Page 27 of Knight's End
Chapter Seven
We arrived back at the capital an hour before dusk only to see utter devastation. Marscha was flattened. Not a building remained standing.
From my place on the back of my gargoyle, I surveyed the damage. Searing pain filled my body at the thought of what had happened to all those poor souls. The pitched rooves of the houses were still intact, but the walls were gone, blown out and collapsed. On every single building. This was too much to have been the work of giants.
My eyes searched the wreckage for a gargoyle—they could withstand most things. But I didn’t spot one. I didn’t know if that was good or bad. I didn’t know if that meant Ryan had gotten sidetracked on his way here or …
Blue pulled his mount up beside me, to hover next to mine. "It's wish magic," he said.
"You're sure?" I asked. Even growing up during the last Fire War, I hadn’t seen such devastation. I’d seen towns half-burnt. I’d seen fields set ablaze. But even a dragon hadn’t been able to raze an entire capital city so that no building remained standing. Could it be wish magic? I’d never seen it, not during the last war. Of course, mother had had an alliance with the sultan, so perhaps that was why.
Blue scrunched his face in concentration. A minute later, he sent me a mental image of a town that was nestled into a sand dune in the middle of the desert. His memory played out as though he watched from his camel, the beast’s neck occasionally coming into view. A line of half-djinn soldiers each whispered a wish. Then, on the sultan’s signal, they all said, “Granted,” at the same time. The soldiers all writhed as their nightmares set in—tentacles sprouting from their arms, eyeballs going missing. The brick buildings with their turrets and towers capped by red onion domes, collapsed in upon themselves in one fell swoop. The onion domes had been the only items to survive, rolling across the hot sand like toys, like children’s tops that had been abandoned. The sight was haunting. And it clearly reflected the scene in front of us.
Horror churned in my stomach.How’s that possible?
He calls it stringing wishes. Every wish can only have one objective or target. But he decides ahead of time on each target—the mill, the granary, and so on. Then he has each soldier make a wish to blow out the walls of one building. When they all grant them at the same time … It's how he ended the town of Qaleh,Blue thought sadly.He made my brothers and I watch.
I’m sorry.I imagined giving Blue a hug.
He returned the hug in my head, holding me close and swaying back and forth, letting me pat his back as he buried his face in my neck.
I’m sorry,he replied.I never thought I’d have to see it again. I’m sorry he did this. If I could wish for him to lose his throne, if I could wish for his death, I would.
Blue …I wanted to tell him that everything would be okay. But one look at the scene in front of me made those words a lie.
How could everything be okay? How could this possibly end well? I wondered.
I pulled out of our mental conversation and waved my hand at the crushed city in front of me. "Wouldn't the nightmare for collapsing an entire building be too much?"
Blue sighed and scrubbed a hand over his face. It was a minute before he could speak aloud again. A minute in which the guilt ate at me, growing like a pit in my stomach at the thought of all the people who’d died. People who’d been my responsibility.
Blue finally spoke, "My father, though wishes cost him nothing, thinks wishing is below him. He’d rather watch others suffer. He doesn’t care if the nightmare’s too much.”
“Why would anyone accept that? Be part of it?”
“My country isn’t like Evaness. Those who refuse are ostracized, tortured, wishes are turned against them.”
My other knights flew closer to hear Blue’s words. Declan had come to, but he looked horrid. He was pale and wan, as though he’d been in his sickbed for a year.
I motioned for us to land. We touched down at the edge of town on the side farthest from the castle. My gargoyle knelt so I could slide off unassisted. I patted its head, glad it was maturing, hoping that meant that maybe Ryan would be able to get our flying fighters moving. I tried to force myself to believe he was unhurt and here somewhere, helping. I tried to convince myself that he was alright. I reminded myself that four of my knights were bound to one another. If Ryan had been killed, they would have fallen down dead.
But death and injuries were different. He could still be hurt and bleeding. His legs could be crushed under a wall. I cut off my thoughts. They were wandering too far into frantic speculation. I reined them in, but my fingers wouldn’t stop shaking.
Dini said, “Well, you’ve turned out to be a rather unstable ride.” She wriggled on me, tugging uncomfortably at my skin in her bark-like form. I scratched at her until she cooed and settled back, “That’s the spot. A bit lower. A bit lower.”
When I scratched a bit harder, she made a moaning noise.
I stopped. “Dini? Did I hurt you?”
“Why’d you stop?” she protested. “I was almost there.”
Shock and disgust flooded me as I realized the implication of her words.
No, she can’t mean that, I thought. I’m projecting.
I cleared my throat awkwardly and turned to my gargoyle.
“Stay,” I murmured to my beast. He sunk to his stomach. The other gargoyles seemed to follow his lead, which was good for us. I didn’t want to lead them through town. They’d be more likely to cause even further destruction than be a help.
