Corvan staggered against the wall of the chamber anteroom, Kate's anguished cries for help ringing his ears. The overhead light brightened as he caught his balance, leapt forward, and pounded on the narrow door. "Kate! Open the door. It's me, Corvan!" There was only silence. He leaned in to the outline of the star and shouted. "Kate, I'm here. Open the door!"

The star shape revealed itself like a curtain was being drawn aside and a face took shape within the deep shadows of a hood. Pale eyes opened wide, and a mottled blue tongue ran over a crescent of glistening black teeth that clicked together like the edges of a metal trap. "I have been waiting for you, Corvan." Spittle oozed from between the cracks in the uneven rows, and the tongue flicked out to lick it back.

Corvan stepped back from the door and the light from the entry room shone onto a deeply wrinkled face blotched with twisted blue veins.

"I don't know you," Corvan blurted out.

The door melted away to expose a figure in a white cloak standing just inside the chamber. "You don't know me?" The voice rose as the shoulders lifted to frame the dark face. Thin lips curved in a crooked smile. "Yet I know you, and I know your family exceptionally well."

The words raised the hairs on Corvan's forearms. "What do you want from me?"

The pale eyes blinked. "Ah, yes. That is a question that will be answered but first I believe it is you who wants something from me." The smile morphed into a partial sneer, and the eyes narrowed. "Or is it someone you want from me?"

Corvan's rising irritation pushed past his fear. "I'm looking for a friend of mine, if that's what you mean."

The white hood slipped further down over the eyes, and a bony hand with fingers seemingly too skeletal to belong to a living person pushed it back, revealing a balding head covered in random swatches of white corn-silk hair. "A friend you say. Would this friend be someone you care for a great deal?"

Corvan squinted at the wrinkled face. The old man was toying with him. "Her name is Kate and I believe she's inside the chamber."

The hands came up, the long fingers intertwining until the cracked blue nails touched his chin. "Now why would you think that?" His fingers unwound and he spread his hands apart. "How could she possibly be here if you can only enter the chamber when you carry this." He held up a medallion on a chain. The green glow ebbed through the symbols in its center like embers fanned by a passing breeze.

"That's Kate's medallion! What have you done with her?" Corvan demanded.

"What have I done with her?" White flecks of saliva speckled the barrier between them. "The real question, my dear boy, is what have you done to her? Your Kate is trapped here because she still cares about someone like you." A long finger pointed at Corvan's chest. "Look at how poorly the chamber dresses you. You are not someone who deserves her loyalty or her love."

Corvan glanced down, relieved to find that this time he had a simple tunic wrapped around him and that his body was no longer stretched out like a Rakash. He looked normal again, except for his hands. His fingers were capped with pale blue nails. He clenched his fists and looked up to find the old man smiling cruelly at him.

"Yes, my boy. The desire for lumien power runs deep in your veins and it will cost you everything, including those you hold most dear." The old man stepped to one side with a sweeping gesture and the light from Corvan's anteroom fell on a person lying on a table. It looked like Kate, but the light appeared to penetrate right through her to the stone below. "Do not be concerned," the old man said. "She is not dead. At least not yet."

He stepped in front of Corvan to block his view. "Her spirit is trapped here, unless I choose to let her rejoin her body . . ." He smiled again and a glob of drool slipped from his lips before the blue tongue could catch it. "But, if her body dies, her spirit will be entombed in the chamber to endure in great sorrow as her being slowly withers away." The old man cocked his head on a scrawny neck. "That would be so sad. Such a pretty young girl pining for the one she loves, the one who could have saved her but was too selfish and left her to die just as he left her when he ran to save Tyreth the last time."

Corvan threw himself against the invisible barrier and it flexed toward the hideous face. "Let her go!"

The black-rimmed eyes stared back without blinking. "No need to get so excited. I will let her go." The thin lips pursed, and the eyes narrowed. "I will let her leave this chamber, I truly will, but only when the things your family stole from me are returned."

"I don't know what you're talk. . ."

