Warrior Priest of Dmon-Li: The Morcyth Saga Book Three (12 page)

Plunk!

A ripple begins to from in the middle of the
pool where a stone had been cast into it. James quickly turns and
grabs Miko’s arm as he’s about to throw another one. “Are you
crazy?” he shouts at him.

Looking guilty, Miko drops the rock and
says, “Sorry.”

“James, look!” Jiron exclaims as he points
to the ceiling of the cavern, directly over the pool.

A crystal, enormous in size, hangs suspended
several feet from the ceiling. It pulses a soft white light, almost
like a heart beating.

“What is it?” Miko asks.

“That,” James explains, “is the source of
the magic maintaining the barrier.”

“You sure?” he asks.

“Not entirely, as I didn’t create it,” James
replies in exasperation. “But I can’t imagine it being anything
else.”

“Now what?” he asks.

Turning to him, he says, “Miko, stop asking
me questions. I can’t think of what to do with all of your
interruptions.”

“Sorry,” he apologizes.

He begins to move around the dark pool as he
tries to consider his next course of action. There’s nothing here
but the pool and the crystal.

Coming back to where the others are waiting,
he says, “Jiron, do you think you could hit the crystal with a
stone?”

“Maybe,” he replies as he bends over and
picks up a fair sized rock. “Isn’t this going to be dangerous?”

“I hope not,” he says. “I just want to see
what will happen.”

He takes aim and then throws the rock toward
the crystal with all his might. They watch as the rock soars upward
and then is suddenly deflected away by a barrier when it nears the
crystal.

“Thought so,” James says when he sees it
being deflected.

“Then why have me do it?” Jiron asks.

“Now I know for sure,” he explains.

He stands there, staring up at the crystal
as he considers his next course of action. Then from the corner of
his eye, he catches a glimpse of a ripple out near the center of
the pool. Turning to Miko he glares at him and says, “Stop throwing
rocks in the pool.”

“I didn’t,” denies Miko.

Looking to Jiron, he sees him shaking his
head. “Then what…?”

They all turn and look out to the pool. Four
separate rippling formations can be seen in the water. “James,”
says Miko with fear in his voice, “what’s going on?”

Staring out at the ripples, he replies, “I
don’t know.” He gestures for everyone to begin backing toward the
stairs as the ripples begin moving in their direction.

“James?” asks Jiron.

“I don’t know!” he replies vehemently, never
once removing his eyes from the pool.

They pause a moment at the base of the
stairs as they continue watching the ripples approaching the edge
of the pool. When the ripples are a mere three feet away from the
shore, something begins to emerge from the water.

In growing horror, James watches as a
headless torso makes its way out of the water and begins shambling
toward them. “Run!” he yells as he turns and shoves them,
propelling them up the stairs.

Upon reaching the top of the stairs, he
pauses as he looks back down and sees the torso, along with others,
reach the base of the stairs. Without pause, the lead torso steps
onto the bottom step and begins climbing up after them.

“Up to the surface!” he yells as they turn
as one and break into a mad dash for the next set of stairs.

They race up them to the upper level and
then run down the corridors to the winding stairs which lead to the
courtyard above.

Jiron is the first one to reach the stairs
and takes them two at a time, Miko follows close behind. James
reaches the stairs and begins to follow them up when Jiron stops
suddenly and crouches down near the top. As Miko nears him, he
grabs him and pulls him down as well.

“What’s wrong?” James asks as he comes up
behind them.

Jiron motions for him to move up and join
him at the top of the stairs.

He moves past a shaken Miko and settles down
next to Jiron. Outside is dark, night had fallen while they were
down below.

“Over there,” Jiron says as he points off to
the right.

Looking in the indicated direction, James
sees a ghostly apparition moving among the ruins. And then he sees
another one. Scanning the entire courtyard he sees a dozen or more
ghostly apparitions moving about, both men and women.

“What do we do now?” he asks.

Suddenly from behind them, Miko screams,
“James!” as he shoves his way between them.

