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do? Fight to the utmost of your ability so that he can commit acts despised by the Angels?”
    Unfortunately, not every one of the wyvern riders was riveted by his speech. One screamed at the top of his voice to alert his colleagues that a bewitched spear was on the ground and only a quarter mile away from the bell jar dome.
    Instead of attacking those who had spotted the bewitched spear and were now diving toward it, Fairfax set up a much more elegant defense. Drawing on her command of lightning, she constructed a moving tunnel of electricity through which the spear passed unmolested.
    A furlong. One-sixteenth of a mile. A hundred fifty feet. The spear came ever closer.
    Titus’s heart lodged in his throat.
    The tip of the spear struck the bell jar dome; the entire dome shuddered.
    The nearest pair of scouts yelled in jubilation and shot forward, only to be stopped by a barrier that was very much still in place.

CHAPTER 3
    â€œSHOULDN’T THE DOME HAVE DISINTEGRATED ?” shouted Fairfax.
    It should have, if Titus was right about blood magic having been applied to the spear.
    Of course.
    â€œBlood. I must put a drop of blood to the dome!” He fished for his pocketknife as he nudged his carpet forward.
    She reached the dome the same time as he did and set her hand on it too. He felt a thrumming sensation in his palm, and then nothing but air.
    Immediately he threw up a shield for her. She did the same for him—and not a moment too soon, as the wyvern riders aimed a barrage of spells at them.
    â€œYou should have been putting up shields for yourself,” he admonished her as they flew higher. “How many times have Itold you not to bother with me?”
    â€œWhat? And assume the shields you’ve set up for me aren’t strong enough? Besides”—she leaned over and rapped him on the head with her knuckles—“have you forgotten that there is no Chosen One? You are no less important than me in this—or anything else.”
    â€œI have not forgotten that.” He took her wrist and kissed the back of her hand. “I speak not for the mission, but for myself.”
    She sighed. “And what am I going to do without you?”
    For a fraction of a second, his prophesied death hung between them, a shroud that marked the end of everything. The next moment, she swung around and let loose a wall of fire.
    Ordinary fire could not harm dragons. The wyvern riders, however, still dodged instinctively. It was a good tactical move on her part, but a less sound one strategically: now the Atlanteans once again knew her exact location.
    But if anything, the wyvern riders drew back farther, the memories of the lightning-wielder’s prowess still too fresh.
    â€œLet no one escape!” came the clarion-like voice of the woman brigadier. “Reinforcement is almost here!”
    The latest squadrons of armored chariots were now visible to the naked eye.
    Kashkari came to a silent halt beside them. “The armored chariots are too high—the height they usually take to dispense death rain.”
    â€œCan our allies bring them down?” asked Fairfax. “I’ll be happyto provide lightning strikes again.”
    Kashkari shook his head. “Amara already asked. They said one battery of armored chariots was the most they could sink in a short amount of time. We’d better retreat into the base.”
    â€œWe should be all right with our face masks, shouldn’t we?” asked Fairfax as they made for the great escarpment to the east. The rebel camp had been carved out inside the escarpment, and the only access—that Titus knew of, at least—was a vertical fissure that ran down the front of the range.
    â€œFace masks would suffice against first-generation death rain. But lately we’ve been hearing reports that far nastier versions have been developed.”
    Fairfax glanced over her shoulder. “Look at the wyvern riders. Why are they not