by C. Greenwood
As the shadow of a collapsing structure loomed over me, I dropped to my knees and wrapped my arms protectively around my head. I expected to feel the crushing weight of the building on top of me. Instead, the ground reverberated with the force of the crash, and the deafening noise blocked out all other sound.
When I opened my eyes again, a haze of dust and debris made it hard to see far in any direction. Through the dirty cloud, I saw that most of my escort and all the nearest guards had been crushed beneath the fallen stone. Even Sandros was lost beneath the rubble. I had escaped only because the space where I had crouched happened to be beneath a doorway. Others had not been so lucky.
The rumblings in the ground continued. Whatever forces of nature were tearing the city apart, they were not done yet. I looked around and made a split-second decision what to do with my unexpected freedom. I scrambled over the broken chunks of rock and fled.
The enemies I left behind were smashed or in disarray. Any survivors were not thinking of pursuing me now. I took advantage of the chaos and raced down the road as fast as the shifting ground would allow. I quickly dodged off the main street and plunged down less crowded side alleys.
I knew exactly where I was going. I raced toward the little house I shared with my grandmother. It stood on one of the narrow backstreets behind the Depository of Knowledge. All the time I ran, I didn’t ask myself what I would do when I arrived there. I refused to wonder how I could possibly prevent the ruin of the city.
No, I focused only on the goal of getting home. Once I made sure my grandmother had been unharmed by the quakes, I would figure out some plan to save us.
But the closer I got to the depository, the worse the damage became. It looked as if the most severe destruction had been centered around this area. I rounded one demolished building and came to a dead stop. Directly in front of me, where the depository had once been, was a hole where the ground had dropped away. The depository and the streets behind it, including my home, were simply gone, swallowed by the earth. In their place was a deep chasm splitting through the heart of the city.
Numb with shock, I stared into the yawning chasm, struggling to comprehend what it meant. My grandmother had been in the house. I had left her there only this morning. Now she was gone.
I touched the beltpouch hanging from its cord at my waist where I still carried the valuable artifact. I had taken it to buy my grandmother’s medicine. But the tiny stolen minuteglass would do her no good now. Nothing could save any of us.
A fresh shiver ran through the ground, making the mouth of the pit widen.
Unable to stare into the chasm any longer, I turned away and began to run.
I ran with no particular destination in mind, only the plan to get to the highest ground possible. Almost of their own accord, my feet carried me away from the buildings and streets of Corthium and up a steep northern hill. Here I had a view of the city on the near side, while on the other, jagged cliffs looked down to the sea.
I scrambled breathlessly up the steep rocky slope until my lungs burned and my legs trembled. Only when I neared the top did I pause to catch my breath and look back the way I had come.
The sight that met my eyes was like one from a nightmare. From this vantage point, I could see that the entire island had been split into pieces and whole chunks of it were now sliding into the sea. The city itself was in ruins, the worst of it centered around the hole that the depository and surrounding streets had sunk into. In less than an hour, a great civilization that had stood for a thousand years was reduced to rubble. Worse, the angry ocean was churning and dashing wildly against the shore, like a hungry beast eager to devour what remained.
Far below me, I could see the little fishing boats tossing wildly in the harbor. People, looking as tiny as ants, rushed to fill the vessels. But their efforts were in vain for massive waves came rushing in toward the island, slamming into the bobbing vessels, capsizing some and dashing the rest onto the shore where they broke apart.
The sea didn’t stop there but washed over the beach and flooded into the city, a great wave that carried away everything in its path. I saw winged figures rising before the flood, dragonkind taking flight like frightened birds to escape the destruction. But remembering the words of the king’s council, I knew none of the survivors now soaring above the submerged island would make it to the distant shores of the nearest land. Their flight only delayed their inevitable deaths.
Turning away from the terrible scenes, I climbed higher. If I could get to the most elevated point on the island, maybe the floodwaters would stop before reaching me. It was too late for the others, too late for my grandmother, but I might still survive.
My magic-tainted hand was a distraction as I clambered up the rocky hill. A cold prickly sensation still tingled from fingertips to wrist.
When I reached the top of the bluff, I found the hollowed-out skeleton of an ancient watchtower before me. It wasn’t the earthquake that had destroyed the structure. Time itself had wrought this destruction. One of the oldest buildings on the Ninth Isle, all that was now left of the tower was a high heap of crumbling stones, encircled by pillars and strangled by weeds and vines. A partial stairway wound around it, ascending toward the sky but ending abruptly in the nothingness of midair. In old times, before the sinking of the other isles, this had served as both a watch place and a beacon tower, a means of communication with the nearest of the Nine Isles. Now it looked out onto an empty sea, with no other land in sight.
The watchtower had no sooner appeared before me than I was startled by an unexpected motion at its base. I flinched instinctively.
A massive creature as large as a whale and as fierce as a tiger thrashed in the shadows, struggling against strong chains that bound it between the stone pillars.
CHAPTER FIVE
Recent events had driven from my mind the conversation I had overheard back at the depository. With all that had happened, I had forgotten that Skybreaker, the mad dragon, had been moved to the north-facing cliff.
