hands of the Flighters. It was anybody’s guess as to whether or not she was still alive. Were the Flighters that evil? Would they actually kill someone in cold blood?
I felt someone touch my shoulder and nearly yelped in surprise. I sat up fast and hit my head. It didn’t hurt, but the sound seemed as loud as an explosion. Did anyone hear? It was Loque. We sat there, frozen, waiting to see if the Flighters had heard. A few minutes passed. Nobody showed up. It actually gave us more confidence. If nobody heard that loud bang, they were probably gone.
“I’ll take a look outside,” Loque whispered. “If it’s clear, I’ll signal, and we can start out.”
I nodded. Siry didn’t move. Loque gave me a quick smile. “Don’t worry, we’re going to get out of here and get Twig back.”
Siry didn’t respond. Loque gave me a worried look and quietly left. He was the perfect person to go. Judging by our earlier stealthy jaunt through the jungle, Loque would be able to make this a quiet scout. I’d probably trip over something and make a huge crash that would bring the Flighters running back.
“You okay?” I whispered to Siry.
He stared ahead, unseeing. “It wasn’t supposed to be like this,” he said softly. “I know.”
“I’m not leaving this horror city without Twig,” he added.
I didn’t argue with him. What for? Events would tell us what to do. Hopefully that would include rescuing Twig. As much as I wanted that, I was smart enough to know it wasn’t a lock. One thing at a time. I left Siry and snuck to the doorway. Kneeling down, I cautiously peered out to the cathedral. I scanned the whole floor until I saw Loque creeping along the wall to my right. He moved quickly through the piles of junk, making himself nearly invisible as he surveyed the vast space.
Siry joined me, kneeling down and peering out from the other side of the door. We made eye contact. He gave me a nod and a reassuring smile. He looked like a scared little kid, which meant he looked like I did a few years back. Or now.
Loque skirted the immense room, moving closer to the wall that was made entirely of stained glass. The huge mosaic started at the floor and stretched all the way up until it joined with the massive, glass-domed ceiling. It was beautiful. I felt a sudden rush of sadness for the loss of an entire city and its people. This was Veelox. Saint Dane had beaten us here. Were we in the future of that time? Was this what happened to a territory when Saint Dane won? There were so many questions, but they would have to wait until we were safely out of there. Hopefully with Twig.
My eyes traveled over the incredible, huge mosaic of glass. I couldn’t say if the artwork was a masterpiece. I’m no judge of that. But the fact that it took up an entire wall that was half the size of a football field made it seem pretty impressive to me.
Loque was halfway along the base of this massive wall. My confidence grew with each step he took. The Flighters were gone. They were looking for us elsewhere. Or maybe they’d lost interest and sank back into whatever rat hole they came from. I didn’t care. All that mattered was that we had dodged a pretty huge bullet. But we weren’t safe. We still had to find our way back to the ship and decide what to do from there.
Loque stood about eighty yards away from us. He looked so tiny beneath that gigantic wall. He stood up, took one more look around, then waved to us. All was clear. He wanted us to follow. I looked to Siry. He was already getting to his feet. I stood to follow… and saw something that made me freeze.
“Wait,” I whispered harshly.
Siry stopped. I stood and looked at the giant mosaic. It may have been a wall, but it was still made of glass. I could see through it. Something was moving outside the building. Something big. It was impossible to tell exactly what it was, because the colored pieces of glass camouflaged things pretty well. It moved slowly from left to right. Whatever it was, it was solid. I didn’t see any natural movements. I pointed to it, trying to get Loque to take a look, but he wasn’t watching me. I didn’t want to chance screaming at him. It might have been nothing, and I didn’t want to risk giving ourselves away.
The sun grew brighter. The detail of the strange shadow became clear. The object was taller than Loque. I made out a slender, horizontal streak that seemed to float in the air. It was a silver streak that might have been mounted on something vertical. The horizontal line pivoted, making the sun reflect off its surface. That’s all I needed to see. In one horrifying instant, I knew what it was.
