Crystal Tomb (Starfire Angels: Dark Angel Chronicles Book 3)

by Melanie Nilles

Raea sat still while the Risaal slid her jacket down her arms and wiped and wrapped her closest arm.

  So, maybe this one intended to help. That left one thought: "What about Elis?"

  "He's all right."

  Good, if she could believe that. She breathed easier and turned for the Risaal to bandage her other arm. How did one tell male from female Risaal?

  The Risaal finished wrapping her arms and departed, leaving her and Elis in the chamber with the round stone. The smooth, red center stone taunted her with its seemingly innocuous presence but it was something more. What did the Starfire want with it?

  Forget the Starfire. Elis was more important.

  She dropped to his side and nudged his shoulder. Come on… No response, but he breathed. He lived, and that's what mattered.

  "Elis." Duh. Why did she whisper if she wanted him to wake up? Forget that. She raised her voice and said, "Elis!" Her voice echoed in the chamber.

  He shifted his legs and his arms. Relieved to see him move, Raea brushed the black hair from his face, that sweet, gentle face she adored. Man, she loved him so much the prospect of losing him had cut a hole in her heart.

  "Elis, wake up."

  Those lovely eyes opened and met hers with a hint of a calm smile. "I'm here." A second later, the smile dropped into a look of concern with his eyes on her arms. "What happened? What did they do to you?"

  He pushed himself up from the floor with a wince before pausing.

  "I'll be fine. What about you?" She pulled her jacket up to hide the bandages and to chase out the cold.

  His eyes pinched shut for a moment. "Headache."

  "Yeah. If it was the same for you, I don't doubt it. You took a lot more than me."

  A mischievous light glinted in his eyes. ["I absorbed what I could and dispersed it. I faked the rest."]

  Why hadn't she thought of that? ["Good thinking."] It would have saved her some pain.

  ["What did they do to you?"] Elis reached for her arms.

  ["Apparently these Risaal can alter their spikes to poke them like needles, besides using them for camouflage."] He didn't have to look so concerned about her; it didn't hurt that much. She was more concerned about him. ["I'll be fine, but we won't if we don’t translate the script."]

  His cheek twitched with the tightening of his jaw, his eyes on the monolith towering over them. In the silence, emotions passed over his face, subtle in their changes until they settled on one which sent a chill through her, the same cold determination before he took off after Pallin that fateful night two months ago. No way would she let him stand up to the Risaal again, not after what they'd just endured.

  "Elis…" What was he thinking? That look was trouble.

  His expression softened on her. That was the Elis she knew. Still, she worried about what he might be hiding.

  "Promise you won't upset them again." It had taken two years to discover him, but she already knew she wanted to spend the rest of her life with him, hopefully a long one. She wouldn't let him risk that life.

  He lifted his gloved hands, his bare fingertips on her jaw calming her a moment before warm lips touched hers in a brief kiss. "I'm sorry."

  Better, but not what she wanted, just like in his room last night when he said he would never hurt her but there was something they needed to talk about. "Elis..."

  Those eyes could express so much pain. He knew what she felt—their lives were at stake. "I can't," he murmured.

  "Just don't do anything to upset them." The gentle touch on her cheek sealed his promise. That was all she wanted.

  ["But we can't cooperate fully. Once they have the translation, they probably will kill us. We need to escape, Raea."]

  Bathroom Break For It

  ["How?"] If only they could escape! This was one nightmare Raea wished she could wake from. Where would they go? The Risaal obviously knew where she lived.

  Unless she opened a portal to Inar'Ahben. They'd face death again there, though, at the hands of the Shirukan. Damn it! They weren't safe anywhere. She hated her life. Why couldn't she be human with normal human concerns about her future? This wasn't fair.

  Tears blurred her eyes and she wiped them away with her jacket sleeve. She just wanted to be home with Elis and practicing that stupid speech for graduation. She'd prefer giving a speech in front of the whole town to having the Risaal threatening them.

