The Crystal Warrior

by Lori Hyrup

  A shuffling of footsteps caught Aria’s attention. Her eyes darted along the hall, and she spotted a decorative alcove with a statue displaying some ancient order priest. She ducked into the space and pressed herself against the wall on the far side. From the shadows she counted twenty people as they passed: seven priests and eleven krusword trainees. Aria growled under her breath at not being able to see their faces.

  The door slid open, and the large group entered. When the last priest shuffled past Aria’s position, she stepped out from her cover, staying far enough behind to avoid notice. The door fell closed, but Aria caught it with her foot. She waited for a few moments and then inched it open carefully, thankful the well-oiled hinges did not creak. The opposite side of the door revealed another hallway. The group was no longer in sight. Aria slipped through, keeping a careful eye on the series of doorways dotting either side of the passage.

  Aria inched up to the first doorway and peered in around the corner, discovering a small, dimly lit storeroom with a neatly arranged assortment of barrels, crates, shelves, jars, and other similar containers, some filled and some empty. She moved into the room to give herself more cover while she strained to listen for sounds deeper within. She heard muffled voices, but they were too distant to distinguish clearly.

  Aria advanced farther up the hall, passing another set of doorways. Both looked to be offices of some sort. A part of her itched to riffle through the scrolls on the desks to collect more information, but a deep sense of urgency prodded her to keep moving forward. She paused as a familiar tingling sensation tugged at her mind. A shard beast was nearby, but its aura was so faint she barely sensed it.

  The fourth doorway revealed a large room, longer than wide. On the far wall were a series of holding cells and within them, seven of the trainees. Most of them sat on the cold stone floor, dazed, though they appeared unharmed. Four of the trainees, however, were missing, and none of the priests were present. Against the near wall were several wide tables, each covered with a variety of tools, implements, crystals, boxes, clothing, and more.

  Aria stepped into the room and caught sight of a worn wooden door at the other end. She moved past the trainees, who paid her no attention, and toward the door. Two steps from her destination, a spine-chilling scream, followed by the loud shuffling of several feet, stopped her in her tracks. Panicked, Aria slid under one of the tables and pressed herself as tight against the wall as possible. The door burst opened, revealing a pair of fast-moving feet and the hem of a priest’s robe. A second person followed and stopped quickly.

  “No, let go of me!” said a young male voice on the verge of hysteria. Aria dared to lean down farther to catch a glimpse of his face. Her breath caught when she recognized First Acolyte Dolson. His face was red, his eyes filled with tears.

  “Dolson, stop!” Aria identified the second voice as Priestess Pleria, one of only three female priests currently residing at the academy. The priestess grabbed Dolson’s shoulders and turned him around.

  “I can’t do this anymore! I won’t be a part of this. Those are my friends in there!”

  A third pair of feet walked into the room. Priest Kilgor growled, “We have been too lenient allowing acolytes to socialize with the trainees. We’re going to put a stop to that.”

  “Kilgor,” said Pleria, “go back in the room. Let me handle this.”

  “Very well, Pleria. You are his sponsor. He is your responsibility.”

  “I know. I’ll handle it.”

  Priest Kilgor huffed and returned through the door.

  The priestess closed the door and dragged two stools away from the wall. “Have a seat,” she said to Dolson.

  “I don’t want to sit. I want out of here.”

  “Dolson, sit down.”

  The acolyte finally sat, allowing his weight to drop onto the stool. The priestess sat on the other stool. “This is wrong,” said Dolson. “And you know it. Why is this allowed to happen?”

  Pleria’s response was very quiet. “I agree with you. This is wrong, but I am not in a position to change it.”

  “Why not? Just stand up to them!”

  The woman sighed in disappointment. “Honestly, I’m afraid. Going against them means fearing for my life and the lives of my family.”

  “If this is what is required for me to be raised, then I would rather die.”

  “You are a braver soul than I, but don’t throw your life away. I need someone like you to help me end this. Maybe one day we can. For now I need you to go through with this.”

