Sapphire of Souls

by M. R. Mathias

  "What is hail?" Braxton asked, now thoroughly terrified.

  "Hail is frozen chunks of rain that fall like rocks from the sky."

  Luckily, they hadn't run across any storms yet, Braxton thought, while he rocked back and forth in the saddle. Chureal was still asleep, and he decided he needed to rest as well, but when he finally drifted off, he found fitful dreams full of trolls and demons all battling in a bloody field full of human corpses and screaming children.

  It wasn't until he felt a wet splatter on his face and Chureal jerk and kick in front of him that he understood it was her screams he was hearing. Then, lightning flickered, revealing a sky full of dark churning clouds. Then a wash of heavy stinging raindrops pelted his nightmares away.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Debain opened his eyes, and all he could focus on were the soles of the black and blue feet laying on his chest. He was in a rancid heap of rotting flesh, rats, and swarming flies, and he was very near death. After some time, he realized the feet he was looking at were his own. His shattered legs had been folded back on him, bent at an angle only possible because the bones that once held them rigid were now pulp. When Pharark finished with him, Reaton-Stav decided that keeping him alive any longer was pointless. Being all his bones were broken, the boy wasn’t inclined to turn him into one of his zombies. Into the pile of servants who had rotted beyond function, he went. His arms were no better off than his legs, and he was helpless. His only comfort was that death was near. He was glad when one of the rats found his face, because the swarm of flies that had been crawling across his lips and into his nostrils left when it arrived. He was beyond pain, and when the rat began tugging at his earlobe, he could hear the cartilage breaking, but there was no discomfort.

  Debain had lived nearly two hundred years and his time had come, but he wasn't quite done yet. When Reaton-Stav discarded him like so much trash, he’d let loose his magical binding. Debain had a spark left inside him. It wasn't much, but it was enough for what he intended to do.

  As he closed his eyes and reached into the prismatic depth of the tiny magical glow, he let his mind clear of everything except for his daughter, who he now understood was still alive and well and untouched by Pharark’s evil. When all his concentration was focused around her, he cast his final spell.

  By nightfall, Cryelos had led what remained of the group to where they all agreed was roughly the opposite side of the lake from the point they'd first come upon it. When Suclair felt out for the magic of the sapphire from here, it was still almost exactly across from them.

  For a long time, Cryelos and Suclair argued about the accuracy of her feeling. He said she had to be off, and she swore she felt the power exactly in the direction she said. Darblin argued that they’d all gone mad, and Nixy found it hard to disagree.

  Surprisingly, it was the quiet and dutiful Big H who suggested that they were incorrect in thinking that the stone was moving around the lake in the belly of some creature.

  Big H took three of Cryelos' arrows and found an open patch of dirt. He drew a rough sketch of the lake's outline, including the area where the shallows of the river they'd crossed earlier that day fed into the reservoir. Big H pointed to where they'd first found the lake, then laid an arrow in the direction directly across the lake where Suclair had sensed the sapphire that day. He also made a mark where they were now, and laid an arrow pointed in the direction she was currently sensing the gem. When they'd crossed the river, Suclair had felt the stone across the lake in the direction the water was flowing, and when Big H laid the third arrow on his makeshift map, it became clear. The arrows all crossed each other somewhere in the middle of the lake.

  Darblin was still scratching his head, so Big H explained it.

  "The stone be out there in the water somewhere, me prince. Not moving around yon shore opposite of us."

  Understanding this did little to ease anyone's worry and absolutely nothing to lessen Nixy or Suclair's despair. But it did bring hope that they might eventually find and destroy the Sapphire of Souls after all.

  The question that was troubling Cryelos and the dwarves while the girls made a fire and comforted each other, was how to get the stone from the depths of the lake without getting eaten by whatever it was that lived in the water.

  The creature wasn't the only problem, for neither of the dwarves or Suclair knew how to swim so the retrieving of the stone would be up to either Cryelos or Nixy.

