The Fragile Tower - Book 1 of the No.1 magical fantasy series

The Fragile Tower Chapter 24 - The Kind Illusion

"Grace!"

She heard Afi's urgent shout, but she ignored it. She was already drawing lines of fire in the air, and the look of shock on Ruidic's face was the only thing that could have delighted her then.

But before she could complete the symbol, she felt her legs fly out from under her. She struck the floor heavily, and her head hit the mosaic patterns hard enough to make her dizzy.

She could feel someone holding her down and fumbling for the wand. She kicked out at them, and levered herself off the floor so that she threw their weight half off her. She heard a sharp breath as they struck the hard floor in turn, but the hand that was round her wrist didn't falter.

"Wait!" he said, and she realised that it was Afi, stopping her from moving and from killing Ruidic when it was all she wanted. She couldn't imagine ever wanting anything again in her life.

"Stop it!" she said, punching at him with her free hand and flinging herself from side to side, trying to break his grip. How could he be so strong? And why couldn't he just let her do it?

She started to cry, with frustration and pain.

"Get off me! Get off me, Afi! I'm going to kill him!"

But she couldn't move, and she knew that Ruidic would kill them both, too, while she fought with him.

"Just wait!" he said, fiercely. She felt a tug on her shoulder as he pulled at the sewing-bag, and then a pressure against her neck.

"Look, Grace! Look!"

Afi released her wrist to pull her head around, painfully. For a moment her only thought was the wand, but as she brought her will to draw those shapes, her eyes took in what was in front of her.

Ruidic was looking at her with a slight smile. There was nothing beneath his feet, and the light was no longer green, but a warm yellow. It came from a glowing globe in his hand.

"It was an illusion," Afi said into her ear. She felt his breath against her cheek, and could hear that he was breathing hard with the effort of holding her down. "An illusion, Grace, caused by nightmares."

She put her hand to her neck, and realised what the pressure she had felt was. He had taken the true-seer and put it to her skin. He was holding it there. And then she remembered the book, and what it had said about the awful creatures called Nightmares that cold mages conjured.

They enter your mind, and show you visions of the most terrifying things you can imagine: of loved ones lost, of dreams destroyed; of your own death, or an eternity of powerlessness. And your fear becomes their power over you.

"I couldn't have killed him, Grace," Ruidic told her, a note of disappointment in his voice belying the self-confident smile. "I couldn't have killed any of them, no matter what she ordered me to do."

Grace felt the tension go out of all her muscles as relief flooded through her.

He's all right, she thought. He's all right.

Afi slowly released her head, leaving the true-seer against her neck but taking his weight off her. As he stood, his eyes went back to the floor where Benjamin had lain, and there was a twist to his mouth that made him look years and years older.

And then something flew out of the darkness behind him, and Grace shouted, "Afi!"

He spun more quickly than she had ever seen anyone move. His empty hand flashed, and then shone silver as he slid a blade from his sleeve and brought it around in a curve.

The white-shrouded figure that had flown towards him screeched, reeling backwards. Grace saw its face, e was

a pale, veined horror of a face with blank grey eyes and lank, curling black hair hanging over it.