Beyond the Sapphire Gate: Epic Fantasy-Some Magic Should Remain Untouched (The Flow of Power Book 1) (41 page)

Crystalyn frowned. “Yes, ninth position, I believe. Why would someone on the Circle have a tent? Surely someone associated with the power and prestige of the Circle of Light would own something permanent, such as a palace, or two.”

Atoi glanced around. “Methinks Hastel should be used to discover more about this Khiminay before we agree to a business arrangement.”

“Yes, that would be the wise thing to do since it’s likely some sort of a trap. She did push us to follow, but I’ll be ready. I can’t let the chance go by, however slim, she may lead me to Jade.” Crystalyn nudged Atoi forward. “Come, let’s see how she can help or betray us, before the sun goes down. I want to be back in our room long before then.”

Slipping past the tent’s flap, she stepped inside, pausing to let her eyes adjust to the dimmer light.

Two guards stationed inside the tents foyer, pulled long swords from their scabbards.

Crystalyn’s net symbol took shape in her mind.

“Hold!” Khiminay shouted from farther inside. “Let them pass.”

Crystalyn eyed the guards. She let her pattern dissolve from her thoughts only when their swords were stowed away. “I hope this isn’t a prelude for how you treat guests you invite to your quarters, though why you’d have a place here is beyond me,” she said, staring at the woman. It hadn’t taken long to spring the trap, not much time, at all.

Ignoring her comment, the Circle woman turned to speak quietly with a tall, muscular man wearing a massive suit of black plate armor. A horned, full-faced greater helm protected the man’s head. Three men wearing chain mail and open-faced helms stood behind the man and Khiminay, next to the rear tent wall.

Crystalyn grew irritated. She strode to Khiminay, shouldering past soldiers—a man and a woman in black plate. The conversation between the dark-haired Circle woman and the dark-armored man cut off abruptly when they both turned to regard her, measuring her progress as she threaded a path through a field of silk cushions and plush rugs.

Khiminay had removed her shawl’s hood. Her fine eyebrows and ice-blue eyes regarded Crystalyn boldly, ignoring the brute beside her. “I hope there’s a good reason we chased across half of Astura to come here. Can you help me, or not? What do you want in exchange?”

“There is
reason
, I assure you,” the dark-armored man said. His pleasant, concise voice drifted down from within the horned helm. A long way down, he towered over her by a full span in height.
Great! A possible kin to Lore Rayna,
Crystalyn thought. “Whether the reason is
good
, I leave to your judgment.” He turned to Khiminay. “You may leave us.”

Curtsying deeply, Khiminay brushed past Atoi and Broth, leaving the tent without saying a word of farewell. Crystalyn wanted to protest against her going, but kept silent. The dark-armored man was intimidating and the massive hammer fastened to his side adding to the feeling. Its double-headed, black metal pulsed with a faint, dark purple hue. Crystalyn wrested her eyes from it. The brutal thing was hypnotic.

The big man laid a gauntleted palm on Big Brutal. “Let us advance to the point—or should I say, to the blunt end—of why we are gathered here. You are right to believe I want something from you, I do.”

Crystalyn frowned. She knew it.

Atoi laughed without mirth. “No surprise there.”

The horned head swiveled Atoi’s direction briefly. “If it is permissible to continue,” he said. “I
shall
find your lost one. Once found, I will discuss payment. You will not know disappointment as soon as an agreement is reached.”

Crystalyn admired his confidence. Perhaps she was finally at the right place after all. “Who are you?”

“I am Lord Charn. It is a title I’ve retained for the last one hundred and fifty-four seasons.”

Atoi gasped.

Garrrrr! Broth’s growl barreled through her mind.
Do’brieni, this User has been the cause of much of my race’s destruction. I do not doubt that he has knowledge of where those missing from the White Clan are. Please, stalk with care, but help discover if they live. I beseech you!

“What do you want from me, Lord Charn?” Crystalyn asked keeping her voice at a neutral tone. She was determined to hold her composure, even around apparent nobility, especially around nobility. It wouldn’t do to have one of them believing they could order her around.

