The Fragile Tower Chapter 36 - Ruidic's Fire

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            Grace grabbed at her head as an agonising roar tore through it. But then it died away, and left nothing but a ringing in her ears behind it.

            He's dead, she thought, and she felt that it should have filled her with relief. But Ruidic's spell wasn't finished yet, though its bonds seemed to hum in the air around her. And while they were all part of it, she knew that there was a wrong note somewhere. Something was missing.

            She saw, through the growing sense of wrongness, Roschan drop the mace. It struck the ground with a reverberating boom. He dropped to his knees in front of the fallen figure of the Queen and drew her head and shoulders up into his lap. His body was heaving and bucking, and she realised that he was crying, though she was staring up at him with a quiet smile.

He loves her, she thought, and realised that she shouldn't have been surprised. She remembered the fierce loyalty; the way he had snapped at her when she spoke against the Queen; and the way he had seemed torn in half by his duty to his city.

And that love had been part of the spell. Ruidic's spell was created from all of them, and their love, their hate, their fear – everything was part of it.

She saw Ma grab Benjamin towards her in a fierce hug, and realised that the love between Ma, and her, and Benjamin, was as much a part of the spell as Roschan's love for the Queen. But still that feeling of wrongness grew, until it was screaming in her head like a single mis-pitched note.

Edin was frozen in place, his eyes on the cold mage. She saw disbelief in his face, and anger. But then as she watched, it fell away and a vicious cunning took its place.

            She tried to weave a spell, but he was quicker, and fresher. In a slow, hanging second, she could see that she wouldn't finish it in time. She could see, too, that he was close enough to Ruidic's hiding place to blast him with magic, and he was strong enough to hurt him; maybe even to kill him.

            She had time to feel heavy and slow and desperate. Whatever he did, he would halt the spell, and the armies out in the snow would pour over the walls and kill all the living who stood in their way.

            Then Edin flinched, as a shape erupted from behind the hanging vines that screened Ruidic. It was a dark shape, and so swift that her eyes couldn't follow it. It collided with Edin and sent him toppling over, to land face down in the mud, spitting. Grace didn't have to see who it was to know. The feeling of wrongness vanished into the air, and Grace was filled instead with a singing happiness.

            Afi dropped downwards and pulled his brother's arms up behind his back, as Edin writhed and kicked at him. Grace met Afi's gaze, and the sad, tired smile he gave her was the last action that sealed the spell.

            She felt everything click into place, and she looked over the burned waste of the garden and through the glass towards Mida. There were creatures on top of the wall, dozens of little black shapes she knew to be wolves and the warped apes the mage had made. They started to fall towards the city, and then a blinding flash of light burst from the wall and the creatures vanished into nothingness.

            She walked towards the glass as she saw the light spread out beyond the wall, into the hordes waiting to climb up. As the light struck them they twisted and then winked out of existence, as if they had never been. But it wasn't just the wall that blazed with power. Dozens of beacons of light lit up in the city itself, making a dazzling pattern of buildings and bridges and houses that were made of the grey-white stone of the wall.

            Grace lowered her gaze to the ruins of Kryzna and saw lights there too, shining brightly enough that they showed up even in the bright evening sun. The tower itself was shining too, and of the army that had been at its foot, there was no trace.

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⏰ Last updated: Oct 27, 2019 ⏰

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