by Jasmine Walt
“Okay,” I said, turning back toward Fenris. “Let’s get this heavy bastard off you.”
“No,” Fenris snapped, but it was too late—I was already lifting the girder off, using a combination of magic and my own shifter strength. Despite his protest, he sagged in relief when the weight was off him, and his face relaxed some. Panting with the exertion, I dropped to my knees next to him.
“Stop,” he barked when I reached out to touch him. “You don’t have enough energy to heal me and tunnel your way out of here. Conserve your strength.”
“How the hell am I going to get us out of here, if half your body is broken?” I argued. Another tremor hit, and we flattened ourselves against the ground as more debris came crashing down. “By Magorah,” I growled through gritted teeth. “That’s all three floors on top of us.” I diverted my power back toward the shield, relieving Fenris of the burden somewhat. If the spell failed, we were all doomed.
“Half the city will be tumbling down right now,” Fenris ground out through clenched teeth. His face was white with pain. “Kardanor and Director Chen did not have nearly enough time to quake-proof all the buildings on their list, and there were many more they’d written off completely. This will have been one of those. I doubt anyone will be able to find us—they won’t think to look in the rubble of a condemned building,” he added bitterly.
“Iannis will be able to find us eventually with my serapha charm,” I said, reaching up to touch it with my hand. I closed my eyes and activated the charm, pinpointing his location. “He’s still at least a day away,” I said, sighing heavily.
“We can’t rely on Iannis,” Fenris gasped. “We’ll need to move some of the debris aside to make an escape shaft. I know a spell that would work perfectly, but I am too weak…”
“Let me try.” Ignoring the pain in my leg, I scooted myself up into a sitting position, then held my hands out and concentrated on the wall of debris. Raw magic poured out of me, and I used it to push as hard as I could, but it was no use—the wreckage was too heavy. Panting, I shut off the magic before I used it up—I couldn’t risk the fragile barrier above me failing.
“I could try transmogrifying it—” I began, but Fenris shook his head.
“That would take too long, and use up too much magic.” Gritting his teeth, he hauled himself forward a few painful inches and grasped my hand. “I’m not going to make it, Sunaya. You should take the girl and leave me.”
I recoiled, his words a physical blow. “No! I can’t leave you here to die. What kind of person do you think I am?”
“A compassionate one,” Fenris said fiercely, his yellow eyes glowing. “And one who has responsibilities that are far more important than keeping me alive. I should have died three years ago, Sunaya. I’ve been living on borrowed time, and we all know it.”
“That’s bullshit,” I growled, tears in my eyes. But before I could convince him—and myself—that he was wrong, he pulled me down on the ground next to him, close enough to embrace me.
“Hush,” he chided, cupping the back of my head as he leaned my cheek against his broad chest. His heartbeat was surprisingly steady despite the danger and his wound—had he truly accepted his fate? “Let me give you one last gift.”
Magic surged through me, fast and furious and so powerful that I gasped. My body went rigid as I was bombarded with an onslaught of impressions, thoughts, words, feelings. Memories, I thought numbly as I struggled to keep the wave of sensory input from overloading my mind. But it was almost impossible, and the best I could do was fashion a sort of vault inside my head, then open the door and allow the new memories to rush inside it.
As soon as it was over, the door slammed shut, and I sagged against Fenris, breathing hard. He was panting, too, his strong body shaking from the effort.
“What…” I took a second to catch my breath, still reeling, “What the hell was that?”
“The knowledge transfer,” Fenris said, sounding oddly at peace. He lifted my chin to look in my eyes, and I was surprised to see a small smile on his dirt and sweat-smudged face. “All of my memories and knowledge about magic are now yours, too, Sunaya. All the Loranian lessons of a lifetime that I won’t be around to give any longer. You now know everything you need to get yourself, and the girl, to safety.”
I eased open the vault door a crack, startled to realize he was right. A spell to safely create a tunnel through the debris and up to ground level sprang straight to my mental fingertips. It was a complex spell, not something I would have been able to master the first time around as an apprentice, but with Fenris’s knowledge inside me, I knew I could do it with ease.
