Crystal Fire (30 page)

"Marissa wants to speak with you," she stated, her gaze meeting Brace's. "She's rested well and has had time to think things through.

"So she's calmed down, has she?"

Raina's mouth twisted briefly. "After a fashion. She's still not feeling very kindly toward you. Be prepared for that."

Brace sighed and shoved back from the ta- ble. "It would be unrealistic to think otherwise."

Raina grinned and strode from the room.

Marissa was awaiting them, propped up in bed, her face pale but composed. Her eyes narrowed, however, when she saw Brace. Her lips tightened in determination.

At Marissa's look Brace hesitated, then squared his shoulders and made his way across the room. Pulling up a chair, he sat down at her bedside. He eyed her.

"How do you feel?"

"Well enough," she replied coolly. "When will we head out on the quest? I've a pressing need to spill a little of Ferox's blood."

"A pressing need to cut out his heart and feed it to a rapax would be more like it," he ventured dryly. "You've never struck me as a woman to do things in half measures."

"Whatever I do," she muttered, "Ferox will die. He'll pay for what he did to Candra!"

"Marissa, listen to me," Brace said, every word carefully measured. "As much as I need you on this quest, I'll not ask you to come, to risk yourself further.
Your
mission is over. Ferox and the Knowing Crystal are
my
problem, not yours. Stay here with the Sodalitas. Salvage what you still can of happiness."

"H-happiness?" Marissa's features mirrored her voice's mocking surprise. "Thanks to you, there's no hope of that left in my life. But I
will
see this throughand Ferox
will
pay. If you won't allow me to come along, I'll just track you anyway."

"Stubborn little elephas," Brace muttered, knowing it was pointless to argue with her further. "Fine, have it your way. We'd be
honored
if you'd accompany us."

"Fine." Marissa shot Brace a grim-eyed look. "Don't think for a moment it changes how I feel about you, though. In the end you failed me, and my sister died because of it. I can never trust you again."

He sighed. "Marissa, I may not be the bravest man in your eyes, but I tried. I truly did. Do you think, knowing how much you loved your sisterand that it meant your own life as wellI didn't care? Gods!"

Words failed as, once again, the shame flooded him. Like it or not, he'd chosen his life and his precious sanity over the lives of Marissa and Candra. He was an abject worm, a coward. It was as simple as that. Heart-twisting pain coiled within. Would there be anything of value left him by the time the Knowing Crystal was done?

Slowly his gaze met hers. "Tell me true. Can we work together, with all this between us?"

"Fear not," she said, her mouth tight with determination. "It will have no effect upon our quest. I once told you that trust was never a prerequisite for our partnershiponly cooperation."

"So, we're back to 'cooperation,' are we?"

Marissa,'s words slashed open the old frus- trations. Well, what had he expected? he asked himself angrily.

His eyes locked with hers. "That's fine with me!"

"Good." In spite of her mixed emotions, the harsh bite of Brace's words stung. "I'm ready to leave on the morrow."

From behind him, Raina made a choking sound. Brace whirled around.

"Is she ready?" he asked, struggling to master his rising irritation.

"I'm quite capable of speaking for myself," Marissa protested. "You don't have to consult her."

Brace ignored Marissa. "Well, Raina. Is Marissa ready?"

The red-haired woman chuckled. "Hardly. She'll need another sol or two, at the very least."

"Raina!" Marissa cried.

Brace turned back to her. "Just as I thought. It's two more sols then, Marissa, and not a secundae sooner. And if I see you overtaxing yourself in the meanwhile, I'll add another sol or two to that. Do you understand?"

She glowered at him.

"Well, do you?"

"Yes," she hissed. "I understand. But the longer we wait, the further Ferox gets from us. Why, he could already be halfway across the Imperium!"

"No. He's still here on Moraca."

Marissa stiffened. "And how do you know that?"

He shrugged. "How else? I'm a Crystal Master. I can sense when the Crystal is near. And it's definitely still on this planet."

She frowned. "Strange that it still communes, now that it seems to have turned against you."

"The Crystal has no control over my psychic sensitivity. That's inborn. And the stone can't hide its presence from a Crystal Master once it's within a certain distance."

"And exactly how far away is that?"

