Brave Story (108 page)

“Where’s Mitsuru?” yelled Kutz from behind. Her face was black with soot.

“The Crystal Palace!”

“Then that’s where we’re going! No time to waste!” Kutz grabbed onto her dragon’s horns and hugged her body low to its neck. The creature headed toward the Crystal Palace.

“You okay, Jozo?”

“You bet!” Jozo clenched his jaws and followed the larger dragon. Even Wataru could see that the young dragon had taken his share of beatings. The fires had scorched places where collisions with the golems and building wreckage had knocked off some of his scales.

The ring of golems around Solebria was tightening, drawing ever closer to the Crystal Palace. People were running madly through the maze of rubble and burning debris that was their city.

Wataru shouted to the dragons flying near them. “Get the people as far away from the Crystal Palace as you can! Everyone needs to go outside the city walls!”

They all nodded and spun off in concert. Meanwhile, the dragon carrying Kutz was rapidly streaking toward the city’s capital building.

Wataru sensed something. It had the distinct flavor of magic, but he wasn’t sure what it was. He had felt a similar stirring in the air at the Triankha hospital, and also at the Port of Sono.

“Look out, Kutz!” he screamed.

But just as he shouted, the outline of the Crystal Palace warped. A moment later, a great whirlwind arose from the middle of the castle. The spinning column of wind quickly became a cylinder, growing steadily, enveloping Kutz and her dragon in the blink of an eye.

“Look out!!”

Jozo’s wings rippled as the cyclone waves blasted them. Wataru’s cry was lost in the roar and they were pushed back from the castle. Tossed like a handkerchief in a washing machine, Wataru and his friends were unsure which way was up or down.

Throughout the city, the golems wavered as the cyclone winds buffeted them. Rubble from fallen buildings lifted into the air, pelting anything that continued to stand. One stone house was ripped from its foundation and tossed afar. Something looking like a fiery watchtower flew through the air directly over Jozo’s head. It crashed into the castle walls, falling to the ground in a dazzling pyrotechnic display.

“Hold on!” Jozo screamed. Kee Keema grabbed Meena with one hand and wrapped his other around the edge of Jozo’s wing. “Wataru, my leg!”

Wataru reached out, grabbing Kee Keema’s ankle with both hands. The winds had pushed him off Jozo’s back until he was hanging with nothing but empty sky below his feet. They were falling. The ground came hurtling towards them.
Falling, falling…

Then, as though a giant hand appeared from below to cushion the fall, Wataru felt them rise once again. Jozo tilted his wings, regained control, and took off toward the sky. In relief, he roared a spiraling ball of flame.

“Is everybody okay? Nobody dropped off?”

“All here, Jozo!”

They had been tossed nearly to the outer city walls. The other dragons were fighting to remain near the cyclone. Wataru could see them beating their wings, railing against the powerful winds. He counted them: one, two…all seven were there.
Which is Kutz’s dragon? Where is she?

“Kutz!” he shouted, but the wind snatched the cry out of his mouth and tossed it away.

“Here! I’m here!” Kutz’s dragon came flying down to where they were, one wing dipping lopsidedly as it came. It appeared to be slightly wounded. Jozo descended further. Wataru climbed up his neck until he was directly on Jozo’s head. The dragon’s eyes were filled with tears.

“That was too scary,” Jozo muttered. “What was that?”

“Wind magic. Mitsuru wrapped it around the Crystal Palace so we couldn’t come near.” Wataru patted Jozo on the head. He felt like crying too.

When they were in flying formation with Kutz’s dragon at last, he saw that the staunch branch chief was wounded too. She was covered with burns and soot except for one place above her right eye. The blood from a cut on her face had washed a little bit of the smoky grime away. “No way we can get in there now!” Kutz swore, gritting her teeth. Her whip hand was covered with blood. “Can you do something about that damn barrier?”

“I’m not powerful enough to break it,” Wataru said, struggling to steady his breathing. “The only thing I can think of is to use warp magic to jump inside.”

