Nafon forced himself up several large boulders until he could get a foothold in the rock wall below the place where Quago's limp form lay. Then he pulled himself slowly and painfully up until he could reach the ledge where Quago had fallen. He was gasping by the time that he reached her. The pain in his chest was like an open wound. His raw hands bled freely on the black rock. He sank weakly down beside her, unaware that he scrapped off more skin from his back and side against the rock wall. He hurt everywhere, another scratch or so made no difference to him.
Quago was pale and there was a large bruise on her forehead as he examined her. Her left arm was twisted at an uncomfortable angle beside her. Her neck bled from where the circle of branch had punctured her soft skin. He removed the lei from around her neck and straightened her head to lay at a more comfortable angle against the hard surface where she rested. He absently laid the circle of flowers on the ledge beside them.
Then Nafon pulled off a piece of the end of his staff to make a splint to hold the broken limb steady. He ripped strips from his belt to secure her arm to the wooden support. She moaned weakly. He took his flask and dripped water onto her parched lips. Her eyes fluttered open. She looked at him and managed a brave smile but it was obvious that she was in some pain. Nafon feared that her ribs might be broken as well. He propped her as gently as he could against his arm, although he still made her gasp in pain. Then he gave her a drink from his flask of water through the veil over her face. He was afraid to remove the misty protection, he wasn't certain how bad the air was in here.
"What happened?" she whispered weakly against him, the pain of breathing making her face even whiter than when he had first found her. Meib cried out softly from the air beside them. She nudged Quago's dangling hand with her nose.
"She says that Telon is dead. She said that he gave his life for me!" Quago shuttered at the very thought of what the Teliat warrior must have suffered. She turned her head into Nafon's chest and cried.
"He died as he would have wanted to die. To his people, to give one's life for a comrade is the ultimate act of glory." Nafon said softly. Quago looked at him, puzzled, as she wiped away the last of her tears.
"You sound as if you know, personally, about his people's traditions." she said with a question in her eyes.
"I can't explain what happened. But when he died, I suddenly understood everything about him." he didn't tell her of the great pain that still burned in his chest or of how he had actually felt it when Telon had left this life. He didn't understand it himself, how could he explain it to anyone else?
Quago gasped as she noticed his torn hands. She turned one of them over in her good hand to see the wounds there.
"It seems that we were both wounded, Wizard." she said quietly. He leaned his head back against the ledge and closed his eyes wearily. The pain in his chest was almost unbearable. He felt too tired to move. Quago laid quietly in his arms, she seemed to sense that he needed rest.
"Where is Ott?" she asked suddenly as she began to try to account for their small party.
"Gone." Nafon said with a remote look in his eyes. She searched his face. It seemed to her that he had never been so faraway from her for so long in her entire life. Suddenly she was afraid.
"Nafon!" she called, trying to shake him with her good arm. She fell back, gasping in pain. Instantly, he was back with her again.
"Don't ever leave me like that again." she pleaded with him. He smiled and shook his head.
"I'm not going anywhere." he said, stoking her golden hair. He froze for an instant as he saw them, his hands were becoming like crystal. Like Ott, this place was changing him.
He caught a movement out of the corner of his eye and he turned. Sliobs were slithering onto the cavern floor. They leaked like ink spills across the rock. Hundreds of them crawled over and under each other until the floor was alive with slimy, wiggling black forms. Meib roared at the hideous invasion. Quago stifled a scream when she saw what was below them. Nafon quietly drew out his thorns that Ott had given them. Quago had lost hers in the fall.
As Nafon shifted from his knees onto his toes to have a better brace for throwing the darts, he kicked the circle of flowers that Quago had worn around her neck. He was able to catch the lei before it fell to the cavern floor but a rain of flower petals was shaken loose from the jarring of the necklace. They fell like fragrant white snow down the side of the rocky wall and settled on the closest of the boulders under their narrow perch. The sliobs seemed to go mad at the scent of the flowers. They tried over and over again to mount the boulders to reach the trapped humans, only to fall back and die from any contact with the sweet petals. Nafon had accidentally created a protective wall for them that the sliobs could not cross.
The great snails slithered and writhed, trapped away from their prey. They made sounds like screams whenever they brushed against one of the fragile petals. It was obvious that they were frustrated by their inability to reach the life that they wanted to drain.
Then slowly a black fog began to seep into the room. As it touched the snails, they died, instantly, with no chance to scream as they were absorbed. Soon the giant slugs fled from the cavern as the black mist took over. They disappeared through cracks and crevices like shadows when the sun reaches its highest in the noon sky. The darkness, left with a deserted floor, gathered in pools of emptiness, grew and spread.
"What is it?" Quago asked, trembling.
"The Mevix." Nafon said in a dead and remote voice. He fell back against the rock wall and watched the dark cloud grow. He was beyond feeling anything anymore. When Ott had gone, he had felt great anger. When Telon had died, he had nearly taken Nafon with him. The pain of that loss still burned in his chest. He had then felt frustrated that he couldn't even protect the woman that he loved. Now, he was empty. He felt all cold and frozen inside. He lifted a heavy hand and saw his flesh simmer like a diamond. The Star of Khorra on his staff began to beam. It would seem that he was destined to follow in Ott's footsteps.
Rejro and Norfy flew into the cavern, well above the gathering black pond. They landed lightly on the ledge. Quago went into Norfy's safe arms while Rejro first studied the growing blackness, then turned to Nafon.
