Brave Story - Miyuki Miyabe [335]
What are they? They look like giant robots made out of rock. Their heads were round, their shoulders broad, and their torsos impossibly thick. They swung massive arms and legs and crushed houses with a single swipe of a fist. People couldn’t escape getting trampled underfoot. The screams and cries flowed together into a cacophony of noise, all swallowed by the thunderous crash of mortar against cobblestone.
“Those are golems!” Kee Keema shouted. He was looking down at the destruction beneath them with wide eyes. His body shook with rage.
“Golems?”
“Giants of rock crafted by sorcery! Whoever made them is their master—they do whatever he says!”
“I thought those things were from fairy tales!” Meena cried, her face pale. “I can’t believe they really exist!”
“Me neither. But they’re doing way too much damage to just be a fairy tale!”
The golems looked much like stone statues with smooth, featureless faces. Their hands, too, were more like lumps of rock than anything human. They continued their rampage, ripping the city apart.
“It’s Mitsuru,” Wataru said, his eyes streaming with tears from the smoke. “Mitsuru made the golems—he’s controlling them!”
And he’s destroying Solebria. Where are you, Mitsuru? Where?!
Off to one side, a great column of fire rose from the city. The impact of the wind from the blaze made the giant dragon lose his balance, and the tip of his right wing caught on the shell of a ruined townhouse. Meena screamed and nearly fell off his back.
“How many of those creatures are there? I can’t even count them!”
“Look at that!” one of the other dragons shouted. “There are even more of them up there! Their numbers are increasing!”
The golems were everywhere throughout the city. Some even stumbled into each other and began fighting. Even when they lost an arm, or their head fell to the ground, they seemed to feel no pain. They continued moving through the city as though nothing unusual had happened. Everywhere Wataru looked new golems continued to spring out of the wreckage with a noise like thunder, one after the other.
“We have to destroy them!” Meena shouted, hitting Jozo’s back with her tiny fists.
“Sure, but how?” Jozo shouted back, his voice a half-whimper. He opened his mouth, and flames began to lick past his fangs. Wataru hurriedly crawled up onto his neck. “No! If you breathe you’ll roast the people along with them!”
The dragons cast their collective shadows on the chaos below as they circled the city. The people of Solebria were scared to death, yet the golems stood their ground, waiting.
“Help! Help!”
“Mama? Where’s my mama?”
The screams from below reached Wataru’s ears as they cruised only inches over the tops of buildings. A young man clung to the chimney of a steepled roof, crying for help. Jozo whipped back around, and Wataru reached his hand out for the chimney. Though his eyes were filled with fear, the man extended his arm. Wataru was about to grab the man’s wrist when a golem punched its heavy fist through the wall of the house. The roof collapsed and the man flew through the air in an arc. Wataru lost sight of him beneath the wreckage and billowing dust.
Why? Why? Why?
“Traveler, look with calm eyes. The golems make for the palace,” one of the seven pillars called out to Wataru. Kutz rode on its back. She was gripping the base of its neck tightly between her knees, brandishing her black whip in one hand.
“Wataru, look!”
The golems had formed a circle as they advanced through the city. As they moved forward, the band tightened. At its center stood the core of the Imperial Capital of Solebria: the milky-white stone palace.
“That’s the emperor’s castle, the Crystal Palace!” Kutz shouted over the roaring the flames below. She put a hand to the side of her mouth. “Your friend Mitsuru is heading for the Crystal Palace, destroying the city as he goes!”
“A golem-mage cannot stray too far from his creations, lest he lose control of them,” one