This is almost over :/ The next part after this one may end up being the last, depending on whether I break it up into smaller sections or post it all at once. Either way, the climax is beginning :)

Part 11

Three important things happened that night, all in the space of one hour.

In the dungeons of Darial, Girian and the three trapped students laid plans to escape and carry out Girian's daring idea. In the luxurious rooms high above them, Eve slipped away from the others to try to save Derek and Angel and Erik. And far to the north, in the mightiest fortress of the Nighthawks, the young commander Swaine was reporting to the head of the organization.

"The students are in Darial now, Tiraz. They arrived just this evening. Albine Weisswith said he'd let us in as soon as we got there, so we can start at once." His voice was cold and metallic, his eyes hard. "We can be there by dawn."

There were several figures in the room, but one of them crowned them all. He was tall, almost beyond human height, and he had dark, impeccably combed hair that glistened as if it had just been washed. He was dressed in a black cloak that trailed on the ground, making a sweeping noise as he walked. Many a time his followers, who hated him for his cruelty and injustice - despite the fact that they would have ruled just as badly in his place - had mocked him among themselves for his slight accent and that heavy cloak that he never appeared without. But they felt an invariable shiver of fear when they were in his presence. This was the most powerful man alive, and they were never allowed to forget it.

"I wonder." The ruler of the Nighthawks began to speak. "What do we really know about Albine Weisswith? Who is he? Why did he agree to fight for us, when his companions have all forgotten the old rules of the Dragons and Unicorns? He must be a sharp lad, entirely without scruples. And as such..." He glanced around the group. They all nodded. They had all thought the same thing many a time; Albine, for all that he was helping them now, might only want to overthrow their king and take his place as ruler of NO. And that, they had agreed, would be a very good thing.

"Why then, my lord, you have only to take him captive when he has done his work," said a soft voice.

The king turned. Standing in the shadows by the only window, half-veiled by the enormous ebony curtain, stood a woman. In the gloom she was nothing more than a dim figure against the dark glass. And yet once you had seen her, you could not ignore her. She was slender, wearing a violet sheath of a dress that emphasized her slimness and grace. Her face was pale in the darkness, like the glow of a water lily in a murky pool. Around her head her reddish-brown hair was coiled in a heavy braid, fastened with a jewel the color of the sea on a wild summer's sunrise. She was strikingly beautiful, though everything about her - the lack of jewelry which wealthy women usually wore, the rumpled look of her dress, the smudge across her face that might be old mascara - suggested that she had paid no attention to her appearance. But it was the expression in her eyes which caught and held the viewer's gaze, creating fascinated curiosity. It was not malevolence exactly, but a look of extreme cunning, flickering behind her outer femininity. Though there was a softness in her voice and manner, it was evident that mercy meant nothing to this woman. 

"He is, after all, only a human," she continued.

"We are humans too," Tiraz reminded her. 

"But long ago we lost our humanity."

It was as if far more had been meant, and understood, in those few words, than might be obvious, and the sudden tone of bitterness in the woman's voice made it clear that she had meant the last words literally. For a moment a piercing misery came into her dark eyes, though perhaps she did not even know it - the misery that is stamped on the faces of everyone who has lost their humanity. But Tiraz was no longer paying attention to her.

"You are right. Telyar!" He beckoned to a nearby man. "Quick, get soldiers and lead the charge against Darial. Be there by sunrise. Hurry. Send messages to me every half-hour so that I may know what happens."

***

In the palace of Darial, Summit was growing uneasy. Eve had left long ago. It must be past midnight, but nobody could sleep.

Kardis and I were standing in the Portrait Hall, outside the room where the students were, watching them.

"The Nighthawks are on the move toward Darial," said Kardis harshly.

"Kardis -" I looked at him. "Give up this foolishness once and for all. Yes, you placed your trust once upon a time in a human whom you thought was your dearest friend, and then he betrayed you. What of it? Let these students save their home while there is still time."

"You always did like humans," he replied.

"Kardis, listen to me. When you last saw me I was a spitfire girl of twenty, just married to a human and determined to save his kind if I could." I pointed at my portrait. "I was that girl. I was inexperienced and perhaps you were justified in not listening to me. But I've changed, Kardis. Look at me. My hair is white now. My skin is wrinkled. I've gone through centuries of loneliness and observation. I'm old now too, and we're equal. You can put your trust in me."

Kardis only strode into the room. The students all jumped up when he came in.

