Chaos Trapped

by Eric T Knight

  Karliss’ father had come up by then, and he said, “At least let us know your plan. Let us discuss it.”

  “No. I’m done talking. Stand back. I’m leaving now.”

  His tone was hard and decisive enough that both his father and the terl stepped back. His mother remained where she was, halfway through reaching for him. Karliss took hold of her wrists and pushed her back gently. There were tears in her eyes.

  “I’m sorry,” she said.

  Karliss had no reply. He was sorry too. But mostly he was angry.

  The power of the second word still hummed with him. He used it to draw in two nearby aranti. The aranti resisted, but his will was iron, and his intent was absolutely clear in his mind. He would not be denied.

  The aranti’s touch was cool on his skin and light as feathers. He wondered briefly if this would work. The aranti seemed so insubstantial. But he’d seen tornados rip trees out of the ground. They were strong enough when they wanted to be.

  He willed them, and they began lifting him into the air. New awe on the faces of his clan when they saw that. Many backed up even more. A number of them made the sign against evil. Karliss frowned. He was tempted to hit them with a blast of air before he left, really put some fear into them, but already they were dwindling in his eyes, becoming less and less important. They were rooted to the ground, prisoners of the soil, not free like he was. He could go far away and never lay eyes on any of them again.

  “Kick his butt, Karliss!” Batu yelled, putting his fist in the air. Hulagu put his fist up as well. Then his brother and the rest of the family. Other fists went up, saluting him.

  Karliss rose higher and higher, and they got smaller and smaller until he looked away and forgot about them.

  It was an incredible feeling, flying, and it only got more incredible as he turned the aranti and began flying north. The height didn’t frighten him at all. It felt natural to him, in fact. He felt at home. As the steppes passed below him at exhilarating speed, he found himself laughing aloud. The aranti carrying him caught his joy, and he heard their laughter echoing his. This was where he was meant to be. Not trapped on the earth, but flying above it all, untouched by the problems that faced everyone else. He might never go home.

  He pushed the aranti to still greater speeds, until the land below was a blur. He’d expected the wind to be bad at high speeds, making it hard to see, but he hardly felt it at all, as though he was shielded from it by the aranti who carried him. It wasn’t very cold either. But then, the aranti weren’t affected by the wind because they were the wind. Nor did they feel cold. Or hunger. Or weariness. They were removed from it all.

  Soon he saw the mountains in the distance. He sent out his thoughts, listening through the aranti in the area. They were quiet. There was no sign of Kasai. Either he had already come and gone, or Karliss had beaten him here. Karliss didn’t think it was the former. If Kasai already had the key, he’d know it.

  The key.

  That was the answer all along. How come he hadn’t thought of it sooner? He knew the answer to that one. He hadn’t thought of it because he’d been too caught up in worrying about his clan. That worry clouded his thoughts and dragged him down.

  He wasn’t going to let that happen again.

  Kasai wanted the key because of the power it would bring him. What Karliss had realized in those first moments after the battle against the stone soldiers was that he could take the key himself. He could use its power against Kasai.

  He could kill Kasai with the power of the key.

  That he could control the power of the key he had no doubt. He’d used all three words of power already and survived. He’d defeated Kasai’s minions more than once and defeated Tharn. He could do this. He was strong enough. All he needed to do was get hold of it before Kasai did.

  He flew into the mountains and soon found the high, hidden valley with the eagle-shaped rock formation. There was still no sign of Kasai. Karliss flew up to the mouth of the cave and hovered there, looking, listening. The aranti carrying him were calm, as were the others in the area.

  The aranti set him down. He released them and hurried into the cave. The door into the master’s dwelling was open, and he paused. Had he and his friends left it that way? Or had someone else been here since then? Then he remembered that he’d been meaning to go back inside and look around some more, but the strange tribe who lived in the area showed up, and they’d had to leave.

