Bakkian Chronicles, Book I - The Prophecy (49 page)

“
Ready?”

Sarah shook her head. “Are you?”

Steve snorted, then punched forward. Figuring he wouldn’t have to hit it that hard after witnessing Quisen’s demonstration, Steve gave the wall a solid smack. Nothing happened. Annoyed, he struck harder. A dull, muted
whump
sounded.

“
That didn’t even sound right,” Steve complained, ready to strike the wall again.

“
As I told ye, sir Steve,” Rhenyon explained, moving to prevent the fire thrower from throwing any more needless punches, “there are measures in place to prevent this very thing from happening.”

“
Then how do we get in?”

“
I think I have it.”

Steve looked at his wife. “What? What do we have to do?”

“
The image I got before you tried to bash the wall down? It was much clearer than the picture I received on the surface when we were trying to open the entrance.”

“
So?”

“
I think I know how to get us in.”

“
You do? How? Tell us!”

“
The key to get through,” she said slowly, “is me. I can do it. I think.”

Understanding, Rhenyon smiled. “Ye have to teleport us through, Lady Sarah.”

“
Only problem is I’ve only teleported one person before, and that was by accident. I don’t know exactly what I have to do. So you’d better give me a minute.”

Steve hesitated. It did make sense. She had kept mentioning that the image she was seeing was very clear. And in order for her to teleport anything, then she had to clearly see the locations involved. He was silent, motioning the others to be quiet as well.

Sarah closed her eyes, focusing all her inner strength on the task she was about to undergo. With the image of the first step of the stairs leading down clearly pictured in her head, Sarah ordered her jhorun to move her physical body from here to there.

She gave a yelp of surprise as she was wrenched away from the tunnel. Her world tilted sideways as all her senses short-circuited, causing her to stumble. She fell solidly on her butt.

“
Ouch!”

Scrambling to her feet, rubbing her delicate hind end, Sarah blinked and looked around. Complete darkness met her eyes. She couldn’t see a thing! Didn’t it work? Where was she? Taking several deep breaths, Sarah finally slowed her breathing down to take stock of her situation. If she was truly on the other side of the wall, then the first step down should be right about… She cast about with her right foot, searching for the step. There it was! She did it! She actually made it! No wonder it was dark. There weren’t any torches on this side. She definitely needed Steve.

Back on the other side of the wall, Steve had watched with amazement as Sarah literally vanished right before his eyes. He didn’t have any doubts that she’d be able to teleport herself to the other side. Apparently her jhorun worked very well the better you could imagine the locations involved. And, he knew Sarah had an excellent memory. What about coming back? She’d just have to picture the area she just left so… So in order to return back here, that meant nobody should move, lest they move into the space that she had just frequently vacated.

“
That is amazing,” Pheron remarked, starting to move forward. “I would love to have –”

“
No! Wait!” Steve flung out his arm, thumping the soldier on his chest.

Pheron froze. “What is it?”

“
Sarah has to make it back. Chances are she’ll move back to the exact spot she vacated, so everyone must be in the exact same place when she comes back. No one moves until she appears.”

Rhenyon was nodding. “Aye, makes sense. We wait for Lady Sarah’s return. No one moves,” the captain ordered.

From the other side of the wall, Sarah steadied herself, taking several deep breaths. Okay, here we go. Trying to calm her queasy stomach, she addressed her jhorun, giving them yet another command:
move me back to where I was
.

Another gut wrenching jolt and she stumbled into Rhenyon, who whirled to catch her before she received a nasty blow from the stone wall.

Steve caught her other arm and pulled her in for a hug. “You did it, babe! Nice job!” He then saw his wife’s ashen complexion and took her by the shoulders. “Are you okay? You’re all pale.”

Sarah put a hand on her stomach. “I know what I need to work on. There has to be an easier way to do that.”

“
What happened? Did you make it to the
other
side?”

Sarah nodded, still rubbing her queasy
stomach
. “Yes, I made it. I couldn’t see much. No light. But that’s not the part that concerns me.”

Steve waited, not wanting to grill his wife, but desperately wanting more details.

After a moment of battling nausea, Sarah continued. “Imagine putting yourself in the pouch of a big slingshot, and then you’re launched into the air. Now, once you’re sailing through the air, imagine stopping rather abruptly, like you’re flung into a large catcher’s mitt. It feels rather like that.”

“
What is a ‘sling-shot’, Lady Sarah?” Kern asked.

“
A device that loosely resembles a catapult in design,” Steve offered.

The soldiers nervously eyed each other. They had to be shot out of a catapult?

Steve clapped his hands together. “All right! Who’s first?”

“
I will be the first,” Rhenyon declared, stepping up to Sarah. “
What do I have to do, milady
?”

Sarah took his right arm in hers. “Just don’t move and I’ll try to do this as quickly as possible. Be warned. The sensation is quite a jolt to the system.”