  Aria weighed her options. Slowly she slid her way out from under the table. “I think I’ve heard enough,” she growled.

  “Aria!” said Dolson, nearly falling off his stool.

  Pleria glanced at the door and back at Aria. She grabbed Aria’s arm and pulled her to the other doorway. “Aria, you shouldn’t be here. It’s not safe for you.”

  Aria glared at Pleria. The shorter woman let go of her arm and stepped back, fear evident in her dark-brown eyes.

  “What—” Aria’s question was cut off by another shrill scream leaking out from the other room. Aria moved around Pleria and toward the door.

  The priestess grabbed her wrist again. “Aria, please don’t. You don’t understand what you’re getting involved with.”

  “That’s irrelevant. I’ve been involved since Priest Malechi tried to kill me.” The dark-haired woman gasped in surprise. So not everyone knew. “Whatever you’re doing to these kids ends now.”

  “The process has already been started. It can’t be reversed.”

  Aria looked at her in horror. “What process?” Pulling free from Pleria’s grasp, Aria rushed for the door, calling forth her sword as she did.

  Throwing open the wooden barrier, Aria was greeted by five annoyed stares, but it was not the priests who caught her attention. Terror gripped her stomach as her eyes settled on the three krumetus standing submissively off to the side. When she thought the nightmare could not get worse, the trainee who was strapped to a slanted table in the center of the room started to thrash. The boy’s skin changed from a soft tan to an opalescent white. His arms and legs began to elongate as shards erupted from his skin. Within moments, the crystal tendrils worked their way up his neck and across his face. His eyes glazed over as the crystal took hold. The boy arched his back and wailed a single note so long and painful it cut Aria deeper than anything she had ever felt.

  Shouting in rage, Aria rushed to the table.

  “Stop her,” Priest Kilgor ordered.

  Dodging the priests as they attempted to grab her, she sliced the bonds holding the boy down. Then she realized her mistake. She was too late; the thing on the table was no longer a boy. The newly formed krumetus swung its sharded arm at Aria, backhanding her across the chest. The forceful swing sent her flying against the wall. The creature broke the last strap holding it down and climbed off the table, landing on the ground with a thud.

  “Contain it!” Kilgor shouted.

  The sharded behemoth grabbed the nearest priest and threw him into a glass cabinet. The man’s head shattered the glass, leaving behind splatters of blood. He fell over in a heap.

  “Too late!” shouted one of the other priests as he ran for the door. The three remaining priests followed.

  The krumetus aimed a long, clawlike hand at the fleeing men and from it erupted a spikelike projectile, impaling the last priest through the back. The others did not slow. They ran through the holding room and up the hall. The creature moved after them, not running but pursuing with swift, purposeful strides.

  Aria glared at Kilgor as she hurried after the beast. The man’s balding head held not a drop of sweat. His face showed no concern. If anything, he simply looked annoyed. Aria ground her teeth and rushed through the door. She caught sight of Pleria and Dolson hiding under the table. Pausing, Aria grabbed Pleria’s arm and pulled her out.

  “Get those trainees out of here,” Aria demanded. Pleria nodded weakly, her disheveled black hair falling
across her eyes.

  A crash up the hallway caught Aria’s attention. She sprinted to catch up. The metal door that had barred her way had been knocked off its hinges. Beneath it was one of the priests, bloodied and unmoving. She continued running, down the passage and up the three flights of stairs. A third priest lay at the top of the stairwell, blood pouring from a gouge in his head.

  Aria sensed the creature pulling away from her. She drew deeper on her crystal to push her legs faster. A bell sounded, followed by dozens more. At least one of the priests survived long enough to sound the alarm. Under normal circumstances, she would be happy for the toll, but now she cursed under her breath. The alarm would bring people out of their rooms and into harm’s way.

