Chapter 374: Hand of Fate
"Wind’s Speed."
I muttered the name of the spell as I clasped Fable’s head in my hands, imbuing him and the rest of the soldiers in the Nexus, with magic. He shifted restlessly as the mana flowed through him, and I slipped on his back, wincing as a painful jolt ran through the sunpurge. The heat trickled up my side as Fable kicked off the ground, but I held a cry back with gritted teeth. The Last Light Company had yet to fully exit the courtyard, and I didn’t want them to worry.
But every stride of the great wolf sent a tingle of fire up my side. I’d been ignoring it since the battle began, but it was impossible to miss the rising heat. Places I hadn’t hurt before were burning, the scar slowly itching up my side. It hadn’t been noticeable at first, but as the battle dragged by hour after hour, Elinore’s fears materialized. I’d done everything she’d warned me about, from physical exertion and battle to using sixth-circle arrays.
The cold, lingering winter wind whispered across my face, sending a shiver down my spine and tail. My defensive wards had been broken in the battle, and I lacked the strength to recast them. It was the strangest feeling, to have my soul brimming with mana and yet be unable to use it. Sustaining the link with the shard for three, maybe four hours had nearly destroyed me again. If the anomaly hadn’t returned when it did...well, the advance of the Sunpurge would be the least of my worries.
It had been all I could do to cast Wind’s Speed, a final effort to aid the soldiers in their retreat and Fable in our hunt for Korra. It was a relatively simple fourth-circle wind spell Jenna had taught me during our long journey through the canyon. As Fable streamed through the streets, his steps were strong and graceful, seemingly carried by the winds themselves. Long, streaming wisps of pale blue light traced our path through the city, lingering for a few seconds after our passing before fading away.
"Get us a view," I said, leaning low over Fable’s neck.
His chest rumbled in affirmation. I had just enough time to tangle my fingers in his fur, gripping him tightly, before he leaped off the streets and onto the roof of an abandoned shop. The ceramic tiles cracked as he bounded again, this time landing on a three-story inn. We climbed from building to building like stairs, eventually leaping onto the towering, curtain-like walls of the inner keep. A few soldiers still defending their posts tried to attack us, but Fable let out a concentrated blast of his aura and convinced them to retreat.
With a final leap, we soared atop on the upper towers, landing gracefully right below the flag of Brithlite, a symbol of Alverin’s presence in the city. Fable snapped the flagpole with a casual swipe of his back leg, letting the banner tumble into the city below.
I followed the flag’s descent for a second before it vanished into one of the many plumes of billowing smoke rising from the courtyard surrounding the keep, then turned my gaze onto the city itself. The entire city was acting like someone had put a boot through their anthill and small, dark shapes scurried in all directions. Shouts and screams ascended on the wings of the cold, winter wind, filling my ears with the sound of fear and loss. The small, dark shapes of people filled the streets in a panic, fleeing in all directions as rumors of the skirmishes and battles throughout the city moved unchecked. Occasionally, the glint of steel caught the dying light of the sun, attracting my gaze to a patrol or company of soldiers rushing somewhere.
Our long, extended fight in the heart of the keep had given many an early warning of the horrors to come, but tens of thousands hadn’t had time or instructions to evacuate. And now, as another force of darkness swarmed against the outer walls, it was too late.
I searched beyond the city walls, and let my tail relax as I found a large body of armored figures amassing a few miles east of the back gates. Several long trains of marching moved to join them, most coming from the canyon. I followed the line until I found the rim, and my breath caught in my chest.