Putting all her trust in the rope to hold her, Mina rose in her seat, and she reached her arms up, hands high over her head, fingers spread. I’m ready! Go!

Roaring, Pixit flew into the lightning.

Mina felt it hit her fingers and rattle down her arms. She brought her hands together, holding the lightning steady above her, high above the net with their passenger. She screamed as they burst through the white light and through a wall of wind.

And then they were over and out.

Sunlight poured onto them.

Blue sky above.

Dawn had risen, and Alorria looked beautiful.

Mina opened her hands and released the electricity. Some of it sped through the air and slammed down, harmlessly, on the blackened hills below. But most of the energy was absorbed into Pixit, causing him to glow an even more brilliant yellow.

«We did it!»

She twisted, leaning over to see Eione beneath them.

“I’m okay!” Eione called up from the net. She lifted her face toward the sun.

Looking farther back, Mina saw Chauda and Jyx carrying Neela; Ferro and Brindle with Varli; Zek and Ragit with their passenger; Kita and Uma with theirs; Saril and Quil with theirs . . . She counted beasts and riders as they came bursting through the storm and into the blue. All the beasts glowed brilliant yellow with the lightning they’d absorbed, and all the passengers were alive and unharmed.

We all made it, Mina thought. We did it!

Chapter
Twenty-Five

As soon as Pixit’s paws touched the ground, Mina face-planted on his neck.

«Are you okay?»

We’re alive. And you’re amazing. She heard Eione climbing out of the net, but Mina didn’t want to move, ever. She turned her head sideways, her cheek still pressed against Pixit’s soaked scales, so she could see the others.

Beasts touched down on the charred hill, lowering their nets gently onto the ground. She watched as the evacuees shrugged away the nets and fell into one another’s arms, hugging and crying and laughing and talking all at once. They clutched their children to them, then looked at the mountains, which swarmed with storms, held back by a wall of wind, threaded by lightning, that ran along the peaks.

Neela touched Mina’s shoulder. “Shouldn’t we get farther away?”

Zek answered for her. “The storms won’t cross the mountains—​they never do, unless deliberately directed here. Wind guardians will drive them back. You felt that wall of wind, right?”

“Yeah,” Ferro agreed. “Throughout the day, they’ll fly along the ridge, reinforcing that wall. Kind of cool, if it weren’t for the horrificness of the storm on the other side.”

Mina raised her head higher at that. If wind guardians come along the mountains, driving away the storms . . .

Saril asked, “Won’t they see us?”

“That would be bad,” Ferro said.