by C Lee Tocci
His ears were keener than most, but it was the change in the air which told him he was no longer alone.
“Keotak-se,” a deep raspy voice creaked from the darkness. “Hmph. You don’t change at all with the years. You know, when I was younger, I envied your longevity. But now I think that outliving everyone you once knew and loved is the most dreadful curse of fate.”
Keotak-se could not restrain a slight smile. “The years may slow your steps and bend your back, Molly Coppertop, but your tongue remains the sharpest blade.”
In the near blackness of the mine, Keotak-se barely saw the hunched figure of an ancient woman shuffling toward him. Her near sightless eyes gleamed as an errant fragment of light struck them. She stooped over the bag and lifted out each of the sweetbreads and pastries, sniffing at them with a cracked smile before replacing them into the sack.
“If you think to charm a lady with pretty words and sweet gifts, your efforts would yield better fruits on a younger sapling.”
“The oldest oak bears the tenderest acorns.”
The old woman barked a cackle of laughter. “Ha! With a tongue like that, Keotak-se, you’d have done better on the stage than wasting your lives dancing with stones.”
Keotak-se’s faint smile was warm but tinged with melancholy. He remembered Molly as a feisty young woman, with bright red hair, a ready wit and a sharp tongue. Only a glint or two of copper now shown through the matte of grey hanging down below her shoulders. She still wore the colorful flowery prints of her youth, but now her clothes were torn and faded. A soiled, patched sweater hung loosely over her hunched shoulders.
It was nearly half a century since Keotak-se last saw Molly and he alone knew why she chose to stay behind when the town was finally abandoned. Near blind from a childhood accident, she loved the mines that did not treat her blindness as a handicap, but as a strength.
And she loved Beryl, the Renegade from Nether Rock, whom she stumbled across once while prospecting when she was barely more than a girl. He had strayed too close to the surface and was injured when a lantern ignited a natural gas pocket in the mine. Cut off from his people, he was preparing to surrender his Life Breath when Molly found him and nursed him back to health. The surface dwellers may have considered Molly’s eyes too small and her nose too sharp, but Beryl saw a woman in whom the copper of the mountain ran through her veins and glistened in her hair.
They were an improbable pair, the blind woman of flesh and the voiceless man of stone, yet they connected with a depth that defied the deficiencies of their contrary natures.
And when her people deserted the dying town, Molly retreated into the mines, content in her exile, rarely returning to the surface.
“I need your help, Molly,” Keotak-se stated baldly. “A group of children have fallen into the labyrinth of the Nether Rock.”
Despite the gloom, Keotak-se saw Molly eye him speculatively.
“And since when does a Stone Warrior play nanny to a pack of brats?” Molly rasped.
Keotak-se said nothing, yet he knew the blind woman would see the truth.
“So, it’s true,” Molly whispered, glancing around as if there might be spies of the Enemy even here, inside her beloved mines. “A new Stone Voice is rising.” She spoke it as a statement, but Keotak-se heard the question in her words.
Again, Keotak-se answered her question by saying nothing.
Molly peered dimly at him. Keotak-se knew she saw just the blur of his silhouette yet perceived much more. She sniffed the air as if the knowledge she sought was a scent wafting up from the shafts. She stood hunched for a moment, poised for flight, and then with a flood of motion, she strode down the tunnel with a speed and strength that belied her years, faultlessly weaving her way through the maze of tunnels.
From around his neck, Keotak-se pulled out Hakuya and stroked it once with his finger. The stone glowed warmly, illuminating Molly’s retreating figure.
Keotak-se followed.
Chapter Twenty Eight
The Renegades of the Nether Rock
Marla woke. Or at least she thought she was awake. It was as dark with her eyes open as it was when they were shut. Her head throbbed and when she raised a hand to rub it, she found a painful bruise on the scalp above her neck.
The slab of stone she lay on was cold and clammy. She sat up and closed her eyes, waiting a moment for her head to stop spinning and her eyes to adjust to the dark. When she opened them again, she froze, for there, dimly glowing in the darkness, a figure stood staring at her.
