by J. K. Barber
“What are you trying to say?” Sasha asked, stepping over next to her sister. Katya turned her head to regard her sister.
“What I’m saying is that the corruption of the crystal was a means to an end,” the sorceress replied. “Whatever filth the Ice Queen poured into this thing,” Katya pointed towards the column, still careful not to touch it, “it has seeped into the land around it. It would be like removing a poisoned arrow from someone’s body. Yes the arrow’s out, but the poison had already gotten into the person’s blood. Burning the arrow won’t stop the person from dying.”
“Can we just bury it?” Jared asked weakly, already suspecting the answer but feeling helpless to aid in any other way than simply to offer suggestions.
Katya stood, throwing her staff across the room. The length of wood clattered across the floor, sliding until it hit the far wall. “NO!” she screamed at the woodsman. “Haven’t you been listening? The land around this thing has already been corrupted, poisoned by the Ice Queen’s magic.” The sorceress’ face began to turn red as she stalked up to Jared. “Burying the crystal,” she yelled into the hunter’s face, “would be pointless!” Katya threw up her hands, the long blue sleeves of her robe, soiled and tattered by their journey here, flapping in the air.
Sasha grabbed her sister by the shoulders, turning her away from Jared so that Katya was facing her. “Easy, Katya,” the red-haired woman said softly to her twin. “Just relax, we’ll figure it out.” Sasha’s tone was gentle, meant to calm her sister, but the sorceress was having none of it.
“You don’t get it, Sasha!” Katya yelled. “None of you get it!” The raven-haired woman gestured at the Nhyme and Jared. “I could stay here for a hundred years and I still wouldn’t have a clue as to how to fix this. The Ice Queen has had lifetimes to study and plan on just how to do what she did here. What do you expect me to do? What!?” The taut string of anger and frustration that fueled Katya’s tirade snapped and the young sorceress collapsed into her sister’s arms, crying. Both women sunk to the floor. “I don’t know why he sent me here,” she sobbed. “What did Magus Lucian think I was going to figure out that he couldn’t?” Katya’s body heaved as months of frustration, worry and fear poured out of her. “He’s the second most powerful sorcerer in the kingdom. If he couldn’t figure out a way to fix this, I’m definitely not going to be able to. I’m just so tired….” Sasha held her sister as tightly as she could, saying nothing, simply stroking her twin’s hair.
Jared leaned down next to the twins. He put out his hand to comfort Katya, but Sasha’s warning glance made him stop mid-gesture. He slowly pulled back his hand, confused, but willing to defer to Sasha’s wisdom on how to deal with her sister’s mood.
“All those people,” Katya sobbed into her sister’s shoulder. “All those people died, the shopkeeper, those soldiers… Mala. Mala died so that I could get here and fix this.” The sorceress started to flail weakly against Sasha’s grip, but the red-haired warrior held her twin tightly. “I can’t,” she said, barely intelligible through her crying. “I can’t… I don’t know how.” Katya’s voice trailed off as she continued to cry quietly into her sister’s shoulder.
Jared stood and walked around the room to look at the crystal and to give the twins some time alone together. The hunter picked up the Nhyme on the way, carefully placing them on his shoulder as they talked between themselves.
“It looks like a big block of cheese,” Niko said, looking at the column of crystal.
“Would you shut up about cheese?!” Chyla snapped at her companion. “There are more important things to be concerned about here than feeding your stomach.”
“I am kind of hungry, now that you mention it,” Niko responded, his voice sounding completely sincere.
“Oh, I give up!” the tiny female Nhyme huffed and flew away from Jared, her gossamer dragonfly wings an angry buzz as she flitted across the room to land on Sasha’s shoulder. Chyla looked to be speaking words of comfort to Katya, but Jared was too far away to hear what the Nhyme girl was saying.
“What did I say?” Niko asked, looking up at Jared.
The hunter shrugged his shoulders, but fished a bundle of cloth out of his largest belt pouch and unwrapped it. Inside were a small piece of dried meat, a stale looking hunk of bread and a tiny portion of cheese. Jared began chewing on the piece of jerky and handed the small piece of cheese to Niko, who happily began devouring the treat.