Brace shook his head. "I can't say. All I know is the closer I draw, the stronger my sense of its presence grows."

An anxious look flitted across Marissa's face. "And the more danger you're in from its power over you."

"Yes."

She leaned forward, her eyes narrowing. "You couldn't withstand it when it turned on you in Ferox's fortress. What makes you think you'll prevail this time?"

"Nothing, Marissa. Nothing makes me think that. But what other options are there? All I know is that time is of the essence. And that's exactly why I need your help."

"Really? And what good are my warrior's skills against the Knowing Crystal?"

"Your warrior's skills are next to useless," he admitted frankly.

"Well, if you're placing all your hopes on my feelings for you, you're sadly amiss. What was between us is overdead. As dead as my sister!"

He regarded her steadily. "Then perhaps you'd better not come along. I need your help, not your hindrance."

An anguished expression filled her eyes. Marissa swallowed and looked away.

"And my help you'll have," she whispered. "Just don't try stirring up feelings that aren't there anymore. That's not fair."

Fair, Brace thought. When had anything about this quest ever been fair? But there was no point in belaboring things. He couldn't force Marissa to return his love. He exhaled a weary breath. "No, I suppose it isn't fair."

Brace turned to Raina. "I think Marissa has had enough excitement for one sol. I know I have. With your permission, I'd like to retire."

"In a moment, if you please," the Sodalitas said. "Olim has a wish to speak with all of you. I've already sent for her and your Simian friend."

Brace glanced at Marissa. "Is that acceptable to you?"

"Quite."

He turned back to Raina. "Have at it, then."

A short while later Rodac and Olim joined them. All settled in chairs beside Marissa's bed, then looked expectantly over at the old Traveler. Her glance moved from Brace and Rodac to Marissa. She smiled.

"I called you together to speak of your quest," Olim began. "I have knowledge about the Knowing Crystal you may not possessknowledge of its awful purpose and secret vulnerability. Knowledge that may make the difference between success and failure."

"And how did you gain such knowledge?" Brace asked.

Olim's gaze briefly met Raina's.

Raina flushed. "While you were enjoying our subterranean hospitality, I took the liberty of going through your belongings. Your assortment of treasures was most interesting. Especially the gilded box embossed with Aranea's mutant weaving spider."

She paused to scan the trio. "Did any of you understand the significance of the scroll it contained?"

"I'm the one who found it, and no one ever looked at it but me," Marissa offered. "I couldn't read the language, though it seemed vaguely familiar."

"It was written in Antiquum, the precursor to our Imperial common language," Olim explained. "That's why it looked familiar yet still unreadable. It was the language in use when the Knowing Crystal was first created."

A rising premonition fired Brace's blood. "And this scroll contains information about the Crystal?"

Olim nodded. "It spoke about its creation as well as its flaws. And about how to destroy it."

Marissa straightened in bed. "Are you telling me that all this time we were carrying around the secret of the Knowing Crystal and didn't know it?''

"The scroll was written by Edat, the Aranean High Priest who first stole the Knowing Crystal all those hundreds of cycles ago," Olim replied. "He was also the first to learn of the stone's darker powers. Even as he penned the scroll, Edat was being slowly driven mad by the Crystal."

"So the scroll was a warning to those who followed," Marissa mused.

"Yes, a warning and a source of vital information. In all the chaos of the Crystal's theft and Edat's subsequent death, the secret must have passed from hand to hand until its potential significance was lost. Lost, until you finally found it."

"Fate," Brace muttered. "It was fate that we found it. Now, when the knowledge was needed most of all."

"No." Marissa shook her head. "An old man in white robes appeared to me and instructed me to take the box. I thought then it was just a spirit haunting the Repository, so I didn't say anything. Later, when I tried to read the scroll and couldn't, I was certain the old man had indeed been a hallucination."

Brace's brow furrowed in thought. "An old man in white robes . . ." Recognition flared, then joy. "Vates. It
had
to be Vates!"

His gaze met Marissa's. "His spirit is watching over us! By the five moons, with his aid and that of this scroll we are certain to succeed!"

"Perhaps," Olim agreed. "But all this knowledge is of little use in the wrong handsor," she added meaningfully, staring over at Marissa, ''by lovers torn by dissent and wounded feelings."