She knew it was a man, but a man unlike any she had ever seen or imagined. In the dark of the cave, his skin gleamed faintly with a weird pale teal light. He was close to seven feet tall and his body looked like it was made of stone, like a raw gleaming white slab of mineral that could bend and flex at will. His torso and arms were broad and powerful and his head was shaped like a hexagonal crystal, chiseled with a rough-hewn face. The top of his head where hair would be was a jagged edge as if he was a living gemstone broke off from a larger rock.
Terrified, Marla scuttled backwards. She gasped and held her breath as the man reached out his hand towards her, but when his finger tentatively pressed against the tip of her nose, she reacted in a way that surprised them both.
She giggled.
The sound had an immediate effect on the crystal man. He retreated from Marla with far more speed than grace, watching her warily from a safe distance. There was something so comic in his dismayed expression, it made Marla giggle again.
The crystal man responded with what, even on his stony face, could only be described as a foolish grin. Cautiously, he slowly approached Marla again. Again, he reached out with a hesitant finger and lightly touched the tip of her nose. When she giggled again, he abruptly sat down in front of her with a clatter of his stony legs and grinned at her.
Marla was intrigued. Gathering her courage, she reached out timidly to touch the nose in front of her. The crystal man watched charily.
The skin of the crystal man was hard and cold, like a stone, but Marla felt it pulsing beneath her finger. She pulled back her finger in astonishment. The crystal man opened his mouth as if to laugh, but no sound came out. Marla smiled.
Marla didn’t know how long the two of them sat there, staring at each other. Time somehow lost its meaning, yet at some point, her body grew chilled from sitting on the stone and she stood.
“I need to find my friends,” she said to the crystal man, and knowing he could not understand her words, she reached out and took his hand.
For a moment, he stared down at the small soft brown hand wrapped so smoothly around his large stony white fingers, puzzled. But then, with a slightly goofy smile, he allowed Marla to lead him out of the grotto. He couldn’t know where they were going or what they were looking for, but for the moment, he was content to follow.
By the light of Hakuya, Keotak-se saw Molly halt before a natural opening in the mine tunnel wall. Here, decades ago, miners inadvertently breached one of the subterranean channels that wove beneath the desert’s surface. Molly let out a deep breathy whistle, then she waited as still as the stone.
Minutes passed before Keotak-se heard a creaking from the depths. Into the dim light lumbered a figure of dark stone towering nearly eight feet tall. His vitreous skin was dark grey and barely luminous from old age. Decades had passed since Keotak-se last saw Beryl and it was evident he was reaching the end of his life span. In truth, Beryl had already lived far longer than most of his generation, hanging on to his mortality out of devotion to Molly, but the day would soon come when he passed back to the Stone and returned his body to the earth. When that day came, lost would be the only bridge between the People of the Nether Rock and the Overworlders.
“Greetings Beryl,” spoke Keotak-se, gesturing with his right arm the Nether Rock sign of welcome. Keotak-se knew his the words were superfluous. The People of Nether Rock communicated primarily through thought. Body movements were only used in formal ceremonial communicatio
ns. Sound was never used at all, yet over the decades, Beryl learned to decipher many of Molly’s words.
Beryl met Keotak-se’s eyes and returned the gesture. Turning to Molly, the two of them began a series of motions and signals that they had developed over the years to communicate. It appeared to Keotak-se however, that they transmitted more information through their locked eyes than through the battery of gestures.
As abruptly as they started, the motions stopped. Beryl straightened to his full height and focused his eyes on a point far from the hollow in which they stood. Then, with a nod to Molly, he turned and disappeared into the murk of the passage.
“C’mon,” Molly wheezed as she trotted after Beryl. “We’re to appear before the Council of the Elders.” Looking back over her shoulder, she shot Keotak-se a mischievous smirk. “We’re to be the first Overworlders to appear before the Council in nearly two thousand years. A milestone of note, even for you, Stone Warrior.”
