Hellbender - Dana Cameron Page 0,70

to the end of the runway, looked out over the water, and took a deep breath. The target was the size of a four-story building, afloat on an old barge, and made of cement blocks and mortar.

I raised my hand and noticed that while the shiny metallic blaster wasn’t to be seen, there were those new stones in the bracelet on my left wrist: fiery yellow topaz and dark ruby. I had a thought and lowered my hand again.

The ensign ran over to me.

“What’s wrong?”

“Uh . . . it’s gonna make a mess.”

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“I mean, if I pulverize it, it’s going to scatter a lot of cement, and probably a lot of barge, in the ocean. Is there some way to clean it up?” I glanced at her name patch. “Ensign Hart?”

She spoke into a radio and then nodded. “Booms. They have booms underneath to collect whatever rubble you leave.”

“Oh, that’s good,” I said. Then, “Ha! Booms.”

“Yes?”

I shook my head. “Sorry, that’s just me being . . . It’s about to get very loud. I’d put the ear protection on if I were you, and let everyone else know to do that, too.”

She nodded and then cocked her head and pulled another pair of headphones from the back of her belt. Ensign Hart handed them to me.

Good point. I might be able to bring the house down, but I didn’t particularly want to go deaf doing it. “Thanks.”

She nodded again and backed away, chattering into the radio.

I’d spent my short career learning how to put things back together, or cleaning them very carefully. This was the very opposite, again, of what I’d been trained to do. I couldn’t think about that now. I had a target to blow up and folks to impress with how dangerous a situation we were all in.

I picked the place that Ensign Hart told me to aim for, the point at which the rest of the structure would collapse. And then I made a pistol shape with my hand, pointed it at the center of the structure, and said a little prayer.

I bent my thumb and whispered, “Bang.”

I was afraid there would be nothing, because I didn’t hear anything at first. Then a flash of light, brilliant, blinding. Then a push from the shockwave, hot and hard. Then came the noise, like nothing I’d ever encountered outside the movies. Death Star meets John McClane, and yippee-ki-yay.

The target wasn’t there anymore. A cloud of dust and seawater hung on the balmy air.

There was silence from the seabirds, silence from the audience. The waves continued on, a little more rapidly against the shore.

That was over, at least. I sighed with relief, trying to be discreet about it; the fatigue from my effort had been far greater than I expected, and I hoped I wouldn’t stumble when I tried to walk. Now all I had to do was—

“Zoe, we are here! Hellbender, the Makers will speak with you!”

If I hadn’t had the opportunity to see up close how folks responded to the appearance of Quarrel during the Battle of Boston, I had now a front seat as Quarrel, Naserian, and Yuan stunned the Fangborn and Normal VIPs. Screams, gasps, and a chorus of “holy shit” came from the audience, as the black, red, and green dragons materialized in front of them. I heard thuds as two people fainted and fell over. I heard sidearms being unholstered and cocked. One gentleman jumped from the top of the seating in his haste to escape the dragons. I heard his screams after he landed, breaking his leg. There was a tangle of dignitaries as they tried to get off the bleachers. There was a much smaller knot of brave souls who quietly ran to see the dragons close up. The Fangborn in the audience were no less stunned.

These guys had actually asked to see the dragons and really weren’t expecting me to produce. In truth, I don’t know if Quarrel would have come if I called for him, but as it was, he’d saved my bacon. The dragons seemed to enjoy the attention and warm sun.

In other ways, it wasn’t funny at all, a preview of the reactions we could expect on I-Day.

“Excuse me, I must go,” I said to the ensign Cousin, who was agape. “Naserian, would you please stay here and answer any questions these folks might have?”

“Certainly, Hellbender.”

“Particularly that gentleman, in the very nice blazer.” I pointed at Senator Knight, who flinched under the