Corvan waited until he was certain the lizard would not return, then pushed back from the edge, pulled his pack close and lay against it.

Tsarek was gone, Tarran was dead, Kate was missing, and Tyreth was on her way to the prison cells that he had just escaped. Could things get any worse?

Pulling out the hammer, Corvan held it up to the skylight. "Please, help me find a way out of here," he whispered.

The hammer hung cold and lifeless in his hand. The sense of power and the blue glow had faded when Tarran had died, abandoning him in a dark and brutal world.

He gazed through the skylight at the ceiling of the cavern far overhead. The Chief Watcher had the key to the door leading home, but there had to be some other way to get the door opened or to find another route back to the surface.

His father would know what to do. At that thought, he put the hammer away, pulled out the round crystal, and watched the curtain of stars swirl around the outline of Castle Rock. His father's face did not appear, but the memory of what he said that night on the rock came back clearly.

“Your grandfather made me promise I would give it to you before your birthday. He said you should be old enough to choose between fear and duty by then.”

Why would his grandfather think he would be ready to choose between fear and duty by the time he was fifteen? That same night his father had said a leader must do right by others, no matter what it cost, but he wasn't a leader and didn't want to become one. He just wanted to go home and have things back the way they were before he found the hammer. If the people here wanted it so badly, he would gladly give it to them in return for showing him the way home.

The creak of an opening door startled him, and the ice glass slipped from his hand and rolled toward the edge. Corvan lunged for it, but he was too late. There was a sharp click from below. Hopefully it was not broken.

Corvan turned his attention across the upper reaches of the temple building. Where was the door and who had opened it?

“I'm over here,” a hollow voice called from the other side of the room. “You need to make your way around the ledge. There is a door here that leads into the passages.”

Corvan tried to look past the curtain of twisted vines from the fallen lumien. “Who are you?”

“I am Jorad,” the man stated flatly. “The High Priest pointed you out when he was being taken away. He made me promise I would help you.”

Corvan stood, pulled on his pack, and moved around the ledge. That explained the High Priest’s signal with his praying hands. He was showing Jorad where to find him.

The green-robed priest was waiting in front of a short door set into the short side wall that supported the pointed roof.

Jorad squinted at him as he drew near. “How old are you?” the man asked in a tone that suggested it was not just idle curiosity.

Corvan reached to pull his hood further over his face and discovered it had fallen back when he lay on his pack. “Fourteen. No, fifteen now, I guess,” Corvan said. He studied the young man’s face for a reaction, but all that registered was a look similar to that of the bigger boys at school.

Jorad pointed to the main door down below. “The Chief Watcher will be sending the palace guard to find the one he thinks is Tarran. I suspect the soldiers will be back as soon as it is light to search the priest’s quarters out behind the temple gardens. We must leave here immediately … Cor-Van.” He jerked his head to the door behind him where a circular staircase wound downward.

Corvan looked away from the man’s searching gaze. “I'm not the one you are looking for. I don't—"

Jorad cut him off. “I need your help to get Tyreth out of the Watcher’s prison.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Corvan shook his head. “I need find Kate and get her home before she dies.”

"Kate? Who's that?" Jordan asked with a note of suspicion in his voice.

“The girl I followed down here. She is from my world. She has red hair and—"

“Yes, I have seen her,” Jorad said.

Corvan took a step back, and Jorad had to grab his arm to keep him from falling off the ledge. “Kate is here at the temple?”

“No,” Jorad said, releasing his arm and stepping into the doorway. “Rayu found her on the broken side of the city. She is very ill.”

“I need to see her,” Corvan said as he was trying to push past Jorad.

Jorad held out his hand and frowned. “Tyreth and her father will die if we do not help them.”

“Can't your priests rescue them?” Corvan asked impatiently.