"The Nighthawks are trying to take over Darial," he informed them curtly. "If they succeed, which they will, they will force you to let them take over Ideól. If you let us take over first, we can strike at the root of their power and be done with it."

"Let us just think about it," replied Albine swiftly. "We'll tell you our decision in a few minutes."

Kardis nodded and withdrew, stalking away down the hall. I remained, of course.

"Everyone! Listen up!" Albine stood and walked to the center of the room. "I want to tell you something important. Kardis is right. NO is headed this way and they'll defeat these Archenians once and for all. But once they've done that, why not team up with them? I've been working with them already for a long time. We've tried working on our own and we've gotten nowhere. We need strength and power. We won't get it here, so -"

"What do you mean we've gotten nowhere?" broke in Inanna furiously.

"Every single minute it's been you and Erik bossing us," replied Albine. "Taking orders from a Unicorn - ha! Most of you guys are Dragons. Remember what we've learned at school. We know we can't trust Unicorns. They're different from us, they're out to get us, and all this trip they've been trying to rule us. And there are just a few of them. We don't have to put up with them any longer. Are we going to be ruled by a boy who doesn't even have his own powers?" He pointed a finger at Rowan, who sprang to his feet.

"Eve's a Unicorn and she just risked her life to save Erik and Derek - both of whom are Dragons," he shot back.

"She'll never come back," replied Albine easily. "Who knows what she went away for, but it wasn't to save her brother. Can anyone prove otherwise?"

Summit shifted restlessly. It was true, he'd often chafed at Inanna's bossiness, at Eve's occasional cocky airs, at the whole business of having to work with Unicorns. But wasn't that just because they were people he didn't know very well? Could Albine possibly be right?

Everyone was silent. They didn't know where they stood. Albine had called up memories of years of training, of beliefs drilled into them every day by people who were experts at drilling beliefs. Adults older and perhaps wiser than they had always told them to distrust Unicorns. And Albine seemed so sure of himself... Though they didn't put it into words, they were all succumbing to Albine's speechmaking skills, which were almost hypnotic.

"Well, I-" Summit began. He paused. "Maybe you're right?"

"He can't be right," said Onyx desperately. "I can't argue with you, Albine, you're probably smarter than I am. But I just know you're wrong."

"Prove it."

She couldn't. And Albine knew it. 

And just as everyone was starting to believe in him, and a smug smile was flitting over his face at the battle he'd fought so little to win, the door was flung open with a crash. Cold air blew into the room, awakening everyone's minds again. Summit glanced at Albine's face. It had an expression of pure shock.

Eve, Erik, Derek, and Angel stood in the doorway. And behind them was a familiar figure: Girian, the Guardian of Cambir.

"What-" Albine gasped feebly.

"Let's go, guys," said Derek, coming in. "NO's right outside the palace and we have to run. Now."

Part 12

Rowan felt a thrill of relief as he saw that Eve was standing there. Derek's announcement went unheeded. The other students set up a clamor - "What do you mean?" "How are we going to escape now?" "This is crazy!" - but he quietly made his way over to her.

"Eve, are you okay?" he gasped.

She blushed. "I'm fine. My powers came back - I guess because there weren't any Archenians around - but I didn't need them anyway because there weren't any guards in front of the dungeon door. I just unlocked it and let everyone out. And guess what." She drew him aside and spoke in a low voice. "Girian has a plan -"

But just then Ember, who was standing by the window, gave a gasp. "Look!"

The valley was teeming with a shapeless mass of moving figures. Torches flickered here and there. In front of the main palace gate, a bonfire had been lit, and by its light a woman astride an enormous ebony horse could be discerned. She was speaking to someone, with the air of a commander. Two lines of men came forward, carrying a heavy log that was pointed at one end, and drove it against the main gate.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

"It's a battering ram," croaked Erik.

"The gate happens to be unlocked," Angel remarked sarcastically. "I guess they don't know that."

"Right, let's go," said Girian briskly. He seemed the least concerned of any of them, perhaps because he was after all used to seeing things of this kind.

They had barely slipped out of the room when there was a deafening crash, and a roar came from beyond the walls. Rowan quickened his pace to keep up with Girian, who was striding along with long, rapid steps. If this were a trap, or if the soldiers outside were to enter before they could escape - Maybe they should have just let Kardis take control of Ideol while they still could. Yet, he was calmer than he had expected to be. He had done all he could. If he were captured, well, he would be captured, but it would not be his own fault.

