Beyond the Sapphire Gate: Epic Fantasy-Some Magic Should Remain Untouched (The Flow of Power Book 1) (49 page)

VICIOUS LOOP

Crystalyn’s mind reeled. Practicality, independence, and many of the stronger emotions vied for supremacy all at once. Disbelief, rage, hatred, remorse, coldness, relief, embarrassment, pity, and great sorrow, all swept through her in torrents. It was almost as if someone had deliberately terminated her wiring to the wrong circuit, then waited for her to flick the switch on. In a way, someone had, her Darwin.
He’s not mine, not now.

Her emotions raged, threatening to succumb to the emotional loop all over again. She quelled it. The time for feeling sorry about life’s unfairness, the time of crying, the time of despair at its blackest, would come later. Right now, she would keep Jade from harm. At least the man in the black hood had gone. There was something animalistic and predatory about him. And he’d been one more foe in the room, someone she knew nothing about.

Symbols from the
Tiered Tome of Symbols
scrolled through her mind. Selecting a black, airy one from the “Directional” chapter and a white, loamy one under the “Cascading” heading, she combined them. A diamond shape black on one side, white on the other, formed in her mind. The pattern inside, drawn with glowing lines, formed intricate crystals. The overall feel of it was one of glass. Crystalyn set it to hover before her, but she wasn’t certain she could use it against Darwin. She had harbored thoughts of marrying the man, after all.

Darwin spread his arms wide. “Why are you so furious, Great Lord? I would expect your satisfaction to run deep knowing the troublesome druids had taken such a hard hit.”

Lord Charn advanced one shuffle forward at a time. “I am trying to end the war which ruins our world, not destroy half of it. An attack upon the Flow goes against the Aftermath edicts of protecting our resources, but you would not care, for you would destroy a world. It matters naught. I have deduced your twisted scheme. You never meant to challenge me, not soon. You could not take the risk of an accidental death from
my
hand. Then, you wouldn’t have had to, for you meant for me to die beside your ultimate weapon when your plan came to fruition
.
You know well, I would be at the front line, commanding my troops in a battle that size. I struggle to comprehend. How could you destroy your own men? Men trained by you? Or did your plan include withdrawing your men on some pretense long before? A coward such as you would be elsewhere when the weapon you created detonated. I despise you. Enough talk. There
will
be a challenge this day, by my decree. You
will
fight me to the death. Your Flow Master lackey
will
interfere at his own peril.”

Crystalyn shifted from hurt, to stunned, to struggling to think beyond the moment. “Do not worry about Malkor, Lord Charn. He won’t be interfering with anyone here, isn’t that right?” Crystalyn glared at the man who had attempted to kidnap Atoi and kill her at the ruins. Broth had nearly died. She couldn’t forgive that.

I am coming, Do’brieni!

Flicking his tongue across his lips, Malkor gazed wildly around the room. “I may not be of much use to you right now, Master. Kill the Great One and we will triumph over these two together.” His narrow, shifty eyes paused on Jade then settled on Crystalyn.

Looking at her, Darwin opened his mouth then clamped it shut. Raising his long sword with a flourish, he gave a mock salute then slipped around the rounded black table to meet Lord Charn in the largest opening in the room.
Why Darwin, my love, why did you do it? Was it your plan to use me from the start?
He looked so brave, so confident, as he sauntered to a fight to the death against a man who towered over him. Perhaps he had cause to be confident. Crystalyn
had
seen him cook the hapless axe man, Gard. What would she do if the great Lord Charn lost? Could she fight the love of her life?

Presenting as small a target as possible, the two armored men pirouetted into a side stance, holding hammer and sword out with arms bent. They began a slow circle around each other searching for flaws in their opponent’s defenses. Darkwind struck first. Switching direction mid-step, he lunged at Lord Charn, jabbing for the softer underarm of the arm holding the hammer. The dull ringing sound of iron against steel echoed as Lord Charn bludgeoned the sword to the side with a twist of his arm, stepping into the blow and following the sword’s edge toward the hilt. Jumping back a step, Darwin disengaged before the brutal hammer could smash his hand or wrist. Lord Charn followed. The fight began in earnest, with the two trading jabs and hammer swings.

