Beyond the Sapphire Gate: Epic Fantasy-Some Magic Should Remain Untouched (The Flow of Power Book 1) (4 page)

MAGICAL SUICIDE

Anxiety pulsed through Crystalyn. What could she do? This world was so different. Anger filled her with manic energy. It didn’t matter. She would search until growing old if needed. She would find Jade. Blackness swallowed her anger, draining her newfound energy. Everything was her fault. She’d messed up again, ever since the bloody Hartwig kid incident. Why hadn’t she seen it? Anxiety pulsed again. What would she do if she couldn’t find Jade? What then? Poor Jade! Blackness pulsed. Dad and Jade deserved better. Why did they keep trying to help? Why keep trying? Anger pulsed, filling her with manic energy.
Stop it
.
Stop it, here.

She couldn’t afford to have her mind going in circles; it could easily become an endless loop. Besides, she needed the energy the anger provided. She felt ready to stand. Flipping her pack’s strap over one shoulder, she gathered her legs under her and stood.

She swayed, as nausea rose, but again she forced it down, only to have her head explode with a migraine, blurring her vision. Moments passed before she could focus on her surroundings.

The girl who stabbed her sat demurely on the chest of a dead swordsman. A cold smile thinned her lips. “I see you, outlander. You are most perplexing. Many before have fallen to my blade, none survived,” she said, matter-of-factly, her tone clinical. “Yet, there you are, moving around as if you just woke from a nap. You will explain how this is possible.”

Crystalyn assessed her assailant, for the moment ignoring the mild command. Fine eyebrows, rounded nose, and jet-black hair shorn to shoulder length gave the girl an odd, aristocratic presence. Most notable was the girl’s white skin, so pale it made her full lips appear as red as blood, while her brilliant green eyes shone with a belying innocence.
She’s small
, Crystalyn thought, not much larger than her biggest stuffed bear. Of course, the girl was still growing. She couldn’t be much beyond ten seasons of age. “Who are you?’ she asked, her voice sounding as weak as she felt.

Tilting her head, the girl frowned. “You’re asking a question to my question. Very well, I’ll answer first. I am Atoi.”

“That’s a pretty name. I’m Crystalyn. My friends call me Crys.”

The girl’s impassive, ashen face never changed. “I don’t care about your friends. Answer the question. How did you survive my blade?”

Crystalyn’s head throbs rose with her ire. The girl was arrogant and dangerous, proving quite capable of handling herself.

“Did you not hear me? How have you survived this long?”

Crystalyn massaged her neck, as she scanned the immediate surroundings, looking for signs of the black candle.

The girl straightened. Crystalyn caught a glimpse of a dark silhouette on the body behind her.

Leaning from the wall, Crystalyn tested her balance. Nausea rose again, stronger this time, and her legs trembled. Perhaps she should have remained sitting for a while longer, but she dared not. Atoi could realize how weak she was and strike again.

Atoi’s wide eyes narrowed a little. “You’re not going to answer, are you? Well, you can at least tell me how you got behind me. I
know
this alley was empty when I led those fools in here. Only someone with the advantage of Using could’ve gotten behind me, methinks. Tell me, oh-so-oddly-garbed outlander, are you a User?”

Beginning to feel stronger, Crystalyn ignored the girl’s strange question. One of Atoi’s statements stuck in her mind.
Why would she lead those men in here?
“Where’s the other one?”

“The coward ran off when I stuck Jewel in this one,” she replied, patting the corpse’s leg.

“You call your knife ’Jewel?’”

Atoi closed her half-open mouth, her white face statuesque and regal. Suddenly she jumped upright. Gray dust mushroomed as high as her booted ankles before falling away. “Enough talk.” Holding her right hand behind her, she patted her thigh with her visible hand. “Jewel will make you tell me everything, providing I don’t scratch you too deep. You will die from her special lingering death. Methinks you’re too weak to stop us a second time.”

