Chapter 49
The Mirror Hall
“ Wataru, over here!”
Wataru was still standing on the golem’s shoulder when Jozo thundered through the air beside him. Atop his back, Meena reached out with both hands.
A moment after Mitsuru disappeared, the golem underneath Wataru had begun to move. It was joining the rampage with both arms swinging.
Wataru leaped and latched onto Meena. A moment later a powerful stone fist jabbed upward through the air. Jozo flew out of range with an awkward lurch.
“Where’s Mitsuru?” yelled Kutz from behind. Her face was black with soot.
“The Crystal Palace!”
“Then that’s where we’re going! No time to waste!” Kutz grabbed onto her dragon’s horns and hugged her body low to its neck. The creature headed toward the Crystal Palace.
“You okay, Jozo?”
“You bet!” Jozo clenched his jaws and followed the larger dragon. Even Wataru could see that the young dragon had taken his share of beatings. The fires had scorched places where collisions with the golems and building wreckage had knocked off some of his scales.
The ring of golems around Solebria was tightening, drawing ever closer to the Crystal Palace. People were running madly through the maze of rubble and burning debris that was their city.
Wataru shouted to the dragons flying near them. “Get the people as far away from the Crystal Palace as you can! Everyone needs to go outside the city walls!”
They all nodded and spun off in concert. Meanwhile, the dragon carrying Kutz was rapidly streaking toward the city’s capital building.
Wataru sensed something. It had the distinct flavor of magic, but he wasn’t sure what it was. He had felt a similar stirring in the air at the Triankha hospital, and also at the Port of Sono.
“Look out, Kutz!” he screamed.
But just as he shouted, the outline of the Crystal Palace warped. A moment later, a great whirlwind arose from the middle of the castle. The spinning column of wind quickly became a cylinder, growing steadily, enveloping Kutz and her dragon in the blink of an eye.
“Look out!!”
Jozo’s wings rippled as the cyclone waves blasted them. Wataru’s cry was lost in the roar and they were pushed back from the castle. Tossed like a handkerchief in a washing machine, Wataru and his friends were unsure which way was up or down.
Throughout the city, the golems wavered as the cyclone winds buffeted them. Rubble from fallen buildings lifted into the air, pelting anything that continued to stand. One stone house was ripped from its foundation and tossed afar. Something looking like a fiery watchtower flew through the air directly over Jozo’s head. It crashed into the castle walls, falling to the ground in a dazzling pyrotechnic display.
“Hold on!” Jozo screamed. Kee Keema grabbed Meena with one hand and wrapped his other around the edge of Jozo’s wing. “Wataru, my leg!”
Wataru reached out, grabbing Kee Keema’s ankle with both hands. The winds had pushed him off Jozo’s back until he was hanging with nothing but empty sky below his feet. They were falling. The ground came hurtling towards them. Falling, falling…
Then, as though a giant hand appeared from below to cushion the fall, Wataru felt them rise once again. Jozo tilted his wings, regained control, and took off toward the sky. In relief, he roared a spiraling ball of flame.
“Is everybody okay? Nobody dropped off?”
“All here, Jozo!”
They had been tossed nearly to the outer city walls. The other dragons were fighting to remain near the cyclone. Wataru could see them beating their wings, railing against the powerful winds. He counted them: one, two…all seven were there. Which is Kutz’s dragon? Where is she?
“Kutz!” he shouted, but the wind snatched the cry out of his mouth and tossed it away.
“Here! I’m here!” Kutz’s dragon came flying down to where they were, one wing dipping lopsidedly as it came. It appeared to be slightly wounded. Jozo descended further. Wataru climbed up his neck until he was directly on Jozo’s head. The dragon’s eyes were filled with tears.
“That was too scary,” Jozo muttered. “What was that?”
“Wind magic. Mitsuru wrapped it around the Crystal Palace so we couldn’t come near.” Wataru patted Jozo on the head. He felt like crying too.
When they were in flying formation with Kutz’s dragon at last, he saw that the staunch branch chief was wounded too. She was covered with burns and soot except for one place above her right eye. The blood from a cut on her face had washed a little bit of the smoky grime away. “No way we can get in there now!” Kutz swore, gritting her teeth. Her whip hand was covered with blood. “Can you do something about that damn barrier?”