  They built a large fire, and the men agreed to watch in pairs and let the girls sleep since they’d not slept at all the night before. Big H and Cryelos took the first watch, and they spent their time tossing idea after idea around while studying the notes made by Vinston-Fret's father. The time came for Big H to wake Darblin, and Cryelos passed some of his ideas along to the dwarven prince, but Darblin wasn't as talkative as Big H. He was in deep thought. He hadn't slept and had been listening intently from his bed roll while Big H and Cryelos discussed the dilemma. He had an idea on the tip of his imagination. He just couldn't grasp it quite yet. It was a good idea, he knew, but as he thought and thought on it, it still managed to elude his mind’s grasp.

  Suclair slept restlessly. In her dreams, her father visited her. While she tossed and turned and moaned pitifully in her sleep, she learned she only thought her heart had been hurting and the sorrow she felt before was nothing. She learned that until now, she'd never even really known what fear was, for the things her father told her in her dream, with his dying spell, scared her far worse than anything she'd ever imagined.

  Surprisingly, it was rage more than sorrow that stayed with her when she woke. The anger over what the young man she’d once loved had done to her father, and his alliance with the demon they were trying to slight was palpable. She was mad that nobody but a few elves and the battered and broken little party around her were the only ones alive who knew what was about to happen to an entire kingdom. But most of all, she was furious she couldn't get her hands on Reaton-Stav. She vowed to kill him just as soon as she kept the promise her father forced her to make when he visited her for the very last time. This quest to destroy this Sapphire of Souls would be finished first, but once it was done, Reaton-Stav would feel her wrath.

  Standing with her back to the others, and with a hardened resolve that seemed out of place on the normally timid young sorceress, she looked out at the water's glassy surface and told them some of what her father told her in her sleep.

  "Reaton-Stav has created a small army of undead. This very moment, he is murdering the unsuspecting students of Magus at the Sorcerious. The other Old Ones, like my father, have been killed or turned into his servants. Pharark knows of our quest, and my father failed to warn King Barden of the gothican threat and the massing trolls." She turned toward the group and wiped away a single tear that had slid down her cheek. "Right now, we and the elves of Jolin, are all that stand between the demon and the destruction of the realm. The elves have no reason to think my father has failed so they have no reason to act. That leaves only us."

  "No doubt Pharark will come for us,” she continued. “My father said that his power has grown and that he commands the trolls as well as the gothicans. If we cannot destroy the Sapphire of Souls before he gets it and uses it to reshape the world, we are all damned."

  "That's it!" Darblin yelled excitedly. That single word had triggered his idea into full form. Everyone turned to look at him. He looked like he’d lost his mind as he ran across the camp on his little stumpy legs to Cryelos's bed roll and grabbed up Vinston-Fret's father's notebook. "Vinston's father never saw this blasted lake, nor made record of it, because it wasn't here back then."

  "Are you all right, me prince?" Big H asked cautiously. Darblin's manic expression leant no credibility to his words, and the way his hair was sticking out sideways made him appear insane.

  "No, let him speak," Cryelos said. "I think I see what he is getting at."

  "The ruins and remains of some temple were where that wood creature ate the stone be
arer. Vinston told us they were closer to the river on the first quest." Darblin pointed at the lake. "I think that the ruins are right before us. Something dammed up the flow of the river, creating this reservoir, which swallowed it all up, ruins, sapphire, and all."

  Nixy jumped up, the excitement of the moment finding its way through her sorrow. "That means that if we can unblock the dam we can drain the lake."

  "And get to the stone without getting into the water," Cryelos finished for her.

  There was a lot more Suclair intended to tell them, but it was quickly forgotten when they broke camp and started down the shoreline in search of where the flow of the river had been blocked.

