The crimson witch

glass.
         Krater had not shielded against normal matter.
         The glass caught his cheek, broke, twisted into his flesh.
         Blood gurgled out of his torn face and down the wolfs hand.
         Krater disintegrated the glass.
         Lelar struck out with another magic fist.
         It bounced off the shield with a great display of blue sparks.
         Krater struck out with his own magics and knocked Lelar to his knees.
         Lelar threw up his own shield.
         By now, the crowd had realized what was in progress, and the dancing had stopped. For a few moments, the tooting and twanging of the orchestra continued. Then, as the Talented musicians saw what was happening, the music, too, ceased, and the great hall grew silent but for the whirring of the shields the two combatants had called into being.
         Lelar and Krater threw bolts of hissing energy at each other, but the shields deflected them every time, dispersed them upwards in showers of blue and white sparks that were flung dangerously close to the wooden beams.
         A squad of manbats entered the room, spears at ready, and backed Lelar, now and then jabbing senselessly at Krater with their weapons,
         Some of the watching Talenteds that had come from beyond the gorge now opened up with their powers to break down Lelar's shield.
         It flickered.
         The faint aurora disappeared.
         Krater leapt.
         He twisted a spear from the nearest mambat, turned and drove the point into Lelar's chest.
         But as Krater had healed his glass-slashed face, so Lelar healed his wounded chest as fast as the spear could rip.
         Lelar's talents came quickly to his rescue, breaking down Krater's shield so that both men were now unguarded.
         Krater's people drew their power away from Lelar and helped their leader form a new shield. But when this was done, it was obvious that Lelar and his Talenteds had done the same.
         Both men stood shielded, facing each other.
         The moon shone above.
        “ Get out!” Lelar roared. “The pack of you get -”
        
        Suddenly the dream was gone.
        But something remained.
        Jake shook his head, trying to think what.
        It was the manbats. They had been in the dream, and now they were here in reality!
        Cheryn screamed.
        There was a flutter of wings.
        Jake rose, his stomach suddenly oily and queasy. He was shaking all over, and a cold sweat had broken out down his back and across his forehead. There were three manbats-all with the legbands of Lelar-already on the ground, and an unknown number flapped noisily overhead in the darkness. He scrambled about, found his knapsack, and withdrew the knife that Kell had given him, the knife that had served him so well in his first meeting with the leathery killers. But before he could act on a single one of them, Cheryn had burned them in ball's of spitting green flame tongued through with orange. The manbats were gone. More were coming.
        Six others came out of the night sky, and drifting among them was a withered old woman in black leather and burlap drapings, the orange crest of Lelar across her robe.
        “A hag!” Cheryn shouted. “An experienced witch!”
        “Burn them!” I called to her.
        “I can't!” she shouted. “She is draining my powers… draining… them… until…”
        He crossed the distance between him and the Crimson Witch, brought his knife around on the neck of the first manbat that had just reached the girl. Blood fountained, and the beast went down kicking, snarling, its yellow fangs dripping saliva. “What is she doing?” he asked.
        “She knows more than… I… know. Her power… is greater.”
        “What can I-”
        “She means to capture me.”
        “I won't let her.”
        “You… cannot… stop her. Here… take this… to use… on… Thobs… You… will… need… it…”
        “What will she do with you?”
        “Take me… to Lelar.”
        “The Castle?”
        “Yes.”
        Another bat swooped in on him by surprise, raked claws up his back.
        It erupted in flames and was gone.
        “I thought-” he began.
        “I didn't,” Cheryn assured him. “The hag… did.”
        “But why?”
        “Here!” Cheryn insisted.
        A sword had appeared before him, a Thob sword, long and pointed. “You need not slash much… with… it,”