Page 91 of Wings of Ebony
H-he sees me? And hears me?
I shove Little Man completely behind me when the Elder raises his hands like he’s pulling down the very sky from overhead. Light dims and a loud clap rips through the air. He mutters something I can’t understand and fear pricks my insides like daggers.
I want to run, to move. But I’m stuck, frozen a few feet from him.
The Elder stares, but instead of malice in his gaze… there’s… is that… fear? He panics, and I tremble too. “I c-can feel it,” I say to Little Man, but he keeps his face tucked away. I can feel what the Elder’s feeling. Fear, worry, pain.
He clenches his jaw and pulls harder. The sky blackens like an afternoon storm. Violent. Dark. Sudden. Cold rain pelts down on me, thumping on my head. Malice fills his eyes.
He’s going to attack me.
L-like I’m the—
My throat constricts.I’mthe enemy in this vision? Oh my god, I am.I’mthe enemy here. Th-the Elder wants me to feel what he felt. He’s showing me… letting me see for myself what it was like when the Chancellor came for them. When he fled for his life.
A young child cries in the distance and the Elder flinches. Aasim? I-it’s Aasim. The Elder’s hands twitch and the weight of his sadness pangs through me.
He has to decide: Go for the baby or fight the enemy?
As if he can read my mind, he twists in the air and thrusts at us. I brace for the blow, holding Little Man tight behind me.
Something slams into my chest and I fly backward, hitting the ground with a thud.
I’m panting and Jhamal stands over me.
“My Queen? Are you okay?”
“The boy… I…”
“What boy?”
“I have to… he…” I pat the ground and realize I’m back in the pit. My next breath comes a little easier. I’m back on the cliff with Jhamal; dying flames crackle around us now. My clothes are wet… like rain-soaked, wet.
I’m okay. It’s okay. It’s over. The dream or vision or whatever it was is over.
“Did you feel them? The Ancestors?” he asks again.
“Y-yes, I-I can feel them,” I say to Jhamal.
And they can feel me.
I dust myself off. “I-I saw them. O-or was with them… o-or Iwasthem. I don’t know.”
“Saw who?”
“The Elder? H-he could uproot trees, warp the sky, command the rain, move the air like ripples of water. He shoved them at me.”
I sound delusional. This sounds completely delusional.
Jhamal smiles and our fingers brush each other again. This time we hold them there.
“That sort of magic hasn’t been seen in my lifetime,” he says, his breath so close it’s warm on my ear. “But, yes, my Queen—thatis the sort of power our people used to have.”
I don’t have words.
To hear it is one thing. But toseea single man move the earth with a slight movement of his hands. To watch him choose to fight, but know it ended in his death. I graze Jhamal’s arm; its warmth draws me to him.
“It’s so terrible. All of it is so terrible. I’m so sorry.” Thoughts race in my head, but shouts from beyond the fire snatch me away from the edge I’m teetering on—the edge of freaking TF out.
