“How did they die?” he asked softly.
“They were poisoned,” she said simply, sparing him the details.
“Poisoned?” Gryffon’s voice sounded incredulous. “You show up and they’re suddenly poisoned?”
“I know, I thought it was my fault - I don’t exactly have a clean slate and could easily have brought my bad karma with me. Except for something that her mother said. She said something about how she always expected that day to come. Why would a couple of farmers expect to be murdered?”
“Maybe they knew about her talent,” Gryffon murmured almost to himself.
“The priests rush in and publically arrest you to make an example to others if that’s the case. They wouldn’t send a professional assassin to poison them.”
“Professional assassin? Is there more to this story you’re not telling me?”
She debated telling him about the King’s interference but decided not to. “Only that then with their dying breath they told me to find Layna and give her this package that they had hidden under the floorboards.”
“What’s in the package?”
“Just a weird box that doesn’t even open, I don’t know why it’s so important.”
Gryffon was silent for a moment. “Poor Layna.” It took Katya a minute to figure out what he meant. But of course, even with the excitement of the mystery that this presented, his thoughts were solely on Layna’s feelings. Her parents had just died. Katya found this refreshing and she smiled. “I find myself warming to you, Gryffon. I can see why Layna is so attached to you.”
“Is she?” he asked, and surprisingly looked genuinely interested in her answer.
“Well, the two of you are…” she left the sentence unfinished, waiting for him to fill in the blanks.
“I don’t really know,” he said, “We’ve spent a great deal of time together, but we’ve never discussed what we are exactly and the majority of our time together has been spent either hiding our relationship - whatever it is - or running for our lives.”
“Well, I’m not going to get involved, especially when I haven’t even had the chance to talk to her yet, but yes, I can tell that she cares a great deal about you.” She yawned hugely. “But now, I need to sleep.”
Gryffon gave her a small smile and turned away from her, pulling his bedroll closer around his head. Moments later, he was snoring. Katya envied his ability to do so. Despite her exhaustion, her mind wouldn’t stop spinning. Telling Gryffon about all of the events which had led her to Layna only made her that much more curious about what was going on. What if Layna woke up and couldn’t tell her anything else? What if the package was simply a family heirloom that Gerald had wanted passed down and it really was just her own past which had caught up with her and taken down the people she happened to be with at the time. There were just too many questions for her mind to slow down.
Eventually she drifted into an uneasy sleep, but rest still eluded her. When they woke the next morning Katya found it difficult to concentrate, her mind still contemplating the dark thoughts.
“Bright side is, we probably won’t have to drag anything today,” Gryffon said, a tad too cheerily for Katya’s mood. She simply gave him a courtesy laugh and sighed as she reached for her dagger once more.
Hacking through the vegetation was even harder today than it had been yesterday. Katya found herself having to force her arms to keep working, heaving the blade into the air time after time.
She slashed again at a particularly tough branch while wiping away a bead of sweat and then gasped as the branch fell away, right at the same time that Gryffon made it through his section.
The scene before them was breathtaking. A massive cliff face spread across their view, with a delicate waterfall that spanned its width falling gently over the edge. The thin layer of falling water gave the rocks behind it a magical look, and they could make out several cave entrances. As Katya took in the beauty of it, she gasped again as her eyes brushed over the bottom of the falls.
“Is that-” she began.
“Yes!” Gryffon interrupted triumphantly, “we found it!”
Katya surveyed the rushing river flowing out from beneath the falls and the slippery rocks on either side. “How are we going to get her in there safely?”
Gryffon looked thoughtful. “Perhaps we should build her a shelter to keep her safe while we explore a bit to find the best route.”
They fashioned a hammock for her, deciding that high in the trees would be the safest place to keep her out of reach of any passing dangers and then carefully picked their way over the slippery rocks. It took them several tries to find a passable path, but eventually they made their way towards a ledge in the center of the waterfall.
Behind the glittering curtain of falling water was a magnificent archway, its surface covered by intricate carvings of dragons and people alike. They paused a moment to admire the beauty of it and Katya raised a hand to run over the smooth stone.
“Who do you think made these?” she whispered.
Gryffon shrugged. “There are legends of there once being a city up here, but even that was so long ago…”
After a short corridor of cave, it widened into a large cavern lit by streams of glowing liquid flowing down its walls. In the middle stood a pool of water, raised from the floor in a column of stone, and once again lit with surreal colored light coming from beneath its surface.
They ventured forward slowly and peered into the pool. It was as clear as glass and just as still and they could see that at the bottom lay three polished stones of varying colors, light pouring out of them like little suns. Katya stood in awe of them for a moment, not only because of their beauty but also as a result of the power emanating from them. She reached a hand out and paused. “Should I?” she asked Gryffon.
“I don’t know,” he answered, “it seems like only positive energy, but I’m becoming pretty wary of anything myself.”
