Heroes of the Crystal Star (Valcoria Book 1)

by Jason James King

  The sensation faded and the man opened his eyes. “Better?”

  Gevan sat up, and examined his healed leg. “How did…”

  The swordsman approached. He led three nervous horses by a bouquet of bridles gripped in his right hand, his sword now sheathed. The man was not dressed in a navy uniform, but his shoulder-length brown hair and youthful face were unmistakable.

  “Commander Trauel?”

  The man stopped, shooting Etai a quizzical glance before looking back at Gevan. “Should I know you?”

  “He’s come,” Etai said, looking as though he were listening to something only he could hear.

  “What?” Trauel asked.

  Etai snapped to attention and pointed up. “There!”

  Gevan followed Etai’s extended finger, his breath catching as several silhouettes emerged from dark holes in the opposite chasm wall.

  “We have to go!” Etai leapt up and moved to one of the pack bags hanging at the side of his horse’s saddle.

  Commander Trauel made for his sword, but before he could draw it, an emerald flash lit the surrounding area. A gale of pulverized rock showered Gevan and he felt his chain slack and collar loosen. Gevan wiped his eyes and looked up at Etai. To his utter astonishment, the man held a functional Niazeride hand unit.

  “Where did you get that?” Gevan asked.

  Etai didn’t answer. Instead, he glanced at the dozens of Viska climbing down to the chasm floor behind them. “Come on!” he shouted as he tossed Gevan the pistol and moved to mount his horse.

  Gevan caught the weapon with his left hand and pulled the collar away with his right. Commander Trauel, now mounted, offered Gevan the bridle of a chestnut horse which he took before jumping into the saddle. Etai glanced at him and prompted his horse into a gallop, followed by Trauel who held his blade at the ready. Gevan tapped a short combination of keys on the hand unit’s luminescent screen to increase the weapon’s destructive yield before heeling his horse into pursuit.

  A cloud of dust trailed them as they rode through the chasm. Gevan kept glancing back to see if the Viska were as fast as horses. From the shrinking shapes visible through the dust, it appeared that they were not. Good. Gevan’s chest loosened.

  “Get ready!” Etai shouted.

  Gevan looked forward and to his horror realized that it wasn’t the Viska chasing them that he should have been worried about, but the dozens of giant lizards climbing down the walls ahead. One leapt to the chasm floor and barreled at Commander Trauel, jaws opening. The assaulting beast met with the edge of Trauel’s sword. The horse’s momentum augmented his swing, shearing through the lizard’s face, the blade exploded out of the top of its head.

  Movement in Gevan’s peripheral drew his attention to a Viska launching itself off of a stone outcropping above, dive angled toward Etai whose horse raced in the lead. Almost without thinking, Gevan raised his Niazeride weapon and released two energy bolts, one passing through the Viska’s chest cavity, the second tearing the creature in half. Foul smelling viscera rained down on the three riders, and Gevan caught a large splash of it as he raced past.

  Gevan looked ahead and saw the silhouette of a tree line appear on the horizon. Jala Tacia resumed in less than twenty miles if he judged it right. The trick would be surviving long enough to make it there. He released three more bolts, hurling two of the lizards from their path, and forcing another to retreat wounded. He then heeled his mount, impelling it to a frantic gallop and pulled ahead of Trauel and then Etai.

  “What are you doing?” Trauel shouted.

  If he could stay at their head, Gevan would be able to keep the way clear. Another Viska raced into their path, but an emerald energy bolt tore through it, knocking the beast onto its side. Vaekra take me, but these beasts are persistent, persistent and stupid!

  They rode for close to half an hour, Gevan using his Niazeride hand unit to keep the way clear and remove any immediate threats. Eventually, the Viska seemed to grasp that attacking the riders meant a futile death, and fewer climbed down from the canyon walls to make the attempt. Soon individual trees were visible on the night horizon, invoking a renewed adrelaline rush as Gevan realized just how close to the end of the canyon they were.

