Where the Wind Goes

Chapter 14 - A Familiar Voice

Iri came to on the ground, her vision a blur of color and bright light. Tentatively, she felt the spot where her head had hit the pavement; it was damp and sticky.

Breathe...she tried to remind herself, but every breath felt light sucking syrup through a straw. Her lungs were seized by a fit of coughing. She tasted smoke and grit.

Just breathe. She tried to force herself to think straight. Figure out where you are. She propped herself up, feeling gravel scratch her skin. The movement made every muscle in her body ache. A streak of light flashed across the sky, searing her eyes, and she flopped back down.

The world was so much nicer with her eyes closed. She lay still and tried to pick out the familiar sounds. The crackle of lightning meant the Council was nearby. Which was good. Maybe someone would find her here, sprawled out in the street.

She ran her hands across the stones which were slick with changeling blood.

I know this road.

She was outside the castle. That was also good. Her lungs had finally decided to cooperate, so she breathed in deeply. The air tasted of sulfur and sugar. She recognized the scuffling of the changelings and a few voices calling orders in the night. She lifted her hand to shield her eyes and squinted up at the clock tower which loomed overhead. Changelings of all shapes and sizes clung to it, gnawing at the mortar and flinging bricks over their shoulders. She flinched as one struck the ground nearby and shattered.

Move. Get up!

But she couldn't. The air was so sweet it lingered like honey on her tongue. Inhale, it urged her. Breathe in more. She felt her eyes droop, her body sinking into numbness as the tower teetered precariously overhead. She watched it tip and thought distantly that she might die.

"Idiot! What are you doing?"

She heard the voice just seconds before someone slammed into her. Her eyes snapped open to see Lloyd's gray face leaning over her. "Get up!" he ordered, grabbing her by the arm and pulled her to her feet. Her limbs splayed clumsily, and he had to drag her into the safety of a nearby alley.

He dropped her like a sack of rice and she slumped against the wall. "What were you thinking?" he shouted. Iri wished she could mute his voice. "You could've died!"

As if on cue, there was a loud crash, and Lloyd ducked down beside her, tucking his head into his knees. Debris spilled into their safe cranny. When the sound of shattering stopped, Iri poked her head out.

"You don't learn, do you?" Lloyd muttered.

The clock tower had fallen. The faces that had once kept time with every known realm were shattered, their guts laid strewn across the square. The changelings pawed through the wreckage, metal gears and brick fragments sticking to their dark bodies.

"What are they looking for?" Her senses were coming back to her but the words slurred lazily. Iri now realized she'd been paralyzed by the poisonous changeling gas that the air was laden with.

"Better question is who are they looking for?" Lloyd said grimly.

She heard a sharp whistle cut through the night. Then there was a popping sound, and a puff of white smoke exploded in the sky. Iri felt Lloyd go tense beside her.

"What? What is it?" she asked.

"Hush. That's the signal. The Queen is nearby."

And despite her better judgement, she poked her head out again. Lloyd cursed but didn't move to stop her. It took a moment for her eyes to find her in the darkness, but when they did, there was no mistaking the Queen. Her shadowed form picked through the wreckage, and Iri found it difficult to track her movements. She seemed slipped across the stones like smoke, never quite taking solid form.