by Gin Hollan
Arabeth paused to consider his point, taking in a deep breath of air, pausing, then letting it out as she formed her thoughts. “Well, when you say it that way, it’s no more spectacular than radio wave science, really.”
She squared her shoulders. She liked to think she lived at the intersection of faith and science, knowing that when the two aligned, it was truth. Cowardice was not her way. She wasn’t used to relying on anyone else and she wouldn’t start now. Those books were the key. Tamden had stolen the one she had because he knew they were literal keys to power.
“Wait, is that why we can’t get to the lyar?” she blurted. “Is Tamden blocking us?”
Marble gave a couple yips as if to echo her question. Arabeth bent down to rub her head a moment.
“That’s not where you need to focus, Arabeth. Can we concentrate on one thing at a time? You’re like a dizzy goose, going in circles until you run into something.”
Her face flamed red as though she'd been slapped. “Don’t presume to know what I’m thinking,” she snarled. “You bring the books. Meet me at the lyar, or as near to it as you can get.”
Rorigard shook his head but didn’t argue, conditioned by his life as a soldier. “Just make sure you have that device on you,” he said as he turned away.
Arabeth hurried toward the lyar. If she could open it, she should be able to get a look at what Howard was doing. Her suspicion that Howard was being manipulated by Tamden needed proof. She needed to know who the actual target was. She could then neutralize them and talk reason to the other one.
She had more experience with the lyars than with the formulae, but if she could somehow use them in tandem, she wouldn’t have to run all over the planet trying to find Howard. If a backpack could be tossed through an opening created with a lyar, then she could do this.
The logic of it seemed sound. Marble and the kits ran ahead, only stopping to wait for Arabeth. What was that little fox thinking, anyway? She’d always shown above-average intelligence, somehow understanding what Arabeth needed her to do in different situations. She probably sensed Arabeth’s excitement and knew the word “lyar.” After all, she'd heard Arabeth say it around her often enough.
As they travelled, Arabeth thought through her strategy, mentally rifling through the satchel of crystals at her side.
Yellow? she wondered. If she used one of those, she could watch him without being seen. But then again, he’d probably be crystal-sensitive, enough to know he was being watched. She was.
Maybe she should be more daring. If she used the blue crystal, she could talk to him.
But first she had to find him; that meant green.
// Chapter 27 //
IT WAS DARK by the time Arabeth got back to the lyar’s entrance. The change in terrain was confusing, but Marble seemed to know exactly where to go.
The formula to create a gap in the barrier was easy, but why couldn’t she take the entire thing down? She shook her head. Focus, alright? She scolded herself.
To her relief, the lyar was still intact, although it was no longer hidden up a mountain path.
“We’re here so often, I almost need to build a cabin out this way, eh, Marble?” Arabeth was only half-joking.
Marble yipped cheerfully in reply.
Moving immediately to the centre of the glade, Arabeth stood next to the lyar pedestal, pulled her satchel to the front and opened the pouch that held one of each colour crystal. She’d replaced her original set with ones she had in the backyard, opting for larger, clearer ones as they became available.
“The first thing I want to do is see if I can get Sam and Maralise free using the lyar, like when I pulled the prisoners out.”
Marble yipped encouragingly again.
“You’re chatty today, aren’t you?” Arabeth chuckled.
Putting the two crystals she needed in the middle, she stepped back with the third crystal and started making the motions Tamden had taught her. This time she focused her mind on the memory of Sam. The portal opened, and she immediately reached in.
When she felt fabric, she wrapped her fingers tightly around it and pulled. The person who came out was not Sam. She sighed. The middle-aged prisoner she’d had to recapture stood before her, confused. It made sense, but they both stood instantly on guard, ignoring the portal.
“Why am I here again?” the prisoner asked, sceptical.
Shaking her head, Arabeth sighed. “I’m not sure if you can help me. Do you know how to operate these things?” She pointed at the crystals and portal.
“If I do, will you promise not to lock me away again?”
Arabeth scowled. “I am neither judge nor jury, but I do have a moral obligation to ensure law enforcement knows of your release.”
“Better to let me run. If you tell them, you implicate yourself.”
“They’ll understand. You need to serve out your sentence.” A thought twinged at the edge of her mind: This sentence bordered on the inhumane. There were things the judge didn’t know about this form of confinement, like how the inmates would flit in and out of the timeline, frozen in place but conscious. But then there was Sam, trapped the same way but out in the open. “I’ll gauge the value of your assistance. If you do well, you get a break. I think that’s fair.”
The woman smirked. “Sure. Fair. Let me tell you something about that.”
The ground shuddered again, causing them both to spread their arms to keep from falling over.
“What is going on?” the woman asked.
“That is part of why I’m bartering for your help. I need to find the guy that’s doing that and make him stop. Can you help me?”
The woman nodded. “What’s his name?”
“Howard Arba. He was the first person to come out of the prison, but I haven’t been able to get a hold on him,” Arabeth said.
“Good, that means you know what he looks like. Get that green crystal.”
Arabeth took it from where it hovered over the lyar.
The woman reached out and took it from her, then jabbed the crystal into Arabeth’s hand, breaking the skin. Arabeth yelped and pulled her hand back.