  “Watch out!” Etai shouted just as an enormous shape exploded out of the canyon wall ahead, spewing rocks and debris. Gevan yanked on his horse’s reins causing it to skid to a stop just in time to avoid being struck by a small boulder. Etai and Trauel did the same and stopped up short behind him.

  Before them crouched an enormous Viska Aran, easily the size of a single story cottage. Although it was clearly one of the valley-dwelling lizards, something about the beast looked wrong. It was thicker than its juniors, not because of its size but due to its extra muscle mass, all four legs corded and toned. Its head and back were lined with white spines, and its teeth and claws were as long as short swords. Spines growing out of its muscular tail made for a deadly organic mace, and its forked tongue was barbed with sharp protuberances. But most disturbing were the giant Viska’s eyes, eyes glowing an angry crimson―Just like Father’s.

  “Shards,” Etai swore.

  The demon-Viska roared a deafening battle cry and lowered its horned head in preparation for a charge. Gevan frantically restrained his frightened horse while at the same time trying to punch command keys to raise the destructive power of his Niazeride weapon to its limit.

  “You know the law.” Etai call to the Viska as though it could understand him. “If you directly interfere, I will be afforded the right to do the same.”

  To Gevan’s astonishment, it looked as though the Viska understood Etai’s threat. What in the Creator’s name is going on here?

  The monstrous lizard snorted derisively and charged. Gevan’s horse whinnied as it tossed its head and bucked, its sudden rearing causing Gevan to lose his Niazeride weapon, the device flying several feet away. The massive Viska bore down on them. He heeled his horse, hoping that it would pick a direction away from the monster. It moved out of the Viska’s path and narrowly escaped being trampled.

  Trauel’s horse threw him as it turned to bolt. The Viska shot its head out, catching the horse with its teeth around the middle. The animal released a terrified cry as the lizard lifted it into the air, clamping its jaws down and biting it in half. Commander Trauel recovered from his fall, retrieved his sword from the ground, and made a desperate attempt at decapitating the Viska. His blade struck true, but his sword only sunk a few inches into the lizard’s thick scale-armored neck.

  The Viska swung its head, dislodging Trauel’s sword and knocking the Amigus Commander back to the ground. It reared its horned head, snarling as it prepared to strike at Trauel. Gevan sat frozen, as Trauel scrambled on the ground trying to move away. Just as the Viska struck, Etai was there. He moved in front of Trauel and caught the Viska’s open maw, one hand straining on each side of its snapping jaws.

  “By the Light of the Crystal Star,” Gevan gasped aloud as he watched Etai hold the massive beast in place all by himself while his eyes shined a crystal blue.

  “Gevan!” he shouted, “Shoot it!”

  I never told him my name… He desperately scanned the ground for his Niazeride weapon. He found it, leapt down from his horse and ran to retrieve it. Scooping it up, he raised the weapon and took aim just as the Viska threw Etai off. It turned to snarl at him, eyes blazing an angry red. It knew what he was going to do! Vaekra take him but it knew!

  The monster charged and Gevan fired three bolts in rapid succession. The first struck the Viska’s shoulder, leaving a bloody crater that cut a swath over the monster’s back. The second slammed into the Viska’s left foreleg, taking it off at the joint. The third bolt hit the Viska’s left eye, tearing off the upper portion of its face.

  It did not stop.

  He fired two more bolts just as the monster bore down on him. The first blast missed, sailing off into the sky. The second struck the Viska square in the chest, tearing through it, and exploding out of it
s back in a spray of blood and broken bone. The creature lurched to its right side, crashing to the ground five feet from where Gevan stood.

  His arm fell to his side, weapon smoking, unconscious trembles causing the barrel to shake.

  For the evil that enslaved Adariel’s husband came from the same dark power that possessed the other kings of the world, and by this evil was the world brought to the brink of destruction.

  Chapter 25

  Of Balance

  Although they had seen no pursuit, Etai insisted that the three of them continue moving briskly.

  Trauel now rode with Etai, and they did not cease their flight until they were at least five miles out of Draciak Eletar. The man’s devil-may-care attitude was gone now, replaced by an earnest urgency. Gevan suspected that the former was merely an act and that this somber and determined Etai was the true manifestation of the man’s character.

