Crystal Fire (39 page)

Marissa halted at the edge of the largest of the pools and turned to Rodac. "It's time. Remove the stone."

He slipped the backpack off his shoulder and dug into it, withdrawing the Knowing Crystal. Brightness exploded before them. The Crystal rose from Rodac's hand to spin wildly, throwing off sharp, blinding beams of light. An eerie, high-pitched whine assaulted them. "Catch it!" Marissa screamed, realizing they were too late, that the Knowing Crystal had managed to recharge itself.

She slammed her hands over her ears in a futile attempt to dampen the sound. "Catch it and throw it into the pools!"

Rodac leaped for the stone, but it easily slipped away, hovering just out of reach. He leaped again, wildly, and lost his balance, tumbling down a steep embankment that led to a neighboring pool. His head struck hard on a sharp, rocky outcropping. Rodac fell the last few meters in the limp state of unconsciousness, landing just millimeters from the edge of a seething, molten pool.

"Rodac!" Heedless of the shrieking Crystal hovering overhead, Marissa scrambled down the embankment to where the Simian lay. With frantic jerks, she managed to pull his massive form away from the edge of the pool. A quick examination showed nothing broken, his skull intact save for a small, rising bulge on the back of his head. But, try as she might, he could not be roused.

The scream of the Knowing Crystal heightened until Marissa thought her head would split. It had moved to hover overhead once more, its aura malevolent and lethal. She knew in that moment that it possessed the ability not only to destroy a Crystal Master, but anyone else who stood in its way.

There was no choice. She was the only one left to fight it. Marissa rose in one fluid move, her body tense with the passion of battle, and shot the Crystal a fierce glance. "You won't win," she cried, her fist raised in defiance. "Not this time, not
ever
again!"

Whirling wildly, the Knowing Crystal shot downward, straight toward her. Marissa dodged it, hen twisted around, blaster in hand. The stone halted, spinning in the air. The blaster began to glow. Searing heat scorched through her. Marissa jerked back, dropping the weapon.

She clutched her burnt hands to her chest as the horrible realization flooded her. The Knowing Crystal was even able to affect inanimate objects!

Marissa glanced around, searching for the backpack Rodac had dropped. Her only hope lay in capturing the stone and flinging it, backpack and all, into the pools. The Crystal moved toward her again, shrieking through the air as it plummeted downward. Marissa threw herself onto the rough, lava rock floor, rolling over and over as the stone followed.

The noise! The pain of it was unbearable! She clamped her hands over her ears, suddenly unable to move further. There was nowhere else to gosave into a molten pool.

Marissa crawled to her knees, her head lifting to the Crystal. It spun erratically, emanating beams of light that sent shards of bright, blinding agony through her. Marissa staggered to her feet. Where was that cursed backpack? She found it at last, lying beside a black volcanic boulder. She stumbled toward the bag, the Crystal screaming, wailing, following relentlessly. The air began to pulsate and pound at her. Marissa sank to her knees, crawling the last few, agonizing meters.

Her fingers clenched in the backpack's coarse cloth. For a fleeting moment, hope flickered in her breast. She rolled over, shoved herself to a sitting position, and flailed wildly with the bag, trying to capture the stone. The Knowing Crystal remained just out of reach.

With a wild, frustrated cry, Marissa climbed to her feet. She swung again and again with the bag, fighting past the excruciating agony of the howling stone, the tears streaming down her face. Swung, and missed, as the Crystal dodged the backpack easily.

Her desperation grew. She couldn't hold on much longer . . . couldn't take much more pain. And still the light and noise intensified.

The brightness was her undoing. Marissa lashed out, tripped, lost her balance and fell, skidding down a gravel-strewn incline that dropped off into yet another molten pool. She heard rather than saw the liquefied rock, churning and bubbling with loud, sickening plops.

Terror welled in her. She rolled over, clawing frantically at the slanting ground. The razor-sharp bits of volcanic stone sliced her fingers. Her nails tore as she gouged for some sort of hold in the hard, unyielding rock. And still she slid inexorably down.

