Something closed around his waist, and his body jarred to a halt. He tried to open his eyes, but the heat seared his eyeballs. The bitter stench of singed hair filled his nostrils, and he realized it was his own. Then Tanner felt himself being lifted away from the lava. His hands found Firepos’s talons, and he managed to look up and see the feathered belly of his Beast.
Firepos turned in the air, and Tanner saw Derthsin crouched at the edge of the platform, his head in his hands as he looked at where the mask had fallen. Castor and Gwen waited on their Beasts, watching with their weapons brandished as Anoret peeled her second leg loose from the rock face.
“The mask is gone!” shouted Tanner from Firepos’s claws. “It’s over, Derthsin!”
The evil lord stood up and gathered his scarlet cape around him. The scars on his face glowed livid pink as rage pulsed through him.
“It’s not over until you die!” he roared, casting a bolt of black flame toward Tanner. Firepos shifted in the air, dropping a fraction, and the beam slammed into her wing. She shrieked and threw Tanner clear. He landed in a heap on a rocky ledge and watched in horror as the flame bird fluttered erratically, fighting to stay aloft with her damaged wing half extended. She managed to reach the ledge and sank down beside him, her eyes wild with pain.
“Firepos!” said Tanner, trying to see the wound.
It’s nothing, she said.
Tanner knew from the way her body sagged on one side that she was lying. “Let me see,” he said.
But when he tried to reach toward her, she moved away.
My wing is broken, replied his Beast. There’s nothing to be done.
“But there must be something …” Tanner began, trailing off as he realized the flame bird spoke the truth. A feeling of grief, hard as a punch, landed in the pit of his stomach.
Tanner’s voice caught in his throat. “It’s because I drank your blood, isn’t it?” he said hoarsely. “You can’t heal yourself anymore.”
Firepos’s eyes were soft, and she stroked his cheek with the side of her beak.
Tears welled up into Tanner’s eyes. If the flame bird couldn’t fight, she had no chance of surviving at all.
“I won’t let this happen!” he shouted.
The Fates decide, said Firepos.
With a draft of his leathered wings, Gulkien dropped onto the ledge beside them, sniffing at Firepos’s feathers. Nera pounced up, too, nudging the flame bird with her muzzle.
“Thought you might need this,” said Castor, handing Tanner his sword.
“Firepos is injured,” said Tanner, stroking the downy feathers above her beak. “She can’t fly.”
Across the cavern, Anoret roared, smashing the ground with her tail in an effort to pull free her arm.
“We don’t have long,” said Gwen. “We have to fight, Tanner.”
The flame bird cawed softly and pushed Tanner away with a gentle shove of her beak.
“What are you doing?” asked Tanner, as she raised herself up weakly.
What I must, she replied, turning to face Derthsin.
“No!” shouted Tanner. “You can’t!”
But Firepos pushed herself off the ledge, keeping herself aloft with her one good wing. Derthsin grinned and raised his arms as she angled her talons forward.
“It’s time to finish what we started, all those years ago,” said Derthsin. “Time you suffered as I did.”
Firepos’s eyes glinted with newfound determination, but Tanner could hardly bear to watch. She sent him a final message:
Farewell, my Chosen Rider. You will always be with me.
She dove at Derthsin as he fired a black beam. It caught her in the middle of her gleaming breast feathers, blasting her across the cavern. Tanner saw the light fade from the flame bird’s eyes as she fell into the lava. Her body sank beneath the surface.
Tanner rushed forward, arms outstretched and mouth gaping wordlessly. He felt Gwen and Castor grip his shoulders to pull him back, and struggled against them.
“No! No! Please!” he choked.
“She’s gone,” Castor muttered.
Tanner’s knees buckled and he collapsed, his chest racked with sobs. This can’t be happening, he thought. Firepos can’t be dead.
Derthsin’s cackle made him wipe his eyes. “We have visitors!” said the evil lord.
At the entrance to the cavern Varlot stamped into view, his chest heaving, his armor gouged and stained with dried blood. At his back stood a clutch of soldiers, escaped from the battlefield outside. Two rode snarling varkules.
The evil Beast’s eyes fell on Derthsin. In his low growl, he said, “My master … General Gor is …”
“I felt his spirit perish,” sneered Derthsin. “He has let me down for the last time.”
With a crunching sound, Anoret finally tore free from the rock face. Her eyes swiveled onto Derthsin, and for a moment, Tanner saw fear in the sorcerer’s eyes. The men behind Varlot cowered in terror.
Anoret lumbered across the cavern in giant strides until she towered over Derthsin. Her thick tail swayed menacingly back and forth and her dark blue skin gave out an eerie glow.
The giant Beast looked first at Derthsin, then at Varlot, and finally at Tanner and his friends.
“Now the mask is destroyed, whose side will she take?” whispered Castor.
“We can’t wait to find out,” said Gwen, gripping Tanner’s shoulder to pull him up. “We have to fight!”
