Two great golden doors loomed into view after they’d gone some way along the grand Hall of Thrones. The doors opened slowly as they neared, assisted by ornate uniformed guards, each toting a spear. Lord Charn passed through without pause. Four guards with spears and swords stood on a landing beyond the doors, two on each side. Their guide climbed down a set of three dark amethyst steps to a great, pillared hallway.
Sensing perhaps, her shorter strides, Lord Charn slowed, allowing her a quick view of the pillars as they strode past. Engraved with men, women, and animals of every sort—some creatures she recognized, some she didn’t—each pillar was cluttered with scenes of people and creatures enacting some activity. Crystalyn slowed a little to gaze over Broth’s shoulders at the pillars on his side. They too, had carvings all the way around to the top, two stories high. Crystalyn idly wondered if the carvings might tell a story if one had the time to circle the pillar from bottom to top.
The carved pillars ended at an intersection heading forward and to the right, where polished stone replaced the engraved scenes. Lord Charn selected the hallway leading right. Crystalyn trailed behind, glancing back to gauge Atoi’s progress. The little girl seemed contented, though her too white, expressionless face made it difficult for her to read.
Beyond the short hall another intersection appeared, this one taken up by something large, round, and surrounded by Dark Users, mostly in black robes but interspersed with a few reds.
Lord Charn strode purposely to the closest section of the object, halting behind the shoulder-to-shoulder ring of people. He spoke, his voice amplified unnaturally. “Use of the Oracle is mine, disperse!” The last echoes of his command boomed throughout the hall as the robes scattered. In seconds, the intersection was devoid of any breathing souls except them. Crystalyn was impressed with the respect their escort commanded, but then, he was a Dark Lord with his own throne room. She doubted he’d claimed his position by asking nicely.
Atoi stopped close beside her, on her left. “Keep your back to me while we are at the Oracle, Atoi. I can’t watch behind me once focused. You too, Broth,” Crystalyn said in as low a tone as she could muster and still be heard.
The Warden’s sienna head tilted to one side, approval glinting in his now-golden, feline eyes, presumably, for expressing her wariness. He worried about her becoming too complacent.
Atoi looked around the wide hallways. “You shall have warning, should the need arise.”
Crystalyn continued across the hall. The lighting was dim, but Lord Charn stood out, his formidable dark shape standing in front of an oblong shadowy area rising to his waist. Joining the big man there, she found the Oracle was nothing less than a half wall of pitted lava rock encrusted with black moss and filled a few inches below the top with brackish water. The water swirled slowly counter-clockwise, stirred from some unknown force.
Crystalyn leaned close. Tiny white-capped waves rose to within a hand’s reach before plopping softly down to meld with the base of the next rising wave.
Lord Charn’s clipped words intruded upon her. “Do not touch the water. The Oracle has an effect on living souls, most adverse.”
Crystalyn snatched her hand back, disconcerted. Why had she been reaching for it?
Lord Charn placed his gauntleted hands on the rim. “Are you aware how to activate the Dark Oracle?”
“No.”
“Use the Flow to roll the Oracle’s water while you visualize your interactions with your sibling. Call your contact by name as you maintain your focus on the eye. I can add strength to the call if you permit me to know your sister’s name.”
Feeling like she should know, Crystalyn had to ask. “Are you calling the center—where the water is churning around—the eye of the Oracle? Jade, her name is Jade.”
“Yes of course, the center is the eye,” Lord Charn’s pleasant tone had a hint of impatience. “Is Jade her full name? I…we need to use her complete given name.”
“Oh! Jade Creek, her full name is Jade Creek.”
Straightening from where he’d been leaning on the Oracle’s rim, Lord Charn’s right hand flexed open and then closed once, his fist hanging not far from the monstrous hammer. She couldn’t get the ugly thing out of her mind. “So, she is a true sibling to you?” he asked quietly.
“We have the same father and mother, if that’s what you’re asking.”
Lord Charn’s stance relaxed. “That is good. It will make the Contacting less taxing.
I cannot believe we are present before the fabled Dark Oracle, Do’brieni. Broth interjected into her mind. For so long my clan has believed it a legend.
Have a care; we don’t know what your legend is capable of yet.
Agreed, my Do’brieni.
