The Ashen Wrath (Watty's SHORTLIST recipient 2018) CHAPTERED VERSION

*67

I maintained my frenzied pace even as my body burned with pain inside the machine. Every stride I took slammed against my contorted body. With my desperation building, my desires overshadowed any semblance of a plan I may have once had. I wanted to rescue Daun. I wanted my grandfather's book back. I wanted Sheln to die in my strangling hands.

The Walled City crested the horizon. It was massive...far larger than I had even imagined. It sat in the center of a blackened expanse, likely another ruined city from years past. There were no buildings nearby. No dwellings. No tents. Just a ghostly, seamless wall with towers reaching to the heavens.

There would be no way to climb such an immense barrier. I had no choice to but to go through the gate at top speed and hope the titanic cannons atop the wall would miraculously miss me. My clanking exoskeleton was at 15% power and my body was in agony. At least I had an idea where Daun might be—her routes through the city had been tracked and logged by the Obsidian Tower.

I was close. Within a half-mile. The huge guns still hadn't fired upon me. No guards clad in blue armor rode out of the gates. No sentry serpents slithered from the ground. It was far too quiet, which meant I was certainly sprinting directly toward a trap. For some reason, the Privus wanted me alive.

The gates were wide open. I told myself to press on. My entire being throbbed with pain. It was now or never. Trap or not, there would be no other chances.

I wanted to see Daun's face again before I died.