The Cavern of Sethi

by H. M. Clarke

  ‘Adhamh-‘

  But before Kalena could finish her thought, the Hatar leapt away from her like a released spring. Kalena had never seen him move so fast. And then he slammed teeth and claws first into Sethi.

  Sethi had been taken by surprise. She had not seen Adhamh approach as her attention had been focused on Samar.

  Kalena watched wide eyed as Adhamh sunk his teeth into Sethi’s exposed throat and then used his forward momentum to pull her down to the ground.

  “Kalena, pay attention to me.”

  Kalena was suddenly pulled back to herself as she felt Harada shake her shoulder.

  “But Adhamh-“

  “Adhamh can look after himself. We have to get you out of here.”

  “But I can’t move these rocks off of me, and I don’t think you are strong enough to either. These crystal blocks are heavier than they look.”

  Harada gave her a crooked grin.

  “Thanks for the vote of confidence, but I don’t have to move them all. I just have to move the right one.”

  With that Harada crouched down with his back to the large crystal that weight heavily on her hip and belly.

  “Slip out from under this as soon as you feel it move. Just be careful not to take my legs out from under me when you do.”

  Kalena nodded her understanding and moved her free arm into a position that could help leverage her out.

  “I’m ready.”

  Harada slipped his hands underneath the crystal and Kalena felt his fingers dig and push into her flesh as he tried to get a secure grip on the block.

  Kalena then saw the muscles tighten in Harada’s legs and arms and heard him grunt as he took the weight of the large crystal block and heaved.

  As soon as Kalena felt the pressure lift from her, she slipped out from under the large block and because that was gone, she could shove away the smaller ones.

  She immediately curled up in pain as pins and needles burned through her left arm and leg from the blood rushing back into them.

  As soon as Kalena was free, Harada dropped the crystal to the floor and jumped back letting the block settle where Kalena had been lying.

  “Can you walk?” Harada asked.

  “Yes,” she answered.

  “Good. Come on, you can help me get the others.”

  As they ran towards the other side of the cavern Kalena could not help but look back to where Adhamh and Sethi were still fighting.

  Both Hatar were on the ground and Kalena felt a surge of relief seeing that Adhamh was on top, his jaws still wrapped around Sethi’s throat.

  Samar was standing back, watching. Waiting for her chance to leap in if Adhamh failed.

  Kalena noted bare skin on both Adhamh and Sethi’s bellies and she could see tears and rips all along Sethi’s front and sides. Crimson, black and blue feathers floated lazily around them making the whole scene feel surreal to Kalena.

  “Kalena!.”

  Harada’s call snapped Kalena’s attention back to the task at hand. But her worry for Adhamh kept eating away at her resolve to help.

  She rushed over to where Harada was kneeling by the others. Motta and Trar had managed to free them from the floor by breaking the crystal around their feet, but the boys were still locked in the same positions they were in when the witch froze them. They were now lying like stiff wood boards on the crystal floor.

  “What are we going to do? We can’t get them out like this.” Kalena looked down at her Wing Commander, waiting for him to come up with an answer that could help them.

  “Unless we can break whatever hold is on them, we will have to carry them out one by one,” was all Harada said.

  As Harada spoke, Kalena felt a jarring tug in her mind and quickly realized that she still had a mind thread connected with Sethi.

  Kalena turned to see what had happened and saw that both Adhamh and Sethi were back on their feet again and were now slowly circling each other. Kalena noted that Sethi had a large gouge across the left side of her face and that blood flowed freely from the bare skin of her neck where Adhamh’s teeth had bit deep.

  Apart from some missing belly feathers Adhamh looked untouched.

  And Adhamh looked furious.

  Every feather on the Hatar’s body was raised, moving up and down with every low pitched growl he made and his normally dark eyes gleamed a near incandescent red as he stared down his enemy.

  Kalena felt another tug along her mind thread and she realized that the battle was still raging on. Except this time it was a battle of wills and Talent.

  Adhamh had won the physical battle, now he had to pass through the mental one.

