When Corvan emerged into the Molakar settlement, the only light in the cavern was the glow from patches of purple moss. The leader of the gray men had vanished at the entry into the tunnel just as silently as he’d appeared, but Corvan hoped he might still be watching over him.
Tentatively approaching the karst Corvan looked across at the broken crane hanging sloppily above the black water rushing around the island below. A row of unlocked empty shackles brought a sigh of relief. The young boy with the crew cut hair must have escaped with the others.
He ran a hand over his head. His own hair had grown considerably longer during his time in the Cor and by his family traditions that meant he was now an adult. He nodded to himself. If being an adult meant saving innocent lives then he was willing to embrace that responsibility. Something had changed in him when he had gone into the karst. He had faced the fears of his childhood and had left them behind. He turned away from the karst. Now it was time to rescue Kate and give her a fighting chance to live again.
The cliff dwellings were dark and Jokten’s home was as lifeless as the rest. Corvan crept into the entry and set the sack of food on the floor. There was a cough from inside and a small fire stick sputtered to life. The tree on the tapestry covering the inner chamber glowed. Viewed from this side the branches of the tree were covered in pale blue blossoms. On the top left corner, a man dressed in a cloak faced a woman faced in a white dress on the other side. Arranged between them were the hammer, the medallion, and a carved staff with a purple glow.
The scene split in two and flickers of light fell on his face.
Jokten’s wife gave him a halfhearted smile. “I was hoping you would return soon.” She held the curtain open. “She is fading quickly. Her strength is almost gone.” She motioned for him to follow her to the other room where she placed her small firestick into its wall sconce.
Corvan was shocked by the sight of Kate’s white face on the stone table. Had it not been for the old woman’s words, he would’ve been certain she was dead.
“She is being pulled deeper into darkness,” the old woman said. “I thought the medallion might work to bring her back, but she continues to slip away.”
Corvan squeezed Kate’s limp hand but there was no response. “There has to be something we can do for her,” he said urgently.
The old woman caressed the girl’s forehead. “It is hard to know what to do when the good of many people is weighed against our deep love for just one. We could cut into a lumien seed and squeeze its life into her mouth, but I do not think that would be enough, and in the end the Cor would be a darker place with one less lumien to sustain the community.”
Corvan touched her shoulder. “What about these?” Pulling the pouch from his pocket, he lifted one of her hands and dropped the last two seeds from the pouch into it. Instantly the room was infused with warmth and light.
“Where did you . . . It can’t be. How is this possible?” She stared at the bright gems in disbelief.
“Can they help Kate?”
The old woman’s fingers closed tightly around the seeds and a pulsing red glow shone through her skin and outlined her bony fingers. Light twinkled at the top where her thumb would have been. She twisted her head to look into his eyes. “These represent new life for the city of Kadir and perhaps the Cor. Would you deny an entire world their salvation to save one person?”
Corvan wanted to say yes, but the word stuck in his throat, and he just stared at her.
She slowly shook her head. “We do not even know if it would work. If we allowed her to eat one of these, I think it would be more than her worn out body could handle. Just touching them, I can feel the power flowing through my hand.”
Corvan wrestled with his thoughts. Gavyn had one seed, the healer could keep one, and the other could be used to save Kate. But what if all three were needed to bring light back to Kadir? He looked at Kate’s pale face. Should he take the risk everyone else might die while he took her back home?
“Could we at least let her touch them and see if that helps?”
There was no answer. Corvan turned to find a dumbfounded look of amazement on the wrinkled face. “Would touching them help her?” he asked again.
Ever so slowly, the old woman lifted her hand before him and opened it wide. The two seeds sparkled merrily on her smooth palm as she pushed her hand closer. “Look, Cor-Van. Look! My hand!”
Corvan looked closely at her hand. The soft skin looked like a teenager’s hand attached to a gaunt arm. “The seeds have a lot of power,” Corvan said. “That must mean it would help Kate to hold them”.
“Corvan.” She said his name the way his mother did when he wasn’t really listening to her. “My thumb is back.”
Corvan’s eyes opened wide in amazement. Just as a salamander could regrow its tail, the power in the two seeds had regrown the old woman’s thumb. Corvan was about to touch it, to make sure it was real, when the old woman pushed him aside and dropped onto her knees by Kate. Gently she pulled Kate’s hands down to her sides with the palms facing up. “Hold this for her,” she said, handing him the medallion. “It is very powerful and opens doors, but it cannot stop death.”
The woman dropped one of the seeds into Kate’s right hand and waited. Nothing happened.
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
“Put one in her other hand,” Corvan said, crouching next to the old woman and peering into her face.
“Don’t be so hasty,” she whispered. “A darkened soul is very different from a severed thumb. This may take some time.”
“But she doesn’t have much time.”
“Look,” she said, pointing down.
Kate’s hand had closed over the red gem. Warm light ebbed through the tightly clenched fist, then crept up her arm. Color returned to her face and the healthy glow moved on down her left arm before stopped at the welts around her wrist. The pale hand clenched, and the glow receded away from the welts.
“She needs the other one,” Corvan urged.
“No,” the old woman said firmly. “There is enough power in the one; she must make the choice to accept it. She must let go of the hate and accept the love she has already been given.”