Katya nodded and resumed her motion, but slowly. Her fingertips passed through the surface of the water, sending little ripples outwards, but would not go farther. Her fingers came up against an invisible hard layer which flashed bright for a moment and Katya hastily withdrew her hand.
“Could these be the Kiani Stones Aileen told us about?”
Gryffon took out the scale that Aileen had given to him and dropped it into the pool. It paused a moment on the unseen barrier, then slowly seeped through, falling gracefully through the water like a feather. As it touched one of the stones, both objects started glowing, spreading their light to the other two stones.
She and Gryffon both took a step back as the sound of grinding rock echoed in the cavern. Katya looked around in panic, trying to find the source of the sound. She took two more steps back as it became apparent. Three stone pedestals emerged from the floor in front of the pool, scraping their way out of the ground. They ground to a halt when they were about waist high, and the noise stopped.
Katya and Gryffon looked at each other, waiting for something else to happen, but when nothing did they stepped cautiously forward once more. Katya looked at the first pedestal while Gryffon examined the second. She had to blow off the dust and held back a sneeze, but she felt Marak convulse slightly on her arm and she smiled. There was writing on the side:
Those who are true of heart are welcome here,
Honest, trustworthy, and loyal.
Choose the one that is sincere,
And you’ll be rewarded for your toil.
Katya glanced at Gryffon who looked as though he was mouthing words from the pedestal he was examining. Water droplets gleamed on his face like tiny rainbows in the glowing luminescence. “What do you make of it?” she asked him.
“This one has a cryptic poem about being a loving, forgiving, and peaceful person and being rewarded if you show them that you are by choosing something correctly. Whoever ‘they’ are. How ‘bout yours?”
“Similar, only this one is about honesty.” They moved in unison towards the third. Ag
ain, this one held a short passage, this time about strength, courage, and fortitude.
“They all have different groups of symbols below the poem.” She reached out a hand to hover a finger over one of the symbols without touching it. “It almost seems as though you could indent these by pushing on them.”
“I wonder what happens if we indent the correct symbol.” Gryffon mused.
“We’ll be rewarded.” Katya smiled at the look he gave her.
They explored the rest of the cavern, but found that other than the pool and pedestals it was empty, so they carefully brought Layna inside. Despite the waterfall right outside the entrance, the cave itself was dry and warm, and they concluded that the slippery trek to make it in would keep any animals at bay.
They laid her body gently in front of the pool, covering her with blankets. As soon as their hands left her, however, another bright light flashed and Layna started glowing all over with the same colorful light as the stones.
Katya let out a yelp and quickly reached out to her, but found that her fingers encountered the same hard layer that they had within the pool. She cursed.
“What happened?”
Gryffon moved forward to try his own luck at getting through the barrier, but both their efforts were cut short as a wave of a powerful emotion swept over them that was so strong as to be almost tangible.
Be at peace. The calming sensation seemed to convey to them. She is safe.
“Who are you?” Gryffon spoke into the air at nothing in particular.
The emotions seemed to concentrate their origin on the stones within the pool, but more than that it was too much of a mix to figure out. Apparently the answer could not be expressed by emotion alone.
“Are you in the stones?” he asked.
A contented feeling as though he had guessed correctly. Katya supposed that was a yes.
“Are you the ones who made the pedestals?” she asked.
A confused mix.
“Are you the ones we have to show we are worthy to?”
Yes.
“If we prove we are worthy can you help our friend?”
A very happy yes.
“How do we prove we’re worthy?” she asked rhetorically, understanding already that they would not be able to answer through their current mode of communication.
Whatever ‘they’ were, they seemed to understand this and they remained silent.
“If we choose the right symbol on each pedestal will it show you?” Gryffon inquired.
The answered felt like the other yeses, though somewhat held back. As if for the most part this was the case, but there was something else to it.
“How do we know what to look for when we don’t know what the symbols are?” Katya asked this rhetorically again, but was surprised when the surface of the pool shimmered and turned opaque. An image formed.
It showed a gruesome scene. A mob of people surrounded a man who was fending off the attack with magic, but the sheer number of people coming at him overwhelmed him.
Eventually, one of his attackers got close enough with a weapon and the man swung the blade around in a fateful arc, connecting with the other man’s neck and severing it completely. The blade shone with an unearthly light and Katya could almost hear it singing through the air.
The image swirled again, this time showing only the blade, and closing in on it to highlight an inscription on its hilt.
“Leoht,” Katya whispered out loud in awe. The image faded away and the pool cleared, leaving only the three stones as they were previously.
“What does that mean?” Gryffon asked her, perplexed.
“Well, the word means ‘light’ in the ancient language,” she told him, drawing on her nights of raiding Karl’s library for information, “I’m assuming that what we just saw was the Dark King being beheaded. There are legends of his darkness being held back by the light, but I never realized that this was meant literally before. That the sword named ‘Light’ cut off his head. But if you’re asking what it means that we were just shown that, your guess is as good as mine.”
