Jane turned to Commander Olesya. "I'm so sorry about what happened in Dalnushka," she said. "And about what happened during my godstest."

Olesya's face relaxed into a grimace. "Your arrest was a mistake," she said. "But you put me in a difficult position, Avtorka. I saw the papers associated with your godstest. Why did you not summon myself or the tsar during your test? Why did you not send the information directly to Dalnushka?"

Jane flinched. The idea had not occurred to her.

"Never mind," Olesya said. "It's past, and the scum responsible for Dalnushka's demise is behind bars, and we have more pressing matters to deal with now. Get somewhere safe. Unless you're up for conjuring magefire with the other battle-mages? There are still eighteen sudok out there. They haven't gotten past the palace defenses yet, but-"

"Our defensive spells are similar to the ones in Dalnushka." Casimir's face was concerned. "Do you think our defenses will fall with the Kanachskiy mages working on it?"

"The defenses won't fall if we keep their mages away from the wall - that should be our top priority."

"We could split our forces, half of us take on the sudok -"

"Excuse me-" said Jane.

"It depends, we've already lost too many mages as it is. If we spread our forces too thin..."

"Please-"

"The group attacking the mages should be the bigger one; the group attacking the sudok can be smaller, the distraction. I don't like the magic of that sorcerer who was fighting with Nikolay. He was extremely skilled and dangerous."

"HEY!" Jane shouted.

They all looked at her with varying degrees of surprise and annoyance.

"I think I know how to defeat the sudok," she said.

One of the battle mages - Jane thought it might have been the man who had transported her to prison - laughed shortly. "Please, little girl," he said. "Leave the battle strategy to us."

"You'd do well to treat your avtorka with more respect," Olesya said sharply, and she waved a hand for silence. "What is it, Jane?"

Jane shot her a grateful look and opened her carry-bag. "These are dragon's egg potions. They may be illegal, I'm not sure-"

"Controllers," said Drazan in awe. "They are highly illegal, actually. Where did you get them?"

"Nikolay had them in his cabinets. I think they can help us. The dragon he took the egg from said the sudok are weak-willed."

"There is no evidence that such potions work on sudok," an older battle-mage scoffed.

"Then again, the potions have been illegal for so long, perhaps our lack of knowledge is not surprising." Casimir shot a reassuring smile at Jane. She smiled back, relieved that at least one person didn't think her idea stupid.

"It's worth a shot." Drazan shrugged. "It's not like anything else we've tried on the beasties has done much good. So what for strategy? Split into groups of eleven? Ten mages to train magefire on the target, with one extra to control the sudok?"

"Twelve," Olesya suggested. "Might want an extra Rider to help get the potion in the sudok's eyes."

"I can test the first potion," Jane offered.

And so, barely ten minutes later, Jane found herself sharing a wyvern with Olesya, a vial of dragon's egg in her lap, her finger bandaged from where she had cut it to supply the necessary blood.

"Dip the arrows in it," Olesya said. "There you go. We'll aim them at the eyes of the first sudok we find."

She glanced toward the wyvern beside them and did a double-take. "Oy!" she called. "You're no battle-mage!"

Casimir shot them a lopsided grin. "I can still produce magefire. Besides, I wanted to watch Jane's strategy play out."

"Well, don't slow us down."

Olesya spurred the wyvern forward. The towering walls that surrounded Sengilach gleamed orange in the dying sunlight. The houses beyond the walls were deserted. Bodies of the dead littered the ground, some dismembered beyond recognition, others still recognizable as men. The earth was torn and ravaged.

"Where are the sudok?" asked Jane.

She nearly lost her grip on the Olesya when a leathery form burst from the earth. It shot toward them, teeth bared.

Olesya banked steeply. The sudok fell back to earth with a screech, murder in its eyes. Other sudok burst from the earth, red eyes gleaming.

Jane clung to Olesya's waist, horrified. "They burrow-"

"It's called tunneling." Olesya steered the wyvern higher, then reached into her quiver and pulled out an arrow. "They can't do it in the mountains because of all the rocks, but here where the earth is looser, it's apparently their favorite way to get around."

The low sun made long shadows that leant a grim cast to the sudok's numbers, as if each monster was duplicated by its own shadow. A sudok saw them and geared itself to spring. At the last moment, Olesya turned her mount. The sudok missed them by inches. Jane felt the wind from its foul breath taint her face.

She had no time for relief, for Olesya was already weaving to avoid attack by a second sudok which had reared up before her. Their speed and agility turned Jane's stomach to ice.