“This is great,” I said, hope easing the crushing weight on my chest. “I can get us all out now. You’re coming with us.” I struggled to my feet, mindful of my healing leg.
“No,” Fenris said, ignoring my outstretched hand. He looked exhausted, his normally tan skin pale and dark smudges under his eyes. “I am too weak, and one of us needs to maintain the shield while you cast the spell. You cannot do both, Sunaya.”
“Fine.” A tear escaped my right eye, but I pushed the emotion away—I couldn’t afford to let it distract me. Clearing my head, I focused my attention on the debris, then called up my magic and spoke the Words of the spell. The power sank into the pile of crushed stone and metal, which began to groan as it was shifted and manipulated. I held my breath as another tremor shook the walls around us, and I wasn’t sure if it was from the quake or the spell. Long, agonizing minutes passed before the debris and dirt finally stopped shifting, and then the magic pouring out of me abruptly stopped, the spell completed. A wave of dizziness passed through me, and I had to catch myself to keep from stumbling sideways—I’d used a lot of magic just now, and I was dangerously close to burn-out.
“Take Rusalia,” Fenris shouted, grabbing my leg to get my attention. “Take her and go!”
“I’m coming back for you,” I growled, dropping down to my knees. I wrapped my arms tight around Fenris in a brief hug, then pulled Rusalia onto my back and climbed into the makeshift tunnel. It wasn’t large enough to walk upright, and with the burden of the sleeping child and the agonizing pain in my leg, it was slow going. Even so, I pushed myself as fast as I could. There was no telling how long I had, and I was determined to get Rusalia out. I wouldn’t let Fenris’s sacrifice be in vain, and I wouldn’t fail my promise to Comenius to bring his daughter back safely.
When I finally burst out into the open, a rush of cool air slapped me in the face—a welcome reminder that I was alive. Taking in deep gulps of air, I set Rusalia down in the schoolyard field, then shifted into panther form to heal myself. The process was slower than usual, and it took even longer to change back into human form—I was running really low on magic.
Once I was done, I turned back toward the building. The roof of the school had caved in completely, and the outer walls had collapsed inward—a complete shambles. Maybe there was still enough time, maybe I could still get Fenris out. He was badly hurt, but Iannis could heal him once he got here. He had to heal him. Trembling, I took a step forward, but then another quake hit, nearly as strong as the first. The tunnel collapsed inwards, buried completely by the rubble I’d managed to push out of my way.
“No,” I screamed, falling on the mound of dirt and concrete. Frantically, I began to dig, but the sound of a small explosion stopped me in my tracks, and I ducked as a flaming hunk of metal came flying my way. To my horror, I realized the entire block of buildings south of the school was on fire, and the wall of flames was rapidly heading in our direction. The irony didn’t escape me that it was Fenris who had warned of the likelihood of fires being caused by the quake, and a stab of pain went through my chest. He would never get to see that he’d been proven right.
“Fuck,” I swore, remembering Rusalia, who was lying defenseless on the ground. Abandoning the caved-in tunnel, I rushed over to her, then undid the sleep spell.
“Wha…” she mumbled, sitting up and rubbing her eyes.
Any vestiges of sleep quickly disappeared as she beheld the ruins of the school and the state of her dirty, torn clothes. “What happened?” she shouted, jumping to her feet. Her eyes nearly popped out of her head at the sight of the huge flames, which were spreading quickly toward us. “Oh no, I burned the school down!”
“No, you didn’t,” I snapped, grabbing her by the arm. “You’re not that powerful yet, kid. Now get on—we’ve gotta run.”
I hauled Rusalia onto my back, piggyback style, then sprinted for Witches End as fast as I could. I tried not to think about the fact that I was leaving Fenris’s body behind, and focused on avoiding the very real pitfalls—the sidewalks and streets had cracked open in places, exposing water mains below, and there were more buildings on fire. Luckily, most of the shops and homes in Rowanville seemed to be holding up, but several had collapsed, and there were plenty of people screaming and crying in the streets. The scents of blood, fear, and despair told me that there were injured and dead amongst them, but there was no time to stop and help. I had to get Rusalia home safely first.
