CHAPTER 03

CHAPTER 03

THE WHITE-LETTERED BOOK

––––––––

R

ESTING HER BACK AGAINST

rough stone in a narrow alley, Crystalyn found herself looking at two stout men facing a petite girl who gripped a dagger in an outstretched hand. One man leered at the girl, his stance relaxed. His cautious partner glanced toward the alley mouth and then back at the girl. Both men held short, hook-tipped swords.

Gazing the length of the alley, Crystalyn didn’t see Jade anywhere, though her sister must be close. They’d both come through the same gateway.

Where is she?

Crystalyn looked to the swordsmen. Both sets of brown eyes stared at her, scowls fixed upon their faces.

Without warning, the girl spun, moving with blurring speed.

A flash of metal brought white-hot pain lancing through Crystalyn’s midsection. The back of her head banged against the wall with a force that brought tears to her eyes. Strength fled from her legs.

Time slowed. Crystalyn slid downward. Vague images of the girl and the alley floated in and out of her vision. Abruptly, she found herself sitting. Confused, she tried to stand, but her limbs wouldn’t accept commands.

Darkness draped her mind.

Why was it dark?

Her eyes had closed. Forcing them open required a great effort. Distorted images flitted by.

Blinking, Crystalyn’s eyes came into focus on her waist. Her mind finally registered what her body understood. The hilt of a jeweled dagger was protruding from her stomach.

Fatigue descended heavily upon her then, funneling her vision to a vortex. Closing one eye to focus, she fixed the other on the dagger, which seemed so far away. It was like gazing through the wrong end of a sight glass. The small hand of the girl encircled the dagger and pulled, releasing an appalling sucking sound. Crystalyn’s blood fountained.

Crystalyn plastered both hands over the spouting hole, despairing at the blood spraying from between her fingers. A cavernous cold leached into her bones as her blood drained, adding to her weariness. Thoughts of sweet, dreamless sleep slipped into her mind. She may heal with sleep...if only her wound were healed.

A majestic white-and-silver image flitted into her mind. Lovely in its simplicity, the symbol was a perfect pentagram in shape, outlined in white with fine silver lines inside that matched a spider’s webbed design. Where had she seen it before?

Oh yes, in the white-lettered book.

Focusing on the symbol, Crystalyn projected it outward. The vortex of her vision expanded, snapping the world into acute clarity from the viewpoint of the symbol. The symbol hovered in the air near her head. Instinctively, she sent it toward her wound. Glowing silvery bright on contact, the symbol sank into her skin. Shockingly, her awareness still clung to it, caught in its wondrous webbed design.

The white symbol unraveled as it followed the puncture, leaving behind a silver and white mesh as it pushed her vital life fluid before it. It was one third the size as it reached her main bloodstream.

Sealing her blood vessel with what she thought of as symbolic gauze, the symbol drifted across the artery, applying mesh on the opposite side.

Concentrating, she rotated the symbol a full turn and performed a quick reconnaissance. Her blood was flowing normally, delivering platelets as usual. Slowly, she continued the rotation, only to halt at the gauze patch installed on the artery’s far side. A dark green substance had eaten through part of the seal and was pouring into her bloodstream from deeper within her organs. Now what was she supposed to do? Scarcely half her symbol remained.

A symbol she’d read under the heading “Dilutions” formed in her mind. Combining them, she redrew the symbol into a new one. Intricate gold and silver lines wended back and forth, filling the pentagram inside. Where webbing was before, there was now a hedge-like maze of lines with no beginning or end. Glowing faintly silver and gold, and triple the size, Crystayln willed the symbol into the mossy stuff invading her organs and circulatory system, her cognizance riding along with it.

On contact, the fluid vaporized into puffs of transparent mist, her bloodstream sweeping it away. The silver-gold symbol poured into the gap leading deeper inside her, filling it with an almost tangible fury. Finished, she sealed the opening with the remainder, and released her awareness back into herself.

Comprehension of the outside world coalesced around her, bringing with it a splitting migraine. Her consciousness began to slip away again, draining from her like a mountain stream racing to a canyon’s edge. She fought the sensation, willing her body and mind into coherence.

The alley sprang into clarity. Movement caught her eye.

The girl meticulously wiped the jewel-encrusted dagger on one of the swordsmen’s pants leg. Once satisfied, she lifted her taupe dress to the thigh and stowed the dagger in a sheath. Then, her small hands moved over the corpse with a practiced ease, patting the body. A handful of coins, a plain dagger, a small wood box, and several other items vanished into a leather bag hanging at her hip.

Crystalyn’s stomach churned so strongly, she felt she might vomit. Thankfully, the feeling passed. She needed time to replenish her strength, but she wasn’t going to get it. The girl would soon realize Crystalyn still lived.

Using her legs and hands, Crystalyn tried to push herself to a sitting position, but dizziness assaulted her. She rested her head on her chest, fighting the sensation.

Please don’t let me blackout,

she pleaded in silence.

Please, Great Father!

After a while, the lightheadedness lessened. A backpack laying at her feet sprang into clarity. Hers. Both leather-bound tomes lay half-exposed inside the main compartment.

A warm feeling spread through her as she looked at the white-lettered book of symbols. It was a good thing she’d read it; the book had taught her the symbols to use. In a way, tier one of

The Tiered Tome of Symbols

had saved her life. What other wonders might she gain from the black-lettered book? Soon, she would study every page. It might save her life or someone else’s ... providing she lived long enough here—wherever

here

was.

Right now, her list-ordered mind demanded goals. First priority: search until she found Jade, no matter what it took or how long. Second, once she found her sister, both of them would look for a pair of obelisks. Third, once they found them, she would open the gateway using the

same

symbol. She was convinced the last part was important for a safe return trip home. It was a simple strategy, but it was a strategy.

Crystalyn shoved the books in her pack, trying not to strain her upset stomach, as she kept the girl inside her peripheral vision. Busy with her macabre task, the girl ignored Crystalyn as if she was no longer among the living. With any luck, she would continue to believe so long enough for her strength to ebb back.

Crystalyn stole a look around. Sunlight faded from the mouth of the alley, the shadows stretching long from it. Soon, darkness would claim it all, assisted by the stone buildings lining both sides. Grayish-black dust, ground fine from decades of shod feet, covered the ground, clinging stubbornly to sun-faded wooden crates that were intermixed with broken glass and rotting vegetables. Other unidentifiable refuse littered the ground in places. Nothing else caught her eye.

The “nothing else” brought anxiety gushing into her weary, pain-shrouded mind. The black crystal candle was nowhere in sight.