"What about Katie?" he asked.

I turned and looked across the field. Through the haze and smoke, I could see Katie struggling against Jean-Paul as he dragged her back to one of the choppers. Good girl, I thought, keep fighting the bastard.

I'd been so swept up in rescuing folks, taking down the next target, that I'd lost the ball. Time to rescue Katie, before it was too late.

"Save the wounded, protect the barn," I said to Stuart, and sprinted away from them.

"Come on, ladies," Stuart shouted. "Let's show Gunther what real warriors can do."

I glanced back, saw them sprinting back into battle, moving toward another knot of us holding our own against the onslaught.

"Black Briar's gonna rock your world," they sang, cadence and call.

They would be okay. They had to be.

Fifty-three.

I'D LOST COUNT OF THE FALLEN, BUT WE WERE NOT THE ONLY ones thinking on the field. Four giants and several trolls had followed our lead and were rallying together. Only this group followed the chaotic path of the remaining ogre. As I sprinted past, I saw them mow through four warriors who had taken a stand.

"Swords don't work against him," I growled. "Come on, people. Use your heads."

Of course they couldn't hear me. Hell, they were likely dead.

Stuart and his crew had taken down another troll and were dragging some of the wounded back toward the barn when I climbed atop a fallen giant to get my bearings. It was like walking on top of a mattress, but I needed the vantage point.

Katie was on the ground again, and Jean-Paul kicked her, shouting and waving Gram at her, holding the sheath halfway down the blade.

Why hadn't he drawn it?

As I got closer, I started seeing burning debris from the attack helicopter scattered across the field. Several bodies lay among the wreckage. I guessed one had been the pilot, based on the helmet he wore.

Jean-Paul looked around, like a hound catching a scent, and turned toward the copter that had delivered the giants. The pilot there had the blades spinning already. That one was earning his pay.

A sound rose in the distance, a clear high call. I glanced around. There it was again. Horns. Two horns blew, signaling . . . I stopped and looked back. Jimmy, Susan, Maggie, and Brendon thundered across the field, warhorses in full bardic armor, lances lowered and shields locked onto knees.

The knot of giants and trolls that were following the remaining ogre scattered as the lances ripped through them.

The four of them split two and two, banking around the crowd. They turned in unison, dropping their shattered lances. Susan and Maggie drew swords, Brendon and Jimmy horsemen's maces.

They came around for a second pass, the two men attacking the ogre as they rode by. Susan and Maggie ran down fleeing trolls.

Stuart's crew caught up with them and rushed in, cutting down one of the remaining giants. The battle had turned again.

Smoke covered the field, and the smell of petrol and burning flesh choked me as I ran for the first chopper.

A troll stepped in front of me, through the smoke. I nearly ran into the long bill-guisarme he'd managed to swing around in my direction. He was as surprised to see me as I him.

I smashed his weapon to the side, and the hooked bill snagged in the sleeve of my chain, ripping a gash into my arm and pulling me off balance. Instead of stepping back to catch my balance, I lunged forward, spinning to the outside. I brought a hammer up under the shaft, flipping it upward and out of his hands. The momentum brought me around for a solid strike, allowing me a chance to smash his right shoulder with my hammer.

He lumbered to the side, tripping over the pole arm, and sprawled facedown in the trampled grass of the field.

I leapt forward, smashing his right hip with my left hammer, and dropping onto his back with my knee, bringing the second hammer onto the back of his head.

Trolls have very thick heads, it seems, and spines that don't actually follow expected rules of physics.

I hurt him, there was no doubt by the way he shrieked, but he rolled aside, flipping me onto the ground, and was nearly upon me before I pulled my knees up and launched both feet into his chest.

Heavy mother, I thought, as I lifted him off the ground and deposited him to the left side, away from my right hammer. The left one lay on the ground five feet beyond our skirmish.

We were both on our feet at the same time, but he had taken more wounds. He dove forward biting at me, much to my surprise. I brought the hammer up, smashing the side of his face, and he fell.

I didn't have time to bother checking him. I limped over to my other hammer, picked it up, and hobbled after Jean-Paul, holding my side as breathing became more of an exercise in pain.

The breeze carried a thick waft of smoke away and I saw Jean-Paul punch Katie. She fell like a sack of flour.

"Katie!" I yelled, lurching forward.

Jean-Paul bent over and grabbed her in a fireman's carry. He glanced back at me and lumbered to the chopper. She didn't move.

Don't let her be dead, I prayed as I ran.

The chopper hovered just off the ground. The pilot had the blades spinning at full torque. Jean-Paul leaned against the frame, dropping Katie unceremoniously into the open bay. He slid the sword across the chopper floor, planted both hands on the edge of the door, and jumped in after her, shouting for them to go.

I wasn't going to make it.

He slid the door shut, watching me as I ran toward them.

They were barely off the ground when I caught up to them, but the chopper hovered fifteen feet in the air. I couldn't reach them.

I looked around, thinking I could climb on something and jump, when the sound of the chopper faded. It's not like sound stopped, it just faded back, the battle cries and the heavy beat of the dual blades. Instead, cutting through it all I heard the quiet chanting of Qindra once again. I could not see her in the smoke and chaos, but her voice sang in my head. "You know what to do, sister. Follow your heart."

The runes along my left calf flared to life, burning into me with the intensity of an acetylene torch. I buckled with the pain, dropping to my hands and knees for a moment.

A shard of metal lay on the ground near my hand. I snatched it, ignoring the blistering heat, and twisted around. I used the shard to split my left pant leg open, revealing the glowing runes. Here was my answer.