Crystalyn glanced at Malkor. His beady brown eyes glared at her from behind the faint glow of a barrier. She wondered why he hadn’t used the magic protection barrier the first time they met; the outcome may have been different. He had been concentrating on opening a gateway to haul Atoi through; perhaps he couldn’t handle both at the same time.

Malkor slunk closer to the fighting in the makeshift arena, giving her a better view of the lanky man. Stark hatred shone in his eyes as she had expected, along with…something else. Malkor gave the battle a cursory glance. His eyes darted to the side, resting on something she couldn’t make out behind one of the large squared room supports. Then he shifted his gaze to include her once again with hate-filled eyes. Suddenly she understood. Malkor was humiliated and ashamed. He’d never rest until he’d exacted vengeance. No one near her was safe while he was around. Crystalyn moved to stand beside her sister, keeping the red robe locked in her sight. “Keep your eyes on Malkor, Jade. He’s up to something,” she whispered.

“I will.”

A cry of pain drew Crystalyn’s attention to the struggling men. Darwin’s left arm – his non-sword arm – hung shattered and useless at his side, a jagged piece of bone protruded from his injured elbow. Blood gushed from it. “Did you think the same ploy you used on Gard would work on me?” Lord Charn said with disdain, backing Darwin into a corner. “I periodically test every barrier against my weapon during a battle for precisely that reason as I watch for the subtle dimming of the shield. You’ve grown too accustomed to switching to it. Now it’s only a matter of time. Your life’s essence is fleeing your traitorous body, Darkwind. You are dying. I could simply step back and wait, but I shall not. I am going to smash your treacherous bones into tiny bits. Though you’ve managed to reinstall your weapon barrier, you are weak. It should not take long to break through.”

With a roar, Lord Charn flailed on Darwin’s shadowy barrier, amethyst sparks flying with each blow. Fractures appeared after only a few blows. Crystalyn’s breath caught in her lungs, forgotten for a heartbeat. Could she watch Darwin die? He
had
hatched an evil plan designed to destroy half a continent with her as the centerpiece. He’d even provided the training she could see that now. It was all one big, deadly sham conceived by the man she loved.

His betrayal was made all the worse by the fact she couldn’t trust the training now. It made her ache deep inside thinking about it. She’d pushed so hard, never dreaming how versatile her symbols could be.

Except
, there was one they hadn’t perfected yet. The symbol she’d modified without him. Crystalyn used it now. Dismissing the black acid rain symbol, she brought out the barrier wall symbol, reforming it around her and Jade for protection against magical attacks. It should suffice for now, since she did not intend to get close enough to any weapons to require a physical barrier.

“Your physical barrier is weakening like your battered body,” Lord Charn said almost amenably, landing another blow. “I wouldn’t have expected it to last this long with your blood loss, though you have always been one of my strongest. Perhaps I will bestow the honor of a quick death upon you after all.” Standing tall above his opponent, Lord Charn tapped the hammer’s flaming head against his free palm. Could she
really
watch him die? Grotesquely distorted under the crumbling barrier, the man she loved was no longer recognizable. Only his legs remained clear.
Oh Darwin!

She couldn’t watch him die.

Taking Jade’s hand, Crystalyn raised her shield a little, as she headed for the fallen man, an idea taking shape. If she could get close enough, she could switch to a physical barrier and drape it over Darwin long enough to calm Lord Charn. Then she could heal him.

She froze, not making it far.

Black webbing passed through Lord Charn’s barrier and wrapped around him, pinning his arms and the hammer, to his waist.

Malkor had his hand raised past his shoulder. A bright red, flaming javelin appeared in it. He threw. Flying with uncanny accuracy, the javelin sank into Lord Charn’s chest inches above the luminous webbing.

The webbing tightened, yanking the Great Lord backwards off his feet. He crashed to the floor with a resounding clang. Lord Charn’s barrier winked out, the javelin, and webbing dissolving with it. Features hidden in the shadows of a heavy cowl, a black-robed figure, aglow with a barrier, stood beyond the fallen man.

Without pause, the figure flung a volley of dark cones across the room. Crystalyn watched them come, her mind reeling. Things were happening too fast.

“Crystalyn!” Jade screamed.

