Aster Wood series Box Set

by J B Cantwell

  This time, the world did not turn upside down, but simply dissolved. I stood in the dark, rocky gully. The Blackburn had left his perch and now stood directly before me, as tall and mighty as Erod the giant. Twenty minutes ago I would have fled from him, certain of his betrayal, of his evil. Now, though, my eyes met his, so pure and bright, and I understood that I was looking at someone who had never done anything but aid those who desired good to prevail.

  I opened my mouth to speak, but then found that all of the questions I had were stuck in my throat. Only one bobbed to the surface, demanding to be asked.

  “The horse,” I said. “You saved that little colt. Why?”

  The Blackburn looked at me, furrowed his brow for a moment, clearly surprised by my question. Then a look of great satisfaction came over his face.

  “I see I have chosen rightly,” he said, his voice just as rasping as it had been in the visions. He stared for another moment, and then spoke. “I protected the colt because there was not another to do so.”

  “But the cloud, it burned you,” I protested.

  “Yes,” he answered. He looked as though he wanted to say more, but he didn’t.

  I reached out, unable to contain my curiosity, and touched the skin on his arm. I had been expecting it to be crusted, hard like the burning wood it had so closely resembled in the visions. Or maybe for it to blow away like chalk dust in the wind. But it was only warm. Human.

  “And all this time,” I said, shaking my head, trying to form the thought clearly. “You’ve protected others, too.”

  He didn’t answer.

  “And it burns you,” I continued. “It has burned you all these thousands of years.”

  Burns him black.

  His bright eyes were sad and resolved at once.

  “It is my place,” he said.

  “Why did you choose me?” I asked. “I’m no champion.”

  “It matters little who the champion is,” he said. “But they cannot touch you now while they hold the gold. It is impossible for you to be killed at the Corentin’s hands. And the girl. You have the best chance of reaching her.”

  “Who, Jade?” I asked, confused. “How am I supposed to reach her?”

  “Someone must,” he said. “She of the rock power is the last hope for our worlds. For your own.”

  “But why?”

  “That, you will discover in time. She holds the knowledge within her. You must convince her to release it. She is lost inside,” he said, watching me, “tormented again by the visions of misery that the Corentin inflicts upon her. Her only relief is the gold which I gave. When the time comes, she will not let it go easily.”

  “But maybe she doesn’t have to,” I said, grasping. “Maybe I can bring enough back to fix things without her.”

  “You may find enough gold to do the job, that is true,” he said. “But without the aid of the girl, you are lost. Before the end, she must be convinced to give the gold willingly. It is the only way.”

  I looked away, suddenly nervous.

  “What if I fail?” I asked, staring at my feet.

  “You know precisely,” he said.

  Nothing. Nothing would happen if I failed. We would all live on, chained to our misery, until someday a force greater than all of us, greater than even the Corentin, would bring it all to an end.

  But if I failed, it wasn’t what I stood to lose that was the problem. It was that nothing better would ever come.

  “You are marked, perhaps unluckily, by my choice,” he said. “You will live, no matter what the Corentin throws at you. He can no longer possess your mind. If you fail, you can only stand by and watch as the rest fall, witness the misery of the others until your last breath.”

  He turned, swept his gaze up over the dark mountain peaks.

  “He will try to sway you to make things easier for him. But you alone have the choice. Your life alone is untouchable by his power. It is a part of the deal that, I believe, he does not yet fully comprehend. But he will. In time, he will discover just what it was Jade agreed to on that hillside. He will seek you with increasing desperation, to harm you in other ways, to hurt you.” He took a few steps away and then paused, thinking. “If you fail in your quest, if the balance stays lost, if you despair and give into his traps and games, then you will become like me, like she whom you met where the water and land mingle. You will watch it all.”

  My stomach felt hard, like a big rock had dropped into it.

  “You mean, I’ll live forever?” Nothing sounded worse to me than that. The idea of failing my friends, these worlds, and then sitting by for all of eternity and watching it crumble.

  “No, not forever,” he said. “You will watch only until nature takes your life.”

  “How do I do it?” I asked. “How do I succeed?” I had the steps laid out in front of me, but the thought of actually taking the first was terrifying.

  “That,” he said, “is not for me to offer. You must do as you wish. You must make your choices. Just as you chose to eat the meal in the forest, just as you trusted, knew, that it was there for you and no other.”

  My mouth dropped open, but no more words came.

  He moved away from me then, walking slowly in the direction away from the mountains, away from our target. I wanted to call out to him, to ask him more, to beg him to give me all the answers. But as his back disappeared into the shadows, I knew that this audience was over.

  So I did the only thing I could. I closed my gaping mouth, closed my eyes as he left me alone with nothing to protect me but the Hidden Mountains, and concentrated on the only words I could send him away with. I wondered if anyone, anywhere, had ever said them to him before. I let them ring through my mind, bouncing off the insides of my skull, willing them to permeate it, to fly free into the night air so that he could hear my last.

  Thank you.

  Sacha.

