Driftwood Orphans by Krueger Paul

Author:Krueger, Paul [Krueger, Paul]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781473229075
Publisher: Orion
Published: 2022-06-23T00:00:00+00:00

21

Now

Age 30

I gasped back to life, and my body collected on all its deferred pain payments at once.

Thinking was like trying to walk through tar, but frantically I checked myself: I could move my toes. My glasses were on my face. I was bleeding. I could hear the faint song of my driftwood, far away from me. Panic seized me: had you suppressed my powers again? Were you here, the one standing over me?

But no. I didn’t hear the telltale click of your boots. And there was no mistaking the flowery scent of the man here with me.

I was lying on Phuong’s living-room floor in a mess of plaster and wood. Just a few hours ago, I’d been sitting at her low tea table; now, it was crushed underneath me. I’d hit it hard enough to telescope the damn thing into the floorboards. The air was thick with dust, but none of it seemed to have polluted Knife-Edge’s neat cream áo dài.

“It’s quite something, Tenny,” he sighed. “Telling someone exactly what mistake they’ll make, warning them what will happen to them if they make it … and then watching them make it anyway.”

Lying on the ruins of that table, I gasped like a fish on a monger’s counter. Plaster dust stuck to my open wounds and settled on my glasses. Breathing was pain. Existence was pain. All I could do was lie there and stare up helplessly at the exit wound I’d just left in the ceiling.

“Years of fighting alongside you gave me a lot of opportunities to learn from you. Your ways are poetry—their confidence, their grace, their power, all moving in harmony. A thousand fighters could come and go through this city, and none of them would be able to touch you … including me.”

I winced as I tried to gather my thoughts. He was about to finish me, unless I thought quickly. I reached for the driftwood I could still sense, up a floor above me. Its song was faint, but it was enough for me to grasp on to. I screwed together my concentration, and sang out a desperate song.

“But your weakness was your own strength,” Knife-Edge went on. “You’re still used to fighting like you can’t lose, so you rushed right in and allowed me to maneuver you, confident you could steer things the way you wanted. All I had to do was lure you on to the floorboards I’d already cut, and—”

On one final high note, my fallen bolo zoomed up from the floor and flew straight down through the hole at Knife-Edge. I could picture its hardened birch tip sinking into his back. I could hear, so clearly, the rattling sound of his breath as it rushed from his punctured lungs.

But his hair and áo dài both fluttered as he whirled around. His pink knives traced a glowing X in the air.

And the last remnants of my driftwood clattered to his feet, the music dying in my ears.

“No! ” I wanted to scream, but I didn’t have the breath for it.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.