A stunned silence fell. The general had left three soldiers--a man with a white mohawk, a girl with hair all in many tiny braids, and a large, rather upset griffin--standing at attention near the Cynn's chair. They had, Liya was surprised to see, done absolutely nothing to prevent the spear from killing the Cynn, or the fake Cynn, or whatever. Instead they were gaping at the sight of the spear, which had dropped against the chair's cushion, without the Cynn's body to hold it up.

There were a couple other people at the far end of the field, now murmuring nervously amongst themselves, wearing various expressions of disbelief. Yoshi let out a sigh of relief, whereas General Russett seemed completely and totally astounded by the soldiers' failure to do anything to defend the Cynn.

She actually sputtered for a moment, incandescent with rage, before bellowing, "REACT, YOU USELESS SHITS!"

The shout seemed to bring the red-headed man back round to reality; it seemed to be dawning on him that he was in trouble.

"Huh," Liya murmured, puzzled. The red-headed man snapped around to look at her, seeming to suddenly remember that she was there.

"You," he snarled, and before Liya knew it, he'd grabbed the front of her shirt and yanked her forward. "You're comin' with me."

He'd dropped the accent, and now wore one much more familiar. Liya resisted his pull, anger building in her chest--

Yoshi's hand wrapped tightly around the red-headed man's wrist; Liya hadn't seen him leave the General's side, but suddenly he was there very gently pushing her back behind him.

She stole a look at his face and felt any words she'd planned on die in her throat. His face had contorted into a snarl, showing his own rather pointed teeth. He was breathing smoke, a white smoke that wafted up into the lantern light.

She heard a hiss, like a fuse lighting.

With a terrific burst of heat and light a cloud of fire erupted from his mouth, engulfing the red-headed man in bright hot flames.