Page 43 of Spectral Seas (Spectral Worlds #2)

F OR A SILENT hour, Sss’kali led the mixed group of reptoids, wolfmen, and Umbra through the thick luminous mist of the deep tunnel. Apart from shadows dancing in darkened pockets of the billowing blue fog, there were no other signs of life. Then ahead in the distance came a tiny flicker, a near indiscernible spark, there, then gone, then back again. As they drew closer, it began to persist. The flicker became a constant pinpoint, a suspended beacon in the gloom that grew larger with each step, from a spark of lightning blue, to a fist sized disc, to a window of light, finally revealing itself to be the entrance to a small tunnel, the mist before it burned away by the brilliance of the light.

Sss’kali stopped at the mouth of the tunnel and turned back to the group. “Where I lead you now isss sssacred,” the monk hissed. “None but ourssselvesss have ever traversssed through the cuh-ryssstals of the cuh-thedral garden. You will be the firssst outsssidersss to do ssso.”

Then, rather than wait for Abby or the others to respond, Sss’kali spun to face the tunnel, flicked his tongue, wobbled his neck straight, then proceeded to enter .

Abby and the others followed.

“ Did he say cathedral ?” chipped Leta.

“I’m sure this is another spur back toward the crystal garden and the cathedral is probably a private chapel they’ve set aside ,” chipped Abby. “Some kind of natural formation.”

But as they tread down the tunnel, Abby began to question what he’d find. The light at the end of the side tunnel was far brighter than the garden entrance near the mouth of the mine. The air was hotter too. As hot as the cauldron room. And the humidity was so thick that glittering droplets hung suspended, reflecting the glimmer of the garden’s brilliance.

When they reached the end, they poured into a vast cavern. Abby’s eyes went wide, as did those of the Umbra and Lupo.

Rather than finding the garden before them, they found themselves at the edge of a towering crystal forest. Humungous glowing sapphire shafts, each the size of the mag train, jutted from a soupy mineral bath and extended high up beyond sight, while hundreds of ‘smaller’ crystals, merely a meter or two thick, daggered from walls in tight clusters.

“Unbelievable,” said Leta. “That’s a natural formation all right.”

“Uhuh,” agreed Abby.

“Have you ever seen such a sight?”

“Never,” he said. “With the heat and mist, I expected there to be another pool of magma. Not this.”

“I’ve read of great crystal gardens such as these,” said Soren. “Most off world. There is a deep one near the Yucatan Bubble, but it’s nowhere to this scale.”

Sss’kyrone and the other reptoids approached the fore of the group to join Sss’kali. Together they lifted and spread their long scaly hands above their heads to praise the forest in silent prayer. Though some of the Lupo fidgeted, the group as a whole waited for the monks to finish. After a moment of silence, the monks lowered their arms then gently bowed. Then Sss’kali addressed Abby and the others. “From here,” said the monk, “we ssshall assscend to the sssurfacsse.” He turned to the left and began down a well-worn stone path skirting the edge of the glowing lake. The others followed single file. The path, valleyed and pitted with pools of precipitation, wove beneath and betwixt the giant sapphire shards, deep into the forest, eventually ending at the base of one of the largest crystals, a train sized translucent sapphire shaft jutting out at a thirty-degree angle up into the heart of the crystalline matrix. Without hesitation, Sss’kali leapt up onto the crystal’s smooth surface to continue the trek.

One by one the others followed, ascending the mammoth crystal, immersing themselves into the chaotic crisscross of the giant sapphire forest.

Ever upward they continued across the vast cavern. When they reached the point where a shard impaled the far wall, the monk stepped from the crystal out onto a narrow ledge so shallow that when the others followed, they were forced to flatten themselves against the rock wall and slowly slide sideways.

As Abby scanned the forest, the augmented counters in the corner of his vision struggled to determine the parameters of the vast crystal cave. Failing to lock on a point amidst the myriad of gigantic crisscrossing sapphire spears, they could not determine the distance to the top or bottom of the cave.

A thick crystal as wide as Abby was tall shot up vertically through the ledge, diverting the group into a side tunnel carved into the wall around it. There, concealed behind the crystal, they encountered a pocket of stagnant smelling mist so thick and foul that Abby and the Umbra were forced to slightly shift spectrum as to find a bit of relief to breathe. The Lupo, unable to shift, sneezed and gasped as they fought to purge their lungs while Xander, to his front, merely scrunched his muzzle and soldiered on.

The perfectly carved tunnel opened to yet another huge angled crystal the size of the one they had traversed below, and again they found themselves trekking upward toward the surface.

Their path weaved through the glowing matrix from crystal to carved ledge then back again, leading ultimately to a passage framed with uniformly cut stone. Large smooth blocks lined the walls of the interior, backlit by sconces that burned away much of the lingering mist. The corridor turned a sharp left then stopped before two massive stone doors twice the height of any member of their party.

Sss’kali raised his reptilian hand toward the huge stone slabs as the jailer had raised his hand to the lock on the cell door. There was a thud, a rumble, a rain of dirt and dust from the seams of the great stone doors, then a rush of cool salty air as the slabs slowly creaked open.

“Behold,” said Sss’kyrone, “the temple of our father.”

Abby’s oculars came alive, outlining the architecture with an augment overlay. Beneath a high vaulted ceiling was an ancient marbled hall—in the style of the abbey but seemingly built for giants. To one side stood a colonnade of massive smooth monolithic columns, each four meters wide, and beyond them, the blue misting abyss of the outside surface. To the other side of the hall stood a tall statue of a large, coiled snake, its head reared back and cobra hooded, ready to strike, with glowing blue sapphire boulders for eyes and two muscular humanoid arms held high above a massive half-moon bowl of blue fire .

“He’s a handsome fella,” said Leta.

“That’s their deity,” said Abby. “The serpent god.”

~*~