Ash Mistry and the City of Death. Sarwat Chadda

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      A small kid wandered alone, separated from his parents. He still held his sparkler, waving it dumbly while tears rolled down his fat cheeks. Then the fog rolled over him and he was gone. How could it have gone so wrong so quickly?

      Where was Gemma?

      Ash stared at the horrified faces of the people screaming and running in blind panic. Vaporous smog lay over the chaos. Then a bellowing roar shook the fog, making it tremble and ripple outward.

      Ash ran towards the source of the ripples.

      A tiger was fighting a huge dire hyena. A grotesque hunchbacked jackal stalked the outer ring of the battle, and behind them the towering bonfire tottered. The wooden struts cracked and the structure swayed from side to side.

      And behind the tiger stood Gemma.

      She was staring around madly for an escape route, but finding none. Behind her was the inferno, and before her were the rakshasas.

      Dozens of wounds covered the tiger – Khan – some deep and oozing thick dark blood.

      Khan saw Ash.

      And so did Jackie.

      The tiger charged the hyena, tearing into it. Khan forced the demon back, trying to open up a path between Ash and Gemma.

      But Jackie was quicker.

      She sprang a dozen metres in an instant, even as Ash sprinted towards Gemma. Gemma screamed and stumbled back, ignoring the bonfire right behind her, more terrified of the slavering jaws of the demon than the unbearable heat.

      “Gemma!” Ash screamed as a barrage of rockets shot over his head.

      Like a thunderstorm, the fireworks smashed into the heart of the bonfire. Ash flung his arm over his eyes as the gunpowder exploded with a blinding white flash. He staggered back, dazed, as more and more firecrackers followed the smoky trail into the giant, blazing tower.

      Jackie threw Gemma to the ground and stood over the cowering girl, her face a grotesque, unnatural blend of human and beast, long slavering jaws with human lips and eyes.

      Parvati ran up to Ash. Ash stepped forward, but Jackie brought her fangs close to Gemma’s throat. Gemma lay still and petrified.

      “The Koh-i-noor, and the girl lives,” Jackie growled. Spittle dripped off her canines on to Gemma’s face.

      They were maybe ten metres apart, though it was hard to tell with the fog and smoke. Jackie’s fangs were a centimetre from Gemma’s bare neck. There was no way he’d make it.

      Jackie’s eyes blazed and her fur shivered across her shoulders. “The diamond, boy.”

      They had no choice. “Give it to her, Parvati.”

      “No.”

      “Give it to her!”

      Parvati stepped back. “No.” Her cold gaze didn’t shift from the jackal rakshasa.

      Ash reached to the back of his T-shirt, moving his hand ever so slowly. It was dark, the distance long, and the katar wasn’t designed for throwing, but it was the only chance he had.

      “Parvati, for God’s sake…”

      “No!”

      Jackie howled and—

      Ash grabbed the katar and hurled it at the rakshasa.

      Gemma screamed as Jackie sank her fangs into her neck. She beat the demon with her fists, struggling under the massive, hairy monster. The katar punched into Jackie’s shoulder, and Jackie released her to howl again. She stumbled back, and Ash charged.

      The rakshasa shook herself, trying to dislodge the katar wedged just below her lower neck. The blade refused to shift, so finally Jackie leaped into the fog, fangs and fur soaked with blood, her mad, howling laughter echoing in her wake, Parvati sprinted after her.

      Ash fell to his knees beside Gemma.

      “Gemma?”

      Oh God, her neck was covered in blood. He put his hands on the wound, feeling the muscles quivering and the breath hissing from her ruined throat, raising red bubbles that spluttered and popped.

      “Someone get an ambulance!” he screamed. “Please!”

      Gemma grabbed hold of his arm. She dug her fingers into his skin, hanging on to him as if she was sinking into a dark sea, focusing on him with frightening intensity. She tried to speak, but nothing came out.

      The lights of death were spreading over her, multiplying second by second. She looked radiant, covered in gold, bright as an angel.

      “Gemma, Gemma…”

      Ash trembled as he began to absorb Gemma’s death energies.

      “No. No.”

      He wanted to say more, to tell her it was OK, that she had to be brave and she would come back, but the words were bitter and dead on his tongue. This was Gemma and they’d played together since nursery school. Her sister was Lucky’s best friend. He’d seen her almost every day of his life, and this was about to be her last.

      Each bead of sweat on her shone brighter than any diamond, her skin pale as the most perfect marble. Each breath smelled sweeter than any rose. Gemma’s grip weakened. Her eyes, ever changing in colour, were wide and staring, her pupils swelling until they almost consumed her irises.

      Ash heard sirens in the distance.

      “Just hang on, Gemma. Hang on.”

      Heat burst within him, straight into his heart and flooding every atom of his being. The world shook around him as waves of energy pounded him, filling him with more and more power.

      This was a Great Death.

      

sh replayed the last moments of Gemma’s life a thousand times, a hundred thousand times over the next few days. From the moment he woke, it haunted him. A fraction quicker, a centimetre truer with his aim, and it would have all been different.

      He walked down the dark, lamplit street, head down and lost in memory.

      The ambulance came, too late, and then the police found Ash covered in blood with a dead girl in his arms. Jack had been hysterical, shouting about him, and there were witnesses saying Ash had been with Gemma and then there’d been some argument with another girl. All these small, random details. A punch dagger had been found, smeared with blood, and the sheath strapped to his belt fitted the blade perfectly. So the police and half the school added two and two and got five.

      It had been a dark, lonely night in the СКАЧАТЬ