Crystal Cache (Crow Hill Book 2)

by Tom Larcombe

  “So the destruction will have to happen from something non-magical. But we can manipulate whatever it is with magic, right?”

  “Yes, I'm thinking maybe a sympathetic connection to get two items to move in true unison.”

  Rynn shook her head and stared at him.

  Sympathetic connection? I remember something about that from school, but no particulars.

  Michael saw her confusion and continued.

  “I'll take a nice heavy rock and split it into two pieces. I'll bind them with a sympathetic connection so that magically they're still a single unit. Then when I use magic to move one of them, the other one will move as well.”

  That spurred her memory and she immediately saw a problem.

  “We need to destroy two crystals on opposing points of the cube,” Rynn said. “Won't what you just described have both portions of the rock moving in the same direction?”

  “Yes it would, but I'll do a reversal on the second portion so it moves in the exact opposite direction of the first. We'll have to position them very carefully beforehand. I'll probably have to hold the one that's going to destroy a crystal on an upper corner. But with a few minutes of preparation, I think we can do it. They'll be destroyed as close to simultaneously as we can possibly manage this way.”

  Rynn nodded.

  I better up my game, she thought. It isn't often that I feel outclassed twice in one day, I must be slipping.

  “That sounds like a plan. When do you want to do it?” she asked.

  “I need to try to get a little more sleep. I'm worried about setting it up while I'm groggy. How about right after lunch?”

  “I hate waiting that long when we're this close, but I understand. I don't like using magic when I'm exhausted either.”

  “It's settled then. I'm going to go try to take a nap.”

  “I'll get the kids and finish off the edible plants pamphlet we were working on,” Rynn said. “Unless you need help getting to sleep.”

  Michael cocked his head to one side and looked at her. The interest in his eyes cause her to blush lightly.

  “I meant I could help you get to sleep with a little magic,” she said hastily.

  “Oh, no I think I can manage it.”

  She watched Michael go upstairs and then tracked down the paper she'd been using the day before.

  “Eugene, Cindy, Andi, we need to go finish what I was showing you yesterday,” she called down into the basement.

  It took a few minutes, but then they were ready to go continue their lessons.

  * * *

  It only took a couple of hours to finish making images of the plants she'd seen near the lake. She'd done them herself as well as having the students each do them as well.

  Cindy has it down cold already, she thought. I should've guessed she would though. I bet she saw the potential of using this to identify medicinal plants, and she always jumps on learning anything regarding healing.

  She set Cindy's images aside and picked up Andi's.

  Not nearly as good as Cindy's, but I think most of these plants would be recognizable from her efforts.

  She moved to the last set and shook her head.

  Eugene's are the equivalent of a child's crayon drawings. How could anyone who can visualize what he can in three-dimensional geometry be unable to hold an image of a plant in his head?

  She gestured to his efforts.

  “Eugene, were you having some sort of problem here?”

  He blushed and shrugged.

  “No, it's just... They're plants, that's all. They all looked the same to me. I couldn't pick out the differences you were talking about.”

  “Don't you realize that this can be used for a lot of other things as well. You could use it to make diagrams of the devices you're helping Michael to build, or use it to make images of things you want to build yourself.”

  Eugene picked up a blank sheet of paper and stared at it. Rynn watched as the surface shimmered for a moment. The shimmer subsided and Eugene was holding a crisp image of Michael's larger solar powered lights, the ones with on and off switches.

  He held up the paper.

  “I know all the bits and pieces on this. I can hold that image in my head. But the plants are just... I can't tell one leaf from another. If I can't do that how can I visualize it and transfer that to the paper?”

  At least he learned the technique. I think I better not use him to make copies of the edible plant pamphlets though. If he can't hold the image of the plant in his mind, then even with the picture right in front of him I doubt he could copy it correctly. Cindy can do it though, Andi too if she practices a bit more first.

  “Alright Eugene, never mind. Cindy, I'll get you more paper. What I want you to do is make copies of the images we have here and copies of the text that goes with them. Don't wear yourself out, but do as much as you can. Andi's going to practice some more, then she'll help. I'd like at least a hundred copies of the whole thing so I can distribute them.”

  “I can do that,” Cindy said. “But we're going to need more paper.”

  “Start with what you have. I'll have Michael check with Father Anderson and the sheriff to see if either of them have some they can spare for this,” Rynn replied.

  “Did you want me to keep trying the images?” Andi asked.

  “I'll want you to try copying the text first. If you can do that so it's crisp and clear, maybe the two of you can split up the job. You can do the text and Cindy can do the images. You should practice copying the images eventually, but getting these pamphlets done should happen first.”

  Andi nodded.

  “Eugene, I guess you'll just have to keep helping Michael. He's asleep right now though. He and I will be gone for a while this afternoon so before we leave, see what he needs done.”

  “I'll do that,” he said.

  Rynn took a little time while the students were busy and scouted the oncoming raiders again.

  * * *

  Michael came back down an hour later.

  “Are we ready to go?” Rynn asked.

