CHAPTER THIRTY THREE: THE SECRET WOUND

While Kara experiments with her new found crystal, she got up all of a sudden and ran through the one doorway. Calin shrugged, not really sure what she was up to, so he strolled over to Evany who was holding one of the Morning tree leaves. The leaf in her hand glowed the same turquoise light as the rest of the leaves.

“It’s warm to the touch,” Evany said as she cradled it.

As Calin took a closer look, the veins of the leaf pulsed as if it had a heart beat. But then it stopped glowing all together. Calin jerked upright and asked quickly, “What happened?!”

Evany giggled.

“Your head was blocking its starlight, silly.”

A sigh of relief escaped him as it started glowing again. He realized then that his nerves had been so uptight the last few days. It was hardly possible for him to take any random events without tensing up. He just chuckled. Guess I have to try and relax...

But then the subject of getting home reared its head and he stiffened. Evany’s hazel eyes were trained on him. He shook his head.

“Evany, back in the other room is a possible way to get home, but... things are a bit different than we expected. So, I guess I’m trying to ask, if it works, would you and Jerry go home?”

Immediately suspicion ran over her face, and he groaned inwardly. He tried lifting up his hands to try and explain it better. But she dropped the leaf and stared daggers at him.

“Why did you say Jerry and me? Like just me and Jerry.” She asked. Her eyes narrowed.

“I didn’t even word it that way,” Calin nervously said, trying to get her off the scent. “Ah, um why would you think that?”

She stalked up close to him, and the sweat started pouring down his forehead.

“Because, I know you good enough to know when there is more to it. I’m right, aren’t I?”

Calin swiped at his forehead and his hand was wet with all the sweat.

“Evany you have to understand...”

“No you wait right there!” She said glaring at him. “I’m not going back without you!”

A moment of frustration filled him as he dropped his shoulders. He took hold of the fist she was waving at him, softly. She stopped glaring at him as confusion flashed over her face.

“Calin?” She asked.

“You know; as much as I want to go back, there is...” He paused and looked up at the tree. “If I go back, everything would just go back to square one... Those creatures and their masters are still there. They are hunting me. I need answers Evany. And I know Kara needs to go find her dad and the rest of her group that was taken. So I’ll help her. Do you understand?”

Evany looked down and several emotions flashed over her face, anger, anxiety and confusion chief among them. It was clear she tried saying something as her mouth would open and then close again followed by a frown.

Jerry was approaching, so he decided to lighten the mood and without warning ruffled her blonde hair, she made a noise.

But he just said, “That is, if it works. We’ll worry about the fine print in a minute.”

With a wink he disarmed her for the moment. Just in time as Jerry came crashing in between them.

“Hey, guys, I think Kara has the right idea. Let’s go explore. Tyas is being a sour plum. In his words, ‘We don’t have time for meddling! We need to do what we came here to do and leave.’“ Jerry did a good impression of the man and Calin and Evany chuckled.

He readily agreed and Jerry smiled broadly, taking the lead and heading in the direction Kara left.

Though, as they entered the doorway, Tyas’ voice pierced the air as he shouted.

“Hey! Where are you going? It’s not safe!”

But Calin glanced at his two friends and with a silent agreement it was decided to ignore Tyas flatly.

The adjourning hallways all had the crystal worked into the dark stone; its light a still companion while they searched for Kara. As they ventured on, it became clear to Calin that Mesa Versee was a lot bigger than any estimates that had been made by the scientists. The part that Lamb’s Crest had been familiar with was just one piece of a much bigger complex of structures that ran through the granite mountain.

It was quite neat. He had dreamed of going to the Ruins for years before. And now within a span of less than three weeks, he had seen the Ruins and came to realize its mysteries were far more profound than he ever expected.

He wanted to stop at every room to see what there was to find. But soon enough he came upon a room that had a five metre tall, solid door that stood ajar. As he checked it, Kara’s presence made itself known.

“Jerry, Evany! This way, I found Kara.” Calin called into the hall. There as a feint reply from quite a distance away. So he walked inside, there was a row of seven armour stands, most of them were empty. But Kara was busy at the one that had several pieces still attached to the female shaped mannequin. On closer inspection, Kara was fastening a set of soft looking black gloves to her hands.

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Further down, it had thick leather that covered her wrist with a line of small stones. The leather stretched up to little more than half of her forearm. But what was a nice addition were the hundreds of small overlapping armour scales that went from her knuckles to the end on her forearm, which had a nice dark quicksilver gleam to them.

The items seemed to have agility in mind, unlike the gauntlets he was wearing.

She regarded him with a glance, but finished her task.

“I would never have guessed you, an Archaeologist, would be doing this. Wearing some of the very things you have studied.”

She shrugged. And as he approached, she looked to his gauntlets, specifically the one that had the bite marks.

“I know... But, I’m taking your advice...” She said with a hint of mirth. “It seems there are a lot of dangers out there.”

Calin huffed. “You’re telling me.”

He stared at the female mannequin and went on. “Want some help with the shoulder guards?”

With her nod, he climbed up the pedestal and noticed the groove around the midsection and said, “It looks like the belt is miss— Wait, no... there is some stuff back here.”

He removed the surprisingly lightweight pieces of armour. As he lifted it, he spotted something and pulled at it.

“Oh very nice,” He said at the find and threw the sturdy material for her to catch. “It comes with its very own hoodie and looks what looks like a detachable cape. Want to trade up?”

