The back of my head slammed up against the side of the wall. My face and chest smashed into Tarzan's orange fur, knocking the breath out of me.
I gasped and choked on the next mouthful of foul burning air that hurt my lungs going down.
Bright stars, radiant with white hot intensity, exploded before my eyes even though they were closed. The triple strength mage bubble had ruptured from the force of the explosion.
Intense heat hit like a roaring furnace around me.
I heard Max yelping a weak, croaking sound.
We were all going to die.
I could feel Tarzan's arms tighten around my body as he curled around me, trying to shield me with his body.
"Baohuwuomen!"
One of the twins uttered again, in between coughing fits.
And then the heat dissipated.
Another bubble had formed in the place of the first one.
Between the split second it took for the second bubble to redeploy, we had lost all oxygen.
It took another second for cool breathable oxygen to flow through the bubble like a cooling salve on a hot burn blister.
Coughing and choking, we all tried to suck in enough air to replace that which had burned our lungs going down.
Tarzan's thick orange-red fur had sheltered my whole body from whatever had just occurred.
In between the earth-shaking blasts of the fire balls, I could hear the three mages, their voices hoarse from the toxic fumes, calling out various Commands to shore up our life-supports.
They were all pressed up against Tarzan, desperately fighting to maintain the shield's integrity.
Following the failure of the first bubble, the lesson had been burned into them. The twins began staggering bubble on top of bubble as Simon focused on replenishing our oxygen.
As the outermost spiral band of each wave of firestorm hammered the mage shield in successive waves, the outer bubble would shimmer as it absorbed the worst of the damage, and then rupture.
Each time the outer bubble failed, one of the twins would reinstated a new bubble within the boundary of the existing bubble.
Wave after wave of sonic booms and fire bands hit, rolling through the courtyard area, but our bubble shields held, and so did our pure sweet oxygen supply.
I lost count after the fifth hit, but by this time, the twins were professional bubble-blowers, and Simon had been promoted to air-quality expert. I could do nothing to help, useless as I was with magik, but at least I was not in their way.
It seemed as if the attacks went on forever, but in reality, it was only a matter of minutes and was over just as quickly as it started.
We waited as long as we dared before the guys removed the last shield after checking to make sure the outside air was at least breathable.
Tarzan eased off my body and for the first time, I was able to see what had happened.
The windward sides of all the buildings had been blackened by the successive blasts. All the windows had been blown away and any surviving door hung on its hinges in listless darkened shards.
Not a single tree was still standing. All the grass and shrubs had been burned to a black crisp, and all the pale beige stucco buildings were covered by brownish black burned stains.
In the blazing red sky, on the hot fiery wind, blackened burning ash floated, carrying the flames heavenward.
My eyes burned from the smoke and the stench, and my lungs hurt, but there was no time to check on our condition.
Tarzan made a hand motion for us to follow him. Then he ran on ahead, followed by Simon and Max.
The twins grabbed my hands and we started running from the alleyway, skirting between the ruined buildings, trying to stay out of sight of whatever that was responsible for this kind of destruction.
A rabble started up to our left. We eased back into an alcove and waited.
Four black-suited Mage Elites wearing gas masks passed by. They took no notice of us, their attention focused on a shrouded body they were carrying.
No doubt, either they had been given prior warning about the attacks or, more likely, they were the ones instigating the attacks and now were roaming about the Academy, securing their stronghold against any possible stragglers.
Like us.
"Wait." Simon whispered. He thrust a fist up and, as he threw six light-benders into the air, whispered a single word.
"Huenhochilai."
The disks fell back down and hit a dead stop as it attached itself to each of us.
"Rangdajiakanbujian." I heard him whisper again and the light-benders disappeared.
Since I could no longer see anyone, including myself, I was wondering how we were going to move forward when I felt Corwin and Connor take hold of my hand as we daisy-chained and moved forward.
It took almost an hour just to maneuver from the north end of the Academy to the southernmost buildings because we had to take so many detours.
Several times, we came across other roving bands of Mage Elites, but they paid no attention to us, thanks to Simon's light benders. They were definitely looking for something…or someone.
The further we delved into the winding detours, the more impressed I was with Tarzan's tracking abilities.
I was completely lost and turned around, especially since most of the buildings and landmarks had been burned beyond recognition, but the orangutan knew exactly where to go.
He kept us going forward even though sometimes, he had to lead us away from areas where there was a heavy concentration of Mage Elites.
I had no idea how he could have acquired such an intimate, detailed knowledge about the layout of the Academy but he led us through the fire zones like a veteran.
He would pause in certain areas as he peeked around alleyways but then run full speed through other alleys without bothering to even check if they were clear. It was as if he knew where all the danger zones were.
By the time we had run past the edge of the hillside, I could see the half-burned purple jacaranda tree and realized where we were. I looked down into the valley and my heart stopped.
Topaz City was ablaze!
The roaring, crackling sounds of the burning city, commingled with the cries and clamor of her inhabitants.