  Suddenly the tugging became more insistent and Kalena began to feel sick to her stomach. Her muscles began to cramp and she bent over double, afraid she was going to throw up again.

  “Kalena, what’s wrong? Are you hurt?”

  She felt Harada’s hand on her back and that single point of contact helped to anchor her thoughts.

  She felt herself growing weaker and realized that it happened with each tug on the mind thread. Sethi was siphoning Kalena’s own Talent to help bolster her attacks on Adhamh.

  That thought made Kalena feel even more sick to her stomach. She had to break this thread. But Kalena had to do this right. The last time she had done this she had broken a link with Kral but the resulting backlash had caused trauma to Holm’s krytal crystal. She could not risk that happening again. There were four humans here which she could burn the Talent out of and kill their krytal crystals... But she had to do this, and she had to do this right.

  Studiously ignoring the physical reactions of her body, Kalena closed her eyes and concentrated on her skein of the mind thread that now locked both her and her enemy together. Both mind skeins were deeply tangled together and Kalena now saw that Sethi had knotted threads around the end near the Hatar’s consciousness, effectively locking it there.

  Kalena again felt a pull on her mind thread and this time felt a little of herself be pulled away into Sethi’s consciousness. Kalena could not let this happen. She will not be used as a weapon against her best friend.

  Kalena was vaguely aware of Harada settling her to the ground as she heaved again. The last drain had made her leg muscles weak.

  But her physical pain did not stop her investigating the locked thread. Through her connection with Sethi, Kalena could feel the mental barrage that Adhamh was throwing at the red Hatar. Though weakened from her long imprisonment, Sethi was still more experienced. And she was a trained Spellcaster.

  Now that she was really looking, Kalena noticed that the power Sethi was gathering from her was being stored for some purpose. Sethi was planning to use it for something big and Kalena could not let that happen.

  Then Kalena had an idea.

  ‘Adhamh. Link to me.’

  ‘I am busy-‘

  ‘Just do it.’ Kalena then included the other Hatar. ‘ Sethi has an open mind link with me. It is a way through her mental barriers. Attack her through me. Motta, Trar, Samar, you help him. You should all link to me and through me attack her.’

  ‘It will burn you out,’ Kalena heard Motta reply.

  ‘Better we risk of that or we will all be dying here. Look, she’s building up to something and it’s not going to be good. Just do it.’

  After some hesitation, Kalena felt the mind threads of Trar, Motta and Samar enter her thoughts. She guided them to her linked skein and helped them join it.

  ‘Come on Adhamh.’

  ‘You have the strongest Talent among us Adhamh,’ Kalena heard Samar say. ‘I will shield Kalena from what we are about to do, but we need you to help us. Otherwise we all will fail.’

  There was a pause before Adhamh replied again.

  ‘Kalena, are you sure about this?’

  ‘Yes Adhamh. I trust Samar to keep me safe. Now you must do your part to keep the rest of us safe. We are the Hatar Kalar, the chosen of the Second Born. We do our duty to protect the Empire.’

  �
�For the Empire!’ was blasted loudly into Kalena’s mind by all the Hatar. And then she felt Adhamh’s mind thread entwine with the rest.

  ‘Let us do this quick. She is weakening me for a final blow that I know I will not win from.’

  ‘Very well. Ready?’ Kalena asked all the Hatar. She felt a mental nod from all and the felt Samar‘s shield go up around her consciousness.

  ‘On three, I want you to push down this skein with multiple attacks. She cannot defend against all of you concentrated in this way.’

  They mentally nodded again.

  ‘One, two,...three!’

  As soon as ‘three’ left Kalena’s thoughts, she felt a surge of power channel through her and the linked mind skein lit up like the first ray of dawn breaking into a dark house.

  She felt Samar‘s protection muffle her from the full force of three combined Hatar minds. Kalena still felt the power rush through her, burning away any trace of Sethi’s presence from her mind and along the linked thread.

  Kalena heard a roar, then a cry as Sethi realized what was happening. The crimson Hatar frantically tried to sever her connection, but she had secured her link to Kalena to well.

