Page 122 - TheRedSon_PrintInterior_430pp_5.5x8.5_9-22-2019_v1

the inhuman clients of the cannibals came and went, and
from the smell of things, they were repeat customers.
After I forced myself from the sight of the monstrous
archway, I made my way through another collection of
rambling tunnels, past crowds of lumbering dead-eaters and
the mounds of corpses they ate from. I didn’t know if it was
day or night when I finally came upon my quarry—I was
just happy to see that the cannibals were in fact thoughtless
enough to store their explosives in one central location.
When my work was done, I made my way to the field on
the edge of town, where I’d first been set upon by the beasts.
I smiled beneath the glow of reddest twilight, waiting. The
city seemed to shrink down, as if coiling hidden muscles,
preparing to leap into the air. And leap it did.
Lastrygone was lifted upon shoulders of flame. The
ground shook wildly as fire chased the darkness from every
secreted cave entrance, sending geysers of flame high above
the buildings. The earth rolled like an angry sea as the sunset
winked out, the air thick with towering black smoke and
giant clouds of choking dust. The explosives certainly made
for a fine cake, but the ruptured gas lines beneath the town
made for a satisfyingly decadent icing.
I quickly made my way back into the city, as the second
series of explosives was timed to detonate shortly after the
first. I needed time to reveal myself to the creatures, so
they would know who destroyed them. I walked in plain
view, basking in the heat of raging fires, breathing clouds
of thick smoke. But a dream was upon me, and I knew I
would endure. I could see the wretches trying to flee into
the underground, only to find their fiery deaths. Screams—
louder by far than any that had escaped their underground
slaughterhouses—battled the smoke for dominance of the
air, and the burning debris of flesh-eaters lay everywhere,
crackling. My laughter rose above the sounds of fire and
dying as I waded into thick crowds of fleeing flesh-eaters,
wielding my father, extinguishing the light of fools. Houses
The Red Son | 125