Kara nervously chuckled, but didn’t say anything as she studied the dark material. Calin pushed his arm deeper and finally found the belt. It had a row of imbedded small crystals swirling from the tiniest inwards to the biggest, which was the size of a thumb.

With a smile he jumped off in one bound, landing next to her and watched her spread out the cloth he had tossed her way. In the light it had a purple hue with circular designs.

“At the very least,” He said. “I think you should try it.”

“You’re giving me fashion tips? Who would have thought...”

“Is that a no?”

“No...” She said hesitantly.

Calin grinned broadly. It wasn’t hard to read the situation. Though the place was clearly deserted long ago, traditions and her nature as a modern archaeologist were warring with her. She had only decided on the arm, leg and shoulder guards for practical reasons. That she wanted to leave Mesa Versee, the place that had been her ancient civilization learning school for so many years, as untouched as possible.

But with a sigh, she took the belt from him and slipped it around her hips. She then pulled off her sleeveless top, and standing in her bottle green shirt she pointed to the shoulder guards and turned her back.

“Be quick about it,” Kara said.

He slipped the soft leather, under the plates, over her shoulders. And the open ‘V’ of it, past her neck on both sides. The gap between the two round points, settled just below her collarbone, and she firmly fixed the cord.

He made sure it was in place, before he connected the hood to the four points under the half-pipe shoulder plates. Then, he walked around and helped her attach the overlapping sides of the hood comfortably under her neck.

Lastly, he threw the soft, but strong, material of the cloak over both her shoulders and she fastened it to the third set of solid hooks.

Calin had to suppress his whistle as he looked at Kara. She was a pretty epic sight.

Then she glanced at him and asked, “So? How do I look?”

He could only smile as he said, “You look like a character out of a book, from a different land. And I mean that as a big compliment.”

A smile tugged at her lips. But then it disappeared as she looked into his eyes.

“I know those two are going to come in here any second. But enough dodging, I want an answer for what I asked earlier. I need it. So please, Calin, just yes or a no... Do you come from somewhere on this strange continent?”

Shock at the sudden shift ran through him. He had almost forgotten about it. But it sprang to the forefront. What can I answer? I hardly know the answer to that myself.

“Does it really matter?” He asked finally with his shoulders slightly tensed, he searched her eyes waiting for her reply.

The question clearly took her by surprise as she stepped back from him. Her eyes had a wild look to them. She shook her head to and fro.

“Yes... no... I DON”T KNOW!” She ended with a shout.

Just then footsteps came thundering down the hallway, and Jerry came flashing into the doorway.

“Everything alright here?!” The boy asked with urgency.

But Calin didn’t pay the boy any more attention as he stared into Kara’s panicked eyes with intent.

“As far as I know, yes!” He said. “Make with that what you will.”

With that, he turned away from her and walked towards the door. Kara’s voice sounded strangled as she called from behind.

“Calin... I’m just...”

But he was already past Jerry.

“Don’t mind me,” He said, trying to keep the tension out of his face while patting the boy on the shoulder. “I’m going back to the foyer.”

Jerry looked confused, but Calin just shook his head and strode down the hallway past a jogging Evany. Though, before she could stop, he moved on.

There was too much on his mind. The fact that it was likely that he came from these strange lands confused him to his core already, add to that Kara’s reaction to his question... Agh! What does she expect from me?! Is she just scared? Scared of what!? I’m still her friend.

His fist clenched and unclenched with force dozens of times. And by the time he had reached the Morning tree, his hand was sore. Tyas was nowhere to be seen, probably off searching for them. Calin kicked a stone at the base of the glowing tree and it skipped and slid out until it stopped under the archway that led to the Well.

He paused.

And without considering it, he stomped into that room. He approached the Well and stuck his face into the water.

The water was cold.

It hadn’t been cold that first time when he had fallen into it. It had been warm. He remembered hearing voices, seeing a flash of light. But had that been his imagination too?

No? Maybe? He shook his head and sat down next to the Well. So it didn’t work after all. Evany can’t go home...

***

Somehow in his frustrated ponderings, Calin had dumped the news of the Well not working on Tyas, and then found himself all the way up at the watchtower. It was all a blur as he couldn’t control his guilt of Evany’s situation and the pure confusion of everything Tyas had told him of their being friends way back and both of them hailing from this land.

He sat in the chair of the one ballista, staring at the starry sky and was tempted to shoot anything that moved on the rock face. He willed a bird or a bat to come, it would be overkill, but that was just fine.

Then out of nowhere, unfamiliar music filled the air and he sat bolt upright. Strange...

He withdrew his hand from the metallic lever and jumped off. Grabbing hold of a handle in the one arrow port, he leaned and looked out over the big courtyard.

To his surprise, the whole area was covered in that same turquoise light from the tree in the foyer. The source of it was clear, the huge trees that had been so prevalent the last two days. He had ventured past so many of them, in awe of their huge size. But he never expected them to give off light, much less so much of it.

Then he spotted movement.

Beneath one of the Morning trees about two hundred metres out, there were big shapes of moving carriages. But something was strange about the way they moved.

But Calin didn’t inspect it further as he stormed out into the closest stairwell to go warn the others.

As he got down the third flight, a sudden and powerful surge of pain struck his right arm and he tumbled down the stairs, screaming.