“There are few of us left and most are old, like Rayu. The priest’s compound is empty. The Chief Watcher ordered them to the outlying settlements to inspire the workers who are harvesting food. Tarran was working to bring us together but now …"

“Don't we have some time before that water ceremony the Chief Watcher talked about?” Corvan interjected.

Jorad sighed heavily. “Yes, but the High Priest was poisoned by that lizard’s claw and might not have long to live.”

“I promised I would get Kate home. She can't survive down here.”

Jorad looked across the room. “I understand what it means to lose someone you love.” He turned and stared into Corvan’s eyes. “Also, if you do not fulfill your vow to take Kate to safety, you will forfeit all rights to be the Cor-Van.” He gestured to the door. “Come, I will take you to Kate.”

Jorad descended the tight circular staircase and Corvan followed him. “I can't be your Cor-Van.” His voice echoed in the confined space. and the man shot him a warning look. Corvan dropped his voice to a whisper. “I'm just a kid who fell into your world. I want to find Kate and go home.”

Below his feet, Corvan could see Jorad shaking his head, but the man did not respond.

At the bottom of the stairs, they followed a narrow passage around a few corners and up an incline. Jorad opened a door, and they emerged through the hole the Chief Watcher had cut into the tapestry. As Jorad examined the torn fabric, Corvan walked around the smashed lumien to where his glass had hit the marble floor.

Instead of shattered bits, he discovered that the crystal disc had broken neatly in half along a curving line. One side was midnight blue and the other a brilliant white, sparkling like a newborn star. When he touched them together, they stuck to each other with a magnetic charge. He pulled them apart and then let them connect again. They looked a bit like the necklace Kate’s mother wore, the black and white one she claimed kept her life in balance. He could only hope this two-tone disc would have a better result.

Dropping the connected pieces into his pocket, Corvan walked back to find Jorad sitting on the unbroken chair and gazing at the pulpy mess on the table.

“The mother plant was our only hope against the growing darkness. Now we will never be able to replace those the greedy beasts have consumed.” Anger flashed in his eyes as he looked up at Corvan. “If you are to be a leader, you must learn that if your pleasure causes others pain, then your pleasure is wrong. Selfishness is the source of all evil.”

Jorad stood and thrust the chair away so hard it toppled on its side. “Come,” he said, heading to the secret door behind the tapestry. “There is enough light for us to move freely in the streets. It is a good thing you are wearing Tarran’s cloak. The Broken may have lost their minds to the lumien seeds, but at least they do not yet attack the priests.”

Corvan didn’t understand everything Jorad said but was amazed at how differently everyone saw the cloak he wore. It was as if they decided what it was when they first saw it, then afterward they could not change their minds. He could only hope it would fool the broken ones too. They sounded dangerous.

As he turned to follow Jorad, a flash of light from the table caught his eye. Stooping over, he peeled back a piece of lumien skin to reveal three bright red gems sparkling on the table. “What are these?” he asked.

Jorad rushed to his side. “They look like tiny lumien seeds, but those don’t glow like that.”

Corvan touched the wet spot surrounding the gems. “I saw drops from the severed stem of the lumien fall into Tyreth's blood. Maybe that's why they're red.”

Jorad's face brightened as he carefully gathered the small objects. “It could be that each of these is a seed that will become a new mother plant.” He stared at them sparkling on his open palm, then he turned his eyes to the torn tapestry. “Could they be red because Tyreth …” His voice trailed off, then he retrieved a small cloth pouch from inside his cloak. Jorad dropped the seeds inside and pulled the drawstring shut. It seemed he was about to tuck it away in his own cloak, but then he paused before placing the pouch in Corvan’s hand instead.

“The Cor-Van is the guardian of light,” Jorad said.

“But that’s not me,” Corvan replied, letting the pouch dangle from his fingertips as he held it out to Jorad. “You should hold onto them.”

Jorad folded his arms. His face was tense.

“If you do not accept this responsibility as the Cor-van, the only future for Kadir is eternal darkness.”