Nera has gone. She takes her Chosen Rider with her, and our fate is more uncertain than ever. The group of four is broken.

The ancient fire sweeps over me, consuming my bones in pain. There’s no escaping the curse of the flame bird, as foretold by Anoret. Her words come back to me again:

The bravery in Beasts’ blood

Shall set fire to the final fight,

The curse of the phoenix

Shall make a companion falter

But Justice will find the Mighty.

I don’t understand all of Anoret’s predictions, but I know that the future approaches as surely as the sun will rise and set. Falkor slithers closer, the slits of his eyes gleaming with concern. His tongue flickers, sensing my pain. Gulkien pads toward me and rubs his muzzle into my feathers. It’s all right, my fellow Beasts, I have long guessed where my destiny lies.

I turn toward the west. It’s time to return, my friends. Time to make our way to my birthplace. The volcano calls to me, and I am powerless to resist.

“What’s wrong with them?” asked Rufus.

Tanner watched the Beasts gather together with a sense of dread. Firepos’s eyes blazed and her talons clawed at the rock. He’d never seen her so agitated, and the waves of her anxiety crashed into him.

She wants us to leave, he realized. They’d called after Castor for hours with no luck, searching the surrounding fields and forests. But he was gone for good. Eventually, they’d camped out for the night, waking cold and with stiff joints.

“We have to go to the volcano — right now,” Tanner said, climbing to his feet and stretching his limbs.

“But with only three of us to face Derthsin —” Gwen began.

“The last piece of the mask is too important,” Tanner interrupted. “We’re strong enough. We have to be.”

Did he really believe that, though? Despite his arrogance, Castor’s sword skills were second to none, and without him they were seriously weakened as a force.

Gulkien’s growl drew everyone’s attention. Falkor hissed aggressively and slithered to Rufus’s side. Firepos flapped her wings, bathing them all in the warmth of her inner fire. She screeched, and the sound echoed around them, filling Tanner’s heart with pride.

“It looks like the Beasts agree with me,” said Tanner. “We have to go.”

He scrambled up Firepos’s feathers and settled across her back. Her sharp beak pointed directly toward the morning sun in the east, as if she could see their destination already.

Falkor writhed at Firepos’s side as Rufus laid his staff across his dark scales. She lifted her head and hissed back toward Gulkien, who tested his wings with huge drafts of air.

“I don’t think we need to check the map again,” said Gwen. “The Beasts seem to know where they’re going.”

As Firepos took to the skies, the wind seeping through Tanner’s clothes, Falkor set off, sliding across the ground in pulsing waves. Gulkien’s tongue lolled from his jaws as he flew headlong beside them. Tanner looked back. It doesn’t feel right with only three of us, he thought.

They flew directly into the warm glow of the sun’s rays. Tanner squinted at the horizon ahead, feeling dread grip his insides. Since the morning he’d buried his grandmother beside their cottage, he’d known that he’d have to face the full might of Derthsin’s army one day. Maybe he’d known even on the dark day the evil lord killed his father and dragged his mother away. He’d been too young to fight back then.

“But I’m coming for you now, Derthsin,” Tanner promised. They were headed toward the volcano, where the fourth piece of the mask was. Perhaps Derthsin was already there. So be it, Tanner thought. It was time to end this.

They flew over what seemed like endless plains. Here and there were the ruins of villages, charred buildings, abandoned fields, and the rotting carcasses of slaughtered cattle. They passed over the ominous mounds of hastily dug graves. People seemed to have abandoned their ruined homes, or else they cowered indoors, terrified to come out. It was as if Derthsin had poisoned the whole kingdom with his evil.

Tanner watched the horizon for any sign of enemy soldiers, and scanned the sky until his eyes hurt in case Vendrake reappeared in his dreadful, vulture-drawn chariot. The morning had given way to dark clouds that blotted out the sun completely and seemed to press heavily on the scourged landscape.

Firepos suddenly twisted her head downward and dove, with Gulkien copying the maneuver.

“What’s happening?” Gwen shouted across.

“I don’t know,” Tanner replied.

Falkor had stopped, and lay with his head a hands-breadth from the ground, his forked tongue darting in and out. Firepos and Gulkien swooped alongside him, hovering a few paces off the ground.

“My Beast senses something ahead,” Rufus said. “Let’s be careful.”

“I wonder if it’s Castor,” said Gwen hopefully.

Firepos gained height again with powerful wing strokes, and they flew low with Falkor slightly ahead, tasting the air for danger. As they broke over the top of a low rise, Tanner gasped.

A crowd of hundreds seethed over the plain in a solid mass. The thunder of their combined footsteps seemed to shake the air.

“It’s an army!” said Gwen.