  Chapter 29

  I didn’t sleep anymore that night. Instead I sat above the crowd of people who lay, exhausted and splayed out, in the valley below me. I watched over them like a shepherd tending his flock, now knowing that it was safe for me to go. They would be safer in the Hidden Mountains than anywhere else I could imagine.

  When the first of the children started to rise and scamper about, I hopped down from my boulder and made my way down the rocky hill.

  Cait still slept soundly in Larissa’s arms. Kiron had awakened, and he stared down at the two. Relief had replaced the pain of the day before at the return of his sister, and as I sat down beside him I knew I was sitting with a different man than yesterday.

  “We need to make the link,” I said, rinsing my hands idly in the cold stream at our feet.

  He didn’t answer, only shifted his gaze to his feet, staring.

  “She should do it,” he finally said, throwing me a quavering, conflicted smile. “She always wanted to.”

  I nodded.

  “You’re safe here,” I said. “No one can find you as long as you want to stay hidden. I’ll try not to be too long, but I don’t know what things will be like when I get there, when I get home.”

  “Just don’t forget about us, eh?” he said, elbowing me.

  I took the chaser from my deepest pocket and passed it back and forth between my palms. The thin strips of gold shimmered in the morning light.

  “Who will follow?” he asked. His face shifted, and the glint of adventure I once saw on it back in his tiny cottage shined in his eyes.

  “Not you, old man,” I teased. My eyes fell on Cait. Little Cait. So fragile. The promise I had made Rhainn weighed heavily in my heart. “I have someone else in mind.”

  An hour later I stood beside Larissa. The staff had easily brought dustfire from the depths of the mountains, a power of Almara’s I had feared I would never be able to match. But it shined now in a bright beam straight up into the sky.

  Larissa took the tiny vial of gold dust from my hands and carefully opened it, pouring the contents of it directly on top of the beam,
which sizzled and sparked.

  I held out my hand and placed the item I had chosen as the vehicle, a chunk of Stonemore I had found lodged in a pocket, rubble from the fight that had rained down on me during battle.

  I moved through the frame, which lit up the entire ravine where everyone stood, watching the process that had so long been a secret. There was Earth, vibrating violently along the outer edges of the Fold. Larissa came to stand beside me, and she gazed upon it with perfect concentration. It wobbled only slightly as her mind directed it over the flame. Slowly, perfectly, she placed it atop, the last piece in the puzzle.

  Then she and I sat before the rotating sphere, and began.

  “In fire and gold

  The fortune sold

  In dust and frame

  To worlds untamed

  Through dark and light

  And endless night

  We fly as one

  Our wings alight

  Lock path and line

  Heavens align

  Until our feet

  The soil they greet

  On parallel

  With gods and spell

  Time beats the core’s

  Celestial roar”

  Again and again we spoke the words, until at last the spell was cast. The frame disappeared with a cascade of pops, and the link fell heavily to the ground below. Larissa and I both stared at where it had fallen, neither of us grabbing for it first.

  “Go on,” I said.

  She looked at me uncertainly, but then seeing that I was serious, bent down and picked it up from the ashes. She held it up, twirling it in her old, wrinkled hands, taking in every angle of my precious ticket back across the cosmos. The gold dust was fused over the surface like glitter on a kindergarten page. Then, smiling broadly, she lifted it high into the air above her head.

  At first, nobody made a sound. Then, Kiron gave a loud whoop, and all at once the crowd roared with joy at the sight. Larissa and I laughed, and she wrapped her arms around my middle. When we broke apart again, she held the stone out to me.

  For a moment I hesitated, not quite believing that this day had finally come. I slowly held out my hand, and she placed the link into it, covering it with both of her own palms. Then she lifted one hand up to my cheek and looked at me with tear-drenched eyes. I thought she would speak, but she only smiled. It was her thanks.

  I was tired. The last time I had made a link, nothing had sounded better than a long nap. But now, alongside the exhaustion, the buzzing of excitement twirled inside my chest. I was headed back to Earth. Earth. Finally. I would see my family again. I would get my wish, the thing I had been chasing since the moment my feet touched the ground in the Triaden. But not everybody was excited about leaving this place.

  As Larissa backed up into the crowd, Cait clutched at her skirt, only peeking at me from the corner of one eye.

  I walked slowly in her direction, and knelt down onto the rock. I tried to catch her eye, but she hid behind the fabric.

  “Did you know,” I said, “that on Earth I have a mother?”

  She looked at me, but didn’t speak.

  I nodded. “It’s true,” I said. “And she’s the best mother anybody could ever ask for. Did you know that?”

  “Does she kiss your head before you go to sleep?” she squeaked.

  I smiled. “Yes,” I said. “As a matter of fact, she does.”

  “Will Rhainn be there?”

  For a moment, my smile faltered. I considered lying, but then I decided that would be no way to begin.

  “No,” I said. “Rhainn won’t be there. But you know that your brother and I are friends, right?”

  She gave a tiny nod.

  My smile, despite all attempts to keep it, faded completely, and I looked at her seriously.

  “I’m going to try to get him back for you,” I said. “With everything I have. I promise. Do you think I could be like your brother for a little while? Until we sort things out back here?”