  He went inside, the lights coming on automatically when he stepped into the main room. There was the table with the three tablets on it. He walked over to where he remembered the hidden door being. He had to bang on the wall a few times before he found the right spot, and the door opened. As he went through the door and started down the short corridor, he felt the first signs of discomfort, an itching, burning sensation on his exposed skin.

  The corridor ended, and he stepped into the small room beyond. The itching, burning sensation was much stronger now. He was starting to feel sick to his stomach as well. He tried to push it out of his mind and focus on what he needed to do.

  The room looked undisturbed. The circular doors of the vault were closed, the crystal set across them, resting in a niche that was cut into the doors. It glowed with a cancerous yellow light that promised pain.

  He gritted his teeth and took a few steps closer.

  The crystal’s color changed, deepening to orange and beginning to pulse slowly. The burning sensation increased. It felt like things with sharp claws were crawling inside his belly.

  Two more steps. He was almost across the small room now. The color of the crystal changed to red and pulsed faster. He looked down and saw that small blisters had appeared on the backs of his hands. From the way his face felt he suspected it was blistering as well. It felt like flames were licking across his skin. He bit his lip and took another step. Now he was close enough to touch the crystal.

  The crystal was flashing violently and glowing so brightly that it was hard to look at. The heat coming off it was intense. The skin on his fingers was blackening. For the first time he noticed a high pitched whine that was steadily increasing in intensity. He felt dizzy, close to blacking out.

  Karliss tried to reach out and take hold of the crystal, but the pain was too much, and he couldn’t make himself do it. Finally, he stepped back, unable to take it any longer. The whine decreased in intensity, and the red glow subsided somewhat.

  He stood there panting, rubbing his sore hands, wondering what he was going to do. Even if he could tolerate the pain, he wasn’t sure he would survive contact with the thing. His gut feeling was that touching it would either make it explode or cause the instant release of a powerful burst of energy. Either way, it was likely he would be killed. Even if he wasn’t, he might be rendered unconscious or at least helpless.

  Then the solution occurred to him, and he shook his head at his own stupidity.

  Didn’t he control the wind? Why did he need to actually touch the thing?

  He channeled a gust of air at the crystal, biting his lip as he concentrated. He needed to be intensely focused. He didn’t want to think what might happen if he dropped the thing.

  The crystal shifted slightly in its niche.

  He fed more air into his channeling.

  The crystal lifted free. It moved away from the doors and then dropped suddenly, as Karliss mishandled the air he was using to keep it aloft. He barely managed to get it back under control before it struck the floor and breathed a sigh of relief.

  He shifted the flow of air, so he could grasp it more firmly, then lifted it back into the air. He moved to the side of the room, getting as far from the crystal as possible, and began to guide it toward the exit.

  The crystal floated across the room, dipping once as his concentration wavered, then rising back up and moving smoothly as he got a better feel for what he was doing.

  He guided it through the doorway and followed it down the short corridor, across the larger room beyond, and then out th
e front door and into the cave. He thought about leaving the crystal in the cave, but it was still making him feel sick. It would be better to have it outside, well out of the way.

  He reached the mouth of the cave and paused, not sure where to set the crystal. The slope below him was covered by loose rock. He still wasn’t sure how fragile the crystal was. If he set it on the scree slope, and something caused the rocks to start sliding, it might end up smashed. Finally, he settled on putting it right at the base of the rock formation itself, in a little hollow that would protect it from any rock that fell from above.

  Before he went back into the cave, he took a moment to look around. The small valley was still quiet. Out near the middle he could see the strange collection of bone figures. Was there a new one now? He wasn’t sure he remembered the large one in the middle.

  He turned and went back into the cave.

  It was a relief to be away from the crystal. The blisters on his skin subsided visibly. The burning sensation went away along with most of his nausea. Back in the small room, he started to open the vault doors, then backed up to the other side of the room and channeled a gust of air to do it instead, unsure if perhaps the masters had left yet another trap. Nothing happened. From inside the room came a red glow. It wasn’t the angry red glow of the crystal, but gentler, softer. He walked over and peered inside.

