Ardala just kissed him, brief and hard and sudden. “Go, we do not have much time to save Faerie.”

He took a deep breath and walked out of the shadows directly towards the fanged clawed thing that was now crouched over the High King and was reaching for him with those continually mutating claws. “Hey!” The thing turned slowly, but it was turning away, leaving the other man intact.

“Child,” the thing’s voice was horrible to listen to, a chorus of ...