Free Ghost Dagger by Jonathan Moeller

mind here, and blame the deaths upon you." 
    "Brave words," said Caina. "Are you bold enough to act upon them?" 
    In answer, Helena flung the massive black spear.
    She stood hundreds of yards away, yet the spear shot across the valley with incredible speed. Caina threw herself to the left, moving as fast as she could. She knew how fast her legs could take her in the waking world, but her, in this strange dream, her thoughts threw her forward terrific speed.
    The spear slammed into the ledge where Caina had been standing, and the black cliff exploded into a billion jagged shards of ice. The ledge disintegrated beneath Caina's boots, and she jumped, soaring over the valley like a stone fired from a catapult, her shadow-cloak billowing behind her. 
    She plunged down, daggers angled to stab.
    Helena turned and sped away. 
    Caina thrust both of her boots down, imagining the ice beneath her shattering.
    She struck the valley floor...and the sheet of black ice exploded for a hundred yards in every direction. The mountains echoed with the terrible cracking noise, and a shock wave of jagged ice swept through the valley. The blast knocked Helena from her feet, sent her sprawling with a clang of black armor.
    Caina snatched a throwing knife from her belt. Her throwing knives could not penetrate steel plate, but she imagined the knife glowing white-hot, a shard of molten metal to rip through Helena’s armor like paper. The knife smoked in her hand, and Caina flung one blade, and then another. Helena scrambled back to her feet with a curse, and the first white-hot knife screamed past her, leaving a melted furrow in the icy ground. The second clipped Helena’s shoulder, shattering the armor plate and staggering the older woman. 
    Caina shot forward, thunder booming her wake, daggers angled for Helena.
    But Helena stomped her armored foot. The entire valley shook again, more shards of jagged ice raining from the broken cliffs. Caina stumbled and lost her balance. Helena gestured, her face straining with concentration. 
    And the cliffs and mountains of black ice transmuted into walls of bubbling lava. Hellish light filled the valley, the heat striking Caina like a blow. The cliffs and mountains melted, a towering wall of lava rushing towards her. 
    “Burn!” shouted Helena, and she jumped, vanishing into the storm clouds overhead. 
    Caina watched the sea of lava surge towards her. How to escape the lava? She couldn’t outrun it, and in a matter of moments the entire valley would drown beneath liquid stone.
    The answer occurred to her.
    If Helena could fly, then why couldn’t she? 
    Caina sprang into the air, soaring over the lava as it swallowed the valley whole. She stabbed into the clouds, her shadow-cloak snapping and billowing behind her. Lightning snarled and flashed overhead, and she caught a glimpse of Helena flying through the clouds.
    Caina willed herself towards the black-armored woman.
    Helena pointed, and a dozen lightning bolts shot into Caina. The blasts sent her spinning head over heels. Agony erupted through her, her arms and legs twitching of their own volition. Caina felt herself tumbling back towards the seething ocean of lava. 
    But the pain wasn’t real.
    Her descent stopped. 
    Caina willed herself back towards the clouds. Helena pointed again, but this time Caina was ready. The lightning bolts struck her and rebounded, deflected by her thoughts. Caina rose above the clouds, lightning flashing below her, and a dark and empty sky rising above.
    She saw the clouds ripple as Helena flew through them, like a fish swimming through murky water. 
    If Helena could change the black ice to burning lava…then why couldn’t Caina do the same to the clouds?
    She concentrated, focusing on the writhing clouds below her.
    And all at once they transmuted from cloud to earth. The city of Malarae rose up beneath Caina, rows upon rows of mansions and warehouses and tenements and docks. If Caina guessed right, Helena was