The Crystal Mountain by Thomas M. Reid Read Free Book Online Page B

against remembering. We must find a way to calm you, to allow them to come to the surface. I believe you will recall them during your stay here.”
    Eirwyn was suddenly terrified.

Chapter Four
    Satisfied that the abomination of Micus and Myshik could not escape the cage Aliisza had formed, Kaanyr turned his attention back to their surroundings. He eyed the edge of the gaping hole where the astral kraken had tried to make a meal of him and noted that the edges remained rough, irregular, just as the beast had left them.
    “The bubble no longer seems to be shrinking,” he said. When Aliisza did not answer, he turned to find her kneeling over the prone form of Kael. The sight made him grimace. Would she be that concerned over my injuries, he wondered, or has Tauran filled her head with too many foolish thoughts of nobility?
    Despite his anger, the image of her worrying over him pleased Kaanyr. There was a time, not so long ago…
    Memories of the sultry alu, teasing him as she nursed him back to health after some battle or another, filled Kaanyr’s mind. She had always managed to find creative ways to keep him in bed, he recalled with a chuckle.
    But now perhaps she’s the one who needs healing, he
    thought. Despite her assurances that she was fine, Kaanyr could see her pain, had seen the bizarre blue glow that had radiated from her. He knew her too well to believe her dismissal.
    She’s not telling me everything. I’m not sure she knows what’s going on herself. Just one more outlandish thing to add to the list. Either the multiverse is going mad, or I am.
    “He’s dying,” Aliisza said, her voice cracking. “We must do something.”
    “Do?” he asked. “Neither of us is a healer. That wound… Don’t take the sword out.” He regretted his words immediately. If only I could get her to do something foolish, he thought.
    His hatred of Kael seethed to the surface again, and Kaanyr imagined killing the fallen knight of Torm. He struggled against the compulsion placed upon him by Tauran, but the angel’s magic stayed his hand.
    “Zasian can heal him,” Aliisza said. “Find him.”
    Zasian! Kaanyr had almost forgotten about the priest, with the commotion of the huge astral kraken and then Micus’s strange appearance.
    An outlet for Kaanyr’s anger had presented itself.
    “Oh, I’ll find him,” the cambion snarled and reached for his sword. “I’ll gut him!”
    “Wait!”
    Kaanyr ignored her and stalked off, hunting for the man who had become his mission, his sworn enemy. It wouldn’t be hard to find the priest; the gleam emanating from his body was still the only source of light in the ruined chamber, other than the odd silvery illumination from beyond the rotunda’s walls.
    Aliisza reached Kaanyr’s side, grabbed his arm, and tried to slow him down. “You cannot do this! It isn’t him anymore!”
    Kaanyr jerked free of her grasp. “Your mind is addled, fool girl,” he said. “Between the bilge you spew about gods slaying one another and all the time you spent suffering from the angels’ tender mercies, I’m not surprised Zasian has you so befuddled. But I still see him for what he is—the last barrier between me and freedom.”
    They found the priest. He knelt on the stone floor on one side of the chamber, hunched over the unmoving form of another figure. It took Kaanyr only a glance to discern that the unconscious one was the green-skinned planetar that had given Kael and him such fits outside, in the corridor.
    Before everything went to pieces, he thought. Before Aliisza fouled it all up by bringing Micus here.
    Zasian saw Kaanyr approach. He flinched as the cambion raised his sword, ready to do the man in. “Wait!” he pleaded. “I didn’t do anything! He’s still alive!”
    “The Hells you didn’t!” Kaanyr shouted. “You damnable priest, you double-crossed me so many different ways, it makes me dizzy to think on them. Now you will pay for it!”
    Kaanyr drew back his arm, preparing