The Crystal Bridge (The Lost Shards Book 1) (23 page)

Chapter 25: Shadow Trials

A
rhythmic hum echoed though the chasms and rifts and bounced through the valleys below. A lone snow bear glanced up wearily at the crystalline peaks while its prey, a blackbeaked seal pup, slipped off the ice and back into the inky water, escaping a violent death during the distraction.

The sound pulsed with slow beats, a meaningless drone from a distance, but near the mountain the sound coalesced into chanting as a thousand voices spoke together.

Each voice chanted the same phrases over and over again in a bizarre harmony of tones and accents, beautiful but also chilling. Any outsider who heard it would’ve been brought to tears by the magnificent chorus but also filled with unimaginable dread. The snow bear did not even notice the lost meal, followed instinct, and moved away.

The voices emanated from a huge cavern of ice whose domed roof reflected and refracted light from the dim sky deep down into the bones of Ealdar. A mass of black robed figures encircled a single dark point at the base of the terraced chamber.

The figures shuffled in all directions as they chanted, moving without looking, like blind maggots over a corpse. Their voices bounced off the eerie translucent dome ceiling, carved of gray crystal, and fell to the darkness at the center.

From above, the dark point appeared to be a pit, but from the floor of the cavern, this dark pit floated three feet in the air, swirling. Looking directly at this anomaly would’ve sent grown men screaming in madness from the room. It felt like instant blindness, as though all nerves leading from the eyes to the brain had been severed. The dark hole didn’t give off light and didn’t emit heat or cold. To the senses it did not exist, yet it hovered there as real as anything else.

It breathed without letting out air and its dark heart beat without the least evidence of life. An overwhelming malevolence flowed from this point, reaching out to squeeze every living heart in a jealous rage. The robed figures shuffled about unfazed by this wave of hatred. They showed no fear or pain in its presence. The Tyninians had no reason to fear the darkness. It had been a part of them since Landfall, over five thousand years ago.

They resembled their Keitane cousins in height and build, but many differences set them apart. As the Tyninians raised their slim, long arms, the loose sleeves of their cloaks slipped down to reveal mottled gray-blue skin, like corpses left in the cold. Their faces were sharp and beautiful, like the Keitane, but their eyes were larger and deep black. They had no pupils, irises, or whites, just solid orbs the color of the sea at night. These eyes stared ahead with only dull fire of devotion, a sleeping ember of worship.

One stood apart from the rest in a long white robe that failed to hide her feminine features. She detached herself from the crowd of chanters and moved effortlessly down rows of carved ice and crystal toward the pulsing darkness. She appeared to float, her feet lost beneath the flowing white cloth. As she stepped to the floor of the cavern she raised thin hands to pull the hood from her face.

Any human would have gasped at the pure beauty as pale blue-gray skin, like the ocean at storm, emerged into the dim light. Perfectly symmetrical features, high cheek bones, a small but regal chin, graceful black-blue eyebrows, delicate blue lips, and hair that resembled the glossiest silk at midnight told of peerless royalty and charm.

Her eyes told another story, dark and soulless, but shimmering with a hatred so thick that it poisoned her beauty. Her glare swung around the chamber, over chanting disciples, and then fixed on the dark point that hovered before her.

As she drew closer to the center of the floor, the chanting grew in volume, turning disjointed and fevered as it crescendoed. Shouts and snatches of song punctuated the rhythm. Some of the shuffling figures fell to their knees, screaming.

The woman raised one slender arm and reached deep within her robe to pull out a small object in her closed fist. She raised the hand to her lips, whispering to the tiny crystal orb meticulously carved with runes and clutched in her delicate fingers.

The runes flashed white and then each etched line glowed with a dull red light, making the orb appear to crawl and rotate where it sat on her gray-blue fingers.

She held up the orb over the pulsing darkness and a hush fell over the chanting Tyninians. They continued to shuffle, but their mouths moved without sound. Even those kneeling continued their screams in silence. She threw the glowing globe of crystal deep into the black point of nothingness.
Rho, the time is at hand. We have found a way to reach you again. Your servant, Diresh, seeks to free you from your prison at last.

Kaden’s brain felt numb, thoughts far away. Every part of his body wanted to lie down and die. He’d been running behind Evandrel for what felt like weeks, trees whipping by in a foggy blur. He no longer paid any attention to his surroundings, relying on elfish magic to keep him from tripping and stumbling on branches and roots.
Whatever Evan did has kept me running longer than I ever thought possible, but my gas tank’s running pretty low.

“Evan, we there yet?” It came out as a croak.

The Keitane appeared next to him as always. “Very near now. You do not look well.”

