by Debra Kristi
Grasping the tomahawk, I attack, hitting the shield. I strike again. And again. Using my agility and slight form against the guy’s bulkiness, I’m quick to spin and flip, chopping him down at the ankles. Then I take him down for good. Feeling energized and excited, I spin around to see where things stand with Ry and Jaden, only to come face to face with Dreya.
Her right hand clamps onto my throat, and she lifts me an inch off the ground. Just enough to put me at the disadvantage. Her long fingernail trails down the side of my right cheek.
“At last we meet, Bringer.” Her voice is layered with hatred and envy.
I swing both the tomahawk and my free hand at her, trying to dislodge myself in any way possible. My actions are weak. I need air. She catches the hand with the tomahawk, squeezing it ‘til my weapon drops to the ground.
My other hand flails about violently. “You…cannot…win.”
Her lips tug into an amused smile. “I wonder why he enjoys toying with you so.”
Her eyes then focus in on mine and, as if I’m stuck in the vacuum of time, in slow motion I watch her lips descend upon my own. My inner thoughts scream for an escape. It’s not a kiss as any kiss would be, but an execution. The kiss of death. My life drains, pulling away from me with every moment my lips touch hers. My heart slows, my energy fades. She’s killing me, not my mom. My dreams of the battlefield were wrong.
“No!” Jaden’s warmth presses into my abdomen.
Suddenly I’m flying backwards and falling into the dirt and rock. There is pain, and a fuzzy image of Dreya taking on Ry and Jaden.
I am roused by Jaden lifting me into his arms. “What are you doing?”
“Don’t worry, I’ve got you.” He moves quickly, looking distressed. “Which way?” he asks Ry.
There’s no response.
I twist to see what’s going on. There’s no sign of Dreya, and all the tribal-looking warriors are dead. Ry stands impossibly still, studying the tree line.
“Which way?” Jaden repeats.
“I don’t know yet.” Ry’s back muscles go noticeably rigid.
My eyes close, except I want to help, so I look again. As it did in the mine tunnels, my gut whispers to me. The trees to our right shimmer, and a breeze rustles through the leaves, unnaturally pushing at them. For the briefest of moments, a steep path is exposed, a path normally hidden behind their wall of green. Maybe it goes up and around.
I point. “That’s the way, there.”
I lay my head back against Jaden’s chest and close my eyes as he carries me along the new trail, letting my body repair itself. I don’t open them again until Jaden softly wakes me at the top of a cliff. Directly below lies a grim and uneven floor. The wall at our feet is a precipice sliced with countless lanky grooves. Although my eyes are crusted with sleep and my vision has not yet cleared, the view of the valley below is divine. I lift my head, Jaden’s strong arms still beneath me. The fingers on my left hand have managed to twine themselves around his collar. He sets me on my feet.
“How did we get here?” I ask.
“Welcome back among the living.” Ry draws my attention to the cliff. “I believe this is where we want to go.” He crouches to survey the descent. “We fought in the black tar right about there. You can see it.” He points. “We should drop down here.”
I gulp and run a shaky hand through my hair. I don’t know if I’m tired, nervous, or both. “I’m sure I heard you incorrectly. We are not climbing down that rock.”
I stare down the drop, trying to control my panic. No picture, no matter how perfect, is going to make this cliff look any less scary to me.
Jaden fans his hand out over the area in front of us. “This used to be a huge waterfall, one spoke of in the legends. The face of the mountain here is all rock, with what looks like plenty of hand- and footholds. It should be fairly easy for one as skilled as you to scale.”
“I just had Dreya suck the life out of me. I’m so tired, I don’t think I can focus right now.” I hang my head in defeat. We’ve come so far, only to hit this impasse.
Jaden turns me in his arms to face him. “Let me help you.”
Ry grabs my arm and yanks me free. “It’s a warrior’s ritual she needs, not your mojo.”
My finger sticks momentarily in Jaden’s belt loop, dragging him a step with us.