  Nixy wondered about the hard, more determined demeanor that had come over Suclair. They were slowly working their way through a patch of forest that extended all the way down to the lake shore. The chilly morning breeze coming off the water was somewhat blocked, and she was glad for it. Though she hadn't actually shown any physical sign that she'd conceived, she was certain it was so. Thoughts of her own empty childhood filled her head. She'd never known her parents or what happened to them. They could have died when she was an infant or she could have just been abandoned like so many other of the children she had grown up with. It was bad enough that her child would be fatherless.

  Her hope that Braxton somehow survived was beginning to fade. Seeing Suclair stiffen her back and lift her chin after losing Vinston-Fret, and then her father, gave Nixy some strength, and she vowed, no matter what happened with the quest and the rest of the kingdom, her child would not grow up an orphan. The child of the magical boy who’d stolen her heart would know a mother's love, which was something she'd never been lucky enough to feel.

  Cryelos suddenly stopped them. "I think something is following us, but I'm not sure."

  They'd seen no sign of trolls since Vinston-Fret disappeared, but no doubt they were still out there watching.

  It occurred to Nixy that if Pharark knew where the stone was, he would have killed them and taken it himself. She reasoned that his trolls were waiting for them to find it before they attacked. She told Cryelos and the others about her revelation, because knowing this meant that as soon as they found the sapphire, they would either have to immediately destroy it or escape with it. As they continued, all of them became more aware of their surroundings and tried to see who, what, and how many pursuers there were.

  When they stopped for an afternoon break to rest and replenish, Darblin asked the question that was on all their minds. "How many do you think there are?" the dwarven prince asked.

  "All I've seen is one," Cryelos said. "When we resume, I want you all to continue as we have been. I'm going to lay back and kill it."

  "Are you sure?" Darblin asked, concern showing on his gnarled face. "We can't stand to be losing you like we lost—" he let his voice trail off, clearly not wanting to stir up any feelings of sadness.

  "If there's only one, and I get it," Cryelos offered, "then maybe we can lose them. If Pharark controls the trolls as Suclair told us, then we need to put as much space between them and us as we can."

  With a forced grin and a nod of understanding, Darblin agreed. When they got back underway, he took the lead and put Big H in the rear, keeping the girls between them.

  Cryelos waited until they were a good fifty paces away, then crept through the underbrush to a tree that offered a good view and had plenty of room for him to loose an arrow from. He climbed it quickly and got set in a comfortable position with his bow drawn and began his wait. Several long moments passed before the troll stepped on a branch. It was a loud, distinctive crack, and the elf quickly homed in on it.

  As fast as he could, he loosed two arrows. By the snarling howl the troll made, he was sure he'd hit it with at least one of them. Cryelos scrambled out of the tree, and with another arrow nocked and ready, he headed toward where he'd last seen the creature. Though the troll was nowhere in sight, there was a large amount of dark blood. Enough that Cryelos was sure the troll wouldn't follow them any longer.

  Taking a broken piece of leafy shrub, Cryelos carefully covered his trail and the trail the others had left from that point forward.

  Cryelos caught up and gave them the good news that not only was their trail wiped away, but their pursuer had been detoured.

  Dusk was on them when they found the natural formed dam. An apparent landslide had fallen into a boulder strewn gorge, and what looked like several years’ worth of branches, mud, and debris had built up there. There was a slow steady waterfall where the flow ran over the top, but the dam looked to be well compacted into a formidable looking wall. The sheer size of it was disheartening. To break down something that huge and drain the lake might take years.

  "What now?" Cryelos asked no one in particular.

  "We should make camp before it gets dark and worry about it tomorrow," Suclair said. "After I've had a good rest, I might be able to burn away the trees and vegetation with a fire spell. That might loosen it up a bit."

  "No, me lady," Big H said proudly. "I'm the one to be handling this. But like ye say, only after a good night's rest, and with enough light that I don't wash me self away."

  "How in the name of Arbor will you take care of it?" Cryelos asked in amazement. Nixy and Suclair crowded closer, for they wanted to hear the confident dwarf's answer, too.

