Prologue
Brilliant with fiery streaks of red, yellow, and orange, the sky was aflame as, one after another, great fireballs hurtled through the atmosphere at breathtaking speed. As soon as one dipped below the mountains in the distance, many more would take its place high overhead. He couldn’t count their number, the glowing orbs falling too fast. It was the dead of night, yet the sky remained as bright as if it were midday. Never had he seen anything like it, nor had he ever been so afraid.
The floor trembled beneath seven-year-old Kerr’s feet. It started with a slow rumble, increasing rapidly until the entire house shook fiercely. The shuddering was so great the furniture slid across the floor and pictures fell off the walls. His mother’s marble sculpture, heavy and unmovable, which had sat on its platform for as long as he could remember, began to shake, inching perilously close to the edge. He watched, frozen in fear, as the stone carving teetered precariously for several moments then crashed to the floor. The noise freed him from his paralyzed state.
“Mama!” he cried.
Frantically, he bolted to the glass doors and threw them wide. Kerr rushed out on the balcony and climbed the railing, straining to see through the gap in the mountains to the path his mother’s caravan had taken earlier in the day. She’d gone to help the laborers and their families who were suffering in the drought, bringing them much needed food and water. One of her many duties as first consort to the Maxime Princep of Primaria, charitable work, as she called it, occupied much of her time, but she never complained.
A thunderous roar echoed through the night as an enormous ball of fire, far greater in size than any that had come before it, appeared above the city. Larger than the towering mountains themselves, it grew bigger as it hurtled toward the planet. He watched in alarm, knowing as surely as their most learned scholars devastation would come in its wake. He followed it without blinking, his mouth rounding in horror as it took the same path between the mountains his beloved mama had only hours before.
“No!” he screamed as it disappeared, leaving an eerie glow in its wake. The ground jolted and shifted, throwing him to the floor. An inhuman wail pierced the night. Kerr turned and saw his father in the doorway behind him staring at the horizon through anguished eyes. His papa’s cries told him what his heart already knew to be true. As the strongest man he had ever known fell to his knees, the young boy crawled to him and climbed into his arms.
Then, together, father and son wept for the woman they loved more than life itself.
Brilliant with fiery streaks of red, yellow, and orange, the sky was aflame as, one after another, great fireballs hurtled through the atmosphere at breathtaking speed. As soon as one dipped below the mountains in the distance, many more would take its place high overhead. He couldn’t count their number, the glowing orbs falling too fast. It was the dead of night, yet the sky remained as bright as if it were midday. Never had he seen anything like it, nor had he ever been so afraid.
The floor trembled beneath seven-year-old Kerr’s feet. It started with a slow rumble, increasing rapidly until the entire house shook fiercely. The shuddering was so great the furniture slid across the floor and pictures fell off the walls. His mother’s marble sculpture, heavy and unmovable, which had sat on its platform for as long as he could remember, began to shake, inching perilously close to the edge. He watched, frozen in fear, as the stone carving teetered precariously for several moments then crashed to the floor. The noise freed him from his paralyzed state.
“Mama!” he cried.
Frantically, he bolted to the glass doors and threw them wide. Kerr rushed out on the balcony and climbed the railing, straining to see through the gap in the mountains to the path his mother’s caravan had taken earlier in the day. She’d gone to help the laborers and their families who were suffering in the drought, bringing them much needed food and water. One of her many duties as first consort to the Maxime Princep of Primaria, charitable work, as she called it, occupied much of her time, but she never complained.
A thunderous roar echoed through the night as an enormous ball of fire, far greater in size than any that had come before it, appeared above the city. Larger than the towering mountains themselves, it grew bigger as it hurtled toward the planet. He watched in alarm, knowing as surely as their most learned scholars devastation would come in its wake. He followed it without blinking, his mouth rounding in horror as it took the same path between the mountains his beloved mama had only hours before.
“No!” he screamed as it disappeared, leaving an eerie glow in its wake. The ground jolted and shifted, throwing him to the floor. An inhuman wail pierced the night. Kerr turned and saw his father in the doorway behind him staring at the horizon through anguished eyes. His papa’s cries told him what his heart already knew to be true. As the strongest man he had ever known fell to his knees, the young boy crawled to him and climbed into his arms.
Then, together, father and son wept for the woman they loved more than life itself.