“Are you well?”
He swiveled his head before looking back at her.
“Yes,” he replied, causing Jade to relax and smile. “Where is she?”
“Who?”
“The…the j-jade woman.” His body trembled slightly.
“You saw her?”
Cryos’s trembling increased. Jade put her hands on his arms.
“She’s not here,” she said. “It’s just you and me. There’s no one else. It is well.”
His trembling subsided, though did not completely die away.
“Come,” Jade said, leading him away. “Let’s see if we can find a way out of here.”
Cryos followed, allowing his master to lead him.
They walked in silence for some time, Jade wanting to ask about the jade woman, but not wanting Cryos to falter into his fit again. So she kept silent and led him. He thought about the chamber with the many versions of her, the vision, and the power that coursed through her at claiming her title. So lost in thought was she that she almost missed the chill air blowing upon her. She shivered and looked around. Walls surrounded her, turning further into the maze in different directions. Then she looked up and saw noticed the ceiling vaulting up, ending at a shaft high above her head.
“A way out?” Cryos asked.
“I would think so,” Jade replied. “It’s at least something different. But how do we get to it?”
Cryos answered by picking her up by her waist, turning her to face him and pulling her to him. She instinctively wrapped her arms around his neck and swallowed as he moved to a nearby wall. She could feel his heart beating and his muscles moving beneath her. Her face was pressed up against the side of his. She had never been this close to anyone but her father and her cheeks blushed at the contact.
A crunching sound drew her attention. She turned her head to see Cryos had dug a claw into the stone wall. He swung his other arm and his claws bit into the stone. He then pulled his other arm free, pulled the two of them up with his embedded claw and again thrust his claw into the stone. In this way, he climbed the wall up to the vaulted ceiling. When his climb turned diagonal, Jade wrapped her legs around his waist to keep from falling.
After a short time, they reached the shaft and Cryos continued his climb. For some time all Jade heard was the crunching of stone. She was loathe to speak, fearing her voice might betray her and also having nothing to talk about that would not cause Cryos to degenerate into fear. So she kept quiet, doing her best to occupy her thoughts with all she had experienced.
After a time, she noticed that Cryos had stopped moving.
“Cryos?”
“The shaft ends,” the loyal gargoyle replied. “We passed several passages, but I chose to keep going up. I will go back down to find another way.”
“Wait,” Jade said, halting him. “If the passage goes up this far, it wouldn’t end at a stone barrier for no reason. The entire construction of this place, what we’ve seen anyway, seems very intentional. Feel around for some stone out of place or loose. There must be some trigger.”
Jade pulled one hand free and felt the wall behind Cryos as he did the same in front of him. Her hand passed over smooth, hewn stone and she pressed her hand in several places, but nothing moved.
“Anything?” she asked after a time.
“Nothing,” he replied. Only a slight gap around the ceiling.”
“That’s it! Did you run your fingers all the way around the gap?”
“Yes. There is nothing.”
“There must be something.”
Jade thought for a moment.
“Perhaps it’s meant to be lifted out of place.”
She reached up, feeling the ceiling, and pushed. The stone didn’t budge and she felt her muscles cramp at the extreme effort.
“Can you do it?” she puffed.
Cryos attempted with one hand and replied. “Not with one hand. Perhaps with two.”
“Plant your feet on the wall.”
Jade undid her legs from his waist and maneuvered around him until her feet were planted against the opposite wall and her back was against his. She pushed against him and felt him doing the same. She sat there, her legs tense and cramping, hearing Cryos grunting. Stone ground against stone and light flooded the chamber as Cryos managed the slab up out of the shaft and onto a ledge.
“Grab onto me,” he said as he grabbed the adjacent ledge with a clawed hand. Jade maneuvered and wrapped her arms and legs into his back. Cryos pulled and the two emerged into a chamber lit by familiar, glowing orbs. Jade looked around and found themselves to be on the opposite end of the hall with the glass walls.