  After nearly an hour of furious galloping through the pine forest, Etai slowed his mount to a stop. Gevan halted beside him. How had Etai’s horse been able to outrun his while carrying twice the weight?

  “I think we’re safe for the moment,” Etai said, staring back in the direction of Draciak Eletar.

  Trauel sheathed his sword before dismounting and gripping his wounded shoulder. “I’ve never heard of Viska attacking in swarms like that.”

  Gevan looked at Etai, waiting for the man’s response.

  “They aren’t normally that aggressive,” Etai said.

  “And that giant one?”

  Etai dismounted, whispering to his horse as he put its feedbag on and tied its bridle to a nearby sapling.

  “Etai!” Sitrell demanded. “What is happening here? Just what are we involved in?”

  Looking resigned, Etai met Trauel’s expectant stare. “A war.”

  “I am not in the mood for your mockery.”

  “Not the war between Amigus and Aukasia,” Etai snapped. “The war I speak of is a much older and grander conflict, a war of gods.”

  Gevan wanted to reject that as mythological nonsense, but the thought of Father’s glowing red eyes gave him pause. How could he deny what he’d seen? He knew that the belt was not Valakyrian technology. It was much older, much more powerful, and had changed his father into a man he no longer recognized. Gevan didn’t think that any technology, no matter how advanced, could do that.

  “Are you saying that was the work of the Vaekra?” Trauel asked as he pointed back to the Eletar. “He changed those Viska?”

  “Aedar,” Etai said quietly. “His name is Aedar, and yes it was he that made the Viska more aggressive, and it was he that created that gigantic aberration. He is a very powerful being with the ability to do many things.”

  “But the Creator is stronger?” Trauel asked, a hint of pleading in his tone.

  Etai nodded. “YaJiann is whole and Aedar is not. Still, there are laws of balance that even the gods must obey, specifically concerning their interference with the Dynal plane.”

  “What?” Trauel asked.

  “The Dynal plane,” Etai said. “Mortality. Aedar’s direct intervention allowed me to counter in kind. Normally, he is more subtle than that.” Etai looked back at the canyon. “I must have him worried.”

  “My father’s eyes glow red,” Gevan said, before he could think about it, “the same as that giant Viska.”

  “And just who are you?” Trauel asked with a hint of hostility. “How is it that you know me?”

  “He saved your life,” Etai said. “If it weren’t for Gevan, you would’ve been cremated in Leadren’s furnace six weeks ago.”

  Trauel looked stunned. “You were the black knight?”

  “I freed you in order to give you the Niazeride counter measure, so you could stop Lorta’s army.”

  “Why?” Trauel said, his tone more demanding than questioning.

  “He is trying to save his father,” Etai answered for him, “the man calling himself the Medasylas.”

  “Who are you?” Gevan asked. “How do you know these things?”

  “I am Etai.” Etai’s mocking smile told Gevan that his impudence was not entirely an act.

  Trauel drew his sword. “Your father is trying to kill the princess!” He took a threatening step forward.

  “Guilty by association, Sitrell? That doesn’t seem very Istran.” Etai raised a disapproving eyebrow to which the man lowered his sword and turned away.

  “Don’t mind him, Gevan.” Etai looked away from Trauel. “He’s in love with Ashra and is a bit sore on the subject of your father wanting to murder her.”

  Gevan blurted out the question that had been gnawing away at him for four agonizing years. “What’s happening to my father?”

  Etai’s impish smile faded, eyes looking haunted. “He is being corrupted.”

  “By the belt he found in Cestra?” Gevan asked, assuming that Etai’s apparent quasi-omniscience covered the subject’s related history.

  “Its proper name is the Vaelidar.”

  “Gift of power?” Gevan reflexively translated.

  Etai confirmed the correct translation with a nod. “It is part of something called the Jihan Truik, a relic from the days when the Kalyra ruled Valcoria.”

  “What are the Kalyra?” Trauel asked as he sheathed his sword, and used his free hand to grip his bloody shoulder.

