Destiny's Hand by Michael Campling

Author:Michael Campling [Campling, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Shadowstone Books
Published: 2019-01-02T07:00:00+00:00

5

Golmeneth

On the day of the competition, my mother barely spoke to us as we broke our fast together, and I could scarcely eat a mouthful of my fresh fruit. I pushed the colorful segments around on the plate, gazing at the glistening trails of juice they left behind as they slid across the white porcelain.

“You should eat something, Yempy,” my father said. “You too Ashra. It’s a big day—for both of you.”

I looked up from my food and Ashra scowled at me, but she said nothing. Perhaps she’d run out of spiteful things to say. It wouldn’t have surprised me; there are only so many ways to hurt someone’s feelings, and she’d made my life a misery ever since our names had been read out together in front of the whole at school. That moment, when we discovered that we’d both been chosen to attend the grand competition, should’ve been wonderful. But while I was stunned by the news, hardly able to speak, Ashra had wasted no time in making her feelings plain.

I kept trying to tell her I’d never asked to be chosen and that I was as surprised as anyone else, but she wouldn’t listen. Every day she’d told me I’d been chosen by accident, a simple mix up on the list. She’d said I’d be in terrible trouble when the truth came out, and she’d always sounded so certain of arguments that I was ready to believe her.

“And I’ve arranged something special for you,” my father went on. “I’ve ordered a car from work. An official car to take you to the Civic Hall.”

My mother looked up from her food with a start. “Why? What’s wrong with our car?”

“Nothing,” my father replied. “I thought you’d like to arrive in style.”

My mother pursed her lips, and when my father saw her expression, he let out a small sigh. “It’s not an extravagance,” he insisted. “It’s purely practical.”

“Well I won’t take it,” mother said. “It’s a pretentious idea, and I want nothing to do with it. You should’ve asked me first.”

And then my father did something I’d never seen him do before. In a sudden, almost violent motion, he reached across the table and grasped my mother’s hands. She tried to pull away, but he held her hands tightly and looked her in the eye, holding her gaze. “Please, take the car.”

My mother held his gaze for a long moment before she spoke. “There’s trouble, isn’t there? I knew it.”

My father cast an anxious glance at Ashra and me, and then he nodded. “Rumors, that’s all. Nothing unusual. But last night, there was…a disturbance.”

Instantly, I remembered something from the night before. I’d slept badly, drifting in and out of troubled dreams, unsure of what was real and was imagined. But in that moment, I was certain. “I heard bangs,” I announced. “Bangs and big, whistling, buzzing noises.”

Ashra screwed up her face. “That was sonic grenades going off, you dummy. Don’t you know anything?”

“Of course I do,” I snapped back, feeling the color rise to my cheeks.

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