Convulsing, the man released Ellysetta and staggered back, beating fruitlessly at the unseen flames consuming his body from the inside out. Rain sent a red Fey'cha flying. His aim was straight and true, and the razor-sharp blade sank to the hilt in the man's right eye socket. Deadly tairen venom worked fast. The man barely twitched before he fell dead to the floor and his body burst into flame.

No death so swift and neat for the butcher's son, though. Rain smiled and pulled black. Nei, he vowed with grim pleasure, not swift, not neat, and definitely not painless.

The butcher's son took one look at the menace in Rain's eyes and leapt into the Well.

Free, Ellysetta raced to her mother's side.

Rain spun to face the Sulimage battling the quintet behind him.

"Rain, watch out!" Bel shouted. A hail of arrows came flying out of the Well.

Rain grunted as arrows sank into his shoulder, thigh, and back. Sel'dor set his flesh aflame. Snarling, he spun to the left and sent an incinerating blast of Fire into the Well. The pain nearly drove him to his knees. He roared a furious challenge over the echoes of the screams from within. "Fey, ti'Feyreisa!" he cried. "We've got company!”

Black-armored Eld soldiers poured out of the Well like bees from a disturbed hive. With them came two men wearing the deep blue robes and heavily jeweled sashes of experienced and very dangerous Primages.

"Mama." Desperate with fear, Ellysetta fell to her knees beside her mother. "Mama, hold on. I'm here." She started to pull the knife blade out of her mother's chest, but stopped before she touched it. Unless she could prevent the wound from bleeding, pulling that knife free would guarantee her mother's death.

Ellysetta attempted to summon healing magic, only to bite back a cry as the Eld's poisonous metal burned her flesh. Sobbing, she yanked out the remaining exorcists' needles and fumbled with the manacles. The metal scorched her fingertips. She found the button that retracted the spikes digging into her wrists, but she couldn't find the release catch. Where was the release catch?

She could feel her mother slipping away as the cold dark of death crept ever closer.

Rain spun a rapid series of five-fold weaves, trying to block the Eld from escaping the Well into the room, but there were too many. The Primages peppered his weaves with Mage Fire, ripping holes in his defenses. Eld soldiers raced through, black swords raised.

A shadow flew at Rain from his right. He spun on his heel and brought the Fey'cha in his hand slashing up to greet it. His eyes widened with surprise.

Gaelen grunted and plowed into him, knocking Rain off his feet just as Mage Fire struck the exact spot where he'd been standing.

"Thank me later," the former dahl'reisen quipped, patting Rain's cheek before jumping to his feet.

"Fool. I could have killed you.”

"With black?" Gaelen snorted. "Not likely." He pressed one hand to his side and wove green Earth to stem the flow of blood from the wound made by Rain's Fey'cha. With the other hand, he fired red Fey'cha in rapid succession at the enemy, bringing down the ones who'd gotten past Rain's defenses, then firing more lethal blades into the Well. Demons howled and swirled in a frenzy of hunger as blood poured from Eld wounds. Chilling screams filled the Solarus as demons consumed the dying. "Not that it was a bad strike," Gaelen added. "If you hadn't pulled back, you'd have pierced both liver and kidney. But black? In a fight? Your chatok should be ashamed.”

"It was red until I saw it was you." Rain thrust him aside and spun a wide five-fold weave to block a sizzling globe of Mage Fire. He grunted as the painful concussion vibrated up his arms. "Put your Fey'cha where your mouth is, vel Serranis. There are several hundred soldiers in there, and much as I'd enjoy a good forty-to-one fight, it's too risky with Ellysetta here. Time to end this dance." He intercepted a fresh volley of Eld arrows with a billowing cloud of Fire and shot three red Fey'cha at a small knot of Eld who'd broken through the left barrier. "Can you close that portal?”

Gaelen ducked a ball of Mage Fire and dug the curved end of a meicha into a soldier's belly, gutting him with one swift, brutal slice. "The Mages aren't powering anything, so there's got to be a selkahr crystal around here. A big one. Somewhere near the portal.”

"Try looking behind those two Primages and the sixty or so armed Eld beside them.”

Gaelen grinned. "I knew there had to be a sense of humor in you somewhere, Tairen Soul." He arched a brow "Keep the Mages off me?”

Rain met his gaze, humor replaced by somber promise. "I will.”

The former dahl'reisen's grin faded. He gave a short nod. "Beylah vo, kem’Feyreisen." Meicha in one hand, red Fey'cha in the other, he dove to the right and came up fighting.

The Mages had punched another hole in Rain's barriers. Soldiers were pouring through, scrambling over the bodies of their fallen comrades. Rain spun a whirling vortex of Air in their path. They screamed as it lifted them off their feet and flung them with shattering force to all corners of the room.

Behind him, a loud explosion shook the Solarus, and he heard Bel and the others cry out in surprise. He glanced over his shoulder. The Sulimage had knocked the quintet off their feet. A globe of Mage Fire grew bright in his hand. He flung it at Cyr, and the Fey died without a sound.

Rain threw red at the Eld's back, distracting him just long enough for the rest of the quintet to scramble to their feet. Bel lashed out with a four-fold weave. Kieran, Teris, and Kiel combined their weaves into thick ropes of magic and pummeled the Mage's shields.