With a wry grunt, Keotak-se followed.
Todd sat on the bank of the underground stream, his head in his hands, unwilling to meet the others’ eyes. Yet when he finally did look at them, their faces weren’t accusing, merely waiting for his lead. Even Jeff held his tongue. All their hopes were on him, and their confidence crushed him even more than blame would have.
He was stymied. How the stone bars had appeared was not as important as how they were going to get past them. The food in their packs might last a week, but unless Todd figured out how to burrow out, it only postponed the inevitable. They huddled together against the cavern wall. Jeff tossed stones into the stream, occasionally glancing at him, his eyebrows raised in expectation.
Todd’s keen ears pricked up at the sound of a distant murmur. Lilibit’s hearing must have been equally sharp, for she too cocked her head before crossing quickly to the stalagmites, peering beyond them into the darkness.
“Douse your stone for a moment,” Todd whispered. Lilibit slid it back into her pocket and the cavern went black.
Over the bubbling of the brook, Todd heard a far-off mumbling. He held his breath, wondering whether it might be friend or foe.
Jeff didn’t wait to find out. “Help! Over here! We’re trapped!” he yelled.
Todd started to tell Jeff to shut up, but stopped himself. His leadership led them into this mess, and at this moment, he wasn’t feeling very qualified to tell anyone what to do.
“Jeff?” a faint voice answered. “Is that you? Where are you?”
Donny, Jeff, Devon and Nita began yelling as well. Lilibit clapped her hands over her ears as the sounds amplified through the caves. Todd shushed them with his hand and after a moment, they quieted down. Lilibit pulled out her stone and its dim light returned.
Marla’s voice echoed from somewhere deep within the labyrinth. Six faces peered through the gaps between the stalactites. Six sets of eyes saw Marla appear at the edge of the gleam of Lilibit’s stone. And six mouths gasped as they saw the apparition that appeared behind Marla. Towering nearly seven feet, a figure of glowing white stone stepped into the light.
“Marla! Behind You! Look Out!” Todd yelled.
Marla spun around, stepping around her new friend to look behind him, then she paused and turned back to the others.
“Oh, him!” she grinned. “This is my friend.”
She took his hand to lead him closer, but the crystal man hung back, his face plainly showing dismay.
“How’d you get in there?” asked Marla as she examined the stalagmites.
Todd ignored Marla’s question. “What is that?” he asked in a terrified whisper. Only Todd and Lilibit still stood by the opening. The others stood far back from the pillars.
“It’s not a that! It’s a who!” answered Marla, a slight chill to her voice. She turned to smile at her new friend. “I think he lives down here,” she added.
Lilibit stared keenly at the newcomer. There was none of the fear that the helicopters caused, only curiosity. When the crystal man caught her peering at him, she grinned at him. Hesitantly, he smiled back.
Seeing this, Marla, grabbed the crystal man’s hand possessively and stepped between them. “Can you get out of there?” she asked.
“No.” Todd answered, his voice monotone in despair. “Both ends of this tunnel are blocked. These pillars just appeared after we walked through the opening.”
Marla turned to the crystal man. “Can you help?” she asked, but while he stared back at her earnestly, he could not understand her words and she could not hear his thoughts.
Suddenly, the cavern went dark, only the faint glow of the crystal man providing a dim light. All eyes turned to Lilibit, who had put her Obelisk Stone back in her pocket and now pulled out her other stones. She placed them against her cheek one at a time, before laying them carefully on the ground. They watched her, puzzled, when a long finger-shaped stone made her pause. She sat motionlessly for several long moments, her head leaning to one side, her eyes focused inwards. Then she replaced all the other stones carefully back into her pockets and pulled out her Obelisk Stone, which brightened obligingly. By the light of her stone, she picked up the finger stone again and placed it in her open palm.
It was an odd stone. One half consisted of pale white quartz and the other, dark luminous obsidian. Lilibit stared at the stone in her palm for several moments before closing her fingers around it. When she opened her hand again, the stone had split in two along the seam where the two minerals met. She looked up with a delighted smile.
