Jen ran a hundred yards, stopped, and turned back. The archmage, who had been flying beside her, paused and grabbed her arm. “Keep going.”

“Further than this?”

“All the way to the army and I may have them back away. I want at least a mile between us and the pass.”

“Heaven’s mercy.” Jen had to trust the archmage on this. Unlike the sorcerer she couldn’t sense the power Damien had gathered.

They ran on, Jen easily matching the archmage’s pace. The two of them were the last to reach the army. General Gauge stomped up to her, a fierce scowl on his face.

“What’s the meaning of this? Abandoning the battlefield is a grave offense.”

“The battle’s over, General.” The archmage turned her back on him to stare at the now-glowing dragon. “My apprentice is going to clean up the mess.”

“I thought he was dead.”

Jen wanted to slug the pompous jackass, but restrained herself. She narrowed her eyes, trying to spot Damien, but the glare was too much. The dragon glowed like a second sun.

“You’re not the only one to believe that,” the archmage said. “But he’s alive. Watch the pass. You’re about to see something…impressive.”

An explosion of light forced Jen to look away. The archmage was wrong. They weren’t going to see what Damien did after all.

They heard it however. It sounded like the end of the world, like an earthquake mixed with the loudest explosion she’d ever encountered. The noise seemed to go on forever though it couldn’t have been more than half a minute before silence fell.

“Heaven’s mercy.”

If not for her enhanced hearing Jen wouldn’t have made out the general’s whispered exclamation. She turned back and found the fortress gone along with the pass. Shattered stone filled the gap. The mountains on either side had been reduced to so much broken rock. Damien had crushed thousand-foot mountains and used the rubble to fill in the pass.

“How?” It was the only thing Jen could think to say.

“Why don’t we go ask him?” the archmage said.

Jen squinted and sure enough there was Damien, seated at the mouth of the pass, head hanging between his knees, Lizzy resting on the ground beside him. She looked closer. Were there seven others lying beside him?

At warlord speed it only took her ten seconds to skid to a stop beside her brother. Jen dropped to her knees and wrapped her arms around him. Tears streamed down her cheeks.

“Everyone thought you were dead, but I didn’t believe it, not for a second.”

Damien stroked her hair. Jen let go and moved back so she could look at him. She winced.

“That bad, huh?”

“You’ve looked better.”

That was an understatement. The bones of his skull stood out under his waxy, sunken skin. His eyes were bloodshot and the skin around them black. His clothes and hands were caked in dirt. He looked like a miner that had just been rescued after a cave in.

John, Marie-Bell, and the archmage arrived and the two healers set about looking her brother over. He grimaced, but endured it. When they seemed satisfied that he wasn’t about to drop dead they moved on to the still figures beside him.

The archmage stood with hands on hips glaring down at him. “Where have you been? There was a war that needed fighting.”

“Apologies, Master. My host was reluctant to let me leave.” He looked over his shoulder then back. “I did chip in a bit at the end.”

She smiled and patted his head. “A bit. And your host?”

Damien dragged the tip of his thumb across his throat. “Consumed by the Horned One.”

He filled them in on his escape and the battle with Connor. Jen listened in mute awe. It was a miracle he made it out of that cavern alive, much less bring the others with him.

“I’m impressed you managed to contain that much corrupt energy,” the archmage said. “You certainly put it to good use.”

“Yeah. I feel a little bad about blowing up the fortress, but I didn’t have much control when I released all that power. That’s why I wanted you to get clear.”

The archmage stared out over the rubble filling the pass. “I sense no corruption beyond the background of the haunted lands.”

“I was pretty sure I got them all. I think I’m going to need some time off.”

“I can arrange that,” the archmage said.

“They’re all going to be fine.” John stood up from where he knelt beside Imogen. “Their soul force flows are messed up, but that will repair itself eventually. They each had hundreds of minor internal injuries that we healed and they’re in need of food and water, but all things considered everyone’s in good shape.”

The archmage finally smiled.