Then came an enormous, ear-splitting crash.
A forceful wave of air smacked into Emery, sending him hurtling backwards into the table. Goblets, quills, and papers were flung off the table as those around Emery were blown off their feet and thrown to the ground.
The walls of the Citadel shook as Emery grabbed onto his chair for support, pulling himself up to his feet. His crown had been blown off his head and his ears were ringing as if a bell had been rung right next to him.
He looked to Artima Lowe with concern as everything around them was consumed by a dark red and orange glow from the clouds above.
“My king, I think we should leave at once,” Artima suggested frantically. “This isn’t right.”. He appeared just as nervous as Emery felt.
“What the fuck is going on? Man your stations!” Bennet Decaster shouted angrily, hurling orders to his guards to find out what was happening. He had blood dripping from his right ear.
From high in the sky came fiery embers, gracefully raining down with the wind. Hundreds of embers. Then thousands. As if the sky itself had caught alight.
The entire town was steadily drenched into darkness.
Emery heard distant screaming as the ground continued to rumble and shake. His guards ran over with weapons and shields drawn, forming a protective circle around he and Baron Artima.
Tobius was helped to his feet by his advisors who quickly began to flee towards the doors of the Citadel.
The giant soldier, Sen Dorval, remained at his station having drawn his war hammer and pointing it out in the direction of Emery as he guided his king to safety.
They think this is us.
His heart stopped. Emery had to find Petir and get back to Sirillia. Something was dreadfully wrong.
“Simen!” Emery shouted. “Find my son, now. We are leaving.”
“Yes, my king!” Simen Lowe said. His legs were wobbly as he ran to find Petir.
“Let’s get back to the camp and the queen, Artima. This instant.”
“Don’t have to tell me twice.”
As Emery was escorted back to Shadow, he looked up at the ensuing chaos raining down from the sky. Through the dark clouds and rainfall of embers came glowing balls of rock with long, streaking tails of fire. They roared across the sky faster than anything he’d ever seen, like falling stars.
Many were small and appeared to disappear a few seconds after erupting in flame. The larger ones, some as big as barrels and carts, crashed to the ground with explosive force, causing the ground to violently shake.
“Go, go, go!” Emery shouted as a cluster of flaming stars were headed straight for them with a monstrous, whistling howl.
Emery bounced up onto his saddle in one quick jump as the first rock smashed into a nearby rowhouse along the side of the courtyard. It penetrated straight through the roof and out the front façade, causing the entire thing to crumble in a blast of flame and debris.
The road next to the building rippled with the force of the impact, lifting and hurling the cobblestones from the ground.
A block of stone went careening through the air from a nearby building that exploded, smacking an unlucky Anai slave straight in the back, killing him instantly.
Emery turned his horse around as Artima and his guards mounted up and followed. His nostrils filled with the stench of ash and burning materials.
Another ball of flame screeched through the sky overhead, colliding into the Teller’s Square Moon Mother statue halfway up its height. The entire thing toppled over and crumbled into a shower of small stone pieces.
Townspeople came fleeing from a burning rowhouse, completely unrecognisable as their clothes went up in flames and their skin dripped from their bodies like melting wax.
Their screams. Emery had never heard anything so harrowing.
As they began galloping back the way they had arrived, Emery turned to see dozens of flaming rocks striking the Citadel, though barely leaving a dent across its remarkably solid exterior. The rocks appeared to shatter into thousands of pieces and adorning its exterior with enormous blast marks.
The sky was alight with fiery rain. The glowing clouds were continuously blown open as the stars fell through them.
All around them, Tellersted was ablaze. Houses had their roofs and walls punched in by the falling rocks. Shops were burning, their awnings collapsing and the materials singed and smouldering.
People ran and screamed for cover, terrified for their lives as their world around them was engulfed in red-hot flame.
All along the streets, the dead burned and bled.
Enormous plumes of smoke and embers billowed into the sky, serving only to light up in a brilliant display of radiant colour with each new star falling.
All the while, despite his sense being assaulted with flashes of light, ear-splitting noises, and sickening smells, Emery could only focus on getting Sirillia and Petir out of there as fast as possible.
He could feel the blood in his body pumping through to his screaming muscles, preparing him for the fight ahead. His stomach grew tight and his mind hyper-focused.
His guards were screaming at his side as they sped through the streets, dodging collapsing buildings and leaping over piles of fiery rubble.
“What the fuck do we do?!”
“Are we attacking Tellersted? Is this us?!”
“It’s the end! This is the end of all things!”
“We need to help these people!”
Artima was trying to shout to Emery to organise their next move but was met with silence on the king’s part.
The threat to his life meant nothing.
Emery did not avert his gaze anywhere but to what was ahead of he and Shadow.
He needed to retreat to his army, find Petir and Sirillia, and get out.
Nothing else mattered in that moment.
Chapter 36 - From Darkness
Tomas sat on the damp stone floor with his arms shrugged over
