take him across the sphere and down the stairs. He was a dancer still, in his
body; the leap was no great feat for him.
He caught the skull-sized artifact on the tips of his fingers. The momentum of
his leap brought the searing object hard against his breast as he forced the
center of a very small universe to shift from one existence through an infinity
of others. It clung to him; passed through him; absorbed him; shattered and
expelled him utterly.
Ischade was hurled against the rafters by the force of the globe’s destruction.
Wrapped in the fullness of her fire-magic she barely reached the stairway when
the roof itself was swallowed in the flames. Her robes were in flames before she
reached the streets.
A tower of fire soared from the open roof of the Peres house to the heavens
themselves. The demon, trapped in fire, warred with Stormbringer, whose
thundercloud form was illuminated by each lightning-bolt He threw. A crowd was
gathering, a crowd which saw her try to squeeze the flames from her hair and
robes and called after her when she raced down the streets with fire still
licking after her.
Molin Torchholder had been one of the first to climb to the palace rooftops for
a clearer view of the flame pillar. Bracing himself against the gritty wind he
looked past the light to the dark cloud beyond.
“Stormbringer?”
He nearly fell from the roof as a hand closed tightly over his shoulder. “Not
tonight,” Tempus said with a laugh.
There were others appearing at the myriad stairways, making their way to the