When the light faded, Shani and Inferi found themselves standing on a large mesa. Several other plateaus of red rock stood out in the distance, jutting up from a sea of dried grass below. A storm-tossed sky filled the horizon, pelting rain and sleet illuminated by almost constant flashes of lightning cutting jagged lines across the darkened heavens.

A small crowd of people swathed in white bandages stood in the distance, surrounding a miniature version of the horse totem about twice the height of a person. A third figure was in the middle of the circle, its broad back muscles and lack of neck transitioning into a wide, bulbous head, suggesting this was the Frog Priest.

While the cultists chanted, the Frog Priest raised a hand holding a heavy bone club that glowed with a faint green-white light. A stream of light ran from the totem into the club, which glowed brighter and brighter with each passing moment in an eerie aura.

Shani hadn’t the time to discover what new workings and abilities she and Inferi might possess. But she could feel the mana coursing through their limbs and she knew the rage that fueled her heart. It would be enough.

Inferi let loose a terrible howl that cut through the din of the rain and thunder, sending chills down Shani’s spine. The group of cultists turned, drawing sickled blades and forming a protective line between them and the Frog Priest, who continued about his work. Inferi charged. At the same moment, Shani drew her bow and began firing into the group.

Knowing she’d face the cultists with the mana protecting wrappings, Shani had broken the mana crystal head from the tips of her arrows over the course of their travels through the endless plain. The lack of arrowheads made the projectiles less deadly and lighter, but she’d taken her knife to each, sharpening them to points. At this distance, they would punch through the cloth wrappings with ease.

Her first three arrows struck the cultists. One went down, clutching at his chest. She had time to loose another before Inferi closed the gap. Drawing forth a burst of storm mana, Shani cast aside her bow and drew her sword. She released the mana behind her, intuitively controlling the working to propel her forward into the cultists.

One hand stabbing with her stone spear, and the other crackling with an electrical current. Shani threw herself into the group. The wrappings of the cultists might have protected them from mana workings but did nothing to save them from the Beastcaller and Mana Beast. Inferi grabbed cultists in her teeth, flinging them aside with ease, spinning, stomping and biting. Purple smoke filled the area blinding them. Able to see through Inferi’s working as if it were a clear day, Shani cut and stabbed.

The cultists fell before them. Knives of glowing mana obsidian lefts dozens of cuts in Shani and Inferi. When the last of their foes fell back, fleeing toward the Frog Priest, Shani limped from a gash in her thigh. She channeled mana to the injured limb, filling it with temporary strength for the fight that still lay ahead.

The Frog Priest broke off his chant and lowered the glowing bone club to his side as he turned to face them. Shani stared at him with gritted teeth, her snarl matching Inferi’s, whose muscled chest heaved in exertion beside her.

The Frog Priest stepped forward, lightning illuminating his wide, toothless smile. A tongue flickered out, testing the air, then flicking again to lick a line of blood running down the arm of an injured cultist.

“A challenger,” he croaked, nodding in apparent satisfaction. “This is good, good.”

Shani screamed and hurled a streak of lightning at the Frog Priest. He ducked to the side, avoiding the first. The next caught him in the chest and flipped him onto his back. He recovered in time to bring his club in a mighty sideways arc at Inferi’s head just as she reached him. A terrible crack split the air. Inferi sailed through the air backwards, landing several paces in front of Shani and rolling in a heap until she stopped at her Beastcaller’s feet. Shaking her head, Inferi struggled to her feet, swaying. The frog man raised a webbed hand and beckoned to them.

Sprinting toward the mutant, Shani hurled lightning from her free hands as fast as she could shape and cast the working. In the other, she charged the length of her blade with electricity, raising it at the instant before collision at the Frog Priest. Lowering his shoulder, the Frog Priest stepped into her charging, dodging Inferi’s in the same motion. Shani struck him, her sword flying out of her grip as the bulk of the Frog Priest drove the air from her and sent her flying backward.

She barely had time to suck in a breath before the wounded cultists piled on her. Fighting for her life with nothing but her knives, out of the corner of her eye, Shani saw Inferi latch on to the Frog Priest’s bone club. She yanked, but the frog man held firm as the two grappled for the weapon.

A sharp pain blossomed in Shani’s side. She gasped and collapsed to the ground, raising a hand to ward off the blows of the half dozen surviving cultists as she channeled mana to the wound. Blood ran free from the puncture and the blunt strikes of clubs continued to rain down on her, the cushion of storm mana she’d channeled the only thing between her and death by bludgeoning.

A streak of golden light bowled through the cultists. Shani stumbled backward and crawled free as Vex fended off her attackers. A moment later, Raiqo was pulling her to her feet as Skystrike let loose an electrifying hailstorm from above. The tiny shards of icy storm mana struck the cultists, failing to pierce their wrappings but driving them back.

Shani struggled to pull herself free of Raiqo’s grasp, realizing when she only succeeded after her release her that he’d recovered his Chieftain’s strength.

“Peace, cousin,” he said, backing a step away from her. “We are here to fight by your side.”