“No kidding.” Kaden dodged a tree. He wasn’t used to talking to anyone at these speeds. “Can we stop for another breather then?”

“I think it would be better to continue. We are very close. I am surprised no one has—ah, there they are.”

A Sidra with long black hair tied up in a braid stepped out from behind a tree several yards ahead, and both Evandrel and Kaden slowed to greet him, but then Evandrel shoved Kaden off into the bushes.

Kaden rolled through branches and briars that slashed at him before thudding to a halt against a tree with a sharp crack. Leaves and pinecones rained down on him.

He stood, wrapped an arm around his side where he was pretty sure he’d broken or at least bruised a rib, and stomped back through the torn and trampled bushes. “What was that, Evan?! Just when I think we’re beginning to…”

Kaden trailed off and his mouth fell open when he took in the combat scene taking place in the forest. The Sidra he’d seen just ahead now held twin blades in each hand and swung them with blinding speed and accuracy at Evandrel.

Evandrel had drawn the knife from his chest and managed to parry blows and spin away from hits that Kaden knew would have easily sliced a man in two.

“Hey! Leave him alone!” Kaden screamed at the new arrival who glanced back at him for just a moment. Kaden would never forget the burning hatred on the blue and gray mottled face and the sharp teeth dripping with blood.

Kaden took a step back, but cheered as Evandrel took advantage of the momentary distraction to slash at the black-haired Sidra, drawing blood with a deep gash in his corpse-like arm.

The Sidra squealed and spun sideways, swinging his swords in wide arcs that pushed Evandrel back. Kaden blinked and a moment later a sword slid along his neck as a strong arm gripped him and swung him between the two men.
Not good.

Evandrel stopped short, his knife pointed at Kaden’s nose. He spoke in his soft language.

The Sidra at Kaden’s back snarled in the same language, but it sounded harsher, especially as he spit blood and spittle across Kaden’s neck and ear.
Gross.

Evandrel nodded and lifted his hands innocently, knife dangling, as he continued to speak to the Sidra. When the two ceased talking for a moment, Kaden couldn’t help himself.

“A friend of yours?”

The Sidra at his back tightened his grip, the blade cutting into his neck. He snarled something in English. “Do not speak, filthy hhhuumannn! I will eat your liver after I finish with my brother.” He then bit Kaden’s ear and Kaden screamed, trying to pull away as he reached out to his tether.

Something flickered past his face and the grip on him loosened. The sword fell from his neck and the teeth let go of his ear with a gurgling sigh followed by a thud as the Sidra slid down Kaden and hit the ground. The knife stuck out of the Sidra’s temple.

“You could have hit me!” Kaden stepped shakily away from the body.

Evandrel recovered his knife, which slid out of the Sidra’s skull with a slick hum and came up clean, without even a drop of blood despite the heavy flow of dark liquid that splattered the ground. “Unlikely. This blade responds to my will and I did not intend to harm you. It listened and obeyed.”

Kaden swallowed back the berries and nuts that had been his lunch as he turned away from the gruesome scene. “Who was that? Was he really your brother?”

Evandrel made a choking laugh. “Not in the way you presume. He was Sidra, Tyninian, but their kind were tainted by the darkness of a soulless master long ago.”

“Oh yeah. Didn’t you say no one’s seen them in about a thousand years?”

Evandrel sheathed his knife at his chest. “Correct. Something terrible is about to happen. We must run faster.” He looked up at Kaden. “After we repair that ear.”

“Rib too.”

“Rib? That is going to slow us both down.”

Two Keitane exited the trees half an hour later and kept pace alongside them. Kaden glanced at Evandrel who nodded that he knew these new arrivals.

A tall man who truly could’ve passed for Evandrel’s brother gave Kaden a dirty look as he sprinted along beside them. The other, a beautiful woman with a blue hint to her skin and jet black hair, gave Evandrel a questioning glance before fixing her eyes on Kaden. She looked at the human boy with the same angry disdain Kaden had seen on Evan the first time they’d met.

Evandrel allowed them to slow to a stop. Kaden promptly collapsed to the ground, panting, his legs beyond exhausted and his rib still tender. The new skin on his ear had also been badly sunburned.

The man questioned Evandrel in their language, the tones sounding angry and sharp. The woman interrupted them, looked at Kaden again, and broke into English. “Evandrel, you return early. Has the task of becoming a Light Bringer proven too difficult?”

“No, Hasla. I would have liked to hone my skills longer, but I am well prepared for the trials. I return with an interesting puzzle for the Elders and news about an old threat.” He waved at Kaden. “I thought it wise to bring him to them. This is the only reason I have come home to Ha’Freyne early.”