This was my first time seeing the famous dragon at such close range. With his muscular body and broad powerful wings, he was an awesome sight. Horns like thick twisted lances spiraled back from his head. Rows of sharp teeth and curved claws looked as wicked and deadly as daggers. Iridescent scales that were probably as hard as armor had a bluish tinge beneath the deep shades of the evening sky, but I could imagine them changing to sunset colors under different light.
I raised a hand to my face, which was lightly patterned with similar scales. But apart from our scales and horns, the dragon and I had nothing in common. I sensed mindless fury rolling off him in waves. There was no glint of reason in his wide fiery eyes. He was a crazed beast, not a rational creature.
I kept my distance. Skybreaker was not a fire breather, but he was still a known killer of men. It was said that he had lost all memory of the special bond that used to exist between my kind and his. It wasn’t for nothing that the king’s son and many others had wanted him de-winged. He was a dangerous beast.
A horrible thunderous noise made me turn from the momentary distraction of the dragon wrestling with his chains. I looked back out over the island to see what remained of the ancient city cave in on itself and sink into the sea. Next came the surrounding jungle and the green hills beyond. Blue ocean surged inward and covered the lower parts of the island. With a numbed sense of unreality, I watched the end of the only world I had ever known.
Behind me, Skybreaker seemed to sense the chaos, for the dragon let out an earsplitting noise that was something between a scream and a roar. Was it his own survival that concerned him, or did he sense the tragedy befalling my people?
Glancing back to see him straining against his chains and struggling to free himself, I realized that he was as doomed as any of us. Chained to the pillars, his wings would do him no good. He would go down with the rest of the isle.
A strange impulse shot through me then, as unexpected as the urge that had made me touch the Shelte
ring Stone. If the Ninth Isle and all its people were to be wiped off the earth, one last part of us could yet remain, a legacy of the dragonkind.
Not out of pity for the beast but for the sake of my people, I rushed to aid the dragon. I snatched up a loose chunk of rock, one of the stones that had fallen from the old watchtower, and ran to where the great beast was bound between the pillars. The creature snapped at me and swatted a massive wing in my direction. The chains held it fast, but I felt the wind of its wing passing over me. Any closer and the bone-spike at the tip of the wing would have pierced me.
“Stupid lizard, I’m trying to free you!” I shouted angrily, although I doubted the dragon understood me.
Taking care to keep just beyond Skybreaker’s reach, I smashed the chunk of rock over and over against the main chain. Sparks flew beneath my repeated blows until at last a link in the chain was crushed. But the dragon wasn’t free yet.
Before I could move to the next chain, a cruel voice rang out across the cliff top.
“Do you truly think to save yourself by fleeing on the back of the dragon, while the rest of us die?”
I spun around to find Milos, son of the king, climbing up onto the bluff. He had been nearby when the building fell on my escorts. I didn’t know how he had escaped being crushed or how I had failed to realize he was following me out of the city. But here he was now, standing on the cliff top, a sharp spear he must have taken from one of the dead guards clutched in his hands.
“That beast is mad,” he continued, jerking his head toward Skybreaker. “It cannot save you. But it is not too late for you to save us, to undo the devastation you have brought upon your own people and this island.”
His harsh words found their mark. My insides twisted with guilt.
“The Sheltering Stone and the whole city have been swallowed by the sea,” I told him, raising my voice to be heard above the wind blasting over the cliff and the rumbles of destruction from below. “That cannot be changed.”
“No!” he insisted. “With your death, the chaos might be reversed. The power could still return to the stone.”
I shook my head. “That’s impossible. You’re as mad as the dragon.”
At that, he gave an angry cry and charged at me with his spear upraised.
Unarmed and unprepared for the attack, there was nothing I could do but hurl the rock in my hand at him. My aim was better than I thought, and the hunk of stone struck him squarely in the forehead. He stumbled, blood running from the gash between his eyes. But it was only a momentary hesitation, and then he recovered to rush at me again. My eyes fixed on the sharp tip of the spear that was mere seconds away from piercing my middle.
Nearby, the dragon screamed and thrashed. There came a sudden metallic snapping sound. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw one end of a shattered chain fly through the air. There was the thrumming noise of beating wings, and then a long shadow fell over Milos and me. We both looked up to see the magnificent and terrible sight of Skybreaker lifting into the air. The remaining chains grew taught, then snapped like bits of string as the dragon burst free. In rising, he slammed against the closest pillars, setting them wobbling on their ends.
Frozen in shock, I could only stare as one of those pillars collapsed toward me. I braced myself, but just when it looked like it would crush me, the column narrowly missed striking me. Instead, it crashed down on Milos, flattening my enemy where he stood.
With a screech of victory, Skybreaker rose up into the darkening sky, a broad shadow outlined by evening stars. The wind from his flapping wings buffeted me like the gale of a storm, kicking up dust and loose pebbles and tossing my hair into my eyes.
Everything happened quickly then. There was no time to understand or react.
The impact of the column smashing into the rocky ground, followed by other pillars falling around it, reverberated through the cliff. Torn by quakes below and crashes above, the bluff could take no more. All at once, the ground began to break up beneath my boots. I backed away from the chasm splintering across the surface. I stumbled past the watchtower, past the boulders and low scraggly trees, until there was nowhere left to go. I stood on the edge of the cliff.
