The Blue Tower (The Five Towers Book 1) by J.B. Simmons

Author:J.B. Simmons [Simmons, J.B.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: middle grade, magic, afterlife, after life, spiritual, Purgatory, wizard, metaphysical, preteen
Publisher: Three Cord Press
Published: 2018-10-30T04:00:00+00:00

30

WAVES LAP GENTLY. A fire crackles.

A light breeze brings smells of brine and smoke.

My eyes blink open slowly. I have a splitting headache, a sore neck. My vision is blurry as I try to stand and focus on the fire. It’s a neat pile of burning wood with one exception. A huge beam, thicker than my leg, hangs over the fire, half burnt through, with the other half extending to the shallow water nearby.

On the other side of the fire is a girl curled up tight as a nautilus shell. Emma. Her body rises and falls gently. She’s sleeping.

I run my hand through my hair and feel something odd by my temple. My fingers prod gently at the flesh. It feels scarred. I don’t remember having a scar there.

I step slowly, quietly, around the fire, to peek at Emma. She is serene and beautiful as she sleeps. She must be royalty, a princess or something. As I kneel down closer I see scrapes along her otherwise flawless cheek, and then I remember.

Lightning. Thunder.

The storm had hit us. The lightning crashed down and must have struck the mast, which fell over on us. It must have knocked me out.

In the shallow water, our boat lies on its side. We must have washed in here. We made it to the cove.

And Emma... she must have made the fire, watched over me, and... my fingers go again to my temple. It’s where the mast was falling. She healed me. She had to have done it, otherwise I’d have dried blood or an open wound or worse. Instead there’s just a scar that feels years old.

An urge rises up in me. I want to protect her, to pay this back somehow. What to do? We can’t stay here, and we can’t climb out of the cove. The cliff walls rise far above, too wet and steep to climb. And at the edges of the cove more cliffs extend out into the sea. The water is gentle now, but swimming won’t work. It’s too far. There haven’t been any other coves in sight.

I step into the shallows to study the boat. The hull isn’t damaged. Inside, the food is still there but thrown all over the place. I take some dried fish, then return to the beach, sit on the soft white sand, and eat.

I watch Emma sleeping by the fire. The silver band fits tightly around her neck. I wonder if there’s any way I could take it off. She saved my life. She should be free. I step quietly and kneel down beside her again. She mumbles something in her sleep, but is still again. My hand hovers over the link. There are no clasps or mechanisms for opening it. But maybe I can use the air. I focus on channeling it as I reach down.

The moment my fingertips touch the link, I feel something different. I feel Emma in a way I never have before. Deeper. I think about my healed temple, about the wind, and about Emma.

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