A bony hand plunged through the barrier and yanked the medallion Madam Toreg had given him from beneath his tunic. "Don't lie to me, boy." He pulled the metal disk back through the shimmering shield, the chain biting into Corvan's neck. Sparks shot out and Corvan felt like his heart was being pulled out of his chest. The withered hand squeezed Corvan's medallion, and shards of pain shot through Corvan as his face was pulled hard against the barrier. A twisted thumb traced over the surface of Madam Toreg's medallion and drops of blood oozed where the points pierced the parchment-like skin. "I could take this from you even now and you would die where you stand." The man lifted his own glowing medallion up and held it next to Corvan's. "But if I took your medallion from you, then you also would be trapped in that little room, only able to watch her die." He touched the tips of the two medallions together and the chain around Corvan's neck grew ice cold. "And that would not help anyone, would it?" Tilting his hand, he let Corvan's medallion slide from his grasp. It sank slowly through the barrier, then swung back on its chain to thump dully against Corvan's chest, the woven metal burning with an intense cold that pierced his threadbare garment.

Corvan backed away to the far wall of the anteroom. The old man chuckled and with his eyes fixed on Corvan, stepped through the door. The anteroom light went out and shuffling steps came closer, along with a thick odor like last year's potatoes rotting in the cellar.

"Thanks to Kate," the old man said, "I finally have my medallion back, and as we speak the hammer is on its way to me courtesy of your lovely princess, Tyreth. All I lack now is the scepter. Bring me the scepter and I will allow Kate to return to you."

Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

His sour breath slapped in Corvan's face. Resisting the urge to gag Corvan forced out a question. "How do I know I can trust you?"

"You don't. But you have no other choice if you wish to take her back to your world where the two of you can live together in misery until you die from the heat of your terrible orb."

"What about my father? He needs to come home as well."

"No! He will not return. Your father will be punished along with all those who have defied me." The odor withdrew towards the chamber. "But you can save the girl. The choice is yours to make."

The old man returned to the chamber and stood next to the table. Kate's body began to glow, as if tiny fireflies were chasing each other around inside her. Her head turned toward him, and their eyes met. She tried to say something, but he could not make out the words.

"Ah, look how much she loves you. That is good . . . for me. Love always accentuates pain." He lifted his medallion over Kate and green light sputtered between his bony fingers. Kate's hands grasped at her chest and her body arched against the table as the firefly lights died off.

"Stop it!" Corvan shouted, pushing hard on the anteroom barrier. "You're hurting her!"

The black hand relaxed and Kate slumped against the table. "No, my boy, you are the one who is hurting her. If you want her pain to stop, then you must do as I say. Go to your world, retrieve the scepter and bring it to me. Do not talk to anyone on the way and do not show it to anyone." In the green light of the medallion the cold eyes bored into Corvan from the shadows of his cowl. "Bring the scepter to me and I will release her, but if not. . ." He raised the medallion and Kate writhed on the table behind him.

"I will bring you the scepter if you let Kate go," Corvan blurted out.

The black teeth glistened as the man grinned. He gave his medallion a shake and Corvan felt the one around his own neck grow even colder. "Do not try to deceive me. We are now linked together through the medallions. If I so desire, I can call you back to this chamber from anywhere in the Cor." The blue-shot eyes scrunched into narrow slits. "And know this. If you remove your medallion or do not come when I call, she will suffer greatly until you come back." He pointed his medallion at Corvan. "Go now and follow through on what you have promised to do."

Instantly the door to the anteroom snapped shut and the overhead light went out. Powerful arms grabbed him. He fought them off, but the hands gripped even tighter.

"Open your eyes, Corvan. You're back with us now."

Corvan forced his eyes open, and Morgan's concerned face appeared. Madam Toreg was behind him with her back against the wall of the tomb. The firestick, now tightly gripped in Atiya's hand, flickered across the room to highlight Kate's body.

Morgan released him and Corvan stood a moment before his legs gave out and he collapsed to the ground, shaking, his teeth chattering. Madam Toreg knelt in behind him to keep him from falling to the floor. "What happened in the chamber, Corvan? What did you see?" she asked.

Corvan's thoughts went to Kate, but the evil face with the blackened teeth pushed to the front of his mind and all that came out was one word. "Him."