Kutz opened her one good eye wide. “If you could do that, why didn’t you say so earlier?”

“I can try it, but I’m not sure it’ll work. I can’t control it like Mitsuru does. I don’t know exactly where we’ll end up.”

“Nothing to do but try then!” Kutz said, lightly jumping from her dragon onto Jozo’s back. “Let’s go,” she said, grabbing onto Wataru’s arm.

“Go?”

“You’re taking us with you! I’ll warp too if I’m holding on to you, right?”

Wataru looked around at Kee Keema and Meena.

“You two help the people down in the city,” he said. Then, before Meena could protest, he added, “Kutz and I will deal with Mitsuru!”

Meena’s wide eyes reflected the red flames from below. “O-okay.”

“You be careful,” Kee Keema said, kneeling on Jozo’s back. “All right, Jozo! Once Wataru and Kutz are gone, you can take us down to the city. We’ll help get the survivors to safety!”

Jozo gave his wings of a powerful beat. “Gotcha!”

Wataru shut his eyes and mouthed the words to the spell. He felt his body grow light and he could no longer feel the heat of the blaze or the push of the wind.
I’m a magebullet.
He shot into the air, streaking over the heads of the golems and above the capital city of Solebria. He was heading straight toward the Crystal Palace.

Suddenly, reality snapped back into focus. Wataru was floating in the air with Kutz by his side. Right in front of them they saw a large terrace, an elegantly decorated watchtower, and sweeping stone balustrades. It was the palace! The central spire caught the light of the sun, reflecting it back into their eyes.

For a split-second, Wataru saw a garrison of Knights lying upon the ground in the shadow of the arched gates.
Blood, blood, blood.
Gore had been splattered everywhere. Here was a steel boot lying haphazardly on the cobblestones. There was a silver helmet sitting in a fountain, filling with crimson-stained water…

“We’re falling!” Kutz shouted. Like a pair of anvils, the two plummeted straight toward the blood-splattered stone terrace.

“Don’t interfere!” A voice rang in Wataru’s ears. It was Mitsuru. A light flashed in the depth of Wataru’s eyes, and suddenly, it was as though they had collided with an invisible wall in the air. Magic impacted with magic, and the world around Wataru warped and exploded.

Kutz shouted with rage and confusion, grabbing on to Wataru’s arm.

With a thud, they landed. They were on the ground. Wataru’s neck jolted with the impact.

“Where are we?” Kutz looked around. Wataru held his head in his hands until the world agreed to stop spinning around him. He shut his eyes.

When he opened his eyes again, he saw green.

They could still see the Crystal Palace, but it was considerably farther away now. Still, they could see the shining spire and the walls much clearer than when they had been over the city. Thin ribbons of smoke flowed out of the many castle windows.

“I think we’re on the castle grounds—this appears to be some kind of garden,” Kutz said with disbelief.

Somehow, the two had been transported into one of the many beautiful gardens surrounding the Crystal Palace. A gazebo stood upon a simple stone platform. It was the Garden of Victory, the very place where Mitsuru had spoken with Lady Zophie.

“Quiet here, isn’t it,” Kutz said, standing and wiping away the blood that had run into her right eye. “Not even a palace guard to greet us.”

“I think we’re inside Mitsuru’s wind-wall.” Wataru tried to stand, but his knees gave out beneath him. Kutz held him up.

“So this was spared the worst…” Kutz began, and fell silent. Now that her eyes were focusing properly, she could clearly see that the garden had been ravaged. Flowers were scattered, several trees had been uprooted, and the fence that surrounded the garden leaned at an awkward angle.

In the shadow of one of the hedges, two men appearing to be guards lay with their legs and arms splayed out upon the grass. Their blood stained the dirt an ominous black. Mitsuru’s winds had passed through here, with edges sharp as sickles. The storm had slashed through everything made of flesh.

“When we teleported above one of the terraces I was able to peek over the castle walls,” said Wataru. “There were bodies everywhere. I saw a severed head, and blood pooling in the courtyard. I think the same thing happened in there that happened out here.”

