The Obsidian Quest [Search for Earthlight Trilogy Book 1]

by Laraine Anne Barker

  "But we saw her—she's ... she's cold.” Peter was not yet ready to believe the possibility his eyes had deceived him.

  The specter nodded. “True. She has no energy to spare for warmth for herself. But be assured she is not dead. The Enemy cannot kill her, although he can sap her strength. If he can sap enough of her strength, it can do irreparable damage to our cause. So the Lady rests to conserve her powers for the battle ahead.” He closed his eyes and it clearly required a great deal of effort for him to open them again. Slowly, with the same apparent effort, he raised his right hand. “I bring you a gift from Merlin and the Lady: the comfort and peace of the Earthlight."

  He pointed his forefinger at Peter. And from the finger a stream of white light poured. It made straight for Peter; and Peter had his first experience of the essence of Earthlight itself. He saw and felt the Earthlight pulsing around and within him, bathing him in its peace and serenity. It surrounded him like a nimbus. He put out his hand as though to feel its substance, and saw the light playing around each finger, totally enveloping his whole body. He felt his limbs go limp as tension seeped from his muscles and misery and despair dissolved from his heart.

  He raised his hand to the level of his eyes—and from his fingers rainbows of light shot up to the cave ceiling. So tremendous was the emotion created in him by the Earthlight that the whole of his body became one great kaleidoscopic force. Jamie and John stepped back in amazement. But there was no fear in the movement, for they themselves could feel the aura of love and protection from the dazzling display.

  Influenced by the Earthlight manifestation, Peter's thoughts turned to the bringer of this wonderful aura of peace and love. His heart twisted with pity as he saw how the spectral figure drooped under the exhausting fulfillment of his self-imposed task. He stretched out his hand to the spirit and pointed his forefinger as Giddeon's spirit had done to him.

  The Earthlight coruscation shimmied down the length of his arm, and its caress was as tangible to Peter as though a living being touched him. The multicolored light leapt across the space separating Peter from Giddeon and caught the spirit as it was about to sink to the earth. The corona of kaleidoscopic light enveloped Giddeon's ghost. But the brilliance around Peter didn't dim, although the light was moving from Peter into Giddeon.

  Giddeon slowly returned to an upright posture. As he did so, the Earthlight gave one scintillating flash and died out. Giddeon looked at Peter with a brightness in his unearthly eyes that had not been there before. He bowed low.

  "My most heartfelt thanks, young master. But for your quick action I would have been unable to return to my body. Without a leader the Reborn would cease to be. I took a great risk in going down to Merlin's aid, and it drained my powers considerably. But nobody else could have done it. Be of good heart and remember Merlin's instructions. And now ... farewell."

  The specter turned, heading for Giddeon's tomb at the far end of the cavern. The three boys and the dog stood in awe-filled silence. Giddeon's spirit moved slowly. Even Earthlight's might had been unable to grant speedy return.

  Peter became so engrossed in watching the reunion of spirit and body he failed to notice a deepening of the chill in the great crypt. The dimness slowly became near darkness. A great ringing cry of despair filled the cave—and Giddeon's spirit vanished. At the same time the air was splintered by horrible laughter. The chilling, high cackles of Sujad Cariotis.

  Peter spun in the direction of the ugly sound. There, hovering in the black cloud of the Enemy, was the traitor from Erewhon's past. Peter's astonishment sent Sujad into another spasm of laughter.

  "You'd like to know how I managed to get through the spell of forbidding, wouldn't you?” Peter wondered why Sujad reminded him of the bullies at school—until he realized the traitor was enjoying his newfound powers with much the same enjoyment sadistic boys get from tormenting creatures weaker than themselves. “I've broken the spell with the power of the Obsidian Orb, and stopped that fool's spirit from rejoining his body. There will be no Reborn to harass my master. I found out how to do all that without any help—for they were simple enough tasks—but now I'm here I'll wait along with you and take the Book of Obsidian when it reveals itself. Ha! Ha! Ha! I'll be Sujad the Great. That sounds a lot better than Merlin the Great, doesn't it?"

