Stone Voice Rising

by C Lee Tocci

  “The Elders acknowledge that there’s a group of children in the catacombs. They say to tell the Stone Warrior that they are safe and secure.” Molly paused, weighing her words. “But if one of these children is the Infant Stone Voice, the Elders think the child would be safer here, in the Nether Rock.”

  Keotak-se hoped the Elders could not read the misgivings in his mind. The power of the Enemy above was vast and his own failure to protect the child in the past weighed heavily on his soul, and yet he knew what must be done.

  With appropriate ceremonial gestures, Keotak-se directed his words to the Elders.

  “The Council speaks wisely. And yet, if the child is to thrive, to attain the power needed to overthrow the corrupt Stone Voice, she will need to be trained in the Old Ways. Her survival alone is not sufficient.” He paused, frowning. His next words might sting, but their truth must be heard. “Your true enemy are not the Overworlders. The Overworlders do not even know of your existence. But your true enemy knows of the Nether Rock. And of the plight of your people. Your numbers are too few. If the Enemy were to descend into the Nether Rock, your people would not be able to protect themselves, nevermind the child.

  “In the Overworld, there is a Valley. The Valley of Kiva. There, the people have worked for centuries to create a safe haven that will both protect and train the Infant Stone Voice. It is there that I would take the child.”

  Keotak-se bowed to the Council and nodded to Molly to proceed. Molly stared with dismay at Keotak-se before reluctantly translating to Beryl. The words of the Stone Warrior were blunter than the Council was accustomed to.

  When Beryl had conveyed this speech to the Council, an ominous silence descended. Several of the Elders looked with great anger on Keotak-se, but most deeply considered his words.

  Finally, the darkest of the Elders rose and bowed ceremoniously to each of the people assembled. He then turned and walked out of the chamber. One by one, the Elders repeated the ritual, exiting out the same door. When no one was left save Beryl, Molly and Keotak-se, Beryl gestured to Molly. Her eyes brightened in anticipation.

  “Looks like I may get to see a real Stone Voice before I die!” Molly cackled. “They’re taking us to the children.”

  “Describe the terrain where the tracks ended.” Syxx sat motionlessly as he listened to the report of the Director of Security.

  “Terrain?” Despite his impassive expression, Syxx could see the Director’s confusion.

  Syxx spoke slowly. The Director was the most competent of his current minions, but, like all humans, he was innately defective. He curbed his temper as he spat out the words. “The composition of the ground where the trail disappeared.”

  “It was a streambed. Solid rock. Maybe quartz and granite.” The Director did not know one rock from another.

  Syxx steepled his fingers and stared at the ceiling. “Keep all units in full mobilization,” he said at last, “with a particular focus on those areas where the mountain range meets the desert.”

  “It shall be as Syxx demands.” The Director nodded a terse salute before exiting the office.

  Syxx. It was the name he used in this time and place, but he had carried many different labels over the millenniums. Beelzebub. Cabaal. The Deceiver. The Seducer. To the people of the Nether Rock, he was known as Moltaine and in those Nether Regions, that name was greatly feared.

  Yet perhaps not enough.

  Syxx had been too patient with the People of the Nether Rock. He knew how close their race was to complete extinction. It was his own machinations that had pushed them there. For now, it was merely a matter of time; they would soon be past the point of recovery. And yet, that they might, in their current weakened state, present a threat to his plans had not occurred to him. This was an oversight that must be rectified.

  Syxx smiled. Truly horrific violence is so satisfying and even more so when it serves a purpose. There would be nothing but pleasure in the forthcoming carnage.

  Molly’s breath heaved with the effort of keeping up with the long strides of Keotak-se and the Elders, but Keotak-se knew she would have choked to death before admitting weakness.

  “Git a move on, ‘Tak-se,” she wheezed when Keotak-se slowed his pace to meet her steps, “or will the Stone Warrior be left in the dust by an old woman!”

  With an unexpected burst of speed, she pulled a few steps ahead of him, but Keotak-se heard in her wheezing how much the effort cost her.