Atoi spoke. “Someone comes.”
Lord Charn’s horned helm tilted forward slightly as he looked at the girl. “One of my most promising generals is here by prearrangement to assist us. He will add strength and shall direct your sibling to the closest gateway we have attuned to the citadel.”
A voice she recognized drawled from the edge of the light, sending a warm thrill racing through her. “I live to serve, my lord.” Slipping from the shadows in the hall, Darwin Darkwind suddenly stood opposite her at the Oracle. He looked different in a black robe with the hood pulled back, but still had the same clean-cut, handsome face.
She wasn’t certain how she felt about the robe. The black robes had fought her on the way to Surbo. Or had they? Thinking back, they were attacking Kara Laurel and Leven; they had only started attacking the companions after Atoi had intervened. Malkor hadn’t really attacked her at the ruins either until she goaded him; he’d wanted Atoi. Had she been too quick to use her symbols? Was she addicted to using her symbols and the power contained within them?
Gazing at Darwin, she couldn’t help but return his warm smile.
Lord Charn scraped a heavy boot on the floor, shifting to include Darwin and Crystalyn in his field of view. “Let us begin. Increase the whirlpool.”
Crystalyn had no idea how she was supposed to get the water swirling faster when all she had was her symbols. Perhaps she could modify the knock-back symbol to suit her needs. Forming the symbol in front of her, she altered it slightly by unraveling the bottom edge enough to keep a string, which she attached to her wrist. Her feet on the cavern floor completed the grounding.
Lord Charn’s roar boomed throughout the cavern. “What folly is this?”
Crystalyn’s concentration wavered, so did her symbol.
Darwin spoke up. “Please, Great Lord, let her continue. I believe it is how she Uses.”
“Very well, proceed,” Lord Charn, said. “Darwin, you and I will discuss at length your reasons for not informing me of this…unorthodox way of Using.”
Darwin lowered his big brown eyes.
Crystalyn’s concentration wavered, again. The symbol paused, hovering over the center. Darwin’s eyes would have to wait. Immersing her symbol halfway into the dark water, she released a portion of its energy.
The Oracle’s roiling picked up substantially, the lazy waves becoming smaller. The splashing grew into a roar.
“Yes, you’re getting it!” Darwin said his voice full of glee.
Lord Charn spat commands. “Faster! Go faster!”
Crystalyn’s excitement grew as she dribbled energy into the agitated water, whipping the Oracle into motion like a vat of plasicrete stirred by machinery. The top waves flattened, picking up speed. The Oracle spun faster with a growing roar, bringing back the awe-inspiring memories of Misty Gorge before the spiderbees carried her off.
His voice hugely amplified, Lord Charn shouted. “Feed it! Feed power to it!”
Keep going, Do’brieni!
Crystalyn released most of the symbol’s remaining energy, churning the dark water faster, and adding a raging fury to the frothing turbulence around the eye. If Lord Charn wanted power, he’d get power. Spinning at an incredible rate, the dark water rose to the Oracle’s lip. A funnel o
pened downward in the center; curving smaller the deeper it went, swirling into a vertical cornucopia. Oddly, the roar of the water spiraled down within it, traveling downward. As it flowed into the bottom, the cavernous hallway went from a thunderous boom one moment to eerie quiet the next, the last vestiges of the din silenced with the suddenness of death.
“You have succeeded! Call out to your sibling by her name, her full name! Visualize her image in your mind,” Lord Charn shouted. As the words left his helm, his voice fell oddly downward, echoing around the cornucopia until it too, ended abruptly.
Though Lord Charn’s words had sucked down into the Oracle, Crystalyn heard enough to comprehend. “Jade Creek! Can you hear me? I’ve been searching for you! Jade, are you there?” Her voice leapt from her lips and vanished into the maelstrom.
“Good! Keep speaking! Lord Charn and I will amplify your words. Maintain her image in your mind—” Darwin’s voice floated past her hearing before fading down the tube.
“Jade! Jade Creek! Can you hear me?” A memory from seasons ago drifted into her thoughts, when she’d called out for her sister many times during a camping trip at the Farm. She recalled the wide circle they’d hiked from camp searching for Jade. Crystalyn had been so frightened then, not knowing what had befallen Jade. Finally, she’d found her little sister asleep in their tent. “Jade Creek, where are you, my beautiful little sister?”