“I shall speak my intentions one final time. Discussion of payment will occur after you learn the location of your missing…sibling?”

“Yes, my sister,” Crystalyn said. She glanced at Atoi, gauging her reaction to the man. Her face was her usual pale impassive mask, though there was a flicker of curiosity in her eyes.

Lord Charn continued. “I shall require your sibling’s name when we begin. First, we have to travel to a scrying device, a journey made in an instant once we have an agreement. Have we reached one?”

Crystalyn kept her eyes on Atoi, raising a questioning eyebrow, and then her legs grew weak. The green in the girl’s eyes revealed nothing, except…something shadowy moved in the background, the Dark Child, perhaps. Was it trying to tell her something?

Deliberately, Atoi turned away from her.

Crystalyn reined in her flaring anger. She couldn’t grab the little imp by the shoulder and spin her around, as she wanted. It wouldn’t do for them to argue in front of nobility. “Surely you would expect me to be obligated to you in some way. I don’t like having a debt with anyone.”

Lord Charn hesitated. When he finally spoke, his voice was low, but distinct. “I do not wish to make you uncomfortable. Tell me then, what sacrifice are you unwilling to make for a reunification with your sister?”

His words gave her pause. “I won’t agree to anything if it goes against any belief I may have, or has a remote chance of hurting anyone, animals included. I’ll find my sister on my own if that is the direction I must go,” Crystalyn finally said. “And my friends come with me, or no deal.”

What do you think, my link mate? It may be my best chance to find my sister.

“I shall not expect you to do something you’re not comfortable with. You may simply refuse this offer, and we shall part on even terms,” Lord Charn said. “Your friends may go as well, though they may not have the same liberties as you.” His great helm swiveled toward Broth.

This is a
grievous mistake, Do’brieni. No good will come of working with this man.
Anxiety reverberated through her mind. Whether it was Broth’s, or hers, she couldn’t decide.

I thought you wanted to find those missing ones of yours. We have an opportunity here,
Crystalyn sent, trying to exude confidence.

Broth was silent, though flashes of disquiet filtered through; his hourglass eyes had changed to deep red, echoing his inner turmoil as his wolf head moved constantly keeping everyone in view.

Crystalyn turned to Lord Charn. “When do we start?”

Lord Charn slapped his mail gauntlets together, his demeanor brusque. Two of the open-faced helmed guards brought a pair of objects forward from the tent’s rear. “Excellent. We begin by going to the Dark Oracle.” Quickly booting cushions to the side, the guards set two violet crystal obelisks a door-width apart.

Crystalyn swallowed her gasp.

“So you know their purpose,” Lord Charn said more as a statement than a question, his expression still unknown behind the helm.

Crystalyn nodded mutely. Dark purple in color, the obelisks spanned the same height as the sapphire crystal ones that had brought her here. A nagging doubt had had crept in that she would never see their like again. “Where will the obelisks take us?” she asked, regaining a measure of composure.

Lord Charn’s mailed palm rested casually on the Big Brute again. “To the Dark Oracle, where you shall ask to be shown your sibling.”

“Will they return us here?”

“Alas, no, the journey back shall be accomplished by mundane methods. Attuned to a specific location, the obelisks are one way only. Please, step through with haste. The gates require a large amount of Flow to hold open,” he said, sweeping a muscular arm toward the curtain of stormy darkness swirling between the obelisks.

Stay beside me, my Do’brieni.
Broth leapt next to her, brushing her shoulder with a gentle and precise control belying his size.

Trying to shake the feeling she was going the wrong way no matter which way she turned, Crystalyn shifted her bags, grabbed Atoi’s hand, and stepped into another gateway.

DARK ORACLE

The obelisks deposited them inside an antechamber to a much larger room. A large, open space beyond the smaller room beckoned to Crystalyn. She passed through a wide, iron-banded wooden door, side-by-side with her Warden, pulling Atoi with her.