The sound was carried up the hillside on a draft of sulphuric wind along with the detritus of her burning embers and glowing ash.
Thick black smoke billowed up from burning buildings in the heart of Topaz.
Shooting black-red flames gutted out of the mid sections of tall buildings and consumed smaller structures nearby.
The spires were toppling, one-by-one, their supports burned away. Around the market square, red, green, and yellow flags waved fingers of flames in the smoky air. Further to the left, a foundry exploded, causing widespread damage to an already sacked city.
My eyes burned as I slowed my descent and looked with horror upon that once-magnificent monolith that represented the very best of Topaz culture and enlightenment—that dazzling, white, reflective limestone pyramid at the epicenter of the city.
Its solid crystal capstone had been completely obliterated by some horrendous, destructive force, rendering the pyramid's power, effectively inoperable.
I choked back a sob.
Without the capstone, the pyramid could no longer transmit power. Without power from the pyramid feeding into the mage grid, there was no power to work the water pumps.
The thaumaturges who would have been able to use the relatively small amount of water to thaumaturgically increase enough of its volume to fight the fire, suddenly found themselves with nothing to work their magik on.
The city would burn until there was nothing left to burn.
"Hang in there, Nana." Connor whispered. "Be strong."
"Don't look at the city." Corwin growled. "Stay focused on me."
I turned away, my eyes streaming with tears. Even though I could not see them due to the light benders' effects, I could feel their hands holding mine as we continued running alongside Simon and Tarzan.
The orangutan took us through more side streets until we reached the undamaged sections of the campus.
We were near the bottom of the hill when I caught sight of the shell of what was once the magnificent crystal Hydroponics Lab.
The sonic booms from the fire balls had taken out all the tempered glass from the building's framework, leaving behind a hollowed, pane-less white skeleton.
The mounds of crystal nuggets at the foot of the building glistened and burnished in the light of the afternoon sun, while above it, exposed green leafy innards spilled from its gutted white carcass.
I gasped, trying not to cry out with shock. All the plants that Alan and the plant mages had tended to with so much tender loving care, had all been toppled and shredded.
As we ran past the Hydroponics Lab, my eyes caught sight of the building next door. The Alchemy Lab was on fire.
Thick noxious black smoke plumed skyward, choking us with its heavy noxious fumes of burning metal and tar.
As the fire hit the chemicals stored within the lab, multi-colored sparks flew into the air almost like fireworks, to quickly be subsumed by the red orange spurts of the ravenous inferno, consuming everything in its path.
It must have hit something extremely flammable because at the moment we entered one of the side alleys, a roar erupted from the backside as the first of the chemical explosions began to erupt.
The blast engulfed the remainder of the Alchemy building, swallowing up everything in sight.
We threw ourselves down onto the ground as the blast rolled above us, taking along with it, our light-benders.
Our visual defense was gone, but there was no time to set up another one.
We continued our hurried stumbling through the alleyway.
As we ran, I caught the glint of a tear streaming down Simon's soot-smeared face.
His lab and his home-away-from-home was gone.
I blinked back my own tears to clear my vision and hardened my resolve to survive this crisis.
This was not the time to give into weakness. There would be plenty of time in the future to lament our steep losses and to plot our revenge—but first, we had to survive this day.
My eyes dried as I willed myself to remember everything that I had seen today.
The hot fires and black smoke—the shelled Academy buildings—the explosions—Topaz City's burning smells—the mage cries of pain, of death—the pyramid's missing crystal capstone—the smoking ruins of Topaz City—the cadaverous crystal hydroponics building.
All these images and sensations that flashed before my eyes, I seared into my long-term memory banks. I was absolutely certain that there would come a time when all this debt would be collected.
I had to keep the tally accurate.
My brain worked feverishly to contain all that I had seen, even as Connor and Corwin pulled me through another alleyway, hurrying me along towards the southern end of the campus.
They kept me running. There was no time to stop for anything. We continued running behind Tarzan, trusting implicitly in his guidance.
Suddenly and without warning, he slipped behind a large blue garbage container.
We followed immediately behind him and had barely slipped behind the smelly repository when a group of great apes walked out of a large side door.
Knowing how keen their sense of smell were, I was truly glad we were behind such a stinker of a garbage dump.
We waited until they had moved past to squeeze between the container and the building and then entered through the door they had just exited.
The darkened interior temporarily blinded me, but Tarzan's eyesight was unaffected. He led us through several side hallways, constantly sniffing and searching for human and primate presence.
Suddenly, he held up a hand and bade us to be still.
We pressed up against the hallway as he scoped out the lobby where several hallways converged.
It was filled with the black-suited Mage Elites.
Tarzan made a motion and we backtracked through another set of hallways, clearing a wide path around the Black Suits.
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To read more about the destruction of Topaz, please check out my other novel: Ravish Me, Oh Great Wizard King.
Both novels converge on this event, today.