  ["I don't know."] Elis's eyes traveled to the ceiling high above and the line across the circle like a seam in the metal. ["But that gives me some ideas, along with this complex. I think this may be one of the old missile silos. We might still be in North Dakota."]

  Hope sprang up inside her. North Dakota. Home! Debbie was probably worried sick, but if they could escape, it wouldn't take long to be home again. He knew exactly how to make her feel better. ["I hope so."]

  His touch opened a window of light through the darkness. ["We'll get out of this together."]

  ["I know."] With him, anything was possible.

  ["But I'd like to know what this monolith says…It's here. We're here."]

  Tell me you're kidding. She just wanted to go home. She didn't want to be anywhere near that thing. The stone monolith had triggered a reaction from the Starfire entities, which had exploded inside her head as a severe headache. She didn't want to go through that again, but she was curious. She didn't have to be close to it, though. She could leave that to Elis.

  "Be careful of the stone." She didn't want to see him harmed.

  To her relief, he avoided touching the red stone, stepping around to trace the etched script with his fingers instead.

  For a long while, Elis studied it, pausing only to eat when the Risaal guards set trays of food and bottles of water inside the door for them. That answered the question of how desperate the aliens were for answers about the stone; they were willing to keep their hated Inari captives alive, until they had what they wanted.

  The Risaal watched from behind the glass and probably listened to them talking. Hah! If they couldn't read Inari, it was a safe bet the Risaal couldn't translate what she and Elis said.

  While Elis continued his work on the monolith, she took the time to examine the layout of the chamber. If it was a missile silo, it must have opened up on the top. That would explain the seam overhead—sliding doors. How could they open it? Even flying up there, they'd have no way to find leverage to pry them open, nor the strength for that matter. They'd need access to the controls to make that happen.

  Fat chance in hell. There were too many Risaal walking the complex. For all they knew, the Risaal numbered in the hundreds or thousands, although she doubted the complex was big enough for more than a dozen or two. This wasn't television, and the military wouldn't want to make it obvious in a remote prairie area.

  There had to be a way to escape. Think!

  ["Raea."]

  Huh? She joined Elis, her eyes following his fingers over a section of the stone.

  ["There's something here. The stone is a covering something else."]

  ["What?"]

  ["Metal."]

  Then she hadn't imagined it. In one of the deeper grooves beneath his fingers glinted the smooth line of polished metal.

  ["What does it mean?"]

  He shrugged. ["I don’t know, but humans were still in the Stone Age twelve thousand years ago."]

  ["Then it's more than just a stone. Some sort of ancient Inari device?"]

  ["Maybe."] The look he gave to the watchers behind the glass above hinted of doubts. ["I don't know who made it, but the Inari covered it in stone. The tests done on it should have revealed more, unless...."] He trailed off into silence.

  Unless what? Why couldn't he finish the statement?

  Her imagination exploded with possibilities while he traced the figures in the stone.

  ["It could be shielded from scans."]

  So there could be more to it than what they saw. ["Why? What would they want hidden?"]

  He shook his head. ["I don't know."]

  S
omething started to fit together in her head, but the picture was still incomplete. Raea closed her eyes and recalled the memory of the Starfire from when her mother had seen the artifact in the museum in Minneapolis.

  Humans believed the monolith to be a remnant of the lost civilization of Atlantis. Possible. It fit all the descriptions. An advanced civilization superior to humans in many ways, perhaps they even helped humans organize communities and taught them advancements in culture and technology. Weren't there some vanished ancient Earth civilizations considered far too advanced in their knowledge at the time of their pinnacle? Perhaps that was because extra terrestrials had visited Earth long ago.

  The Miru must have known about Earth to have brought the Inari there to save them. Who knew how often the Miru had been to Earth before or since? For that matter, perhaps they had influenced humans in some way. Maybe there was another reason humans and Inari were so similar.

  Too many insinuations and possibilities.

  Raea shook the thoughts away. Now wasn't the time for such deep explorations on the similarities between humans and Inari. They had to focus on the monolith. Maybe there was something more they weren't seeing, something the Risaal knew but not with any certainty.

