‘Not too far, I’d say,’ Grandpa Smedry said, pointing. ‘Not far at all . . .’
I turned to look across the waters, and there it was. A distant continent, just coming into view. I took a step forward, squinting from my upside-down vantage. There was a city built along the coast of the continent, rising boldly in the early light.
‘Castles,’ I whispered as we approached. ‘It’s filled with castles?’
There were dozens of them, perhaps hundreds. The entire city was made of castles, reaching toward the sky, lofty towers and delicate spires. Flags flapping from the very tips. Each castle had a different design and shape, and a majestic city wall surrounded them all.
Three structures dominated the rest. One was a powerful black castle on the far south side of the city. Its sides were sheer and tall, and it had a powerful feel to it, like a mountain. Or a really big stone bodybuilder. In the middle of the city, there was a strange white castle that looked something like a pyramid with towers and parapets. It flew an enormous, brilliant red flag that I could make out even from a distance.
On the far north side of the city, to my right, was the oddest structure of all. It appeared to be a gigantic crystalline mushroom. It was at least a hundred feet tall and twice as wide. It sprouted from the city, its bell top throwing a huge shadow over a bunch of smaller castles. Atop the mushroom sat a more traditional-looking castle that sparkled in the sunlight, as if constructed entirely from glass.
‘Crystallia?’ I asked, pointing.
‘Yes indeed!’ Grandpa Smedry said.
Crystallia, home of the Knights of Crystallia, sworn protectors of the Smedry clan and the royalty of the Free Kingdoms. I glanced back up at the Hawkwind. Bastille waited inside, still under condemnation for having lost her sword back in the Hushlands. Her homecoming would not be as pleasant as mine would be.
But . . . well, I couldn’t focus on that at the moment. I was coming home. I wish I could explain to you how it felt to finally see Nalhalla. It wasn’t a crazy sense of excitement or glee – it was far more peaceful. Imagine what it’s like to wake up in the morning, refreshed and alert after a remarkably good sleep.
It felt right. Serene.
That, of course, meant it was time for something to explode.
2
I hate explosions. Not only are they generally bad for one’s health but they’re just so demanding. Whenever one comes along, you have to pay attention to it instead of whatever else you were doing. In fact, explosions are suspiciously like baby sisters in that regard.
Fortunately, I’m not going to talk about the Hawkwind exploding right now. Instead, I’m going to talk about something completely unrelated: fish sticks. (Get used to it. I do this sort of thing all the time.)
Fish sticks are, without a doubt, the most disgusting things ever created. Regular fish is bad enough, but fish sticks . . . well, they raise disgustingness to an entirely new level. It’s like they exist just to make us writers come up with new words to describe them, since the old words just aren’t horrible enough. I’m thinking of using crapaflapnasti.
Definition of ‘crapaflapnasti’: ‘Adj. Used to describe an item that is as disgusting as fish sticks.’ (Note: This word can only be used to describe fish sticks themselves, as nothing has yet been found that is equally crapaflapnasti. Though the unclean, moldy, cluttered space under Brandon Sanderson’s bed comes close.)
Why am I telling you about fish sticks? Well, because in addition to being an unwholesome blight upon the land, they’re all pretty much the same. If you don’t like one brand, chances are very good you won’t like any of them.
The thing is, I’ve noticed that people tend to treat books like fish sticks. People try one, and they figure they’ve tried them all.
Books are not fish sticks. While they’re not all as awesome as the one you are now holding, there’s so much variety to them that it can be unsettling. Even within the same genre, two books can be totally different.
We’ll talk more about this later. For now just try not to treat books like fish sticks. (And if you are forced to eat one of the two, go with the books. Trust me.)
The right side of the Hawkwind exploded.
The vehicle pitched in the air, chunks of glass sparkling as they blew free. To the side of me, the glass bird’s leg broke off and the world lurched, spun, and distorted – like I was riding a madman’s version of a merry-go-round.
At that moment, my panicked mind realized that the section of glass under my feet – the one my boots were still stuck to – had broken away from the Hawkwind. The vehicle was still managing to fly. I, however, was not. Unless you count plummeting to your doom at a hundred miles an hour ‘flying.’
Everything was a blur. The large piece of glass I was stuck to was flipping end over end, the wind tossing it about like a sheet of paper. I didn’t have much time.
Break! I thought, sending a shock of my Talent through my legs, shattering my boots and the sheet beneath them. Shards of glass exploded around me, but I stopped spinning. I twisted, looking down at the waves. I didn’t have any Lenses that could save me – all I was carrying were the Translator’s Lenses and my Oculator’s Lenses. All my other pairs had been broken, given away, or returned to Grandpa Smedry.
That only left my Talent. The wind whistled about me, and I extended my arms. I always wondered just what my Talent could break, if given the chance. Could I, perhaps . . . I closed my eyes, gathering my power.
BREAK! I thought, shooting the power out of my arms and into the air.
Nothing happened.
