by Sarah Swan
“You don’t say,” Liz said, giving me a sly look. “We knew you’d come around, eventually.”
“It’s much better to be learning all this with others who have gone through it before,” Madison put in with a nod. “Much better than stumbling around in the dark on your own.”
“So, what do we do…?” I asked. I was itching for a chance to use the crystal again.
“Come with me,” Liz said, turning around. “Ashley, you stay here and keep watch in case anyone comes by. Madison, Eve, you guys come, too.”
Ashley shot a baleful look at Liz’s back, but acquiesced as soon as Liz turned her head. In a split second, Ashley went from proud and defiant to completely subservient. Liz nodded in satisfaction, and started walking. “Come on, Tracy.”
“Where are we going….?” I started to say as I caught up to her, but then realized she was walking toward the rocks she had pointed out earlier. Madison and Eve were walking together behind us, whispering in tones too low for me to hear.
Liz led us around the rocks. I saw that they were not the randomly arranged boulders I had assumed them to be from the other side. Instead, they stood in a circular pattern focused around one central, waist-high rock. The top of it was cleaved right off, and a hollow bowl-like shape had been carved into the top. The other rocks were all a little shorter, and looked like they could be used as seats. It was hard to tell, though, because the elements had eroded them over the years. Everything was now weathered and worn.
Liz stopped in the middle, and took out the carefully wrapped cloth from her pocket. Immediately, I felt the pull of the crystal. Mine was there, and it was calling to me. I knew exactly where it was, knew its precise location and orientation. I knew how strong it was compared to the other crystals, and knew how much stronger it would make me. Liz unfolded the edges of the cloth, and carefully lowered the open packet onto the surface of the cleaved rock. Then she stepped away.
The mystical pull of the crystal strengthened. It felt like something ancient, something waiting to be awakened. While it frightened me, it also felt so right. The crystal was made just for me. Nobody else could use it. Nobody else could have it. Nobody could know how much power it held, and nobody could experience what I would with it. It was lying there, waiting to be unlocked by me.
I stepped toward it, and found Liz’s arm across my shoulders. “Not yet,” she said quietly, and I nodded in agreement. I didn’t know why, but at that moment, listening to Liz felt… well, right.
She ushered me to one of the rocks circling the altar-like rock in the middle. Ashley and Eve were seated to either side of me. I lowered myself onto the seat slowly, still fascinated by the crystals in the middle. No – I was only fascinated by my crystal.
Liz sat down across from me, so that the four of us were facing the center. Nobody said anything for a long moment. My desire to reach across and snatch the crystal grew stronger and stronger. Suppressing it took a staggering amount of will power.
What’s going on, I was going to say. I was interrupted by a vicious hissing from all three girls before I even got the first syllable out. I realized, somewhat belatedly, that each of them was intensely focused on the crystals that lay in front of us. Even though the girls all looked composed, I could see small hints of strain, carefully hidden away, on each of them. Madison’s jaw was clenched, while the muscles on Eve’s forearm danced as she flexed and relaxed her fists. Beads of sweat had appeared on Liz’s forehead, and the corners of her eyes were tight. They were all concentrating hard.
Suddenly, a small glow appeared around each individual crystal. It was very faint, and just barely visible to me, but it was there. Actually, on second glance I realized it did not surround every crystal. Mine still lay there, unchanged. And while I didn’t feel anything peculiar, I knew, instinctively, that the halo had something to do with what the girls were doing.
The girls around me were straining even more now. Slowly, the glow intensified somewhat and expanded out. Crept out would be a better term. I watched as the aura surrounding one crystal grew until it was just about to reach the aura from another. It wavered just before reaching the second, but then came back stronger than before. Beside me, Madison grunted in effort. I knew the crystal that wavered was hers. The two halos met, emitting a brilliant flash of light. I had to blink a few times to erase the spots in my vision. When I could see again, I realized that the halo from the third crystal had also progressed, and was just about the meet the combined halo from the others.
As the aura from the crystals crept toward each other, something unusual happened. The two crystals that were already linked started to vibrate, ever so slightly. As the halo from the third moved closer, the vibrations increased. Around me, the strain was clearly evident on the faces of the girls. The third halo expanded until it was just a hairsbreadth away from reaching the combined glow of the other two crystals. However, that was as far as it got. The vibrations increased, until both crystals were shaking uncontrollably, causing the aura from them to fluctuate wildly. It went everywhere – except toward the glow around the third crystal. The crystals were shaking with such ferocity that they resembled an earth tremor. Suddenly Liz let out a strangled cry, and fell out of her seat. Everything went still.
I moved to help her up, but Eve was already there. Liz had a hand to her temples, but other than that she seemed okay.
“What was that?” I asked worriedly. The pull I felt from my crystal had died entirely when the auras winked out of existence.
“That is what we need you for,” Liz said in a weak voice. It appeared that the struggle—whatever it was – had taken more out of her than I thought. “We tried to link our crystals together in a triangle. But, as usual, it didn’t work.”
“Although this wasn’t as bad as it could have been,” Madison put in.
“No,” Liz replied, “but it was nothing like it should be.”
