Shield

No! thought Jodah. We were so close! But that was the last thought he had as the ground itself surged up around them and turned against both friend and foe. The moor fiends howled as molten pits opened beneath their feet, and Kjeldorans wept and fled the field as they saw their comrades scalded to death. Avram disappeared in a roil of dirt, a horizontal avalanche, and Varchild with him.

With the eruption came a great force of detonation. Jodah reacted automatically, throwing one more spell around him and clutching it to him tightly, like a cloak. The explosion pressed through him, scattering those around him, but leaving the archmage untouched, if dazed.

Jodah curled himself up into a ball as the wave passed over him. When he looked up, he was alone, a barren patch of dirt between him and the base of the black pyramid. Standing on the lowest step was Lim-Dûl, magical energy still vanishing from his palms.

***

The Eternal Ice, Chapter 15