After several compressions, Alyssad paused and plugged the nose. “Don’t hesitate,” he said before placing his mouth over the man’s and breathing in, doing so twice before returning to compressing the chest.
The man gasped for air and blinked up at them.
“I’ll get the men,” Alyssad said, moving to the next.
That was all the encouragement Katsi needed. She kept at it until the woman she was helping finally started breathing.
“Sleet and sand,” Katsi muttered. Alyssad had already helped revive three more.
“Help the others,” Alyssad ordered those who’d been revived. A couple of them dazedly started to repeat his actions.
A woman came from around the houses and immediately started helping, no questions asked, but a look passed between Alyssad and the new arrival. Perhaps the two of them already knew each other.
“What happened?” Katsi hissed at Alyssad. Her senses were returning after the initial shock.
His dark brows furrowed as he regarded her. “We did what we could. If we hadn’t, everyone here would be dead. Or worse.”
“What’s worse than being dead?” said the first woman Katsi had revived.
“Becoming one of those monsters,” Alyssad said. “That was what those people were after.”
“Grimy shaman monsters,” said one of the men.
“It was a shaman that just saved your life,” Alyssad said, tone threatening.
The man blinked away and glanced at Katsi. They feared her. She could sense it. But at the same time they could see that she was trying to save them. She wondered how many of them even realized that it was she who cast the lightning. Maybe it was better they didn’t know.
They continued trying to revive the bodies, but half of them never got up.
Alyssad placed a hand on Katsi’s shoulder as she remained on her knees beside a dead body. A woman. Somebody she had killed with her own power.
Other townsfolk were returning, and they rushed to check the bodies as well, identifying some of their own loved ones.
Katsi stood and retreated a few steps, fighting back the cold feeling that gripped her chest. She didn’t cry. She didn’t even feel sorrow, but for the loved people mourning the loss of their family, she felt pity.
“This is the hardest part of holding power,” Alyssad said from beside her.
She blinked over at him without responding.
“It often falls to us to decide the outcome of lives,” he said. “No decision we make will ever be perfect. No matter what we do, no matter how many lives we save or how many problems we solve, we can never save or solve them all.” He gripped her forearm, his eyes piercing to her soul. “You did the right thing. Those shamans and waheshi needed to die, whatever the cost. Don’t ever be ashamed of doing your best.”
Katsi nodded. “I am not ashamed. I only wish they had someone here to keep them safe before we arrived.”
Alyssad frowned, stroking the edge of his dark beard with his thumb. “Indeed.” Thunder rumbled as he said the word, a warm wind blowing by them. He glanced at the sky. “New Season is at an end. We should get back.” He turned to go.
“How do we return?” Katsi said following after him, eager to be gone from the place. Her heart still thundered in her chest. It hadn’t calmed down since she’d first called the lightning. She tried taking deeper breaths, hoping it would soothe her nerves. She knew she was probably experiencing some kind of psychological distress. Migo would have explained it to her. He would have held her elbow and told her that she would be fine. The soft look in his eyes would calm her beating heart.
Sands.
How did she end up thinking like this?
“I have another object that will allow us to return,” Alyssad said. “But the stone we used to get here lost its enchantment when we ported. I’ll need to acquire another one from that boulder. The enchantment creates a powerful connection to the object's origin. It’s one of the most complex bewitchings an enchanter can do, and it takes a great deal of energy.”
Katsi shook her head. The concept of what had just happened was still staggering. She was always in awe of Alyssad’s endless knowledge regarding shaman magic. She could only imagine how much she’d been missing out on over the years. “I’m sure it’s far above my comprehension.”
He flashed her a grin. “You will know all things in time, Katsi. But at least now I know that you are willing to do whatever it takes.”
Katsi smiled at the praise, but something in her gut wiggled at the wording. Whatever it takes? She bit her lip.
They reached the forest and made their way back. Warm wind continued to blow from the Scorched Waste as dark clouds rolled in overhead from the Frozen Waste. The warm wind was common enough, but not during New Season, and not when clouds were moving the opposite direction. It was one of the first signals of a coming storm. A Maedari.
Alyssad growled and held a warning hand out to Katsi as they entered the clearing.
Katsi attempted to identify what had triggered Alyssad. She used her magic, sending tendrils out along the ground and air, trying to imagine it like a spider web as Adrina had taught her. She could, in fact, sense other movement ahead of them, and also to the sides. Were there people hoping to ambush them?
How had Alyssad sensed them before her? She needed to get better at keeping a magical awareness on a subconscious level. That meant lots more practice.
Despite the signal of caution, Alyssad didn’t hesitate to stride forward. Perhaps he didn’t realize the extent of their circumstances, but he drew his sword, sliding his weapon silently from the black leather sheath.
He stopped a few steps from the large boulder at the center of the clearing. Katsi stood behind him, her magic at the ready.
Someone stood atop the boulder, a man clothed in gray and forest green. He held a jagged sword up to a woman’s neck who knelt in front of him on the boulder’s uneven surface. “I see you have a new stormcaller, Ranaz. How long will you let this one last before she burns?” He slid his sword across the woman’s neck as he stared at Katsi.
Katsi’s mouth dropped in horror. Why had they just murdered some woman? Who was Ranaz?
Alyssad’s voice could have torn the ground apart as he said, “I will tear the flesh from your bones before you so much as look at her again, Talan.”
Talan tilted his head with a devilish glint in his eye. “I’m not the one she needs to fear, Ranaz.”