A tiny sound erupted with an unexpected volume from the cornucopia.
“Oh, Crystalyn, is it finally you?” Jade’s voice resonated oddly, as if forced from a great pit.
Crystalyn’s eyes welled with tears. The sweet, familiar voice she’d longed to hear echoed throughout the hall. “Yes Jade, it is me! Where are you? I’ve been searching so hard.”
Jade’s voice drifted out of the pit below. “I am in the town of Brown Recluse, waiting for Camoe to decide where we go next. I knew you’d be worried. I’ve been looking for you, too.”
Crystalyn spoke without glancing away from the maelstrom, not caring which of the two standing at the Dark Oracle answered. “Do you have a gateway there, in this Brown Recluse?”
“I have a pair of obelisks at the outskirts of town,” Lord Charn said. “Command her to go to the Staunch the Flow Inn, ask for the owner, Craight two days hence. Let him know the Great Lord requires a debt paid. He will provide the path here.”
The spinning, brackish water was mesmerizing, but Crystalyn kept her focus. “Did you hear that?”
Jade hesitated. “Yes, but Crystalyn?”
Crystalyn wanted to comfort her sister, to reach through the eye of the churning cornucopia somehow and give her a hug. “What is it?”
“Make haste!” Darwin shouted. “The Contacting is closing!”
“Where am I going?” Jade asked.
Crystalyn felt the vortex slow perceptibly. She blurted a reply. “To the Citadel, but we can talk about it when you get here. Go to the Staunch the Flow Inn in two days.”
Jade’s gasp resonated out of the Maelstrom. “You don’t mean the Dark Citadel, do you? Crystalyn you’re—” Jade’s voice broke off.
The maelstrom slowed quickly, returning to its normal rate after a few rotations. The funnel filled quickly from the bottom up, replaced by the slow, churning blackness.
“No!” Crystalyn reached for her symbol, but it was gone. “Should I get it going again?” she asked, though she felt woozy. Gathering energy from around her instead of from her by grounding herself her helped, but it still had its limits. The magnitude of energy required set those limits, and the Dark Oracle must require a huge amount.
Lord Charn confirmed her suspicion. “No, it has drained us. We cannot risk another attempt this soon.”
Crystalyn was disappointed, but jubilant: she’d heard Jade’s voice for the first time in weeks, and they were on the same world. They’d be together soon. Together, they were stronger.
“I don’t understand.” Darwin’s voice was heavy with fatigue. “Why couldn’t we see her sister? I put far more into it than any other Contacting.”
“There was supposed to be an image?” Crystalyn asked. Oh, how she would’ve liked to see Jade.
His voice soft, but distinct, Lord Charn leaned on the Oracle’s short wall. “Always, at the bottom of the maelstrom, there is an image of the Contact, but some kind of light blurred it this time. I couldn’t bring it through, though I attempted many times, strange—” He stared into the Dark Oracle’s murky depths and was silent. After a while, his horned helm swung toward Crystalyn. “Your sibling should have seen your image in her mind as well, but it is of no consequence now. Provide Darwin with a description. He will deliver it to the gatekeeper.”
Crystalyn recalled the awful day in the Big Ugly, when she’d opened the Sapphire Gate. “Jade is two inches taller than I am, over six feet, reddish-brown hair with dark emerald eyes. She was wearing blue jeans and a black tee when I saw her last, that’s the best I can do. Thank you for helping us, Lord Charn,” Crystalyn hesitated. She already owed the dark armored man so much for this, not to mention his promise to bring her here so they could be together. The last thing she wanted was to alienate him, but she had to know the cost. “What is it you want in return?”
“Nothing too demanding, I assure you, my wishes are simple,” Lord Charn said. Then, he too, hesitated for nearly a full rotation of the Oracle’s slow-churning water. Inhaling a small breath, he continued. “Now that you know I am going to follow through with reuniting you with your Jade, I shall enlighten you. I want you, your sibling, and anyone else you desire and can vouch for, to join me in the battle against the lies and corruption we’ve lived with too long on this world. Khiminay has informed me you’ve been subject to some of it from the Circle already.” He paused, letting her absorb his words for a long heartbeat. “We’ll talk later on the deceit practiced daily coming from the White Lands. At present, please, exploit what we have to offer as my guest. Your decision can wait until you’ve been given information and after your reunion with your sibling.”
