Eye of the Ocean Book 3 Ji'jin Station

Eye of the Ocean – Book 3: Ji’Jin Station
mirrored the upward growth. Through the sickening stench of burned flesh, he
caught the scent of the musk of the ni'at tree.
Then Alicia turned. “Get inside,” she hissed, stepping at them as though her
small form could force them in. They moved, Mirwin starting as though he'd just
woken up. “Set beads just inside to explode, direct the force outwards to seal the
hole, not blow us up,” she added to Cici. “I want rubble, not an energy barrier.”
She grabbed the bead the girl had taken out, her small face smooth with
concentration as she adjusted the settings.
They were behind the intact warding barrier when it exploded. Alicia made it
by seconds. “Move further in,” she said, already starting the adjustments on
another bead, the last of those she'd worn in her hair. “Whatever that is out there
- the beam, not the tree - it adapts to any energy pattern we try. Nothing seems
to work very well more than once.” Kori moved beside her, they discussed the
settings in a quiet exchange as they worked.
Wall tiles and broken marble filled the narrow corridor. No fragments of
crystal, they must be inside the real station, Garm thought, not the pull. He
hadn't been sure; there wasn't a difference in how it felt. He almost fell when the
corridor shivered. Dust pushed against the warding line in a moiré pattern then
slowly settled as Alicia placed the first bead and backed up.
With the injured gone and the packs taken further in, Alicia put the last of
three beads down and pulled the field after herself. At the turn of the corridor, the
girl turned, waiting. The new wall of their warding was inches in front of her nose.
Garm stood next to her, stopping what she was going to say to him with a sign of
privilege. She nodded and took his hand in hers. A tree branch had punched
through the wall of rubble at the end of the corridor. Two flares happened at
almost the same time, one from the new hole at the end. Rilla or Ge'on'ni. Then
the corridor before them collapsed and the warding was a wall of dust again.
- 32 -
“We'll rest here,” Alicia said, slipping the strap of the carry pack from her
shoulder. She had a liking for narrow enclosures, Garm thought sourly as he
dropped his own bundles. Hot, airless tunnels. He felt trapped here; it couldn't be
safe. Anyone could come down the stairs they just had and with far less noise.
Just nerves, he decided but found himself starting back up the shallow steps,
listening for the sound of other footsteps.
“Should we seal it again?” Mirwin asked as he watched him, panting between
words. He looked as worried as Garm felt. The boy was leaning against the tile
Laurel Hickey www.2morrow.bc.ca