  The vault was very small. He could have stood in the middle and touched both walls. Resting on a pedestal in the middle of the room was the source of the red glow. Cautiously he approached it, one slow step at a time. The object didn’t react to his presence, and he didn’t feel any burning or pain. He reached out and picked it up. When he did, it stopped glowing.

  He turned it over, examining it. It seemed to be made of some kind of red glass, though it was heavier than it should have been. It was cool in his hand. One side was a semi-circle. The other side was jagged. It occurred to him that this was not the whole key. Clearly what he held was meant to fit together with at least one other piece, though he suspected—if the other pieces were similar to this one—that there were two other pieces.

  Would this still give him the power to defeat Kasai? he wondered. He could feel nothing emanating from it. It felt like nothing more than a piece of glass. He’d wasted his time coming here.

  What should he do now? He could put it back and put the crystal back in place to protect it. Or maybe he should take it to Qarath. The king might know more about the key. At least he knew he would be welcome there. They would appreciate his abilities. He didn’t know if he wanted to go back home again anyway.

  He made his decision. He would take the key piece and go to Qarath. He would join the other two with power over stone and sea, and he would help them in their war.

  He left the strange rooms and walked through the cave back to the entrance, emerging onto the slope in front of the cave. He was just about to summon some aranti to pick him up when suddenly the ground shook underfoot slightly. There was a cracking sound to his right, coming from the rock formation itself.

  The stone split open, and Kasai stepped out.

  Chapter Forty-three

  Kasai towered over Karliss, half again as tall as he was. His skin was the white of old bone. His arms and legs were long and thin, with too many joints that bent at unnatural angles. His mouth was a thin vertical gash, the single eye in the middle of his forehead red.

  One arm unfolded and reached toward Karliss. Long fingers that ended in sharp claws opened. In a rasp that spoke of deep earth and rotten stone, he said, “Give me that, and I will let your people live.”

  Instead of replying, Karliss reacted instinctively.

  He threw both hands out, at the same time channeling the strongest burst of wind he could, but this time with a new twist. This time, with a thought he compressed the burst so that it was as hard as a stone.

  It struck Kasai with enough force to shatter stone. Kasai was thrown backwards and landed on his back on the scree slope.

  Karliss stood there panting, marveling at what he’d just done.

  Kasai stirred and sat up.

  Karliss hit him again.

  This time Kasai was ready. He dug his hands into the stony ground and leaned into the blow. He was rocked backwards, and all around him rocks came loose and rolled down the hill, but it wasn’t enough to make him lose his hold.

  Karliss switched tactics.

  “Akuy-ken-shai!” he cried.

  The power of the second word flowed outward from him, and with it he took control of dozens of aranti in the area. They moaned in fear and fought desperately against him. He knew there was no way he could use them to attack Kasai directly, that they would spend more energy fighting him than doing what he wanted.

  But that wasn’t what he had in mind.

  Instead of attacking Kasai with them, he reached through them, taking hold of their innate power for himself. He felt suddenly huge, bloated with power beyond anything he’d experienced before. He was no longer controlling the aranti, he was controlling their power. It was ancient, primal, the power of the cataclysm.

  Using their power, he summoned a maelstrom, clamping down on it as it appeared and compressing it into one small area focused on Kasai.

  Instantly there appeared around Kasai a towering pillar of dirt and loose rocks that reached high into the sky. Stones from the scree slope shivered in place, then leapt into the air, sucked into the maelstrom. Pieces of the eagle rock formation pulled loose as well. Larger and larger stones were pulled in, some the size of a man.

  Karliss raised his hands, directing the maelstrom upwards, thinking to rip Kasai from the earth and carry him up into the sky. There he could dash him against the earth or tear him into pieces.

