Page 47 (1/2)

"Frost! Li! It’s co but ice and snow, and that blizzard blew across the stones, sweeping up the dead blue bird as it went Oliver ran to where Kitsune lay, still a fox--why had she not returned to her huly light and she whimpered in pain, but her heart still beat Her blood felt sticky on his hands, sain beside the fallen Grin and Cheval

Oliver ran toward them with the fox in his arms, but he saw the way the winter man stared past him and he paused, turned

Li had not run The Great Library of Atlantishold, all that held it together now undone by Oliver’s hands The Guardian of Fire stood his ground A phalanx of soldiers rushed toward him, even as the last of the jellyfish erupted fro library A sorcerer threw hi end over end toward his death Two octopuses and several razor-fish aiure still in the shadow of the library

His hands came up The fire in him erupted in one final, volcanic explosion The heat seared Oliver’s exposed skin and the blast blew hi Kitsune in his ar the stones before he rolled, careful not to crush her

When he knelt, his first sight was of Frost Half of the winter man’s face had melted off in the blast of heat Snow and ice whirled around and tried to reconstruct it, but between the tropical sun and the heat from Li’s fire, it would take tiered a little but

Oliver saw that Grin still lived The boggart had a bloody, ragged, abdominal wound, but clapped one hand over it as he drew himself up to cradle the corpse of Cheval Bayard in his other arotten out of the library

That left only Li

He had incinerated dozens of soldiers and perhaps hundreds of the ocean monsters that patrolled the skies above Atlantis, but one look at Li told Oliver that the Guardian of Fire was through He still stood, hands raised, pointed toward the remains of those he’d just burned, where the stones were blackened and cracked

Yet all that re in the shape of a man As Oliver looked, the last of the fire flickered out A pile of gray ash, looking like a statue, stood there in the plaza The wind kicked up and began to pull the figure apart Cinders bleay, Li quickly eroding, every ashen particle coh Oliver had unmade him as well But he hadn’t done this The Guardian of Fire had burned out at last

The upper part of the library toppled down onto the spot where Li had stood, and then he was only a memory

Oliver swore under his breath

"Good-bye, my friend," Frost said, and Oliver couldn’t be sure if he spoke to the ashes of Li that blew on the wind or to the dead blue bird he now held in his frozen grasp

The fox shifted in Oliver’s ar down his face

The killers of Atlantis--soldier and sorcerer and an to close the circle

Oliver and Frost exchanged another look The winterKitsune into the crook of his left arht hand He splayed his fingers on the stones of the central plaza The treachery had to stop The conquerors had to be prevented fro his breathing, Oliver let himself feel the stones, and the soil beneath them, and the bedrock of the island Hishis head back At his touch, all cohesion began to unravel

The ground began to quake Fissures opened in the plaza, cracks running jagged across the stones Frost called out his na him on Wayland Smith had marooned them on this island, had left theht them here They could not save the life of Prince Tzajin, could not bring about the end of the war that way So he would end the war another way

He would uns cracked Glass shattered and fell The plaza buckled and the stones they stood upon sank several feet, surged up slightly, then sank another seven or eight feet All around the in upon the Sorcerers tried to use their , to no avail Then the water began to flow, rushing in fros, quickly starting to flood the plaza

Oliver stood The daun to fall apart

Atlantis had begun to sink

CHAPTER 22

The Sand cloud of dust As it settled, blowing away, and he was revealed, soldiers on both sides shouted in fear and otten Halliwell shuddered, hating that he wore the hood of the Sandarnered the response he had hoped for

He strode through the battle With regret, he moved between fallen men and women, unable to pause to help them Others would reach them Not that they would have accepted help frouise Even those with the worst injuries, with open wounds andthehost, he haunted the field of battle, drifting, the sand rising around hist the bloodied, screa soldiers, but most were Euphrasian or Atlantean His mind had touched the Dustman’s They were still two spirits, but now had full access to the thoughts of the other Halliwell had become the Dustman The Dustely calst the combatants, but only a handful There were Stonecoats and tall warriors who could only be what the Dust--perhaps fifteen feet tall or more--kicked its hooves at Atlantean soldiers and thrashed a Peryton fro was made entirely of plants, tree branches, wheat and cornstalks It smelled wonderfully of fruit

The Sandman smiled Halliwell smiled The Dustman smiled

An octopus drifted above the soldiers A dead woled broken from its tentacles It unfurled other tentacles and snatched up a Euphrasian soldier wearing the colors of King Hunyadi The soldier screaod in black ared up fro his sword toward the octopus, but the cowardly thing moved away It would only hunt the easy prey

Hallianted to kill it But not now

A s threw their shadon upon hilanced up with the le at the Atlantean Hunter It dove down at hi him apart

Halliwell let it co into the shifting sand and dust and ground bone of his body, harrabbed the antlers of the Peryton in one hand and twisted, snapping its neck His free hand darted at its face and before he realized what he was doing, his knifelike fingers pried one of the Hunter’s glazed eyes froue reached, yearning, for the dripping, bloody eye

The Sandan to shudder

The Dustman crushed the eyeball in his hand, felt it pop

Halliwell let the corpse of the Peryton fall to the battlefield and wiped the viscous reust coiled serpentine through his heart, his shared soul

With Sara, back in the ordinary world, he could be hiend A monster But still Ted Halliwell Here, in this place, he had to hold the reins htly to make sure the little voice of the Sandain The Dustether they could stifle the Sandilance would be necessary