“Thank Magorah,” I said aloud as Witches End finally came into view. The pier, and all the shops lining it, were still standing strong. Magic shimmered along the thresholds and roofs, and I knew that whatever protection spells the residents had put in for this situation had been activated.
“Comenius,” I yelled, banging on his apartment door. “Com, I’ve got her!”
“Pa,” Rusalia sobbed as soon as a very harrowed-looking Comenius opened the door. She threw herself into his arms, and he gathered her tight against him. “Pa, I’m sorry!” She began sobbing in Pernian, burying her face against his abdomen.
“Shh, shh,” he soothed, picking her up. He tucked her tearstained face against his chest and carried her to the couch. I followed him inside. Elania was sitting in the living room, looking incredibly relieved. There was a tender look on her face as she watched Comenius settle on the couch, rocking his crying daughter in his arms while murmuring assurances to her in their mother tongue.
“I am so glad you found her,” Elania said to me, tears in her dark eyes. “Comenius was terrified that she might have been hurt in the quake.” She paused, her brow furrowing. “Where is your wolf-shifter friend?”
Grief hit me with the force of a train, and I collapsed into a chair. “He’s dead,” I said, and the words sounded like they were coming out of someone else’s mouth. There was no way I was sitting here, so completely calm, talking about Fenris’s death. I should be screaming, crying, tearing my hair out. Cursing the gods above for their cruel machinations. Instead, I was just sitting here, my strength completely sapped, so weighted down by grief I wasn’t sure I’d be able to get up again.
How could he be gone?
“Dead?” Comenius echoed, finally tearing his attention away from his daughter. He looked stricken at the news. “What happened?”
I explained how we’d managed to track Rusalia to the school, and how the quake had hit after we’d found her in the basement. Silent tears ran down my cheeks as I described Fenris’s selfless sacrifice, how he’d chosen to give me his knowledge and memories so that I might get away with Rusalia, and how it had weakened him so much that he hadn’t been able to follow us through the escape tunnel. By the time I got to the part where the tunnel had collapsed, my entire body was shaking, my cheeks raw from scrubbing away at the tears that wouldn’t stop coming.
Elania silently put a heap of sandwiches before me, and I devoured without tasting anything. I had no appetite, but I was running on fumes and my shifter body was crying out for fuel. “I’m so sorry, Naya,” Comenius said. He set a now-sleeping Rusalia aside, then knelt in front of my chair. “I know how important Fenris was to you. We shall all miss him.”
He took me into his arms, and I buried my face against his chest, still tearstained from Rusalia. He rubbed my back in slow circles as I gulped in shuddering breaths, trying to get myself under control. His woodsy, herbal scent soothed me, and after a few long moments, the tears finally stopped.
“I know this is hard,” Comenius said, his words gentle but firm as he lifted my head. “But we don’t have time to grieve now. The city needs every able-bodied mage, and the only reason I stayed here was in case you and Rusalia returned. Now that she is home, you and I must go out and assist in whatever way we can.”
I nodded, letting Comenius help me to my feet. He was right. Fenris might be dead, but there were plenty of others still alive who needed our help to stay that way. Squaring my shoulders, I shoved all my pain into the vault filled with Fenris’s memories, then slammed it shut. There would be time to grieve later. Right now, it was time for action.
17
The first place we headed was the Enforcers Guild, to see where we might be most needed. To my relief, the building had weathered the quake with only minor damage. Captain Skonel was running a tight ship, efficiently dispatching crews to deal with the terrified citizens and prevent any looting. Two foremen from the smaller crews were helping him organize, and a quick talk with them confirmed they were indeed following Chen and Kardanor’s plan to the letter. Tents were already being set up outside the city for temporary shelter, as well as improvised hospitals. The crews were herding homeless citizens to the tents, but there weren’t nearly enough hands available to search through the wreckage for survivors, so Comenius and I were dispatched to Maintown to assist with that.
