The other people that Katsi sensed emerged from hiding, two coming around the boulder, and several more from the forest, all bearing weapons.
Before Katsi could even think, Alyssad made a sharp gesture and the entire boulder exploded, stone daggers bursting in every direction. Katsi called up a wall of earth directly in front of her, but the shards never reached her. Instead, they rebounded, piercing toward the ambushers. A few of them managed to deflect the stone shards, only to be buffeted by a powerful gust of wind that bowed the trees, slamming them into the ground. Storm clouds shattered overhead, the very air burning with energy as a thin streak of purple lightning zipped through the shaman lines, crackling through the trees before disappearing back into the sky.
Katsi had barely blinked. Instinctively, she sealed herself in a pocket of air and rose off the ground.
A few of the shamans still remained, though she had no idea how. Had they deflected the lightning? They must have. It was the only explanation. She needed to learn how to do this. But there was a deeper realization.
Alyssad was using magic. He was a shaman. This whole time, the emperor of Malahem was a shaman.
And the energy he channeled was so powerful, it made every hair on Katsi’s body stand.
The shamans made a joint assault, charging at Alyssad, trees and rocks whipping in Alyssad’s direction. “For Hannashe,” one of them cried just before the purple lightning passed straight through her.
A massive rock the size of ten men came soaring down toward Alyssad.
Through her shock, Katsi attempted to divert the rock, but to no avail. Regardless, it paused only a hand’s-width away from Alyssad’s head before it rolled away, pulverizing the nearest shaman.
The ground cracked and trembled as two shamans finally reached Alyssad. It had been less than a few seconds, but all the rest of the shamans were already dead.
Katsi tried to help. She used the air and ground to try and push Alyssad’s opponents, but they resisted everything. She paid attention to the changes in energy, however, and started to detect when resistance came from the other shamans. It was like a whole new level of understanding flooded her conscience, and she started to counter the resistance by tweaking the connection or pushing directly against them. One of the rocks she’d summoned slipped through with such force that it penetrated straight through the back of one of the shamans, coming out the other side. The shaman fell, eyes wide, staring up at the darkened sky.
The last shaman dueled with Alyssad, their blades swinging in a furious blur, rarely striking. They both moved so quickly that she couldn’t follow how they were able to dodge one another, but one second later the other shaman’s leg was severed, and he collapsed with a scream. With another swipe, Alyssad beheaded him before he even hit the ground.
He flicked his blade before resheathing it.
The clouds above continued to roil, echoing with thunder.
“You’re a shaman,” Katsi said.
His eyes grew darker. “I am. We will discuss more when we return.” He stooped to pick up one of the broken stones and tucked it away. “We’ll want to hurry. A Maedari is on the way and it can disrupt the porting.”
He held out a different object to her, a whitish stone that looked similar to the bricks of the castle in Mazanib.
Katsi frowned. All this time, he’d been deceiving them. Deceiving everyone. How could the ruler of the entire world be a shaman, and nobody knew about it? She wouldn’t let it go, and he knew it. She grabbed the other end of the stone.
Instead of asking her to speak the words, he said, “Fid-kabal dof.”
Katsi was hit with the same sensation of being pulled by her arm as everything around her twisted and stretched. She squeezed her eyes shut until the tugging on her arm ceased. When she blinked, they were back in the castle in the small space beneath Alyssad’s room.
Alyssad had already turned away, returning the objects to a shelf. When he faced her again, he leaned back against the shelf and folded his arms. “You have questions. I will answer them.”
“Is this how you knew to come save me at the sleephouse when those men were going to kill me?”
His lips barely moved. “I have enchantments throughout the city. I recognized your power the moment you flew down and landed just outside Mazanib. I waited all the way until you stepped into that sleephouse once I knew those shaman hunters had gathered together. I wanted to get as many of them there so I could execute them all.”
“Did your father know you were a shaman?”
Alyssad smirked in amusement. “That’s not the question I expected.” His smirk disappeared. “I never knew my father.”
Katsi’s frown only deepened. “I don’t understand. Didn’t you say that you only recently took the throne?”
Alyssad stroked his beard with his thumb. “More correctly, I assumed the throne under a different name.”
Sands. This was deeper than she thought.
“Your name is not Alyssad Malrabia. It’s Ranaz. Like the man said before you… killed him.”
“This is correct.”
“Who was the emperor before you, then?”
His answer came slower this time. “I’m the only emperor this world has ever known.”
The room felt suddenly colder. Who was this man? From the power he’d displayed earlier, he was probably the strongest shaman she’d ever met. A trickle of fear crawled up her spine. If she wanted to escape, would he even let her? She gulped. “You issued the extermination against shamans.”
The amusement in his eyes vanished. She could feel the tension in his body even from across the room.
“As I said, I have made terrible mistakes. You are the key to rectifying them.”
“How?” Katsi said, stepping towards him. “Who was Hannashe? The name I heard those shamans shout as they tried to kill you? What did they mean by calling me another stormcaller? How many have there been?” She took another step with each question until she stood directly before him, staring up at his dark, angry face.
He let out a growling breath, towering over her. “Hannashe was a stormcaller. She once had quite the following among shamanfolk. I killed her, as I have many others.” He grabbed her arm, hand clasping over her first armlet she’d stolen from Wajek Manor. “Now she resides in this cuff you wear on your arm.”
Katsi jerked her arm free and stumbled away from him. He knew all along. “What do you want from me? Why am I here?”
“I told you. I need your help to correct my mistakes. So much blood is on my hands, Katsi, and I need it to stop.”
“I am nobody’s puppet.”