His face is tight with annoyance. “You may be right.” He looks past me to Ry.
“Of course I am.” Ry pulls me from the hard stone surface toward the dirt. “She needs to be in full form. We don’t know when we might see Dreya or anything else again.”
I stumble behind him. “Wait. Didn’t you kill Dreya back there?”
“If only it were that easy. She let us go. I wish I understood why.” He pulls me around in front of him, readying for the ritual.
I’ve seen Ry’s ritual so many times during our workout sessions, never understanding when he was stepping away to perform the strange thing with the dirt. Now I’m going to be part of it. Ry sits me on the ground, mimicking the unusual chant he now voices. Something amazing happens when, following his lead, I take the dirt in my hands and rub it between my fingers. I not only feel the grit, but its life force. The earth’s energy pumps through me. It’s surreal.
I don’t stop at my hands. I rub the dirt on my face, and the sensation magnifies tenfold, directing the sense from my fingers to the sensitive skin of my face—holy Gaea! I’m bursting at the seams with life. Every molecule in my body is ready to jump to the moon. I’m ready for anything.
Some tiny part of me shouts I should be scared as we scale down the side of the mountain, but I’m not. I’m in complete control. I’m invincible. My rational side tells me the earth’s drug is at work. I still need to be careful. We move like spiders, without pause, down the rocky ridge. I’m impressed with our ability to make it down the crag face in such quick time.
We haven’t quite reached the canyon floor when Ry slips into a niche several meters above the ground. The recess would have once been hidden by the powerful water that covered this stone like a curtain. I follow him into the dark hole and prop myself in the crawlspace to get oriented before proceeding. The warrior ritual has made my eyes able to quickly adjust to the darkness. I almost don’t need a flashlight. Even so, it comes in handy when Jaden flashes the light in from behind me, exposing the beautiful, ribbed granite of the cave. The space feels small, and I don’t see an exit other than the way we came.
Ry stretches his arm out against the cavern wall, his head bent. “Look out for the puddle.”
My foot falls heavily into the slosh with my first step into the space. “Little late.” I look to the left and to the right. “This is pretty tight. Aren’t we trapping ourselves if Dreya shows up here?”
“We can’t let fear rule our course of action. We need to keep moving,” Ry says, and suddenly there’s more light in the space than Jaden’s little flashlight provides. “If she shows, we’ll deal with her.” Flames burst from Ry’s hand, banishing the darkness and pushing it back into the tight recesses. Illuminated stalactites reach down for us from above. Finger paintings on the rock walls come to life—Native American pictographs.
Because that plan worked so well last time. Shaking the water from my boot as I step clear of the pool, I study the torch in Ry’s hand. “How did you make that?”
“With what I had and what I could find.”
Ry moves close to the wall, examines the pictographs. Tattered edges of his shirt hang loose at his waist, matching the dark fabric wrappings of the torch in his grip. Resourceful.
“How is it, exactly, that you know where we’re going?”
Jaden drops from the crawlspace into the main cavern.
Ry stares at me. “Can’t you feel it?”
I search my inner feelings, having no idea what he’s talking about. “Feel what?”
His brow knits together. “I wouldn’t think it needs explaining. It just is.”
Jaden steps beside me. “She’s nev
er experienced it. She can’t distinguish the feeling.”
“I hate being talked around. Would you just explain it to me?”
“Right here, Ana.” Jaden takes my hand and places it on my heart. “Can you feel that? There should be a new sensation that wasn’t there before. It should get stronger as we close in on the gateway. It will lead you home. It leads us all home.”
I search within myself for this feeling, not sure it’s there at all.
“Give it time. You’ll get used to it,” Jaden says. “Ryland and I have done this before. You grew up in this world, so it’ll be different for you.”
His hand drops from mine. From my heart. The disappointment I feel surprises me. “Maybe, but what if I never feel it?”
“Don’t worry. You probably already possess it. You just haven’t realized it yet. Besides, you’re a fast learner. I have confidence it’ll come.”