  What would they want with a twelve thousand year old remnant of Inari history?

  Twelve thousand years. That was the connection. She glanced up at the Risaal in the window. Kan Rikku Nakor Surik had said the Inari had the crystal for twelve thousand years…Earth years? What had happened in between the gift to the emissary and the "discovery" of the Starfire? It couldn't have disappeared for six thousand of those years. What was the connection to the monolith?

  And why hadn't the Risaal done something about it sooner?

  Some pieces were still missing, but the Starfire entities shared nothing with her.

  Elis fingered a groove of one of the etched characters. ["I've never heard of the Risaal before. I don't understand this."]

  ["What's on the inner tracks? You couldn't make those out in the picture."]

  Elis's fingers slid over the characters closest to the red stone. Her heart beat faster; he'd better not touch it. ["It doesn't make sense. The rest of it describes the story of the families brought by the Miru to the world they called Ouretsi, meaning life-bearer or life-sustaining. It's just the story of the Lady Mikael Atia and her son, Lord Mikael Lantis."]

  ["Atia and Lantis? At-Lantis."] It fit, and it meant Atlantis really had existed and this stone was an artifact of it.

  The twisted smile on Elis's face was cute, but it fell into a frown in the next breath. ["Sometime after Lantis reached manhood, Atia was stricken into a coma and never awakened. The rest makes little sense."]

  ["Interesting. What would the Risaal expect it to tell them?"]

  ["Good question."] Elis mumbled the words while still tracing the characters close to the red stone. If he didn't put some distance from it, she'd pull him away. Honestly, if she didn't know better, she'd swear he did it just to scare her.

  If that's the way he wanted it, she would pull him away. ["Can you please not do that?"]

  Dropping his hands was a good start. Now to keep him from touching it. ["What do we tell the Risaal?"]

  His eyes lifted over her to the window, the muscles of his cheeks tensing. ["We have nothing to tell them…nothing they want to hear."]

  That left only one problem, and it grew in pressure. "Where's a bathroom?" Three Risaal faces watched from behind the glass. "Hello? Gotta pee down here. Bathroom? Can you hear me?"

  Nothing but dumb stares.

  Good grief. "Hey! I. Need. The. Bathroom!"

  This was so embarrassing, not that Elis had never been around when she had to go, but she'd never gone in front of him or had to make a big deal out of it. Worse was having her hands cuffed.

  Her hands. This might be their chance to escape, if she could convince the Risaal to release her hands. She wouldn't go without Elis, though.

  "Don't you have to go too?" He'd drunk the full bottle of water offered to him.

  "Yes."

  How did he stay so calm?

  An idea struck. No bathroom in the main area where they were. They'd have to take them outside. Of course! ["This could be our chance."] After she used the restroom.

  ["I know."] The corner of his mouth crooked up. Aha! So he was thinking the same thing.

  ["I hate it when you do that."]

  ["I know."]

  "Elis…" She growled but couldn't resist laughing at the old joke. ["All right. So…What?"]

  ["Don't be afraid to kill. It's not easy…"]

  ["I know."] How she knew! Pallin had died at her hands—literally—when the Starfire took over that night almost two months ago and he tried to take her back with him. She'd hated herself for the longest time. And she had to fire on other Shirukan to escape Naviketan three weeks ago. It left a sickening feeling in her gut, but if she had to do it again, she would, this time with the intent to kill.

  ["Can you do it?"] Elis asked.

  ["I think so…I don't have much of a choice."] If it was the only way to escape the Risaal and ensure they would never return, she'd do it.

  ["No,"] he said soberly.

  ["Do you know how to get out?"]

  ["No. But we'll find a way."]

  She had no doubts they would. The Risaal must have brought them in somewhere.

  The door clicked and scraped open. Four guards marched in, weapons in their dark green hands. Man, they were ugly in their natural form.

  Here went everything. "Ah…We need a bathroom break." Now that she said it, she had to go even worse. Escape would have to wait.

