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They wore dark clothes wrapped around their entire bodies, covering everything up to their faces. With the makeshift masks, it was impossible to tell whether they were goblin or human, but their movements told me exactly who they were. Topi and Pito had waited a long time for their revenge and now it was within reach in a more literal way than they had ever hoped to achieve.

Sagam stood in the shadows behind them, the bags under his eyes as dark as bruises. His lips were pulled flat, a frown carved on his forehead.

There was a scream and then Naî took off into the air. From the way she swooped through it, I could feel her joy. The healing she had received in the animalia realm had left her thirsty for blood. I didn’t hesitate. Sprinting after the Bemishu twins, I caught up to their dark forms.

“Where?” I asked. One of them turned her head, and I could only see her eyes, which made it impossible even for me to tell them apart.

“Our father will not risk his life in battle unless it is against the emperor. He will be somewhere hidden.”

“Somewhere safe,” the other twin said. “So he can continue to save his men through his military brilliance.”

They had spent nearly their entire lives working toward their father’s death, and I knew they had expected it to come at the hands of another. Yet here they were, ready to do the work themselves. As someone who had worked his entire life toward one goal, I was more than happy to help them achieve it.

I needed to see Bemishu’s death myself. Not seeing Kacha’s still left me uncertain. I had seen his dead body, true, but I had wanted to see the light go out of his eyes so that I would never again have a nightmare of him standing over me, ordering an electro mage to burn my magic out.

Shaking my head, I followed behind the twins. They moved quickly, and I could see their bodies had been given the same improvements as General Saxu and his soldiers. But unlike the soldiers, these women had never trained for battle. Theirs had always been a war of words, of politics, of setting up two strong men and pitting them against each other.

Now, they had to duck out of the way of one of Bemishu’s soldiers. I reached down, taking the blade that Asahi had pressed on me before we reached the goblin camp. I sliced up, dragging my sword across the underside of the man’s arms.

He stumbled back, dripping blood, and I didn’t have time to press the advantage, because the twins were already moving, already ahead of me. Theirs was a singular goal, and I searched the battlefield for the man they were seeking.

We moved toward the back of the battle. Bemishu might love his men more than Kacha or Maki did, but he was still a general. Only a fool would have commanded from the front, where he could not see the patterns of the battle behind him, could not see if his men were living or dying by some new threat.

The twins tried using their new powers, one engaging a soldier from the front while the other tried stabbing him from behind. Only they missed. I waded through the sand, but I was too late: Pito’s blade had slid off the man’s armor, and he turned, ready to cleave her in two. But there was a flash of armor, General Saxu’s colors stained by red blood already drying brown in the desert heat.

Commander Rede took the blow with his own blade, and though he gave Pito enough of a chance to dart to her sister, we were still surrounded. I took on two men, my blade dancing between them.

The first man was taller than me, and wore a dozen tattoos on his neck, showing how many he had killed. I stabbed at his knee, driving him back long enough that I could turn my sword against the other, slicing through a gap in the side of his armor. My blade hit bone, going off-center, and I exhaled sharply, having abruptly had enough.

Raising my hand, I let free the ice in my mind, the power that wanted to be released. I sent it straight into his skin, entering where I had pierced him. He choked, his face going blue, his eyes turning opaque.

Then his comrade hit me hard and I lifted my sword, barely holding him off. Sparks lit us as he slid his blade along the edge of my sword. I screamed, and pushed forward, finding strength that matched the animalia’s. I pressed him back until he collapsed onto the sand, and then I reached for the ocean of power, letting myself sink into it and learning, as I fell through its depths, that once the people of the desert had understood how to use the wind and sand to build cities overnight or strip the meat from the bones of living men.

I pulled at the ground, turning it into quicksand. The man sank into it, his hands grasping for the sides and only falling further in. For a second, there was quiet, and then I heard Topi scream my name, and turned, blade ready.

A half dozen men faced off against Commander Rede. He danced between them like a night flower performing for patrons. His blade was so fast, reflecting like a second sun, that for a moment, I paused to marvel at the beauty and grace of the display.

He pulled lightning from the sky and sent it into the men that his sword had tagged with powder. His electricity hit them full on, and they went down, all but the one behind him.

I lurched forward, but it was too late, I was too late. The man pierced Commander Rede through, his blade slicing through him. He pulled out and raised his sword to slice off Rede’s head, and I was only a step away when a bolt of lightning hit him.

The blast blew me backward, and the man stumbled for a second before collapsing to his knees and then falling onto the sand, his body still. He was unmoving, and the twins and I reached Rede at the same time. He still breathed, blood trailing from his lips.

I looked across the battlefield, trying to see who our ally was, and saw General Saxu, arm still lifted. I couldn’t make out his expression with the bright sun and disturbed sand clouding my vision, but I let myself go calm, knowing he was watching our backs.

Another man approached, and Saxu’s electricity burned him alive. Saxu was doing his part, making sure no one could attack us, and I needed to do mine.

Rede grasped the arm of my shirt, trying to speak, but I shushed him, closing my eyes and calling on my ice magic. He was so gravely wounded, I knew his death was imminent before I even put my hands on his chest, sticky blood seeping between my fingers when I pressed down. But I had an ocean of power at my disposal, I had magic to spare, and I could spare it for this.

I pressed ice into him, letting it heal him as I’d healed the poisoned tree, letting his body knit back together under my touch. When I was done, I sat back on the sand, and he blinked up at the pale blue sky, his eyes wide. He sat up slowly, looking at me with wonder.

Finally he shook his head, standing to offer me his hand. The twins were hovering nearby, and I wondered if they had thought of leaving us, or had realized that the battle was too chaotic for them to run through it without a protector.

“I must—” Rede picked up his sword and turned back to the battle. Then he was gone, his animalia-given strength allowing him to throw off his near death with little reaction.

“Where do we go?” I asked the twins. They looked at each other before turning and beginning another sprint through the battle.

The twins had said their father wouldn’t be at the forefront, that he would be shielding himself so that he could continue to defend his men with his strategy.