A gray shaded symbol with a white outline set to a star pattern formed in Crystalyn’s mind. Crystalyn combined it with another, redrawing it into a highly complex maze-like design, though it retained the same colors. How it would help, she was uncertain. Standing straighter, she almost cried out from the pain of her throbbing head. Grimacing, Crystalyn faced the little girl, praying her legs would hold for a while longer. The conversation had turned bad, possibly deadly.

An adage she’d penned in med school popped into her mind.
Wear the right emotional mask, and people will respond.
Perhaps she could turn the conversation around with her arrogant instructor mask,
if
she was strong enough to maintain it. She must hurry.
Please Great Father, let this work.
Smoothing her face, Crystalyn tilted her head and looked down upon the little girl, straining to keep her voice steady. “Am I as weak as you think, little one? Is it worth the risk to find out?” Atoi’s expression didn’t budge a hair. Her hard, green eyes shone with anticipation, matching the half-smile pasted on her pale face. The girl wasn’t buying a single word, but she had another idea. “Perhaps I should melt your Jewel in her sheath. Would you want that?”

Atoi’s fine eyebrows rose. “So, you
are
a User,” she said. “I thought as much, outlander.” Advancing slowly, Atoi glanced surreptitiously around. “You don’t look strong enough to melt snow, though. You are pale like me, and shaky …unlike me. You’re much too weak to stand for long.” Atoi paused, cocking her head and nodding slightly. Her voice took on an odd, echoing quality. “I know how taxing using the Flow can be without an Interrupter. One of my Hosts had the ability. I commend you for being able to stand at all. Using the Flow has drained you deeply, hasn’t it, young User?” Atoi advanced a few steps closer, her smile thinned to a grim line. Strangely, her eyes looked aquamarine instead of the emerald she’d first thought.

Crystalyn was tempted to ask Atoi to elaborate, but she’d had enough. Time was passing too quickly, Jade could be anywhere, now. Though her ruse probably wouldn’t work, Crystalyn had to try convincing the little imp that stabbing her again would be a mistake. “Care to test your theory, little girl with the big mouth? Go ahead; give it your best shot. I’ve had my fill of attempts on my life. Well? Am I as weak as you think?”

Left hand hovering near her thigh, Atoi hesitated, a step or two away.

Meeting her gaze for gaze, Crystalyn waited until Atoi’s hand dropped to her hip and her stance relaxed. Then, curling her lip, she put on one of her best sneers. “I thought so. Now, show me what you’re hiding behind your back.”

Scowling, Atoi moved her arm to her side. Gripped in her small hand, the black candle gleamed darkly caked with dried blood.
Probably my blood,
Crystalyn thought.
Wait!
Atoi had used her other hand to retrieve the knife.
Little Miss Dagger must be ambidextrous.
She’d have to keep an eye on both hands.

Atoi raised the black candle. “You have two books and don’t really need this, why not let me hawk it for you at the Under Market? We can make a great fortune. With a bit of work beforehand, I can raise interest for it and double the coin. Sixty percent will go to you, of course. Sixty-five, if you push,” Atoi forced a wide smile upon her lips, though it remained far from her dark green eyes.

Crystalyn realized what Atoi wanted a quick sell. Even if she agreed to her offer, Crystalyn
was certain she’d receive little, if anything from it. Now that they’d spoken of negotiation, the moment Atoi left her sight with the candle, she’d slip away. Worse, the girl would lead her into an ambush. “The candle isn’t for sale, little one. It’s mine, give it to me.” Holding her hand outstretched, she waited, redrawing the symbol back to its original gray pattern with a white outline. After all, she didn’t want to damage Atoi too badly.

Atoi hesitated then slowly extended her right hand.

Crystalyn brought her symbol out to hover before her.

Atoi’s aquamarine eyes widened.

Stepping forward, Crystalyn grabbed the candle as she released the symbol outward.

Atoi’s free hand slipped into a slit in her dress, coming out as a metallic blur, stabbing upward.

Crystalyn’s symbol spun and separated into stacked concentric circles of black then rippled outward, dispersing a deep
faa-rooooom
sound.

