CADO [DISCONTINUED]

= Ch 18: The Jaws of Fate =

With the sun dancing across the horizon, we kick back on a bench outside of our apartment building.

"Carnage, I think we'll be just fine."

He grunts a reply.

A cool afternoon breeze drifts through the city, telling stories of the dark night that hangs just out of sight. I watch the wind dance between the buildings up into the vast blue above, where it supports the wings of gliders and fills the colored canvases of hot air balloons.

What a beautiful life.

"M'am?" A stranger's voice says.

"Mm." Can't I be left alone for just a minute?

Before I can react, something metal clinks onto my wrist.

A stout man with a pristine uniform holds the other end. "M'am, this is Robert Philmore with the Crooked Run Police. I need you to come with me."

I leap to my feet, trying to tug against it, but someone else has already grabbed my other hand. One kick and my knees fold. The backup pins me to the ground, holding my arm behind my back.

"Well, this is a first!" I spit into the grit of the ground. "I've never been arrested by anyone so capable, you know."

"We came prepared." The man shrugs.

"Ey, Carnage!" I call out.

"I surrender!" Carnage raises his hands.

Oh that wimp! How dare he give in so easily! I turn to try and look at him, but the guards tug me away, practically dragging me down the street.

My hands are tightly cuffed behind my back. Someone confiscates my sword and, next I know, Carnage and I are being marched down the street, gawked at by passersby. My manacles rattle.

"Carnage!" I cry out, squirming. "Come on, do something!"

He nods. Then, in one swift move, he turns tail and darts off. He's — he's running?! I struggle to watch him, twisting just in time to see him run into a wall of a guard. The massive policeman, decked out in knives and a gigantic axe, glares down at puny Carnage. He shrinks, scrambling back.

Two sets of handcuffs now clink on our way down the street.

"You idiot," I mutter.

He scowls. "You told me to do something!"

"I didn't tell you to run like a headless chicken!"

A guard shoots us a glare.

"Where are we headed?" the idiot asks.

The guard doesn't reply, only tugging at his shackles.

I crane my head up. "That spire? I don't know."

An ancient dagger stabs into the sky. A crescent moon shines at its highest tip. In the midst of the city, it looms above all else, supported by a system of flying buttresses and smaller towers. From just below the tip of the massive structure, two bridges extend, one to each top-heavy floating island.

"Is there a staircase in that thing? Are we climbing all the way up?!" Carnage shakes his manacles in agony.

One of the guards tugs at his chain. "If you don't shut up, yes. All 40 flights."

I need to fight my way out of this, somehow. "Why are we being arrested?"

"The law does not demand that I disclose this."

So, he's being stubborn. I grit my teeth. "The law may not, but I do."

He shrugs me off. "You have no power here."