“What do you mean?” I asked again. “Why were you trying to link the crystals, and what do you need me for? How did you guys do that? I thought you needed to hold a crystal to do anything with it.”
“Ah, that’s where these rocks come in,” Liz said, motioning around her. “They’re made of a special type of conductive stone. As long as the crystals are set in the middle,” she nodded toward them, “any of us can access them if we’re on one of these seats.”
“Alright,” I said. “That makes sense, I guess.” The further I got into this, the more I realized how little I really knew. “But why were you trying to link them? What was that I saw around the crystals? Was that the – aura you mentioned before?”
Liz’s eyes widened in surprise. “You saw the aura?”
“You mean the glow around the crystals? Sure. It was faint at first, but got stronger as you guys did… whatever that was.”
“Nobody has ever seen the aura!” Madison exclaimed in an awed whisper.
“What are you talking about? You guys were the ones who introduced it to me.”
“Yes, but all we meant was a metaphorical aura,” Liz said. “Tell me! What did you see? What did it look like?”
“Um, okay.” I paused to collect my thoughts. “Well, it started off as a faint glow around three of the crystals. Mine wasn’t included.”
“That must have been when we activated our crystals,” Liz said.
“I thought it was odd, at first,” I continued. “It wasn’t at all like the light that came from a crystal that was being used. It wasn’t like the blue light that I saw at the party, or that came when Ashley used her crystal the last time. It was more of a dull… glow. And it had a very definable edge. It didn’t just fade away. Maybe more like a halo, actually. Anyway, I didn’t understand what was going on, because the three of you were sitting right where you are, while the crystals were over there.”
“But now you know that we were linked to them,” Liz said. “Keep going. What happened next?”
“Well, the glow from two of the crystals came together. There was this fla
sh of light, like from a camera. And then – what?” I stopped, because all the girls were looking at me funny.
“A flash of light?” Eve asked incredulously.
“Yes. Right when the two halos met. Are you telling me none of you saw that?” All three girls shook their heads. I frowned. “Well, I don’t know what to say. I saw it! It burned spots in my vision that I had to blink away.”
“Yet it couldn’t have been real,” Liz said quietly, almost to herself. She looked at me. “And then what?”
“Well, after that the glow from the two crystals came together as one. It was more vivid. More intense. I saw the halo from the third crystal creep toward it, and that was when the crystals started shaking.”
“Fascinating,” Liz breathed. “And then?”
“The aura around the first two crystals started fluctuating like crazy. It went in all directions, except toward the glow around the third crystal. The shaking increased, until suddenly everything just cut off. And you fell down.” I stopped, waiting. That was all I had. The girls were all looking at me expectantly, as if I were hiding something. “That’s all I saw. Is something wrong?”
Liz shot out of her seat. “Wrong? Tracy, this is the greatest breakthrough we’ve had in ages! Nothing’s wrong. This is amazing!”
“Thanks,” I said, dubiously. ”But, why is that?”
“You’ve done something absolutely astonishing. You see, there are crystal reserves on the island. That’s where we got our crystals. The problem is: none of us can tell which of the crystals in the reserves are suitable for us, and which are – if you will – just clumps of rock.”
“Then how’d you find these?”
Liz snorted. “It took ages. We had to try every single crystal by holding it in our hands, to see if it could be activated or not. Just finding these four took months. But,” she continued, “if you were able to see the aura around these crystals, well, I think you will be able to tell which crystals are suitable for us just by looking at them!”
“But why is it so important to get more crystals?” I asked. “You have these ones. Right? Isn’t that enough?”
Liz stood up, and motioned for Madison and Eve to rise as well. “Come, there’s something else I want to show you. It’ll help you understand.”
Liz set off. Madison and Eve filed quietly after her. Both of them looked to be deep in thought, as if my ability to see the auras was some great revelation. Perhaps it was, to them. After a moment’s reflection, I hurried after the three girls.
“Where are we going?” I asked as I caught up. We were entering the deeper woods again. “And shouldn’t you tell Ashley?”
“She doesn’t need to know,” Liz said quickly. “Besides, I’m not sure I trust her after what she did to you—whether you’ve forgiven her or not.” I was impressed. I didn’t think that my well-being meant that much to Liz. “And where we’re going? Well, you’ll see once we get there.”
I followed Liz as she led us deeper into the woods. The air was thicker here than in the clearing, and the canopy of the trees blocked out a good amount of light. We must have been walking for five minutes when Liz and the others stopped and fanned out before a massive tree stump. It was so big that if we all linked hands and stood around it, we wouldn’t have covered even a fifth of its circumference.
“What is it?” I asked.
“We’re here,” Madison answered uncertainly.
“Here? What’s here?”
“The crystal reserve,” Eve said reverently.
“That’s where you’re taking me? I didn’t agree to that!”
“Relax,” Liz said soothingly. “There’s no danger here to you.”
“Did you just think that, because I can do something that you need, I’ll help you right away? Without even asking me?” For some reason, I felt angry. Liz and the others seemed to just want to use me, without considering how I felt. “And another thing—”
“You don’t need to do anything you don’t want to,” Liz interrupted smoothly. “I only brought you here to show you something we found. What? Did you think I would get you to start picking out active crystals for us right away?”
