Magpie’s Fall by Allison Pang EPUB & PDF – eBook Details Online
- Name: Magpie’s Fall
- Author: Allison Pang
- Language: English
- Genre: Gaslamp Fantasy
- Format: PDF/ EPUB
- Size: 2 MB
- Price: Free
I am in the Pits.
This narrow thought fills me until I’m shaking so hard I can hardly stand
upright as I stumble along the dark passage. My breath compresses with
each numb step, and I hold it in even though my lungs burn. I’ll shatter if I
let it out.
Part of me aches with the need to turn around, to throw myself at the gates in
search of clemency, but that’s beyond foolish. Besides, isn’t the point of this
entire charade to get me down here?
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I blink past the tremors, trying not to let the fear sweep me up into a sea of
despair. The rest of the Tithe was forced through before me, and I can see no
sign of them in the darkness ahead. Behind me, the sound of the gates
locking rings through the passage with an utterance of finality that cannot be
disputed. I shut it out, the crowd outside becoming a muffled rumble. I take
a few more steps, and the bells strapped to my wrist jangle wildly with each
movement.
One step. Two. Three.
The floor disappears with a whoosh, and I realize I’ve stepped off a ledge.
My vision grays out in a haze, and I violently dig my fingers into the wall to
keep from falling. If only that might somehow stop me from being
swallowed down the gullet of the bitterest of my nightmares…
Only my years of dancing upon the rooftops of BrightStone lends me the
instinctive edge to tuck and roll when I hit the ground. Pain racks my
shoulders in fire, and my newly flayed skin splits beneath the impact,
leaving me whimpering upon the rocky floor.
Breathe, Mags.
I lie there, mechanical heart clicking away in its usual fashion behind the
panel on my chest. I take comfort in its familiarity as I take stock of myself,
a mental tabulation. I wiggle my toes to ensure they still work.
The last several days are nothing but a blur in my memory: Allowing myself
to be captured by Lord Balthazaar and turned over to the Inquestors. My
head shaved. The Tithe procession. Whipped as part of the Tithe procession.
The discovery that the Rot wasn’t simply a punishment from the gods, but a
plague deliberately spread among the people of BrightStone for reasons
unknown. It’s a plot I am in the process of unraveling, though to what end I
couldn’t say yet.
The image of Josephine and the other Moon Children saluting me from the
rooftops flashes in my mind. The sharp-tongued leader of the Twisted
Tumblers granted me that last bit of respect even as I allowed myself to be
sacrificed in a final effort to find out what secrets lie beneath the city of
BrightStone—secrets that might grant us access to Meridion and a destiny
beyond what we’d become.
And then there’s Ghost… Despite the rest of it, one perfect moment is etched
in my mind: him fighting to get to me through the crowd, Lucian holding
him back for his own good. Whether Ghost will truly come for me as he said
he would or not…well, it isn’t something I can rely on. There is no one to
save me except myself.
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