People screamed, beasts roared, and the ice chandelier burst into hundreds of pieces. Breaker did his best to steer the shards safely away but many still fell among the village folk. The explosion had taken him by surprise, and he searched among the changelings for the woman responsible as he fought the swell of the crowd. Panicked villagers raced by him on both sides. He bladed his body and pressed through the throng, hazel eyes vigilant.

The beasts reverted to their true forms and attacked the aggressors. A snarling wolf seized the throat of the sorceress who caused the explosion. She let out a bloodcurdling scream, killing the wolf with a lick of magefire even as two of its brethren swarmed to finish her off. A young warrior with twin short swords fell to the claws of a mountain lion, his blades carving furrows in the beast's flanks. An older man sighted along the ridge of his crossbow, only to have the small Fae who had danced with Myra fling a pair of ice chunks at his head. The mercenary ducked out of the way, but the moment's distraction was all the saberlioness needed. She struck like lightening, long fangs piercing the man's narrow chest as he cried out in surprise.

Too much death, Josh thought as he broke free of the panicked masses and summoned more snow from the banks bordering the square. I would do away with all this killing. Tightly packed snowballs whizzed at the remaining animals, with enough sting to send them running. Josh came face to face with Myra herself as he dispatched of her followers. The saberlioness' fangs dripped crimson, her great golden eyes bulging with ferocity.

"You are no longer welcome here," Josh told her, "leave now, or one of us will die today."

The saberlioness reared up on her hind legs and changed. Her fur molted and vanished, leaving the body of the Scarlet Dancer, but the head and face of the great beast remained.

"As you wish," she said in a guttural voice, "but this lively one comes with me." She seized the little Fae in her arms and, giving Breaker a final growl, fled after her companions.

Breaker breathed in and out. Blood and singed fur spoiled the air. All around him people moaned and sobbed as they tended to injuries caused by the blast and the feral beasts. His students mingled among the townsfolk, helping the wounded and calming the worried.

"What happened here?" Asked Saza as she bandaged the neck of a man who'd been attacked by a snow owl.

"I hesitate to hazard a guess," Breaker replied, and yet he had some idea. He strode to the center of the square, where bodies of people and animals alike littered the cobblestones, and checked the sorceress' pulse. She was long dead. A cursory look confirmed that her two male companions had joined her in the afterlife. Wasn't there a fourth? Josh wondered, I could have sworn I saw a young man with a silver sword attacking...

A groan emanated from beneath the bulk of the dead bear.

Josh grabbed two handfuls of fur and muscle and heaved the great beast sideways. Beneath it lay a pale faced youth with amber eyes, his silver sword still clutched in one hand. Alive.

"What," Breaker asked, offering a hand to help the man up, "did you hope to accomplish here?"