Scrambling to her feet, she reached through the pillars and called to Marla to come closer.
“What?” asked Marla warily, walking towards the pillars.
“Here! Her name is Hesha-Tay,” announced Lilibit, offering the quartz half of the stone to her.
“Lilibit! No!” The panic in Todd’s voice echoed through the cavern. He remembered only too well what happened to Lilibit when she first touched her stone.
But Marla had already taken the stone. It lay gently in her hand.
Marla caught Todd watching her, an intent look on his face. Puzzled, she looked back at him and shrugged.
“Come here!” called Lilibit imperiously, gesturing to the crystal man with a smile.
The towering rock man could have crushed the tiny Lilibit with his hands, yet he approached her with the same wariness he might have a hungry grizzly bear. He looked blankly at her hand when she extended the obsidian stone to him.
“Take it!” Lilibit said with exasperation. “His name is Oji-Tay and he wants to stay with you!”
The crystal man glanced at Marla, who looked from him to the stone in her hand and back again. After a moment’s thought, she nodded for him to take the stone.
Marla spun around, her eyes darting back and forth. “Who said that?” she asked.
“Said what?” Todd replied. “No one said anything except Lilibit.”
“You didn’t hear that?” Marla sounded a little on edge.
“Hear what?”
“I heard someone say ‘why does the small overworlder want to give me a stone.” Marla looked up at the crystal man. “Did you say that?”
The crystal man’s eyes grew even larger and his jaw dropped open.
“Wow!” Marla’s voice was hushed. “I heard you speak! But not with my ears!”
“Weird,” Jeff muttered in the darkness. “Just when you thought life had got as weird as it can get, we step over into weirder and weirder still.”
Seeing Marla and the crystal man stare at each other, Todd could not argue with that.
Chapter Twenty Nine
The Council of the Nether Rock
It was not often Keotak-se felt dwarfed, but standing before the Council of the Fathers, all of whom stood between seven and eight feet tall, the Stone Warrior felt faintly diminished.
It was an assembly bordering on the bizarre. After the extensive formal ceremony of commencement, the Elders would communicate among themselves, then one Elder would address Beryl, who then signed to
Molly, who then translated to Keotak-se.
Keotak-se gritted his jaw, biting back his impatience as the time-consuming formalities were adhered to. He did not know where the children were, but he knew the Enemy to be relentless and ruthless.
Molly leaned towards Keotak-se. “The Infant Stone Voice is more important to the People of Nether Rock than you might think,” she whispered. “Since the old Stone Voice fell into corruption, it’s been devastating for them. In the past ten centuries, their numbers have dwindled. Time was, there were more than ten million People of the Nether Rock living under all the continents, now there’s less than two hundred thousand. Before the fall, there were more females than males. Now there’s less than four hundred females. Beryl says the old Stone Voice has quarantined the Earth Soul, choking off Her vision of nature. And they say it’s ‘cause of ‘earth-blindness’ that female babies in the Nether Rock don’t thrive.
“It was ’bout two centuries ago that the Elders decided to isolate the remaining females to protect them and to encourage as many births as possible. These women are only allowed to raise their female children. All their male children are taken from them at birth to be raised by the fathers. Some females have borne as many as fifty offspring in the effort to have one daughter that they can be allowed to raise. Female children have become much too rare, and when a female child is born, it is often too weak to survive. Beryl says if things don’t change, the People of the Nether Rock will die out within the next century or two.”
Keotak-se would not trust himself to speak. He knew a corrupted Stone Voice was an abomination, but he was still learning how damaging the fall of Korap had been.
The Elder conversing with Beryl bowed elaborately to signal the end of the exchange, then Beryl turned to Molly. Considering how long the Elders conferred, Beryl’s translation to Molly was unexpectedly brief.
Molly looked to Keotak-se as if she were presenting a coiled cobra as a gift. She spoke slowly and deliberately.