  Beryl fell back from the line of Elders weaving their way through the labyrinth. Without warning, he reached out and lifted up Molly, who was not a small woman. He carried her as a child, with her face looking back over his shoulder. Evidently, Molly was accustomed to this form of travel since she did not seem startled. Looking back at Keotak-se, she took the opportunity to stick out her tongue while slapping Beryl on his behind and yelling “Git’ up!” Beryl’s shoulder trembled in silent laughter and lightly smacked Molly on her behind as well. Molly’s crack of laughter caused the Elders to look back in bewilderment.

  The procession of Elders slowed their pace. From the frantic motions of their heads, Keotak-se knew that something was amiss.

  They had been following an underground stream. Where it branched off into a dark grotto, there stood two stalactites partially blocking the opening. Between them was a pile of rubble, apparently the remains of a third stalactite that had been reduced to pebbles.

  Yet of the children, there was no sign.

  Chapter Thirty

  Escape from the Nether Rock

  Holding up the rear of the procession, Todd silently fumed. Why did he feel so insignificant? Was it the ease with which Ulex pulverized the stalactite that made him feel so inept? Or was it the adoring way Marla looked up at her strange new friend, holding his hand while he led them out of the labyrinth?

  One day, he might admit to himself that it was both, but for now, he scowled and followed.

  “Ulex says that there are caverns that run all over the entire world. He says that when we return to the surface, he’ll be able to follow us underground.” Marla was breathless as she spoke. It could have been from walking and talking, or it might have been just from holding Ulex’s hand.

  “So his name is Ulex?” Jeff asked from the rear of the pack, staying as far away from their guide as he could.

  “Kind of sort of. Ulex’s people don’t use their mouths to speak, they talk telepathically, so they don’t have names that you can pronounce. ‘Ulex’ is just the word that I kind of hear whenever he refers to himself.”

  This was interesting and Todd would have asked her more about it, but Ulex stopped unexpectedly and in the dim light, Todd bumped into him.

  Ulex looked down and locked eyes with Marla. Then he pulled his hand out of hers and began running back in the direction from where they came. He ran with a speed unexpected for a creature so big and within seconds, vanished into the dark.

  “Ulex!” Marla’s voice squeaked, her eyes, unfocused as she stared at the spot where Ulex disappeared.

  “Where’d he go?” Todd asked with a whisper.

  “There’s an attack on the Women’s chambers. All the men of the Nether Rock have been summoned to defend.” Her voice cracked. “Ulex has been called too. He has to go. He says we’re almost at the exit of the cavern.”

  “Anything else?”

  Marla listened, then shook her head.

  Todd took the lead. His feelings were mixed, but Marla’s misery was real. He touched her shoulder in sympathy as he passed her. She shot him a broken smile and followed, looking behind more than she looked forward.

  They walked for another hour with the cavern getting narrower and tighter. Donny and Todd had to bend down to avoid hitting their heads. Finally, Todd halted the group and peered into the darkness ahead.

  “Douse your stone,” he whispered to Lilibit, who pocketed her stone with a shrug.

  It took their eyes a moment to adjust to the darkness.

  “Yes!” cheered Jeff when he reco
gnized the glimmer of daylight ahead.

  He ignored Todd’s half-hearted warning, and pushed past him to scamper to the end of the tunnel. The tunnel grew dark again as Jeff’s exit filled the opening. The others waited for Todd, who cautiously led them out.

  Todd climbed out of a crevice between two stones that, from the outside, didn’t look large enough to be even a bobcat den. The opening was at the rear of an orange grove that backed up to the mountains.

  Jeff lay on his back, basking in the sun, smugly eating an orange. Todd shot him a look of reprimand which he repelled with an impudent smirk.

  Todd turned to help the others out of the opening. Marla hesitated, shooting one last look down into the cavern, before climbing out to join her friends in the sunlight.

  In the harsh morning light, Todd saw the pain on Marla’s face. Awkwardly, he hugged her and she broke into tears, sobbing as she gripped her stone and pressed it against the base of her throat.

  “There’s a battle going on below,” Marla announced, her eyes cloudy with fear.