  Aria retraced her earlier steps through a series of study rooms, through the library, back down the hall, up another flight of stairs, down another hall. At last she emerged on the main level. Directly across from the stairwell, she found the body of the fourth priest, or what was left of him. His severed arm still dangled from the alarm cord while the rest of his unmoving corpse lay shattered against another wall.

  Shouts and screams drew her attention north toward the quad. Hurdling benches and dodging confused students, Aria dashed out to face the creature she had unwittingly unleashed. She was not the first kruusta to arrive. Rauss danced around the beast, which had grown larger since Aria had first seen it. The krumetus drew itself to its full height, dwarfing Rauss, who was only a third of its size. The creature stomped, sending a shock wave outward and knocking Rauss off his feet. Several spectators also lost their balance. Rauss had never seen a krumetus before and was still dazed by its initial attack. Aria sprinted to his side and pulled him out of striking range.

  The krumetus bellowed at Aria’s interference, and its faceted eyes studied her every move. Aria let go of Rauss just in time to block the creature’s slashing swing. The force of the blow pushed her back, but she kept her footing. Its other arm came around with blinding speed. Aria adjusted to deflect it. The strike threw her against the fountain in the center of the quad. How something so large moved so fast was beyond her.

  The creature of pure, solid crystal drew back and then pounced. Its foot hurtled down toward her. She dodged away from the crushing force, rolling across the ground as she did so.

  Rauss rejoined the fight. He stood opposite Aria, attempting to penetrate an area along its back. Rauss lunged, slicing at the creature’s hamstrings. The krumetus roared with anger, turned, and slapped Rauss across the chest faster than he could bring his sword back around. Rauss flew backward against a pillar. The creature swiveled toward Rauss, and with an extended claw, launched its crystalline spear at the stunned young kruusta. Aria leaped to intercept the weapon, but she failed to reach it in time. She struck the claw and used her momentum to keep moving past, but the spike, with a diameter larger than a fist, impaled Rauss in the chest.

  Aria slid to a stop beside Rauss and tried to pull the spike from his ribcage. Blood splattered from his lips and his head went slack. Aria ducked for the blow she knew was coming.

  “Noooooo!” came a roar from the halls as Zai’il launched herself over a hedge and onto the creature’s back. With one free hand, Zai’il clutched one of the shards protruding from the beast’s shoulder, and with the other, she drove her krusword down onto its head. The krumetus bellowed, reached around on its back, and grabbed a hold of Zai’il. It threw her across the quad like she was nothing.

  The beast moved toward the fallen kruusta, but a quick series of slices along its elbow from Tual drew its attention. Zai’il regained her footing and danced to the opposite side of Tual. Aria joined them, taking up a position at the creature’s back. The three kruustas did their best to stay out of range of its arms. Both claws sported three bladelike shards, each one as sharp and deadly as a sword. Every time the monster focused its attack on one kruusta, the other two initiated a number of quick strikes at its flanks.

  The fight took on the cadence of a dance, back and forth, in and out, only much more deadly. Slowly they began to whittle the creature down, the damage from their kruswords chipping away a little bit at a time. The krumetus, however, scored several hits on its attackers as well. It tried using its shock wave, but the three experienced kruustas were ready each time. Zai’il and Tual jumped away when they came. Aria simply steadied herself and absorbed them. That earned her raised eyebrows from the others. This was going to be a fight of endurance.

  A number of krusword trainees who had been spectating from the sidelines called for their swords. They had been watching the kruustas’ tactics and started to mimic them. Aria thought to send them away but then changed her mind. Though they were all relatively weak, their kruswords would still cut the creature.

  Bluish-green ooze seeped from dozens of cracks in the creature’s armor. This krumetus was young and had not learned how to tap into its regeneration or any number of other abilities a more experienced one might develop. Though its attacks were still faster than a human’s, the beast’s strikes slowed. A wave of power surged from Aria’s right. By the time she turned to look, Zai’il had launched herself at the monster, her dark form all but a blur as she moved past. With a final strike, she severed the krumetus’s head. The creature staggered forward two steps and then fell.

