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Chapter 44

There is no archer.
Yet again, I find myself on the furry back of some great flying steed, an armed force behind me apparently riding the same creatures. I lean anxiously forward as we approach the City Wall.
My eyes are cautiously scanning the ground below me, but there is nothing, no one. No archer with a flaming arrow.
With no one there to stop us, we fly silently over the wall, not but shadows in the night air. We're inside the city.
As high as I am, the great buildings of the City loom high above me, glowing masses in the dark. Far above my head, hundreds of glass walkways crisscross the air between the tall, mushroom-like buildings, great circular orbs glowing atop slender, curving stems.
I wonder that they keep the grass lawn so nicely kept- Nobody ever wanders to the ground, except the occasional Worker charged with mowing. The entire population of the First City lives in the clouds.
Unconsciously, I already know our target building. Smack in the center of circular City, surrounded by white and black glass towers, by silver and crystalline spires, rests the golden palace.
It's a true work of art, it really is. The gold-tinged glass stem rises up far above any of the other buildings, and at it's peak, rests a monumental, flawless golden glass sphere. At the precise top and center of the dome, is a small (Well, perhaps almost ten feet tall, but small compared to the rest of the structure) spire of black glass. Trailing down from the jet spire are three softly glowing stripes of likewise material, their black tips flowing down like rivers, and dipping down off the side of the sphere, continuing in the empty air for a few more feet, before tapering to sharp points so thin the naked eye cannot see them.
We're heading straight for it at top speed.
In back of me, I hear the sounds of screeching swords and claws against ceramic, shattering glass, as the army breaks off to the sides to tear down other structures, but I have eyes only for the palace.
The great creature beneath me lands heavily on the top of the shining gold dome with the screeching of claws- and slowly begins to slide down the side, unable to find purchase on the flawless surface.
Swiftly and silently, I leap from it's back, traveling far too far. For a brief moment, I'm hurtling, unsupported, through the night air, wind whistling past my ears, and the next I find myself standing in the middle of what could be the throne room.
Gold-tinged glass walls rise up around me, I can look down at the beautifully groomed lawns of the City below me through the glass-tiled floor.
"I told you not to come." My vision has suddenly become blurry, black clouds making it hard for me to make out the face of the figure in black, but I already know who it is. The blue eyes glare through the haze clearly, chilling me with a hatred that doesn't suit them.
I don't answer, but glare back defiantly at the figure. Suddenly, the soft light that illuminates the room glints sharply off two silver swords that seem to appear out of nowhere, moving through the air as if they're unsupported.
"Run." He says fiercely, the reflections of the blades in his hands making silver slivers across his eyes.
"Run!" With a snarl, he leaps forward, and suddenly my feet have become anchored to the ground. I'm unable to turn, to even look away, doomed to watch as both wicked swords whistle through the air, on either side of me.
"Ash."
The world fades to black as the dark clouds smother all other color, and all I can see in the night are the two glaring blue eyes that belong to the boy asleep not two feet from me.
"Ash!"
My eyes snap open.