I opened my eyes, terrified, as the waves rushed up at me. And rushed up at me. And rushed up at me. And . . . rushed up at me some more.
It sure is taking a long time for me to plunge to my death, I thought. I felt as if I were falling, yet the nearby waves didn’t actually seem to be getting any closer.
I turned, looking upward. There, falling toward me, was Grandpa Smedry, his tuxedo jacket flapping, a look of intense concentration on his face as he held his hand toward me, fingers extended.
He’s making me arrive late to my fall! I thought. On occasion, I’d been able to make my Talent work at a distance, but it was difficult and unpredictable.
‘Grandpa!’ I yelled in excitement.
Right about that moment, he plowed into me face-first, and both of us crashed into the ocean. The water was cold, and my exclamation of surprise quickly turned into a gurgle.
I burst free from the water, sputtering. Fortunately, the water was calm – if frigid – and the waves weren’t bad. I straightened my Lenses – which, remarkably, had remained on my face – and looked around for my grandfather, who came up a few seconds later, his mustache drooping and his wisps of white hair plastered to his otherwise bald head.
‘Wasted Westerfields!’ he exclaimed. ‘That was exciting, eh, lad?’
I shivered in response.
‘All right, prepare yourself,’ Grandpa Smedry said. He looked surprisingly fatigued.
‘For what?’ I asked.
‘I’m letting us arrive late to some of that fall, lad,’ Grandpa Smedry said. ‘But I can’t make it go away entirely. And I don’t think I can bear it for long!’
‘So, you mean that—’ I cut off as it hit me. It was as if I’d landed in the water again, the air getting knocked out of my lungs. I slipped beneath the ocean waters, disoriented and freezing, then forced myself to struggle back up toward the sparkling light. I burst into the air and took a gasping breath.
Then it hit me again. Grandpa Smedry had broken our plummet into small steps, but even those small steps were dangerous. As I sank again, I barely caught sight of my grandfather trying to stay afloat. He wasn’t doing any better than I was.
I felt useless – I should have been able to do something with my Talent. Everyone always told me that my ability to break things was powerful – and, indeed, I’d done some amazing things with it. But I still didn’t have the control that I envied in Grandpa Smedry or my cousins.
True, I’d only even been aware of my place as a Smedry for about four months. But it’s hard to not be down on yourself when you’re in the middle of drowning. So I did the sensible thing and went ahead and passed out.
When I awoke, I was – fortunately – not dead, though part of me wished that I was. I hurt pretty much all over, as if I’d been stuffed inside a punching bag, which had then been put through a blender. I groaned, opening my eyes. A slender young woman knelt beside me. She had long silver hair and wore a militaristic uniform.
She looked angry. In other words, she looked just about like she always did. ‘You did that on purpose,’ Bastille accused.
I sat up, raising a hand to my head. ‘Yes, Bastille. I keep trying to get killed because it’s inconvenient for you.’
She eyed me. I could tell that a little piece of her did believe that we Smedrys got ourselves into trouble just to make her life difficult.
My jeans and shirt were still wet, and I lay in a puddle of salty seawater, so it probably hadn’t been very long since the fall. The sky was open above me, and to my right, the Hawkwind stood on its one remaining leg, perched on the side of a wall. I blinked, realizing that I was on top of some kind of castle tower.
‘Australia managed to get the Hawkwind down to grab you two out of the water,’ Bastille said, answering my unasked question as she stood up. ‘We aren’t sure what caused the explosion. It came from one of the rooms, that’s all we know.’
I forced myself to my feet, looking over at the silimatic vehicle. The entire right side had blown out, exposing the rooms inside. One of the wings was laced with cracks, and – as I’d so vividly discovered – a large chunk of the bird’s chest had fallen free.
My grandfather was sitting beside the tower’s railing, and he waved weakly as I looked over. The others were slowly trying to climb out of the Hawkwind. The explosion had destroyed the boarding steps.
‘I’ll go get help,’ Bastille said. ‘Check on your grandfather, and try not to fall off the tower’s edge or anything while I’m gone.’ With that, she dashed down a set of steps into the tower.
I walked over to my grandfather. ‘You all right?’
‘Course I am, lad, of course I am.’ Grandpa Smedry smiled through a sodden mustache. I’d seen him this tired only once before, just after our battle with Blackburn.
‘Thanks for saving me,’ I said, sitting down next to him. ‘Just returning the favor,’ Grandpa Smedry said with a wink. ‘I believe you saved me back in that library infiltration.’
That had mostly been a matter of luck. I glanced at the Hawkwind, where our companions were still trying to find a way down. ‘I wish I could use my Talent like you use yours.’
‘What? Alcatraz, you’re very good with your Talent. I saw you shatter that glass you were stuck to. I’d never have gotten a line of sight on you in time if you hadn’t done that! Your quick thinking saved your life.’
‘I tried to do more,’ I said. ‘But it didn’t work.’
‘More?’