He wheeled on her; if she hadn’t been holding Pan, she might have run him through on instinct. He looked ready to flay her. Normally, she would have answered his snarl with a quip and an apology, but she had no time to smooth things over. The storm was worsening and every moment they stood still was another chance to die. If she was to survive—and Chamera very dearly wanted to keep living—she couldn’t do it alone. Not with her arm wounded and her voice lost.
 
There was another scream. Chamera flinched, all too aware of her guilt. She was leaving these men and women to die. They might be criminals (or worse, enemies of the Zhents and good people), but they didn’t deserve this. It was wrong. She wanted nothing more than to grab the keys and open every cell, but there wasn’t time. All she could do was pray and run.
 
“Look,” she began, but he interrupted her with assent. Chamera bit her tongue promptly. She wasn’t going to run the risk of him changing his mind. She didn’t know if she could even trust his promise. But her eyes were sharp, and there was something like hunger in his shadowed face. Magic for their lives? It was a fair trade. Pan snored into her neck, his icy breath stinging. She’d convince Pan of the bargain later, if he ever woke again. Chamera nodded.
 
 “Deal. Let’s go,” she sheathed her blade in the holster tucked into her boot. She slipped her shoulder out from beneath Pan, rotating the joint in a quick stretch. Slipping beneath him, she rose in a smooth motion, his unconscious frame strewn across her shoulders. She’d carried many a drunken companion like this, but never across a battlefield. A hailstone dropped around two meters ahead of her, shattering into a spray of icy debris. Eyes stinging in the cold, she steeled herself and began to run. She wasn’t able to flit nearly as gracefully, but it was easier to move without Pan’s legs tripping her up.
 
There was no time to keep the drow in her sights. Dodging the streaming ice demanded every ounce of her attention. There was a great roar and a wave of heat. The fire in the sky had touched earth, swirling in a violent vortex in the square. People were screaming, the funnel of flames wandering towards them. Chamera dug deep for the energy to run faster, fueling her legs with terror and grit. The square gave way to ruined fields, livestock fleeing in panic, a harvest in shambles all around her. Chamera stumbled, swearing in every language she knew, the forrest just ahead. Gods be good, she might actually pull this off.