  There followed such a violent outbreak of cackles that the boys covered their ears in a vain attempt to block out the hideous din. When it died, Peter let his hands drop and looked straight into Sujad's eyes. Despite his youth, his mien was as fierce and commanding as ever Merlin's had been. “Let Giddeon go or it will be the worst for you."

  This was greeted by more ear-shattering cackles. “Do you honestly think I'm that stupid, Pukling? You can't harm me. All the cards are stacked in my favor. Why should I hand you one of the most important cards? Giddeon can stay as he is—a lost and wandering spirit—and the Reborn will all rot in their mountain tomb. And the Book of Obsidian will come to me, its lord and master. The Book will be of no use to you without the Obsidian Orb, anyway.” Sujad turned to go back down the stairs to the lower cavern and the black haze shifted with him. He beckoned to the boys. “Come down to the grotto and we'll wait together for the Book of Obsidian to materialize—and you can watch me take it."

  "Your master won't let you claim all that power for yourself,” Peter warned him. “If you try, he'll break you. When he has no further use for you, he'll destroy you."

  Sujad turned in the black cloud and snarled like a wolf. “One who has mastered the Book of Obsidian can't be killed."

  "I didn't say he'd kill you. There are worse ways of destroying a man than killing him."

  Sujad swung round, his face distorted with hatred and fury. He raised his hand as though to strike and opened his mouth to shout something. Apparently thinking better of it, he dropped the hand, closed his mouth and moved off.

  Reluctantly Peter followed the black cloud of his enemy to the lower cavern. The doors to the grotto opened to Sujad as easily as they had to Peter and his friends. The gentle light from above reached out to them—but there was something missing. Only when they came to the edge of the pool and the silence struck them like an almost physical blow did they realize how Sujad had gained entry to the grotto: the water no longer flowed from the statue's right hand. The pool lay as dark and silent as the one in the City of Light.

  Sujad's cackles had given way to chuckles of self-satisfaction. “With the help of the Obsidian Orb I found the inlet that feeds the pool and used the orb to dam the flow. It took me many long hours to work out the spell. With the Book of Obsidian I could have done it in a few seconds. The spell itself was simple.” He positioned himself in his cloud over the center of the pool, becoming a serious, purposeful man. “Now we'll wait for the revelation of the Book of Obsidian."

  Peter went to get the boat hidden behind the ferns. Sujad greeted this move with more derisive laughter. “If you want to use that you'll have to row. Its magic isn't working any more."

  With as much dignity as he could muster, Peter ignored Sujad and pulled the boat out. They all climbed in and Peter took the oars. He tried to look as though he rowed every day of his life. With some difficulty he managed to get the boat over to the statue. They sat and looked up at the statue's empty hand. Peter thought of the grotto in the City of Light. The two grottoes were now identical. They waited for what felt like a long time.

  Sujad became impatient. “I want this book now.” He moved closer. The black cloud nearly touched Peter's face. He shrank away from it and the boat rocked. “You tell that stupid statue to give it up!” Sujad moved again. He hovered over the fernery surrounding the statue. “Tell it to give the book to me or I'll destroy it!"

  Peter shrugged helplessly. “I can't. There's no command. We were told to just wait."

  Fear for the statue's safety clutched his heart. He felt himself break into a cold sweat. Sujad grew taller and taller. His eyes gloated over Peter. Peter's heart sank as he realized Sujad had sensed his al
arm. The towering black figure stretched his arm out to the statue. Peter caught one dark gloating glance from the black eyes. He flinched and covered his ears. A blinding flash of blue light shot from Sujad's fingertips. A tremendous blast followed.

  And the statue shattered into fragments. Most of the pieces splashed loudly into the pool. One landed in the boat.

  Where the statue had stood there was only a plinth. The plinth was hollow.

  And inside it they all saw ... the Book of Obsidian.

  Chapter 14

  The Book of Obsidian

  PETER WATCHED helplessly, aghast, as Sujad swooped down, grabbed the book and held it aloft. His cackles of unholy glee filled the fast darkening grotto. “Now I will be Master of the most potent substance known for creating Symbols of Power. I will be Lord of Obsidian."

  "Lord of Corruption, you mean,” Peter retorted. “If you keep the Book of Obsidian for yourself, your evil master will exact terrible revenge. Your fate will be worse than death."

