Part 5
"Escape to the Fold (1)"
We’re headed out of Boiling Bay at top speed, right? Carnie Wheel cars are coming unbolted and like BAM-CRUSH smashing to the left and right of us, and the Stormguard chase after us with these shields that make this ZAP-BZZT-ZAP-BZZT sound, and we’re taking fire over those shields, like magic bolts are slamming into people, and a fireball goes WHOOMSHHHHH through us and creates this freaking puddle of flame that we have to jump over. Dad’s armor is overheating, and this old Gythian war mage who’s doing all the talking is like, “We must escape to the barge!” and Dad’s like, “My daughter will have nothing to do with your old-world politics!” and I’m like, “Can we discuss this later when we aren’t, you know, about to die?”
We race down this old creaking dock toward the RAAAAAHHHHHRRR of these titanbacks that pull the barges. While the soldiers yank on the ropes to float a beast close enough for us to board, the Stormguard march closer, singing a creepy war song. An arrow goes SHTOOMP into the spine of the guy next to me. What’s left of the first line of Gythian defense stabs at the shields like zzzppttt–zzppptt, and Celeste holds my elbow and leans in.
“Do the thing,” she says. Then she smiles at me like everything isn’t chaos, like it’s just us on top of the world again.
So I gather up all the sound I feel. The titanback’s mouth yawns without a sound. The water doesn’t lap-lap-lap against the dock. This energy I’m gathering, it sucks up the Stormguard’s song. The flying arrows don’t whistle. The fireballs don’t crack. The Gythians yelling orders and instructions, they’re silenced. I grab it all, every sound I can find, and ball it all up into my hands. It feels like a beating heart.
I aim it, then I let it go.
It blasts in waves like WUB-WUB-WUB-WUB right at the line of Stormguard. Then the Gythians go to town on those dangerous dames, slice-n-dicing, and the Stormguard retreat, Gythians chasing after them.
I’m expecting accolades, like at least someone could act impressed? But the titanback burps out this big noise and the war mage is already trying to get Celeste onto the barge. Dad isn’t having it. He grabs Celeste back by her wrist. “She isn’t going,” he says.
The war mage goes on about how Celeste has to fulfill her destiny and take the throne blah blah blah, but Dad is having none of it. He even fakes a punch at the Gythian mage to make him flinch. Dad says the Storm Queen is threatening their dying civilization and they think throwing Sis at the problem will fix it. Celeste and I are like whoa. We learned about the tyrant queen in school, how her armies mow down and pillage other cities, killing dissenters and kidnapping talented kids to be raised as Stormguard soldiers.
It gets crazy-tense, and everyone’s talking about what’s best for Celeste. But it feels like my future’s being decided too. And I got a decision to make…
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