“Look here.” Ry points to the pictographs. “We’re looking for an underground water system. Or at least where one once was. We’ll follow that to the waterfall and the first doorway.” He indicates squiggly lines on the wall and something resembling a coiled snake beyond.
“First doorway? How many are there?” I suddenly fear a never-ending journey.
Ry laughs. “It won’t be as bad as you think. I’ve traveled between the realms many times. You’ll do fine.”
I don’t recall him being gone too often. “How many times?”
“Honestly, more than I care to count.”
“Why you? Why travel more than Mom did, if she was your commanding officer? Wouldn’t she want to see my father?”
“I went because she was the ranking warrior,” he replies, “and she had you and Crystia to look after. I went to take supplies and gather intel. Nerine has never gone back. Let’s hope that changes, and she’ll be there to meet us on the other end.” He ends with a heavy heave of his chest.
“Mom never went back?”
Ry confirms with a twist of his head.
I fix him with a stare. “What about Crystia?”
“You’re wondering how she was conceived, aren’t you?” He leans against the wall and crosses his arms.
I stiffen, hide my face in my hand. Um…no. Maybe. Gross.
His face lights with excitement. “It’s quite brilliant, actually. The Balance Bringer Triune is the equivalent of what they call triplets here in the human world. Because you were born to an immortal warrior, the embryos went into a state of hibernation until it was time for them to be born. This is how it has always been for our females, saving the birth for a time free of battle.”
I throw my head back. Why am I hearing this?
“After Kaia was born, you weren’t born for a long time. I’m assuming that was because Dreya showed up at your father’s door, and the danger was sensed. Once we were in the human world, Crystia came immediately.” He finishes with a satisfied grin.
I stare at the marbled walls with my mouth slightly agape.
“Cheer up. It’s not like I just changed everything you know from sex-ed.” Ry slaps me on the back and laughs.
It’s followed by a warm, soothing touch that runs down the length of my right arm—Jaden. Sucking in my breath, I turn inward, searching for that feeling again, the feeling we’re heading in the right direction. Still nothing.
Ry moves the torch, highlighting the space, and spots our exit in the far corner, on the ground. The hole is big enough for us to drop through one at a time. Leaning through the gape in the stone, he assesses the drop, then lets the torch fall. It isn’t far, and the flames dance eerily off the new cavern walls, lighting up a much bigger space below.
Ry takes too long studying the space. My skin is crawling. “Can we just go already? I don’t like standing around when she could show up any minute.” My gaze wanders around the small space of the cavern, taking in every single shadow.
With a short laugh, Ry hands me the small flashlight from his belt, then promptly disappears. Jaden and I follow suit, and soon we’re all standing in the entry to a colossal vaulted room. Tiny, shimmery crystals are embedded in the surfaces all around us. They sparkle and gleam each time a beam of light passes. It’s exquisite.
The ground is hard and uneven, with lots of sharp edges. Our footing must be carefully placed as we travel the darkly shadowed place. The deeper we go, the larger the crystals. I’m hypnotized by them, feel myself gravitate toward them. I want to touch them, collect them, make jewelry with them.
I don’t blindly follow Ry. My light constantly strays, flashing from side to side, taking in all the wonders hidden here. I wander from the path and spy the most amazing treasure ever. It calls to me. I step deeper into the cavern, away from Ry and Jaden, toward the crystal formation jutting from the wall. A fallen star has somehow been trapped in this mountain. In the center is the most magnificent crystal I’ve ever seen. It’s longer than my hand.
Kneeling beside it, I glide my finger lightly along its clear surface. Power surges through me. My breath hitches, my skin vibrates, and my hair follicles tingle. It’s sacred. I have to get closer to it.
“Intoxicating.” Dohlan breathes the word into the hair at my temple.
I refuse to look at him and continue to stare at the crystal. “Why are you here?”
His breath warms my neck. “Just looking after my interests.”
“Which are what, exactly?”