“Put that crystal back on the pedestal. Now that it’s had a taste of your blood, it will work for you. While you’re still bleeding, rub some on all the other crystals you’re carrying. I can’t believe you didn’t know such a basic thing,” she said, tsking.
“Next time warn me, all right?” Arabeth held the bleeding hand over the pouch with the other crystals. “Now what?” she asked as she wrapped a short bandage around her wounded hand.
“Stand close to the pedestal and say his name. He should hear you and respond. When he does, you’ll get a location.”
“That easy?”
The woman snorted. “Only for us.”
“Can I use this to get other people out of stasis, or just the prison here?”
“I’ll tell you more, but now that I’ve proven my worth, retrieve my son. Then I’ll help all you want.”
“Fine. Tell me how to find and free people who are in the same type of stasis but a different location.”
“My son first, then I’ll help.”
Arabeth turned and reached into the portal again. As she did, something nipped her fingertips. She pulled back and tried to see what had done it. A little fox muzzle poked out, then pulled back in immediately.
“Marble? What are you doing?” she said. “Get out here.”
If Marble could go in, could she?
“You’d better put a string on her, or she may get lost forever,” the woman said.
What was Marble doing, though? Arabeth’s confusion grew the more she thought about it. Should she go in after her?
“My son.”
“All right, all right.”
Arabeth reached in and felt around, hoping to feel fur instead of fabric. Touching fabric, she realized Marble was out of reach. She pulled the fabric and pulled again. Thankfully, it was the boy, not a different prisoner.
An odd shimmer
flashed across the portal, just on the other side of the entrance. She’d never seen that happen before. Whatever had caused it, she couldn’t shut the portal now. Not with Marble wandering around inside it. How was she able to do that, anyway? What had the woman said about string? Arabeth opened her satchel and pulled out a small length of twine she carried. It wouldn’t be long enough to be useful.
“Hey, pull that back out. You really don’t know how this stuff works, do you?” the woman said. “If that fox will take one end, it will stretch for as long as it needs to. It’s strange in there.”
Arabeth walked over and leaned in, trying to decide if the woman had made that up. Thinking back, she recalled that her arm did seem to reach as far as it needed to when she was pulling people out before.
Something hit her back, throwing her off balance. Before she could regain her step, she tumbled forward into darkness.
Landing on the cool, hard ground, she turned and looked back toward the portal opening. It seemed to move away from her, rapidly. She started walking toward it but Marble bumped her leg and she had to stop to stay on her feet. The fox grabbed the cuff of her pant leg and started pulling her farther into the darkness.
Heart hammering in her chest, all she wanted was to get them all out of there.
“Not now, Marble,” she whispered, refusing to move.
The fox did not let go.
Suddenly light flared all around her and she found herself standing outside the mountain in front of Howard and Tamden. Howard lay flat on his back on a large, sunken cement slab; it looked like a house had fallen down, leaving just the floor. And it was dark out.
The few stars above only proved the moon was off to the other side of the planet. Where that put her, she wasn’t sure.
Tamden sat cross-legged in short grass a few feet away from Howard, leaning his head on a fist, looking frustrated. He stood up, not seeing her yet, and Arabeth saw him wince as one of his knees popped.
Suddenly Howard’s arms shot up and his hands waved around as he mumbled nonsense. Staring at Howard, she realized he seemed completely unable to perceive the world around him. The sweat on his gaunt, withered face clearly proved he was beyond his limit.
“So, you are a simple puppet master,” she said to Tamden.
Startled, he turned and stormed toward her. “He’s nearly dead, and I have to say it’s your fault. If you would stop interfering, he wouldn’t need to be like this,” Tamden spat her way.
“You had me free the prisoners as a diversion, knowing I’d go chasing after them before tracking you down and stopping you,” she said. The events of the past few days were starting to slide into place now. Tamden was the one that wanted to destroy Blastborn … to destroy all of Eltiya.
Howard started a long, low moan that stood the hair up on Arabeth’s arms.
“You need to stop. Let me take him to a hospital. He has family. Did you tell him that before you sent him on this suicide mission? Did you know you have family still?” Arabeth stepped closer, hoping to find a way to get to Howard. “They’ve been looking for you.”
“Any family I had abandoned me long ago,” Tamden said, snapping at her.
Even in this dim light, she saw the red rising up his face. If she could hit that nerve again a time or two, distracting him from realizing she was walking closer to him, she could get one of her wrist locks on him.
“No, I found one person in the family registries. I’m sure they’d like to meet you.”
“Don’t you lie, girl!” Tamden started toward her but suddenly tripped. Marble went sliding across the cement away from him with only the slightest yelp. Arabeth didn’t hesitate. Whipping out one of her wrist restraints, she closed the distance. Seeing her approach, he rolled to his feet. As he did, Howard yelled and waved his arms, and the ground beneath them shook.
Tamden fell again and Arabeth dove after him, rolling to her feet before bending down and slapping the mechanized restraint band around his wrists. As he fought with them, she repeated the process using a larger restraint on his ankles.