Looking at the bottom of the stairs, James
sees one of the headless torsos from the pool. It steps upon the
bottom step as it reaches for Miko.

James lets loose with a blast of power which
knocks it back but fails to stop it. Blasting it again, he motions
for the others to follow him back down. “If there’s only the
initial four we saw coming out of the pool, we’ll have a better
chance with them, than out there,” he tells them.

Jiron stands up as his knives appear in his
hands. He moves down to meet the headless torso where it’s
returning to the bottom of the stairs. Fear and revulsion war
within him as he strikes out at it.

His knife strikes it, cleaving a long, deep
wound across its chest. To his horror, he watches as the wound
rapidly closes itself back up.

“They’re healing themselves,” he shouts back
to James as he presses on with the attack.

Three more of the torsos come shuffling
toward them from down the hallway. “Get back here!” James hollers
to him.

Jiron back peddles as he hurries back toward
the stairs, just as James lets loose with another bolt of energy
which practically sizzles as it passes through the air.

When it strikes the torso, it’s blasted
apart. Pieces fly back down the corridor covering a good six feet
with torso chunks.

“Yeah!” hollers Miko.

The other three continue to lurch their way
toward them. James is about ready to let loose with another of the
bolts when he notices the pieces of the blasted torso begin to work
their way toward each other. It’s almost like iron being drawn to a
magnet. When two pieces touch, they come together and make one
larger piece.

“There’s no way to stop them!” he cries,
letting loose with another blast that takes out another one. But as
with the first one, the pieces begin to work themselves
together.

From behind James, Miko screams as he sees a
ghostly apparition at the top of the stairs staring down at
him.

James turns and sees the man there, his
mouth moving as if he’s trying to say something. The apparition
reaches out to try to grab Miko.

Miko screams again and loses his balance. He
falls and begins rolling down the stairs, knocking both Jiron and
James off their feet.

As James falls, he twists and lands on his
back with a thud. The medallion bearing the Star of Morcyth slips
out of his shirt.

Suddenly, a bright light erupts from the
medallion. The shattered pieces of the torsos begin to smoke and
then dissolve into nothingness.

Realizing the effect the light from the
medallion is having, he grabs it and holds it up high as the light
from the Star fills the corridor with a blinding light. The torsos
moving toward them down the corridor begin smoking when the light
from the Star touches them. Continuing to shamble toward them, the
torsos begin smoking more and more. The corridor begins to fill
with a nauseating smoke as they dissolve. When the last piece of
the last torso has dissolved into nothingness, the light goes
out.

“What did you do?” Jiron asks.

“I didn’t do anything,” James replies,
staring in wonder at the Star he holds in his hand. “It happened
all on its own.”

Miko looks up to the top of the stairs, but
the ghostly apparition is gone.

“Follow me,” James says as he gets up and
turns to head back into the complex. As he starts to move, Miko
asks hysterically, “What’re you doing?”

“If this worked on the torsos,” he explains,
“maybe it’ll work on the pool.”

“Will that get rid of the barrier?” Jiron
asks.

Shrugging, James says, “I don’t know. Let’s
worry about one thing at a time.”

As they proceed through the levels back down
to the pool, they come across several other torsos shambling their
way along the corridors. Each time, James holds up the Star and
each time it blazes forth with life, returning the torsos to
nothingness.

Growing in confidence, James hurries toward
the cavern. Upon leaving the stairs and entering the cavern with
the pool, he again holds the Star up high. Blazing forth with the
most intense light it has yet produced, it infuses the entire
cavern with its blinding brilliance. As the light touches the pool,
the water begins to writhe backward, as if it was trying to get
away from intense light. James walks slowly closer to the edge of
the dark water, holding the Star out in front of him.

The water of the pool begins to roil and
bubble, steam comes off of it, filling the cavern with its horrid
odor. The stench, as bad as it was before is nothing compared to
what is coming off of it now. Rot, decay, and death seem to fill
the cavern as the steam continues erupting from the pool.

