The Heroine of Irlesoph (FIRST DRAFT)

Chapter Nineteen: Through the Fire

Whispers among the worried populous built slowly to break the silence. The air around us began to swirl, and a bolt of lightning struck the walls of the city, thundering through the streets.

Panic struck immediately, and the crowd broke apart. People screamed and names flew like arrows around as cliques reformed and friends and family held each other tightly.

Samoo lifted me into her arms and carried me as we followed Delzri back to the Jule.

"Zinkah's still in the castle!" Delzri called to us. I bobbed up and down in Samoo's arms and they ran swiftly, past the guards and soldiers who rushed to the frontlines. The sky had already begun to darken once we pushed into the Jule. Lightning was striking still, discolored from the electricity I had mustered a few moments ago.

"She was in her room to rest." Delzri said, and we all followed the stairs up to the next tier and she barged in through her bedroom door, but she wasn't inside. The hinges creaked and the wooden door was dismantled under the sheer force Samoo manifested.

"She's not in here," Samoo told Delzri. He peeked inside and pulled his head back out to the hallway.

"Zinkah!" Delzri called out to her, but he was muted by the thunder outside. He turned to us and wore a confounded face.

"Check the balcony," I gargled. Delzri patted my arm and raced through Zinkah's bedroom to the balcony. As we saw him leaving the Jule the bedroom collapsed, pinching shut the nearest way for us to have reached him.

"Should we look inside?" Samoo asked me with her token smile.

"Where would she be?" I said feebly.

"The kitchen, maybe."

"Check the kitchen."

"Okay!" Samoo raced through the corridors with unnatural speed. She continued down the stairs, and broke into the kitchen, but it had collapsed in by the time we got there, and stone and debris and dust piled on the floors.

I told Samoo to call for Zinkah, and she did, but no one answered.

"Is anyone here?" Samoo asked. Still no response.

"Dining hall," I mustered. Samoo took me there, but the kicked up dust was, once again, too thick to see through.

"Zinkah?" Samoo called out. This time, someone spoke up.

"Is someone there?" The voice, old and frail, pleaded. It was not Zinkah, but they needed help.

Samoo ran into the room, thunder booming and the stone shaking all around us. She found the woman who called for our help, and knelt down next to her. The face which poked out from the debris belong to Jayma.

"Help her," I said. "Put me down." Samoo set me down next to Jayma and began tearing rubble off of her.

"Are you okay?" I asked her.

"The ceiling broke so abruptly and it hit me so quickly, I couldn't react!" She said. "What's happening?"

"The storm finally came." I said bluntly.

The dust dissipated enough that I could see through it, only for a moment, and in the corner of my eye I saw red. It wasn't dark enough to be blood, it was a bright red, like... exactly like Zinkah's shirt.

I kicked my legs behind myself and pulled myself towards the red that I had seen before, and soon enough I had broken through the thick atmosphere and saw Zinkah, crushed underneath rubble, and unconscious.

I reached her and shoved one of the stones off of her by laying my whole body into it. I pushed a couple more, when Zinkah snapped awake, and she rolled away, almost seeming to ignore the weight of the rocks which had covered her entirely.