Free The Sword by Jean Johnson

her, or more likely by whatever spell the brothers were wielding against all the icky things in their home.
    The flow of creepy crawlies slowed to a trickle. Half a minute after they ended, one of the men came back through the courtyard at a slow stroll. It was the one with the hair so black, the lightglobe in her hands gave his locks only bluish highlights, nothing red. He had the same nose as Saber, long but not overly large, and the same stubborn chin, but his eyes were flat and dismissive as he glanced at her and continued walking without pause.
    He was the one who had sounded about as grumpy as Saber, claiming he wouldn’t catch her if she fainted. Kelly didn’t yet know his name; she didn’t know most of the brothers’ names, for that matter. But as he passed through the brightest reach of the light, she knew she wouldn’t forget him quickly. Not when his eyes were eerily as dark as his hair, surrounded by black lashes and fine black brows that were lowered slightly in a look that would have been very intimidating, if Kelly didn’t think he was just concentrating on his spell-casting. Well, she hoped that was why he was frowning like that.
    Clad in a black, long-sleeved tunic and equally black trousers, making his hands and his face pretty much the only things visible against the shadows of the night, the mage strolled past her. His arms were lifted, his palms facing out, a sense of energy like the looming of a storm about him, as he moved through the courtyard without a word to her. Kelly thought it was probably best not to disturb him by asking how much longer she would have to wait. The night certainly suited him; with his dramatic, contrasting coloring, she could almost picture him with fangs and a black, satinlined cape.
    That thought made her choke back a quick laugh, since he was still within sight and sound of her. Clutching the lightball to her stomach, Kelly shifted her weight in the cooling air of the courtyard. It was a long wait. She eased her feet on the hard flagstone underneath her and did her best to endure the whole thing as stoically as she could, waiting for someone to return and tell her it was safe to move.
    Only the moon kept her company now, besides the lightball in her hands.
    After a while, a glow above the outer wall off to the side caught her attention. Studying it, she finally figured out what it was. Amazed, Kelly watched as a second moon gradually rose, smaller than the first one shining its bluish light down from overhead, but clearly a moon that was three-quarters full. Switching her gaze back and forth between the two moons, Kelly didn’t give any further thought to any mekhada-whatsits the brothers might have missed. Those two moons were far more fascinating, and in a way far more alarming, than anything black and scuttly that an invisible wall was clearly protecting her from.
    She really was in another universe, on another world. She was, as the people of her world liked to say, definitely not in Kansas anymore. Glancing at the orb in her hands, glowing like a third, even more tangible moon, Kelly Doyle did her best to come to grips with what had happened to her.
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    T hankfully, someone had thought to open the upper windows of the donjon to let out the thick, roiling black smoke. Morganen, Dominor, and Evanor supported Koranen both physically and with metaphysical energy, as he concentrated his fire-based magic on his task. Saber, Trevan, Rydan, and Wolfer contained the beasts within a sphere-shaped shielding that kept the bugs in but allowed air and smoke to pass out, to keep from smothering the searing white core Koranen had created at the center of the hall.
    It was unnerving, watching those mekhadadaks snap and snarl and devour the rodents, snakes, and insects being compressed within, growing larger and dumping new versions of themselves. Within an uncomfortably short stretch of time, it was mostly mekhadadaks, and very shortly after that, just the