Katya sighed and turned back towards the pedestals. Her sigh was cut short, however, as the third pedestal came into view. It was now glowing faintly around the edges and the symbols were all brightly lit. She touched Gryffon’s arm and gestured to the pedestal.
“Alright,” he said aloud as if talking his way through the mystery, “So does that mean that the scene we just saw somehow connects to the symbol that they’re looking for on this pedestal?”
The emotion they felt was approval.
“I guess so,” Katya stated blandly.
CHAPTER 19
Jezebel gave Devon a withering look. “And how, exactly, are we supposed to do that?” she asked him, not a little perturbed. The fact that he had brought the subject up at all still irritated her, and to make such a statement without fully explaining was just infuriating.
“I don’t think that your talent could have been completely wiped out,” he said hurriedly, as though sensing the danger of her mood in the confined space of their ‘cell’. “I believe that with proper practice and application, we can find a way to mend it.”
Jezebel closed her eyes in irritation. Granted her talent was something she dearly wished to have returned to her, but she had imagined it would be more of a spell that would suddenly whoosh it back into its rightful place, and not involve a whole lot of effort on her part as Devon was now implying it may. It was something that had come naturally to her before; wouldn’t it be more befitting if it would do so again? “What,” she asked him, her eyes still closed, “do you think I need to do to accomplish this feat?”
“Well,” he began, “how did you used to reach for the power?”
Jezebel gave him an exaggerated sigh and rolled her eyes. “I don’t know. I just did it.”
“Try to remember back to when you first started using it, was there something you visualized to help you concentrate your efforts?”
Jezebel raised a hand to her temple and rubbed.
“Like perhaps likening it to a river that you are dipping power out of?” he offered. “I think that’s what the priests usually suggest people do.”
“I suppose,” she relented, her mood softening somewhat at his excitement over her agreement.
“So try doing that again, you just have to retrain your talent to find the way to the power again.”
She sighed again and closed her eyes, searching for the unseen ‘river’ of power. It felt vaguely familiar, but when nothing happened after a moment she gave up and opened her eyes to give Devon another annoyed look.
He surprised her by giving her a stern look of his own. “Do you want to have your talent back?” he asked her pointedly.
“Of course I do,” she snapped back and promptly closed her eyes again, redoubling her effort in hopes that she would find it this time and be able to zap him with it. After a considerably longer moment this try she sighed yet again. “Still nothing.”
“Maybe you need something even more familiar,” he suggested, “perhaps the river comparison was too long ago and you need something more fresh in your mind.”
She raised her eyebrows in question.
He went on, “like maybe a really intense powerful experience that bonded the power to something physical, like maybe the night that we -“
She was half-way through drawing her eyebrows together in confusion when he suddenly leaned forward and kissed her. She was about to push him off roughly in offense when suddenly she felt a great rumbling of something. Something she had once been immune to hearing as it had become so commonplace in the back of her mind, but recently had been silent…something that she desperately wanted to hear once more.
She reached for it, and in doing so drew Devon farther into the kiss, reveling in the sweet taste of power that it promised. The noise faded too quickly for her to follow, but it left a faint memory and she clung to it and to Devon in desperation.
They were panting and bleedin
g by the time Jezebel allowed herself to let go of the tentative hold she had on the memory, and she collapsed happily onto the bed.
“I do believe,” she said in between deep breaths, “that you’re right. I can find my way again!”
Devon smiled at her and she ran her finger along his strong jaw-line. “I know you can, my lady.”
“I think,” she said, letting her walls down just a little, “that you can call me just Jezebel.” She sat up and started putting her clothes back on. “For now.”
CHAPTER 20
Katya and Gryffon examined the pedestal more closely, searching for clues how it might connect to the image of the sword. It was the passage about strength, courage, and fortitude and underneath the choices were several different colored substances. Gryffon reached out and gently touched one, but not enough to indent it, and his brow furrowed.
“I think these are all metals,” he informed her.
“Metals?” Katya wracked her brain for a connection. “Metals that could be used to make swords?”
“Possibly,” he stroked another sample, “I think that this one is some sort of bronze mix.”
“I’ve never seen a bronze sword,” she said doubtfully.
“No, I’ve seen it for ceremonial daggers, especially as it is a less expensive alternative that still looks like gold from a distance, but they tend to bend easily if they are made too long. Sometimes they’re mixed with tin, but it can still either bend or break if you have too much or too little.”
“As in, they’re not strong enough?” she said meaningfully.
“Right,” he stated shortly, realizing the significance of this revelation and putting new effort into determining which of the samples would be best for forging a strong sword. “This one is copper,” he paused, “I think. Also not the best for swords.” He moved on to another, pausing for a long moment and a frown creased his brow. Katya waited for him to say something. Unfortunately, she had never had the interest in knowing metals so she could offer no help.
Those Who Fear the Darkness (BloodRunes: Book 2) Page 23
