Brave Story - Miyuki Miyabe [282]
There, among the clouds that shrouded Dela Rubesi, a single star shone in the sunlit sky with a hard, diamond-like radiance. On closer inspection, it was moving.
Either my eyes are playing tricks on me, or whatever that is has wings.
“That’s a servant of the Goddess, that is. Bringing a wind of punishment down on this place, I should imagine,” Jozo said with a shiver. “And where that wind blows, I don’t want to be! Let’s fly!”
The three clung tight to his scales, and Jozo lifted into the air. As soon as they were in a cloud bank, he began beating his powerful wings, taking them as far away from Dela Rubesi as he could go.
Through the swirling clouds, Wataru watched the approaching star. It did have wings, after all, wings of frost—as though countless shards of ice had come together to form a giant bird. It was even larger than Jozo. Each beat of its wings sent a frigid gale down to the earth below. The great ice-bird was headed straight for Dela Rubesi.
“Jozo?”
“What?”
“Do you think you could circle around here, just a moment? I kind of want to see what happens.”
“It’ll just give you nightmares. I don’t recommend it.”
“Please. I…I have to see this through.”
Jozo snorted, then, reluctantly, turned his nose back toward Dela Rubesi. He began tracing a wide circle around the frozen city.
The ice-bird alighted on the innermost of the two walls surrounding Dela Rubesi, and rested a moment before it extended its wings to the side and began to thrash them furiously.
With the first beat of its wings, a blizzard rose. With the second beat of its wings, the very air stiffened around it. With a third beat, every spire, street, and wall in the city froze and began to crumble into scattered shards of ice.
The sculptures holding up the domed roof of the amphitheater froze and shattered. Corridors cracked, sending plumes of ice-dust into the air. Like a sand castle swept away by the waves, the temples and shrines began to lose their form, crumbling at the edges. The city walls collapsed, first the outer wall, then the inner. Then the ice-bird took flight, blasting the city from the air with waves of frigid cold.
“Look!” Meena said, pointing. “The pattern is crumbling!”
The pattern on the elevator rose for moment, becoming more distinct, then let off an icy sigh before sinking. At first, its descent was level, but soon it tilted to one side. One of the edges crumbled away, and then the lines of the pattern began to shatter. Soon it was nothing but a countless pile of ice shards, thundering down into the earth like an avalanche.
“The Goddess is angry,” Jozo said. Even though he had no idea what had happened beneath the surface, his eyes held a knowing glint. “I can taste the sadness in the air. She laments. What horrible sin did these people of Dela Rubesi commit to earn this?”
Clinging to Jozo’s neck, Wataru watched the final moments of Dela Rubesi.
What is empty returns to emptiness, what is nothing returns to nothing.
Moments later there was nothing on Undoor Highland but a thick layer of snow and ice.
As it had come, the great ice-bird flew up without a sound and disappeared into the clouds. Wataru did not watch it go, and Jozo, for his part, flew as fast as he could in the opposite direction. The sky was silent. Little by little, their view widened. The time of punishment was over.
“Let’s get someplace warm,” Kee Keema said in a raspy voice. “I’ve had just about all I can take.” Wataru was about to agree when Kee Keema’s fingers clumsily grabbed his sleeve.
“What?”
“Wh-what’s that? I see something shining!”
Kee Keema was pointing back toward Dela Rubesi. There, on the snowy field where the city had stood, something was shining with a brilliant red light.
“Jozo, you didn’t drop a scale back there?”
“Absolutely not. What a waste that would be.”
“Then what is that?”
Wataru felt his heart stir in his chest. For the first time in hours, he felt hope.
“Kee Keema, you think you can hang in there for another five minutes?”
“S-sure.”
“Jozo, would you take us back?”
Jozo