In front of her, Olesya loaded her crossbow. The shot missed the sudok's eye and instead embedded itself in the monster's side. The sudok hissed and yanked out the arrow. Jane watched in horrified fascination as the sudok's skin knit shut over the wound, leaving no sign of injury - not even a scar...

Olesya swore and reached for another arrow, but before she could, the sudok leapt towards them, a mighty jump that it seemed impossible to avoid.

"Olesya!" Drazan bellowed. Magefire erupted between Olesya and the sudok. The flames didn't halt the sudok, but they slowed the sudok long enough that the wyvern could pull away, out of the sudok's jumping range.

"They're so fast!" Jane said.

"We'll get it in the eye, don't worry... Just need one good shot..."

Olesya loaded again. This time, the arrow sang through the air in a perfect trajectory and buried itself in the sudok's right eye.

Jane gasped.

She was abruptly aware of another presence against her consciousness, awful and oily and hateful and wicked. She sucked in air, fighting back nausea. The presence strained and bucked against her mind, and it was all she could do not to be sick.

She was supposed to control this... thing?

The sudok turned toward her, its one good eye furious, and Jane felt shockwaves of its rage echo through her skull. Loathing and fear battered her mind, tearing at her mental defenses, ravaging her from within.

Nearby, mages nearby prepared a ring of magefire - the sudok's funeral pyre - but Jane had to control the creature first, force it to stay still with her mind, and right now that felt impossible. The sudok was strong. It was strong, and it was horrible, and it was furious at Jane for trying to bind it.

Nikolay would have relished this - Nikolay, who loved forcing people to obey, who's favorite hobby was lording power over others. The task required of Jane now was antithesis to everything Jane knew, but she had to do this - had to, or they would die.

No, Jane thought, as pain lanced through her skull. No, you will NOT control me. I control you, not the other way round.

The sudok was strong and furious and horrible, but it was also dumb. It had the emotional maturity of a two-year-old and the will of a sloth. As Jane's mind bore down, she sensed the emotions roiling throughout its head: lust for power, hunger for flesh, fury at being trapped - but they were all simple thoughts, hardly nuanced. Jane pictured herself tightening a cage round the sudok's mind, squeezing and squeezing. The sudok struggled, but it was like a cat stuck in a plastic bag - panicked, lashing out in terror, but mentally incapable of the movements required to work itself free...

Heartened, Jane tightened her mental restraints around the sudok further and felt its panic give way to reluctant submission.

Yes, Jane thought. Yes, that's it, give in -

When she opened her eyes, the sudok was no longer moving. It perched stiffly on the ground, eyes glazed.

Casimir and the others wasted no time. Magefire rained down from above with perfect aim. At the assault, the sudok screamed and lashed against Jane's mind again, but she bore down grimly with her own, dominating it, forcing it into place. It gave a wail and fell silent.

Jane's heart soared.

She had done it - she had actually done it - her plan was working - they could defeat the sudok-

The sudok's presence in her mind was receding. She still sensed the sudok's anger and fear, but it was muted, ebbing away like the tide.

And then came a wave of something beneath that - a trickle of emotion that was so very human, Jane stiffened and froze with confusion.

Resignation. Acceptance. Relief.

A welcome of death. A fierce guilt.

Behind her, Olesya cried out in delight. Jane blinked, trying to shake the lingering bittersweet thoughts that had occupied the sudok's last moments, and turned back to the sudok's body, still bathed in silver magefire.

And then she saw something that made her heart stop.

Magefire still poured from Casimir's hands as he targeted the sudok. In his concentration, he didn't see another sudok that prowled toward him, eyes hungry, gait slow. The other mages on their wyverns were high enough above the ground that the sudok couldn't reach them, but the healer's green robe fluttered low - much too low -

"Casimir!" Jane shouted.

Flame faded to nothing. Her teacher turned, yanking his wyvern sideways as he realized the danger - For a moment, Jane thought he was fine, out of reach -

Too late, he noticed a third sudok, barreling across the rooftops. The sudok lunged for Casimir, its spiked claws catching the hem of Casimir's cloak. Casimir turned, magefire in his hand - and overbalanced. He grabbed for his wyvern's spines -

Jane screamed. She threw out her hands to form a levitation, a magical cushion - anything, anything at all - but they were too far away, too far for her magic to reach... Olesya cursed, spurring their mount forward - they could still reach him. The wyvern was panicking, as Casimir dangled, the sudok snarling below. They could still reach him. Casimir's hand started to slip. They had to reach him.

The wyvern gave a loud, terrified bellow -

And Casimir lost his grip -

And they were still so far.

Too far.

The last Jane saw of Casimir was his eyes, bright with surprise, as he fell.

-v-

I'm sorry :( It had to happen. ...Please don't kill me?