“I think you know,” he whispers in my ear.
I shiver. He vanishes, leaving his scent to linger on the cool, still air.
Shaking the effects of Dohlan off, I lay both of my hands on the crystal. I can almost wrap my hand around it. My eyes widen as all my crystals, wristbands, Kaia’s pendant, and the starburst in the rock wall explode with life, filling the entire cavern with a floodlight of illumination. It’s momentarily blinding. Slowly the light fades, returning everything back to normal.
Ry comes up and points at my hands. “What’s that?”
I look down at the line of dotted lights across the back of my hands. It disappears into the sleeves of my jacket. I quickly slip the jacket off to look more closely. “I don’t know.”
The lines continue in an intricate design up my arms, only to disappear again under the sleeves of my shirt. Lifting my shirt slightly, I see the markings work all around my body.
I drop my shirt back into place. “What are they? What do they mean?”
Jaden gazes at me, a blank expression on his face. Ry shrugs.
“Come on, you guys are supposed to know more than m—”
Dreya is standing behind Ry and Jaden. My eyes widen, and I scream. Ry spins around impossibly fast, and Jaden shifts to the side, missing her full strike. When he pulls away, she slices him in the arm and laughs, kicking him to the jagged rocks, her arm already up to block Ry’s attack. Jaden falls to the harsh rubble at our feet, his head cracking on an uneven slab. He lies unconscious; the sight of his blood turns my stomach. I rush to his side to confirm he’s still breathing. He is, but barely.
Dreya needs to die.
“Give me a sword!” I yell.
“Little busy here,” Ry says between strikes, the slightest huff evident in his breath.
I brush back Jaden’s hair and lean in just above his ear, softly laying a kiss upon him. “I’ll make everything all right,” I whisper softly, only for him.
Searching the ground around his fallen body, my hand clasps around a solid, weighty rock. With only thoughts of Dreya and the pain she has inflicted, I aim for her head and throw with all my might. The stone sails through the air with deadly accuracy. Stones from all over the cavern hurtle directly at Dreya, fast and hard.
Dreya and Ry clang swords, sliding them together down to the bases. She pushes him back with a solid crack to the skull, head to head. Her hand jumps up and catches the rock projected directly at her. Snatches it straight out of the air without a glance, and every other stone in the place freezes, all halted in midair. Exploding into laughter, she drops the dull
gray ore, and as she does, all the rest fall to the ground.
Up and moving with speed I didn’t know I had, I bound from boulder to boulder, using my enhanced eyesight to find my way. In a flash, I streak across Ry’s backside, grabbing his second sword, and sink it into Dreya’s side. Her eyes flash with a fury I’ve never seen. With a wave of her hand, Ry is gone, tossed away like a rag doll. She advances on me, our blades spitting fire with every strike between us. She is a greater force than I am. She slams down on top of me, her forearm crushing my chest.
“You are nothing like her.” Her words practically spit in my face.
“Kaia,” I say, venturing a guess, and the violet in her eyes mists to black.
“There is too much of him in you. You even look and smell like him.” Her face turns bitter, as if the taste of sour milk coats her tongue.
I want to know more, to know why she hates my father so much, but there’s no time to ask, and I don’t want to die here today. I shift uncomfortably beneath her weight, struggling to get a knee or arm free.
“Family should love family, Aunt.” I accentuate her title. Her expression tightens at the word love. “You’ll pay for whatever you did to him. My father was a great man.”
“Yes, you are just like him. You will put duty and privilege above love and family. You are no better.” She presses down, and my ribs feel like they’re about to crack.
“King Marduk was—is—one of the greatest men I have ever known.” Ry’s voice is rugged and strong.
Dreya’s form rips from my body, and I see Ry for a split second before he turns and attacks her out of my sight. It takes me a minute to pull myself back together. Dreya has rattled me more than I care to admit. I drag in a painful breath, hand on my chest, hoping it will lessen the strain. I need to get back in the fight.