Atoi’s knife froze scarce inches from Crystalyn’s hammering heart as the first of the circles slammed into the girl, ripping her from the ground. The second and third circles hit her in mid-air, flinging her faster backwards end over end. Two thirds of the way along the alley, Atoi landed with a dull
thud
. Sliding a dozen feet on her side, she crashed into a line of refuse barrels, the jeweled dagger still clenched in her hand. Gray dust exploded upward, hanging in stasis, before billowing down to coat everything with thick fallout.

Crystalyn gazed transfixed at the limp form.
Have I killed another person?

As panic bloomed, Crystalyn squashed it. She couldn’t go through that again. The blackness had nearly swallowed her last time. A single, monumental moment of uncontrollable panic could lock her inside her mute, screaming mind with no way out this time.

She paused to assess the situation with cold logic. What had gone wrong? For all her careful redrawing, the symbol had struck with much stronger force than she’d expected. The symbol
had
been under the Aggression heading, yet it was only supposed to be a minor pushback, meant to knock an opponent away. Why so much power? Was she stronger than the book’s author was? No, if anything, she felt weaker. Even the black candle seemed heavier in her hand; though it gave off faint warmth…
wait!
The black candle…could it be augmenting her…her…
ability?
It was the only logical explanation.
Sweet Mother!
Now she had a weapon better than Atoi’s bloody dagger.

Spying a pile of pallets stacked haphazardly at the back of the alley, Crystalyn brought out the symbol. Adding her touch of complexity, she combined it with another, changing the white outline to gold, the gray to silver. Sending the now golden stacked circles soaring down the alley, they slammed into the pallets, generating a thunderous boom. The pallets burst into grainy particles. Behind them, chunks of stone and clay shingles rained from the wall and roof, clattering to the ground. Reverberating from the wall, a concussive wave swept toward her, blasting dust and debris higher than the alley walls on both sides.

Before she could think to run, raw energy knocked her to the ground, swiping oxygen from her lungs. Many heartbeats passed before the wave slackened enough to let her gasp for breath. She struggled to her feet. The throbbing in her head matched her racing heart, bringing on a nosebleed, this time.
Well, that was dumb,
she thought. She could’ve killed herself. She could see the holofeed now—“Crystalyn Creek commits magical suicide by being stupid.” Wiping her bleeding nose with the back of her hand, she looked for something to stop the flow. Her eyes fell on the swordsman’s corpse. A brown tunic clothed the man’s torso, leaving his arms bare to the shoulder. Crystalyn knelt and pulled on a seam with both hands. To her chagrin, the material proved to be stronger than leather, yet it felt as supple as silk. Grabbing the short sword lying nearby, she sawed a sizeable chunk free, trying not to nick the dead man too deep. Not that it mattered. It wasn’t as if he could feel pain.

Applying pressure to her nose, Crystalyn was grateful for the rag to stem the blood loss. Since the sword had proven handy, Crystalyn unbuckled the leather sheath from the unfortunate man’s waist. Firmly grasping it, she stood, pulling the strap from under the corpse without having to roll the body. She nearly swooned with the effort.

Slipping the short sword into the sheath, she stabbed the sheath’s point to the ground, adding stability to her weakened balance as she made her way to the comatose girl. She knelt. Checking the girl’s pulse, she was relieved to find it steady. Atoi would be awakening soon. Crystalyn stood, studying the child who’d tried to kill her twice. How could someone so young be so prone to such violence? Was such violence common in this place? Her knowledge of this world was limited, to say the least. Not knowing what to expect could cost her life, or worse, her sister’s life. Where was Jade?

“Well, that certainly cleared the refuse from the alley.”

The dry, masculine voice came from the alley’s mouth. A young man—not much older than her—stood there. Tawny hair, cropped at jaw level, fell alongside his clean-shaven, aristocratic face. He was clad in black leather pants and a velvety green vest that left his arms and shoulders bare. Crystalyn couldn’t help noticing the way his well-toned muscles rippled when he drew breath. “Are you speaking to me?” she asked.

Grinning, the young man’s dark blue eyes twinkled. “I do believe you’re the only one in any condition to hold a conversation, right now.” Looking at the comatose form at her feet, his smile faded. “Will she live?”

“She may. What do you want?”