The Stormwatch turned to face the Muckpool, where dozens of malforms swam up to the surface. Grendel Pack…and others. Cerberus. Widow Mantis. They must have swam all the way from their respective lakes. Every pack, all fighting aside one another, all charging at their ancient enemy.

  “YOU TRIED TO TURN US AGAINST EACH OTHER,” shouted the Ogre Queen, emerging from the Muckpool. “BUT YOUR CRUELTY HAS UNITED US ALL AGAINST YOU.” Clinging to her shoulders and arms, a small swarm of Widow Mantis, who leapt onto their enemy from above. “NOW DESPAIR AT THE SIGHT OF A THOUSAND FANGS, AND SCREAM AS THEY TEAR YOU TO PIECES!”

  The Stormwatch were taken off-guard by this ambush, but their spears were charged and they released a volley of lightning, burning many of the Widow Mantis to a crisp.

  They then aimed for the Ogre Queen, but the temple filled with the beating of wings. Through the holes in the temple’s walls, Cerberus flyers swept in – the Fingerbird, Death’s Curtain, and some bizarre worm-like creature that flew in dizzy circles. They spat jets of liquid that caught fire in midair, roasting several soldiers alive.

  In the chaos, the flyers swooped down and dropped off their passengers – the Grendel and Cerberus malforms that couldn’t swim. Thyssa recognized two of them from her ill-fated trip home. The wheeled malform spun around the room to gain momentum, and rammed a soldier into the Muckpool, where they dissolved. The melty malform threw sticky blobs of its own flesh at the soldiers, gluing them to the ground, blinding them, or just distracting them with sheer disgust.

  All three packs were giving everything to fight the Stormwatch. Exile or not…Thyssa’s pack needed her. But so did Merryway. She stayed put, focused on the stones even as chaos raged around her.

  More Widow Mantis poured out from the Muckpool. Lightning slew them by the dozen, but they charged forward with no regard to their individual lives – loyalty to the Pack the only thing that mattered. They were joined by a large, crab-like malform from Cerberus Pack. Its armour protected it from the spears – but not from the lightning, and it collapsed in a smoking heap. The wheeled malform span around for another charge but was skewered by a spear.

  The packs were dying. Thyssa stayed with her patient – just a little longer and they’d pull through! “Come on, come on…”

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  The Fingerbird spiraled down and cracked open on the temple floor. One of Vlila’s tendrils sloughed off, suddenly visible and burnt to a crisp. Above all the cacophony, a deafening shriek of pain and fury as a volley of lightning hit the Ogre Queen. Across her body, awful burns. The temple was thick with the smell of her charred flesh.

  No more time! Thyssa checked with the Sapient Brain – the wound was still bad, still needed attention, but they could survive a while longer. Thyssa stuck both stones onto her necklace, drew the mirror shard, charged into the fray and stabbed a soldier in the back, the shard cutting right their armour.

  “Don’t turn your back on me, you worms!” she screamed, as she pulled out the mirror shard, covered in blood and bits of heart. “You fight my pack, you fight me!”

  Some of the Stormwatch turned to fight her, but she was boiling with hope and fury to see her pack again. With Benevolent Heart and Sapient Brain, she was perfected. She was fast as the north wind, fearsome as her reflection, and determined as a human whose family was threatened. She was everywhere at once, and so was her blade.

  The melty malform was cornered by three soldiers. Looked like it was out of spare flesh, its only weapon. Despair sunk into its rough features. “Grendel Pack is strong!” it yelled.

  “Grendel Pack is strong!” replied Thyssa, dashing forward and stabbed one of the soldiers. Just as they turned to face her, she beheaded another, and a tooth sailed through the air and pierced the other right through the heart. Thyssa looked to see the toothy malform give them a nod, then charge into a pitched battle. The melty malform slithered off into a hole.

  Spears aimed at her, but the Sapient Brain warned her of every strike and the Benevolent Heart gave her the grace to avoid it. Lightning kept hitting where she was a moment ago. The Stormwatch forged their minds and weapons to kill huge, lumbering malforms, not their own kind. They were making mistakes, and she punished each one with lethal precision.

  She was just pulling her blade out from one soldier when another tripped her to the ground, pinned her down with his foot. He raised his spear and was just about to impale Thyssa when the Ogre Queen picked him up and threw him into her mouth.

  Thyssa got up and looked for more enemies to face. But the few soldiers remaining were quickly torn apart.

  The Stormwatch was gone. The storm had won.

  Thyssa shrieked with triumph. “We won! We did it! We killed every last one of those bastards! We’re free!”

  She turned to face her mother. But the Ogre Queen’s fearsome face didn’t look triumphant. She was in pain.

  Thyssa looked up at her mother. “Mom?”

  The Ogre Queen collapsed to the temple floor, sending tremors throughout the room.

  “Mom!”

  Then one of the Cerberus Pack malforms dropped. Then another. Then the Widow Mantis, all at once. In a single breath, all the malforms in the temple were helpless on the ground, writhing in agony.