There it was. At least he’d been up front about wanting something. Crystalyn didn’t know what to say, his desire went beyond a simple favor for a favor. He wanted a long-term commitment. She wasn’t certain how she felt about it, but at least, she didn’t have to provide an answer right away, not before Jade arrived. Now that I’ve found Jade, what to do about getting home? Crystalyn asked herself, gazing at Darwin Darkwind. Was it really such a big hurry?
Dad would be worried, for certain, but a few extra days shouldn’t cause him any additional anguish than he experienced now. Besides, once Jade was with her, they still had to find the way back. Lord Charn wouldn’t be eager to help with that one, no matter what her answer to his offer. He had nothing to gain by them going home.
Her host’s pleasant voice broke into her thoughts. “Other matters require my attention. Darkwind will show you and your companions to your quarters. He will instruct the servants to attend to your every whim, however small. Make use of them as you will.”
Crystalyn inclined her head. Stay close Broth, please.
I will, my Do’brieni. Please, do not dwell here long. Danger awaits us here.
Oh? How is it you know this?
I have heard…tales, dark tales.
Then we will have to decide for ourselves if there is any merit to these tales, but I will take extra care.
Gripping Atoi’s icy hand in her own, Crystalyn began an intercept route to the robed boy’s side. Darwin’s tanned face looked striking under the dark hood; it suited him. Of course, it probably wouldn’t matter what he wore even had he wore nothing. Her face heated at the thought.
Darwin started along the great hallway as Crystalyn joined him at the Oracle’s end. She wondered what it meant for him to wear the black robe and not the red, as Malkor had. Did the color mean a certain rank? If so, which was higher in rank? Perhaps Atoi would know. Strangely, everyone seemed to know her, for no one paid attention to her wherever they traveled, which
was disturbing in itself. How much was the Dark Child and its host withholding from her?
“One other thing,” Lord Charn’s deep and pleasant voice called out when they approached a nearby intersection. Crystalyn paused, looking back over her shoulder. “I will send for you tonight. Please accept my invitation to dine at my table.”
Crystalyn nodded, deeper this time.
Lord Charn inclined his head in return.
Resuming their walk, Crystalyn stayed by Darkwind’s side gathering details of her surroundings, committing them to memory. She wanted to be able to find her way back on her own.
The intersection opened upon another grand hallway supported by massive pillars stoically holding the purple granite roof high. Provided from clear crystals, the lighting hung from rigid wires from somewhere up above. She started to ask about the crystals, but something else caught her eye, something that made her breath catch in her throat. Standing nearly as tall and majestic as the grand hall, a pair of topaz crystal obelisks stood as two magnificent beacons heralding the hallway’s beginning. Spectacular by their sheer size alone, the obelisks were the largest she’d yet to stumble across.
A smile pulled at her lips. The situation had just ascended from awful to decent. Perhaps it was a way to send two lost girls home. They could be home in a few short days after Jade arrived, regaling dad with all that had happened. Crystalyn yearned to see him, to be in her room with Jade. Home was where they belonged.
DARK MAN
Yet another brown robe—Browns, as most monks called the Users in Brown Recluse—stood outside Jade’s doorway in the monastery. For days, the monks had pleaded for a chance to study a live Dark Creation—though he’d never been, nor ever would be alive—after she’d made the mistake of taking him outside after Dirk had attacked her. Now she was paying for wanting the protection, daily.
Neither she nor Camoe was naïve enough to believe the Browns intended harmless studies only. They’d caught quite a few Using the Flow on their mute friend. Some seemed designed to help Burl, like bombarding his pinched arm with a healing spell—that had failed utterly. Their healing magic had no effect on Dark Creations. Other experiments were destructive. One User hit him with ice through a window, trapping inside a block. Camoe forced the haughty woman to release him, but she never expressed any remorse. No one had. To them, Burl was the perfect lab rat for their experiments with the Flow.
Beyond the Sapphire Gate: Epic Fantasy-Some Magic Should Remain Untouched (The Flow of Power Book 1) Page 40