“You’ve had this the whole time?” the tiny Nhyme man asked between mouthfuls.
“I always try to keep some food on me,” the woodsman said, but offered no further explanation. He stared at the black crystal that stretched nearly to the ceiling above, examining the roughly oblong spherical holes that had been carved out of it. They reminded Jared of giant eggs. The hunter looked back at the room he had sent Johnson to guard and how Sirus had called it a hatchery.
“That’s a shame,” Niko said from Jared’s shoulder, breaking the woodsman’s train of though.
“What’s a shame?” Jared asked, only half paying attention to the Nhyme.
“About the crystal,” Niko supplied. “We have crystals like that back in the Blodwood. But they’re healthy looking.” The diminutive man pointed at the black mass of gemstone in the center of the room. “That crystal looks sick.” Niko popped another tiny handful of cheese into his mouth.
“Yeah, it certainly looks that way, doesn’t it?” Jared replied half ignoring the Nhyme’s observation, trying to make a mental connection between the empty spaces he saw in the crystal and his former mentor.
“It’s a shame we can’t make it feel better,” Niko said, after he had finished chewing a rather large piece of cheese he had popped into his mouth. “This is good cheese. Where did you get it? I didn’t see any cows back in the shifter village, so I bet you didn’t get it there.”
“What did you say?” Jared asked, his mind latching on to what Niko had just said. He grabbed the Nhyme off of his shoulder and held the tiny man in the palm of his hand.
“I said this is good cheese,” Niko replied. “You obviously didn’t get this back in the shifter village. That’s what I call them because I have trouble saying thoria… thrian… therianthrope,” the tiny man finally said. “Anyway, I didn’t see any shifter goats or cows. Have you been carrying this in your pouch since Valshet?” Niko stuck out his tongue and held his stomach as though he might be ill. “Oooh, I think I’m going to be sick.”
“Sick!” Jared exclaimed. “The crystal is sick.”
“Yeah, that’s what I said,” Niko replied, clearly not seeing the connection between the crystal and whether the cheese he had just eaten was safe to be consumed. “But what does that have…”
Jared cut off the tiny winged man, his eyes wide. “The crystal is sick,” the hunter repeated. “I wonder if….” Jared all but ran around the column of blackened gemstone, sliding to a painful stop on the icy floor next to where Sasha still held her crying sister, his injured leg protesting.
“The crystal is sick!” Jared said. Katya looked up from her sister’s shoulder, her eyes were red and puffy and her face streaked with tears. The twins and Chyla stared at him confused.
“The crystal is sick,” he repeated. When the women stared at him for several seconds more as though the pressure had finally caused him to snap, he took a deep breath and explained. “The crystal has been corrupted.”
“We covered this already,” Katya said, irritated.
“I know,” Jared continued. “You said it was like a poison.”
“Yes.”
“Could it be like a disease and not a poison?” Jared asked.
“I guess,” Katya snapped. “Why does it matter?”
“So heal it,” Jared said, excited. The hunter’s excitement failed to infect the sorceress.
“What?”
“Heal it,” Jared repeated. “If it’s like a disease, heal it.”
“I can’t,” Katya replied, looking as though she was about to start cr
ying again. Sasha caught her sister’s mood and shot Jared a scathing look, warning him to back off.
Undaunted, Jared continued, but his tone was softer. “You healed my leg, you healed some of the soldiers and therianthropes, you healed yourself,” Jared indicated Katya’s forearm with a nod of his chin. “Great Mother above, you saved your sister’s life when she was burnt half to death.”
Katya turned her head fully to glare at Jared. “It’s not the same,” she stated, her voice once again angry. “That,” she indicated the column of black crystal, “is not the same. You are a living thing, that pillar is not.”
“Yes, it is,” Jared stated quietly. Everyone in the cramped chamber stared at him blankly. Even Katya’s anger subsided a little at the revelation. “Think about it,” he said. “The dragons came from eggs. Sirus and the others told us that.” Jared pointed at the ellipsoid holes in the crystal. “Where do you think those eggs came from?” Every eye turned towards the crystal. “The dragons, in their eggs, were kept alive by that crystal. The Ice Queen infected the crystal and therefore the dragons who were living in it at the time.”