Tanner shook his head. “Fight who? What’s the point? Firepos is dead.”
Gwen’s hand caught his face in a slap, jolting him to his senses. “Firepos is dead, but you still have us. Don’t let her death be in vain.”
Tanner was glad the flickering light of the lava concealed his deep flush of shame. “You’re right,” he said. “Let’s finish this!”
Tanner gripped his sword and jumped down from the rocky ledge. He ran at Varlot, screaming a war cry. Varlot lifted his own blade and slashed sideways. Tanner dropped into a roll and came up beneath him, slicing through the tendons of one stocky ankle. Varlot tipped back his head in a snort of pain and toppled sideways.
A shadow fell over Tanner, and his eyes climbed the massive shape of Anoret. Tanner ducked as a hand swooped down. He darted between the giant Beast’s legs and turned to see her clutching a varkule in one hand, its rider hanging from the stirrups. As if they weighed nothing, Anoret threw them the width of the cavern. They crunched against the far wall and slid to the ground, leaving a bloody smear. Tanner’s stomach felt hollow with fear. This Beast is crazy with grief…. He’d sensed Firepos appealing to her, and Anoret had ignored the flame bird.
A hiss made Tanner’s head snap around, and a shape darted from the wall.
Falkor!
The serpent Beast slithered quickly across the ground and wrapped himself around Anoret’s leg, closing his coils tightly. The mighty Beast clawed at his scales, pulling herself free with one claw. Falkor raised his body upward, darting his fangs at Anoret’s face, but the larger Beast hurled him casually aside.
Nera stalked forward bravely, growling at Anoret. She crouched on her haunches, ready to spring, but the giant Beast swung her massive tail and swept her legs away.
“Nera!” shouted Castor, breaking off from where he clashed with three soldiers, sword on sword, near the entrance to the cavern. Blood seeped from a wound high on his arm.
Tanner twisted to see Gulkien rake his claws into the remaining varkule, but an enemy soldier drove a pike deep into the wolf’s hindquarters. Gulkien snarled and kicked the soldier away, but the pike remained, jutting from his side.
This is getting desperate, thought Tanner, plunging his sword into a soldier. As he did so, he saw Derthsin aim a bolt of fire toward him. With the blade still lodged in his enemy’s torso, he twisted around, shielding himself with the dying soldier. Flames exploded over the body and Tanner backed away, yanking his blade free. We’re all going to die down here unless we get out soon.
Two more soldiers approached him, eyes gleaming with bloodlust. The first lunged in, and Tanner smashed his blade away, then swung wildly at the other. Tanner was panting, his sword arm like lead. The soldiers smiled, moving in as one.
Suddenly, the lava in the crater hissed. All faces turned as a shower of fiery sparks burst from the surface. The soldiers in front of Tanner seemed to forget about him and cowered in fear. Even Derthsin lowered his arms and peered into the flames. Tanner saw a shape forming beneath the lava. Two wings …
“What is it?” gasped Gwen.
Firepos’s golden beak shot from the molten rock, followed by her body, plumage afire. Flames flickered and dripped off her feathers as she climbed majestically from the lava. Her sparkling talons clutched the Mask of Death. She flew in tight circles, climbing higher and higher, sending down a shower of sparks from her feathers.
Tanner watched, his jaw hanging open. She swooped toward him and with a cry of triumph scooped him up in a claw and flung him onto her back so that he nestled between her feathers. Immediately she soared higher again. Tanner had thought he’d lost his companion forever; now he watched over the crown of her head as they flew together. He could feel his heartbeat settling into the same pattern as hers. Reaching down her side, he felt beneath her wing. The old scar had gone.
“That’s why you needed to come here!” Tanner called out to her. “You had the power to be reborn!”
So the phoenix emerges from the flames, her voice boomed, strong inside his head. So life begins again. Justice will find the Mighty.
With a screech of triumph, Firepos flew down and Tanner scrambled off her back. She dropped the mask from her beak. Instinctively, he held out his hands to catch it, only realizing too late that it would be red-hot.
But it wasn’t! The mask felt oddly cool in his grasp and seemed to quiver beneath his fingers. Delicious power crept up his arms, seeped across his chest, and wrapped itself around his heart.
Gwen rushed to his side. “Tanner, put it on!”
He turned the mask over in his hands. The skin across his face tingled, and all the aches and pains across his body seemed to fade away, leaving only a sense of raw energy, almost too much to take. “I don’t know if I should.”
“Put it on now!” yelled Castor.
Tanner tore his eyes from the mask and saw his friends’ anxious faces. Beyond them, Anoret had turned her red gaze on him. The Beast’s eyes settled on the mask, and with a growl, the huge Beast stepped toward them. Tanner and his friends retreated until their backs met the wall of the cavern.
“She looks angry….” said Gwen.
Derthsin strode toward Tanner, his arms outstretched and his cloak whipping behind him. “The mask is mine!” he roared. “Give it to me!”
Tanner made his choice. He lifted the mask to his face.