Mitsuru’s message was clear:

—I’m going to get the Crown of the Seal and no one’s going to stand in my way, be they knight or lady.

Wataru turned his back to the castle and looked out over the capital city. A great wall of wind enveloped the palace grounds, cutting off a clear view of the rest of the city. The light from the surrounding fires glowed like a diffuse crimson aura through the swirling winds.

“Why didn’t we just drop on the terrace after we teleported?”

“Mitsuru knocked us away. He knew I was using warping magic, and he used his power to create a wall of some kind.”

Wataru saw two drops of blood fall by Kutz’s feet. “You’re bleeding!” he gasped. “We need to get you some bandages.”

“It’s nothing,” she said. Her right eye was practically glued shut with blood.

“I’m going to try again. Are you ready?”

“Who do you think you’re talking to?” Kutz bound her whip tightly at her waist and grabbed on to Wataru’s arm.

Wataru closed his eyes.
I can’t just think myself there. I need to use the power of the third gemstone…I have to get it to take me to the Crown of the Seal—to the place where the Gem of Darkness lies. I have to listen to the gemstone’s voice, I have to let it lead me.

“Please, take us there,” Wataru said softly, and he thought he heard a whispered “yes” in reply. “This is it!” he shouted to Kutz, and the two vanished from the Garden of Victory.

They became nothing but streaks of light, time stopped, and they shot across the sky.

This time they fell farther. Wataru lost all sense of direction. Eventually the two landed on the ground in a tangle.

He must’ve been knocked unconscious for two or three seconds. When he came to, Wataru was lying face down on a smooth floor. The blue translucence of the floor reminded him of Dela Rubesi.
That icy blue…just like the frozen capital.

Wataru gasped and thrust out his arms, jerking upright.

He was in a vast hall. Round pillars stood in a ring, and upon each of the pillars was carved a figure wearing robes, a heavy crown upon his head.
Past emperors?
And then he saw Mitsuru.

He was standing alone in the middle of the large hall.

The floor, the pillars, the carved emperors, the high ceiling, everything reflected him standing there in his black robes. The entire hall was a mirror.

Kutz put her hand on Wataru’s shoulder, leaning on him once before straightening herself.

Both of them found their gazes drawn inexorably toward Mitsuru. Then their eyes followed his, looking up to one side.

There it was: The Mirror of Eternal Shadow.

It was set between two pillars at the northernmost end of the chamber. It stood as high as Wataru, a perfect circle, tilted slightly upward. And in that mirror, positioned facing slightly upward, was…

Dark
.

Impenetrable shadow filled the mirror right to its silvery rim. The darkness seethed, soundlessly surging against its confines.

Mitsuru took one smooth step forward. Then Wataru noticed something: a small star pattern at the mirror’s base. Inside the pattern, set at its very center, was a crown. A single gemstone could easily be seen.

The Crown of the Seal, and the Mirror of Eternal Shadow.

The Gem of Darkness, too, was filled with the same burning jet blackness that roiled in the mirror.

Mitsuru lowered his eyes, still looking at the Crown of the Seal. He took another, larger step forward, revealing someone sitting on the floor behind him.

It was a girl. She was wearing an elegant white dress, her hair carefully bound. She sat with someone’s head resting upon her lap—a man.

This, it occurred to Wataru, was probably the emperor himself, Gama Agrilius VII. He wore a richly embroidered robe, though it was tattered and ripped in several places.

Tears streaked the girl’s face and her dress was soaked with blood. Wataru couldn’t tell whether the blood belonged to her or to the emperor.

“L-Lord Mitsuru.” The girl called out to Mitsuru in a trembling voice. He didn’t even blink. His eyes were fixed on the crown and the mirror.

The girl’s face seemed somehow familiar. Wataru thought hard. He had seen someone just like her before.
Who was it?

“Don’t know when to quit, do you?” Mitsuru said. He was still facing the mirror, but his voice was projected directly at Wataru. “Welcome. This is the mirror.”