by H. M. Clarke
She was speaking in riddles which seemed to be a Hatar trait no matter what era they were from.
‘Why did you choose Jhon?’
‘Because he was open and pliable. He was someone I could control to come down here and free me.’
‘And you could not get a Hatar because they are trained from birth to not be open.’
Sethi nodded.
‘I awoke a few weeks ago and I needed to be freed. I needed the life essence from a living creature to help craft the spell that would release me. He was the best candidate.’
‘And now that you are free. What are you going to do?” Kalena asked.
The Hatar narrowed her eyes and suddenly lost her grin.
‘What am I going to do?’ Sethi repeated. ‘If you do not know then you are not as smart as you think you are.’
Kalena frowned at the insult but did not answer.
‘I am going to finish what I had begun.’
Chapter Tweleve
The Witch of Crystal Cavern
KALENA TURNED TO RUN back to the others but abruptly found herself frozen. She tried to call out but her throat and tongue would not respond. Her eyes now locked on her friends showed that they were held in place as well.
After one more try to break free from the invisible force that held her, Kalena relaxed. It was no use wasting energy in fighting what cannot be overcome directly.
‘What have you done Sethi?’
‘I have held you. I cannot have you running to warn anyone that I am here.’
‘They will stop you Sethi. You were stopped once before, and you will be stopped again.’
‘I do not think so, from what I have discovered from the minds near this place. There are no Spellcrafters here or in Hadria anymore. There is no one who can stop me. NO ONE.’
As the Hatar talked, the buzzing Kalena felt behind her ear began to grow more insistent, and the vibrations that now ran through her jaw and down her neck made her want to scratch at it. Kalena could see the others, but since they were all paralyzed as well, she could not tell if they were feeling the same thing. Without thinking, Kalena tried to reach out to Trar to ask Kral but ran into the psychic wall.
Whatever Sethi had cast on them did not affect her mind thread, so she kept hers growing and wrapping around the thread that Sethi had connected to her. Something in the back of her mind was telling her that it was important that she did not lose that link.
‘We have more than Spellcrafters here in Darkon,’ Kalena threw back at her. ‘You have a mighty arm of the Great Suenese Empire encamped right on your doorstep. Flyers and Infantry both. You are only one Hatar, you will never stand against them.’
Sethi threw back her head and let out a roar of laughter.
‘I have no plans at present to fight the people stationed here. I plan to get away, gather my supporters and followers and to reclaim Monarstros as my own.’
‘Monarstros is currently under the control of the Great Suene Empire. If you try to take it from them, they will come for you.’
‘We shall see.’
The Hatar raised her wings as she spoke and then quickly moved in a semi-circle. Kalena felt a wave of power wash over her. The cunning witch had been crafting a spell as she was talking.
Kalena tried to fight the force holding her frozen and found that she still could not move her legs, but she felt the muscles in the fingers of her right hand twitch as the vibration coming from behind her ear intensified.
Her attention, distracted by the moving fingers quickly turned back to her friends when she saw the crystal floor of the cavern begin to move under their feet. The floor had suddenly become viscous and was slowly creeping up the boots of the boys, and without being able to look down Kalena assumed this was happening to her as well though she could not feel any pressure on her boots.
‘I am going to leave this place, and I cannot have you warning anyone of my return, so I think I will have you all take my place here in this cavern. The peace and tranquility here might teach you to have a better respect for you elders.’
‘You are trapping us here?’
The Hatar’s only answer was a smile. That smile made Kalena’s anger rise, she could feel it coursing through her system and she also felt an answering surge come from the vibration behind her ear. When those surges met, it burnt away all traces of the spell that held her in place. But she kept her cool and did not move, not wanting to give any hint to Sethi that she could move.
Without moving her head, Kalena did look down and saw that the crystal floor was not climbing up her boots as it was with her friends. It was just around the soles like a slack tide along the shore.
Her krytal crystal was reacting to the attack on her, and it was helping her to fight back. But what can she do against a Hatar like Sethi?
Kalena looked again at her friends and saw that the crystal had crept up to their ankles. She was the only one who could help that was here, and even if Adhamh or Harada showed up, they would never be able to break through the door in time to save them.
Kalena had to do something. Anything.
She had to work out how to get herself and her friends out of this mess.
Her krytal crystal and her natural Talent is protecting her in some way, so she might have to use this to her advantage. It is high time to show this witch what damage humans can really do.
Chapter Thirteen
Chasing Thought
KALENA BROKE FREE OF the crystal floor and ran. Ran towards her friends and the exit to get out of this place.
She grabbed Kral’s arm to try and drag him from the crystal that was forming up his boots, but his ridged body locked him in place, and without the added help of his muscles she could not get him out. Holm and Jhon were held the same way, all like lifelike statues.
‘How did you get free?’
Kalena heard the disbelieving Hatar call out.
She did not have much time, instead of continuing to free Kral, she ran.
A blast hit the crystal wall above the tunnel entrance and it shattered and collapsed, effectively blocking their only means of escape.