“I… don’t know.”
“Don’t be silly. I wouldn’t force you into something like that unless you were totally comfortable.”
“Well, good,” I said somewhat mollified, feeling foolish for letting my emotions get a hold of me.
Liz laughed. “You don’t trust me fully yet. Do you?”
“I trust you,” I lied. Sometimes it felt like she could see right through me. “It’s just that some of this is pretty overwhelming. Even after having a few days to think about it.”
“I understand,” Liz said. “Come on! Let’s go inside. Madison, Eve. You keep watch.”
The two girls grumbled at being left out, but took their positions following a hard stare from Liz. I still didn’t know where “inside” was. It was only after Liz led me around to the other side of the massive stump that I understood.
A hollow had been carved in the middle of the stump a very long time ago. Hidden within, jutting from the ground at a hard angle, was the dark entrance to an underground cave.
Liz stepped inside, and looked back to me. “Coming?”
Chapter Twenty-Two – Triangulation
“What is it?” I asked cautiously.
“An entrance to the underground tunnels.”
“What’s down there? The crystal reserve?”
“After a bit of a walk, yes. But that’s not where I want to take you.”
“And where is that, exactly?”
“Not far from the entrance. The tunnel opens up, and there’s a fairly large cavern.”
“And what’s there?”
“I think,” Liz said thoughtfully, “that it is where the crystals were first discovered.”
“You mean where you discovered them,” I corrected.
Liz shook her head. “No. I only found them, and figured out that they could be used. Truth is, I’m still figuring it out, as we all are. But somebody else discovered them ages ago.”
“What? How can you tell?”
“You’ll see,” Liz said, and took a few more steps inside. “Are you coming, or not?”
After a moment’s hesitation, my curiosity got the better of me, and I trailed in after her. The tunnel was dark, and after a few paces, the light from the forest faded completely. We were shrouded in darkness. I hadn’t the slightest clue where to go.
“Liz?” I called out. “I can’t see anything.”
“Give me a moment,” she said from somewhere in front of me. I heard some shuffling noises, followed by a heavy grunt. After a brief interval, there came a heavy metal clang, like a lever being forced into position. There was another long pause, and then I heard the cackle of electricity coming to life. A light bulb flickered on overhead, followed by another one a good thirty paces down, and then another the same distance away, and another, and another, until the entire tunnel was bathed in a pale, weak light. I looked above me. The light bulb there was hanging from a wire that ran along the ceiling and down one wall, right to where Liz stood. There, it connected to a lever that was impressed into the wall, and then trailed down to enter an enclosed metal shape that looked like a car battery. The other end of the wire kept going down the tunnel, connecting the first bulb to the second, and the third, and so on.
I whistled. “Did you set all this up?”
“With some help from Madison and the others, yeah.” Liz beamed. “Before this, we had to carry flashlights down to the end of the tunnel.”
“Not bad,” I said. “How long will the battery last?”
“It has enough juice to last us the day,” was Liz’s reply. We both started walking down the tunnel.
“So, like I said, the reserve of crystals is at the very end,” Liz explained. “But what I want you to see is actually much closer.”
“You still haven’t told me what that is.”
Liz shrugged. “Like
I said, it’s better for you to see it for yourself.”
“All right. I guess. How’d you find this place anyway?”
“There are tunnels like this running everywhere under Traven Island. Most were naturally formed, I’d imagine. But there are a few that were carved by human hands.”
“Why?”
“Do you know what was on this island before Oliver Academy was founded?”
“Some sort of asylum,” I replied, thinking back to what Chris told me.
Liz raised her eyebrows in surprise. “Very good. I wouldn’t have expected you to know that. Anyway, there are rumors that the government used to conduct all sorts of terrible experiments on the inmates here. My guess is that these tunnels were a way of transporting prisoners from one location on the island to the next, without rousing too much suspicion.”
“So how’d you find it, then?”
“I just stumbled across this particular one when I was exploring the woods my freshmen year. I guess my curiosity got the best of me, and I wanted to see what was inside.”
“Which is where you found the crystals?”
“Right.”
“But weren’t you… scared?”
Liz laughed. “I was an audacious little kid. No, there wasn’t much that frightened me. Which I guess is why I took so well to the discovery of the crystals.”
I didn’t answer, letting the silent implication hang. Which is why you haven’t taken the discovery of the crystals so well. I walked on, careful not to step into the stale puddles of water that dotted the floor. I took to counting the number of lights we passed, to help estimate how far we were going. We had passed thirty-two so far, and they didn’t look to be ending anytime soon.
After I hit fifty, I saw the dim outline of an opening in the tunnel up ahead. “Is that it?” I asked Liz.
She nodded. “Yeah. Come on! It’s not much farther now.”
She increased her pace, and I kept up with her. Not long after, we emerged into an area where the sides of the tunnel widened considerably. The row of lights kept going straight through, continuing where the walls narrowed again and going even farther.