Malkor’s red laser-like missiles, aimed at Jade, struck her symbol even as the black cones sought her out. The Flow ripped into her symbol, sending bolts of excruciating power flowing through her body. Too late, she realized Darwin had perfected her symbol. But not in the way she’d expected. He’d made it for use on the battlefield. A raging torrent of raw power coursed through her neural pathways, too much, too fast as each magical blow landed. Some of the Flow escaped through her eyes, blinding her with a white-hot haze of pain, and then reabsorbing into her barrier then into her mind. Vaguely, she sensed power building up inside the vicious loop under her symbol.

Then her vision burned away into a crackling inferno of white light. Still the Flow poured in, the pressure rising until she ceased to comprehend anything but the white-hot agony in her skull.

She screamed
.

ABSORPTION

Frightened, Jade gripped Crystalyn’s hand. Flowing down from the symbol above, a bar of glowing white flowed into the top of Crystalyn’s head and blazed from her eye sockets emanating no heat. Her open mouth dispelled the substance, disconcertingly quiet where it vanished into the symbol’s patterned wall before them. Crystalyn’s agonized scream had broken off as soon as the light exited her mouth, which in itself was a bad sign. Her sister was in trouble, bad trouble. Jade didn’t know what she could do, but she had to do something. The power loop Crystalyn had somehow created was destroying her; Jade felt the pressure building. Perhaps she could sever the loop’s link to her sister.

Raising her free hand, she slipped her palm into the bar of white light where it met Crystalyn’s head.

Her perspective changed in an instant, filling her with awe. Now she could see a frothy white waterfall crackling with an immense energy along the bar of white going in and out of Crystalyn, and into the symbol creating the dome. The energy flowed along the intricate, glowing pattern that loomed overhead and around them, as if some powerful entity had drawn a divine symbol in the night sky from horizon to horizon. It was beautiful and frightening.

Jade could tell it was dangerous for her to interact too close, so she kept her awareness a breath away as she followed the torrent from Crystalyn out to the brilliant pattern. Once near, she realized the streams of energy flowing through Crystalyn’s symbol pooled at the top center. The problem was obvious: the energy followed the only path set for it. Though the pattern traced a long and intricate route, in the end it flowed back into itself—through her sister’s head form the pool above, out from her eyes and mouth, then back into the symbol.

Not able to interact with so much of the energy, Jade couldn’t see any way to reroute, but Crystalyn might if given a chance. Jade drew some of the hoary white energy in through her hand, sensing it racing through her, moving down, seeking its mother source. Putting her lips to Crystalyn’s ear, she yelled as loud as her voice would allow, “Set the symbol on the floor! Do it now!”

Crystalyn lurched as if struck in the head. The symbol touched the floor. The waterfall of power flowed back into the symbol, from there into the floor. Jade suddenly groped empty air.

Crystalyn’s piercing wail vibrated her eardrums. The wail stopped abruptly when her older sister clamped her jaws closed. Crystalyn gazed at her, her blue eyes round. “How did you know? The symbol was a trap, designed to trigger with first contact with the Flow—even a magical attack, the mastermind behind it counted on it. The Flow was bloating me with too much power. A few seconds and…” A shudder racked her tall frame.

Jade pointed at Malkor and the black-robed figure. Shouldn’t we be worried about those two throwing their power at your symbol?” Their onslaught hadn’t slowed an iota.

“I suppose we should end this, their attack is affecting my barrier, but I can hold them off for a while now, thanks to you,” Crystalyn said her voice full of wonder. “Let’s see if we can push this thing onward without it unraveling or leaving the ground. Stay with me little sister.” Crystalyn took a step forward. Jade moved with her. The symbol maintained a precise distance from them, moving a step forward as they did. Crystalyn smiled. “Looks like we’re in luck, now let’s see what we can do with it.”

Like the arc of a rainbow one could never quite catch, the symbol’s outer rim moved along with them as they strode toward the fallen form of Lord Charn. “I don’t know if this will work—” Crystalyn said quietly.

Jade realized what her sister meant at the last moment. Coming upon the fallen man, the symbol molded around him, shrinking in for his neck, and then rising to pass over his comatose face. Before Jade had time to marvel, Crystalyn squatted to feel under the chain mail covering Lord Charn’s neck with her free hand while maintaining her grip on Jade’s hand with the other. Jade was grateful. She didn’t want her sister to let go; the contact was comforting, particularly after what had just happened with the power loop trap. Together, they were stronger.

“Is he alive?” Jade asked after a short time.

“Yes, though his pulse is weak. I could possibly heal him if the damage isn’t too great, but I’m not sure I dare,” Crystalyn said, her tone somber.