Marissa reddened. "We're not lovers! At least not anymore. And it's hardly wounded feelings! He failed me and I can't trust him anymore. It's just that simple!"

Olim regarded her steadily. "Nonetheless, if you two cannot work together, this knowledge is wasted."

"We'll work together," Marissa muttered. "Have no fear of that. I'm a warrior, after all. I can sublimate my personal feelings."

Rodac nearly strangled on a laugh, then glanced at Brace with a smirk.

Marissa rounded on him. "Don't start with me, you hairy bag of bones!"

The Simian's eyes widened in feigned innocence, then he shrugged.

Marissa choked down an insulting invective and forced her attention back to the old Traveler. "Time is short, Elderwoman. I'm sure we'd all like to hear what you learned from the scroll."

Olim sighed and settled more comfortably in her chair. "I fear there is no way to control the Knowing Crystal anymore, for it can infallibly anticipate and plan for any logical ac- tion. And, for that same reason, it can never be reprogrammed."

"How reassuring," Brace muttered. "A perfect creation, infallible and indestructible, and bent on total control of the Imperium."

"Nothing created by man can ever be perfect," Olim replied, stirring Brace's memory of Teran's similar words. "As I said, it can plan for any
logical
action. You must fight it with illogic, with actions the stone has no capacity to understand or reason out."

"And what actions might those be?" Marissa asked. "We are all warriors, Elderwoman. Everything we do must be logical, coldly reasoned. To act otherwise can result in failureif not death."

Olim smiled. "Then you've a mystery yet to be solved."

"This quest is far too full of mystery for my taste," Brace growled. "Yet what other choice is there? We must try. If we fail, the Imperium is doomed. And even failure and death are better than life as one of the Knowing Crystal's mindless slaves."

"Well said, young warrior," Olim murmured approvingly. "And despite the gravity of the situation, there is some hope. Do you recall the ancient lines of prophecy on the pedestal of power?" Her lids lowered as she reverently intoned the famous words. ''
Knowing Crystal, bright and fair, secret of the richest gain. Royal quest begins the cure, for barren empire, deepest pain
." She paused to add further emphasis, her intent glance once more joining with Brace's. "
Begins
the cure, young warrior."

Brace frowned. "I don't understand, Elder-woman."

"That is the paradox," Olim explained. "We've misinterpreted the prophecy all these cycles, imagining that the return of the Knowing Crystal was the answer to all the Imperium's woes. But the cure was never just the return of the Crystal. It was the solution to preventing its influence from ever gaining hold again.
That
is the ultimate quest."

"Gods, it almost seems a sacrilege to destroy the stone so long revered as the benevolent friend of the Imperium! Is there no other way?"

"It seems not."

Anguish twisted his face, then Brace's jaw tightened. "Then tell me this, Elderwoman. How, when the stone is supposedly indestructible and it won't allow anyone to reprogram it, are we to destroy it?"

"The scroll speaks to that dilemma as well. The Knowing Crystal was originally formed from a rare mineral mined at the fiery pools of Cambrai. Only in the molten crystal fires of the pools, so hot they appear to all as steaming, swirling waters, can the stone be destroyed."

Brace's eyes met Marissa's. The same excitement he felt gleamed in her blue-green depths. At last, he thought. At last there was truly hope! "Destroy the stone in the pools of Cambrai," Olim intoned, her glance suddenly far away, her voice deep and solemn as if uttering the words of yet another prophecy.

It stirred something, something that rose to swirl hotly about the room and encompass them all, inspiring the little gathering with a renewed determination and sense of purpose. Hearts pounded, breathing quickened as they contemplated the battle aheadthe final battlefor the lives and souls of their people.

"Put an end to the Knowing Crystal," Olim pleaded, her old eyes mirroring the anguished entreaty of the generations to come. "Put an end to it for the sake of the Imperium. Put an end to it at long lastfor the sake of us all.

Brace watched from an upper room as Marissa wept in the winter-stripped garden. It was a bleak sol, the clouds blocking much of the weaker light of the Moracan red sun. The frigid winds blew, swirling little eddies of snow. Brace marveled at Marissa's perseverance in remaining out of doors.