Wayfarers (Champions of the Crystal Book 1)

Chapter 8.2

Sabrina's masquerade as a goddess meant she couldn't plead anything so mundane as a headache to miss dinner, so she ate with the others though it was the last thing she wanted to do. Tirqwin did not tease her, however, and Haaron, regarding her in puzzled silence, had abandoned his rigid indignation. Malvarak kept Maratobia amused with his witty banter, and Scotty, who had gorged on cheeseburgers aboard Khediva, picked at his food and occasionally made a remark to Haaron about the competition he had been in yesterday. Zenaneh and her priestesses were silent servitors.

As night fell, they were entertained by a group of musicians, whom Sabrina privately thought far less tuneful than many of the punk bands she had disliked on Earth. Then the group retired to their separate sleeping quarters, this time with the addition of Malvarak and Tirqwin. Haaron and Scotty decided to take turns keeping watch, despite Tirqwin's assurance that Khediva would be constantly monitoring them.

Sabrina slept fitfully, dreaming shadowy dreams of vampires and Xoentrols, catching glimpses of them lurking in the dark around her but unable to see them when she looked directly, and unable to run from them. Terror clutched at her throat, and it was with a horrified gasp rather than a scream that she came abruptly awake. A shadow loomed over her, and she started violently and drew breath to shout.

"My lady?" Haaron's voice said quietly. "Are you well?"

"Haaron!" she whispered, letting her breath out in a long sigh. "I'm all right. It was just a nightmare."

"You are quite safe," he said, moving back toward the doorway. Reaching it, he took up a comfortable sentinel position, with his back to her.

Sabrina sighed again, quietly this time, and ran a hand through her tangled hair. She felt very far from home.

Maratobia stirred in her sleep, murmuring something unintelligible, then quieted. Sabrina looked down, but the princess' expression was not fearful. In fact it was devoid of all expression, looking almost waxy in the yellowish light of Carsida's moons.

Moonlight is supposed to be pretty, not this sickly stuff, Sabrina thought with a pang of homesickness, looking up at the alien sky, its stars ranged in unfamiliar patterns. She wondered if one of them were Earth's sun, but she felt no fundamental pull toward any of them as she half-believed she would toward her native star. She tried to draw constellations to amuse herself, but she had never been very good at seeing pictures in the stars, even when they were pointed out to her.

After a moment she blinked, then rubbed at her eyes, thinking she was imagining things. But she wasn't.

One by one, as if covered by an inky rolling fog, the stars were going out.

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"Haaron!"

Sabrina's whisper carried easily in the still night, and Haaron turned to find her staring, wide-eyed, at the sky. Without glancing at him, she pointed wordlessly to a point just above the horizon. Haaron looked for several seconds before he realized what she wanted him to see: the stars winking out in rapid succession. He hesitated for a moment, grappling with the problem of what this phenomenon might be, until Sabrina whispered with instinctive certainty, "The Souleater."

"Khediva!" Haaron said aloud, making Sabrina jump. "Khediva!"

There was no reply.

"Scotty!" Haaron shouted across the pyramid top. "Tirqwin! To arms!"

Scotty was on his feet before he was quite awake, muttering, "Huh?"

Tirqwin was up and halfway around the square before Maratobia sat up, rubbing at her head as if it hurt. "What is happening?" they demanded in unison.

"The stars are going out," Sabrina said. "It's the Souleater."

"Khediva doesn't answer," Haaron added.

Tirqwin focused his attention inward for a moment, then said, "I cannot get through to her. There's something interfering with the link."

Malvarak came up behind him. "I am still in touch with Sribarak—he is on the other side of the planet. Shall I—?"

"Go," Tirqwin urged, and Malvarak vanished.

"Where did he go?" Scotty demanded as he arrived.

"To Sribarak. We must have someone in orbit to tell us what that phenomenon is."

"It's the Souleater," Sabrina said, her voice deadly calm.

"Miss Devon, you have no rational basis for that deduction," Tirqwin said.

Maratobia shivered violently. "I think she is right. Oh, Tirqwin...it is evil. Can't you feel it too? As if...as if it were dark enough to devour all the light in the universe...."

Tirqwin hesitated just a second too long before saying briskly, "There is no need to be melodramatic about this. Lieutenant Haaron, I think Zenaneh's presence might be helpful. Lieutenant Devon, do you still have your communicator? Good. Get in touch with Malvarak and see if he has gotten a fix on the size of this phenomenon. Sabrina, you are going to have to play your role while the princess and I do the work. Are you ready?"

"No," Sabrina said in a trembling voice.

"Miss Devon, the princess needs you. We all need you. This entire planet may depend on your obeying my instructions. You must be ready."

Sabrina took a deep, shuddering breath and straightened her shoulders. "I'll try."

"Good. Just keep everyone's attention focused away from the princess."

Tirqwin and Maratobia settled down on Sabrina's bed, linked hands, and closed their eyes in concentration. Sabrina looked at them for a minute, then at Scotty, speaking softly and urgently into his silent communicator.

Then she walked over to the edge of the roof and stood against the devouring darkness as a chill wind began to blow.