Tanner’s stomach lurched with fear. He tugged on Firepos’s feathers to guide her higher, and the Beast responded by striking upward with powerful beats of her wings. They rose over the troops, but as he looked down, Tanner realized these couldn’t be Derthsin’s men. They marched without order and wore no armor, and they had none of the vicious varkules among their cavalry. Instead he saw men and women of all ages, some on horses, most on foot. Many of them carried makeshift weapons — pieces of plows, woodcutters’ axes, shepherd’s crooks, and threshers from the fields. Some carried bows and arrows. Real weapons glinted in the hands of a few, but they looked clean and unused. A handful had shields, but most walked without protection in simple tunics, or at most breastplates made of toughened leather.

They must be from all the ransacked villages, Tanner thought. But are they friends or enemies? Derthsin had wrung the goodness from Geffen’s soul — he could have done the same to these people.

As they glided overhead, faces turned upward one by one, and the mass of peasant folk ground to a halt. Tanner heard shouts of fear.

“Land ahead of them,” he called across to Gwen. “Not too close, just in case.”

He steered Firepos in a wide loop and approached the front of the marchers. The flame bird tipped her wings to slow her descent, and alighted on the grassy plains. A moment later Gulkien bounded beside them, folding his leathered wings into his fur.

“Stay back here,” Tanner said, slipping off Firepos’s back.

“Are you sure that’s wise?” asked Gwen.

“I don’t want to scare them,” said Tanner. “If they’re the enemy, then we’ll know soon enough.”

Keeping his hand on the hilt of his sword, Tanner walked confidently toward the leaders, a line of rugged-looking men. Gwen, he noticed, had hooked her hands into her belt, near her throwing axes. But if there’s trouble, we won’t stand a chance. There’s too many of them.

Low muttering passed through the armed band, and Tanner felt hundreds of eyes fixing him with hatred. He was about to lift his hand in greeting when he heard the twang of a bowstring. An arrow thudded into the ground at his feet.

“Take another step, and it will be your last,” said a woman’s voice. Tanner spied the archer stringing another shaft.

“Fire that arrow, and you’ll lose your arm,” shouted Gwen, running to Tanner’s side. She had a throwing ax lifted above her shoulder.

Tanner swallowed.

“Kill them!” someone shouted. “They’re Derthsin’s servants!”

Relief flooded through Tanner. They were on the same side.

The woman’s arms twitched as she pulled the bowstring tighter.

“We’re not your enemy!” Tanner shouted.

“He’s lying,” someone yelled back from among the ranks. “Why else do they have Beasts?”

“Put down your ax,” Tanner said to Gwen, loud enough that the front rows of the army could hear.

“Are you crazy?” she hissed.

“Do it,” he said. “We need to show we’re not a threat.”

Tanner dropped his hand to his belt. Slowly, he unclipped his sheath and let his sword fall to the ground. Beside him, Gwen cast her ax behind her.

“See!” he shouted. “We mean you no harm.”

A stout man stood at the center of the party, wearing a scarlet cloak. He had steel-gray hair, knotted hands, and the weather-beaten skin of a farmer. “My name is Affren. Do you swear that you and your … your friends come in peace?”

“We ride our Beasts against the forces of Derthsin,” said Tanner, holding out his hand.

There was a disturbance in the crowd, and then a girl burst out. She ran toward Rufus, laughing joyously.

“Isadora!” Rufus cried. He jumped off Falkor’s back and embraced his sister. “You’re safe! What happened to you?”

“I bought a horse and rode to Colweir, like you said I should,” she said. “I told the people there what you were doing, and how you saved me. We talked of the evil invaders, and we decided to gather our weapons and march out to fight!”

Rufus looked at his sister with love and admiration. “You started this army?” he asked.

“I did, and we are all willing to fight with you against Derthsin!”

Tanner remembered the terrified little girl they had rescued from the followers of Derthsin a few days earlier. She had changed a lot in that time.

A murmur passed through the crowd as they saw this happy reunion. “Lower your bow, Breda,” Affren said.

The archer did as she was ordered, and Affren stepped forward, taking Tanner’s hand. “You are so young, yet you set yourself against Derthsin? His armies have ravaged our kingdom.”

Tanner nodded. “We know. We’ve already fought some of Derthsin’s armies. And we have four — I mean — three Beasts to help us.” He didn’t dare glance at Gwen; he knew how crestfallen she’d look.

Though Affren carried only a staff sharpened to a point and blackened in the fire, the man beside him had a finely turned shield, covered in tough leather and embossed with iron points.

“Some of your weapons are well-crafted,” said Tanner. “Do you have trained soldiers, too?”