Ahead, three gilded chair backs inlaid with glistening tiled designs, presided over a great room, massive statues lined cavernous walls. Rounding the leftmost and smallest chair, Crystalyn paused to gaze around the immensity of it. Five curved steps, carved from brilliant amethyst, sloped gently down into a wide walkway.

The statues faced inward as though to watch a gathered crowd. Their backs to the wall, the statues depicted dark-armored men and women holding weapons blunt and sharp, standing next to menacing red and black-robed Users, each spanning the great distance from floor to ceiling. Carved in eerie, lifelike detail, they expressed various stages of war.

Crystalyn could believe the fury expressed on one Dark User’s face or the raised axe of a soldier was for her benefit for having the audacity to enter the great throne room. For a throne room it was, she realized. Whirling to confirm her suspicions, she found Lord Charn sitting at ease in the high-backed seat built between the two smaller ones.
Not a seat, a throne,
Crystalyn corrected herself. A chill crept down her spine. She hadn’t even sensed his arrival. His massive armor had made no sound.

Broth’s soundless wails roared in her mind, making her head reel. Agitation mingled with self-recrimination flowed at her in strong surges.
This is the stronghold of the enemy. Desiring to find my clan members, I have put us in grave peril, Do’brieni!

Calm down! He seems to want to help us. We will find out if your people are here.
Crystalyn added a comforting sense of a friend inviting someone over for a relaxing visit.

You do not understand. This is one of their Great Dark Lords, possibly the greatest. I let my desire cloud my judgment. Your protector is not something I deserve as a designation.

“Stop, Do’brieni! Stop, now. We’ll find Jade, see what this lord wants in exchange for his help, and then leave. Everything will be fine.
Though he chose not to respond, Broth’s agitation seeped through, but she couldn’t change her decision, not now. Enemy’s lair or not, she had to follow it through. It may be her only hope for finding Jade.

Lord Charn waved an arm expansively. “Impressive, is it not?” His pleasant, masculine tone resonated with pride. “Though, I would daresay your Warden companion may not agree. I would believe it safe to say he is the first of his kind to enter here. Most of his…race spends their entire lives attacking my forces along our borders. He may not be well received,” he added, his voice letting slip a trace of venom.

Crystalyn grew resigned. It hadn’t taken long for things to turn ugly. Squeezing Atoi’s hand, she went over her acidic symbol in her mind. Lord Charn’s Grand armor shouldn’t be able to protect against it completely. The man should have mentioned an issue back in the tent, but then, she would’ve refused his offer of aid.

Lord Charn raised a gauntleted hand. “Please be at ease. I will not let any harm come to you or your companions while you are under my care. I simply wanted you to be forewarned.”

Crystalyn let the symbol’s image fade from her mind, for now. She had to believe him; there was no choice now, not unless she wanted to fight her way out. She wasn’t prepared to battle blindly in an unfamiliar enemy stronghold.

Taking her silence as an end to the subject, Lord Charn turned to look out upon the room. “I selected an hour when the nobles are not allowed to stand around listening as most daylight bells permit. We are late into the evening. Do you appreciate the Hall of Thrones?”

Her fingers frozen, Crystalyn released Atoi’s hand, shifting her bundles from her palm to her elbow. Tingling slightly, her hands warmed as she rubbed them against each other. “‘Spectacular doesn’t begin to do it justice.” She wondered if she should address him as ‘Your Majesty’ or something. “Are you the king here?”

Lord Charn gave a small laugh. “There are no kings here, only Dark Lords, and their generals: one Great Lord and a few desiring to become the Great Lord. For that, they would have to destroy me in single combat. Most are content to keep their ambitions well hidden. Some few, however, have believed themselves worthy enough to attempt, those all ended recruited to the Dark Regiment. In the end, we all are subject to the Great Master’s will,” he said, rising to his daunting seven-span height. “Come; let us make haste to the Oracle. I am certain you are anxious to locate your lost sibling.”

