The Fragile Tower - Book 1 of the No.1 magical fantasy series

The Fragile Tower Chapter 28 - The Broken Bond

There was no time to read the book, or even to think. There was only time to throw her will into the Symbol of Wholeness – the single symbol that lay at the centre of and dominant over all the others – and to fling it towards the raven-haired boy.

She felt it snag against the threads of magic flowing into his outstretched hands, and then join with them. With a dizzy, rushing lurch she suddenly saw.

She was outside the tower and above it, watching as wave after wave of flesh wolves and the dog-ape creatures descended on the main doors, only to be pushed back by washes of green and purple and gold possibility wielded by Dedora from the top of the steps. For a moment she saw little Aniela's delight, and heard her whisper, "There," as she pointed towards a single nightmare drifting across the cobbles and towards the doors.

And she was in the garden at the tower's summit, above and amongst Ruidic and Ma and the Queen; she saw Ma lift her head as Ruidic bent down over her, his stormy eyes over-flowing; and she saw Afi, a shimmering blue form where her spell still hid him from sight, his arm around the Queen's neck and his knife at her throat.

But she was also on the ground next to Captain Roschan, seeing every drop of sweat that swung out of his soaking hair he drove his spear into the flesh of one of the dog-like apes and then swung to meet another. And she was in a room full of desks and books, watching a group of terrified men in robes huddle together in counsel.

And she was high up in the tower where a ragged hole had been torn in the magicked stones, allowing a swarm of Evanescents and Nightmares to float into its undefended corridors. And she was on the ground near the base of the tower, feeling the heat of spells of fire fly past her at the hands of three men wreathed in pulsing green magic.

And more than that, she was part of the very fabric of the tower, twined around its stones and its rooms, feeling it within her own body as it shook with blasts of magic. She could feel it groaning, and straining, weak and brittle as it stood against the onslaught of cold magic.

You aren't going to stop me, she heard, and when she searched in her mind for the source of the words, she found them in a translucent form of the raven-haired boy. He stood below that great statue in the vast chamber of hills and grass, and she stood in front of him.

They've hurt me and used me, he said, his eyes large and wounded. Now I'm the one hurting them.

She felt as if her own hands were being used against her, and she saw it as a blast of power struck out at Roschan and his men. She screamed as they vanished behind it, and she pulled against it with all her might.

The wave of magic winked out, but Grace could feel her real body sweating with the effort of holding it in. Her shadow self, standing in front of the statue, watched the boy's face grow petulantly angry.

Stop it! he shouted, and she felt power shove at her instead this time, and she pushed back against it.

We're both holding it, she thought. We're both holding the link. I just have to be the stronger one...

She drew possibility to herself, though it was harder than it had ever been. It was like dragging herself along by her fingers, and it hurt somewhere deep in her chest.

What are you doing? he asked, and she realised that he could feel her clawing at the power. His pale blue eyes were wary, but they were also furious. What are you doing?

She needed the right symbol. Wholeness had drawn her into the bond, so how to drive him out of it?

The Symbol of Breaking, she thought. It's in the book.