“By Magorah,” I said, after I’d brought my steambike to a halt just two blocks away from the Maintown border. We’d cut through Shiftertown to get here, and while there were some collapsed buildings and road damage there, it was nothing like Maintown. The whole damn place seemed to be on fire, acrid smoke billowing from crumbled buildings. Screams and sobs carried to us on the wind even from this distance. It was worse than anything I’d ever seen before—far worse than even the damage the Resistance had done during the Uprising.
“It’s a good thing I brought supplies,” Comenius said, hefting his brown leather bag full of potions and bandages. “I fear they won’t be nearly enough.”
We walked the rest of the two blocks, and Rylan met us at the border. His usual smirk was nowhere to be found. In its place was a hard, implacable gaze. “This is unconscionable,” he growled, his rage barely leashed. “Those cheap bastards, Mendle and Gorax, should be castrated, then drawn and quartered, for this.”
“That would be a good start,” I agreed, letting my own rage come to the surface. It was better to feel anger than grief right now, I decided. Anger would fuel me, push me to work harder to save the survivors. Grief would only hold me back.
Rylan smiled grimly at that. “I’ve already checked in with Kardanor,” he said. “He and Director Chen are running the show down here, and making quite a good team, too. He said to report to Foreman Chabot—she needs help digging out survivors in the Coldwater Shopping District.”
Comenius and I followed Rylan in the direction he’d mentioned, but we didn’t make it there. There was catastrophe everywhere—children trapped in burning buildings, women and men lying in the street with broken limbs as they waited for mages to triage and move them to the hospitals, and we ended up helping along the way. Rylan jumped into one of those burning buildings to save a child, while I used my magic and brawn to help clear rubble away that was trapping another family inside their home. Comenius was roped into helping at the nearby hospital tent to mix up pain-killing potions. It wasn’t that there wasn’t anyone helping—in fact, there were hundreds of shifters, humans, and mages working side by side to save the survivors. But for every one helper, there were fifty citizens who needed saving.
Unfortunately, not everyone I pulled from the wreckage could be saved. I had to force myself not to get emotional whenever I pulled the bodies of dead children from the rubble, which was far too often. I nearly broke down when I unearthed the corpse of a pregnant woman who looked to be only a few weeks away from her delivery date. But I managed to hold it together, to shove my grief and rag
e into the box that held Fenris’s memories, and keep slogging through.
Eventually, I ended up in the hospital tent too, healing broken limbs and internal bleeding. The mages running the tents seemed surprised and impressed at the skill and speed with which I healed my patients, but they didn’t question me about it. Which was good, because how could I tell them that my newfound skill and knowledge was unearned? That it had been given to me by a mage who wasn’t even my master, a mage who everyone had considered a shifter? The memory-sharing spell was only supposed to be used if a master was passing away before his student could complete their apprenticeship, and in these times of peace, that was incredibly rare. Acquiring wholesale knowledge this way when everyone else had to work for it was considered cheating.
I wasn’t sure how long I toiled away in the tents, but eventually I had to stop and refuel. All the magic I’d used to heal bodies and clear away rubble was taking a heavy toll. Sitting in a corner of a tent, I wolfed down a stack of ham sandwiches as fast as I could, not wanting to sit around too long. There was still too much work to be done.
“Miss Baine?” someone asked, and I jerked my head up to see Director Chen staring down at me. Her silk robes had been replaced with utilitarian brown wool, her long hair was pulled up into a no-nonsense bun, and her ivory skin was smudged with soot and blood. “Thank the Lady I’ve found you. Lord Iannis has returned.”
I shot to my feet, my exhaustion forgotten. “He has? How?” In all the commotion, I hadn’t thought to check my serapha charm, and as far as I’d known, there had been no point. He’d been a day away this morning, and I hadn’t thought he would make it in time to assist today.
“He has been experimenting with creating gulayas, using that new method from the diary he found on that deserted island,” Chen said, lowering her voice. “He took one with him on his trip, and he used it to get back as soon as he got word about the quake. He’s been leading the firefighting for the past hour, and the flames are almost completely subdued now.”