“What weapons we have are from the caves in the northern mountains,” said Affren.

“Derthsin’s armory!” said Gwen.

“You know of the place?” asked Affren, as his comrades muttered.

“We destroyed it,” said Tanner. “With the help of our friends.”

A young man stepped to Affren’s side, carrying a large, double-edged blade with a wide hilt. “I knew it was true,” he said. “Many of the men have talked of four heroes, told stories about the ‘Justice of the Mighty.’ I just didn’t realize the heroes would be so young.”

“We’ve seen our share of death and battle,” Tanner retorted. The words the young man had used reminded him of the prophecy Firepos had shared. Where had he heard those stories?

“Forgive Raurk,” said Affren, nodding at the younger man. “We live in uncertain times.” He looked past Tanner, to where Firepos and Gulkien waited. “Where is your fourth comrade?”

Tanner glanced at Gwen. It would do Affren and his army no good to know the desperate truth. “He’s lost,” he said.

“Whether you be four, or three, or fifty,” said Affren, “I fear the kingdom is lost already.”

He gazed sadly at Tanner, his watery eyes filled with a grief that couldn’t be put into words.

Tanner’s head swam as he remembered Esme and the mission she’d sent him on. He felt suddenly light and his knees weak to the point of buckling. After all he’d been through, carried by anger and sheer luck, the final task seemed just too daunting. Each time they’d faced Gor, he’d survived, but they’d lost something. Esme, Geffen, and now Castor was gone, too. And still Derthsin awaited.

Affren’s eyes hadn’t left him.

This man must have lived four times as long as me, Tanner thought. What can I tell him?

That it isn’t numbers or weapons that will save this kingdom, came Firepos’s voice, but courage and the will to survive. You can be what they need — a leader.

The Beast’s words lit a spark in Tanner’s chest. Derthsin’s army moved quickly across the land, crushing villages beneath its iron fist before the people had the chance to gather and defend themselves. This ragtag army of survivors had lost everything — their homes, livelihoods, and relatives. He didn’t know if they could fight, or how their makeshift weapons would stand up to the cold steel of Derthsin’s forces. He couldn’t tell if they would hold firm in front of a varkule’s drooling jaws and blaring war horns. But in their eyes burned sorrow and anger. If he could harness those feelings, and find a way to direct them, perhaps …

“We can fight together,” he said aloud.

Raurk laughed bitterly, and swept his arm in a wide gesture toward the massed villagers. “We don’t march to fight,” he said. “We stick together for safety, to forage for food.”

“Join us,” said Tanner. The flame of hope seemed to grow in his chest. If people were gathering like this, daring to show themselves openly with weapons, it meant he and his companions weren’t the only people fighting Derthsin. Others in Avantia were rebelling, too! “Together we might be strong enough to take on our common enemy.”

“And if not?” said Raurk. “Should we die for nothing? At least if we don’t oppose Derthsin, he might let us live.”

“He may let you keep your lives,” Gwen cut in. “But at the cost of your freedom.”

“And how long will it be before Derthsin’s mercy snaps?” said Tanner. “We’ve seen the ruins of this kingdom. We know how little Derthsin cares for the people of Avantia.”

Affren and Raurk shared a glance. “You say you have seen combat already,” said Affren. “You’ve faced the varkules?”

Tanner nodded. “We have faced them and killed them,” he said.

“One of those creatures tore my brother apart,” said Raurk.

“Their Horse Beast trampled my wife,” Affren added, his voice cracked with anger and grief.

“Derthsin’s soldiers are wicked and cruel, but they are only people like you,” said Gwen. “They can be beaten.”

Tanner thought he saw the older man give a small nod, but Raurk still looked unsure. If he couldn’t win them over with persuasion, perhaps he needed to try something else. “See this red cloth?” he said, raising his wrist. “It belonged to someone dear to me. My grandmother. Derthsin’s army killed her without a thought. I fight for her. Fight for your wife, your brother — all those you have lost.”

Raurk’s expression hardened. “You’re right,” he said. “We can’t live our lives in fear.”

A few of those standing nearby mumbled their agreement, and pride flickered in Tanner’s chest. He addressed Affren. “So you’ll march with us against Derthsin? We’re heading toward the volcano near my village. I can guarantee his men will be waiting for us there.” With the location of the mask marked on their map, Tanner knew that their enemies would be headed toward it, too. Geffen had seen the map and would have shared all its secrets with General Gor.

The old man nodded firmly. “What do we have to lose?”

Tanner grinned. As he strapped his sword back around his waist, Gwen placed a hand on his shoulder. “With so many, we might just be able to get the final piece of the mask.”

Tanner looked at his friend grimly. “For all our sakes, I hope so.”