Rhenyon took a deep breath and nodded his head. Closing her eyes, Sarah concentrated, bringing back the image of the other tunnel.

In the blink of an eye, both woman and soldier vanished. Steve turned to Pheron.

“
Do we have any water handy? If she’s as pale as she was last time, some water would do her good.”

Four soldiers instantly started patting themselves down, silently competing amongst themselves to be the first to present him with some water for Lady Sarah.

“
Aye, have some of mine.” Pheron ripped his own personal canteen off his belt and proffered it to Steve.

“
Thanks.” Steve looked at the soldier. “You moved. Where were you standing before?”

Pheron looked about, and then down at his feet. Without a word he moved about ten feet away. “I should be out of the way here. Ye moved as well, sir Steve.”

Realizing that no one could remember if they were standing in the exact same spot, all decided to join Pheron. Steve decided to move as close as he dared, in case Sarah stumbled again. He didn’t want to risk any unnecessary injuries.

Within moments Sarah popped back into existence, stumbling yet again. Steve jumped forward to catch her before she fell to her knees.

“
Damn,” Sarah muttered, “I can’t seem to get those landings right.”

“
You’re not looking as pale this time. Are you okay?”

Sarah nodded, taking deep gulps of air. “I’m not as nauseous this time. I’ll take that as a good sign. But it’s still a hell of a jolt.”

It took about ten minutes, with short breaks in between jumps, for Sarah to transport everyone to the other side. Standing together in the flickering torch light, Sarah smiled weakly at her husband. Apparently she hadn’t used this much of her jhorun at one time before. She looked and felt exhausted.

Correctly guessing what she was going through, Steve sidled up to his wife to walk with her as they descended further into the mountain.

“
Feeling drained?”

Sarah could only nod. Steve felt along the harness holding his nohrstaf, and found a clasp to one of his mimet pouches. Silently slipping the crystal disc out of its holder, he pressed it into his wife’s hand.

“
What’s this? One of those crystal charger thingies?”

“
Yes, keep this with you. We’ll start having you charge one up as well.”

Getting irritated, she pushed it back at her husband. “It doesn’t do me any good now. Let’s worry about it tom-” she stopped in mid-sentence to stare at the crystal disc.

Hearing Sarah abruptly stop, Steve turned back to face his wife again. What’s with the strange look on her face?

“
What’s the matter? What’s wrong?”

Detecting the note of alarm in Steve’s voice, Rhenyon froze midstep, causing a comical pileup of soldiers running into one another. Before any of his men could protest, he held up a hand,
silencing
them instantly.

Sarah was still staring at the crystalline object in her hand. Why was it warm? She’d felt them before, and she always recalled them being cool to the touch. She looked at her husband, concern clearly showing in his face.

“
This is warm,” she explained. “The last one I felt was cool. Are they supposed to be like that?”

“
It’s warm to the touch when charged. But it only works for the person who charged it, so you shouldn’t be able to tell. That one should be empty.” He retrieved another mimet, handing it to Sarah. She took this second disc with her other hand. She shook her head. This one was cool, the way it’s supposed to be.

“
Okay, this one is cool and the other is still warm. Why is that?”

Baffled, Steve withdrew a third mimet, one that he knew was charged. “What about this one? Hot or cold?”

Shifting both mimets to her left hand, she took the third with her right. “Warm,” she reported.

“
Let me see those three.”

Taking back the three mimets, he sent his jhorun down to investigate.
Look, but don’t touch
, he ordered.

He felt the power emanating from two of the discs, and nothing from the third. Holding the inert disc, he handed the two active discs to his wife.

“
Hot or cold?”

Sarah took the mimets. “Hot. Both of them.”

He handed the inert disc over.

“
Cold,” she instantly informed him.

“
You can tell which mimet is charged? Try to draw power from one of the hot ones. Slowly and gently.”

Handing two of the discs back to her husband, she sent her tiring jhorun down to investigate the disc and discovered a large reservoir of foreign, but friendly, jhorun. How was she supposed to draw upon the disc’s power? Extending a mental invitation to the foreign jhorun to join hers, she instantly felt her body go warm as the mimet released a steady stream of power to mix with her own. In moments her jhorun was restored, invigorating her as only a couple of Red Bulls could. Her paleness vanished, as did her fatigue of mind. She handed the spent disc back to her husband.

“
I didn’t know I could do that.”

“
That makes two of us. You used my jhorun in this thing. Shardwyn said that wasn’t possible!”

“
I’m glad he was wrong. This feels great!”

Smiling and shaking his head, Rhenyon started to descend the stairs once more. As husband and wife brought up the rear, chatting animatedly back and forth about the possibility of charging as many mimets as possible, Pheron suddenly stopped, causing Sarah to walk right into the back of him.

“
Ouch!” She smacked his shoulder. “Don’t do that. I’m already sore enough.”

“
My apologies, milady,” Pheron looked
sheepish
. “Do ye see that?”