Girian had come to a halt at the end of the long Portrait Hall. "Any of you know the way out from here?"

"I think so," Eve spoke up. "I think we just go through that room, along the outer hall, and we'll come to the main entrance room."

They started off again. 

"Halt!"

Rowan's head snapped up. At the end of the hall, just a few steps away, stood a woman. She wore a short dark green cape and a knee-length dress of hardy bright cloth. Her eyes, dark and unfathomable, were fixed on the students. And she was pointing a bow straight at Albine.

"Who are you?" Angel asked, unfazed as ever.

"That does not concern you." Her gaze slid over to Angel for a moment, then back to Albine. "You may all pass - but leave me with this boy."

"What do you want with him?" Rowan hadn't meant to speak, but somehow it seemed as if the words were torn from him. "He helped you out, didn't he? He's on your side, right?"

"I can't know that," she replied simply. "When you deal with untrustworthy people you must always be on your guard against even your closest companions."

"Then I'm awfully sorry for untrustworthy people," said Angel.

The woman gave her a look, off her guard just the slightest bit. Exasperation blazed in her eyes. "Will you or will you not just quiet down-"

Suddenly the hall was illuminated in brick-red light. Something hissed past Rowan's ear - a bolt of fire heading straight for the bow. Rowan saw a flash of panic cross the woman's face, and then - the bow and arrow had turned to gray ash. 

"Run!" shouted Derek, dropping his fire-producing stance. The hall blurred into a vague impression of brown punctuated with flashes of color from the portraits as Rowan sprinted toward the door. And then he was out of the Portrait Hall and in the warm, golden-lit room off the outer balcony from which he had watched the sunset just a few hours ago.

"Ash, can you turn into a fox, please," Erik asked, "and go ahead of us to the little hill behind the palace. Go up to the top and push aside the stone that you'll find there. And wait for us. If we don't come in, say, ten minutes, use your song to save us."

Ash nodded. The next second a small, pert-looking fox - a beautiful one really, with a ruddy coat and a bushy tail and tiny, pricked ears - stood in her place. She trotted jauntily off, the rest following.

When they came to the main gate, Ash slipped through the crowds unheeded - nobody cared where foxes chose to come and go - but the students faced a solid barricade of armed, and magical, soldiers.

"We have to fight our way through them until we get behind the palace," Erik explained. "When we do, you'll see a river and a ship. Just get onto the ship immediately and leave the rest to Girian."

Eve nodded. "Okay."

The next second she was driving a path ahead of her with great hedges and trees that forcibly pushed aside the soldiers. Rowan was right next to her, and so was Derek, creating enormous bolts of fire that blazed wildly in the darkness, almost extinguishing the light of the soldiers' torches. Off to her right Eve saw puffs of reddish smoke - Angel - and blue fire - Ember. She didn't see Inanna - maybe she had melted into the shadows. But Erik was flying over her, and managing occasionally to blow away a soldier, who always looked so shocked at these un-heard-of proceedings that it would have been funny if it hadn't been such a dangerous situation. And behind Eve were a couple of enormous dragons, towering over everyone and probably being the most effective of any of the students - they were Summit and Naiche, who could shapeshift with a vengeance.

After that Eve had no energy for concentrating on anything except pushing ahead, forcing herself to create another tree, another hedge. Once a soldier pushed through her hedge and grabbed her arm, only to be lifted into the air by a tree forcing its way up from the ground directly under his feet.

It seemed that years went by. The only reality was the dark night and the smoky air and the trees. And walking forward. And Rowan's hand on her arm, steadying her when she almost fell from exhaustion, encouraging her, pouring strength and warmth into her body.

Suddenly Eve looked up. Ahead was an open space, free of soldiers and torches. The moonlight shone on something that reflected it in lines and ripples of creamy silver. It was the river.

And now Eve noticed a tall ship, its masts and sails black against the starry sky. It was just a few steps away, and a little reddish fox was perched on the railing, waving its tail at her. She turned to Rowan, too exhausted to do more than smile, and started forward again.

Behind her came cries and shouts of soldiers coming after her, but she was too far ahead. In a few steps she was scrambling up the ladder to the deck. The dragons soared through the air and landed in front of her, turning back into boys as they did so.

Coolness washed over Eve's face as a breeze caught the ship and it started to move forward. For a long time she lay still on the wooden deck, staring at the myriads of stars that moved endlessly above her. She had slipped through the soldiers' fingers a second time. And whatever lay ahead, she was on her way to Ideol.