An instant later, the sensation stopped.
Alyssad smirked and gave her a nod.
They were no longer in a dark room beneath the castle.
Gray clouds lingered overhead, drizzling a light rain on Katsi’s head. An expanse of green forest stretched around them, and they stood beside a large, gray boulder, speckled with green moss.
“What?” Katsi said. The rock she’d been holding had disappeared, but Alyssad stood across from her, staring into her eyes with deep scrutiny.
“We’re in Habkamal. It was a sophisticated enchantment,” Alyssad said. “I can explain more later, but right now we need to hurry if we’re to save the people. Are you ready?”
Katsi blinked, patting her body, wishing she had her stormwading armor on. She shuffled her feet and looked around again before nodding to Alyssad. “Alright.”
Alyssad took off at a run, heading away from the sun. Katsi hurried after him, connecting with the air and pushing it along so she could easily keep pace with his loping stride.
Something felt off. There was a din in the distance, like a storm, or an avalanche. Her skin tingled. Magic was at work, but it offered no comfort like that of the Maedari. Instead, this one made her spine crawl.
As they got closer, the din became clearer. They were screams.
Sleet and sand.
Alyssad didn’t tire beside her, he kept sprinting at full speed, though Katsi was tempted to zip on ahead, she stayed with him until they broke out from the edge of the forest. A small incline led up to several dozen stone buildings, huddled together for protection. From there came the screams.
One person broke out from the line of buildings and dashed down the hill towards them, arms flailing, eyes wide. “Shamans!” he screamed as he ran past them, not even realizing that Katsi was flying a foot off the ground.
A deep growl emanated from Alyssad’s throat as he drew his shimmering longsword without breaking a stride. As they finally crested the hill, Katsi dropped to her feet and maneuvered around the building behind Alyssad. Despite her varied experience, she was not a trained warrior.
Alyssad slowed his pace, pulling a black veil over the lower half of his face. His eyes were dark and intense. He looked just like he had when she first met him.
A few dead bodies littered the ground. They looked like they had been torn apart by rangolas. Katsi forced the gruesome details from her mind. Four waheshi were herding a couple dozen people into a group while a person shouted at them. “Come with us, and nobody else has to die,” the voice said. A few other people stood with him.
“Kill them, Katsi,” Alyssad said, turning his frightful gaze on her. “Show them their time has come. End it before they hurt anybody else.”
Katsi clenched her jaw. She knew immediately what to do. She burst into the air, shifting the wind beneath and above her, feeling energy and power rippling around her. Focus on the end result. She looked down at each waheshi as she channeled the energy. A deep breath filled her lungs as lightning trembled overhead. Her hair rose around her as she surged with energy. She directed it downward.
Some of the shamans below noticed her, eyes widening.
Katsi’s body shook as lightning streamed down in blinding flashes of white and deep red. The air exploded with cacophonous thunder, drowning out all other sound. Debris burst into the air, whether from her or from the other shamans, she couldn’t be sure. Her muscles strained as she maintained the connection. Every nerve was gripped with channeling the lightning in concentrated streams. She tried to focus on the end result like Adrina taught her, but the lightning flowed erratically, sometimes flashing out to surrounding buildings. The flow of lightning lasted several seconds before it stopped with a final flicker, leaving Katsi’s vision dulled with a dark green afterimage.
She blinked rapidly to clear her eyes, barely noticing a massive boulder bursting toward her. She dodged to the side, not even considering the possibility of somebody remaining to attack her.
Alyssad ran in from below, his body dimly visible through the dirt cloud that had been tossed up. His bright blade flashed as he hacked away at the remaining shamans.
Katsi pressed the dust back to the ground with her magic, revealing the carnage that remained. All four waheshi lay motionless on the ground, their bodies steaming. And the people, they were prone as well, save for three of them that were running away.
What had she done?
Alyssad’s rumbling voice pierced through the ringing in her ears. She blinked down at him as he butchered the remaining shamans. They barely stood a chance as they struggled to ward him off with their weapons. He deftly dodged around any attempt of theirs to use magic to throw stones at him.
Katsi lowered herself slowly towards them, struggling to keep herself from staring at the multitude of bodies that littered the scene. The ground still hummed with lingering energy, as though the lightning was barely contained beneath the surface.
Some of Alyssad’s words finally came through clearly as he bellowed. “Move them!”
Move who?
“Katsi, move the people. Hurry!”
Move the bodies? Perhaps they were still alive. She just needed to get them away from the energy that pulsed through the ground. She took a sharp breath and made a quick gesture with her hand, raising the dirt just beneath each person. Her armlets already burned, but the pain was meaningless as she became intent on saving the victims. She lifted each body with the dirt and shifted them over to the edge of town, away from where the lightning had struck.
Her ears popped as she flew over to the bodies she’d brought together. There were twenty of them. What could she do? Was there a potion for helping those who’d been struck by lightning? Would stormcaller magic be able to help them at all?
“Who led you here?” Alyssad’s voice rang through the open space like its own crack of thunder.
Katsi looked over. Alyssad’s veil had fallen down around his neck. He’d slaughtered all of the shamans. All but one, and this final man had lost both his hands defending himself against the angry emperor.
“It’s already over,” the man cackled.
Alyssad squeezed the man around the neck and breathed a laugh. “You’re right. It is.” With a quick jerk, the man fell in a heap. The sneer on Alyssad’s face vanished as he saw Katsi watching him. He sprinted toward her, turning his eyes to the bodies.
“What do I do?” Katsi said, feeling helpless as she looked down at them. She hadn’t intended for this to happen. They weren’t supposed to get hit by the lightning. Why had it been so erratic? Shouldn’t it have been as simple as funneling the streams of water into different bottles? Perhaps it was too powerful. It was too much energy moving too swiftly to be controlled.
Alyssad dropped to his knees beside one of the bodies. “Get to another one. Repeat with me.”
Katsi did so, acting with all haste as she went and kneeled beside a woman. She faced him, mimicking his motion as he placed both hands over a man’s chest and pumped down.
“Press hard. Lean into it,” Alyssad said.
Katsi hesitated at first but took confidence as Alyssad kept at it.