  "See that big chunk of granite down there at the bottom?" Big H pointed at a large piece of rock wedged into the gorge at the base. “I can move it. That be what I do.”

  "It's just like the plug in a bathing tub,” said Darblin. "If ye pull it, yon water will drain away."

  "But how do you move a rock that's at the bottom of all that—" Cryelos pointed at the mass of rock and wood piled up on top of it.

  "With this," Big H held his hammer up and grinned.

  "Or with his head," Darblin joked. "It's the harder of the two." Darblin then asked, a little more seriously, "How ye plan to keep from getting washed away when it breaks open?"

  "I'll tie one of the ropes around me self and the rest of you can hold the other end." The proud grin showing through all the hair on Big H’s face showed that he was serious.

  "You've no idea the power of all that water," Suclair said, shaking her head and rolling her eyes. "But no doubt, if you don’t drown, it just might work."

  Chapter Fifteen

  King Rayden of Nepram stood between two of his favorite and most trusted guards. All three men trembled before the towering demon in his foul-smelling, otherworldly cavern. Pharark was squatted on his pile, his purple scales eerily reflecting the light of the fires flickering on either side of the mound of bones he was perched upon. His fat body and plump stubby limbs reminded King Rayden of a sitting pig with its snout smashed flat against its face. Pharark had red angry eyes that were far too large for his round lumpy head, and they were intensely focused on him, taking him in for the very first time. Rayden felt like a cow or goat about to be auctioned to the highest bidder. Or maybe he just felt like meat before this powerful thing.

  Pharark's wings unfolded and flapped to keep his body balanced while he shifted his bulk on his pile. The demon's wings, Rayden saw, were impossibly small for such a massive creature. All they were good for was helping him stay seated, there was no way they could lift him into flight. Rayden thought, if he wasn't so large and menacing, he could pass for a child's fairy toy. It was safe to say that Rayden, who had no idea of the power the demon possessed, was not impressed. And though he was terrified, he found the idea of speaking with such a thing preposterous. Nevertheless, his fear of Lord Ulrich and the gothican force camped just outside the border of his kingdom, along with the fact that it was he who insisted on meeting with the battle lord's master, made him discard these thoughts. Nervously, he stepped forward between his two guards.

  "Master Pharark, I am King Rayden of Nepram and I am pleased to--"

  As the words came out of his mouth, the demon's eyes opened wider and his head loomed down. Pharark's giant fa
ce was only a few paces away from him. King Rayden found himself faltering and unable to continue speaking for he was looking into translucent crimson orbs that were easily twice the size of his own head.

  King Rayden tried to force the words out of his mouth, "To-to finally meet such a-a— "

  "BAHH!" The demon bellowed, sending Rayden stumbling backwards. With a sudden swipe of his hand, the demon snatched up one of the king's guards and raised back up to his full squatted height. The demon held his hand before him and studied the screaming man for a moment. The he turned back to King Rayden.

  "You are nothing," Pharark said, then the demon threw the guardsmen into his mouth like one would a peanut.

  King Rayden cringed as the demon bit down on his protector with his sharp, jagged teeth, armor and all, and after only a few open-mouth chomps, swallowed him.

  The man had a wife and three children that King Rayden knew well, but fear gripped him so tightly that he was unable to do anything. The king's other guard moved bravely to stand between the demon and his king, in a battle-ready pose, with his sword drawn. The sword was shaking visibly with his fear, but he stood his ground.

  Pharark laughed loudly. "Tell your brave knight to step aside so that I may see you bow before me."

  All was silent for a few moments while the guard looked nervously back and forth between the demon and his king, awaiting instruction. Finally, King Rayden motioned for the man to move aside. Reluctantly, Rayden stepped forward and bowed at the waist.

  "How dare you mock me," Pharark yelled. "Get on your knees."

  Immediately, King Rayden and his guard both fell to their knees and bowed.