Beyond the Sapphire Gate: Epic Fantasy-Some Magic Should Remain Untouched (The Flow of Power Book 1) (29 page)

Averting her eyes from the former copse, she spotted Atoi lying crumpled on her side. The bolt had hurled her yards across the meadow. A wisp of smoke spiraled up from an ugly burn on her tiny chest.

Anxiety for her little companion arose from the familiar place in her stomach. Atoi was badly hurt. Crystalyn panicked, looking wildly around at the devastation. Pocked with craters big and small, the shattered landscape, littered with torn and bloody corpses wearing white robes, and gleaming armor, angered her. Had the enemy ambushed them too? She chose to believe so, fueling her anger. Crystalyn reveled in the anger, which speared her panic, thrusting through it like a flaming sword and calming her with an almost boiling clarity. The enemy would seek her next, but she would be prepared. A beautiful white symbol bloomed in her mind in the shape of a cross. The weave of the pattern was long. It twisted and turned, weaving around and under itself, back and forth, up and down, until finally coming back to its point of origin. Unraveling it in her mind’s eye, Crystalyn combined it with three other white ones. On an impulse, she redrew them all and centered the whole within a black, circular pattern where the white crosses flowed along an intricate, swirling design. The now dark symbol felt rubbery but durable, almost plasicrete in consistency. Releasing the new symbol, Crystalyn floated it outward a few feet from her, stretching it to the ground while expanding it sideways and upwards, visualizing a wall. Separating an end of the symbol, she secured it to her movements just as a barrage of black cones and red bolts struck. Every hit felt like the biting gnats that gathered around ponds at the Farm, but her symbol held. The bombardment deflected from the symbol, and detonated around her. Dirt and pebbles rained down on her head.

A wave of weakness washed through her. The ground rose up to meet her; suddenly she was on her hands and knees. The wall wavered violently.

You are strong, Do’brieni. Do not falter!

Clutching strength from the link, Crystalyn tightened her will on the wall, drawing a roof on it, expanding it over her head. Blackness welled in her mind, overtaking the headache. A great weariness permeated her to the core. She needed rest. A couple minutes would do it. She was
so
tired. With her symbol sheltering her, nothing could hurt her. Five quick minutes, what would it harm?

No.
Atoi was down. She needed to keep going. What would her dad say? He’d want her to do whatever it took to save a life; the Great Father knew he’d protected many throughout his lifetime. She had to try, even if the life in need had nearly killed her upon her arrival. A persistent memory of her first encounter with Atoi—one of her first on Astura, nagged at her. She reached into her pack.

The pall of weariness lifted. Physically touching the black candle made the difference, clarity bloomed sharp and vibrant, bringing with it a sense of surprise and chagrin from many minds.

Getting angrier by the moment, Crystalyn realized the Dark Users had changed tactics and stepped up their attack. While some Users had rained dark cones and projectiles on her wall, others made a concerted effort to dismantle the symbol by attacking the mind behind it.

The parasitic link was easy to find. Where Broth’s link was a bright and shiny beacon in her mind, the new one strove for a sense of nothingness. That—in itself— was a mistake. There was never “nothing” in her mind. Something was always happening; her thoughts and emotions whirled about in constant activity. She’d never been able to control it, and even though she was constantly telling herself to find her inner calmness, she never had. Gathering her pent-up rage, Crystalyn concentrated on the intrusion and flowed into the dark link. Many minds hastily joined the ones there, expecting to sweep away her anger and lock her inside herself, alone with her wrath.

Crystalyn snarled aloud, like an animal trapped in its den, its place of sanctuary. She forced her way farther into the link, throwing her rage to the forefront. The dark link shrank away from her gnashing, afflicted, fury. Crystalyn let go, letting it lash out unconstrained. Her perfect storm of fury constricted to a single tube, roared along the violating link, reaching the minds in an instant, it gusted through their cerebrums like a violent gale of neurotic wind. As one, the minds collapsed in gibbering terror.