Crystalyn wondered what he meant about a “Great Master.” The “Dark Regiment” she could guess already. She rushed to follow him down the stairs. His long stride kept her scrambling to remain a step or two behind. Broth stayed close. She didn’t have to look into his hourglass eyes to see the wariness there; she felt it in the tenseness of his shoulders whenever he brushed against her. Atoi trotted along behind, her gait easy.

Two great golden doors loomed into view after they’d gone some way along the grand Hall of Thrones. The doors opened slowly as they neared, assisted by ornate uniformed guards, each toting a spear. Lord Charn passed through without pause. Four guards with spears and swords stood on a landing beyond the doors, two on each side. Their guide climbed down a set of three dark amethyst steps to a great, pillared hallway.

Sensing perhaps, her shorter strides, Lord Charn slowed, allowing her a quick view of the pillars as they strode past. Engraved with men, women, and animals of every sort—some creatures she recognized, some she didn’t—each pillar was cluttered with scenes of people and creatures enacting some activity. Crystalyn slowed a little to gaze over Broth’s shoulders at the pillars on his side. They too, had carvings all the way around to the top, two stories high. Crystalyn idly wondered if the carvings might tell a story if one had the time to circle the pillar from bottom to top.

The carved pillars ended at an intersection heading forward and to the right, where polished stone replaced the engraved scenes. Lord Charn selected the hallway leading right. Crystalyn trailed behind, glancing back to gauge Atoi’s progress. The little girl seemed contented, though her too white, expressionless face made it difficult for her to read.

Beyond the short hall another intersection appeared, this one taken up by something large, round, and surrounded by Dark Users, mostly in black robes but interspersed with a few reds.

Lord Charn strode purposely to the closest section of the object, halting behind the shoulder-to-shoulder ring of people. He spoke, his voice amplified unnaturally. “Use of the Oracle is mine, disperse!” The last echoes of his command boomed throughout the hall as the robes scattered. In seconds, the intersection was devoid of any breathing souls except them. Crystalyn was impressed with the respect their escort commanded, but then, he
was
a Dark Lord with his own throne room. She doubted he’d claimed his position by asking nicely.

Atoi stopped close beside her, on her left. “Keep your back to me while we are at the Oracle, Atoi. I can’t watch behind me once focused. You too, Broth,” Crystalyn said in as low a tone as she could muster and still be heard.

The Warden’s sienna head tilted to one side, approval glinting in his now-golden, feline eyes, presumably, for expressing her wariness. He worried about her becoming too complacent.

Atoi looked around the wide hallways. “You shall have warning, should the need arise.”

Crystalyn continued across the hall. The lighting was dim, but Lord Charn stood out, his formidable dark shape standing in front of an oblong shadowy area rising to his waist. Joining the big man there, she found the Oracle was nothing less than a half wall of pitted lava rock encrusted with black moss and filled a few inches below the top with brackish water. The water swirled slowly counter-clockwise, stirred from some unknown force.

Crystalyn leaned close. Tiny white-capped waves rose to within a hand’s reach before plopping softly down to meld with the base of the next rising wave.

Lord Charn’s clipped words intruded upon her. “Do not touch the water. The Oracle has an effect on living souls, most adverse.”

Crystalyn snatched her hand back, disconcerted. Why had she been reaching for it?

Lord Charn placed his gauntleted hands on the rim. “Are you aware how to activate the Dark Oracle?”

“No.”

“Use the Flow to roll the Oracle’s water while you visualize your interactions with your sibling. Call your contact by name as you maintain your focus on the eye. I can add strength to the call if you permit me to know your sister’s name.”

Feeling like she should know, Crystalyn had to ask. “Are you calling the center—where the water is churning around—the eye of the Oracle? Jade, her name is Jade.”

“Yes of course, the center is the eye,” Lord Charn’s pleasant tone had a hint of impatience. “Is Jade her full name? I…
we
need to use her complete given name.”

“Oh! Jade Creek, her full name is Jade Creek.”

