Liquid Diamond (5 page)

“
Smell what?” said Catalyst, sniffing the damp air.

“
Ten-year-old little girl perfume, that’s what. It’s unmistakable. If she’s not here now, she has been,” replied Anastasia.

“
How can you tell? All I can smell is dirt and old water,” asked Catalyst.

“
Trust me, it’s Natalia’s perfume. I would recognize that scent anywhere. Only a child would wear something that bad,” replied Anastasia with a smile of relief, having got one step closer to finding her.

“
Shush now, listen carefully. Do you hear that?” asked Anastasia.

But being half human, Catalyst’s senses were nowhere near as strong as his mother’s and as he strained to hear the sound all he could do was look at Anastasia and shake his head.

“
Trust me, Catalyst. She’s down here somewhere. Just stay quiet so I can follow the sounds,” said Anastasia, straining to make sense of the echoes.

Catalyst followed Anastasia through the maze with tunnels leading this way and that way splitting off endlessly, the sounds of weeping bouncing off every wall. As it grew louder, Anastasia knew she would have to leave Catalyst behind to search it all and find the source of the crying.

“
Oh great, which way? With all these tunnels down here we could end up searching for days,” said Catalyst making it that much easier for Anastasia.

“
You’re right, so you stay here and wait for me. I can move through all of this a lot faster if I go alone, okay?” replied Anastasia. With the darkness of the dimly lit tunnels being of no consequence to Anastasia, flying through it all was as easy as walking outside during the day. In no time at all she found herself at the door that held Natalia prisoner. She looked through a peephole and there sat Natalia frightened and with tear-stained cheeks.

“
Little one,” said Anastasia in a soft voice.

Natalia looked up and a sudden sense of relief filled her heart, knowing Anastasia would save her from the prison she had woken up in.

“
Stand back, Natalia. Everything’s going to be just fine now,” said Anastasia.

As Natalia stepped back, Anastasia grew out her nails and slammed them into the door, pulling back the door and letting go as a spike-filled board flew up from the floor smacking Anastasia right in the chest, moving her a whole three inches. Natalia jumped right into Anastasia’s arms without so much as a word.

“
Now let’s go and get Catalyst and get out of here,” said Anastasia, speaking more to herself than Natalia.

Sweeping in and grabbing Catalyst, they soon found themselves back outside.

“
What happened, Catalyst? Where were you?” asked Natalia as only Natalia could.

“
Natalia, by the time I got back to where I left you, you were gone. I searched everywhere I could,” replied Catalyst.

“
He really did, and we were on our way to search for you on the other side of these tunnels but as soon as we got in deep enough I could smell your perfume, so keep wearing it, okay, just in case,” said Anastasia with a smile.

“
Now, Natalia, Catalyst, I’m going to have to put a scare into the Basajaunak of this village so they won’t bother you any more. Natalia, do you know who it was that brought you here?” asked Anastasia.

“
No, I don’t,” replied Natalia.

“
Did you see what they looked like? If I brought them here would you recognize them?” asked Anastasia.

“
No, all I remember was watching Catalyst leave and then something covering my mouth, then waking up in that room,” replied Natalia.

“
Well, you are going to have to be very careful from now on and stay together, okay?” said Anastasia.

“
Yes, yep,” replied Natalia and Catalyst.

“
Did you hear me, Catalyst? Stay with Natalia at all times. Don’t leave her alone,” said Anastasia in a harsh voice.

“
Yes Mom, I heard you,” replied Catalyst, knowing she wasn’t kidding.

“
Now there are a few things that I need to see about,” said Anastasia.

“
Like what?” asked Catalyst, hoping his Mother would stay just a bit longer.

“
Never you mind, boy,” said Anastasia, clearly frustrated.

“
What? You just told Krimpet not to call me boy and now you’re doing it,” said Catalyst as he stood there looking at her.

“
I’m your mother. I’ll call you whatever I want,” said Anastasia, pushing her finger into his chest to remind him of his place.

With a smile on her face at seeing that, Natalia felt a lot better. Turning with a woosh of her dress, Anastasia slipped back down the tunnels.

“
You okay, Natalia?” asked Catalyst.

“
I am now, but I was so afraid I would never see you or your Mom ever again and then I was worried I would never see my Mom and Dad ever again. I’ve been here so long already, I really need to get home – my parents are going to be so worried about me,” replied Natalia.

“
Natalia, I promise they don’t even know you’re gone. Remember you’re split in two right now
–
one half here and one half there,” said Catalyst.

“
Yeah, I forgot about that. They don’t even know a part of me is missing,” replied Natalia, missing her parents all that much more.

“
You had a scary day. You just feel a bit overwhelmed right now and who can blame you? You’ve been stolen and rescued all in one day, so let’s just rest. We’ll have something to eat and when you feel better we’ll move on,” said Catalyst.

They walked out to a tree not far from the village where Natalia sat and rested while Catalyst made them a very late lunch.

“
Hey Natalia, you’re supposed to be the one making lunch,” said Catalyst as he handed Natalia a plate and a smile.

Giving Catalyst the evil eye, Natalia took the plate and rested against the tree, putting a piece of fruit against her lip. Before she could even taste it, it fell from her hand and she just sat there staring.

Seeing this, Catalyst stood up, turned, and readied himself to defend her, only to see a spirit gliding by.

“
Excuse me, Miss, have you seen anyone suspicious around here today?” asked Catalyst, as though talking to a creature such as this was normal.