Crystalyn closed the foul thing with the same technique she’d used on Broth when his exuberance had gotten too strong, by diminishing it. This time, she compressed it smaller until it was a speck, then she squeezed it with a thought until it burst to nothing. Angry thoughts of revenge took its place, fueled from a new desire to build a barrier no one would get through without her consent.

Broth, are you there?

Broth’s response was immediate.
I am coming, Do’brieni, almost there.

No! You’ll only draw their fire. They cannot hurt me for now. Try to circle around and attack them from behind.
She added an image of the Warden stalking from out of the trees by the upper trail.

As you wish,
Broth sent. She could sense his reluctance intermixed with a desire to please. He veered away, moving in the opposite direction of her attackers.

Though her mind was now clear, her body felt drained. She forced herself to stand and stumble to Atoi, thankful the physical attack had lessened. The mental assault could no longer cause her harm. Falling to her knees, she scooped the little girl up in her arms. On her feet again, she reeled from the weight. For only having the body of ten seasons, the girl was heavy. What had she expected? She had a mere twelve seasons on Atoi and probably only outweighed her by fifty or sixty pounds. Leaning back, she draped Atoi’s head over one shoulder, carrying her like a toddler. The simple act reminded her of when a young Jade had fallen asleep in her arms, bringing tears to eyes. It also freed one hand for carrying the black candle. Pushing her tears aside, she blinked her vision clear and focused on the backside of the clear dome. Shuffling toward it, she kept an eye on the rest of her companions.

Not far away, Hastel winced as his crossbow and an axe smacked a rock when he dismounted in the gully. He flattened himself against the stream’s western bank. A black cone slammed into the rocky eastern bank behind him. Rocks clattered like a giant game of throw stones played by powerful beings. Many medium-sized chunks thumped against his torso armor, but somehow his head and legs escaped damage.

Another cone slammed into the western bank a yard ahead of him. Gathering his legs under him, he bolted to the spot, staying hunched over and hugging the bow to his waist, betting another cone wouldn’t land in the same crater. Seconds later, he bolted upstream. With a start, Crystalyn realized he was drawing the enemy fire away from the others, away from her and Atoi.

Explosions left both sides of the upstream banks pocked; some landed close enough to rain mud and water down on him. Hastel slowed to wipe his eye clear and then sprinted to a place where the stream had carved banks tall enough for him to stand.

He made better time upright, splashing upstream through ankle-deep water, holding to the western edge. As he rounded a rocky bend, Crystalyn almost lost sight of him as he barreled into stunted trees growing along the banks, but then he slowed, realizing at some point the barrage had ended. Scrambling atop the stream bank, he pulled an arrow tipped with a glass vial from the quiver on his back.

Satisfied of his safety for the moment, Crystalyn searched for the others.

Lore Rayna’s great size made her easy to spot. Positioned near the top of the left side hill, the big woman fired arrows into two ranks of Dark Users stationed behind the armored main force. The Users appeared to be attempting to create a shield as they died.

One of Lore Rayna’s arrows broke apart on a smoky translucence inches from a black robe, disintegrating in midair. The next arrow dropped the Interrupter standing behind him. A third arrow sank into the black robe’s upper torso, her original target. Two out of every three thinned their numbers, but eventually she’d run out of arrows. Lore Rayna ignored the armored ones, picking off the robed ones, so that the shadowy translucence of the magical barrier was spotty, but it was growing rapidly.

Cudgel stood below the big woman, battering a company of black-armored soldiers working their way up the hill. A pile of corpses ringed him. The two of them had likely garnered many of the Dark Users’ attention away from Hastel, for which she was grateful, yet fearful at the same time. Cudgel was tiring. He would soon be in big trouble. Hastel couldn’t reach him with his crossbow, even if he was an expert shot, which she doubted.

Movement behind the User ranks caught Crystalyn’s eye. Lore Rayna was decimating the Dark Users’ with her long arrows and it hadn’t gone unnoticed. The bow infantry was mobilizing toward the main front lines. Crystalyn swallowed hard. Lore Rayna and Cudgel couldn’t withstand a contingent of arrows. She sent two of her wall symbols speeding to her companions. Stretching them to protect her friends while maintaining her own shield was taxing; she wasn’t certain how long they would last. Without the black candle, it wouldn’t have happened at all. Thrumming with a faint vibration, the candle began to feel warm in her hand.