  But he couldn’t budge the Guardian. Through the morass he could dimly see Kasai. The Shaper had his head down, hands and feet sunk into the earth almost to his torso.

  Karliss threw even more power into the maelstrom. Larger and larger rocks were pulled in. The howl of it was deafening. Clouds formed above it and began swirling as well. Lightning stabbed down, and thunder roared.

  Sweat started on Karliss’ brow. It seemed impossible that Kasai was still resisting. All the soil around him had already been torn up. All that remained was bedrock.

  Then, before his eyes, Kasai simply sank down into the stone and disappeared.

  Karliss released the maelstrom. Rocks fell to the ground and bounced down the steep slope, starting rockslides. The clouds stopped and began to break up. The dust began to settle.

  Karliss spun, trying to look in every direction at once, desperate to see the next attack before it was too late.

  Nothing. There was no sign of Kasai.

  He had to get out of here while he had the chance. The power of the second word was still in him, and he used it to summon two nearby aranti.

  But before they could reach him, from the corner of his eye Karliss saw Kasai suddenly rise up out of the ground, down and to his right.

  Kasai’s mouth stretched impossibly wide. Gray flame belched out at Karliss.

  Again Karliss acted without thinking, but even so he was almost too slow. He managed to throw up a focused blast of air an instant before the flames reached him. He felt the heat on his exposed skin, but the wind held the flames back just enough to save him from serious harm.

  For long moments the unnatural flame beat against his impromptu shield. Though he fed more wind into his defense, the flames slowly but surely inched closer. His hair singed. Skin blistered. Tendrils of smoke rose from his clothing.

  He was losing. Soon the flames would reach him, and he would die. The only reason he’d lasted this long was because of the power of the second word. His own strength alone wouldn’t have sufficed.

  Frantically, he peeled off a sliver of his defenses, used it to reach off to the side and gather loose stones and dirt. When he had enough, he struck, flinging it at Kasai, aiming for the creature’s single eye.

  The attack caught Kasai by surpris
e. He had to turn his face to avoid being blinded, and when he did the gray flames faltered enough that Karliss was able to push them aside and gain some breathing room.

  He had to get out of here.

  He sent out a desperate summons and several aranti answered, darting toward him to pick him up.

  The flames shut off suddenly, and Karliss looked at Kasai in confusion, wondering what was happening.

  Kasai gestured, and the ground under Karliss’ feet split open, a deep chasm opening up. He fell into it, barely managing to throw himself against one side—his ribs screaming in pain from the impact—and keep from falling into it.

  Before he could climb out, the chasm slammed shut. Karliss screamed in pain and pushed at the ground. It was no use. He couldn’t move at all. The pain was tremendous. It felt like his bones were being crushed.

  Kasai walked up the slope and stood over him, looking down. Karliss forced himself to meet the creature’s inhuman gaze.

  “You are most troublesome,” Kasai said. “But still only an insect.”

  Karliss knew he was out of options. Whatever the cost of using the third word of power, he had no choice but to pay it. He would rain the fury of the heavens down on this creature, use the power of the aranti to tear him limb from limb.

  He opened his mouth to speak the third word—

  “Akuy-ken-shai—”

  Before he could finish, Kasai made a negligent gesture with one long-fingered hand.

  Liquid stone raced up Karliss’s sides, covering his torso, moving up his neck, and finally covering his mouth. It hardened instantly, and the remainder of the word was cut off. He was completely immobilized except for his eyes.

  “You’ve caused enough trouble,” Kasai said. “I do not know how a human ended up with the power of the aranti, but it matters not. It all ends now.” He bent and touched Karliss near his waist. The stone pulled back in that area, enough to allow him to remove the pouch Karliss had put the key fragment into. He straightened. Flames ran across his hand, and the pouch burned away, revealing the fragment. Something that might have been a smile, something terrifying and alien, appeared on the creature’s face as he gazed at the fragment.