With a sense of unbelieving horror, I watched the cracks in the ground shoot toward me, felt the rocks crumble from beneath my feet.
Then I was falling, dropping like a stone. The descent was so swift I caught only a fleeting glimpse of the bluff I fell away from, of the heavy chunks of debris falling down after me. I saw a smudge of deep blue above—the star-dotted sky. Then everything became a blur so that I couldn’t tell whether I was looking up or down.
I plunged into the cold. That’s all I felt at first. Not wetness, not the churning of water. Only cold. I tried to breathe and sucked in a mouthful of water. Only then, choking for air, did I realize I had fallen into the sea. Understanding was immediately followed by the feeling that I was being torn apart by the powerful current, swirling and dragging me in every direction at once. I tried to fight against it, tried to strike out for the surface. But my efforts were weak. My lungs were on fire. In my confusion, I didn’t know which direction to swim. All I could see was darkness. All I could hear was rushing and roaring.
Suddenly a new sound met my ears over the furious tumult of the ocean, the repeated sounds of heavy objects splashing into the water above me. Debris from the crumbling cliff, I thought. I made a frantic effort to paddle out of the path of the falling rocks. But I was blind in the shadows of the deep water and as slow and clumsy as a fish with no fins. A heavy weight struck my back and another hit my head. Dazed by the sharp blows and the lack of air, I felt the life draining from me. Consciousness was slipping away.
Then came another immense splash from above. In my stupor, the sound reached me as if from a distance. The water roiled all around. Something hard and sharp caught hold of me and coiled around my waist. I was being pulled, lifted upward.
The angry ocean fought to hold onto me, but the thick bands squeezing my middle were strong. They dragged me against the sucking current, raising me up until my head broke the surface.
Coughing up the water I had swallowed, I gasped for breath. I sucked the air in greedily, hating the tightness around my waist that kept me from breathing as deeply as I wanted. I squirmed against the grip, but it was impossible to escape. I became aware of a floating sensation. Was it just dizziness because I had been so close to passing out?
I blinked the water from my eyes and tried to focus. Looking down, I saw an expanse of blue passing in a blur beneath me. Above was more blue, sprinkled with golden dots that I decided were stars. And blotting out the stars directly overhead was a massive black outline, a terrible form of scales and shadows. Skybreaker.
I discovered the powerful bands around my middle were the beast’s claws, gripping me tight. I shivered, whether from fear or cold, I didn’t know. My ears were filled with the rhythmic beating of the dragon’s wings. But beyond that was the distant raging of the ocean below.
As we rose higher and the water dropped away, I caught one final glimpse of my home. What was left of the flooded island was an indistinct shape in the gloom of dusk, a patchwork of green jungles and rocky hills. As I watched, the last trees atop the highest peaks were submerged beneath the churning water. As suddenly and violently as that, the Ninth Isle sank into the sea.
CHAPTER SIX
I wasn’t aware of losing consciousness, but it must have slipped away sometime during the long night that followed. When I woke, it was with an image of the Sheltering Stone in my mind. I could almost see the magic flash rippling through it, calling me to reach out and touch the rock.
I stretched out my arm toward the stone. But on opening my eyes, I saw it was only a fistful of wet sand I gripped between my fingers. Confused, I squinted beneath the dazzling glare of the sun reflecting off the pale sandy beach around me.
Where was I? This wasn’t my small house on a quiet street behind the depository. Every morning of my life, I had awoken ther
e to the sight of a low mud ceiling above my head and the distant cries of the jungle birds in the hills beyond the city. There were faraway bird sounds now, but these were unfamiliar screeches, strange calls I had never heard before. And over them, nearly drowning out all other noises, was the roar of ocean waves crashing on the shore.
It was the sound of the sea that brought it all back to me. Memories returned in a rush. The touching of the forbidden stone, the king’s judgment in the Chamber of Rule, fleeing to higher ground as quakes rocked the city. I remembered my grandmother was dead, our house swallowed into a chasm. I recalled the attempt of the king’s son to kill me, and my long fall into the ocean. That made me think of the dragon, Skybreaker. The jolt of fear that shot through me when I remembered being carried off by the dangerous creature made me scramble to my knees.
I looked around, but there was no sign of the mad dragon. All I found to either side was an empty beach spanning as far as I could see. Behind me was the water. Directly before me was a scattering of strange trees with finger-shaped leaves that waved gently in the breeze. Nothing looked familiar. Wherever I was, it was not part of Corthium. I had seen all that sink into the sea.
I dusted loose sand off my face and shook the grit from my hair. In the process, I caught sight of the reddish-purple shimmer still clinging like a glove to my hand. I flinched and instinctively tried to wipe it off my skin. But as before, the magic couldn’t be removed. Giving up the effort, I climbed to my feet.
My clothes were still slightly damp from the water, so I couldn’t have been lying on the shore for long. I shivered in the wind, despite the brilliance of the sun overhead. From its position, I guessed it was midmorning.