coming down in a lazy curve; my insides knotted up as I imagined it, because when an Othersider takes its time moving in on you, it’s because that monster knows it’s got you right where it wants you, and you’re basically a mouse looking up at the talons of an owl.
“Shadi and Yanaba had gotten the Shields up just in time; if any of those bolts had struck the wooden houses or the wooden palisade around the village, they would have gone up in flames. I ran, then, and got as far as the porch of the community hall, but there I stayed.” He shrugged. “I don’t know what I thought I could accomplish, but it felt as if I ought to be there. I suppose that’s why whoever was blowing the alarm horn stayed at his post too.”
“How many Thunderbirds were there?” I asked. In my mind there were ten or so of them, the first one coming down lazily, firing off blinding lightning bolts that were just barely absorbed by the Shield, the rest firing off their lightning from higher above, and the thunder rocking everything like the thunder outside was shaking our building.
“Six, eight, it was hard to tell. At least six, probably no more than ten or a dozen. The storm hit about that time, sleet sheeted down out of the clouds, and there was lightning lashing everywhere, not just the lightning coming from the Thunderbirds. I didn’t hear anything like that constant barrage of thunder until we moved to Apex and the whole family was in our first apartment here, in a big storm like the one going on outside.” He reached over to the cool-cabinet on the wall, got a bottle of water, and handed me one. I took it wordlessly.
I knew those early winter storms, when it wasn’t quite winter but you could still get something as bad or worse than a blizzard. And the Thunderbirds would have been augmenting what would have been a bad sleet storm and turning it into something worse. The only thing that the village had going for it that day had been that the Thunderbirds didn’t like the cold any more than any Othersider did, so they had controlled the storm and kept it to rain where they were flying.
But such rain…if it was anything like today, here and now, from the community hall where Uncle had been standing, he wouldn’t have been able to see the gate to the palisade through the pouring rain.
“Shadi and Yanaba wouldn’t have been able to hold out for very long under that punishment, but it wasn’t more than fifteen, twenty minutes before the first of the roving Hunters came down from the Monastery. Hunter Begay was the first, but the rest weren’t far behind him. I didn’t even realize they were there until, all of a sudden, there were four people out there in the clearing in the middle of the village. Then six. Then eight.”
They were all there, in my mind, standing in a tight little circle, facing out, hands outstretched as they bolstered the Shield. Master Jeffries and Master Begay must have looked like stone statues, anchoring the rest.
“Between their combined Shields and the relentless lightning from the Thunderbirds, even people like me could see the Shields. It looked like someone had put up a glowing dome of light over the whole of Anston’s Well, light that shifted colors the way the colors shift in a soap bubble. By that time, I was riveted. I couldn’t have moved if I’d wanted to.”
I’d seen that too, seen what happened when more than one Hunter combined their Shields to make one big shield. That was what the Elite had done for the last of my Trials. But this one would have been fluorescing every time a lightning bolt hit it, and—that was where my imagination failed me. It must have been glorious and utterly terrifying at the same time. “Then what happened?” I asked as he stopped to take a drink.
He smiled. “Ah, well, then the Masters came down. By that time, some of the Hunters had run out of manna, a couple of them had drained themselves to the point where they were passing out. Shadi was the
“Shadi and Yanaba had gotten the Shields up just in time; if any of those bolts had struck the wooden houses or the wooden palisade around the village, they would have gone up in flames. I ran, then, and got as far as the porch of the community hall, but there I stayed.” He shrugged. “I don’t know what I thought I could accomplish, but it felt as if I ought to be there. I suppose that’s why whoever was blowing the alarm horn stayed at his post too.”
“How many Thunderbirds were there?” I asked. In my mind there were ten or so of them, the first one coming down lazily, firing off blinding lightning bolts that were just barely absorbed by the Shield, the rest firing off their lightning from higher above, and the thunder rocking everything like the thunder outside was shaking our building.
“Six, eight, it was hard to tell. At least six, probably no more than ten or a dozen. The storm hit about that time, sleet sheeted down out of the clouds, and there was lightning lashing everywhere, not just the lightning coming from the Thunderbirds. I didn’t hear anything like that constant barrage of thunder until we moved to Apex and the whole family was in our first apartment here, in a big storm like the one going on outside.” He reached over to the cool-cabinet on the wall, got a bottle of water, and handed me one. I took it wordlessly.
I knew those early winter storms, when it wasn’t quite winter but you could still get something as bad or worse than a blizzard. And the Thunderbirds would have been augmenting what would have been a bad sleet storm and turning it into something worse. The only thing that the village had going for it that day had been that the Thunderbirds didn’t like the cold any more than any Othersider did, so they had controlled the storm and kept it to rain where they were flying.
But such rain…if it was anything like today, here and now, from the community hall where Uncle had been standing, he wouldn’t have been able to see the gate to the palisade through the pouring rain.
“Shadi and Yanaba wouldn’t have been able to hold out for very long under that punishment, but it wasn’t more than fifteen, twenty minutes before the first of the roving Hunters came down from the Monastery. Hunter Begay was the first, but the rest weren’t far behind him. I didn’t even realize they were there until, all of a sudden, there were four people out there in the clearing in the middle of the village. Then six. Then eight.”
They were all there, in my mind, standing in a tight little circle, facing out, hands outstretched as they bolstered the Shield. Master Jeffries and Master Begay must have looked like stone statues, anchoring the rest.
“Between their combined Shields and the relentless lightning from the Thunderbirds, even people like me could see the Shields. It looked like someone had put up a glowing dome of light over the whole of Anston’s Well, light that shifted colors the way the colors shift in a soap bubble. By that time, I was riveted. I couldn’t have moved if I’d wanted to.”
I’d seen that too, seen what happened when more than one Hunter combined their Shields to make one big shield. That was what the Elite had done for the last of my Trials. But this one would have been fluorescing every time a lightning bolt hit it, and—that was where my imagination failed me. It must have been glorious and utterly terrifying at the same time. “Then what happened?” I asked as he stopped to take a drink.
He smiled. “Ah, well, then the Masters came down. By that time, some of the Hunters had run out of manna, a couple of them had drained themselves to the point where they were passing out. Shadi was the
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