The hall ended abruptly at a stone wall. The adjacent wall was just the same, large, stone blocks placed together like the rest of the hall. The opposite wall was covered in gears. The gears were recessed into the wall, interlocked with each other, varied in size, and covered the wall from top to bottom in a wide indecipherable pattern. At the top and bottom of the chamber, the gears disappeared into the ceiling and the floor where they no doubt continued on. Near where the two had come up out of the floor stood a bronze pillar the height of Jade’s chest. Upon it sat another of the gears also made of bronze. Jade read aloud the inscription on the pillar.
“Only three
may bear
the crystal:
The Knight,
The Herald,
The Torchbearer.
Only these may stay
the golem’s wrath.
Only these may stop
the tide of Darkness.
Only these may restore
when all else is lost.”
Jade straightened and stared at the inscription. The mention of the Darkness caused her mind to flash back to when she had first met Cryos and together, they had kept the being known as The Darkness from gaining a foothold on the island.
Only these may stop the tide of Darkness.
A cold shiver ran up her spine and she shuddered.
“Who are they?”
Jade jumped at the sound of Cryos’s gravelly voice.
“What?” she asked.
“Who are the herald, the knight, and the torchbearer?”
“I don’t know. And I don’t know what the rest of it means either. But it seems to me that there are three elements, just as there are three beings. There’s the crystal, the golem, and the Darkness. I’m not sure what the number three has to do with it, but, perhaps if one of these beings obtains the crystal, they can destroy the Darkness and I’m guessing the golem can’t hurt them either. If we get the crystal and get it into their hands, perhaps they can destroy the Darkness forever.”
She looked up at Cryos, meeting his stony gaze.
“I think that’s worth attaining, don’t you?”
Cryos stared at her and slapped his tail against the stone. Jade watched him as his tail swished back and forth and he looked back at the inscription.
“Two masters,” he muttered.
Jade furrowed her brow.
“What?”
He looked back at her.
“I desire the crystal to retrieve vengeance for my fallen master,” he said, his voice strangely off, almost as if he were…ashamed. “I would gladly do this at any cost. But only the three may bear it. If you or I were to touch it, it would consume or destroy us. The only way for me to obtain it…would be…to use you to do so.”
Jade stared at him, her body shaking slightly.
“But…you wouldn’t,” she said. “That would be betraying me. I’m your master. You couldn’t do that. You wouldn’t do that…would you?”
He stared at her, his tail slapping against the stone floor. He suddenly looked more menacing and dangerous than she had ever known him to be. They were the only ones here, down who-knows-how-far beneath the earth, alone and trapped in a deep labyrinth where no one would find them. Jade swallowed, her hand drifting to her jade dagger.
“I have always served Ixtus the Black,” Cryos replied.
<
br /> Cryos’s hand tightened around her dagger. Her heart thumped in her chest. He was going to kill her or force her to retrieve the crystal. She backed away.
Cryos did not move. His tail slapped against the stone. Jade could see his muscles tensing as he prepared to pounce on her. Her arms tensed, preparing to pull her dagger, but froze as Cryos let out a deafening wail.
*****
Cryos roared up at the ceiling, his wings spread wide, pain coursing through his body. The jade woman’s voice echoed in his mind, reverberating again and again through his torture.
Who is your master?
Who is your master?
Cryos wailed. An image of Ixtus was before him, his former master’s dark form appearing in a cloud. Emaciated torso and arms with a demonized human skull, surrounded two red eyes that pierced into his soul. He could feel the necromancer’s hold on his mind, torturing him. He remembered the torture from long ago, its pain now renewed. His muscles convulsed as he curled into a ball.
Serve me, my pet! Use the woman! Obtain the crystal! Avenge me!
“NO!” Cryos roared, swiping at the air. “You are not my master! You are destroyed!”
I am never destroyed! Death cannot hold me! Serve me! Kill her!
