Towers [BOOK ONE]

Chapter Forty-Two

Jasper slashed his arm skyward. A curtain of blue magic flew up, dividing the room like a shimmering wall. The bolt slammed into it.

The sound was deafening.

A blinding white light blasted throughout the room, pressing me into my seat. I touched my ears and felt blood.

Screaming. Everyone was screaming. The air itself was screaming. The Queen—she was screaming, and then she fainted, falling back into her throne.

The light vanished in an instant, and the red bolt dissolved in a fountain of sparks. I heard a high-pitched cracking sound overhead, and dreading what I'd see, I looked up.

I wasn't the only one. For a moment, the chandelier just stayed. It seemed frozen in place, a single frame preserved by a fragment of time. Then it shattered, sending glass everywhere. The guests screamed and shrank away, huddling against the walls, crawling beneath the table. And the chandelier fell, like a glittering, deadly rain of diamonds.

"Mother!" Melody shouted.

Vang was trying to wake her. She didn't stir.

The air beside me warped, and Jasper appeared. "Bird. Are you all right?"

"No," I said curtly, "I died. Never mind me. There are plenty of other people who've had a far worse time of it that I have."

Jasper waved a hand, and the air above our heads curved and hardened, forming itself into a sort of translucent pane that protected the two of us from the falling glass. "I need to see to the Queen."

He strode forward, and I trailed behind him, watching anxiously as he stood over the Queen's limp form. Vang watched with his brow slightly furrowed. "Kliernas," Jasper murmured, holding his hands over the Queen, palms down.

Reality fazed, then slipped back to normal. The spell lasted only a moment. "She's unharmed." He snapped his fingers, and she opened her eyes with a small gasp.

"Mother," said Melody, running a hand through her own unruly red curls in relief. She felt the Queen's forehead. "She's a bit feverish. We need to get her away from here."

"I'll see that she's taken care of," said Commander Vang, pulling her to her feet and beginning to lead her from the room.

Melody's lips thinned to a grim line.

"Should I come along? Just to help?" I asked.

Vang gave me a withering look. "Can you not see that your Queen is badly shaken and in need of rest?"

"I was only offering to—"

"Commander," said Melody, her voice sharp. "I thank you for your assistance. I will escort my mother to her chambers now."

Vang hesitated, but even I knew that he couldn't ignore a direct order from the princess. "Of course," he said, inclining his head and stepping back with a polite, practiced smile. "As you wish, Princess."

Melody put her arm around the Queen, supporting her. "There, there," she said gently, "we're going to bed now. I'll come with you, okay? I'll tuck you in. And Lady Songbird is with me, and she's going to sing you a lullaby. Won't that be lovely?"

"There was light! And noise! And fire—fire burning my skin!" The Queen was bordering on hysterical. I could see that see was bleeding from the chandelier's vicious shards. She began to moan. "Knives, knives, knives, everywhere knives..."

"Oh, no, no," said Melody, leading her mother forward, "shh, it's quite all right. It was just a dream. It was a very sad dream, but now you're awake, see? And everything's all right."