by Sophia Sharp
“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.
“Here we are,” Liz announced, and spread her hands. “The birthplace of the crystals.”
I looked around. This part of the tunnel looked exactly the same as everywhere else, except that the walls stood farther apart. There didn’t appear to be anything special about the place.
“What’s different?” I asked.
“Come here,” Liz gestu
red. “Take a look at this wall.” Liz walked over to the side, where she stood and waited for me.
I walked to her. The weak light cast by the bulb behind me barely penetrated the darkness to reach the wall. Most of it was covered with shadows created by the uneven stone.
“Yes?” I asked again, growing a little impatient—and somewhat anxious. The tunnel was dank. The air was stale. I kept thinking about the island housing depraved human experiments in the past. I half-expected to stumble upon the mutilated remains of a human skeleton, or worse. “If this is some sort of joke…”
“No joke. Take a minute to let your eyes adjust, and let me know what you see.”
“See? I only see rocks. Everywhere!” My voice echoed down both lengths of the tunnel, amplifying the eeriness of the place.
“Right, but take a look here.” Liz pointed to a portion of the wall right by her. It looked like anything else, except perhaps it was a bit more flat. I moved beside her to examine it closer. That was when I saw it.
Engraved on that part of the wall, and indeed everywhere else, were faint, rudimentary etchings. There were symbols and shapes, making all sorts of patterns running up and down the rock. They looked like they had been carved into the stone centuries ago. Even though I didn’t recognize any of it, the order to the shapes made me sure that it was some sort of writing.
“What is it?” I asked Liz.
“We call it the Wall of Power,” she said reverently.
“The Wall of Power? Why?”
“It was where I first discovered the crystals,” she told me. “And the markings on the wall are what led me to them.”
“What? How?” I looked at the engravings again. None of them made any sense. How could she understand any of it?
“It wasn’t that hard. Look here.” She pointed to her left. There, three squiggly lines, each like a snake, were superimposed within a large circle. On the perimeter of the circle were three triangles, each laid out equidistant from one another. “The circle represents the whole – a person, or some living being. The lines inside show the power contained within that person. It’s the… it’s what we draw upon to activate the crystals. You see, everyone has it within herself. But, not everyone can access it.” She moved her hand slightly to the right. There, the same image was repeated, except this time one end of each squiggly line was connected to an outside triangle. “The triangles are the crystals. This one shows how the flow of power is connected to the crystal – how the crystals unleash the power within individuals, if you will. Without them…” she moved her hand down, to another image that was identical except that the circle was much thicker here, and the lines did not penetrate to reach the triangles, “…the power stays dormant within.”
“How can you tell all that?” I asked incredulously.
“What? You don’t think someone like me could have figured it out? I like hieroglyphics, as it were, and read a lot about them when I was a little girl.”
“Yes, but—”
“Just look. I’m not claiming to understand all of it, but there’s enough of a pattern in the markings to make some sense. These ones, for example,” she swept her hand along a series of much smaller, more intricate shapes, “I have no idea what they are. But they’re not important. What’s really important is over here.” She took a few steps to her right, and I followed. The markings were even fainter, and even harder to make out in the dim light. But at the same time, they were much larger, and more prominent. Liz dusted off a section of the wall, and I saw the familiar circle-with-squiggly-lines. It had the same triangles on the outside, but they were bigger this time, and touched the edge of the circle with only a single point. “You see this? It’s a pattern.” I realized after a moment that here, the entire shape was contained within a single, much larger, upside down triangle. And it was connected to another triangle beside it, and one above. All three of the triangles had the same circle inside. The squiggly lines within the circle connected to the tips of the three smaller triangles rimming the circle’s edge, and then extended even farther to link into each of the lines in the other shapes. The whole thing was like a network, with each triangular node linked to the others by the strength of the squiggly lines. “You see how they’re the same as the first engraving I showed you, and yet different?”
“Sure. It’s arranged in a pattern. But it can mean anything.”
“Right. But only before you take a closer look. What you realize is that the pattern is very telling of what the engravings are saying.”
“Wait, I don’t understand something.” I moved back to step in front of the first marking. “If each of the outside triangles is a crystal,” I said, tracing the shape with my finger, “and the circle represents an individual, why are there three crystals? Does it mean we can use more than one crystal at a time?”
