Dreams of the Oracle

Chapter 14

Jack Linch awoke lying face down sprawled out on the cold stone floor. He moved slowly, aches spreading here and there all over his body. He touched his head gingerly as the beginnings of a splitting headache rose from the back of his head. He looked up, and his eyes widened in alarm.

The Rashakas were all crouched over him. They had shed their human guises and looked like nothing so much as monstrous wolves watching a potential kill in the flickering light; green eyes burning with insatiable hunger. One's lips peeled back revealing rows of glistening, knifelike teeth. Jack backed away from their hard gaze.

"Get away from me!" he snarled.

Behind them he saw a flickering light. The ancient runes etched into the walls of the cavern were glowing. He rose to his feet unsteadily and stumbled over to the nearest wall. The runes burned with a fierce red fire as though his own ruby had been melted down and poured into them. He continued searching the cavern walls, finding runes he hadn't noticed earlier.

"You have failed, Master Linch," said one of the Rashakas, a cold edge in its voice.

Jack glared at the monster in the shadows. He stalked over to the edge of the cavern and extended his hand. Immediately his palm pushed back as if against a powerful wind. Frustration and anger welled up inside him like a living thing. He turned to look at the Rashakas, his eyes wild and dangerous. Despite expending his magic to the point of unconsciousness, the barrier remained. Red fire coursed through him and crackled at his fingertips, awaiting his command.

He wriggled his fingers in confusion. Why wasn't his magic spent? It should have taken him longer to regain the amount of power he had hurled at the accursed barrier. He stared hatefully at the ancient Death Keeper magic. The runes were moving slowly in a circular motion. He had never seen any enchantment like this before. It was a curious and unsettling thing to find a barrier strong enough to resist his magic. He had never been confronted with an enchantment or anything else that he couldn't destroy.

"Filthy Death Keeper tricks!" he muttered and spat on the swirling runes. Abdiel was surely laughing himself sick in some corner of this idiotic tomb. Jack spun around to look for a way to vent his rage. The Rashakas had disappeared into the shadows without a sound. He seemed to be completely alone in the darkness.

"You useless vermin!" yelled Jack Linch, his eyes blazing with a need to destroy. His magic rose up within him begging to be released.

"Planning to attack us, Master Linch?" growled a voice behind him. The other two Rashakas stepped out of the darkness flanking him on either side.

Jack spun around to face the one who had spoken. The creature was a silhouette across the wall of glowing runes. Its green eyes gleamed in its shadowy, featureless head.

"You led me into a dead end. You filthy curs can't track him past this point." said Jack. Then his voice became deathly still and his eyes burned a deep red, "Your usefulness has ceased."

"We have his scent," hissed the Rashaka. "We will track him above the ground."

Jack's rage-fueled magic stood on a razor's edge. He glared at the thing before him. He wanted, very badly, to kill it, to kill them all, but he would never find Abdiel without them. His magic twisted inside of him begging to be released. It would be so easy.

"You had better find him," he said.

They all trooped up stairs to the surface. Jack found his way by the flickering glow of the ancient runes and then by the glow of his ruby.

At last they crawled out of the trap door and stepped through the Death Keeper house and out into the light of day. The daylight blinded him momentarily. It reminded him of his escape from Calchas prison.