Madam Toreg hugged him. "You are safe now. He cannot harm you here."

Corvan felt the weight of the medallion on his chest. It was now linked to the old man. There was no safety here, no safety anywhere in the Cor. What could he even say to Madam Toreg that would not be overheard by the old man back in the chamber? He pulled out the medallion's chain and its cold metal bit into his hand.

"I am glad to see you have kept my medallion safe," Madam Toreg said. "I must take it to Tyreth right away." She reached around him but as her hand contacted the silver disk, her body stiffened and she cried out in pain, dropping Corvan to the floor and falling back against the wall of the crypt. Morgan and Atiya rushed to help her up as Corvan pushed himself to the side and leaned his aching body against the wall.

Madam Toreg stared at Corvan, then motioned for the other two to follow her. Together the three of them disappeared into the secret passage leading to the cave below the crypt, and the door slid shut.

Why had they left? He needed their help to get Kate's body out of the crypt before Jorad returned. A whisper of voices came from the far corner of the room. Crawling over, he detected a minute breeze and put an ear to the air holes bored into the floor.

"Then what do you suggest we do with him?" Morgan spoke in clipped tones. "Hold him prisoner? Send him to the palace? Kill him? What?"

Madam Toreg's voice was barely discernable. "All I know for certain is what I felt through the medallion. Corvan is now directly connected to that evil old man and must do his bidding."

"Then Corvan must have made a deal to free Kate," Morgan said. "You can't blame him for that. I would have done the same."

"Perhaps," Madam Toreg said, "but as long as we are around his medallion, everything we do and say will be known to Him. Let's not forget that this boy has been consuming lumien seeds. We can no longer trust Corvan."

"If he has made an agreement for the life of Kate," Morgan said, "he is the only one who can fulfill it. Meanwhile, we have another task. We must rescue Tyreth from the rebel leader. Who knows what that fool will do when he is desperate."

Atiya spoke. "And what do we do with Corvan?"

"Nothing," Madam Toreg said. "We must leave him to do whatever he must do. If he fails, he fails alone."

"Should I tell him we're leaving?" Atiya asked.

Corvan listened intently but the only answer was a single puff of air from the holes followed by a prolonged silence.

They had already abandoned him.

Corvan rolled onto his back, groaning aloud as the crushing weight of the situation hit home. They would never trust someone who had consumed their light and now there was no one left to help him rescue Kate. Crawling to the bier he struggled to his feet and looked down at Kate's face.

He had to keep her from being taken by Jorad up to the cave of the buraks, but what could he possibly do on his own.

A beam of light shot across the room from the secret passage and Corvan ducked down behind Kate's body.

The narrow door opened all the way, but no one came inside the tomb.

Corvan stood up and stepped into the open. "I'm still here, Morgan. What do you want?"

A shadow appeared at the edge of the door and light from the passage below lit up the face of Gavyn. The boy rushed across the room and threw his arms around Corvan's waist, dragging Corvan to his knees and hugging him.

Tears of sorrow and solitude flowed freely at the pure joy of the boy's greeting. When Gavyn finally let him go and stepped back, there was a huge smile on the boy's face.

Corvan shook his head in amazement. "I've been looking everywhere for you. Are you all right?"

The boy nodded, then dug into his pocket and held up the white side of the mirror glass and pointed to Corvan's hand, nodding eagerly.

Corvan fumbled through his own pockets and found the blue side. Gavyn closed his own hand around his white stone and motioned for Corvan to do the same. He did, then Gavyn reached out and clasped Corvan's free hand. The warmth of his touch seemed to allow the boy's infectious smile to flow through the connection and up to Corvan's own face. Before he could stop himself, he felt the corners of his mouth lift, and the darkness in his mind replaced was pushed aside by words, not spoken, but keenly felt. The thought rang clear in childlike tones: I am fine, my brother, but I sure missed you.

Corvan was forming a response in his mind when Gavyn's urgent thoughts came rushing in. Someone is coming. Gavyn yanked Corvan to his feet and dragged him into the secret passage as a key turned in the front door of the tomb.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.