Her feet slipped over the edge. In the last instant, Marissa's desperately groping hands caught hold of a gnarled outcropping of rock. For what seemed an eternity she hung, dangling on the edge of oblivion, before swinging up and onto the ledge.

She lay there panting while the Knowing Crystal halted above her, poised in its evil intent, bearing down in a mind-numbing cacophony of sound.

There was nothing Marissa could do. The stone had won. It would soon drive her mad with pain, and she would end it all by falling into the pools.

Next the Crystal would turn on Rodac, then Brace. There was no one who could save any of them. The realization filled her with a gut-deep, heartrending despair. It was over. Over.

Brace. Ah, my love,
Marissa cried to him in those final moments.
I tried. I tried for you but it was not enoughneither the strength of our love nor all the warrior's skills we brought to this quest. There is
nothing
that can defeat the Knowing Crystal!

A sob rose in her throat, bitter as gall. She had finally found love and happiness and now must lose it. Had experienced that special joy of conceiving life, and that, too, would soon die with her. Defeat pressed down on Marissa, mocking her. Death hovered overhead.

Then anger flared once more to life, surging past the pain and light and noise. It flamed brightly, firing the dying embers of her being.

Fierce determination rose in Marissa's breast. There was still too much to live for, too much so dearly won to give up without the fiercest of battles. A battle that had never been hers alone.

Brace,
Marissa called mentally, her thoughts flitting past the scene of horror to an unconscious man in a skim craft. A man who had become her whole lifeand was now her only hope.

Brace, I can't do it without you! I need the strength of your love!

''Yes, child," a gentle voice whispered. "That is the answer. You've learned at last . . ."

Marissa flipped over onto her back. For a moment, the harsh intensity of the Knowing Crystal seemed to dim. Through its muted glow she made out the form of a white-robed old man.

Her heart stopped. But only for an instant. Then it commenced a wild pounding.

The old man of the Repository. The apparition . . .

"Wh-who are you?" she cried. "Tell me who you are!"

"Does it matter?"

"Yes!"

He smiled. "Vates. My name is Vates."

Vates. The name of Brace and Teran's old teacher.
But he was dead!

She quashed the surge of fear. This was not the time for superstitious sniveling. If he were truly who he said he was, ghost or no, he might be able to help. And she was just that desperate.

"Can . . . can you aid us against the Knowing Crystal?"

He shook his head. "There is no need, child. You have already discovered the answer. It was within you all the time."

Even as he spoke, Vates's form began to glow softly, the outlines of his body to blur. "Give my love to Brace," he whispered as he shimmered and faded. "Tell him my thoughts will always be with him . . ."

As if his presence had been the only thing that kept the Knowing Crystal at bay, Vates's disappearance seemed to signal the stone to renew its onslaught against Marissa. Bright light exploded, the ear-splitting noise resumed. With a cry, Marissa rolled over and covered her ears.

Brace,
she called, fighting desperately against the agony that consumed her like some maddened, howling pack of demons.
Brace, come to me! Now, before it's too late!

Please!

The word teased the edges of Brace's consciousness, a consciousness rapidly returning to full awareness in the absence of the Crystal's relentless hammering. His eyes opened. He blinked blearily.

His head lifted to scan the area. "M-Marissa?" She was nowhere to be found.

Brace groaned, then shoved himself to a sitting position, shrugging out of the coat and blankets. "Gods," he muttered, cradling his head in his hands, "I feel as if a herd of elephas pounded me into the ground."

Brace. Help me!

His head jerked up and he once more scanned the terrain. Where was she?

The hiss of steam caught his ear. Brace twisted in the craft seatand saw the mists rising from behind the tall lava rooks. The pools of Cambrai! Fear rocketed through him.

"Marissa!"

Crawling, half-falling out of the skim craft, Brace headed for the pools. He stumbled, fell, then dragged himself back up again, relentless in his resolve. He
must
get to Marissa before it was too late. Before he lost her forever.

The climb to the pools took everything Brace had. Sweat beaded his brow, trickling down the sides of his face and into his eyes. His breath came in long, painful gulps, his muscles screamed in agony. And the doubts, the fears!