“That I don’t know,” Liz admitted. “I – we – have tried using two crystals at once, or even three. But, nothing happens. Literally nothing. It’s like if we use more than one, they cancel each other out.”
“Then how can you be so sure of what all the rest of it means?”
“I just think we haven’t found the right combination yet,” Liz explained. “I believe – although I’m just guessing – that there might be three different types of crystal. And we’ve only discovered one. Each of the crystals can allow you to access a different reservoir of power within you. But you can’t use more than one of a single type at once.”
“And you want me to find the others?”
“Not yet,” Liz said. “Only once you’re ready. I brought you here to understand something else.”
“Which is?”
“That what we’re trying to do with the crystal seekers isn’t to create some arcane power cult. Everything we do is guided by what is written here.”
“Oh, really?” I asked, somewhat disbelieving.
“Yes! Come back here, look at these again.” She moved to where the three large upside down triangles made up the series of nodes. “Look again. The circle you see within can also mean something else. It’s the whole, like I said, but it’s not just an individual. It can represent a larger whole, like a group, linked together…”
“That’s what you were trying to do today!”
“Yes. But we weren’t successful.” She traced a much larger circle with her finger around the three triangles. “I think there used to be another circle here, but its representation eroded over time. Or maybe it was just implied. Anyway, the point is, we need three. Three people, three seekers, each breathing life into a crystal and connected themselves to the group.”
“And then what?”
“An exponential increase in power,” Liz said longingly. “We need that triangulation, Tracy, if we’re to do anything with the crystals that extends past cheap parlor tricks.”
“Why do you want it so much?”
“Don’t you?”
“I – no. I mean, yes. I mean – Liz, I don’t know!”
“Think about it,” Liz said in a lower voice. “Think about the feeling you get when you use your crystal. Think about how right it feels, and how the power resonates within you. Think about the longing you get when you’re away from it. I know how it is, Tracy. The crystal consumes your mind, until you can think of nothing else. Its power is seductive, and it’s completely alluring. You can feel it calling to you, can you not?”
“I – how do you know?”
“It’s like that for all of us, Tracy, and we have to control ourselves. If we don’t, we risk losing the ability to use the crystals forever. Like what happened to Ashley.”
“She lost it forever? I thought you told her—”
“She would become hysterical if she knew the truth,” Liz said. “But it serves her right. It was her own fault.”
I blanched. Liz’s last sentence was particularly malicious. No matter what my history with Ashley was, she and Liz had been friends. If Liz knew how devastated her friend would be, and spoke of her that way, what did it say a
bout her character?
“But if we triangulate, if we link ourselves together, we wouldn’t need to control our desires anymore. We could use the crystals without fear of repercussions. And we would be so much stronger. We could actually become powerful, Tracy. We could do things we can’t even imagine now.”
I shrank back. The fervor in Liz’s voice scared me. “I don’t like the way you’re talking about this.”
“And I don’t like being restricted like we are now!” Liz shouted. Her voice rang all the way up and down the tunnels.
“So then why can’t you just do it? Triangulate, and link yourselves together. Why do you need to bring me into it?”
Liz sighed. “You saw what happened today. You’re the only one who can complete the triangle.”
“Why me? You have Eve and Madison. And you had Ashley before, too. Isn’t that enough?”
“None of them is strong enough to do it. We’ve tried, many times, but the most we can link together is two. It’s always me and Eve, and someone else.”
“Isn’t that enough?”
Liz laughed derisively. “Linking two people doesn’t unlock the greater power of the group. It’s the third link that makes it complete. You always need a triangle to do it.”
“How do you know this, anyway? You’ve never linked yourselves together. How do you know adding the third person will even do anything? Maybe it’ll just make you lose the ability, like what happened with Ashley. You said, if you draw too much power…”
Liz made a vexed click with her tongue. “It says so right here, Tracy! Triangulation is what unlocks the true power of the crystals.”
“And what if it doesn’t?”
“Then we’re no worse than before.”
“So you need me,” I said carefully, “to test whether or not you can do something with the crystals that may or not be possible. And, since you’ve never done it before, you don’t know how dangerous it is, or what the consequences are.”
