In The Beginning by Gail Daley (top 100 books of all time checklist .TXT) 📕

Maegan looked at him in wonder. He sounded excited, almost eager for the battle to be joined. This was the first time she had been teamed with Aron for this kind of Magi action and his emotion was contagious. She felt an answering stir of excitement.

Because she had proven the more skilled with the avatars, it was Maegan who created the Messenger announcing the invasion through the pass. Once the bird had been sent off, she turned back to Aron. "I need to be closer to use the ice crystals."

He nodded. "Yes, so do I. It will take them another day to reach the point in the pass where it will be easiest for me to start an avalanche. The place which will give us the best advantage is those rocks at this end of the pass. I'll give the order to saddle the unicorns if you can see to packing up a tent in case we end up staying overnight up there."

Remembering the debacle with the sloop, she asked, "You won't shake a pile of snow down on us, too will you?"

He grinned at her. "No, you'll be safe enough."

The next morning the Messenger avatar from Ironlyn found them perched on Aron's rocks watching the troop move through the pass. When the bird spoke, Maegan recognized Kenwyn's deft touch. "They have attacked the Keep. Make sure this bunch doesn't get past you. Good luck and good hunting."

"Ready?" Aron asked, reaching for her hand.

"Yes," she said. Their joined hands enabled them to pull more strongly on the Wards. Megan could feel the earth under her feet as a living thing. She could feel Aron feeling for unstable areas of the ground. Her affinity for ice and snow helped her to find the same weaknesses in the snow pack above where the troop was moving. As their talents blended, a surge of adrenaline fueled lust filled her. She glanced at him sideways. Not much of his body could be seen under the thick layers of winter clothing, but she promised herself she would find out when they were done here.

When Aron fed power into the unstable areas of the rocks, she did the same with the snowpack. Down below, the men felt the ground begin to shake under their unicorn's hooves. The animals reared in panic and tried to run as the men fought to control them. Slowly, almost delicately, the massive weight of snow above them began to slide, gradually increasing the speed of its fall. When it finally filled the pass, men and unicorns were nowhere to be seen. They had been buried under a mountain of snow almost fifteen feet deep.

When the snow came down, Serle desperately formed a protective bubble of air around himself and tried to push upward. The weight of the snow was tremendous, requiring more and more power to hold it's weight off his body and still push upward. He reached for the Leys, cursing when he realized their weakness. He wasn't a strong Magi like the Mabinogions and the force bubble he had created thinned and shrank. It gave out just as his reaching hands found cold air. The freezing cold struck him like a blow from a fist. By the time the icy air left in the pocket of snow dissipated, his protective bubble was gone, and hypothermia had put him to sleep. He never knew when he breathed his last.

"We did it!" Meagan exclaimed softly. Aron grinned and pulled her into his arms for a wild kiss. He knew they would need to check for survivors, but like Maegan, the craving to satisfy the lust stirred by their combined talents was too strong to resist.

That afternoon, Aron and Maegan found Serle's frozen hand sticking out of the snow. They removed the ornate ring on it and sent it to the Keep with Messenger they used to report their success in stopping the invasion through the pass.

It had been too cold on the mountain to do much more than exchange kisses, so Aron and Maegan had to wait until they returned to their cozy house to indulge their mutual desire.

Sword of Ironlyn

WHILE SERLE AND THE men he led were being smothered by an avalanche, the Shahen and his council had begun an attack on Ironlyn itself.

The Wards had created a protective wall, but Magi Sandman and his cohorts had simply lifted their fighters over it and dropped them on the top of Ironlyn's cliffs. The fighters were attempting to navigate the rugged terrain across the top to descend and attack the keep from the inside. Andre looked grimly at the screen showing the Shahen's army moving across the top of Ironlyn's cliffs and told Rebecca, "I need to make a sword."

"A sword," she repeated. "Why?"

"A sword has many uses, Rebecca. Just trust me on this."

"Well, you know how best to fight them. Nicos said the Wards could be used to create any weapon you wanted."

"How do I do it?"

She frowned, trying to remember what Nicos had said about controlling the Wards. "Draw your sword," she said. "I think you will find it more natural to use the Wards as a sword if you are holding one."

Obediently, Andre drew his sword, holding it as if for battle.

Rebecca put her hand on his shoulder. "Now reach into the Wards, and think of them as your sword."

The connection to the Wards flowed from her to him, and there appeared on the viewer showing the cliff top, an enormous, gleaming sword stretching half the width of the precipice. The previous Defenders, and master wizards who designed Ironlyn's Wards had captured the energy in the converging Ley Lines to power them. They had been scientists and scholars, not men of war. They couldn't have dreamed of using the captured power in the spells defending Ironlyn in the way Andre intended.

"Swing the one in your hand the way you want the other to move," Rebecca directed.

Doing as she bid, he found the sword in his hand