But Shani didn’t want anyone to fight by her side, didn’t need anyone, even though her leg cut and stab wound both ran with blood. She felt the mana in her beast heart fading. Almost gone, but still enough to keep her together. Perhaps it would be enough.

Grabbing the bone club still held by Inferi’s bite, the Frog Priest grunted and threw her into the air, slamming Inferi to the ground on her side. The shock of the collision forced her mouth free. The Frog Priest moved fast, bringing the club down in a bone-crushing blow against Inferi’s ribs. She yelped in pain and flailed to escape as another blow struck her in the head.

Out of nowhere, Shani appeared, leaping over Inferi, hands glowing with twin balls of whirling storm mana. The powerful gusts knocked the Frog Priest’s next swing wide and sent him reeling backward. Inferi stumbled to her feet, wincing and whining. Shani breathed heavily, clutching at her bloody side, unable to carry out the attack before the frog recovered.

The mutant let out a long, ribbiting chuckle and nodded in approval. “You fight well, human.”

Vex, Kiypu, Shakraa, Raiqo and Skystrike joined her, the last of the cultists falling still to their right. The Frog Priest surveyed all of this and nodded again, muscled shoulders rising and falling with each breath. A sickly pale light swirled around his club.

“Give up your weapon,” Raiqo said. “It is over.”

Once more, Frog Priest let out a long, croaking chuckle. With a wave of the club, the eerie light swarmed forward around each of the fallen cultists. Pulled up as if on strings, they stood at slack attention, the same sickly glow of the club leaking from their eyes and mouths.

Kiypu let out a groan, clutching at his beast heart as he and Shakraa collapsed to the ground. The Frog Priest’s amphibian eyes widened in surprise.

“The gift of the Snake is not yours to use, ancient one,” he said, waving the bone club again. The pale light glowed over Shakraa and Kiypu then sped toward the Frog Priest, gathering around his club. Shakraa let out a weakened caw and lay still, a stiff motionless skeleton beside her master. The glow in Kiypu’s ruby eyes faded and his mouth stretched open. To Shani, he appeared as a corpse.

Shani took one look at her fallen mentor and rushed the Frog Priest, Inferi at her side, both prepared to die as long as they killed him as well. Vex leaped close behind them. The risen cultists wordlessly charged for Raiqo and Skystrike, swarming him before he could give Shani aid.

She struck out without pattern or precisions, wielding her rage and mana like the club she fought against. No matter how fast they attacked, Frog Priest held Shani, Inferi and Vex at bay, deflecting their mana workings with a twist of his club, leaping and bounding so they could not surround him.

Propelling through the air away from them, Frog Priest raised his club and made a slicing motion, sending a crescent of the strange white mana arcing down at them. Vex cried out in warning, jumping in front of the attack. The working hurled the gray fox through the air over Shani and Inferi’s heads.

The Frog Priest landed in a wide stance, bone club held at a horizontal guard in front of him. Shani could no longer see Kiypu or Vex. The resurrected cultists had forced Raiqo and Skystrike to the ground where they lay bound in the mana wrappings. Only Shani and Inferi remained standing.

“I sense something in you,” Frog Priest said. “Hunger. Greed. What is it you carry, human?”

At his words, the red markings on Shani’s arms glowed, pulling away from her to form the starving red wolf between them and the Frog Priest.

Shani cried out and fell to her knees, her beast heart suddenly pounding and empty, on the verge of breaking. Inferi too wailed and collapsed.

“No!” she gasped as the wolf smiled at her with its oblong muzzle. Lightning flashed, illuminating its wide, craving eyes and rows of razor teeth. Rain dripped down his gaunt frame.

“I held my bargain,” the wolf said. “And you kept yours. I am free of the Storm Horse’s bonds and you had your power. How you used the strength I gave you is not my concern.”

“Mighty spirit,” The Frog Priest croaked. “I sense the desire in you. The endless need for more. Join me and devour the power you seek.”

The wolf’s long snout parted in a grin. “Gladly.”

“No!” Shani screamed again over the victorious howl of the hungry wolf and the croaking laugh of the frog. She collapsed to her knees, struggling to hold her head up, the power of the spirit gone in an instant. They’d been betrayed. The wolf faded into orange light, sucked into the bone club. Raising the weapon once more, the Frog Priest made a wide swing in front of him.

As the pale light cut toward them, Shani reached once more for the shadow mana churning together in Inferi. She thrust her hands forward and the blast of smoky-filled wind hit Frog Priest’s attack in an explosion of mana. She flew backward and lay on her side, staring as the frog walked bow-legged to the smaller totem in the likeness of the Storm Horse and raised his bone club. Her eyes flickered and closed.

“Shani!”

A familiar voice from behind cause Shani to open her eyes. She was dying. Hearing things. Was that Ezlu calling to her?

Instead, Kellen appeared, sliding to a stop and kneeling in front of her. She felt the warmth of his hand like spring sunlight on her shoulder.

“Vex is hurt,” she muttered, words slurring. “My fault… sorry.”

Her eyes closed again but through the rain and the darkness, sun mana shone through her eyelids and she felt the light.