Curse the Dawn Read Online Free Page A

covered wall to ceiling in biblical-themed murals. The light of the explosion brought the colors to life, glinting off gilt paint and causing the jewel-colored glass in the high, arched windows to shimmer. I blinked, staring around like a tourist until Agnes poked me in the back.
    “That way.” She pointed at a door I hadn’t noticed. “And hurry. I can’t hold things much longer.”
    I gave up hitting the cask and started pushing it instead. It had a weird, spongy feel in the center, I guess from the ignited but not-yet-burned gunpowder, which didn’t make for great leverage. But I nonetheless managed to maneuver my bomb-on-a-stick through the long, narrow room and outside. Three- and four-story buildings of stone and wood hemmed in a courtyard. Frozen smoke belched from their chimney pots, reaching pale fingers toward a leaden sky.
    It was bitterly cold and the air hit my face like a wet rag. It took me a moment to realize it was raining. Sheets of water hung suspended in the air like a beaded curtain, gleaming in the light we threw off. Heavy drops dangled like cabochon diamonds from the edge of rooftops, spangled low-hanging limbs and congealed half-in, half-out of puddles. It was strangely beautiful.
    “The river,” Agnes gasped, from cold or exhaustion. “That way.” She pointed toward the right, where a line of scattered trees blocked the view.
    Mud squelched under my feet as I started forward. I kept my head down, but it didn’t help. Soon water ran down my forehead and dripped into my eyes, its movement the result of my own forward momentum. The rain wasn’t falling on us; we were running into it as we hurried forward, leaving a path of clear air behind us like the wake of a ship.
    To make the going even tougher, there was very little light. Only a few stars were visible in the cloud-covered sky, and while we shed a glow, it didn’t extend far in any direction. Everything beyond our immediate vicinity was lost in shadow.
    That was a problem because the place was a minefield of carts, wheelbarrows and junky lean-tos. I kept running into things and slipping on slick paving stones, which became worse after we left them behind for dirt. But Agnes turned to glare at me every time I slowed down, so I hurried after her.
    We navigated across a more or less open area, around a rickety-looking fence and down a path to an iron railing. Below us was undoubtedly a river. I couldn’t see much, but the smell was unmistakable: a mixture of rotting fish, sewage, mold and damp.
    Agnes gave me a shove. “Get rid of it!”
    I looked around. A mass of dark buildings clustered along the water’s edge in either direction, just waiting to be firebombed. The only safe place for an explosion was over the water. But the stick was too short to push the fireball far enough to do any good, and climbing over the railing wouldn’t help. A stone retaining wall started immediately on the other side, flowing straight down to the water’s edge.
    But I had to do something. The explosion had begun expanding again in super slow motion. Agnes was losing her grip on time.
    I pulled off my T-shirt again and draped it around the fiery mass. “What are you doing?” she demanded.
    “Improvising!”
    The glowing mass lit up the thin cotton, and a few brown spots appeared. The shirt was on fire, but with time still in slow mo, I thought I might have a minute before it disintegrated. I grabbed both ends, creating a big slingshot, and spun around in a wide circle until I got up some momentum. Then I let go, sending the entire burning mass spinning away into the night.
    It made it almost to mid-river, a bright ruby ball of fire against the black of the water, before splashing down. It went under, lighting up a school of fish as it slowly began to sink. Then Agnes gave a small sigh, time sped back up to normal and the underwater explosion threw a column of water twenty feet into the air.

Chapter Two
    Most of the water fell on a nearby sailing