Force of Fire by Sayantani Dasgupta

Author:Sayantani Dasgupta [Dasgupta, Sayantani]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781338636642
Google: 0BQCEAAAQBAJ
Amazon: 1338636642
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Published: 2021-05-31T23:00:00+00:00

I see her! Raat! Fly to the left! She’s right under us!” Chandni pointed to a speck of darkness against the land.

“Hurry! She’s so near the ground!” I yelled.

I reached around Chandni’s shoulder to pat Raat’s mane. “I’m sorry I got you hurt in the market, horsey. Really. Please help, and I’ll owe you forever!”

As if he could understand, Raat let out a fearsome snort and put back his dark ears. He gave two hard beats of his wings and then dived.

Unfortunately, just as he did so, the sky decided to do some moving of its own. As it had done before, I felt everything around me rending, shifting, and splitting apart like paper in a giant child’s hands.

“Stinky camel cakes! Not now!” I screamed, unable to help it, my fear for myself mingling with my fear for Deembo.

Like before, the ground and water below us started to shift and rearrange themselves like pieces on a game board.

“This is not the ideal time for this to be happening again!” Chandni really was the queen of the obvious statement.

I felt the atmosphere tear, somewhere near us, the pressure of the air shift making my ears pop and skin crawl. If Deembo fell into that hole in the sky, she would be gone forever. If we fell into that hole in the sky, we would have no hope of saving her and we’d all be goners.

“Down and to the left, horsey!” I yelled, reaching around Chandni to yank at the pakkhiraj’s reins. “Down and to the left!”

Before me, Chandni was muttering, “Come on, come on, come on.” I could see her hands were glowing silver again against the horse’s neck, as if she were transferring more of her own energy to the flying pakkhiraj.

Even with his hurt wing, Raat was a champion. With an otherworldly scream, he dived under the little rakkhoshi, allowing me to grab her arm as she almost fell by us. With a ferocious heave, not caring if I broke her arm, not caring about anything, I yanked her to my chest.

As if the multiverse were on our side, the shifting of the air, land, and water stopped almost as soon as I had plucked Deembo out of her deadly free fall.

“Oh, Deembo, oh, Deembo, are you all right? Are you all right?” I kept asking as I squeezed her small frame to me. I was breathless and dizzy, hearts pounding from our horrible close call.

Not able to answer me with words, Deembo nodded, her eyes big and frightened as they looked into mine. She was sitting backward on the horse, between Chandni and me, with my arms tight around her. Not able to stand the thought of almost having lost her, I crushed her trembling form into me, wanting to hold her but wanting to rail at her at the same time.

“You egg cream! You quiche butt! You soft-boiled ninny!” I screamed as Raat rose again, gaining altitude after saving two falling passengers midair. “You almost killed me

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