“No,” Sasha whispered. “That can’t possibly be true.”
“It can,” Jared retorted, but said no more. The woodsman looked at the sorceress as her eyes widened in recognition of what Jared had said, but then her shoulders slumped.
“I can’t,” Katya said, crestfallen.
“Why not?” Jared asked, frustrated by the sorceress’ continuing pessimism.
“Even if I could heal something that big, which I don’t think I can,” Katya said, her eyes turning back towards the hunter, full of disappointment and shame. “I don’t know how to heal diseases.”
“But I do,” Chyla said, her voice quiet, even for one of her tiny kind.
“You do?” Katya asked, looking at the Nhyme girl on Sasha’s shoulder.
“I do,” Chyla stated again. “It was one of the reasons I left Blodwood in the first place, remember? I was going to see if I could do anything for your mother.” The Nhyme girl’s voice was heavily laden with sadness. “But she died before we could get to her. My mother, Amara, taught me all that she knew about healing, including how to cure diseases and counteract the effects of poisons.”
“Then you can do it,” Jared said, new hope springing to life in his mind.
“No,” Chyla replied. “I can’t.”
Jared growled, his frustration finally bubbling to the surface. The woodsman took a few deep breaths to get his temper under control. “Why can’t you?” he asked, between gritted teeth.
“It’s too big,” the tiny Nhyme girl said.
“For you,” Niko said from Jared’s shoulder. “What about Big Beast there?” The Nhyme man pointed at Katya, causing the sorceress to smile slightly as though remembering something from long ago that made her happy.
Katya and Chyla looked at one another for several long seconds before the raven-haired woman spoke. “It could work,” she said, her tone indicating that her confidence was shaky regarding the proposition.
“See!?” Jared exclaimed, earning himself a reproachful look from Sasha. But the hunter’s mood was too high to be dampened by the red-haired warrior.
“If this will work,” Katya said, her voice again holding irritation, “and I’m not saying it will.” The sorceress looked at Niko where he sat on Jared’s shoulder. “I’m going to need your help too.”
“Huh?” Niko replied, so surprised he almost tumbled from his perch. “Why me?” the Nhyme man asked. “I’m no sorcerer and I can’t heal even half as good as Chyla.”
“Because,” Katya said. “I’m going to need all the help I can get. I’m going to be channeling more energy than I have ever tried before.”
“Sister,” Sasha interrupted. “Isn’t that dangerous? You told me the stories about what happens to sorcerers who try to push themselves beyond their limits.” Jared heard fear and concern in Sasha’s voice.
“What stories?” Jared asked.
“She could kill herself,” Sasha replied, the fear and concern clear in her voice.
“Unlikely,” Katya said, using the sleeve of her trail-worn robe to wipe the tears from her face. The sorceress was composing herself quickly. Jared couldn’t help but be impressed by the young woman’s resolve. “I’m more likely to burn myself out before it gets to that.”
“What?” Jared asked. The intricacies of the things that Katya did with magic were beyond the woodsman, having never been educated in the sorcerer’s art.
Sasha, on the other hand, knew nearly as much as Katya did, being sworn to her sister’s side. “A sorcerer’s body can only handle so much energy,” she explained, still looking with worry at Katya. “If she tries to channel too much of that energy through her body, the results can be devastating. The loss of her ability to perform magic, madness and even death are not uncommon. Katya, I won’t let you do this.”
“I agree,” Jared said before the sorceress could respond. “It’s not worth your getting hurt, we can figure out another way.”
“No,” Katya replied, her attention far away as though puzzling out the details of how to make the ritual work. “It has a good chance of working, if what you said is right. If it is a disease, then Chyla and Niko can help me cure it. Chyla’s knowledge of healing combined with Niko’s talent and mine will allow us together to channel more magic than we could separately.” Katya disengaged from Sasha and stood, shaking melted snow from the now split skirt of her robe. The sorceress was visibly more confident in the plan, and herself, than she had been mere minutes before.
Sasha stood as well, placing her hand on her sister’s shoulder. “Are you sure you can do this?” she asked. The red-haired warrior’s face was a mask of worry.
