Andrew skidded to a stop as they reached the square in front of the arena. He could see the people panicking inside the entrance, unable to escape past the pair of warriors standing with several yellow Wisps hovering between them. The men didn’t move, but anyone who tried to run past them either was cut down, or, more often, turned around and ran the other way as soon as they realized the men were there.

  Andrew’s immediate instinct was to take out his bow and shoot them from where he was. He dismissed the idea right away, though, for fear of missing and hitting the other people. He glanced down at Anna as she caught up to him, panting. He couldn’t bring himself to say anything as her eye’s went wide, seeing the Wisps.

  “Just four, though?” she managed. “It shouldn’t be causing that kind of…” she trailed off as they saw flashes of red in the crowd past the guards.

  “If we go off to the side, I might be able to get a clean shot at them,” Andrew said. “But I think we should stay close, sow those Wisps don’t catch us.”

  Anna nodded. Halcyon and several of the others were already emerging from her bracelet. Before they could move, though, Jarnvaror dropped out of the sky. They saw the two men whirl around and stumble back as the dragon bared down on them, roaring. One recovered and leapt at the dragon. He was clearly a warrior boosted by the Wisps with how fast he moved. Jarnvaror backed off a bit, only to snap back at his attacker.

  “New idea,” Andrew said. “Support Jarnvaror and make sure he isn’t affected by the Wisps.”

  Anna nodded. She took a breath, preparing to jog the rest of the way to the dragon. Her bracelet glowed as Halcyon and several other Wisps emerged to go ahead of them. This drew attention from the other guard at the entrance and the four Wisps still hovering at the with him. A man in robes stepped out of the shadow by the guard, and Andrew guessed he was the one controlling the yellow Wisps. He said something to the warrior, then started approaching the dragon.

  Jarnvaror bellowed another roar and shook his head, and Andrew realized they weren’t close enough. For all the time he’d spent around them, the dragon didn’t have any sort of special resistance to the Wisps’ influence. As the man in robes approached, the dragon backed away, head twitching. The man raised his hand. The air seemed to warp between him and the dragon for just a moment. A line of light shot from his hand, followed by a crashing boom.

  “He shoots lightning?” Andrew groaned. The dragon howled and reared back from the mage, spraying fire into the air over the mage, who protected himself with a spell that seemed to push the fire to the side. The dragon seemed unable to actually fight back.

  “Not a problem,” Anna said. “We just need to get close.

  “It’ll be dangerous for us to get close to him, even if your Wisps start calming him down,” Andrew said. “He could crush you before they succeed.”

  “He’ll do a lot more damage if we don’t,” Anna said. “But we have to get through both of them, first,” Anna added, pointing to the warrior and the mage.

  The warrior was marching toward them, readying his longsword to deal with the pair. Andrew wiped his bow over his shoulder and snapped off a shot at the man. They’d moved enough to the side and gotten enough closer that he was confident he wouldn’t hit anyone else, even if he missed. And after firing, he knew that he hadn’t.

  Not that it mattered. For as crude and cumbersome as the warrior/s sword looked, he moved like wind, slapping Andrew’s arrows out of the air. Andrew sent two more arrows at the warrior, who flicked them both aside as he started getting closer.

  “I don’t suppose you can remove his Wisps before he reaches us?” Andrew asked.

  “Trying to,” Anna said. She held her hand out as more and more of their Wisps emerged from her bracelet, spinning around her, leaving trails of blue and green light. He heard the man in front of them shout, dropping his sword. Andrew couldn’t tell what it was, until he saw an orange glow coming from a ring on the man’s finger. Then it burst with a sound like thunder and three Wisps swirled out, changing from red to yellow.

  “Oops,” Anna said. “I didn’t mean to break it.

  “Good for us you did,” Andrew said as the warrior ran away clutching his hand. Andrew tried not to look at the ground as they ran for the mage fighting the dragon, or at the finger he thought he saw laying next to sword he’d left behind.

  The mage looked over his shoulder as Andrew and Anna approached. His eyes widened at the sight of the blue Wisps now swirling in the air over their heads. He spun to face them fully, raising his hand and the air warped between them.

  Andrew had already brought up his bow to draw, he jumped to the side, covering Anna. Then he let the arrow fly. A white flash filled his vision, and he was deafened by a thunderous crackle. It took him a moment to register he’d been thrown back as well.

  His vision came back slowly, and he had to blink tears out of his eyes. His whole body seemed numb. It barely responded as he tried to raise himself back up to look around. Anna stood between him and Jarnvaror, at least three of her Wisps helping each of the yellow ones bobbing close to the dragon. Jarnvaror himself seemed to have calmed down, and had placed himself between the two of them and the gate, growling at any other warriors that revealed themselves.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  As his feeling came back, so did his hearing, and Andrew heard Anna calling to him. “Are you alright?”

  “I think so,” Andrew said, forcing himself more into a sitting position and looking down at himself. A whole had been burned into the cloths over his stomach. The skin was pink and raw around a jagged black diamond almost as long as his hand. Blood was welling up from the center of the burn like a bad scrape. He resisted the urge to prod at it.

  Forcing himself to his feet, he walked over to join Anna. Her Wisps had succeeded in bringing several of the enemies under control, and he looked through the gate into the Arena. People were panicking. Only a few seemed to have realized that the way out had been cleared. Most were still running among the stands or into the halls and rooms inside the arena wall.

  “This can’t be Daniel’s plan, can it?” Anna asked. Watching the panicked citizens.