  “The children of the crystal star,” Etai said. “You know them as Sages.” He scowled at Trauel. “What do those self righteous, Istran priests teach anyway?”

  Sitrell didn’t answer.

  He sighed. “When YaJiann created Valcoria, Aedar came here determined to destroy it. He disrupted the weather, brought plagues, and turned man against each other in violence. For this reason, YaJiann gave his most dedicated worshippers the power of creation, broken into complimentary pieces so that they would have to work together in order to defend Valcoria. As I said earlier, the law of balance rules all, even the gods. So because YaJiann gave power to mortal men, Aedar was able to do the same.”

  “He gave men the power of creation?” Trauel asked.

  Etai shook his head. “For treachery against the other gods, Aedar had been shamed and stripped of the power of creation. He can only change or corrupt his followers, and only if they surrender their will to him. Beasts he can control directly, like those Viska, but not humans for they were gifted free will by YaJiann as a protection from their enemy god. Like that giant Viska we faced, Aedar was able to make dangerous aberrations out of the wicked who voluntarily served him.

  “Although powerful weapons, his monsters were not enough to match the power of the Kalyra, and so Aedar used a Kalyran traitor to create the Jihan Truik―talismans that gave Aedar the ability to channel his power through a human host and affect the mortal world like the Kalyra could. The belt your father wears, the Vaelidar, is a piece of the Jihan Truik, the piece that grants the wearer power over their body. Wearing the Vaelidar, a man would gain a physical strength equal to a dozen men.”

  “But my father also knows things,” Gevan said, “things that he shouldn’t. How is that?”

  “The pieces of the Jihan Truik,” Etai continued, “grant great power, but that power comes at a price. The more one draws upon Aedar’s Jia, the more of one’s free will he siphons away, and the more he can communicate to their thoughts and manipulate their feelings. It’s a gradual process, subtle at first, but ultimately it changes a person, even a good person, into a puppet who can feel nothing but hate. A monster, like that giant Viska, capable of heinous atrocities even against the ones they love.” A look of pain flickered across Etai’s face. “Once in your mind, Aedar can share with you a sliver of his omniscience.”

  “That’s how my father was able to duplicate the Niazeride technology, That’s how he was able to understand it,” Gevan said

  “Yes,” Etai said. “Through the Jihan Truik, Aedar can grant men knowledge of places, persons, and things they wouldn’t otherwise know.”

  “If the Medasylas can tap into th
e Vaekra’s knowledge,” Trauel asked, “then how is it that he did not know of my escape from Lisidra or our ambush in Hirath. Why does he need Ashra to tell him how to enter the Aldor?”

  Gevan was surprised when Trauel mentioned the Aldor. How did he know about that? Etai must’ve told him. Was Etai of the Kalyra? He must be, for how else would he know so much? Then again, did Gevan even believe in Sages, or gods, or monsters? I don’t know what I believe.

  “Balance,” Etai said. “Also, those who can tap their Jia, their soul as you would call it, radiate a power that blocks Aedar’s ability to reveal things about them to his followers.”

  Trauel dropped his eyes in thought, “Yuiv is of the Kalyra, isn’t he.” It wasn’t a question. “That is why the Medasylas did not know of our escape with the counter measure.”

  “And I was with your army in Hirath,” Etai finished, “which is why although Aedar knew of all that you were doing, he could not communicate it to the Medasylas.”

  “And the secret of how to enter the Aldor?” Gevan cut in.

  “It has always been held by a Kalyra, which blocks Aedar from revealing it whether or not that Kalyra has awakened to their power.”

  Trauel looked up in astonishment. “Ashra is―”

  “Amaeg was descended from the Kalyra,” Etai said, “which is why your tradition of direct succession has so strictly been enforced.”

  “So there are more pieces of this thing, the Jihan Truik?” Gevan asked.

  “Seven pieces, but they have been carefully hidden away. Your father only found the belt because he was searching the deep places of the world.”

  “And they grant people the same powers as the Sages?” Trauel furrowed his brow, likely attempting to square Etai’s revelation with his Istran indoctrination.