  The two Risaal in front exchanged looks and stepped aside. The two behind them stepped aside also. "This way."

  Good. They understood her request.

  She assumed they'd be taken separately or to different restrooms, although she had no idea of the layout or even if the Risaal had any comprehension of human etiquette. This was better than she expected.

  With Elis beside her, Raea stepped through the guards and the wide door of the chamber. Given any luck, they wouldn't be back, but they knew where to find the monolith and whatever secrets it might wield.

  She entered a dim concrete corridor with individual lights glowing from overhead too few and too far between for her tastes, and the human-looking man who had been with Nakor Surik when she was first brought into the chamber stepped in front of her. Nakor Surik called him Kalas, but for all she knew, this was a different Risaal in the same human appearance. Stupid doppelgangers. She couldn't even trust who they were.

  "Follow me," he said.

  No problem there, as long as he showed her the restroom ASAP.

  He did, thank goodness. Only one problem left. Raea held out her wrists. "I need my hands free."

  The Risaal could make her uncomfortable with a look, human or otherwise. She shuddered, but she really did have to go.

  "Unless you want to send someone to help me." The thought disgusted her, but maybe the idea would sicken them the same way.

  Bingo! Kalas touched the flat section of metal between her wrists.

  The moment she was free, Raea rushed into the bathroom and flicked the light on. Her heart sank. Didn't the Risaal know about toilet paper and towels? Did the water even run?

  Then again, why should she expect them to even know how to use human commodes? They probably took care of things differently, like with some high-tech fancy space stuff. Inari utilities were similar to those she knew, but Risaal were a strange species.

  Oh, well. It was the best she had. It couldn't be over fast enough, but she managed.

  Now for the hard part.

  Time to rock and roll. Raea took a deep breath to calm her nerves and found the resonance. Her hands glowed and the energy warmed through her. Five Risaal awaited execution. You can do this. It's them or you.

  She pulled open the heavy door as two guards brought their weapons up. Elis met her eyes and whirled on the two behind him
.

  A couple seconds later, one Risaal stood between Elis and the wall, the spikes along his face breaking apart to reveal the true form beneath the human mask.

  Elis held up his hands. "Code please."

  The Risaal moved slowly.

  "Now!" Anxiety filled her voice. Dammit! Any second, more Risaal would be coming down the corridor. If he didn't hurry to release Elis, this would all be for nothing, but that was probably his plan.

  "Thank you."

  Done already?

  Elis removed the smoking gloves burned through from the Starburst blast he'd let out. "Leave or end up like them," he said.

  The Risaal slid away and ran down the hall.

  To alert others. Oh, hell. "That was stupid."

  His lip twitched. "Let's go. They'll be after us anyway."

  True. He had spared the Risaal's life because he cared. Keepers didn't kill unless it was necessary. Elis deserved to be a Crystal Keeper when they found the Eye. He was more worthy than she was.

  Raea followed him through the dim corridors. Before a corner, another thought struck her and she pulled him back to the wall. "Be careful. They can blend in and we wouldn't see them. They're chameleons."

  He said nothing but gave a nod before peeking around the corner. In her perfect memory, she had mapped this area while passing through from the dark room where she had awakened. They should be close to the monolith chamber, which should mean the control room was nearby.

  In the silence, the padding of soft feet jerked her attention to the right.

  The alteration of shadows warned her a second before the weapon lifted into what seemed to be only air.

  A touch of resonance warmed through her and released with barely a thought. A squeal erupted from a blackened area of the figure, which broke from the wall and fell.

  One more down. No time to worry about it. They hurried to the left, making her wonder if they hadn't been there before—the place was small.

  "You know where we're going?" she whispered.

  "Do you want to know?"

  Good question; bad answer. "I just hope you can get us out of here."

  "Me too."

  * * *

  While marching through the cement corridor, Kalas let the spines along his neck flatten and stand up with his emotions. He'd watch the Inari for the night while Surik rested. Certainly. But he refused to torture them when they were more useful alive and conscious.