Free EPIC: Fourteen Books of Fantasy by Terah Edun, Anna Zaires, Dima Zales, Lindsay Buroker, C. Greenwood, Jeff Gunzel, Daniel Arenson, Megg Jensen, Joseph Lallo, Annie Bellet, Edward W. Robertson, Mande Matthews, K. J. Colt, Brian D. Anderson, David Adams

a city wall. Not a moment sooner. Her heart beat fast. Hoping it would work. Praying to the gods that she had done it right. Then the fabric rose above the ball like an inflated circle and she smiled.
    “Perfect,” she said, pleased.
    Moving away, she watched as the fabric, inflated by the heat of the battle inferno in its center, floated all on its own. Slowly the contraption rose until the metal sheet tied to the end of the rope rose as well. When it was a few inches off the floor, Ezekiel asked, “What is it?”
    She said, “A hot air balloon.”
    He adjusted his glasses to get a better look at the balloon floating to the top of the ceiling.
    “Are you directing it?”
    “Slightly. It’s natural for it float high in the air like that. As it rises it will continue to do so vertically unless a sharp wind changes its course. I’m just making sure the battle inferno keeps rising up toward where I want it to go.”
    “Hmm,” was Ezekiel’s answer.
    They watched as the balloon floated through the man-sized hole and then the metal sheet clattered against the roof itself, unable to fit through the hole.
    “And I assume this was also part of your plan?”
    “Of course,” she said. “Now’s the fun part.”
    “Fun part?” Ezekiel said suspiciously as she exploded the ball of battle inferno with no warning.
    The sound of the explosion however was not a part of the plan. It boomed louder than anticipated and only grew louder as the building they were in acted like a resonator and the thin metal sheeting all around them echoed the blast.  
    Sara saw a glass mirror two benches over shatter before she crouched down in agony alongside Ezekiel with her hands clasped to her ears.  
    As they rose minutes later, Ezekiel said, “Was that part of the plan?”
    She grimaced in pain. “No.”
    He grumbled and then looked up. “Well, at least it worked.”
    She stared up at the ceiling where the heat of the blast had fused the metal sheet to the roof itself. It was ugly, but it would do.

Chapter VII

    A S THE RINGING IN HER ears stopped, Sara heard their captured thief’s cries. He sounded worse off than before. She sighed. “I think he needs attention.”
    “Don’t we all,” muttered Ezekiel.
    He adjusted his spectacles. “I’m going to take care of that mess of glass towards the back. You take care of him?”
    His words were cautious, even tentative. Sara realized he didn’t know where he stood with her. Which was fine, because she didn’t know where he stood with her. Ezekiel was interesting but not her problem. Not right now.
    She nodded. “Sounds good.”
    Turning, they went in opposite directions. When she got to the fat thief she cut the rope from his mouth none too gently. She stared at the red blood running from his eardrums, but there wasn’t much she could do about it. She wasn’t a healer.
    When his mouth was free, he began shouting. Louder and louder. The problem was that his words were incomprehensible.
    “What’s wrong with him?” shouted Ezekiel from the back.
    “I think his eardrums burst from the sound,” she yelled back. She watched as the man in front of her babbled. He was reading her lips though she could tell. And he understood. Which meant he wasn’t crazy. She cut the rope binding his arms to the chair. He didn’t move at first. After a moment he raised his shaking hands to his ears. When they came back to his face, shining with blood, he wept.
    She sighed in irritation. She wasn’t heartless. He was deaf because of her. Well, her and being tied up right next to the metal wall where the acoustics had blasted into his ear.
    But she wasn’t necessarily sorry about it. When you entered into someone else’s domain of your own volition and did so in direct contradiction to their wishes, you put your life in their hands. In other words, what he had done was wrong and now he suffered the consequences. But she was getting heartily tired of his sobbing.
    She snapped her fingers directly