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The older woman nodded and gripped it with both hands, watching me closely.
I sent my power to wrap around the organs closest to the wood, nodding my head as soon as I was ready.
“Now!” The woman pulled and the wood slid out, the patient screaming in response, although his pain was only a shadow of what it had been before.
I let my power guide me, instinct taking over as I restitched veins and sealed organs, sending a tendril to calm the pain that still darkened his brain. He immediately quieted beneath my hands, his breathing steadying as I knit the wound in his side, sending my power blazing along his bones, reforming those that had cracked under the weight of the stall.
As soon as I was finished, I let go and sat back, taking deep, gasping breaths. If I had been Hayes, I could have done that with much less energy. And for the first time I fully understood the value of that. How many more people in this square still needed my help?
“Come on,” I told my two assistants as I lurched to my feet. “There will be others.”
The man called out his thanks, and I stopped to look at him. “What’s your affinity?”
“Elements, but I had no idea…I didn’t see this coming when I can normally sense—”
“What’s your strength?”
“Weak,” the man admitted reluctantly.
I pointed out of the square. “There’s a stable just down that road. If you knock on the door, they’ll let you shelter inside.”
Without waiting for a reply, I hurried further into the debris field, picking my way over fallen wood, torn material and what seemed to be several spilled baskets of potatoes.
The group at the next stall had already freed the trapped woman, although the healer was still working on her. I left them to it, continuing on in search of more victims. A piercing scream pulled my attention to the right, and I hurried in that direction, trying to peer through the heavy rain. I kept wiping the drops from my eyes, but they were coming down so hard it did little good.
A woman staggered toward me, blood streaking her already soaked gown. Before she could reach me, though, someone else responded to her yell, catching her as she collapsed. For a moment, I didn’t recognize the sodden figure assisting her, but something in the way he laid her down and knelt beside her was familiar.
“Hayes!” I cried, and he glanced up briefly, meeting my eyes with a shock of recognition.
I waved his attention back to the woman, though, turning to look back into the square. If Hayes had charge of her, then she was in good hands and didn’t need me.
Several steps brought me to another collapsed stall, this one surrounded by scattered items, all made from leather. Two people seemed to be beneath the pile of broken wood, but a man and a girl were already pulling planks aside, working to free them.
These two were also familiar. Clay and Luna.
I nearly called a greeting before thinking better of it. They didn’t need a distraction, and there were more people in need. I continued deeper into the square, passing several more injured people who sat or lay on the ground. Those with significant injuries had someone kneeling beside them wearing the focused, slightly absent, expression of a healer at work.
A hysterical woman who grabbed at my arm turned out to be fine, but her young daughter had been struck in the head by a flying piece of stone. I paused to heal her, sealing her gash and pushing out the pressure threatening her brain.
The girl brightened as soon as I’d finished, putting a hand to her head.
“My headache is gone!” she exclaimed. “Thank you!”
I could barely hear her high voice over the wind, as much reading the words on her lips as hearing them.
I nodded, hurrying on to where my two assistants were already pulling the wood off another trapped stall keeper. This one had escaped with a single broken bone and a deep gash, so it didn’t take me long to burn through his injuries.
Both my assistants were now shivering uncontrollably, so I took a moment to give them a burst of warmth and energy. They smiled their thanks, the woman grasping my arm and leaning close to talk into my ear.
“Don’t forget yourself, child!”
I nodded and sent a spark of power through my own body, just enough to drive away the uncontrollable shaking. I didn’t want to waste too much, though. I already felt worryingly weak and tired, and people still needed me.
The next few stalls were already deserted, the people around them having fled before the wind hit or else having been rescued already. I almost began to hope the square was nearly cleared when we reached the west side and found an entire building had collapsed.
Stone and wood lay everywhere, and from the moans and cries, there were still people trapped beneath.
An arm appeared from the rain, and I grabbed it. “What happened here?” I shouted.