Kalena immediately took off running away from her friends. She could not risk the next blast of whatever that was from Sethi to bring the crystal roof down on them.
‘Adhamh. Adhamh!’ Kalena called out in the hope that he might hear her. Her krytal crystal helped her to escape Sethi’s spell so maybe it might help her to break through the crystal barrier and contact Adhamh.
But she had no response.
‘No one can hear you human. No one is coming to help you.’
As Sethi talked, Kalena felt a small tug along the mind thread she still had open with the Hatar. Straight after it, Kalena felt a sudden urge to dodge left. She did.
Another blast hit the wall in the direction she had been running but she was still hit by the edge of the blast, but it actually helped her by pushing her faster in the direction she had chosen.
Kalena began to zig zag her way across the cavern to the far side away from her friends, with Sethi standing in its center, following her progress with psychic blasts that caused the crystal walls around her to explode in a showers of shards and stone.
And each time Sethi was about to let loose a blast, Kalena felt a premonition tingle in the back of her mind, telling her where to head next.
The mind link that Kalena maintained with Sethi was as good as being in a boxing square with her, watching your opponents body for the telltale movement that will impart to you what blow was coming next.
But Kalena had no time to think on this now. Running around was all well and good, but it did nothing to help her friends escape and only helped to wear herself down to where she might make a mistake. And even if she did get the others free, there was no way out since the corridor was now collapsed.
Out of the corner of her eye, Kalena saw a flash of red. Sethi had grown tired of blasting her from the center. The Hatar was on the move.
A slip and a loud cras
h from behind told Kalena that being trapped in crystal for a thousand years did not make one very coordinated. It was going to take a little time for Sethi to get her feet back under her control.
Sethi’s setback might give Kalena a little time to think up a plan to free her friends. And since Sethi did not seem to worried about blocking that entrance, that must mean that there has go to be another way out of here. She just had to find it.
So now, as Kalena ran zig zagging her way across the cavern, avoiding Sethi’s blasts, she kept her eyes peeled for any sign of another exit.
But Kalena could see no sign of one. And even if she did find one, it would be useless if she could not free Kral, Holm and Jhon. There was only one quick way to find out how the Spellcrafter was going to escape this place. It was a stupid idea, but Kalena was a proven expert at making stupid ideas work.
‘You are trapped in here as well now Sethi,’ Kalena called out over the mind link. ‘You have doomed us all.’
A tinkle of laughter responded down the link.
‘I did not take you for such a fool. Even your kind should know that nothing is done unless for a good reason. And I have a good reason for keeping you here. As for my escape...The crystal will have you before you can learn that.’
Kalena mentally groaned. The Hatar had guessed what she was up to, but Kalena had the impression that as Sethi spoke, her attention had been focused on the far side of the cavern. The side that Kalena was currently zig zagging towards.
Another blast hit the wall near Kalena and she ducked away just in time. The running and blasting was not helping Kalena to search the wall for an exit, but that would have been Sethi’s goal.
And she still needed to free her friends. But how was she going to do it?
Kalena kept running, but she was starting to get tired. She could not keep this up forever. She had to do something and had to do it fast.
Kalena began to make her way over to the other side of the chamber where her friends are. She had to find a way to break them out of the crystal, then break them from Sethi’s spell and then get out of this cavern, and then warn Darkon that there was a maniac on the loose planning all their downfalls.
‘You scurry around, so full of hope, but when the futility of it all hits you, you will succumb like the others. All revert to the crystal matrix in the end.’
Sethi’s voice oozed into her mind like cooking oil poured into a pot of water. Kalena had to fight herself to not cut the mind thread in revulsion. The link through that mind threat was what was keeping her alive at the moment.
Each time the Hatar spoke to her, Kalena felt a series of small ‘pushes’ across the mind thread which were each deflected by her mental barrier. The last ‘push’ was the hardest so far and Kalena abruptly realized that Sethi had been trying to craft some more spells over her.
There was another blast to her right and Kalena dodged automatically out of the way.
Sethi was trying to find a weakness in her, but Kalena’s krytal crystal was up for the challenge. That was probably why Sethi had not cut the mind thread connection herself. She was using it as her best way to attack Kalena directly.
Kalena quickly decided to ignore the Hatar and concentrate her efforts on freeing everyone and getting out of here.
If only she could change her mental barrier into a mirror, so that it could reflect back all the evil Sethi was spitting out at her. The Hatar needed to have a taste of her own medicine.
Maybe she could make her barrier into a mirror!
Another blast made Kalena dodge out to the center of the cavern.
But Kalena did not know how to craft anything like that. She had not had the need. But as soon as Kalena through about the barrier, she felt her krytal crystal vibrate behind her ear. She then felt a ‘shift’ that made her feel like she had butterflies in her stomach. But Kalena kept herself moving, though this time she stayed away from the walls and kept out in the open, moving around the Hatar.
The weird shift within her settled and somehow Kalena knew that the krytal crystal had answered her call and had made a change to her mental barrier.
But before she could do anything to entice Sethi to attack her, she heard a blast from above her, and Kalena looked up in time to see the crystal ceiling fall down upon her. She jumped out of the way of the main debris but was hit by the edge of the fall and was pushed to the ground.
