Guarding the Goddess by Evangeline Anderson

Author:Evangeline Anderson [Anderson, Evangeline]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Evangeline Anderson

Twenty-Four

Something’s wrong—I know it is! There’s something off here.

Ty’s instincts—on high alert for the entire parade—were now screaming at him as he made his way towards the laughing, dancing, juggling fool.

“Hey!” he shouted at the fool. “What’s going on here—who sent you?”

Still laughing, the fool turned towards him and lobbed one of the colorful balls he’d been juggling straight at Ty’s head.

Only juggling balls didn’t normally have blinking lights on them, did they? Lights that started out green and then turned red in mid-air.

It’s a bomb! A Goddess-damned matter incendiary! If it touches anything before it blows, the explosion will be twenty times as great!

Ty’s body was acting before the thought even finished flashing through his mind. Years of instinct and training took over and he raised his blaster—thank the Goddess he already had it out and ready—and shot the device in mid-air, before it could reach him.

The bomb exploded harmlessly in a bright shower of sparks and a puff of smoke but that only confirmed what Ty had already guessed. The bomb was a MID or matter incendiary device. As long as it didn’t touch anything and only exploded in midair, it would do little to no damage. But if it was allowed to land or touch any solid object—if it touched any solid matter at all as it blew—the chain of destruction it caused would be catastrophic.

Just one of these small bombs could take out the entire huge wooden platform they were all standing on and leave nothing but a gaping crater in the earth below.

Thankfully, the fool-who-was-clearly-not-a-fool had tossed the bomb in a high arc, so though the explosion was loud, it didn’t seem to hurt anyone. Ty realized at once, however, that the high toss was no accident.

He was trying to get it over my head, he thought, his gut clenching with the realization. He was trying to toss it directly at Ellina!

And then the fool threw another bomb and another and another and he had no more time to think—only time to react.

One by one he shot the small but deadly bombs out of the air, only vaguely aware that the nobles on the platform were running and screaming—panicking like a heard of startled terga-beasts, he thought distractedly as he continued to shoot.

Then some of the acrobats raced up the steps as well. At first Ty hoped they would try to overwhelm the fool but then he saw, with a sinking heart, that they were dressed in the same multi-colored rags that he was. They dived into the panicking crowd on the platform and began engaging the guards in hand-to-hand combat.

Still, Ty could do nothing but keep shooting. He was well aware that if even one of the bombs got through it would blow Ellina and the entire platform to bits. He couldn’t let that happen—he had to protect her no matter what.

“The Potentate! Guard the Potentate—shield her!” he bellowed at the guards behind him as he continued to shoot—though all the shielding in the world would do her no good if even one MID got through.

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