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“A building was still under construction,” the man yelled back. “It wasn’t sturdy enough to withstand the—” He broke off. “Delphine?”
“Nik?” I stared up at him, blinking against the hard drops of rain and sputtering slightly.
I swayed, and he grabbed both my arms. “How many people have you already healed?”
“Never mind that! How many are still trapped?”
“I’m not sure. I just arrived. I was working on the other side of the square.”
I glanced in the direction he was pointing and saw a far more orderly stretch of ground, the various collapsed stalls swept out of the way, as if by a giant’s hand. Nik at work, no doubt.
“Don’t worry about me, then,” I said. “Tell these two how they can help you.” I gestured for my assistants to come forward. “They both have plants seeds, like you.”
Reluctantly, Nik let go of my arms, turning to the woman and the boy. He began issuing rapid fire instructions that I tuned out, glad not to have to take responsibility for something outside of my field.
Within a minute, the three of them were at work, several other people appearing out of the rain to help them. Under Nik’s guidance, the fallen stones and broken planks of wood lifted into the air, flying in neat formations to form piles against the base of the closest sturdy building.
Nik seemed to be the one actually lifting the stones, but from the expressions of concentration on the faces of the others, they were using their power to assist in some way. Working as a team, they soon had the first person exposed, and I dropped to my knees, feeling the jarring thud all the way through me.
It was a young boy, looking terrified and in pain, so I sent my power into him, blocking off the pain before I even examined his injuries. He drew an immediate, gasping breath, stuttering out a thank you.
“Just lie still,” I called, closing my eyes against the water that streamed down my face.
One of the boy’s feet was twisted at an unnatural angle, and I sent my power racing through his ankle, popping it back into place and fusing the bones back together.
When I opened my eyes, he was watching his foot with curiosity, apparently undaunted by the process now that he was no longer in pain. As soon as I checked the rest of him and let him go, however, he pointed back at the still shifting mound of debris.
“I’m Coby,” he said inconsequentially, his face twisted in an expression of worry that was out of place on a young child. “Have you seen my mother? I think she might be under there still.”
“We’ll get to her,” I yelled as the wind picked back up. “But you should move out of the way.” I looked around until I saw a small group huddled against a stretch of wall some way from where Nik was piling the rubble. “Over there. I’ll send her there to find you as soon as she’s free.”
He hesitated, but when a stone came floating past our heads, he nodded agreement and hurried off. I turned back to the building, hoping desperately that his mother was still alive under there.
The next stone to lift revealed a leg, followed by a second one. Something about the look of them made my stomach turn, although I wasn’t sure why. The urgency and chaos of the crisis had so far suppressed my nausea almost as effectively as my power could.
The sight of the person had an effect on Nik as well because all the remaining stones covering them began to lift at once. I didn’t wait to see who the legs belonged to, however, wrapping my fingers around one ankle.
I tried to push my power into the person, but it wouldn’t move. I had experienced the effect only once before, but I refused to accept it, trying again and then again.
“No, no, no, no, no, no,” I muttered over and over until a loud moan broke through my daze.
For a heady moment, I thought the groan was evidence I’d been mistaken, but it wasn’t coming from the body in front of me but from someone deeper in the rubble. I hadn’t been wrong. The owner of the leg was beyond my help.
The last of the rubble lifted off the body, and I steeled myself to look at their face. It was an elderly man, lying still, his eyes closed.
It wasn’t the boy’s mother, then. Guilt washed over me at the spear of relief I felt. This man had just lost his life, and someone, somewhere would soon be crying over it.
Nik’s voice echoed in my memory.Death is never easy. But healers have to find ways not to be crippled by it.
It had seemed unthinkable and almost cruel at the time, but I understood what he’d meant now. I couldn’t let myself think about this man or his family. Someone nearby was still moaning, which meant that person wasn’t beyond my help. I couldn’t fall apart now.
I crawled around the man, not bothering to push myself back up against the wind and rain. Gradually it filtered through to my awareness that the storm seemed to be lessening, the wind no longer so strong and the rain starting to ease. I couldn’t think about the weather, however.
More rocks lifted into the air, and I crawled along in their wake, seeking the owner of the moans. When the floating rubble finally revealed a woman a similar age to Amara, it was clear she was in bad shape.
But when I crouched beside her, I realized she wasn’t giving wordless groans of pain but was saying two garbled words over and over again.
“My son. My son. My son.”