  The combined force of the Hatar slammed into Sethi’s consciousness and burned its way through to its core, consuming everything in its path.

  Kalena felt her stolen ‘consciousness’ return as the Hatar freed it from Sethi’s clutches.

  The Hatar burned through everything and Kalena was vaguely aware of watching through her own eyes the crimson Hatar collapse hard to the floor, scratching and grabbing at her head with her front claws.

  ‘Please! Stop! I am sorry. I am sorry...’

  The faint cry echoed through Kalena’s mind but Samar whipped it away and blocked it.

  ‘She is not contrite. Willful child or not, Sethi’de’hasma needs to pay the consequences of her actions.’

  Samar‘s words were a final edict and the Hatar focused their attack on what was left of the Hatar’s mind, and within moments the consciousness of Sethi was burned out.

  Sethi was dead.

  Kalena felt the Hatar slip back through her to their own bodies and suddenly Kalena was alone in her own mind. She collapsed to the floor, her muscles weak and shaking. At least her stomach did not feel sick anymore.

  “Kalena!”

  Kalena heard Harada’s voice as if she was underwater, but she weakly waved away his concern. She could already feel herself coming back.

  “I’m okay. How is Adhamh?”

  There was a pause as Harada moved next to her.

  “He’s fine. He’s coming over here now.”

  ‘Kalena.’

  ‘I’m okay Adhamh. I just want to get out of here.’

  “How are the others?” she then asked Harada.

  “We’re fine Kalena,” she heard Kral say and she turned her head to look in the direction of his voice and saw Kral , Holm and Jhon coming towards them with Trar and Motta behind them.

  “But you were trapped.”

  “As soon as the red Hatar fell, the crystal holding us disappeared and we could move again.”

  Kalena heaved a large sigh of relief and found herself feeling a lot better.

  Harada stood up and looked around at them all.

  “Riders, mount your Hatar. We’re going back to Darkon. Jhon, you mount Adhamh with Kalena and make sure she doesn’t fall off.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  The Aftermath

  KALENA YAWNED AND OPENED her eyes. Bright morning light from long windows assailed her and she quickly blinked them closed again. Slowly, she slightly opened one eye and looked around her to find that she was laying in the main ward of the Kalar infirmary.

  Kalena barely was aware during the trip back to Darkon. She remembered Jhon and Harada hauling her up onto Adhamh’s back and falling exhausted into Adhamh’s neck feathers. The feat with the Hatar had mentally taken more out of her than she realized.

  She remembered being taken from Adhamh’s back by Gwidion and Harada, and now she found herself in a lumpy bed in the Kalar infirmary.

  ‘Good morning. How are you feeling?’

  Adhamh’s voice echoed in her mind and Kalena could not help the smile that leapt to her lips at the sound.

  ‘I’m good. I have a little bit of a headache though. How long have I been asleep?’

  ‘Not long. Only a night. You missed your dinner, but at least you have woken in time for breakfast.’

  Kalena’s stomach suddenly growled as if on cue.

  ‘Breakfast is on its way with Harada and Gwidion.’

  ‘Did the Doctor say when I’ll be able to go?’

  ‘They told Harada that you should be released sometime today. Apart from a few bruises and scratches you are unhurt.’

  ‘So Harada doesn’t know what we did in the Cavern? To Sethi?’

  ‘No. If he did he would then have to tell Provost Marshall Brock and then you may be taken away into the ‘care’ of someone like Jeraint.’

  ‘I know Adhamh. But one day I’m going to get caught.’

  ‘And we will deal with that if that day comes. Until then play dumb and go about as normal.’

  ‘What happened after we left the cavern?’

  ‘We came back to Darkon and Harada took you to the hospital. He then took Jhon with him when he reported what had happened to the Provost Marshall. Later that night Brock sent a squad of Hatar Kalar to close up the two entrances to the cavern for good.’

  ‘Surely Sethi cannot be a risk to anyone now?’

  ‘She was a Spellcrafter Kalena. You do not know if she had laid any traps or enhancements around to snare the unwary.’