  “He’ll be alright, Marla,” Devon said, a calm certainty in his voice that made the others turn and stare. He smiled reassuringly at them, then sat down exhausted, his lips twitching in one of those private conversations he sometimes had with himself.

  It was morning. They’d been lost in the labyrinth of the Nether Rock for a full day.

  “Let’s rest here.” Todd scrubbed at his scalp and looked up at the sky. “I don’t think we should travel in the daylight. We’ll go tonight when it gets dark.”

  They curled up under the arms of an orange tree. The ripe fruit gave a sweet citrus smell and weighed down the branches to create a secret bower. They slept deeply, so exhausted that not even Lilibit stirred when the occasional helicopter passed overhead.

  Chapter Thirty One

  The Battle of the Nether Rock

  It was unnecessary for Beryl to tell Molly that the children were gone and that the Elders were mystified as to how they had escaped from the grotto. Keotak-se saw that in their faces.

  He knelt. Reading the grit on the cavern floor, Keotak-se could distinguish those marks that were made by the Elders from the earlier signs of the children.

  It appeared that a denizen of the Nether Rock walked among the seven children, apparently assisting in their escape. Why he should do so and how they managed to communicate mystified Keotak-se, but perhaps forces greater than he knew were assisting this Infant Stone Voice.

  He would have left them then, but as he turned to take his formal leave, he was checked by the actions of the Elders. Acting on some message undetectable to the Overworlders, the Netherockians raced back down the tunnel.

  Beryl waited only a moment to sign frantically to Molly before speeding after the disappearing Elders. Molly’s face turned white as she turned to Keotak-se.

  “Something is attacking the Women’s Chamber,” she said with a cracked whisper. “If the attack is successful, it will be the extinction of the Netherockians.”

  Keotak-se was torn. He knew his primary duty was to find and protect the Infant Stone Voice, but he also suspected this attack on the Nether Rock was initiated by the same Enemy who knew the Stone Voice was in the labyrinth.

  The thought of some greater power protecting the child gave him some small reassurance.

  To Molly he said, “I will stand by the Nether Rock. I will help them defend.”

  Molly gasped as Keotak-se vanished, replaced by a small brown bat which flapped a scant farewell before flitting down the labyrinth in pursuit of the Elders.

  Keotak-se stood at the mouth of the legendary Crystal Cavern. A vast underground canyon, two or three miles across, a dozen miles deep and more than a mile high, it held the Nether Rock’s most precious treasures.

  It was said that no human had ever set foot into the Crystal Cavern. And lived. Keotak-se now knew why. From the light of his stone, Hakuya, he stared at the forest of crystal shards that grew thickly like tall thin glass pine trees, nestled side by side. They rose hundreds of feet into the air to create a labyrinth of razor sharp hedges. To enter the maze would mean certain death, for the path was treacherous and with one false step, an intruder would be sliced into pieces by the shards. There had never been a successful assault on the Crystal Cavern, and it had been centuries since anyone had tried.

  Only the Elders of the Nether Rock knew the secret path through the labyrinth, for hidden deep behind its fortifications lay the Woman’s Chamber. It was there that the dwindling females of the Nether Rock lived and gave birth to their children. Most Netherockians left the chamber as infants, never to see it again. Few even saw the Crystal Cavern. Today, however, all the warriors of the Nether Rock, both young and old, assembled to defend.

  Staff in hand, Keotak-se leapt the from the mouth of the cavern, twenty feet down to the floor. Within moments, a dozen Netherockian warriors surrounded him. Mistaking him for an invader, they roared silently and brandished razor sharp crystal spears. He tapped his staff on the ground three times and it came to life, glowing brilliantly with the power of the Stone. The light temporarily blinded the warriors and they fell back, all four sets of their auxiliary eyelids slamming shut. But quickly adjusting, they regrouped and again closed in.

  Unwilling to fight the Netherockians, but unable to communicate with them, Keotak-se held his staff at the ready and his opponents at bay. The tip of his staff glowed brightly and for several long moments, they stood, facing each other, in a tense detente.