  She stuffed her face into Larissa’s skirt again, wiping her nose on the coarse fabric. Then, her sad eyes found mine, and she nodded in agreement.

  I held out the chaser, which must have looked like a big, shining marble to her little eyes. She looked at it, unsure, and then took it into her little fist.

  “You listen to Lissa now, okay?” I said. She nodded again, more enthusiastic this time.

  I stood up, turning to Kiron. I wanted to hug him, but I could see that he was struggling. Too many of his beliefs had been upended in the past day. So I settled on a long, hard look. And a nod.

  “Aster Wood,” he said, returning the nod. “I never woulda thought.”

  I laughed.

  “Nobody would have,” I said.

  Then, at long last, I held the link up above my head. It caught the rays of the morning sun, gradually lightening the shadows as they slipped away, the night done. For a moment I closed my eyes, thinking again of the words I had sent to the Blackburn the night before.

  For my life. For the chance.

  Thank you.

  The unspoken words echoed everywhere within me, and I felt that anyone, everyone, must be able to hear them. Maybe they could. They were for the Blackburn, but also everyone who stood here beside me now. For Jade in her lonely mountain. For the Watcher in the murky depths.

  I opened my eyes again, letting them drift across the group of most unlikely friends I had found myself among. Their faces, still smudged with smoke and dirt and blood, encouraged me, lifted my spirit as I shifted my gaze to the link in my hand.

  I opened my mouth, smiled as the tears ran down my face, and spoke.

  “Home.”

  <<<< >>>>

  Jade’s Escape

  The night was so dark behind her possessed eyes that the little girl could barely see. She felt heavy. She shrank back from the weight of her own skin, as though a leaded blanket were pushing in on every inch of her body. The farther inward she retreated, away from Master, the darker the world around her became. Nearly blind, she could barely feel the stiff, cold wind as it whipped her hair into the night air. The world was so black, she could hardly make out the giant animal, a beacon as bright as the sun, as it fled.

  The great white panther strode away, moving at incredible speed as it bound down the mountainside and out of her reach. The glowing light of his fur barely penetrated through her darkened vision.

  In her stomach she could feel anger boiling, but it wasn’t her own. The anger overflowed as her black eyes took in the scene of Aster Wood escaping her yet again.

  Oh, Aster, come back. I’m still here.

  The voice in her head was small and quiet. It was her own voice, pure and free from Master’s manipulations.

  But it was quickly overcome by his wicked desires.

  As though she were a puppet on strings, she raised her hands above her head, breaking huge chunks of stone from the mountain with the rock power she had been born with. The inside of her heart, the part that hadn’t been corrupted by the Corentin’s possession, cried out at the sight of her own, beloved home crumbling at her hands. But she gritted her teeth and pulled at the mountain with her mind, forcing it to break apart, bringing it down in bigger and bigger pieces, determined to catch the escaping boy and the monster he rode upon.

  Master wanted her to catch them. She could pin them beneath a boulder and then…

  Catch them, she thought.

  Suddenly, the darkness of her vision cleared, pushing Master away, and she turned to watch the escaping boy and beast.

  I can catch them! Then they will have to come back for me. Then they’ll see.

  Anything so that she wouldn’t be left behind alone.

  The chunks of mountain tumbled down the precipice after them. Part of her wished that one would hit the animal, making him stop, making him turn around and help her. But it expertly maneuvered through the avalanche, and she doubted even a single pebble disturbed it as it made its escape. She raised her hands up again, this time without
Master’s command, but then stopped herself. If she made one wrong move, if even the smallest rock escaped her control and hit the animal, or hit Aster, then all hope would be lost.

  Tears of frustration and agony rolled down her moon-white cheeks, and she lowered her hands, watching them go.

  Come back.

  Sensing her weakness, Master’s power overtook her again, and she turned away from the scene, unable to will her own body to stay and watch them disappear.

  She vaguely felt her shoulders bump into the tunnel walls as she stumbled back through to the castle. Her skin felt numb, and she barely recognized the feeling of the rock against her shaking hands. She didn’t need light to get through this passageway. If she had had it, she still wouldn’t have been able to see clearly from so far within herself. So her body relied on the automatic memory it had of the place. It turned when the tunnel turned. It ducked when the ceiling became low. Step after step, she stumbled through under Master’s command.

  It had been this way for months, had started even before she had left Aster at the top of the Fire Mountains. The fighting within herself, between the child and the evil force that had overtaken her, had started long ago. Only now that she no longer had any control over herself did she understand.The malice that had grown within her over the years had been Master all along. His power had dug its claws into her soul a little deeper every time she had felt anger or despair or hopelessness. And now, at long last, he had her completely consumed. She was helpless in his grip, and nobody remained who could pry her free.

  Would Aster return? No, she didn’t think so. She had seen the look on his face as she had hit him with the rocks in her collection. Where before he had seemed sad, maybe angry that she had allowed herself to become possessed, now things had changed. He was scared. She had hurt him, nearly killed him. Her stomach knotted as she remembered the long, red gash her attack had left across his forehead. He believed she would kill him if he returned. She wondered if he understood that it wasn’t her at all that wanted him dead. That it was Master who dictated every step she took, every breath.