Asunder: A Gathering of Chaos by Cameron Hopkin (children's ebooks free online .txt) 📕

they gave them a wide berth, circling the great structure to the west. A tall, spike-tipped wall surrounded the grounds, and they stayed to the far side of the street as they sought out the arranged meeting spot.

“I think you underestimate young Nira,” said the warrior monk gravely. “She is a canny and capable young woman.”

She sneered. “Say it loud enough and maybe she’ll let you have a go, too.”

He frowned at her, offended, but said nothing more, which had been her intent. She didn’t want little Nira thinking too much of herself, and if she could keep Gamarron from praising her, so much the better. Her powers were growing, and keeping her under control was hard enough without some Gamarron taking her under his wing, making her feel better about who she was and what she could do. Plenty of time for healing souls and making the most of their lives once Renna was finished with them.

They reached the predetermined place – a nondescript stretch of stuccoed wall at the edge of the lane with a nice view of the west side of the manse. “I expected Kojan to be waiting,” remarked Gamarron. “Are they behind schedule?”

“I think we’re doing just fine,” Renna smiled. “Look.” She pointed to the upper level of the manse, where she could see Kojan hanging from an open window, one leg hooked through to the other side. “How in Gaia’s name did he get up there?”

“He told me of certain crystals that grow on the floating islands of Sky City,” Gamarron said. “Apparently folk grind them up and eat them starting as babies, and eventually they can control their own gravity. It’s not quite flying, exactly, but –”

His words were lost as a wall of flame gushed out of the window where Kojan was perched. The wall surrounding it burst outward with a roar, tossing stones as far as the street. It hardly mattered whether the Sky Islander could fly or not, because now little bits of him were flaming down into the gardens.

Chapter 11 Out of the Fire

Kest burst through the suite doors, ears still ringing. The far wall was simply gone, afternoon sunlight streaming in through rock dust and powdered mortar. Flames were licking at the ceiling and carpet, and a naked man stood silhouetted in the light, his narrow, pudgy frame shaking as he vomited violently onto the smoldering carpets. He was yelling something between heaves, but Kest couldn’t make it out. Someone else in the room was screaming – maybe more than one someones; his ears weren’t working very well.

He scanned the room for Nira and didn’t see her. Did he kill her? The thought sickened Kest – the pretty, dark-eyed girl was his responsibility. Why didn’t she use the sleeping powder? Did he catch her in the act? No time to figure it out now, not with an enraged, naked chaos wielder on the rampage. Where are his clothes? Did he force himself on her? Stop thinking and move, stupid! Guyrin was pacing and wiping his befouled face as he screamed out of the flaming opening in the wall. At any moment he could turn around and catch sight of the Beast Rider standing like a moron in the doorway. Kest ducked back into the hall.

He crouched against the wall, his heart thumping and ears ringing. The insensate guards were stretched all around. Hibben’s hardwood club lay on the floor beside him. It was the only weapon within reach. Do I dare? The chaos wielder could destroy him in an instant. It hardly mattered whether he did it by burning, which seemed to be the theme for the moment, or some other death plucked from his imagination – if the man saw him, he would die. Kest’s only chance was to sneak up and club him from behind. He’d have to do it now or not at all. As the roaring in his ears subsided, he could hear disturbances downstairs.

I could just run. He was immediately ashamed. He wouldn’t leave Nira to that monster. At the very least, he would recover her body. I might not be some great chief like I always thought, but I’ve got at least that much honor in me.

He crept toward Hibben’s club. As luck would have it, the fallen guard was in clear view of the room from the open doorway. He risked a peek past the doorframe and saw Guyrin standing in the breach; his pale skin was streaked with soot. “Come down and fight!” he was shrieking to the sky. Kest marveled once again at the idiocy of trying to kidnap someone so obviously insane. That decision was out of his reach for the moment, but the club was not, so he darted into the open and snatched it up.

“I see you!” came a mocking call from within, and his heart seized up in his chest. He slumped to the carpet and laid still, playing dead and praying to the dead elders of yore that the madman’s words weren’t directed at him.

He laid there for a long, tense moment with his eye clenched shut and his pulse thumping in his empty eye socket, wondering how he was going to die. The chaos wielder was silent. Stalking towards me? Standing over me, waiting for me to move? Toying with me? He dared not look. The silence dragged on, and the tension in his head ratcheted higher. He strained for any sound, but all he could hear was the distant shouts from downstairs and the subtle crack and snap of burning wood.

Finally, knowing that time was running out one way or the other, Kest turned his head toward the room with the smallest amount of movement possible and cracked his good eye. Hopefully Guyrin wasn’t looking. If he was, hopefully it would look like his eye was still closed. He knew it was the worst kind of rationalization even as he had the thoughts, but there was nothing for it. He