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EXCERPT
Jad held his breath and pushed through a wall of rolling black. The air
cleared suddenly and he stumbled to a halt. He stood at the edge of the Tower
Square. Here, the smoke had space to flee upwards. It loomed overhead, a brutal
looking cloud, but Jad could see the destruction before him.
The tower, and the library attached to it, had been
obliterated. All that remained was a shell of fire and rubble. Watchmen swarmed
above it in pairs, one to carry the bucket, the other to tip it. Puffs of black
smoke battled against them, but they were winning. Despite there being little
to save, they were fighting.
Jad's vision cleared and his breathing steadied. He pulled his
attention away from the fallen tower and the sight of the bodies that littered
the ground stole his breath away again.
He wandered forwards. There was no smell of death, for the
stench of burning wood was too strong, but the weight of it was something
heavier than the worst sort of nightmare. This was war. This was consequence.
Some had been killed by arrows, some by the smoke, but most had been crushed
beneath the desperate stampede. Their lives had been taken by chaos and panic.
Jad had seen death before, but not like this. It numbed his anger, it numbed
everything.
The hiss and fizz of water meeting flame filled the air, the
aching wood popped and groaned. There were others like him, searching for
survivors, but they had each been silenced by horror. Jad knelt beside a woman
with no obvious wounds and pressed two fingers to her neck. She looked like she
could be sleeping, but he felt no pulse. He rested his hand on her cheek for a
moment, before looking up.
He spotted a head of dark hair, covered in ash, beside the
ruined tower, atop a pair of trembling shoulders that wore a familiar blue
dress. The dress was ruined, but he knew it instantly. He knew it was her.
He tried to shout her name, but he could not find his voice. He
choked on his relief and his joy. He ran for her, his boots scattering the
fractured stone and wood across the scorched cobbles. She did not stir. Even
when he dropped down beside her, she did not stir.
He gripped her shoulders and turned her, gently, to face him.
'Kammy?'
She jumped and recoiled. He thought she was going to push him
away. Her eyes filled with that deep blue and he could not tell if she saw him,
or if she was lost somewhere else. Her lips parted and she softened, reaching a
hand towards his cheek. Her eyes dropped to his once white shirt, now grey, and
she ran a hand over his chest. Jad's heart pounded.
Kammy's face crumpled and she sank back.
Jad reached for her, 'What...'
'I thought he was you...' she croaked, 'I thought he was you.'
Jad froze. She could only mean one man.
'I couldn't find my way back,' Kammy gripped the skirt of her
dress, 'I didn't know where I was.'
Had she truly seen Bagor? She must have if she thought that
Bagor was...Jad jerked upright, the hairs on the back of his neck standing on
end. A shiver passed through him. Was Bagor still near?
The fizz of steaming water pulled Jad back to the moment. His eyes fell to
Kammy's hands and with a sickening lurch he saw the blood on her fingers, the
blood that soaked the front of her dress.
Jad cupped her face, forcing her to focus on him as his heart
galloped into panic. 'Kammy, where are you hurt?'
She shook her head, pressing her trembling lips together, and
looked to her right. Only then did he notice that there was a body beside them,
half buried by the fallen tower. Only then did he look at it.
His heart punched out of his chest and he sagged forwards. Fii.
Fii. He could not look away from her face, each familiar line traced
with falling ash. His mouth opened in a scream that shredded his throat. He
clutched at the fabric of Kammy's dress and his head dropped into her lap, but
still he could not look away from Fii's body. He felt Kammy curl over him,
digging her fingers into his hair.
'I'm sorry,' she whispered.
Author Name: Marisa Cleveland
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