The light from the Star seems to keep the
steam at bay, dissolving it as it did the torsos. Jiron and Miko
stand shoulder to shoulder with James as the lake continues to hiss
and boil wherever the light touches it. The steam soon becomes so
thick that it’s as if they’re standing in the middle of a fog
bank.

Suddenly, a torso lurches out of the fog and
reaches out for them, but quickly dissolves into nothingness when
the light from the Star touches it.

The Star continues to work its effect upon
the pool, the level slowly dropping as more of it steams and
dissolves away.

When the pool is close to being empty, from
overhead they hear a high pitched noise which is increasingly
growing in volume. Looking up through the fog, they see the crystal
begin pulsating wildly. And then suddenly, a shattering crack as
the giant crystal overhead explodes into a million shards that rain
down over the entire cavern.

With the shattering of the crystal, the
resistance from the pool vanishes and the light from the Star
quickly destroys the rest. Once every last drop has been
eradicated, the light abruptly stops and the cavern is once again
plunged into darkness.

They stand in the darkness and James is
about to make his orb when lights begin to appear all over the
floor of the cavern. Ghostly apparitions begin to take shape.

Miko screams and James holds aloft the Star,
but nothing happens. The ghosts all look to him, give him a slight
bow and then begin to fade away. After the last ghost had faded
away and the cavern is once more plunged into darkness, James
creates his orb.

“What was that?” Jiron asks, referring to
the ghosts.

“I think they were the souls of the people
who had been sacrificed here long ago,” he reasons. “Though we may
never know for sure.”

“Let’s get out of here!” Miko says, not
wanting to spend another moment within this cavern.

“See no reason to stay,” agrees James. “I
don’t feel anymore magic being worked here, the barrier may be down
now.”

“Then what are we waiting for,” exclaims
Miko as he shoves past James and moves quickly up the stairs to the
level above.

Turning, James follows him up the stairs and
they make their way back through the complex to the winding stairs
that lead up to the surface. He pauses at the top and cautiously
peers out into the courtyard. When no apparitions are apparent he
motions for the others to follow him. “Looks like the spirits we
saw were the ones who had been up here,” he says.

“I hope so,” Miko exclaims. “I don’t want to
stay here any longer.”

“I agree,” Jiron says as he moves to the
fore and leads them toward the northern skull pyramid they’d
attempted to get around earlier.

They glance over to where the large skull
pyramid had stood as they make their way through the courtyard.
With the shattering of the crystal, it had collapsed and is now
only a jumbled pile of skulls. When they reach the northern
pyramid, they find that it too had collapsed, the skulls lying in a
heap.

Jiron moves cautiously to where the barrier
had been and holds his hand out, just in case. When he gets to
where it once had been, his hand continues on through. Everyone
breathes a sigh of relief and quickly moves to leave this area.

Hurrying on past, they travel through the
swamp for an hour before deciding they’ve put enough distance
between them and the ruins. Tired and exhausted they make camp and
rest. They take turns keeping watch, and manage to make it through
the night with no disturbances.

When Jiron wakes the following morning, he
finds James sitting by the fire, staring at the crystal he found in
the underground complex. “What are you doing?” he asks.

“Just thinking, is all,” he replies. “The
ones who built that place had these everywhere, as well as the main
crystal above the pool.”

“And?” he prompts him to continue.

“And there must be a reason, something about
the crystals that made them important to whoever had lived there,”
he explains. “I intend to figure it out.”

“I’m sure you will,” he says as he gets up
off the ground. “I’m going to see if I can’t scare up some food for
breakfast.”

“Don’t bother,” James says as he motions
over to several dead animals with holes in them. “I already got
something, if you wouldn’t mind preparing them?”

Shaking his head, Jiron says, “No problem.”
He goes over and begins skinning and preparing them for the fire.
As he prepares them, he continues glancing over to James as he
stares at the crystal.

When the animals are over the fire and
roasting, the smell awakens Miko. “Finally up I see,” Jiron says to
him.