“Get away!” I shouted to Loque, running to the center of the cathedral. I no longer cared about getting caught. “Get away from the window!” I waved my arms frantically, trying to get Loque out of there.
Loque motioned with both palms down, as if to say, “Calm down. Be quiet.” He even made a “shush” gesture with a finger to his lips.
There was no way I’d calm down or be quiet. Siry ran up beside me and tried to grab my arm to stop me. “Stop!” he whispered urgently.
I didn’t listen. “Run this way! Now!” I screamed at Loque.
Loque glanced around in confusion. He had no idea why I was going off like that. He slowly started walking toward me. Too slowly.
“What’s the matter?” he called. “They’re gone.”
“No, they’re not!” I yelled. “They’re outside and they’ve got a-“
Boom! A shot was fired. I’d heard the sound before. It was one of the cannons from the military boat, like the one that fired on our ship. The Flighters weren’t gone. They knew we were in that cathedral.
They wanted to make it our tomb.
A split second after the gun fired, the giant stained-glass window exploded into a million brilliant flashes of light. It would have been a spectacular sight, if it hadn’t been so horrifying. It was like standing inside an exploding firework skyrocket. Tiny bits of glass whizzed past us. But we weren’t the ones in danger. Tons of sharp glass shards rained straight down, directly on Loque.
“No!” shouted Siry. As if that would do any good.
I had the presence of mind to stop running, grab Siry, and pull him back. We weren’t totally safe from flying glass. Siry was too stunned to resist. I pulled him away as quickly as I could and shoved him back into the small room where we had been hiding. Once inside, we both turned to look back.
It was a wondrous, magical, horrifying sight. At the sound of the explosion, Loque had stopped in surprise. Or maybe curiosity. It was the worst thing he could have done. He looked back as the glass wall exploded over him. He didn’t run. He didn’t cower. I think the reality of what was happening didn’t hit him, and that was a good thing. Siry and I watched as Loque gazed up in wonder at the spectacular, colorful waterfall of glass… that was falling right for him. Seconds later tons of sharp glass hit the blond thief. Siry’s best friend. I couldn’t watch. I had to bury my eyes in my arm. The sound was enough. It was deafening, like a million shrieking birds. I heard the weight thunder, followed by the constant, sharp sounds of tons of glass shattering on the floor.
I felt the sting of a thousand tiny shards that dug into my arm as the storm of glass hit us. I should have ducked behind the wall for protection, but I was too stunned to move. I let it hit me. I wanted to feel the burn.
The sound of crashing glass continued for several seconds before settling down. When
I felt safe enough to peek up, the first thing I thought was that somebody had turned on a ton of floodlights in the cathedral. They hadn’t. With the stained-glass wall gone, the sunlight wasn’t filtered anymore. What once had been an immense wall of color, was now a jagged hole of bright white light. At its base was a pile of broken glass that had to be fifteen feet high. I stared at the sparkling mound. I wanted to see Loque walk away from it. I wanted to see him pull himself out of the mess and jog back toward us. He didn’t.
Siry ran out of the room, headed for the pile of glass.
“Loque!” he screamed, anguished.
“No, wait!” I shouted.
Siry would not be denied. All I could do was run after him. He sprinted to the pile, desperately scanning for any sign of his friend.
“We can’t stay here,” I pleaded with him. “Look!”
Through the hole, we now saw the gun clearly. It looked exactly like the cannon that was mounted on the bow of the Flighters’ gunboat. Surrounding the gun were Flighters. They knew exactly what they were doing. They couldn’t find us, so they decided to bury us. The only one they got was Loque.
Siry gasped. He was looking at something on the floor. My gaze followed his, and I saw something that made my knees get weak. It was a sandal. Loque’s sandal. Siry went for the pile of glass, as if ready to dig with his bare hands. I had to stop him or he would have shredded himself.