What if Marissa were already dead? And even if she weren't, how could he hope to prevail against the Crystal? It had all but killed him before. He had nothing left to fight with.

Nothingsave the knowledge he couldn't desert the woman he loved, no matter the cost.

The roar of the pools intensified. The humid touch of the mists reached him. Gods, it was so hot! Then he was there, engulfed in the heat, the dampnessand the light.

The Knowing Crystal whirled crazily over an outcropping of rock at the base of an incline, spinning as if its inner gyrostabilizing mechanisms had gone awry. Discordant humming permeated the air. Brace halted, his muscles bunching, tightening.

Marissa lay there, a helpless victim of the Crystal's vicious mental attack. Rage filled him. Brace summoned all his strength and forged on. He
had
to get to her!

The full power of the Crystal struck Brace as he reached the top of the incline, in a vicious, blinding, excruciating onslaught. He staggered backward, nearly sinking to his knees.

"Gods!"

The muscles of Brace's neck bulged with the effort to keep his spine from snapping under the force of the Crystal's psychic assault. His face twisted in agony.

A black, swirling morass consumed him, heavy, rank, and smothering. The madness! he thought in rising panic. Gods, not the madness!

Terror engulfed him. Brace turned from the Crystal, flailing wildly, fighting to find a way out of the clinging, sticky ooze that drenched him, seeping into his skin, his bones, his very being. He couldn't take it. He had to run, to get away!

The attempt was futile. He screamed, his entrails knotting, suddenly sick to the marrow of his bones, gagging, retching. And all the while the madness continued its inexorable progress, taking Brace bit by agonizing bit.

Despair lanced through him. He hadn't the strength to fight it! No man did . . . not alone.

But he was no longer alone
.

Marissa
, Brace cried.
Gods, Marissa, help me! Help me!

Yes
, she answered, her words piercing the deafening blanket of sound. Her spirit rose to meet his. Her love reached him through the madness and the pain.

Yes, my love. I am here, am here with you to the end
.

With a superhuman wrench of body and soul, Brace turned back to the Knowing Crystal. And, as he did, another voice, gentle and beloved, whispered through his mind.

Face what you fear most. Accept it, take it within you. It is the final secret. The final secret
 . . .

For a brief moment everything cleared. Brace saw the madness in a different lightsuddenly familiar, as if it were a part of himself.

The realization confused, yet intrigued him. A part of himself?

Face what you fear most. Accept it, take it within you. It is the final secret
.

The final secret.

Was that secret his
fear
of madness, rather than an inevitable consequence of his blood? Was it but a weakness of character, a choice to flee rather than fight, that ultimately determined if the insanity of the Ardanes prevailed? If so, the only way to defeat it was to do as the voice suggestedaccept it, take it within himself. Allow the madness to overcome him and, once and for all, discover its true essence. But what if, once he allowed it in, it never let him go?

Fear burgeoned, clouding his mind, draining his courage. Gods, Brace thought. He'd face anything, but not that horrible, mind-sucking madness!

Yet, what choice had he? He couldn't run away as he had with Candra. He'd die before he'd suffer
that
shame again. He
had
to go forward, fight through it to reach Marissa. There was no other way.

Marissa, help me
, Brace once more cried.
Give me your strength, your love for but a few moments more. Sustain me in what I must do and, if I don't return, remember that I loved you!

You have it
, she replied achingly.
Now and always
.

He smiled, then turned inward. This time Brace willed his body to relax and open to the blackness. To open and take in the madness.

A moment of sheer panic engulfed him. Of icy fear. Of fingers clawing their way through all his defenses, digging inexorably into his mind. Then they calmed. The black, burning liquid became a gentle, soothing balm, inundating his soul with peace, knowledge.

"Brace!"

His eyes opened.

Marissa lifted her arms to him. "Brace, I'm down here!"

He scrabbled down the incline in a flurry of choking dust and gravel, then crawled over to take Marissa in his arms. "Ah, femina, you're still alive. Thank the holy ones for that!"