Straightening from where he’d been leaning on the Oracle’s rim, Lord Charn’s right hand flexed open and then closed once, his fist hanging not far from the monstrous hammer. She couldn’t get the ugly thing out of her mind. “So, she is a true sibling to you?” he asked quietly.

“We have the same father and mother, if that’s what you’re asking.”

Lord Charn’s stance relaxed. “That is good. It will make the Contacting less taxing.

I cannot believe we are present before the fabled Dark Oracle, Do’brieni.
Broth interjected into her mind.
For so long my clan has believed it a legend.

Have a care; we don’t know what your legend is capable of yet.

Agreed, my Do’brieni.

Atoi spoke. “Someone comes.”

Lord Charn’s horned helm tilted forward slightly as he looked at the girl. “One of my most promising generals is here by prearrangement to assist us. He will add strength and shall direct your sibling to the closest gateway we have attuned to the citadel.”

A voice she recognized drawled from the edge of the light, sending a warm thrill racing through her. “I live to serve, my lord.” Slipping from the shadows in the hall, Darwin Darkwind suddenly stood opposite her at the Oracle. He looked different in a black robe with the hood pulled back, but still had the same clean-cut, handsome face.

She wasn’t certain how she felt about the robe. The black robes had fought her on the way to Surbo. Or had they? Thinking back, they were attacking Kara Laurel and Leven; they had only started attacking the companions after Atoi had intervened. Malkor hadn’t really attacked her at the ruins either until she goaded him; he’d wanted Atoi. Had she been too quick to use her symbols? Was she addicted to using her symbols and the power contained within them?

Gazing at Darwin, she couldn’t help but return his warm smile.

Lord Charn scraped a heavy boot on the floor, shifting to include Darwin and Crystalyn in his field of view. “Let us begin. Increase the whirlpool.”

Crystalyn had no idea how she was supposed to get the water swirling faster when all she had was her symbols. Perhaps she could modify the knock-back symbol to suit her needs. Forming the symbol in front of her, she altered it slightly by unraveling the bottom edge enough to keep a string, which she attached to her wrist. Her feet on the cavern floor completed the grounding
.

Lord Charn’s roar boomed throughout the cavern. “What folly is
this
?”

Crystalyn’s concentration wavered, so did her symbol.

Darwin spoke up. “Please, Great Lord, let her continue. I believe it is how she Uses.”

“Very well, proceed,” Lord Charn, said. “Darwin, you and I will discuss at length your reasons for not informing me of this…unorthodox way of Using.”

Darwin lowered his big brown eyes.

Crystalyn’s concentration wavered, again. The symbol paused, hovering over the center. Darwin’s eyes would have to wait. Immersing her symbol halfway into the dark water, she released a portion of its energy.

The Oracle’s roiling picked up substantially, the lazy waves becoming smaller. The splashing grew into a roar.

“Yes, you’re getting it!” Darwin said his voice full of glee.

Lord Charn spat commands. “Faster! Go faster!”

Crystalyn’s excitement grew as she dribbled energy into the agitated water, whipping the Oracle into motion like a vat of plasicrete stirred by machinery. The top waves flattened, picking up speed. The Oracle spun faster with a growing roar, bringing back the awe-inspiring memories of Misty Gorge before the spiderbees carried her off.

His voice hugely amplified, Lord Charn shouted. “Feed it! Feed power to it!”

Keep going, Do’brieni!

Crystalyn released most of the symbol’s remaining energy, churning the dark water faster, and adding a raging fury to the frothing turbulence around the eye. If Lord Charn wanted power, he’d get power. Spinning at an incredible rate, the dark water rose to the Oracle’s lip. A funnel opened downward in the center; curving smaller the deeper it went, swirling into a vertical cornucopia. Oddly, the roar of the water spiraled down within it, traveling downward. As it flowed into the bottom, the cavernous hallway went from a thunderous boom one moment to eerie quiet the next, the last vestiges of the din silenced with the suddenness of death.