“I’m not powerful enough to break it,” Wataru said, struggling to steady his breathing. “The only thing I can think of is to use warp magic to jump inside.”
Kutz opened her one good eye wide. “If you could do that, why didn’t you say so earlier?”
“I can try it, but I’m not sure it’ll work. I can’t control it like Mitsuru does. I don’t know exactly where we’ll end up.”
“Nothing to do but try then!” Kutz said, lightly jumping from her dragon onto Jozo’s back. “Let’s go,” she said, grabbing onto Wataru’s arm.
“Go?”
“You’re taking us with you! I’ll warp too if I’m holding on to you, right?”
Wataru looked around at Kee Keema and Meena.
“You two help the people down in the city,” he said. Then, before Meena could protest, he added, “Kutz and I will deal with Mitsuru!”
Meena’s wide eyes reflected the red flames from below. “O-okay.”
“You be careful,” Kee Keema said, kneeling on Jozo’s back. “All right, Jozo! Once Wataru and Kutz are gone, you can take us down to the city. We’ll help get the survivors to safety!”
Jozo gave his wings of a powerful beat. “Gotcha!”
Wataru shut his eyes and mouthed the words to the spell. He felt his body grow light and he could no longer feel the heat of the blaze or the push of the wind. I’m a magebullet. He shot into the air, streaking over the heads of the golems and above the capital city of Solebria. He was heading straight toward the Crystal Palace.
Suddenly, reality snapped back into focus. Wataru was floating in the air with Kutz by his side. Right in front of them they saw a large terrace, an elegantly decorated watchtower, and sweeping stone balustrades. It was the palace! The central spire caught the light of the sun, reflecting it back into their eyes.
For a split-second, Wataru saw a garrison of Knights lying upon the ground in the shadow of the arched gates. Blood, blood, blood. Gore had been splattered everywhere. Here was a steel boot lying haphazardly on the cobblestones. There was a silver helmet sitting in a fountain, filling with crimson-stained water…
“We’re falling!” Kutz shouted. Like a pair of anvils, the two plummeted straight toward the blood-splattered stone terrace.
“Don’t interfere!” A voice rang in Wataru’s ears. It was Mitsuru. A light flashed in the depth of Wataru’s eyes, and suddenly, it was as though they had collided with an invisible wall in the air. Magic impacted with magic, and the world around Wataru warped and exploded.
Kutz shouted with rage and confusion, grabbing on to Wataru’s arm.
With a thud, they landed. They were on the ground. Wataru’s neck jolted with the impact.
“Where are we?” Kutz looked around. Wataru held his head in his hands until the world agreed to stop spinning around him. He shut his eyes.
When he opened his eyes again, he saw green.
They could still see the Crystal Palace, but it was considerably farther away now. Still, they could see the shining spire and the walls much clearer than when they had been over the city. Thin ribbons of smoke flowed out of the many castle windows.
“I think we’re on the castle grounds—this appears to be some kind of garden,” Kutz said with disbelief.
Somehow, the two had been transported into one of the many beautiful gardens surrounding the Crystal Palace. A gazebo stood upon a simple stone platform. It was the Garden of Victory, the very place where Mitsuru had spoken with Lady Zophie.
“Quiet here, isn’t it,” Kutz said, standing and wiping away the blood that had run into her right eye. “Not even a palace guard to greet us.”
“I think we’re inside Mitsuru’s wind-wall.” Wataru tried to stand, but his knees gave out beneath him. Kutz held him up.
“So this was spared the worst…” Kutz began, and fell silent. Now that her eyes were focusing properly, she could clearly see that the garden had been ravaged. Flowers were scattered, several trees had been uprooted, and the fence that surrounded the garden leaned at an awkward angle.
In the shadow of one of the hedges, two men appearing to be guards lay with their legs and arms splayed out upon the grass. Their blood stained the dirt an ominous black. Mitsuru’s winds had passed through here, with edges sharp as sickles. The storm had slashed through everything made of flesh.