Brave Story - Miyuki Miyabe [263]
“My Lady!” Father Diamon’s forehead was cut, and blood streamed down over his face. The blood had gone into one of his eyes, forming a pool that looked comically like an eyepatch.
He’s no pastor. He’s a wicked old pirate captain.
“Boy! The Lady Cistina will never forgive this!”
In response to Father Diamon’s voice, the stained glass again flashed like lightning. The mirror in the stone Cistina’s left hand responded with its own flash. Then a new light shone from the surface of the round mirror, forming a beam that shot straight at Wataru. Wataru dodged to the side. He rolled and jumped to his feet. Where he stood before was a scary black scorch mark.
Okay, now she’s shooting lasers from her mirror at me. Wataru couldn’t decide whether to scream or laugh out loud. His heart threatened to beat out of his chest in panicked excitement.
Just then, the firewyrm band on his left wrist blazed red. A burning sensation passed up his arm, clearing his mind. He remembered the oath of the Highlanders—those who received the will of the firewyrm, protectors of the code, hunters of the truth.
Wataru stood. He pressed the blazing red firewyrm band to his chest for an instant, then, lifting his sword, he flew into motion.
Beams shot from the mirror in the stone Cistina’s hand in rapid succession, following Wataru as he ran, leaving a succesion of black scorch marks on the floor and walls behind him. Splintered chunks of the pews smoldered and burned.
I’m not after the statue. I’m after the source of the mirror’s power—the stained glass!
Wataru ran, dodging to the right, leaping to the left, and tumbling forward through the cathedral. He fired a magebullet at one of the stained glass windows.
Colored shards of glass tinkled to the floor.
We come before you now and bow at your feet.
Glass rained from the next window.
To despise what is evil, to save what is weak.
Another window broke, then another. Wataru thought he could hear a woman’s scream mingled with the sound of breaking glass.
Until our bodies fall to dust.
The last window remaining was the stained glass next to the altar itself. The Cistina pictured on it glared at Wataru, her eyes flashing with wrath. She seemed ready to leap from the window and fly at him. But a well-aimed shot from Wataru transformed the image into countless fragments.
Following always the star of righteousness!
Out of breath, his eyes stinging with the dust, Wataru turned back toward the statue of Cistina. She stood there facing him from across a veritable mountain of broken pews and mangled flowers.
“Take this!”
Wataru fired. The magebullet flew true, striking the stone Cistina square in the middle of her chest. The bullet shattered into fragments and disappeared, but the stone Cistina still stood.
Nothing?!
The strength went out of Wataru’s legs, and he fell to his knees, still staring at the statue. Then the statue’s right hand loosened, the fingers coming apart, and the mirror dropped to the floor. Just like the scepter, this too transformed into a small pile of dust.
“Oh, my Lady…” Face caked with blood, Father Diamon crawled to the statue’s feet. Clinging to her leg, he cried, “What have you done! Wretched boy, do you know what you have done here?”
Before Wataru could say anything, the statue abruptly lurched to one side. It was, he saw, just a statue now. Broken, and off its pedestal, the Lady Cistina had become nothing more than a heavy, unstable lump of stone. Before Father Diamon realized what was happening, the statue slowly toppled over, crushing the screaming pastor beneath it.
Silence came abruptly. The only things moving within the cathedral were the swirling eddies of dust and tiny wicks