“You wouldn’t be able to keep the protective symbol if you did, right?” Jade asked, fearing the answer.

Crystalyn looked at her sharply, as if she hadn’t considered it. “I’m not certain. I have to…attach…part of me to the healing symbol and access the damage from there. I don’t know if I could split my…awareness in two places. It takes gobs out of me to heal, and nearly as much to run the absorption symbol.”

“Can you transfer the absorption symbol’s focus to me and sort of…
tie
it off there. I’m sure all it needs is a path to you. I won’t let go of your hand. I think we have to try for his sake.”

Again, Crystalyn gazed at her hard. “I would have to release the absorption symbol to launch an attack. It would be risky; the timing would have to be perfect. But you seem to be aware of some of this. Shifting the symbol’s focus to you should work as long as we are in contact, though it will likely drain you, so we wouldn’t have much time.” Crystalyn hesitated. “Though, I’m not sure I want to try.”

“Why? Is it too dangerous?”

“It’s not entirely that. We’re in danger
now
, severe danger. My symbol is weakening me the longer I hold it. What’s worse, I won’t be able to heal either one of us if we should get hurt or anyone else for a few days after.” Her eyes flicked to where Darwin lay. Jade understood her hesitation at last.
How could she still be worried about him?

“Make your choice,” Jade heard herself say.

Crystalyn regarded her, and then chuckled without mirth. “You’re right, I don’t have a choice. If I can heal him, I have to try. Don’t let go of me, no matter what happens,” Crystalyn said, her voice a plea.

At once, Jade felt an all-encompassing…
awareness
of the symbol pulse within her hand that gripped Crystalyn’s hand. It exploded up her arm, along her neck, and into her mind. The feeling wasn’t sharp or painful, but insistent, like a toddler demanding attention every time she acknowledged it.

Below, a river of power flowed, as infinite as an ocean current. Awed, and a little intimidated, yet helpless to stop herself, Jade reached out with her own delicate awareness, stretching it toward the river in small increments, reaching ever so slowly.

The moment her awareness touched it, power filled her. Instinctively, she severed the connection. Once again, she was awed, almost to the point of stupor. Many heartbeats thumped by as she reveled in the feeling of newfound energy. All her fatigue had vanished. She felt so alive and so full of energy, enough to climb to the top of the black tower again had she wanted.

Except…it was becoming difficult to contain it. The power raging inside her demanded an outlet. Her mind and body was heating at a frightening rate. The power needed a... release. What could she do?

The answer arrived almost as soon as the question occurred. She could disperse it. Funneling energy into the symbol was a simple matter of sending a small quantity through the symbol’s link. The tugging at her mind quickly dissipated, replaced by a feeling of completeness. All well and good, but there was so much left; she’d barely tapped into what she had inside, so she fed a large stream through her palm into Crystalyn.

The effect was profound. Crystalyn’s slumped shoulders straightened, a grin bloomed on her lips, and a warm glow flushed her young face. A golden symbol appeared over Lord Charn’s comatose form, vanishing on contact. Time passed, how much she couldn’t say, then Lord Charn suddenly sat up, swiveling his horned helm to look at them both. “I cannot say how, but you’ve mended a death wound. You have my gratitude,” Lord Charn said his voice a fragile parody of its former self.

Crystalyn regarded her, but spoke to the armored one. “I’m not certain what my sister and I have done, but we can sort that out later. We need your help. Can you stand?”

Lord Charn rose to his impressive seven spans. “I can move,” he said, sounding surprised. “What is it you would ask of me?”

“I cannot lower my symbol to fire at both those attacking us. Can you take out one of them?”

Lord Charn’s head spun, his helm assessing the situation. “I see. I did not realize the battle still raged. I shall remove the coward who attacks from behind,” he said his voice soft, but firm. Hefting his hammer, his outline glowed briefly as he raised his personal barrier inside Crystalyn’s symbol of protection, and then strode toward the black cloaked figure. A sharp tug on Jade’s mind mirrored his stepping through.

Crystalyn locked eyes with her. “Are you ready? We’re going after Malkor.”

Not trusting herself to speak, Jade nodded. She wondered what they could possibly do when they got there without removing the symbol’s sheltering pattern. Doing that would leave them as vulnerable as Broth without claws or teeth.