“Enan,” Migo said, his own voice a dark growl. “You know I have dedicated my life to this. It is done.”
Enan’s lower lip trembled, and he turned his face away with a nod. “Well done,” Enan said, turning back to him. “What about this one?” He pointed his chin at Katsi.
“She is the empress,” Migo said, trying not to smile. “My wife.”
“Ah,” Enan said, looking over his shoulder to where Yavasu emerged from behind a building. “Much has transpired since your last visit then.”
“You have no idea,” Migo said with a sigh.
Yavasu pointed at Katsi. “I thought I told you that Migo was supposed to marry my sister.”
Katsi shrugged. “We couldn’t help it. She’ll have to find her own grumpy-faced princeling.”
Migo shook his head and returned to the subject. “But even with the fall of one threat, another rises.”
“What threat?” Yavasu said, approaching with narrowed eyes.
“Monsters,” Migo said evenly. “There is much to explain in little time. Let’s just say we'll need every trained shaman hunter we can get.”
Chapter thirty-two
Portal
Katsi smiled back at Migo, hoping it did the job of hiding her rapidly beating heart. She shook out one of her hands and tried not to think about the fact that she was crammed on top of a slab of stone with thirty-two shaman hunters, some of whom had tried to kill her not too long ago.
She could hardly believe that this many of them had agreed to come, but then again, soldiers seemed to have an uncanny level of bravery when taking orders. They took strength in each others’ confidence. Commendable, if not for the fact that it would probably get them killed. Even if they were as skilled as Emil or Rivar at fighting waheshi, would they really stand a chance against a dozen of them? And what if they faced off against a skilled earthmelder? She’d taken them all out single-handedly, and that was even before she knew what she was doing.
But Migo took confidence in their presence. Perhaps that was enough.
“Remove your boots,” Adrina said to everyone from somewhere on the other end of the slab. “The skin of your feet needs to be touching the stone.”
Katsi followed along.
“Don’t tell me you’re nervous, empress,” muttered one of the soldiers to Katsi.
Migo cast a scathing look at the man, and he quickly apologized.
“Sorry, Your Highness,” the soldier said. “I am Captain Gen Kara. But if you’re nervous about using this thing, then how should we feel?”
Migo was about to respond, but Katsi placed a hand on his arm. “This portaj will work fine, but yes, I am a little nervous about being surrounded by men who tried to kill me not too long ago.”
“Fair enough,” he said, placing his bare feet on the stone slab, boots and stockings in his hand. “Though we’re all distinctly aware that you could have killed us all. Instead, we are alive.” He regarded her with sharp, gray eyes. “We never would have expected that. Clearly we misjudged you.”
“That impressed me about her as well,” Migo said, his voice almost distant. “She changed my mind about shamans just as she changed yours.”
“Ready?” Adrina shouted.
Everyone affirmed.
Katsi felt the same effects as when she’d taken a portaj each time before, only this time it was like somebody was yanking on her foot. The next instant, they stood inside the room in the castle.
Gasps from the soldiers abounded, and a few of them even fell over, but they’d managed to bring the entire group back to Mazanib.
Migo squeezed Katsi’s hand, clearly excited that his plan had worked. “Welcome to Mazanib,” Migo said. “Gather yourselves and follow me.”
Katsi slipped over to Jafir and Adrina, smiling at her teacher. “It worked,” she whispered.
Jafir shook his head in disbelief, fiddling with the armlets he wore. “I had no idea about the true capacity of these enhancers until just now. All this time, and I’ve only been dabbling. This is what the emperor has done with our dead. At least my parents did not die in vain.”
Adrina explained more. “His parents were war prisoners of the emperor. They were granted fifty years of life if they served him under blood oath, after which time they were then sacrificed.”
Katsi blanched. “Sleet,” was all she could say. That seemed like such a horrid fate. She could still hardly believe how close he’d gotten to killing her as well.
Jafir shrugged. “It was not an uncommon practice. Malahem has a brutal history, my young empress. But things will improve if we are successful.”
“On the topic of artifacts though,” Katsi said, holding true to her conviction to connect with her artifact as soon as they returned. “We should get the artifact attuned immediately.”
“Of course,” Jafir said. “Come with me.”
Katsi followed Jafir out of the room, catching Migo’s eyes as she did so. He was busy ushering the soldiers off somewhere else, but he already knew that her business with the artifact couldn’t wait.
“It’s remarkable what we were able to do,” Jafir said as they hurried through the halls. “It was wonderful that the emperor thought of it. Perhaps it took somebody thinking from a different perspective for us to learn to test the limits.”
“He is certainly clever,” Katsi said.
When they entered Jafir’s workshop, he held his hand out toward his desk, upon which sat an armlet, plain in design, with copper wiring clasping a glittering red jewel. “Place it on,” he said with a nod.
Katsi picked it up off the table and clasped it to her arm. It was odd, though. It didn’t feel like the other two she wore.
