“Cut a furrow into the tiles,” I told Kegohr. “As smooth as you can. I’ll be back.”
I somersaulted off the roof, swung off an errant willow-branch, and sprinted down the street. My feet carried me across bridges and toward the heart of the city. The royal palace towered above me on its pillar of rock as waterfalls crashed down its sides.
I raced up the stairs behind one of the waterfalls and made sure to keep my balance.
King Beqai stood at the bottom of the steps that led inside. A lure hung from a strip of leather around his neck, and he stared out at the ocean with a bemused look on his face. The king’s bodyguards stood a tense watch behind him and gripped their weapons tightly.
“Your Majesty!” I shouted.
Beqai’s gaze didn’t shift from whatever distant point held his attention.
“I need the trinket from around your neck.” I moved in closer to the guards. “Do you see this?”
I prodded the lure on his chest. At last, he looked down, first at my face, then at my finger, then at the lure.
“It was a gift,” he said. “From one of the guild.”
“It’s a monster lure,” I said. “And it’s drawing two tidal wyrms this way. If they’re not stopped, they’ll destroy the city. I need that thing around your neck. ”
“Tidal wyrms are majestic creatures.” Beqai laughed. “You seem intent on invoking their ire at every turn.”
I couldn’t believe this guy.
I fought to keep myself from snapping. His people were on the verge of disaster, and he still seemed unable to bring himself back to reality. What had happened to the great ruler who once led the Qihin?
“The Depthless Dream is taken. Your son has turned against you. The guild intends to destroy this entire city and slaughter your people!” I shouted at him. “Every member of your clan will die, and they will never have the opportunity to find their own Path of Peace!”
Beqai’s far-off look fled from his eyes, and he shook his head a little. The jowls on his face wobbled, and his seaweed-like hair flopped around his massive head. He took hold of the strip of leather from which the lure hung, lifted it over his head, and handed it to me.
Something had changed about him; it no more than a straightening of the shoulders and a glimmer in the eye, but I’d gotten through to him.
The King of Qihin had finally woken up.
“Here,” he said. “We don’t have much time. I can feel the wyrms getting closer.”
I thrust the lure through my belt and took off as fast as I could. I was soon back at the square and at the site of an oversized school project designed to kill an enormous monster.
Kegohr held the harpoon steady as the wind threatened to knock it to the ground. Faryn and Kumi sat with their backs against one of the houses and struggled to stay awake from the exhaustion of the task I’d asked them to do for me.
I jumped onto the carved wall of the shrine and climbed up its side. The lures glowed brighter now that they were near each other and bathed me in a deep blue light.
“Tie off the second one!” Kegohr roared over the wind.
“Not part of the plan!” I yelled back.
A screeching sound ran across the city. The foundations of the very streets seemed to shake as two huge creatures collided with the walls.
The tidal wyrms were nearly upon us.
“They’re here!” Vesma screamed as she climbed up beside me.
“Noticed that,” I agreed.
I called on the power of water and started summoning a Smothering Mist. I directed it to form in the hollow chamber at the base of the harpoon. Thick vapor flooded the almost-airtight chamber at the base of the harpoon until it strained under the pressure of holding it in.
“Vesma, Kegohr!” I shouted. “Get ready to channel some fire.”
A wyrm appeared over the wall in the distance and tasted the air. Huge, cold eyes stared at me and the lures.
“Oh, fuck,” Vesma whispered. “They’re so much bigger than the last one.”
The colossal creature’s hiss threatened to split our eardrums.
“Now!” I shouted. “Heat the bottom of the harpoon as fast as you can.”
Kegohr and Vesma placed their hands against the outside of the chamber I’d filled with steam as I mounted the spear like I would a horse. Fire flared from their palms as they superheated the hardened wood of the outside of the cartridge.
“What the fuck are you doing, Ethan?” Vesma shouted.
“Going fishing!” I howled back as the adrenaline took hold. “Get me into the air!”
The chamber exploded. A great gout of steam burst from the bottom of the harpoon and hurled me off the shrine’s roof. The streets stretched away beneath us as I rode a careering deathtrap straight toward a monster that wanted to eat me whole. The wind rushed past my face as I clung on tight, just along for the ride.
The shock of movement was so sudden that I had only two seconds to summon a suit of Frozen Armor. Instead of smooth plates, I made something spiked and covered in jagged edges like the armor of a cartoon villain.
The wyrm lunged up at me as I cleared the wall, ready to swallow me whole.
The harpoon shot straight into the wyrm’s mouth and took me with it. The massive spear rammed into the back of its throat, and I was flung off into the wet, warm space of the creature’s mouth. I slammed into the side of its mouth, and the spikes buried themselves in its flesh.
The monster shrieked in agony and thrashed around as it tried to shake loose the jagged wooden spear that was now buried in the back of its throat. Or the spiked human who’d just hurtled into its mouth. I steadied myself with one hand while I drew the my sword with the other.
“Your audacity knows no