  Confusion replaced aggression; the warriors cocked their heads and listened to a voice that Keotak-se could not hear. Warily, they stepped back and lowered their weapons.

  Beryl strode into the circle, his skin, dark grey with anger and dread. He glanced up to the mouth of the cavern, as if to assure himself that Molly had not followed as well, then turned back to Keotak-se. He pounded his spear on the ground and pointed up to the exit. Keotak-se understood.

  “No. I stand beside the Warriors of the Nether Rock. I will defend.”

  Keotak-se knew Beryl could not understand his words, but his meaning could be read in face and gesture. Beryl, glaring at the Stone Warrior, might have tried again, but a rumble from deep within the catacombs turned his attention. Shoulder to shoulder, the Netherockians faced the opening. Keotak-se, his staff at the ready, waited.

  Squeals and tremors mixed into a bestial clamor that terrified the Netherockians. The dark adults fell back as readily as the pale adolescents, panicked by the approaching attackers.

  A hot blast of fetid air, shooting out from the entrance to the cavern, preceded the first surge of the invasion. Hordes of rats, foaming white poison at the mouth, cascaded down the cliff like rabid lemmings. They slammed themselves in suicidal waves against the crystal shards and against the Defenders of the Nether Rock.

  Keotak-se aimed his staff, its apex still glowing white, at the first wave. With a blast of power that terrified his fellow Defenders, he incinerated scores of vermin. Yet no sooner had ten score been destroyed, than ten times that number would teem into the chamber. They not only came through the main entry, but they worked their way through cracks and gaps thought to be too small to be a threat. The walls of the cavern throbbed as the invaders swarmed in from all sides.

  The Defenders crushed the invaders with foot and hand. Seizing them, they smashed them against the crystal pinnacles. Small corpses littered the labyrinth and blood stained the crystals. At first, Keotak-se wondered if the rats, though numerous, could do much harm against the stone-plated denizens of the Nether Rock, but some greater intelligence seemed to be directing them. As they leapt to attack the Defenders, they aimed for their huge soft eyes and Keotak-se watched as one Netherockian after another fell in silent agony under the barrage of the rabid raiders.

  From the corner of his eye, Keotak-se had been aware of the approach of a young Netherockian. From his height and from the pale luminescence of his membrane, he judged him to be an adolescent, perhaps too young to be joined in
this battle. Yet he noticed a maturity and tenacity in this youth that his elders would do well to possess.

  Like many of the others, this young Netherockian squashed vermin beneath his feet and crushed their bodies between his mammoth fingers. When an older warrior, stumbling under a barrage of attacking rats, crashed into the nearby throng of stony shards, he leapt to his aid, stripping the vermin off his fallen comrade. Distracted, he was soon overpowered himself and within moments, was enveloped.

  Keotak-se strode to his side. Tapping his staff three times, he unleashed a blast that singed the young Netherockian’s membrane, but also incinerated his attackers. Standing shakily, he shook off his weakness and, with a wary nod of thanks to Keotak-se, returned to the battle.

  Yet there was something else about this young Netherockian that caught Keotak-se’s attention. Hanging about his neck, the stone, Branken, hummed frantically, as if to call out to this youth. Keotak-se, though engaged in battle, kept a close eye on him.

  The young one also watched Keotak-se with a chary awareness. When Keotak-se swung his staff into the teeming horde like a scythe, the young Netherockian’s eyes widened with interest. Picking up a long length of broken crystal, he held it with the same manner that Keotak-se held his staff. Oblivious to its razor edges, the youth swung the shard in a sweeping arc, reaping a bloody swath through the vermin.

  Branken sang. Rats and Netherockians fell on either side of them. Here, at the mouth of the chamber, it was as if only Keotak-se and the young one fought on.

  Keotak-se felt his stone’s power ebbing. He struck the stub of his staff against the ground and felt the spirit of the Earth Stone sing through its shaft. His hands tightened as energy surged to its peak. Light pulsed and the attackers perished into ash.

  The eyes of the young one widened. Pausing in his work, he glanced down at the crystal shard. Almost without thought, he struck the tip of it against the ground.