It started to flip, then Jack rapidly stated, “Too fast. Too fast.” It instantly slowed as I altered my thoughts, and Jack sighed in relief. “You all thought the same thing. I felt it. It overrode mine, so I need to explain I want it all done slowly or it might collapse. Water tends to flow down wherever the sharpest outlet is, so go slow.”
We began willing it per Jack’s instructions. Watched it rotated upside down, then slowly thin out, leaving just enough room for the fish to swim. It was long. You could see through it to the sky by the time we were done.
Jack instructed, “The next part’s simple. Just imagine the outside still stagnant, but floating backward over our heads until it’s halfway over us. I’ll tell you when to stop. Then, just hold it there.”
We did just that.
My head tipped back and I watched all the ugly fish on full freak out mode swim crazily in their long, thin pond floating about twenty yards above our heads, in awe. “Wow.”
“Yeah,” Pearl muttered, sounding just as impressed.
“Huh,” Ezra mumbled, his eyes wide.
“Don’t lose focus,” Jack grunted, the pond wavering.
We snapped our attention, our will, to keeping the thing above our heads.
The Kings hiked to us, clapping, but wore scowls.
King Fergus grumbled, “You four now hold the record for this.”
I didn’t jump for joy because that would have wrecked everything, but I still grinned, as did my friends, while the Kings began passing money to one another.
Antonio joined our group, sitting directly in front of the four of us. After peering up, scrutinizing our work, he stated coolly, “I want you to make a dome out of this. The biggest dome you can.” It was an order.
The Kings stopped counting their cash to stare.
We peered to them, since they were the ones that gave us our official orders.
One by one, their faces blank, they nodded, then moved to stand behind Antonio.
Jack gave us instructions.
We did it. It was a little funky-shaped, but we did it.
No one was cheering or applauding this time.
Instead, the Kings’ gazes were on Antonio.
He hopped to his feet and peered up and down the area we had enclosed ourselves in, rubbing his chin. “Make a,” his head teetered in thought, “spout, of sorts. In the middle. Shooting straight into the air, leaving a hole in the middle about half the size of that,” he pointed to the side, “large trunk over there.”
We did.
He gazed up the hole and instructed, “Taller. Make it taller.”
We did.
Standing in front of us now, the Kings watching him intently, he ordered, “I want you four to start moving. Walk together while staying connected. Reach the end of the dome, and then make the dome move with you, keeping it flush with the ground. All the way to the school, and then back. Repeat this. We’ll walk with you.” He started walking, not waiting.
“Go,” King Nelson ordered us quietly. “Do everything he says.”
So, again, we did.
Pushing our will and moving the massive dome wasn’t easy. Not at all. Especially with the Kings surrounding us, wearing those carefully neutral expressions. It was freaking me out a little. When we stopped after our second trek to the school and back — we had seen students and teachers staring out the school’s windows — we rested, but kept our focus because Antonio wasn’t done with us.
“The next part,” Antonio’s lips pursed, his eyebrows lowering, “you won’t like. What you are going to hear and see outside of the dome is disturbing. It won’t be real. It’s only my magic. I want you to walk toward the far end of the property this time while my magic is at work. Try to stay focused.” He came closer to us. “Do. Not. Lose. Focus. You will hate what you see around you, but do not lose focus.”
Gently, we nodded. Yeah, I was officially wigged out.
He took a few steps back. “You’re about to see a piece of my past, a memory. But do as you were told.” Instantly, his eyes flared, and he waved a sharp, glowing golden hand.
The four of us jerked as people appeared outside the water dome.
It took everything in me not to scream. The people looked and sounded so real, only their clothing telling me it was a different period. Blood flew through the air as Coms slit throats with their knives or Vampires ripped into Coms’ necks with their fangs. Mages threw spells at Coms, killing them instantly, and a second later those same Mages were gunned down by different Coms. Shifters were in their animal form or their natural one attacking Com men and women while other Shifters exploded from grenades different Coms threw. Elementals lit Coms on fire or made them sink in quicksand or fly through the air or freeze right where they stood, explosions tearing up the ground everywhere, even as other Coms attacked Elementals with their weapons.
The dome most definitely wavered.
Antonio shouted, “Focus!”