Using the metal shard, I was able to cut my hand, drawing a line of fire across my palm from thumb to pinkie. Not too deep, but blood welled up quick and dark. I bent, dragging the bloody hand down the length of my calf, feeding the runes with my lifeblood. Power surged into me. I rose, taking three loping strides, and launched the hammer into the air.

The chopper had swung around and was picking up speed when the hammer smashed against the rear rotor housing.

Smoke billowed from the rear motors, and the chopper twisted in the air, seeking stability.

I raised my bloody hand and wiped it across my brow. The painful clarity of all my mistakes, my near misses and could-have-beens, flashed through me. I did not need strength, I surmised. I needed accuracy.

I let fly the second hammer. This one arced high into the sky, only to fall back and strike the rising chopper near the front. I watched with held breath as the hammer smashed into the cockpit, shattering the window with a thunderclap. The echoing explosion blasted outward, knocking me to the ground, and flashing across the battlefield, leveling anyone lucky enough to be on their feet. Lightning exploded from the cockpit. I had to pray that somehow the chopper wouldn't completely fall apart. That I could somehow get to Katie in time.

I rose to my feet and stumbled after the smoking chopper. It didn't fall from the sky, but slid sideways across the tree line, the body spinning counter to the blade rotation.

I stopped at one of the dead pilots, ripped off a long swath of cloth from his flight suit, and wrapped my hand three times, clenching the ends in my fist. Blood soaked the cloth, but I felt no pain. Not yet, anyhow. I slipped the .45 out of the holster under his arm and awkwardly chambered a round.

I stumbled along, watching for the enemy, keeping the chopper in my peripheral vision. The wounded started getting to their feet, and the battles began anew.

Fifty-four.

THE CHOPPER SLICED ACROSS THE SKY. WHETHER GUIDED BY A dying pilot, or carried by the winds of fate, the huge machine veered back toward the battlefield and crashed with the horrid shriek of rending metal.

The front rotors smashed into the ground like cannon fire. Brendon Lord had been pushing Titan hard to get out of the way, but the chopper came in too quickly. Titan was smashed to the side by one of the blades and Brendon's mailed body flew toward the barn.

Several giants and trolls were either crushed by the body of the craft, or cut to pudding by the blades as they beat themselves into the ground.

Katie, dear God.

The wreckage was catastrophic. Could anyone survive that?

I ran forward, determined to pull that damn machine apart with my bare hands if I had to.

The chopper lurched upward, almost a bounce. Then lurched again.

On the third time, the doors on the top side exploded into the air.

The dragon erupted from the metal cocoon, large black wings unfurled, eighty feet from tip to tip. With a large sweep, they pulled hard against the night sky, launching the sleek, scaled body upward.

I raised the .45 and pulled the trigger. The first shot belched from the gun with an odd snapping sound. If I hit the dragon, I couldn't tell. He didn't slow. I pulled the trigger four more times, but the gun never fired again. I pulled the clip, and there were rounds there.

I'd lost the dragon, in any case. I tossed the pistol aside and rushed forward. "Katie!" I shouted, reaching the copter. I could see the dead pilots inside the shattered cockpit as I scrambled up over the wreckage.

I jumped, catching one of the front wheel wells, and leveraged myself upward. Climbing up the bottom of the chopper proved easier than one may think. From the damage, and the protruding bits, I managed to reach the peak and look over into the twisted ruin.

Katie lay crumpled in the bottom, against the far door. I grasped the lip of the opening and lowered myself as far as I could. I swung a little before loosening my grip, so as to not land on Katie.

The chopper shook when I landed. I was at her side in an instant.

"I'm here, Katie," I whispered.

She didn't move, so I sat on a smashed cabinet and stroked her face, crying. "You're okay, baby," I said. "I'm here."

Outside, the screams of the dragon echoed across the countryside, but they sounded tinny inside this shell.

"I'll kill the bastard," I whispered, feeling her for breaks and searching for life-threatening wounds.

She stiffened and I froze. "Katie?" I asked.

She lived, thanks be.

"Hey," she said, relaxing a bit and turning her head toward me. "You feeling me up?" She winced when she moved.

I laughed through the tears, a moment of pure joy.

"Anytime you'll let me," I promised.

"Liar," she said with a smile.

Things in my life had been murky. Shadows and hidden meanings. In that chopper, with the smoke and battle swirling around us, I finally understood the only thing that mattered. I leaned forward and kissed her forehead.

"I'm sorry," I said. "Sorry for everything-the fear, and the shame . . ." I trailed off, overwhelmed.

She watched me, not saying anything. After a moment she reached up and stroked the side of my face. "You're bleeding."

"It's nothing," I said, capturing her hand in my own. "I love you, Katie."

She smiled. "I know, you freak."

Of course she did.

"You are just stubborn, and pigheaded and afraid," she said.

"Is that all?"

"No," she said. "There is one more thing."

I waited, knowing that I had much to atone for in my fear and anxiety. "Only one?" I asked.

"Kiss me," she said.

I leaned forward and pressed my lips against hers. Her skin was ashen and her lips were split, but I touched mine against hers, gently.

"That's better," she said. "Can we go home now?"

I helped her sit up. She was covered in welts and bruises. He'd hit her, a lot, the bastard. I'd pull his wings off him, if I had the chance.

"Not sure how we are getting out," I said. "We could . . ."

Something large smashed against the top of the chopper. I looked up to see the dragon perched on top of us, his long neck craned down to press his narrow head into the doorway. He smiled, darted his head forward.

I dove over Katie, covering her with my body. She gasped as my weight pushed on her chest. Gnashing, foot-long teeth snapped together in the space I had just been in.

"Sorry," I said, pushing myself upward, and launched a full booted kick to the side of the dragon's head.