  “Give me a few minutes to wake up. At least one cup of coffee also, please?”

  “Sorry, I'm impatient. I checked on the raiders again while you napped. They've actually skipped a couple of targets on their way here. That makes me nervous since I know they were hitting everything in sight previously.”

  “That's odd, but I think we can spare enough time for me to be wide awake when I do this. It's bad enough that I have to mess with one of your dad's spells, I don't even want to think about doing it when I'm not fully alert.”

  Rynn impatiently nodded her agreement, then sat down at the table with Michael as he worked on a cup of coffee.

  Michael eyed his coffee cup as he drank, his gaze unfocused slightly for a minute.

  “I wonder if anyone has any of those ornamental coffee plants around here,” he said.

  Where is his mind? I'd think he'd be focusing on the cache, Rynn thought.

  “What?” she said.

  “I was thinking. With your Fire Magic and my Earth Magic, I bet we could make a nice strong material out of the sand on the beach. Something like glass, but much stronger. We could use it for a greenhouse and I could try to talk the fae into helping me breed the ornamental coffee plants into a type more suitable for drinking.”

  “Michael! Shouldn't we be focusing on the cache right now?”

  “Sorry, I was just getting my brain in gear.”

  “Well good, are you ready then?”

  He stood and rinsed his mug out in the sink, then turned to Rynn.

  “Okay, let's go. I actually am worried about the raiders. It sounds like they're acting abnormally and I have to wonder why. At least we should have some warning since they'll need to get through Las Animas and I don't see that happening without someone noticing. Heck, maybe they'll even stop them up there.”

  Rynn paused for a moment, considering.

  “I don't really believe that. For whatever reason I don
't think they're going to be stopped at Las Animas. Do you?”

  Michael shook his head.

  “No, I don't. Especially not after you told me they skipped over some targets. There's got to be a reason, I just don't know what it is, and that makes me nervous.”

  “Well,” Rynn said, “whatever the reason, I'm hoping we find something in the cache that will help us defend against them when they show up here.”

  * * *

  * * *

  Chapter 6

  Michael led the way back into the mine with both of them carrying sun crystals. When they arrived at the cache it looked exactly like it had when they'd left it. He looked around the room before picking up a rock about half the size of his head.

  “This ought to be large enough. I'll split it in two and we'll put the pieces in place. Then I'll bind them and do the reversal.”

  I just won't mention that little incident where I tried a binding before placing the two items in their respective places. It would be too embarrassing, he thought.

  He concentrated and sent his awareness into the rock, searching for flaws or cracks to work with.

  This one should do well. It won't be exactly in half, but it should be close.

  He weakened the stone along the edges of the flaw then returned his awareness to his body.

  “I thought you were going to break it.” Rynn said.

  Michael lifted the rock a few inches and then smashed it onto the floor where it split apart along the weakened flaw. He looked up at her.

  “I did. It's easier to weaken it and then trigger the break physically than to try to break it with magic alone.”

  She shrugged.

  “Whatever works for you.”

  “Take this piece and position it on the ground six inches back from the crystal at floor level on that corner,” he said, pointing.

  He headed for the crystal that was exactly opposite it on the cache. Thinking about it, he dragged over a few more rocks that would allow him to hold his half of the rock at the same level as the crystal he was going to try to smash with it. When he was sure he had it level, he went and checked how Rynn had positioned her half of the rock.

  After a minor adjustment he glanced up at her.

  “I'm going to bind your half first and do the reversal. That way I can move my piece back over without messing up this one. Make sure it stays exactly where it is so when it mirrors my motions with the other half it will smash into the crystal here.”

  Rynn looked at him like he was crazy.

  “I know that,” she said.

  “Sorry. I keep remembering just whose spell we're going to be disturbing here. It's got me kind of on edge.”

  “I was thinking about it and I doubt he would've booby trapped the stasis spells themselves. Anyone who has gotten this far obviously knows about magic and, somehow, knew about the cache. So I don't think we'll have any trouble here. I don't think dad's that paranoid,” she said.

  I hope she's right, Michael thought. Since I really don't like the alternative.

  After binding the half of the rock on the ground and reversing the binding, he walked back over to his pile of rocks and clambered onto the top.

  He held his half of the rock at a level with the crystal, with approximately the same distance between the rock and the crystal as Rynn had on her side. As he placed the binding on this half of the rock and tied it in to the other binding, his arm started to ache. Gardening had him in shape, but not for holding his arm over his head, with a weight in it, for extended periods of time. Especially not when he had to focus to use his magic while in that position.

  Finally he had it set.

  “Rynn, are we ready?” he called, his voice trembling slightly from the strain.

  “Go for it,” she called back.

  He drew the rock in his hand back on a flat path, farther away from the crystal. He felt the extra drag as his energy was transferred to the other half of the binding to move that rock across the floor. Then he slammed his hand forward as fast as he could while keeping the rock moving on a flat trajectory.

