The garm crouched, hind legs tightening as it prepared to pounce.

Khamsin swore a long string of inventively foul curses she’d learned from Krysti. There wasn’t even a hint of the lavender glow around her hands that preceded her ability to summon lightning. And the electrical charge she could generate without tapping into the power of a storm might have tossed a man off his feet but probably wouldn’t do much to a garm.

Still, it was all she had until the storm brewing in those clouds got going.

Kham focused the energy in her hands until sparks crackled and popped between her fingertips, then let it fly. The electrical charge zinged the short distance to the garm and zapped the creature in its nasal slits.

The garm yowled in surprise and vigorously shook its massive head. But instead of convincing the garm that Kham was more trouble than she was worth, the zap only seemed to anger the beast. Red eyes fixed on her with renewed malice.

She grimaced. Well, that wasn’t exactly the result she’d been hoping for.

The garm charged. Its gigantic mouth, with all those rows of jagged, dagger-sharp teeth, gaped wide. The long, curved claws dug into ice and gravel. The creature leapt, and Kham braced herself for the killing blow.

To her shock, in the middle of its leap, the garm suddenly and inexplicably froze. Literally. The furry body fell out of the air and slid across the frozen ground, crashing into her with a brittle crack. The jolt knocked Verdan Coruscate’s body to one side. Kham kicked free and scrambled to her feet.

Only then did she see the ice white spear protruding from the creature’s side and the young boy five yards away, bent over, hands on his knees, as he tried to catch his breath after throwing a spear more than twice his size.

The second garm, which had been stalking towards her, now fixed its scarlet gaze on Krysti and began to charge.

“Krysti, run!” she cried. He bounded for the closest tree while Kham dove for Roland’s sword. Her fingers closed around the sword grip. She rolled to her feet, and cried “Fire!” just as the garm shrieked.

Flames engulfed the sword. She swung at the garm with all her might. The searing blade of fire halved the garm’s body and cut off the cloud of freezing vapor in midexhalation. The small, abruptly terminated cloud of blue vapor wisped harmlessly away on a puff of wind.

“Well, that’s something you don’t see every day.” Krysti, who had leapt up a nearby tree with his typical agility, dropped back down to the ground and ran to her side. “I thought you were done for.”

“Me, too. If not for you, I would have been.” She pulled him close for a quick hug. “How did you get free?”

The boy grinned. “It’s a gift.”

Despite everything, she laughed. “A darned useful one, too.” She ruffled his head. “And the spear?”

“The Summerlander holding it was distracted when the garm attacked. I hit him on the head with a rock and took it. I figured we needed it more.”

Kham’s smile faded. “That we do.”

Together, they turned to face the carnage taking place around them. Screams and shrieks rang out from every direction, and blue vapor hung like a mist in the air. A knot of Calbernans were huddled back-to-back, throwing spears at a circling trio of garm. A group of Summerlanders were firing arrows on the run. And everywhere, the fallen were rising again, covered in ice.

“We should just leave them to the garm,” Krysti said. “They came here to kill us.”

“They came here because of Falcon and my father. I can’t leave them all to die.” Invaders the Summerlander and Calbernans might be, but there was no way she could just walk away and let the garm slaughter them. And not just because the fallen were rising again as ice thralls.

“They’d leave us in a heartbeat.”

“Perhaps. But that doesn’t make it right.” She took a deep breath. “Stay here. Find a place to hide.” She pulled Thorgyll’s spear out of the fallen garm and handed it back to Krysti. “Keep this. If the garm come back, use it.”

“I’m not letting you go off to fight garm without me,” Krysti protested.

“You’re not letting me do anything,” Kham snapped. Then she winced. She hadn’t meant to bark at the boy. “I’m sorry, Krysti. It’s too dangerous. I need to know you’re safe.”

“Safe? Do you see what’s out there?” Krysti pointed to a pack of ice thralls attacking two Summerlanders while a garm leapt up a tree in pursuit of a third. “I’m a million times safer near you and that sword. And you’re safer with me guarding your back.”

He looked so small, so young, holding a spear more than twice his size, but so determined and brave as well. She wanted to kiss him. More than anything, she wanted to keep him safe. But he was right. There was no such place in this forest. Not now.

“All right,” she conceded. “But don’t stick too close. My lightning is dangerous, and I really don’t know everything this sword can do.”

“Agreed.”

“Then let’s go.” Kham gripped Blazing in one fist and started running towards the knot of Calbernans battling the circling garm.

With Blazing in hand, the power that had tingled so tantalizingly out of reach when she was pinned beneath her father’s body now came in an effortless rush. It filled Khamsin and the sword in an instant, warm and revitalizing. Heat filled her and radiated out on all sides, melting the snow for six feet on every side. She seized the warm, moist air swirling around her and drove it up into the dry, cold winter skies above. Clouds blossomed and began darkening rapidly, and she laughed at the familiar cool, fresh, electric taste on the wind.