  Sujad cackled and held the book out tauntingly. “Watch me take it for myself, Pukling. Come on—try taking it away."

  Peter reached out with his mind to beg for the Lady's help—but received no reply. He sensed only that wherever she was all her powers were needed there. In desperation he lunged forward, but only succeeded in nearly upsetting the boat. Sujad cackled again and waited until the boat steadied itself. “Watch and listen.” Within the cloud he seemed to grow to enormous proportions. “I, Sujad, claim the Book of Obsidian and the Obsidian Orb. From now and forever I am sole master of the Obsidian Orb. From henceforth I shall be known as Sujad the Great, Lord of Obsidian. Any who try to oust me shall become my slaves. His Lordship Sujad the Great has spoken!"

  He bowed with mocking dignity and him and his black cloud disappeared, leaving the boys in darkness. The silence was so deep it felt as though they had gone deaf, for there wasn't even the sound of lapping water.

  John's small timid voice broke the silence. “Has anyone got a torch—or a match?"

  Peter and Jamie instantly rummaged in their packs. The boat rocked gently and the lapping sound was faintly comforting. Any noise was better than that numbing silence. After much fumbling in the dark, Peter found matches and a fat stumpy candle. He struck a match and put the flame to the wick.

  After an initial sputtering the wick caught fire and burned steadily; but it was a small light in the enormous spaces of the grotto. Peter thrust the candle into Jamie's hands and took up the oars. This time he had no trouble bringing the boat back to its mooring place, where the others scrambled out.

  Peter turned his attention to the bottom of the boat, where the piece of the statue had fallen. He picked it up and examined it in the candlelight. It was the statue's face and miraculously it was undamaged. Jamie and John helped him from the boat and Peter showed them the piece of marble. Removed from the rest of the statue, the face looked immeasurably sad. It had not done so when the statue was whole, and this bizarre aspect filled the three boys with strange emotions.

  Peter made a small, involuntary sound of distress, and Jamie put a hand on his shoulder. He seemed to realize that the statue—and the Lady herself—held special meaning for Peter. “Don't be upset, Peter. He'll pay for what he's done. We'll all make sure of that—if his vile master doesn't do it first."

  The touch of Merlin's irony in Jamie's voice made Peter chuckle despite himself. But as he looked from Jamie to John his chuckle was replaced by a grim smile.

  "It was meant to be. The only way the Book of Obsidian could be found was to break the statue. Only the Enemy could have done that. I know I couldn't. The statute seemed to draw me to it, but I thought that was perhaps because of its uncanny likeness to the Lady and the mystical aura surrounding it. Obviously it was the Book of Obsidian that was calling me. We'll know how to get both the book and the orb back when we need them.” He spoke with a conviction he was far from feeling.

  He put the statue's face in his pack, hid the boat under the ferns and led the way back to the upper chamber.

  "Why are we leaving this way?” Jamie asked. “Isn't the door still closed?"

  "Yes.” Peter spoke with an austerity that would have done justice to Merlin himself. His round boyish jaw was set with determination. “But we've forgotten Giddeon. We can't leave him trapped outside his body like that. If his spirit is stopped from rejoining his body, the Reborn won't be born again to help overthrow the Evil One."

  When they arrived at the upper chamber, Peter ran to where they had last seen Giddeon's ghost. There was no sign of it. Panic seized him.

  "Giddeon! Giddeon!” There was no answer. “Oh no! Sujad has cursed him with invisibility and silence.” Peter strove to reach out to Giddeon's spirit with his mind: “Giddeon! Giddeon!” All he received was the forceful malevolence of Sujad's spell. It nearly knocked him down. Using all his mental powers, he tried to breach the barrier but quickly abandoned the attempt when he realized it would break his mind.

  Sujad's forgotten nothing, he thought bitterly, and sensed with cold apprehension that the acquisition of Sujad as a Lord of Corruption had made the Evil One unbelievably powerful. For the Obsidian Orb and the Book of Obsidian were essential to the Earthlight's cause. But we have to manage without them until we can get them back. We'll just have to use what we've got.