  “I don’t know,” Andrew said. “Right now we just need to find – Peter!” he interrupted himself as he saw Peter pushing his way through the crowd. There was a thin man with curly brown hair at his side, and a red orb of some sort held close to his chest next to Peter. Right behind them, he saw Hannah, and Andrew thought he caught the two smaller blond heads through the crowd with her. By the time he made out Jeremy and the guards, they had made it through, and were spilling into the square.

  “Peter!” Andrew said again, running closer. “Are you alright?”

  Peter took in him, Anna, Jarnvaror, and the Wisps, then turned to the other’s with him. “Hold here!” he said.

  “What’s going on?” Anna asked, joining Andrew.

  “No idea,” Peter said. “Zech seemed to have a lot more friends than we thought, though, and a few are still after us!”

  Ordinary people finally began spilling out of the arena as a trio of heavily armored warriors began marching out after Peter’s group. Peter shouted to Jarn to let the ordinary people pass, while Andrew took in the glowing red warriors. One was Selasi, and wearing the white armor of the elite guard. Another was Ryukyuujin, outfitted much as Captain Yamada had been when they were by the frost lake. A third wore the uniform of the city guard, the same as the trio of guards with Peter.

  Andrew did a double take. Peter was glowing with a faint blue light, but all of his companions, save Hannah and the royals, were glowing the same as the Wisp Stealers. “Wait, are they with you too?”

  Peter frowned, looked at the warriors approaching them, then at his companions, and realization seemed to dawn. “Ah! Nope, we’ve been steeling their Wisps whenever we can.”

  “Only way we stood a chance,” Jeremy said. “We’re still pretty outnumbered, though.”

  Even as he said it, another trio of warriors and a mage showed up behind the first. Another Selasi, was with them, this time garbed as a common warrior. The other was Grealish, and the last was a blond Elf who looked like he could have been the twin of the approaching mage.

  “Our top priority should be getting the royals out of here!” said one of the city guards with Peter.

  “I don’t think we can run from all of that,” Peter pointed out. “Jarn! Cut ‘em off!”

  The dragon sprayed fire into the entrance. At first it seemed like it was working. Then the first warrior pressed through the flames as if they weren’t there.

  “Well, that’s not good,” Hannah said.

  “Everyone stay close to me and the Wisps!” Anna said as more of the enemy made it through the dragon’s flames. “I can try undoing their enchantments.”

  “Bad idea,” squeaked the other mage.

  “She’s saved us doing it before,” Peter said.

  “That’s insane,” the mage replied.

  “Do you know what’s going on?” Henry burst, moving to stand next to Andrew.

  Andrew didn’t have time to answer. Anna’s Wisps, including the fresh recruits, descended on both their own group and on the enemies. The air filled with their influence, more determination even than the calm. Flashes of red flickered within them, and Andrew could tell they were angry at this whole situation.

  “Everyone, stay calm!” Anna shouted to them. The Wisps pulsed in the air all around now. Drawing out almost two dozen of the red and yellow Wisps from both sides. The air buzzed with them. “Stay calm! Help Halcyon!”

  Andrew tried to. It seemed to help the others, too. The Wisps around them grew much calmer as they worked to save the others. Meanwhile, the enemy warriors seemed to become confused. One dropped his weapons, looking at his hands as the red glow faded. He looked up, then fled back into the arena.

  The others were less keen on waiting. The foremost warrior charged at Anna. Peter intercepted him, and Andrew readied his bow to strike down the second as he charged. Jarnvaror took care of the third.

  Andrew barely saw the Elvish mage prepare his spell. He just had time to tell everyone to duck as the mage clapped, sending out a very familiar crescent of magical light. Most ducked in time, but Jarn howled as the magic cut him.

  “We need to get out of here!” Andrew said.

  “I don’t want to see that spell explode again,” Peter shouted, getting back up. He looked back at their mage. “It was bad enough on the ship. Do you think you could catch that?” he added to his mage companion.

  “Tried to,” the mage said. “Didn’t work.”

  The Wisps were still doing their work, and now, their calm was helping Andrew as well. At least, helping in the sense that he could remain calm. But he couldn’t see how any of them could run, accept Jarnvaror. And he didn’t like anyone’s chances of staying atop the dragon bareback accept maybe Peter.

  As the mage readied to send out another cutting shockwave, there was a rush of wind as a figure in red robes appeared between the Arena entrance and the others.

  “Sol?” Anna burst.

  “I heard the King and Queen had run off. I was coming to look when I saw the chaos,” the Elvish Archmage replied. He flicked out his hand, and the enemy mage collapsed, hands and legs locked together as if bound. Another flick, and several crystals flew from the blond Elf into Sol’s hands. He gave them to Anna.

  “Now, what is actually going on?” he asked.

  “Zech was here,” Peter said. “He shot a signal out into the arena, then all these people started attacking. They’ve been aiming for the twins,” he added.

  Andrew felt his stomach lurch. This was Daniel’s plan, then. He was about to say so, when another trio of mages appeared in the entrance. Sol sighed. Several of the gemstones adorning his robes lit up.

  “I’ll clean up here. Get the Scepters out of here, and we’ll talk later.”

  Peter nodded and started leading his group back through the city. Andrew and Anna exchanged a glance. Sol looked at them. “Go!” he said.

  Andrew and Anna started following. Then Andrew turned back to Sol. “The spy!” he said. “It was Daniel.”

  “What?” Sol asked. Then an enemy spell clashed with his magic shield, and his attention turned to the fight before him. “We’ll talk later!” he said.

  Andrew nodded. Then he and Anna, along with the Wisps, began rushing through the city after Peter.