“
Besides the two of you? No I have not!” snapped the spirit as she changed her face just enough to show the evil that lay within and smiled a smile so vile it was simply grotesque.

“
Well no answers there, Natalia, but we’re still going to try and find out who it was that grabbed you,” said Catalyst.

Giving herself a shake, Natalia pulled herself together and started laughing.

“
Why are you laughing?” asked Catalyst, happy to see her smiling.

“
After the day I’ve had, Catalyst, it’s laugh or cry,” said Natalia simply.

Having eaten and rested long enough, maybe too long, Natalia spoke up.

“
Let’s get moving, Catalyst. I can’t sit here any more.”

They headed back to the village to continue their investigation. Catalyst reached into his fitsall and pulled out the used-to-be-a-key piece of metal with only the faintest lines of the carvings still visible.

“
We still need to find out who made this while we find out who grabbed you,” said Catalyst, looking at the metal.

“
Still? Catalyst, you were here for who knows how long. What happened?” asked Natalia, exhausted by the boy again.

“
Pardon me, I was busy trying to find my friend and this key thing was the last thing on my mind,” replied Catalyst, sighing.

“
I’ll forgive you this time,” giggled Natalia trying to lighten the mood.

Knocking on every door as they walked through the village, Natalia and Catalyst asked the same question time and time again. “Did you make this key? Do you know who did or might have?”
No, no, no was the reply every single time.

Finding themselves at Krimpet’s door, once more the question was asked:

“
Did you make this key? Do you know who did or might have?”

“
I have made no key nor do I know any Basajaunak that has. The workmanship…I don’t recognize it,” replied Krimpet, this time speaking politely to Catalyst even with the Human child standing there.

Remembering Anastasia’s anger, Krimpet offered to look into it.

“
I’ll send for one of our best blacksmiths,” said Krimpet, waving at his servant.

“
I thought all your villagers were blacksmiths,” said Natalia.

“
Two hundred and ninety seven out of the three hundred that live here are and we have three herdsmen,” replied Krimpet.

“
The blacksmith that’s coming now though is our very best and if anyone here can tell you anything about your key, then it’ll be this fellow,” continued Krimpet.

Returning just a few minutes later, the servant brought back the blacksmith.

“
Ah, here he is now, children. This is Gobstank, our very best,” said Krimpet.

“
Gobstank sir, do you recognize this key or know who might have made it?” asked Catalyst, handing the used-to-be-a-key piece of metal to the very large and very scary Basajaunak.

Natalia laughed as everyone looked at her and wondered why she was laughing. Before anyone could ask, Natalia said, “No reason.” She didn’t want to tell them she was laughing at the blacksmith’s name.

Taking the key from Catalyst, Gobstank began to examine it as screams came from outside Krimpet’s cave, capturing everyone’s attention.

They looked out to see what was going on. The screams grew louder and more horrible as two huge Basajaunak came flying through the door of Krimpet’s cave.

“
Do you recognize these two as the ones that grabbed you, Natalia?” asked Anastasia standing in the doorway.

“
No,” was all Natalia could say.

“
Trust me, little one, they are the ones. They have your perfume all over them,” said Anastasia.

“
Gobstank, lock these two Basajaunak up,” said Krimpet in hopes of curbing Anastasia’s anger.

“
Wait! I need to know why,” said Natalia.

Looking up at both Krimpet and Gobstank, one of the Basajaunak began to speak.

“
You both know as well as we do, the Humans have done so much harm here, coming first as friends and then as enemies, robbing the people of this world, pillaging the villages for what they wanted, killing whoever they wanted to or needed to just to satisfy their greed. That’s why the portal was locked down to begin with,” argued the Basajaunak.

“
This Human needs to be held accountable for the crimes of her people and shown as an example to those would follow her
–
that we are willing to wage war to keep our peace,” said the first Basajaunak.

Much to the surprise of Anastasia, Gobstank grabbed the first and very much larger Basajaunak and slammed him into the wall. Holding up the “key” Gobstank shoved it into his face, making sure he could see it well.

“
It would seem the portal was opened from our side and since you have so much to say about this, tell me why a child should pay for something that happened two hundred years before she was born?” demanded Gobstank.

“
Two hundred and fifty five years,” said Catalyst, in Natalia’s defence.

“
Why would our people open the portal and invite destruction upon ourselves?” demanded the Basajaunak.

“
That’s the question now isn’t it?” replied Gobstank, releasing the Basajaunak’s neck.

“
Lock them up, Gobstank, until we decide what to do with them. They’re to be left alone,” ordered Krimpet.

“
Wait Gobstank, the key, who made it?” begged Natalia.

Smacking the key against the wall, Gobstank was grabbed by Anastasia who held his arm tightly. Gobstank dropped to his knees in pain.

If you ruin or destroy that key, we’ll never be able to find out who made it and if we can’t find that out we won’t be able to lock the portal again! You wouldn’t want that, would you?” asked Anastasia.

“
No, I wouldn’t,” replied Gobstank, looking at Anastasia with a soft glow in his eyes. Everyone there could see he liked her and the sound of his voice told them he wasn’t lying to her. Catalyst smiled at Natalia after seeing that and Natalia took two steps back.

“
Why are you looking at me like that, Catalyst?” asked Natalia.

“
Like what? I just thought it was funny,” replied Catalyst, trying to explain himself and feeling all red-faced about it.

“
Now what about the key?” asked Catalyst, trying to change the subject back to normal as Anastasia let go of Gobstank.

Rising to his feet, Gobstank started to explain his actions.