“No,” Katya laughed nervously. “I doubt something like this has even been tried before.” The raven-haired woman’s face became serious as she looked Sasha directly in the eye. “It has a good chance of working,” she said, her voice steady. “With Chyla’s guidance and Niko helping to keep watch over the inflow of power…,” Katya’s voice trailed off.
“What?” Sasha demanded, taking the sorceress’ hand in hers.
“Nothing,” Katya replied, her full attention returning to her sister. “It’s silly, I know, but if all of this had happened earlier, even by just a year, I might…,” the sorceress looked as though she might start crying again. “I might have been able to save mother,” Katya choked out, deep emotion swelling up near the surface.
Sasha took her dark-haired twin in a tight embrace. “The same thought occurred to me as well,” she said, trying to comfort her sister once more. “But you can’t dwell on that, especially right now. Father said that she was at peace with her passing and we have to accept that.” Sasha separated from Katya, but kept her hands on her twin’s shoulders so that she could look intently into the dark-haired woman’s eyes. “You need to lay that aside for right now,” she said, her tone one of iron. “You’re going to need all your thoughts focused on what you’re doing today, right now, for it to work. Mother would be heartbroken if she was the cause of something bad happening to you and that is what will happen if you don’t concentrate.” Sasha held Katya’s gaze and shoulders a moment longer before releasing her sister.
Katya took a deep breath, stood up straight, set her shoulders, and turned to the Nhyme, who now hovered in the air holding hands. “Right,” she said, her voice confident and strong. Jared retrieved Katya’s staff and handed it to her, after the sorceress had composed herself. “Thank you, Jared. Niko, Chyla, come with me, please. We need to discuss specifics.” The two Nhyme flitted over to land on Katya’s shoulders, one on either side, their tiny faces masks of determination to match the sorceress’s expression. The three then walked over to the black pillar of crystal and began talking amongst themselves.
The corrupted column seemed to sense the import of the discussion; the sickening tendrils of purple began moving angrily within the crystal, swishing and twisting around l
ike the tail of an irritated cat.
Jared felt Sasha’s fingers interlace with his and the warrior grasped the hunter’s hand tightly. He turned to the redhead to speak words of reassurance, but her attention was fully on her sister. Jared decided that perhaps quiet comfort was the best path to take and kept silent.
It was several minutes before Katya said they were ready to begin. The sorceress knelt next to the crystal, a Nhyme sitting on each shoulder. Jared and Sasha nodded to each other and separated, moving to opposite sides of the room. The possibility of Shadow Walker attacks was still a danger, so the swordswoman and the hunter moved to where they could watch the entire chamber. Jared’s sword was loose on his hip, and an arrow was notched to his bowstring. Sasha had her sword in hand and shield at the ready.
Jared did not even realize the spell had started until he saw sweat break out on the sorceress’ brow. Her face was a mix of strain and concentration. Given the hunter’s previous experience with the raven-haired sorceress he had expected something more spectacular to happen; crackles of electricity or arcs of lightning. But then Jared thought back to the healings he had received from the Nhyme and Katya and nodded to himself. Healing magic was more subtle. There had been no words of incantation or outward displays of power, simply concentration and then slowly the healing began to take effect. Jared thought back to the way Katya had killed the assassin back in Valshet and shuddered. Magic did not need to be flashy for it to be deadly.
Soon similar expressions appeared on the faces of the Nhyme that sat on Katya’s shoulder. Though he could not see much of their tiny visages, he expected that similar beads of sweat had begun to appear there as well. Reflexively Jared sniffed the air, but past the scents of his own sweat and blood-stained leathers, he could only smell the same foul odor he had detected when he first came into the chamber which housed the corrupted crystal. It reminded the hunter of the pervasive scents of disease and decay he had smelled in the chamber beneath Aeirsga, only many times worse. The sickening odor flooded Jared’s nose and the hunter snorted reflexively in response to drive the stench from his nostrils. He quickly looked up to see if he had disturbed Katya and the Nhyme, but they showed no sign of hearing the noise at all. Though a huge crystalline pillar separated them, Jared could somehow still feel Sasha’s glare from across the room.