  The cheers of hundreds of students and trainees sounded along the quad. The trainees who had participated in the battle looked shaken and white-faced, but they turned and hugged those who stood beside them. Some sat and cried.

  Tual and Zai’il were both covered in cuts and bruises. Tual’s arm ran red with blood, and Zai’il sported a deep slash against her temple. They both took a moment to survey the creature. “Where did that come from?” Zai’il asked.

  Aria barely heard her as she looked around the quad. They had won against a krumetus, but something did not feel right. What was this sensation? Where were Kharra and Zephyron?

  Lukav watched the battle below unfold with keen interest. He rubbed his chin thoughtfully and asked, “Kilgor, who are those two?”

  “I don’t know, Oracle Lukav. They accompanied Kruusta Aria into the city. From what I am told, they hired her as a guide, maybe as protection. I don’t know for certain.”

  “I don’t think they need her protection.”

  The tall man with the long, thick white hair spun, sliced, dodged, parried, jumped, and turned with such fluid movement that the scene was mesmerizing to behold. Not only did the man keep up with Lukav’s three krumetuses, but his crackling blue blade inflicted significant damage to them.

  Lukav’s attention jumped to the young woman. She did not carry a weapon, but every time he directed one of the krumetuses toward her, the beast for some reason failed to get close to her.

  Lukav frowned. There was something familiar about how the man moved. Searching deep into long-forgotten memories, realization sparked to life. The white hair. The young face. The incredible height. Suddenly the flicker of a memory came to him. That man had served as Avesa’s lieutenant when the Great War first started over a hundred years ago. Lukav believed they had all been destroyed. How in the world was he still alive? Why was he here? Or better yet, how had he discovered Tanoria? Only Guardians had the ability to travel to and from the shrouded land, and they were all but extinct.

  Lukav glanced at the young woman again. What of her? A second realization sank in. She possessed leyoen. He did not know why he was unable to sense her power, but he knew for certain she was using mind moving. That would explain why he had occasionally seen one of the krumetuses fly backward as if hit by an incredible force and why another would quit moving completely.

  Suddenly one of the krumetuses exploded in a shower of crackling blue sparks beneath the man’s blade of energy.

  “We can still salvage this,” said Kilgor, his voice sounding weakly hopeful.

  “For your sake, you’d better hope so.” Lukav glared at the bald priest.

  “The students we can handle, but those kruustas know too m
uch. We need to bring them down. They have been fighting the wild krumetus in the quad. If we move now, they won’t have time to recover.”

  Cursing the distraction, Lukav willed the krumetuses to break away and head toward the quad.

  The scene erupted in slow motion. Trainees clapped and shouted. The alarm bells continued to echo through the night. Tual moved to inspect Rauss’s body. Zai’il started across the quad toward Aria, but before she took two steps, a crystalline spine impaled her in the upper right section of her chest and launched her backward. She screamed as it pinned her to the wall. Aria could not tell if the injury was lethal, but the roar behind her demanded her immediate attention.

  Both Aria’s crystal and rage flared to life. She spun around and brought her sword up just in time to catch a krumetus leaping down upon her from the top of the tiled overhang that covered the quad’s bordering walkways. Aria and the beast tumbled over together. She rolled out of range just as its massive claw slammed down.

  A second krumetus, the one that had attacked Zai’il, jumped down off the roof and landed beside the fountain with thunderous force. The crystalline giant bellowed at the students on the sidelines, causing the audience to scream and back away. Within moments Tual maneuvered himself between the monster and those it wanted. The beast slashed at him. Tual blocked the attack, but his face contorted in pain as he absorbed the shock.

  Aria scrambled to her feet to meet the one that had tackled her. It turned and charged. Aria dived and rolled out of the way. The creature’s momentum carried it in range of Tual, and the dark-haired kruusta found himself facing two of them. He parried and dodged the attack of one, but as he did so, the other sliced through his chest with its sharded claws. Tual fell forward.