Read The End of Magic (Young Adult Dystopian Fantasy) Page 16

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  Duncan found himself shivering in the cold and staring up at the city floating hundreds of feet in the air above. It took him a few minutes to realize that he was away from the city and that someone had teleported him down to the rocky terrain between the hundreds of pipes that ran up into the city. From where he stood, he could see one large pipe, larger around than an ancient car, stretching out from the city to the east. It glowed blue so brightly that it lit up the night, casting a dull haze that covered everything. Temporarily awed by the piping, he forgot to wonder who had transported him to safety.

  “Are you okay, Duncan?”

  His father stood a few feet away, a heavy coat, backpack, and water container in his hands. Duncan rushed to him and hugged him tightly.

  “I didn’t know they were going to go forward with the trial so soon, son. I’m sorry. I just didn’t know. I wish I could have had more time to prepare.”

  He hugged his father, his hero, fiercely. There was so much more he wanted to ask the man, so much more he wanted to hear. But he knew there wasn’t time for it now, if there ever would be. “I have to go, don’t I?”

  His father nodded, hugging him tightly. “Yes. It isn’t safe for you in the city anymore. They’re looking to put you into suspended animation. I’ve talked to people who have come out of it, Duncan. It will be like what you described when you were a Golem, only permanently. You would be tortured for eternity. I can’t stand to see that happen to you, son.”

  “I don’t know what to do, Father. Where will I go?”

  “Start walking east, towards the rising sun. Always east, and he’ll find you. He’s coming, but we thought we had more time before the trial.”

  “Diamond Jim.”

  “Yes.”

  “Dad, I saw him blow up the courthouse. He’s…he’s the real terrorist.”

  “You think you saw him do it, I know, but were there not any inconsistencies with what you saw and what you know?”

  Duncan thought about it. “The helicopter,” he said, shocked. “It wasn’t the same, was it?”

  “No. Everything isn’t always as it seems, Duncan. There isn’t time, now, to explain everything to you. The Magistrate will be searching here before long, but if you get just a few miles away from New Dallas, you’ll be safe. Take this,” he ordered, wrapping the coat around him and helping him on with the backpack. “There’s enough food and water in here to sustain you until Jim finds you. It’s food from your garden, and it’s starting to go bad, but I think it will be fine for a few days. I can’t conjure you food because it would just disappear in a few miles.”

  “Dad, I don’t understand any of this. I…I’ll come back one day.”

  “I know you will, son, I know you will.”

  “And what about Mom?”

  “I’ll tell her, Duncan. I’ll tell her you were innocent.”

  It broke his heart to know that his mother didn’t think that he was already innocent, but it was just one more thing that he couldn’t do anything about. They could hear the two Magistrates blinking into existence not far away, screaming for him to stop. His dad pushed him towards the east. “Go. Duncan. I’ll distract them.”

  “I love you,” Duncan said, heading east and into a new and unknown land.