Authors: Kate Douglas
Crystalfire (18 page)
And then, somehow, he had to figure out how to protect her. How to keep her from reaping the horrible fate that had been predicted so long ago.
It was going to happen tonight. He knew, somehow, that everything was locked together—saving Ed, beating the demon king, loving Willow. The “final battle” that CrystalFire had warned him of was coming.
He just wished he knew where he fit into all of this. Wished his sword didn’t have such a low opinion of him that the damned thing only spoke when it absolutely had to.
He wished Alton were around. He could use the advice of a friend. A friend who’d actually been there—who’d fallen in love, and understood the pain that could come from the most wonderful emotion a man could experience.
He raised up on one elbow and watched Willow sleep. She smiled and turned to him, snuggling close against his chest. Giving in to exhaustion, no longer quite certain how to fight the feelings growing stronger by the second, or even if he should, Taron lay down beside her once again, pulled her into his arms and drifted away.
Alton glanced up as the portal on the far side of the chamber shimmered. Dawson, Selyn, and Dax stepped through from the Sedona side and headed straight for the Lemurian gateway.
“Are you done?”
Dax looked like hell. Alton couldn’t imagine what it must feel like, to have the one he loved so totally lost to him. “I haven’t tested it yet, but yeah, I think we’re done.” He glanced at Ginny. “Why don’t you see what DarkFire has to say?”
She nodded, but it was obvious the strain was telling on his woman, too. She and Eddy had been best friends since they were children. Eddy’s disappearance was tearing Ginny apart.
Without any preamble, Ginny unsheathed DarkFire and thrust her sword into the swirling energy that was the new portal to Lemuria.
At least he hoped that was where it led. A moment later, she pulled the sword back through. “DarkFire? What’s the verdict?”
“I could hear the golden veil up ahead. The passageway is clear. Everything appears to be working perfectly.”
The golden veil was a rather noisy illusion marking the boundary between Lemuria and the portals to other dimensions. Alton let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. He’d opened portals just a couple of times in the past, so he wasn’t really comfortable without testing the gateway to make sure it went where it was supposed to.
Only Lemurians in all their national hubris would choose the illusion of a waterfall of molten gold to mark the gateway to their world. If DarkFire sensed the golden veil, it meant he’d created a proper portal that went where it was supposed to go. It was time. He adjusted his grasp on HellFire and glanced over his shoulder. “Dawson? Do you need to contact your assistant before we go?”
“No. He knows he’s in charge of the clinic until further notice.” Dawson slung an arm over Selyn’s shoulders. “Now that he understands what’s going on, he’s perfectly okay with running the show on the home front. He’ll tell me if any more animals show up with signs of possession. Said he’d leave messages on my cell phone, so I’m ready if you guys are.”
“Dax?”
Eddy’s ex-demon shot a quick glance in Alton’s direction that could probably freeze that illusory gold. “Right,” Alton said. “Let’s go.”
He slipped through the portal with the others following close behind, and reached out for Taron the moment they were inside the Lemurian dimension. It was second nature to call his closest friend, but for some reason, Taron didn’t answer.
Next he called out for Roland, once a trusted sergeant and now the new captain of the Lemurian Guard.
Hey, Roland! Everything okay here?
Hey, Roland! Everything okay here?
Alton! Yes. Paladins and guardsmen are doing joint training today. Do you need me for anything? I can break away if I must.
Thanks, but for now we’re okay. Ginny, Daws, Selyn, Dax, and I are headed to the crystal caves. Eddy’s been taken, Roland. Appears she’s lost in the void and we’ve learned the entity in the caves might help.
There was a long silence. He tried to imagine the look on Roland’s face while he puzzled whether or not Alton had lost a marble or two.
Entity? In the crystal caves? Are you certain you don’t need my help?
Thanks, Roland, but not right now. I’ll explain later, but yes, an entity we knew nothing about. Mother Crystal. Ask your sword who she is—you might get an answer. I’ll contact you when I know more. No need to worry my grandfather or father at this point.
Acknowledging Roland’s agreement, he closed the connection and continued with the others along the main tunnel. Taron’s lack of an answer was disturbing. Where the hell could he be that he’d not hear and respond?
After a short walk they reached the small portal that led to the tunnels in the lower levels. Alton paused for a moment, but there was no need to hesitate. Everyone was obviously anxious to proceed. They slipped through without comment and headed down the long stairs that eventually led to the level where the Forgotten Ones had been held as slaves.
Alton wondered what Selyn thought as she walked freely through the same passages where she’d lived and worked her entire life—where she’d been imprisoned as a slave until just a little over a week ago.
Now Selyn was a Paladin, one of the new women warriors of Lemuria. The huge machinery she’d once worked on was silent, the drills shut down, the fires in the smelting works no longer burning. Alton’s grandfather had plans, though, to make use of these mines. He’d spoken eloquently of reopening the diamond and rare gems mines and the precious metal refineries with paid labor—jobs that would give Lemurian citizens a purpose and a new economy.
Selyn and her sister slaves certainly had not been paid for their work, though they’d been rewarded, in a way, when they’d each received a crystal sword. Already some of the blades were sentient—full partners to the new Paladins of Lemuria.
But Selyn remained quiet as they passed through the mining level and moved beyond, deeper into Lemuria than any had gone before Taron’s amazing journey to replicate swords for the Forgotten Ones.
Where in the nine hells was Taron? His friend was an anchor in his life—a solid and trustworthy companion who had never failed in any endeavor he’d set out to achieve. At least not until he’d been faced with convincing a council ruled by demonkind that it must go forth and hunt demons.
If they’d only known what they were truly up against! Taron had done his very best—he was a man who deserved much more recognition than he’d gotten so far. He’d been willing to give everything to the fight against demonkind, and yet he’d remained in the background—a foot soldier whose bravery and determination had been tested time and again.