  ‘I never thought of that.’

  ‘That is why you need to listen more to experience.’

  ‘Okay. Point taken Adhamh.’

  ‘Harada and Gwidion are nearly there. Let them tell you what happened after we arrived back last night. I need to get some breakfast myself now.’

  ‘Okay Adhamh. Happy hunting.’

  It was not that long after that Harada and Gwidion walked into the ward. Gwidion was carrying a tray with a steaming bowl of what Kalena smelled as porridge, along with a mug of milk and some hot buttered bread.

  “Good morning Kalena. Are you feeling better today?” Harada asked as Gwidion placed the breakfast tray across Kalena’s lap.

  “I’m fine. But I’ll feel a whole lot better after I’ve had some breakfast.”

  “That’s good to hear,” Harada said. “The doctor said that you should be ready for discharge after a final check this morning.”

  “Adhamh has already told me,” Kalena replied as she picked up a piece of hot buttered bread and the mug of milk.

  “Has he now. Does that mean you don’t need to hear anything else we have to tell you then?”

  Kalena quickly shook her head.

  “He only told me that. He said that you were going to tell me what happened once we got back to Darkon.”

  “At least Adhamh left us some glory then,” Gwidion chuckled as he took the seat next to Kalena’s bed. Harada remained standing at the bed’s foot.

  “I wouldn’t say last night’s news was ‘glorious’ Gwidion,” Harada chided.

  “What happened?” Kalena asked after swallowing her bite of bread.

  “Once we had you here in the infirmary, the rest of us when to Provost Marshall Brock. Kral and Holm told us all what had happened, how you had noticed the boy acting suspiciously and followed him, and your new friend Jhon then filled in the blanks.”

  “He did?” Kalena straightened in bed, interested in hearing Jhon’s side of the story. “He couldn’t remember much when we asked him.”

  “His memory returned quickly once that red Hatar was dead. Once free of her influence it was like his memories had been unlocked,” Harada told her. “Strangely enough, Jhon’s Hatar partner woke up while we were in that cavern.”

  That piece of information was not that big a surprise to Kalena. One of the mind
threads that Kalena had seen leading to Darkon had been linked to Jhon’s partner. Now that Sethi was gone, there was nothing trapping the Hatar’s mind.

  “Jhon told us that he had been having memory blackouts for the last few weeks which was later confirmed by the staff here in the infirmary. And then Jhon remembered that the last person he spoke to each time was a tall, black robed figure with a golden book embroidered on the chest.”

  Kalena nearly spat out her mouthful of milk in shock.

  “A Justicar?”

  “Or someone dressing like them to divert blame,” Gwidion said. “The Justicary can be a ridged bunch, but they hold no truck with traitors to the Empire.”

  “That is true Gwidion, but have you forgotten what happened last year?”

  “The man Kalena killed was a rogue element. Even Provost Marhsall Brock conceded the Justicars that point.”

  “So what happens now? What are we going to do?” Kalena butted in, she was not in the mood for a philosophical argument over right, wrong and the political system.

  “We are not going to do anything. You on the other hand, are going to continue your training and studies and become a useful member of this wing.”

  “But Harada-“

  “That’s Commander Harada, Kalena,” Gwidion quickly corrected her. “Remember that, especially in a public area Kalena. Because of this ‘incident’ yesterday you may come under a lot of scrutiny from the Freemen, the Justicars and the Emperor’s men. You’ve been involved with two incidents and they will want to reassure themselves that this is just a coincidence and not something connected to you or the power you had.”

  “I’m going to be watched?”

  “You may be,” Harada replied. “Just keep your head down, nose clean and work hard and this should all just blow over you.”

  “I didn’t mean to cause this much trouble Commander.”

  “You didn’t cause any trouble. You helped save Darkon and the Empire from a threat they knew nothing about. You should be a hero. And you would be if you were not Second Born.”

  “So what happens now?”

  “Once the Doc gives you the all clear, you return to your usual schedule. The Provost Marshall will want to see you, but he will call you when he is ready. So, just business as usual,” Gwidion happily replied.