It would be a slaughter.
A waheshi snapped forward, slashing at Shanon. She jumped back, hitting the back of the waheshi’s arm with her knife, but it followed through with a quick jab from its other paw, claws stabbing into her leg. She fell, but before she could even hit the ground, it slashed again, cutting her across the shoulder on the opposite side. She hit the ground with a thud, unable to breathe. Sands, she was going to die.
The end had come.
She would die in battle, yes, but she was alone. At least her brother, Kyel, had died fighting beside Hatan. He had been remembered, at least for a while, but she would be forgotten. They all would.
Chapter thirty-nine
Defeat
Migo felt the shamans. They were dispersed seemingly randomly through the ranks of waheshi. There were dozens of them. Perhaps hundreds. It was difficult to pinpoint any exact number, but he could feel their auras. He could smell them.
They smelled old.
And there was no anger. No fear. There was only… excitement.
That made him sicker than anything else. They enjoyed this, reveling in the slaughter.
He roared, diving for the nearest shaman aura he could sense.
There were three of them, walking together with smiles on their faces. Smiles that disappeared when they noticed him coming straight toward them. He was tempted to release the flames that burned within his chest, but he was angry. He wanted to tear their flesh with his own claws.
They drew their weapons. Seculas. They would be practically harmless against him.
He tucked his wings against his body, coming in sharply. Several waheshi stopped to face him, prepared to lunge.
Migo didn’t care. He pounded into the ground without pause, smashing two of the shamans into the stone beneath, completely engulfing the third one in his jaws with a vicious snap. The ground trembled beneath his weight. He flicked his neck, opening his mouth so that the torn body flung out. He whipped his tail, knocking aside three waheshis that lunged for him, using one of his paws to hack at a fourth, slicing it in half.
A fifth one got close enough to dig its claws into his hind leg.
He kicked it away and jumped, pumping his wings to regain altitude. If he stayed on the ground too long, he’d easily get overwhelmed. He let out a burst of flame. It felt like vomiting, even burning his long throat all the way out, and the taste of it reminded him of burnt oil. It was a small price to pay to see two more waheshi crumble to the earth.
Katsi was near the wall of Jehubal, blasting away at waheshi, but she could only cover so much area, and he worried that she was already running low on energy. The walls had been breached in several locations, and it was only a matter of time before the city was overrun.
All his planning would be for nothing.
Once they took Jehubal, nothing would stop the bleeder army from overtaking the rest of the Ring.
But he knew his role. He had to eliminate as many of the shamans as possible. Perhaps if he killed the one commanding the waheshi, then maybe they would stop functioning altogether. It was worth a shot at least.
A massive boom drew his attention back towards Katsi. A section of the wall had completely exploded in a shower of dust and stone. He couldn’t see Katsi.
He shifted in the air, flapping his wings as fast as they could go. Rain started to drizzle down from the dark clouds Katsi had summoned, blocking the sun from view. The burning in Migo’s chest was growing as he sailed closer to the disturbance.
Waheshi were pouring into the city through the opening. He dropped down in front of it, opening his throat to the burning that scorched within, spewing red flames in a blazing torrent. This effectively cleared the section, at least for a few seconds while he tried to sense Katsi. Her energy had settled on the ground just outside the wall.
She wasn’t supposed to be there.
He jumped over the wall, slashing a waheshi down from the parapet in the same movement. But where was Katsi? His power trickled through every scale, every spine on his body, everything on edge with the anxiety of ensuring Katsi’s survival. Jehubal could fall, yes. The Ring could fall. Anything.
But not her.
Not Katsi.
Her energy was surrounded by the pulses of other auras. A swirling cloud of dust near the ground signified that she was under assault. Static lightning scattered around as Katsi defended herself.
He honed in on the shamans attacking her. There were four of them, but she was holding her own, for now. He dove for the nearest one. The woman tried to run, a burst of stone exploding toward Migo, but he would not be halted. He shook his head as the stone battered his face, then he landed on top of the shaman, long claws piercing the flesh.
He charged toward the next one, battering two waheshi away with his spiked shoulder as he did so. A third waheshi bit onto the edge of Migo’s tail as he reached the next shaman. He flicked his tail, whipping the waheshi away, and snapped at the shaman. This shaman burst away, launching backwards as the ground beneath him exploded, a pillar of stone pushing him away and striking Migo on the jaw at the same time. He growled and ran forward.
The shaman wasn’t fast enough, and his attempts at using magic on Migo were futile. The shaman tried hacking at Migo’s snout with his secula, but Migo pulled his head back, lashing out with his claws instead, snipping the shaman’s legs. The shaman fell with a gasp.
Waheshi had been drawn to the battle.
They poured over Migo, biting and clawing, but there were still two shamans left attacking Katsi. She came out of the dusty cloud, lightning clawing across the waheshi that tore around his back.
The lightning trickled through Migo’s body, inflaming the burning in his chest. Instinctively, he opened his mouth, pouring out a wave of hot flames on the waheshi that surrounded them.
Katsi looked haggard. A fresh cut bloodied her forehead just over one eyebrow, and part of her robe was torn along the arm.
Migo exhaled, a deep growl rumbling the ground around him. He slashed ferociously, tearing apart every waheshi that came close as he clawed his way toward the other two shamans who’d attacked Katsi.
Katsi hovered above him, her reddish lightning flashing every other second as the sky grew darker and darker, rain pounding on their heads. Entire slabs of stone showered down from the sky as well, launched by the shamans. One shaman rose up on a tall pillar of earth, making quick gestures as he flung boulders at both Katsi and Migo.
Migo kicked a waheshi away and bounded toward the exposed shaman. He pumped his wings, flapping up toward him just as two waheshi dug their claws into his hind legs. A third latched onto his tail, severing one of the spines as it clawed up him. He tried to kick them off as he gained altitude, but they hung on.
Katsi’s lightning zipped by, catching one of them, but the other two hung on. Another hail of stones whipped past Migo, as though the shaman who flung them had poor aim, but it wasn’t him they were aiming for. It was Katsi. He hooked his tail forward and used his free hind leg to claw the waheshi off his tail, but the final one still clung to his leg, repeatedly stabbing at him.