Not once had he been found wanting.
When this was all over, they really needed to sit down together over a glass of good ale and figure out exactly what had happened over the past month.
Now that would be a conversation to remember!
Alton’s thoughts jumped from event to event as the five of them continued on, practically running down the stairs that took them ever deeper into the mountain. So much had occurred—so many changes in a world that had essentially gone unchanged for thousands of years.
Subtle changes in his surroundings, in the changing texture of the stone around them, the sense of having gone into a world totally unlike any other filled him with more questions. Once this was over, their best minds would have to learn more about this world of theirs. Minds now unfettered by the insidious pressure of demon control.
Even now, Alton and the others had no idea if they were still within the Lemurian dimension when they traveled to these lower levels. Had they moved on to yet another world altogether? He didn’t know, yet everything about these deep tunnels and passageways felt alien, and they’d crossed through enough portals to have slipped from one dimension to another.
Strange yet tiny animals lived in the shadows. Eyeless salamanders and blind frogs. Small glowing worms moved slowly over etched stone, and in some areas, iridescent lichens covered the walls. There was an odd feeling of immense pressure, and yet the air here was clear and it was easier to breathe than he would have expected at such a great depth.
They’d traveled far very quickly and already had reached the area where only Taron’s scratch marks in the stone walls of the tunnels guided them. Their only light was the occasional patch of lichen and the steady shimmer of Alton’s and Dax’s crystal swords.
The rough scrape of boots over an even rougher floor echoed off the walls, and the harsh sound of their breathing seemed overly loud. No one had spoken for close to an hour—they moved quickly and saved their breath for the journey—until Dawson caught up to Alton and clapped him on the shoulder.
“I thought I was through climbing down into this cavern, but I’m beginning to wonder if maybe we shouldn’t just install an elevator.”
Alton burst out laughing. Only Dawson ... “Not a bad idea, Daws, though the trip’s not so hard coming down. That climb back up though ... now that one’s a killer.”
“Maybe a direct portal,” Selyn said. “It would be nice to pop between levels without all these stairs.”
Dax merely grunted. “I have a whole new sense of danger with these portals we so easily use. I never dreamed we could go into one and not come out.”
Alton glanced over his shoulder. “We’ll find her, Dax. No matter what, we’ll bring Eddy back, though I can’t believe that what happened to her was an accident. I’ve never heard of anyone not coming out of a portal. Something or someone did something to shove her into the void, but I have to believe that if she can be sent into it, she can be taken out of it.”
Dax merely grunted.
Alton couldn’t imagine the pain his friend must be feeling. Didn’t want to. “She’s one of us,” he said, making eye contact with Dax. “Eddy’s the best of us. We won’t lose her.”
Dax gave a sharp jerk of his head, but he said nothing more. The way had become narrower, the ground more uneven, and it took full concentration to keep up the pace without stumbling. Alton recognized more of Taron’s marks on the walls and knew they drew close. He sensed anticipation in HellFire and wondered if the others noticed any change in their blades.
Ginny picked up his errant thought. “Even with DarkFire sheathed, I feel something. Not at all the way it was when we battled the demon king. That was a sense of dread. DarkFire seems excited about coming this way.”
“I agree.” Alton reached for Ginny with his free hand. She clasped his fingers, and her solid grasp reminded him once again just how lucky a man he was.
“Sheathe your swords.” Dawson moved ahead of Alton. “I think I see the glow of crystal ahead.”
“Really? Will the crystal cast light without candles or glow sticks?” Alton stuck HellFire in his scabbard, dousing the blade’s crystal light. Dax did the same with DemonFire.
“It appears so.”
Selyn’s soft comment had all of them blinking in wonder. A brilliant blue-white glow shimmered along the passage ahead. They raced down the tunnel, through the broad opening into the first of the crystal caves.
This one glowed with an inner light they’d not seen before. Even the ruby altar where Taron had replicated the swords, the altar that had only glowed, according to Taron, when the ruby sword of Artigos the Just had appeared, was shimmering from deep inside in all its blood-red glory.
They walked into the center of the cavern, one that was nothing more than a giant geode with a curved ceiling and walls studded with huge diamonds. However, instead of light reflecting off the facets from an outside source, the entire cavern glowed from within.
“It wasn’t like this before.” Eyes wide and sparkling in the unusual light, Ginny still hung on to Alton’s hand. She stood beside him, head lifted, staring as if mesmerized by the glimmering, shimmering crystals overhead and all around. “This feels alive. I sense the spirits of warriors here, both men and women. Before, I thought only the warrior women, the mothers of the Forgotten Ones were here, but it’s all of them. Every single one who ever fought and died bravely for Lemuria. Every warrior who lived a life of honor—they’re here. All of them.”
She pulled DarkFire out of the scabbard and held the blade high. A brilliant beam of purple light shot from the blade and bathed the crystalline walls, striking a bell-like tone, a ringing note of purest crystal.
Ginny spoke to her sword as fire raced along the blade and sparks flew from the very tip. “You came directly from life in Lemuria to service in my sword, Daria of DarkFire. Did you ever have the chance to meet with your companions?”
Soft laughter seemed to echo all around. “When I am in your sword, I am also part of Mother Crystal. I am She, and She is all of us. Here, though, close to her heart, we are stronger. We are bound by our love and our honor, and we are bound to the soul of DemonSlayer. Elda and Eddy shall be saved.”
“How? How and when?”
Dax’s control had obviously snapped. He stomped forward, aggressive and angry, his demand a harsh snarl rubbed raw with grief. Alton reached out to stop him, but Dax brushed his hand away and spoke directly to Ginny’s blade. “How can we get Eddy back?”
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