  If I dip too much, the other one's going to nosedive into the floor and I'm going to hurt my arms when this one stops abruptly.

  That thought kept his hand moving straight through the air, with minimal vertical change. When the rock slammed into the crystal there was a bright flash and the tinkling sound of broken crystal fragments flying everywhere. He covered his face with his free arm as the sharp little shards of crystal flew through the air.

  His hair stood on end as he felt the massive quantity of energy grounding out of the series of stasis spells he'd broken.

  “This one broke,” Rynn called. “How about yours?”

  “It's gone,” he said. “Meet me at the door into the cache.”

  He slid down off the rocks and moved around to the front of the cache. The utter darkness of the doorway was gone, replaced by a spill of sunlight flooding out of the opening.

  * * *

  “He doesn't do things by half measures, does he?” Michael asked, after trying to look into the cache and being blinded by the light.

  Rynn shook her head and stepped up to the doorway, Michael followed right behind her.

  He let out a low whistle as he glanced inside. Wooden crates were stacked high along three walls of the cache. The back wall was loaded down with shelves. On the shelves were a large array of crystals, and devices that were obviously made to work with the crystals.

  Michael stepped around Rynn and entered cautiously. He kept his eyes out for any traps that Merlin might have set in the cache. After he looked around for several seconds he decided that there weren't any, or at least not any he could see from where he stood. He stepped over to the first stack of crates. They were long, rectangular crates, reinforced with wooden bands over the top.

  The top one was labeled 'Rifles' with the specifications in smaller print beneath.

  You're kidding me right? Is this a case of Garands?

  A glance showed that the four other crates beneath it were similarly labeled.

  He looked around and saw that Rynn had made a beeline for the shelves on the back walls. She was engrossed in something back there so he went to check the crates on the other side of the doorway. These were smaller than the rifle crates and when he saw the stencil on them, he chuckled.

  “Rynn?” he said.

  There was no answer.

  He turned to look and saw her examining a crystal attached to a metal device that looked like a flashlight.

  “Rynn!” he said, louder.

  She startled and looked up at him.

  “I think we don't have any more worries about ammunition for the Garands,” he said, gesturing to the stack of crates behind him.

  “Ammo?” she asked.

  “They're labeled three hundred and eighty-four cartridges .30 in eight round clips. That's for each of these crates. There must be at least a hundred crates of it too.”

  “That's good,” she said in a distracted fashion.

  Then she went back to rummaging through the shelves.

  Wait, what's got her ignoring the ammo. Didn't she say you could never have enough?

  Michael's curiosity got the better of him and he headed back for the shelves. There were numerous devices with attached crystals. Each one of those had a sheaf of papers under them. There were also a large number of near perfect crystals that weren't attached to devices. The dim glow they gave off told him that they each held a full charge of magical energy.

  “What is this stuff?” he asked.

  “I don't know what some of it is, but I do recognize a few of these.”

  “Well what's that?” he asked, gesturing to the flashlight-like item in her hand.

  “Right now I'm just using it as a flashlight, but dad developed it as a directional weapon against creatures that could be harmed by sunlight. A weapon that could be used by anyone, not just a wizard. There were tens of thousands of these things back in England during World War
II from what he told me.”

  “And the rest of this stuff?”

  “That's why I'm using this one as a flashlight. The devices are all labeled and have instructions on how to construct and use them on the papers beneath.”

  Michael's eyes widened. He knew Merlin had spent years developing ways to mesh technology and magic. Even if this was only representative of his research up until the cache had been made, it was a veritable treasure trove.

  I want to just jump in and start reading, but we can't both concentrate on that. We need to find out what else is in here.

  “Oh,” he said. “In that case I'll go see what's in these other crates. I'm guessing you'll be more familiar with these devices than I am. Let me know what you find though.”

  Rynn nodded absently as she moved a device and picked up another sheaf of paper. Michael moved to a wall he hadn't checked yet and glanced at the crates stacked there.

  C-rations, K-rations, D-rations, this whole wall is food. Since it was in stasis it should still be good too. I wonder how much of it there is? he thought. However much there is, I'm sure Father Anderson will be able to put it to good use.

  He wandered over to the last wall and discovered that the crates along this last one were all miscellaneous items. He looked through them, reading the stenciled labels.

  “Your dad's insane!” Michael shouted.

  This time he managed to attract Rynn's attention.

  “You aren't the only one to claim that; you should ask my mom about it sometime. What is it this time?”

  Michael pointed to a pair of cases in the middle of the stacks he was looking at.

  “Just look at the label on these. Unless I'm mistaken 'Grenade, hand' means they're hand grenades. He's got cases of hand grenades down here!”

  “My dad could have been the role model for the boy scouts. Be prepared isn't just a saying to him, it's a way of life.”

  “Yeah, but what are you preparing for if you're socking away cases of hand grenades?” Michael asked.

  Rynn shrugged.

  “Anything? He believes in being prepared for anything and everything. If we're ever back at the house I grew up in, the one you visited before, remind me to show you what he's got stashed there.”