“No! She is my master! She is Jade! I ch…ch…choose her!”
More pain raked through his mind. He roared and staggered back.
“Cryos?”
The voice was feminine and sounded frightened. Cryos saw, as if in a dream, Jade standing before him, her face matching her voice, her hands to her sides. Cryos turned away and stumbled down the hall, pain streaking through his mind and body. He stumbled until he smacked into the glass barrier. The vision of Ixtus hung before him like the ghostly phantom of a demon.
Serve me!
“I will not serve you!”
Cryos took three deep breaths that pained him and blasted out the cone at the vision of Ixtus. It passed through the creature hitting and freezing something beneath. Cryos balled his fists and pounded them on the vision of Ixtus. The creature floated before him smiling as Cryos pounded away at him.
“Cryos!”
He felt something give way beneath his fists.
“Jade!” he roared. “Run! Get out! He is coming for me! Run!”
*****
“I will not leave you!” Jade shouted, though her voice shook.
“He will make me kill you! Run!”
Jade felt her blood boil, her fear changing to anger. Somehow, Ixtus still had a hold on Cryos. But she refused to bow to the whims of a long-dead necromancer. She would not be cowed and she would not leave Cryos to be tortured and consumed by him. She felt that same power coursing through her and her mouth opened in a powerful command.
“He will do no such thing! I am Princess Beverly Lithos of the Greys, descendant of Antina the Grey, and heir apparent to the throne of Thoral Island! I am sovereign over this land and all who dwell in it past or future! You are my servant only and of no one else! Ixtus the Black is hereby banished to the deeper darkness! That which he craves is now master over him and he is master over nothing forever more! So I have stated it! So it cannot be broken!”
*****
Jade’s voice echoed around him, power of a different sort surrounding and binding him. The pain withdrew from him as a splinter is pulled from the skin. He watched with growing clarity as Ixtus’ form cracked, beams of light shining through. It splintered and Cryos heard his former master scream an inhuman wail as his form finally exploded.
*****
Cryos collapsed in a heap, not moving. Jade rushed over to him.
“Cryos,” she said, kneeling beside him and shaking him. “Cryos, are you well?”
He didn’t answer. Jade got underneath him and pushed. He was limp and incredibly heavy. Still, after great effort, she managed to push him into a sitting position against the remainder of the glass barrier.
“Cryos,” she said, slapping him. “Come now, Cryos. Don’t…don’t die. Don’t…don’t leave me…alone.”
Her eyes wetted with tears. Cryos held still. She embraced him, her head on his chest.
“Please don’t leave me alone,” she whispered. “I’m always alone. I have…no one. I can’t return to that. Please…”
She sat there holding him close, her eyes shut tight against the reality of losing him.
“Please…”
“Jade…”
Jade’s eyes popped open and she looked up. Cryos’s head was moving slightly.
“Jade…run…” he said.
“I’m not leaving you.”
“He…will…”
Jade straightened and cupped his beaked face in her hands.
“He will do nothing. Ixtus is no more, either in this land or in your mind. You are freed from him, Cryos. He can’t touch you anymore.”
Cryos stirred then. The words seemed to give him strength and he managed to stand with some help from Jade. He turned his head toward her.
“How did you banish him?”
Jade looked down and gripped her opposite arm, her face going flush.
“I…I don’t know. They say my ancestor was a powerful woman. I just…I just feel strength…or something…when I claim my title.”
She shuddered. The power she felt at embracing her position as heir apparent and future queen was something she had long resisted.
What do I do if I must embrace it?
A cold shiver ran up her spine and her mouth went dry. She shook the thoughts away.
“Let’s just get the crystal and leave,” she said at last, moving to the pedestal.
Cryos followed.
“But what if it destroys us?”
“There must be a way. Perhaps I can take hold of it with my satchel.”
She read the inscription again and looked at the gear.
