The circle of light hadn't finished fading before Edric was moving.
He crossed the distance towards Lady in Dark in less than a second, his robes snapping behind him, the air around him already alive with the deep green light of his affinity.
He had identified her in the same instant he'd arrived. There was no way the hooded figure standing over Cecilia in the center of the chaos with the dragon at her back wouldn't be the leader of this attack.
But he never reached her.
The adult dragon moved to intercept, dropping between them with an impact that shook the ground. It opened its mouth and fire erupted outwards, white-hot and wide enough to swallow three men standing side by side.
Edric threw his hand up.
Trees burst from the earth on both sides of him, their trunks swelling in seconds to the width of houses. The fire hit the wall of wood and poured around it, scorching stone and melting the edges of the broken ground, but the trees held.
