shadows with very strong glowing eyes are able to attack us too. It seems Sedora is controlling them with some power. We have to be extra careful of those." She looked around at the sea of souls that were following her, and she knew that she had lost several of her army in the last battle with the Shadows. "I don't want those Shadows to go near the spirits because while they are getting burned, we aren't. That is why I didn't see too many of those glowing ones around me."

"How can we segregate them?" asked Daryn. "They must be mixed with the rest."

"I have an idea," she said. "But it might not work."

"Then we better take a chance at it!" Daryn encouraged. "Also I think we should split into four groups. South of Zor'gan is the big desert beyond which is the ocean. That place is inhabitable. The places where we can attack them on the ground are north, northwest and east. You can go to where Nusgroth is and we will follow you after we eliminate the Shadows on the periphery."

"Father, let's wait for the news from Cadvals. Once they tell me the position of the Shadows, I will form the strategy. Currently, I am wondering what I would do if I were Sedora." Saying that Bianca fell silent. The night had grown darker. A normal travel from Ixoviya to Zor'gan would take at least two weeks, but the way their horses were moving, she knew it would be covered within a few hours.

They all moved in silence for the next two hours. After thinking Bianca was sure of one thing—there would be a large number of Shadows waiting for them on Zor'gan's periphery, that is if they haven't already discovered Nusgroth.

"I have a different proposition, father," said Bianca finally.

Daryn looked at her with a frown.

"How about we gather the Shadows and round them up together in one place?"

"Gather them where?"

"Instead of killing them, if we gather them inside Zor'gan and then attack them from all the sides, Sedora is going to get confused. I want the Shadows to only see each other. What I mean is that we herd them like cattle. If that happens, then Sedora wouldn't have a chance to understand what to do next." She looked towards the Yelgra forests that surrounded Ixoviya in front of her. The gold and silver leaves of the forests looked dull under the dark gray skies. The legend was that Yelgra was made from the drop of blood of a Fae. Where the blood fell, a tree with golden, silver and green leaves emerged. People started offering prayers to the tree and soon the place proliferated. Yelgra trees covered a large area but remained mostly towards Ixoviya, the land of gold. It was as if the trees understood where offering would be richer. Occasionally pink dew mixed with golden, dropped from the leaves of the trees. And at these times, people wondered if the trees also fed on blood.

They had to cross Yelgra forest to reach Zor'gan.

All of a sudden, her eyes caught a movement. She canted her head to focus on the movement. More Shadows. She held her sword high up in the air. And everyone knew that it was a sign for an attack.

There was a gush of air overhead and when she looked up at the sky, she saw a number of wizards and witches on their brooms flying in the direction of Zor'gan. This meant that Cadvals had already informed Ileus. From inside the forest, she heard roars and howls and groans—the werewolves were running this side.

While Ileus was leading the wizards in the air, Dmitri was leading his werewolves.

Daryn gave a confident smile. "My people will join Dmitri."

"They can't cross the Shadows but," Bianca warned.

"No they won't because we are going to kill them!" said Daryn and charged at the first Shadow who had emerged from his hiding. He had to prevent them from eating his army of Lykaes, who was rushing to be with him at Aztec.

As compared to the last group, this one was smaller and they tackled the group in no more than an hour. The bodies of the Shadows, which dropped on the forest floor, were gobbled up by the Yelgra trees right in front of their eyes. It was a gruesome sight and Bianca flinched when she saw the roots and stems and tendrils of the trees circling around the Shadows and snatching them away from the ground.

This time thankfully, she didn't see any Shadow with red-hot eyes. She understood that Sedora's magic was dark, but not dark enough to create a large army that could kill the spirits.

Basically the spirits had to be killed by her only. So when she was looking at them through the eyes of the Shadows, she was using her magic to burn the souls. And every time she did that, her skin sagged taking the sap from her body. More wrinkles appeared. There was no time left to manage the Shadows. So she had asked Kar'den to prepare his army of winged demons to attack Aztec. That way, Bianca would fear it. She wanted to use the opportunity for something bigger. Her army was slowly getting depleted. She hadn't anticipated Bianca to perform so well in such a short time. Sedora was regretting the day she couldn't kill Bianca. She never knew that Gayle would help her out of her clutches. She didn't know when he had become so close to Og'drath that she aided him in the escape of Bianca. The whole situation was getting out of control. She had to do something to distract her, to kill her.

Bianca reached the outskirts of Zor'gan in the next two hours. They would have reached earlier but the small intrusion delayed her plans. What was the reason for sending this small group? Why did Sedora want to delay her coming to Zor'gan? Bianca was well aware that her Shadows were finishing fast, then why waste this small group here? She couldn't get her thoughts to fix this puzzle.

The Cadvals had informed her that the battle between the winged demons and Ileus, Dmitri and Brantley's combined army had already started in the valley between Aztec and Zor'gan.

Nusgroth was waiting for them in a tunnel on the northwest, but there was a large number of Shadows that were spread on the periphery.