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tethered hands.
    Its wings buzzed to life, and it floated over to Samaz’s feet. A second tiny dragon, cherry colored, joined it. In seconds, the cords were cut and Samaz’s feet were free.
    The gnawing continued at her wrists. The cords snapped at her waist, and she freed her arms.
    The two continued to the cords on Rerry’s ankles. The boys woke, blurry eyes filled with wonder. The two tiny dragons sat in front of them and started marching toward the front of the cave.
    “What do we do?” Rerry whispered.
    The dragons stopped and turned. The red one let out a tiny roar then turned and marched onward again, straight for the guards at the cave entrance.
    Meanwhile, a third tiny dragon, cobalt in color, landed on one of Sasha’s metal gloves. It spat a glowing blue substance onto the metal, which dissolved.
    Before the tiny blue dragon even landed on her other hand, Sasha pressed her newly bared hand into the dirt. As she at last tapped into the world’s arcane energies, exhilaration rushed through her. After a while, she stood up and whispered, “Let’s go.”
    Silently, they crept toward the silhouetted lizardmen at the cave entrance.
    The tiny dragons buzzed in front of the lizardmen, who tried to shoo them away.
    Rerry sprang behind one, Samaz the other. Rerry slipped the lizardman’s sword from its scabbard and chopped it down. Samaz pounced on the other’s neck and choked it to the ground. It was quiet. It was quick. It wasn’t without notice.
    A bolt of power blasted into the cave rock, singeing Rerry’s hair. Sasha’s eyes locked on the lead acolyte. His head glowed, and his eyes blazed with fire. Lizardmen rushed up the slopes. Acolytes muttered and moaned. Sasha understood their ways. They channeled energy into the small, ghostly leader in plum robes.
    We’ll see about that!
    Raising her hands above her head, she flipped her fingertips out. Bright shards of blue light sprayed from her hands and cut through the mass of men. The leader howled in rage and flung an arc of power up the hill. It slammed into the three of them, lifting them from their feet and back into the cave.
    ***
    Dazed, Rerry shook off the blow and popped back on his feet. Steel swords from the guards filled both his hands, and he twirled them with grace and ease. Two more lizardmen arrived at the mouth of the cave.
    “Ah, what a pleasant surprise,” he said. “Dying lizardmen.”
    The lizardmen lunged with barbed spears.
    Rerry hopped high over them and struck, sinking his blades in one chest each.
    “So nice to meet you.”
    ***
    Samaz rolled past a lizardman’s lunging sword. Catching it by the wrist, he wrenched the blade free, cranked up the pressure, and broke its wrist. The lizardman’s large mouth of sharp teeth snapped at him. Samaz drove his boot heel into its jaw and laid it out on the ground.
    The second lizardman sliced at his head. Samaz crouched beneath the decapitating blade and launched both fists into the soft spot in the lizardman’s belly. The swords dropped from its hands, and its jaw fell wide open. Samaz roundhouse kicked it in the jaw and watched it collapse on its nose.
    ***
    Acolytes and lizardmen fell. The dragonettes swarmed. Bright sparks of lightning and lancing acid burned through robes and skin. Smoke from the red one caused sluggishness and confusion. Though tiny, their attacks were nevertheless a whirlwind of terror unleashed on evil.
    ***
    Sasha rushed down the slope with power-filled hands. The greasy acolyte greeted her with his own power. Mystic forces collided. Weak and starved, Sasha fell to her knees. The haunting man cackled.
    Sasha swayed on the ground and watched the man come closer.
    “I do have to keep you alive,” he said, “but only barely. Let’s have some fun, shall we?” He raised his arms in the air—
    Sasha sprang to her feet and locked her fingers around his neck.
    “Yes, let’s have some fun, shall we?”
    She channeled her sorceress energies. The veteran acolyte