Corvan put his hand on Kate’s forearm. The warmth within was being pushed back by a deathly cold. He put his face close to hers. “Please don’t let it win, Kate. I promise that I will take you away from here and back home.” He clenched her arm and the cold stopped beneath his fingers. “Your mom misses you. She loves you.”
There was no response. He touched his cheek to hers and whispered in her ear. “I love you, too.”
A surge of warmth flowed under his hand and the red welts around her wrist crumbled off like old scabs. Tears of relief slipped from Corvan’s eyes and splashed on Kate’s forehead. As he wiped them away, she took a long slow breath. Her body relaxed and her hands unclenched.
The old woman inspected the seed in Kate’s open hand. A pink glow flickered across its surface. “She has absorbed enough of its power for now.” She plucked it out, and Kate’s hands clutched frantically at the air. “Let her hold the medallion now instead. It will comfort her.”
Corvan placed the disk in Kate’s palm, and her fingers wrapped tightly around it.
“Is the seed still alive?” he asked.
“Yes, but I will need to plant it very soon.” She held out her hand. “May I have the bag? The other one may help this one rejuvenate. Just as with most living things, companionship is of the essence.”
Corvan handed her the empty bag. Dropping both seeds inside, she tucked it away in her tunic, then sat wearily on the bench by Kate, probing the base of her regrown thumb and shaking her head in amazement.
“When do you think she’ll be able to walk on her own?” Corvan asked. “I need to get her into the gardens where they found that crack in the Cor wall.”
“The seed has done wonders for her, but I do not think she can walk just yet. If Jokten returns, he can help you carry her.”
Corvan looked into her face. She deserved to hear the truth about her husband.
Sitting beside her on the bench he told her of the fight in the pit, how bravely Jokten had faced the monster, and how he was the one who slew it.
Tears rolled down her cheeks as he told her he’d buried her husband by the falls. “I wanted to put a sign there,” Corvan said, “to tell everyone that beneath that pile of rocks was Jokten, slayer of the great beast.”
She brushed the tears from her cheeks. “You did right by him. In time you will take his place as a great leader.”
Corvan’s shoulders sagged. “I don’t think I can be a leader; I fail more than I succeed.”
She took his hand in both of hers—one frail and wizened, the other pink and warm with renewed life. “If you keep doing what is right, are merciful, and live with honor, you will eventually become a great Cor-Van.” She looked down at Kate. “And now that the girl is well, you can both stay here and help us drive the evil from our world.”
“But she can’t live under the light of your lumiens,” Corvan said.
She pursed her lips. “I’m not so sure about that now. That seed was powerful, it may have. . .”
“I can’t stay here,” Corvan interjected. “I promised I’d bring her home.”
The old woman patted his leg. “Get some rest. I would offer you food, but the soldiers would not give me any because I could not work the fields.” Getting to her feet, she held up her healed hand. “Jokten always regretted asking me to find him small fire sticks to explore the passages. I wish he was here to see this.”
Removing the firestick from its holder in the wall she carried it into her kitchen area and hung it near the counter. “I don’t have much left in my pantry, but I should be able make you something to eat.”
“No need,” Corvan said. He retrieved the cloth bag from the entry, placed it on the counter and untied the top. “I’ve brought along some food from the priest’s pantry. They have loads of stuff there.”
She gasped in surprise as he pulled out the different foods and lined them up in a row on the counter.
“How wonderful!” she exclaimed, picking up the long loaf of bread. “Let’s slice some of this onto pieces.” Pulling two knives from hooks on the wall she handed him one and pointed something that looked like a yellow cucumber. “You cut some thin slices of that to go with the bread. Not too thick, mind you.” Her face grew sad. “You will need to take the rest with you for your long journey.”
After eating their simple sandwiches in silence, Corvan placed half the food back into the bag and pushed the rest toward her.
“You take it all,” she said. “I should be able to get some food from the community garden.” She tried to put it all back in his bag but he pulled the drawstring tight and held it high over her head where she could not reach it. She laughed and tears flowed down her face.
In the other room, Kate groaned. The old woman looked over the counter at her. “That’s a good sign, she’s coming around. Her body is growing stronger.”
Corvan went into the next room and stood over Kate. “I don’t think we have much time before Jorad and his men get here to evacuate the Molakar settlement and seal it off.” Corvan, said as he flipped his hood back over his head. “We need to leave as soon as we can.”
The old woman brought the firestick, stuck in into the holder on the wall and joined him beside Kate. She looked up at him through a swatch of thin white hair. “Why would they take everyone from Molakar?”
“They want to make sure no one can enter or leave through that crack the workers found. That’s why I had to come back so quickly. That crack is the only way to get Kate back to the surface.”
“But you can’t leave now,” she said, tugging on his sleeve. “There are many things you need to know about your family’s history in the Cor—who they were and who you are.”
“My family was from the Cor?” Corvan asked.
She threw her hands in the air. “Not just from the Cor. Your family ruled the Cor before the rise of the Watchers.”
Corvan put the bag down next to the bench. “How can I be from the Cor when I live above?”
Kate turned onto her side and the old woman sat down and put a hand on Kate’s shoulder. “I must tell you about how that came to be and many other things. There is so much you need to know before you leave and go through the Cor shield to return Kate to your world.”
Jorad’s voice filtered in through the curtain.
“He will not be allowed to leave the Cor.”