She allowed herself a moment to assess that he was properly trapped then turned to Howard.
Howard was delirious, and might not even recognize her.
“Howard, stop,” she said. “Can you hear me?”
Looking at his face more directly, she saw his pupils were a sickly yellow. Arabeth placed her hand near his forehead. The heat coming off him was feverish.
“He has a crystal lodged in his gut cavity. It’s giving him crystal fever - he won’t stop until his goal is achieved,” Tamden spat. “You can’t fix him. He’s set to sink the mountains into the ocean, and only accomplishing that will break the fever.”
Arabeth wiped around to look at Tamden. “How evil can you be?” Her voice was barely above a whisper.
“Evil? He asked for this. He didn’t want exhaustion to prevent him from achieving his goal. He begged me to do it, but I don’t have the blood. I taught him and he did it.”
“Then teach me how to break it. He can’t be allowed to do this.”
“He’s going to send Eltiya off into the water. Your time would be better spent evacuating anyone you care about,” Tamden said, oddly calm now.
“You mean it’s too late?” she asked.
“Accomplishing the goal is the only fix, gadgeteer.”
There had to be something she could do. Her mind whirled through ideas, rejecting them as quickly as they came, until one.
“Stasis. I can put him in stasis, in the lyar prison.” The hard part would be getting him there. One problem at a time, she thought.
“If you move him, you kill him,” Tamden said, sounding more smug by the minute. “Crystal fever isn’t an illness. It’s a state of being. When he ate the crystal, it put his body into an advanced state of shock, almost separating it from his mind. He is barely attached to his body right now.”
Arabeth took a moment to think that over. What kind of science was this, where eating a crystal could nearly separate a body and its occupant.
“But he’s moving,” she argued.
“Only for brief moments, when he has the energy to re-cast the formula.”
Arabeth looked at Howard again. There was a light glow around him, and it seemed to be gaining strength. It probably meant he was gaining as well.
“If crystals are the cause, they must also be the cure,” she said, thinking aloud.
Marble suddenly jumped up, freeing the latch on the outermost pouch of Arabeth’s satchel. As it popped open, the small container holding one of the crystal flashlights fell out and Marble caught it. She stood up on her hind legs, mouth extended toward one of Arabeth’s hands.
“This?” Arabeth wondered. “The crystal or the light?”
Arabeth shone the light first, illuminating Howard. There was no change. Maybe she had to hold it longer? She walked over and shone it in his eyes a moment, hoping he’d try to cover his eyes. He didn’t move. The next thing to try was the crystal itself. Maybe if he had contact with it, it would do something.
It was worth a try, she thought.
She opened the chamber the crystal sat in and slid it out. Putting the crystal in Howard's hand, she wrapped his fingers closed around it and stood back, watching. Marble sat down, looking puzzled. Nothing changed.
Well, she wasn’t going to put it in his sinuses, she knew. That would just compound the problem.
“Give up already,” Tamden called out. He sat with his legs bound in front of him, looking comfortable enough. “You should untie me and accept your fate.”
“Stop annoying me, old man. I’m trying to think here.” Arabeth’s own hand itched where the crystal had cut her earlier.
“Accept reality, girl. You don’t have a lot of time.”
“No. Just give me a minute,” Arabeth snapped, rubbing the wound on her hand.
What if the answer was already given? The woman from the prison had shown her how to alter the effect of crystals for a reason. How could she know this
was what Arabeth was up against? Still, it seemed right.
The formulae worked under the skin. Blood locked in the ownership of a crystal. Intuitively, she knew: The crystal needed to break his skin to break the hold of the other one.
A shudder ran through Arabeth. If the woman hadn’t stabbed her with a crystal, she might not have thought to try this.
“Enough,” she growled, taking the crystal out of his hand. “I’m overthinking this.” The crystal had to break his skin. “Marble, take your kits and run as far as you can. There’s no way to know what this will do.”
“What . . . are you . . . up to, girl?” Tamden said as he adjusted his position to watch her more closely.
Marble nipped at Slate and Doxie, hurrying them away with her. They seemed to understand the gravity of the situation and ran as fast as their legs would carry them.
Arabeth wasn’t sure how long to wait. When they faded from view, Arabeth knelt next to Howard. A bit of colour had returned to his complexion. He’d be active soon. A moment later he was starting to sweat again.
Fear and determination fought in her gut, making her nauseous, but she couldn’t back away. She held the crystal in a stabbing grip and took hold of Howard’s nearest hand. Saying a small prayer for a positive outcome, she drove the crystal into his skin.
A shock ripped through her and she jerked her hand back and stood, stepping away from him. His body twitched a few times and every inch of exposed skin flushed red as blood raced through him at a normal rate again.
Arabeth took another step back, waiting.
With a roar Howard ripped the crystal out of his hand and threw it away as he stood to face her.
“How dare you interfere!” he demanded.
A formula flashed under his skin, but Arabeth didn’t recognize the pattern. A gold spray of energy shot out to encircle him, then collapsed against him with such force that he yelled. He was covered in gold, and growing taller but thinner, she realized. He stopped at about seven feet tall, she estimated, using rational assessment in an attempt to control her racing heart.