Swamped

"Fine," you mutter, handing over the reins. "But while you're doing that, I'm going to see if I can get a look at what our wizard is doing over there."

You put on the long goggles and look back. It's hard to tell, because there's an awful lot of small dust storms kicking up. You can see a few more splattered plants, though.

Wait a moment. Dust storms? They look to be converging...

"Is that bastard making a sandstorm?" you ask, incredulously. "Is that what's sucking in all the ether or whatever?"

"It would fit with the patterns I'm seeing, but it would also be even more worrying than it sounds," Long says.

"The hell is that supposed to mean?"

"Large-scale weather control is very difficult. I've never heard of it being done with fewer than a dozen expert wizards. But there are only four people over there, not counting the crows, and two were incapacitated the last I looked."

"So what you're saying is, either this wizard has lots of friends we don't know about, or we're dealing with a really, really powerful wizard."

"That is precisely what has me concerned, yes. But I suppose there's little we can do about it at this point except get out of range."

A question immediately rises to the top of your mind, and you know you're going to regret asking it, but you can't help yourself.

"You said 'little', not 'nothing'," you ask cautiously. "You wouldn't happen to be considering another option, would you?"