“I’m guessing whatever this crystal is, this gear, and these on the wall are the keys to finding it.”
She examined the wall and saw a pattern emerge. A step back allowed her to see more of it.
Shapes. People?
She stepped further back, until she was pressed against the opposite wall. Among the cluster of gears, she saw three shapes. Three figures stood, each holding a different item up over their heads. The one on the right held what looked like a banner. The one on the left held a sword. The center figure held what might have been a flame or torch. Above all three, near the high ceiling was the crystal, its center gear missing.
“It’s at the top,” Jade said.
She grabbed the gear off the pedestal, rushed up to the wall, and climbed, the gear gripped in her teeth. The aroma in her mouth lent a metallic, but sweet taste to her tongue. She was tempted to lick it, but after all she had seen of this labyrinth, she didn’t want to allow herself to fall into some other danger. Her mind went to the warning about the golem as she climbed. She brushed it aside.
“I should climb,” Cryos stated from below. “If you fall…”
“I don’t want to risk damaging these gears,” Jade replied around the gear in her mouth. “Just be ready to catch me.”
She fit her fingers carefully between the teeth of the gears which interlocked with each other in almost every space. When at last she reached the top, she pulled the gear from her mouth and pressed it into place. It set in with a snap. The gears immediately began turning and Jade was forced to let go of the wall to avoid getting her fingers and toes crushed. She turned as she fell. Cryos caught her, twirling her as he did to slow her momentum.
There was a great clacking as gears locked and turned one another. The two watched the entire wall come alive with movement. A grinding sound was heard and they looked to see the bronze pillar sinking into the floor. Another pillar of some black material rose up from the floor directly in line with the glowing orbs. Cryos and Jade approached it, no longer hearing the noise of the gears. The pillar rose to the height of the first and stopped. The center split and the sides opened up to reveal an empty compartment that cont
ained nothing but…
They looked at each other and then back at the compartment. Jade reached out and picked up the silver gear sitting upon the pedestal and examined it. It glinted in the light of the orbs.
“I don’t understand,” she said.
Another grinding was heard and the two looked to the far wall. It rose up into the ceiling revealing blackness beyond. They approached the darkness, stopping at the threshold. Jade could see the light glinting off something metal further in.
Something shot out and she ducked and rolled out of the way. She recovered to see two enormous, metal fists, one on the floor in the spot in which she had been, the other held up by Cryos. The fist was larger than Cryos and he was forced to hold it up with both hands. Jade could see his whole body shaking. Clearly straining, her managed to push the fist forward enough to jump back. The fist slammed the stone floor with an ear-shattering clang.
Jade turned fled back down the corridor.
“Come, Cryos!” she shouted.
Her boots pounded the stone. Metal clanging sounded behind her, ripping through her ears. Her heart thumped against her chest. She heard Cryos roar. She skidded to a stop and turned. A creature as tall as the passage stood before her, its form obscured by the light behind it. What Jade could discern was that it was bulky and enormous. One massive hand gripped a struggling Cryos. It shifted. Jade jumped towards it and rolled beneath it as the other hand came at her. She rolled to her feet, ran out behind it and turned to see a giant thing made up of iron plates. The thing moved and jade could see glimpses of ropes and gears as the plates moved. The thing was turning toward her.
Jade ran up to it and jumped onto one of its legs, her fingers barely reaching the top of the metal plate. She brought her feet up and leapt upward, grabbing the next plate. The thing lurched and Jade was nearly thrown from her perch. As soon as she was able, she continued scaling the massive leg until she reached the torso. A terrible screeching ripped through her ears. She yelped, resisting the urge to let go and cover her ears. She hung from one massive plate covering its lower back. Above her, two smaller plates made up its shoulder blades. Jade got a foot up and pushed herself up. The thing moved its arms, revealing a thin gap between the two plates. Jade went for it and slipped inside, the metal plates slamming closed behind her.
Cryos & Jade Labyrinth Page 4