Chapter Fourteen
Mind Strain
‘NOW I HAVE YOU MY LITTLE mouse.’
Sethi hissed as she stepped carefully over the debris to where Kalena was pinned down under the crystal fall. Her whole left side was caught under a mountain of crystal rubble. There was some sandstone mixed in which showed that Sethi’s blast had enough force to hit beyond the crystal matrix.
Kalena tried to struggle to free herself but she was well and truly trapped. She was not strong enough to lift the weight, and lucky not to have had any bones broken.
Sethi’s gleaming red feathered head loomed over her and Kalena had to force herself not to gulp in fear. Her new mental barrier might protect her from Sethi’s spells and Talent, but would do nothing against the Hatar’s teeth and claws.
Kalena closed her eyes and waited to feel the first claw sink into her chest.
After a long agonizing moment of waiting, Kalena cracked open an eye to see the Hatar staring down at her, studying her.
“Aren’t you going to kill me?” Kalena asked, unsure she really wanted to hear the response.
The Hatar smiled.
‘You are trapped just as securely as the others. I have no need to kill you. Time will do that for me.’
“You are just going to leave us here to die?” Kalena tried again to wriggle free of the crystal blocks that pinned her but was locked solid.
‘That is the plan. Though now you will be the only one who will die. The others will just be trapped as I was.’ Was all Sethi replied as she turned away from Kalena.
The Hatar was leaving them to be trapped or to die under the mountain. She needed to get out of here. Kalena tried again to call out to Adhamh, but her calls were blocked as before.
But Sethi was able to call out from this cavern. So Kalena tried a different tack.
Kalena’s mind thread was still linked to the Hatar, maybe she could piggy back off of Sethi’s access to the outside world.
Kalena sent a tentative thread along the link and softly made her way along into the churning mass that was Sethi’s thoughts. She searched and quickly found a thin, near invisible thread shooting off in a direction outside of the cavern. Kalena snaked around Sethi’s thoughts and wrapped herself softly around the thin thread and quickly followed it up past the crystal barrier and out into the outside world.
She noted that once outside the cavern, the thin thread split off into five and headed in straight lines to different areas around Darkon. Kalena quickly took a mental note of each location the five led to, and then reached out to Adhamh.
‘Adhamh! Can you hear me?’
‘Kalena! Where are you? Are you alright?’
Adhamh hit her with a barrage of questions and Kalena ignored them all.
‘Adhamh, we need help. Sethi-‘ Kalena was abruptly cut off by Adhamh rushing to talk to her.
‘You and the others get back against a wall somewhere out of the way. We are coming to get you.’
‘How? We’re trapped in this cavern. Sethi blocked the exit.’
‘Just listen to me for once, and move back somewhere safe.’
Adhamh then cut the connection and Kalena was pulled back into the cavern where she was made very much aware of all her aches and pains.
Get back somewhere safe? She was trapped under a pile of rubble and the others were frozen and slowly being covered in crystal.
Sethi had turned her back on them all and was moving back to the far side of the cavern. Back towards where Kalena thought her hidden exit would be.
What did Adhamh mean-
Kalena’s thoughts were interru
pted by a large boom that rebounded around the cavern, the sound of which was intensified by the surrounding crystal.
Sethi was thrown back by the blast and sandstone, dirt and crystal sprayed out wards across the cavern. Kalena turned her head away so as not to be hit in the face by it.
When she turned back she nearly cried out in joy upon seeing the black and blue feathered Hatar emerge from the now destroyed concealed entrance.
He was quickly followed by Trar, Motta and Samar. It was then that Kalena noticed someone on Adhamh’s back. It was Harada.
‘KALENA!’
Kalena heard Adhamh’s call flood through her mind.
“Adhamh, over here,” she called back.
The Hatar’s head swung around at her call and he let out another throat tearing roar.
‘Watch for Sethi. She’s a Spellcrafter. She’s trapped the others and I’m stuck under this crystal.’
‘Are you hurt?’
‘No, just pinned. I can’t get out.’
Adhamh shot towards her while Trar and Motta sped across the cavern towards their riders. Samar faced off with Sethi.
Kalena had to stop herself from shrinking back as Adhamh charged towards her. His neck and crest feathers were raised and his eyes gleamed bright as fire coals. He looked like he was about to rip her to threads.
Harada slipped from Adhamh’s neck and dropped to the floor beside Kalena.
“You okay?”
Kalena had never been so glad to see her Wing Commander. She nodded.
“I just can’t get out from under this. It’s too heavy for me to move.”
‘Are you sure that you are unhurt?’
Adhamh’s voice boomed into her head making her wince.
‘I’m fine Adhamh, It’s Sethi you have to worry about. She was going to leave us all here to die.’
At these words Adhamh slunk down low and turned to lock eyes on the crimson Hatar. His upper lip had curled back to reveal his wickedly sharp teeth and through the ground Kalena could feel the rumbling of the growl slowly growing in Adhamh’s chest.