Her two largest companions safe from projectiles for the time being, Crystalyn looked for the oldest. The Lore Mother stood behind the wagon, Drumn unharnessed next to her.

Beyond her, the protection dome of the couple holding hands had thinned to the point of bursting, shrinking to nearly the top of the woman’s long, auburn hair. The woman held one hand toward the dome’s peak while bending at both knees as if she could strengthen the collapse by sheer force of will.

The Lore Mother’s eyes suddenly shone with a brighter luminance. A glowing bubble matching her eyes sprang up around her, moving outward. A moment later, the Lore Mother’s glowing dome encapsulated the thinning bubble surrounding the couple.

Crystalyn staggered onward. The Dark Users’ attack progressed with thundering bursts, bombarding her roofed wall with abandon. The black candle vibrated, growing warmer in her hand.

Hastel had five of the glass vial-tipped arrows lined on the bank near him as he poured a thick, brown liquid from a well-padded flask into a sixth. Cable already cranked back, he set the shorter, but thicker arrow in the crossbow’s channel. Deliberately, he raised the tip to the sky, aiming for the right side group of Dark Users, untouched as of yet.

He pulled the trigger. Streaking toward the target, the arrow struck near the group’s center, detonating with a thunderous boom. Black smoke and red flames balled outward, burning trees and humans alike.

Stunned, she looked away, toward the main force at the bowl’s exit. So much destruction on the hillside had to cause a reaction. A commotion broke out at the rear. Broth tore through the back row, flinging Users high in the air with his powerful jaws and massive neck. Surprise enabled the Warden to take down many, but they were seasoned soldiers. The rear lines immediately began to close ranks, surrounding him.

Crystalyn reached the wagon. Under the shelter of the Lore Mother’s dome, she sat on the ground, cradling Atoi’s head in her lap. The black candle cooled slightly. Dissolving her wall, she focused on aiding her companions. Now she could mount an offensive as soon as she decided where. The shield wall the black robes had died to raise was in place, protecting the longbow archers. Lore Rayna fired upon the front row of soldiers, Cudgel had moved below her hillside vantage point, but his swings were slowing. Surrounded on all sides’ six rows deep, Broth’s escape path had closed behind his enraged attack.

A concussive wave rippled through the middle front two lines. Crystalyn had only a moment to marvel before Hastel’s third arrow struck. Falling slightly short, the arrow landed near the center of the right rear, thankfully far enough from Broth to save him from damage. Fully half the leftmost line blew apart, hurling bodies high in the air. The black shield wall in front of the longbows winked out.

Crystalyn struck as the focus of the battle shifted toward Hastel. Her smoky garland symbol ripped apart a wide, fiery circle where the shield had been moments ago.

A hailstorm of arrows, dark cones, and missiles fell upon the one-eyed man. Hastily launching a final arrow, Hastel vanished in a cloud of dirt and debris.

Hastel!
Preparing another symbol, then another, Crystalyn sent one into the enemy force toward the hailstorm’s origination point, and one behind where she’d seen her Do’brieni last, in rapid succession. Her vision dimmed with each release, the throb inside her head expanded.
Broth? Do’brieni? Are you there?

No response, she wondered if she could even hear her link mate over the throbs in her head. It required some of her dwindling energy to maintain the link, so she dropped it, feeling like she was abandoning him. A weak feeling of betrayal echoed through the outskirts of her mind. Anxieties rising as high as her fear for her companions, she tripled the size of her garland symbols, sending two others into the midst of the opposing army, not caring where they struck.

The black candle flared with heat, enough she felt it through the raging torrent of pain in her head. Her hand burned. She dropped the black candle as Drumn galloped by, carrying a rider. Who would be riding the horse?

Crystalyn found she was sedentary on the ground, Atoi draped across her knees. Looking down at the small, innocent face of the girl four hundred years in the making lying cold in her lap, Crystalyn’s heart jolted. “I’m sorry, little one. I should’ve been stronger,” she said, her voice a croak.