  At this thought he found his hand straying to the base of his throat. It touched the Token of Power hanging on the chain around his neck. He pulled the chain over his head so he could hold the token out to face the chamber.

  "Giddeon, where are you? By the power of the Lady and the authority vested in me as descendant of the Pendragon, I, Simon Peter, son of Arthur, command you to show yourself.” Slowly he turned in a circle.

  The red dragon on Peter's medallion started to glow. Next moment the dragon leapt out of the token, growing bigger and making them retreat from its bulk. Clouds of gentle luminescent breath issued from the dragon's open mouth. As Peter turned in his circle, the dragon's breath enveloped the whole cavern—and the luminescence caught Giddeon's ghost. At first the spirit showed up as a gray, misty light, for Giddeon was totally enclosed in a black cloud similar in appearance to those used by Sujad and his master, but possessing different qualities. As the dragon's breath dissolved the cloud, they saw Giddeon as he had first appeared.

  "Thank you, young master; thank you!” Giddeon looked on the point of collapse.

  "Get back to your body—quickly,” Peter said, ignoring Giddeon's breathless gratitude and too distracted to notice the spirit's lack of strength.

  He soon saw, however, that Giddeon was unable to move quickly. He sent a hasty mind message to the dragon, which enclosed the spirit in its misty breath and gently puffed it along the cavern to its owner's coffin. They all sighed in relief as the ghost melded into the body within. Instantly the dragon began to shrink.

  Their sighs, however, turned to involuntary gasps as a scream of fury rent the air and Sujad appeared in his inevitable black cloud, clutching the open Book of Obsidian in his left hand. So engrossed had he been in its pages, he had failed to sense the dragon's reversal of his spell until the deed was done. When he saw he was too late to vent his rage on Giddeon, he turned to blast Peter with blue fire—and met instead the wrath of the red dragon as it expanded in a burst of fury and doused the blue fire before it got anywhere near Peter. Its breath, no longer a warm gentle mist, shot across the cavern in a tongue of red flame that hit Sujad squarely in the chest.

  But the dragon's breath had little impact on Sujad. He screamed with rage and pain but quickly recovered. His dark hate-filled eyes glared down at Peter as the dragon disappeared back to the Token of Power in Peter's hand. “Be sure I shan't forget this—this infamy when I've mastered the Book of Obsidian. You won't catch me out with dragon fire again. I'll blast your dragon to pieces and you'll pay for your insolence by becoming Sujad the Great's first slaves—that is if you survive.” He disappeared before anyone could frame a reply.

 
"That's one victory to us—a major one, too—for Sujad can no longer stop the rebirthing of the Reborn,” said Peter with grim satisfaction, reminding Jamie and John more and more of Merlin.

  "Can Sujad do much harm with the Obsidian Orb and the Book of Obsidian?” Jamie asked.

  "Possibly, since he was involved in the orb's remaking and Obsidian itself will recognize him as having a certain amount of power over it. Also, because of his involvement, he will probably learn more from the Book of Obsidian than most other people. But both the book and the orb were created for the Earthlight. That should mean the Earthlight's Chosen—particularly Merlin—should be able to exercise more power with Obsidian than the Evil One and his servants. The Evil One wants the orb and the book to keep Merlin and the Chosen from using them rather than to use them himself. That's not to say, of course, that he won't use them, but he'll probably content himself with using them through Sujad, because Sujad has power over them by birthright—unfortunately."

  "So the Evil One will obviously encourage Sujad to learn as much from the book as he can so he can use the orb for our defeat,” Jamie said, frowning hard. “The Evil One will let Sujad do whatever he wants and deliberately lead him to believe he can cheat his master."

  "Isn't that what we'd do if we were in his place? Sujad is too engrossed in his own schemes of glorification to realize he's being used and that he'll be cast off as soon as he's no longer useful.” Peter sighed. “Perhaps it's just as well Merlin didn't live to see Sujad's treachery. It's hard to believe he was once such a friendly and likable man.” He gave a quick look around the burial vault. “We'd better get out of here and see if we can work out some way of getting back the orb and the book. The Reborn on their own might not be strong enough to overthrow the Evil One and his Lord or Lords of Corruption. With Merlin dead and the Lady not in possession of her full powers, we must get the book and the orb back."