The young wizard glowed with an internal light that was ghostly. His long, white hair floated around him as if it were being constantly stirred by an invisible breeze. His veil had been torn away by some fall and yet he breathed as though the air was sweet. His face was wonderful and alien. It shone in unearthly beauty and majesty. His eyes were like diamonds, none of the human softness remained in them. He was no longer quite human. Rejro didn't know what he was, he just knew that Nafon had gone beyond them.
The pool of black had grown into a small lake that lapped against the base of the wall where they now rested. Here it was held back like a dam by the soft, fragrant petals of the flowers. The air became heavy and foul. Even the veils were very little defense against the unnatural weight of it, only Nafon was unaffected.
The Star of Khorra blazed and lit the entire chamber above the rippling pool of blackness. In its pure light they were able to see the black crystal that hung like a jewel from the roof above them. At first, it was full of smoke but the smoke shifted and turned. It thickened and rolled. Slowly it solidified and became a woman.
She was horrible in her beauty. Her black eyes glittered with malice and yet promised things unknown. Her long black tresses flowed down a perfect body and rested in thick locks of velvet at her perfect, tiny feet. Her lips glistened with moist invitation yet they were such a deep black that the invitation could only be for death. She ran a dark tongue over perfect, jeweled teeth. They were deadly and sharp. She was a nightmare of death, a dream of desire.
"What is it?" Rejro asked unable to pull his eyes away from the fascinating creature imprisoned in the crystal. His voice was hushed with awe at the extreme beauty.
"It is Mevix." Nafon answered dully. He looked on the woman in the gem, indifferent.
"It is unlife."
"How can we kill it?" Norfy said evenly. His love of a real woman protected him from the threat of the Mevix.
"Kill her? You can't kill her." Rejro said staring into her beckoning eyes. Norfy looked at his prince in surprise. He had underestimated the threat here. The Mevix would pull them apart if they let it. Norfy looked about him for some weapon. There was nothing except the glowing star that rested in Nafon's crystal hand and a lei of forgotten flowers.
Gently he put Quago from him. She, too, seemed nearly hypnotized by the woman in the crystal locket. He lifted the circle of flowers. Whatever he did, he must do swiftly. Prince Rejro was ready to fly into the woman's waiting arms.
He launched himself off the ledge with the garland of white blossoms. The Mevix at first thought that it had won its first victim. Then it roared in deadly thunder as it saw the flowers in the pixie's hand. It was too late. Norfy and his wreath of life crashed through the crystal womb and it shattered into a million drops of hard, black rain.
Nafon saw the small man throw himself at the crystal. He raised his staff. As the jewel shattered, before the Mevix could change itself, he threw with all his might. The spear of everliving life sailed across the cavern and implanted itself in the woman's dark breast. The un-alive was pierced through with life. A scream rocked the walls of Mount Oaik. Then the Mevix was gone.
On the cold cavern floor below lay Norfy surrounded by a circle of glittering glass.
Rejro shook himself from the spell that had held him captive. He flew down to his best friend. Behind him Quago screamed out the little man's name. He lifted Norfy's head and shoulders into his arms as he knelt there on the hard floor. The small body was covered with loose, white petals. That was all that remained of the fragrant garland.
"Are you alright, my prince?" Norfy whispered to his fellow Tekian, his struggle for breath in every haunting word.
"Yes, thanks to you." Rejro brushed some of the petals away even though tears nearly blinded him. There in the small man's chest was a sharp dagger of the black crystal. The red blood of the warrior grew in a pool at the base of the point.
"Norfy!" Quago cried. She climbed painfully onto Meib's strong back and the big snake sat her gently on the floor of the cavern. She ran to Norfy's side and sank to her knees. She stroked back his thick, green curls with her good hand as he lay weakly in Rejro's arms. Tears ran down her face like glittering streams. Her own pain was forgotten in the agony that she felt for Norfy.
"We must take him to the cave." Rejro murmured brokenly.
"What?" she said, dazed.
"We found the golden tree, the one in the legend." Rejro said softly, watching his friend's struggle to breathe.
"We must take him there." he repeated stubbornly.
Nafon lifted a silver, crystal hand and Norfy floated effortlessly above the floor.
"Which way, Rejro?" he asked in a voice like soft thunder as he floated down from the ledge.
Rejro flew ahead and guided them down a passage way and into a large cave. Nafon floated there on the edge of the opening and saw the stuff of legends.
The cave ran on for miles. Its floor was of shining pieces of multicolored gems. It was as if some giant hand had ground up rubies, emeralds and diamonds into a fine sand. In the center of this sparkling blanket was a tree of pure gold. It stood eight foot tall and blue sparks flew from its feet. A soft sound like distant thunder rolled from it. Its golden branches were covered with clear crystal leaves.
"The wizards' council." Nafon said softly to himself.
They laid Norfy near the golden tree. His blood sank into the sand and it blazed where the blood touched it like a rainbow of soft light. Quago cradled him to her and cried.
"Don't grieve for me, my love." Norfy whispered. He reached up a trembling hand and touched the chain that she had given him.
"I owe you a present." he said weakly. Quago's tears fell down upon his chest as they dripped unheeded from her chin.
"You owe me nothing, brave warrior. Indeed, it is I that owe you. You have taken my heart and given me my life." she kissed his pale brow and felt her heart shatter into pieces.
"I would give you flight." he whispered. With his last breath, he ordered her, "Fly!" Then he sank against her, his brave life spent. The glowing sands parted then and his body sank beneath them. Quago stared at the rainbow that began to grow there and watched it as it flowed out in an arc across the cavern.
Rejro offered her his arm then and she slowly rose to her feet. They stood there together below the rainbow, the small man with his gray wings like a moth's and the golden woman with her brilliant wings of color that reached from the sands below until well over her shining head.
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