Pandora's Box: Book 3 of the Crystal Raven Series

Cantara found a cliff with an overhanging ledge, where a broken rock cut off most of the wind. The night had grown cold, and that wind held a chill that cut like knives. They would miss the tent tonight. And a fire would be hard to keep lit with the wind blowing down the ravine, creating a tunnel that added twenty kilometres an hour to an already gale-force blast. If they did not freeze to the rock, they would be blown off the mountain. Either way, it would be a cold, miserable night, and even Ember’s fury elephants couldn’t generate enough warmth to keep the chill from their bones.

They weren’t high enough for snow, but it sure felt like it. Cantara relented and let Gwen and Crystal use some of their precious Sterno to heat up their supper. Even she wished they had not left the tent behind. As they climbed higher into the mountain, weight was too much of a consideration, and finding the space to set up a five-man tent would be increasingly difficult. She worked now with Alex and Aiko to rig up some kind of windbreak with their thermal blankets, leaving Ember to keep watch.

“There, that ought to do it,” Cantara was saying moments before Strawberry stuck her head through their makeshift wall.

“Strawberry!” Cantara cursed and received a face wash from a big black tongue.

“Well,” Ember said in the way of apology, “at least they cut down the wind better than that thin blanket.”

She patted Tangerine’s flank, and he yelped. Her hand came away sticky.

“Oh, my God!” Ember wailed, “Tangerine is dying!”

“No, ma petite,” Jean-Claude soothed. “He was stabbed with a crucifix, but it is only a scratch. Gwen can sew it up, no?”

“Here,” Gwen soothed, “bring him into the light, and I will take a look.”

Ember coaxed Tangerine in amongst the rocks and held the lantern while Gwen inspected his wound. Whenever one of the girls attempted to touch the wound, he would spin away and growl.

“This is hopeless,” Gwen sighed, exasperated.

“Don’t let him die,” Ember complained.

“If you use the Raven to take away his pain, ma petite,” Jean-Claude soothed, “Gwen can stitch the wound.”

“But I don’t know how to use a crystal like a Wiccan,” Ember said as Tangerine licked away the first of her tears.

“What are you saying, sweetheart?” Gwen asked.

“Jean-Claude says that if I use the Raven to take away his pain, you can stitch up the wound.”

“Is Jean-Claude hurt too?” Gwen looked around, confused.

“No, Tangerine,” Ember stamped a foot. “You are so blonde sometimes, Gwen.”

The others snickered.

“Well, there’s no need for insults,” Gwen sighed, exasperated further. She had a patient to attend to, no matter what the species. “It’s a good idea. You know how to focus a crystal. I can show you how to hold his pain, and I guess the Raven is our best stone for the purpose.”

Crystal handed the crucifix to Alex after her third attempt to remove the Raven failed. Her hair may be black, but sometimes she was as blonde as Gwen. When Alex had removed the crystal from its setting, she handed it to Gwen.

“Okay,” Gwen instructed, “stand in front of him and make sure his eyes are looking at the Raven. Please, Tangerine, no licking the Raven. You know better than to taste the crystals.”

Ember giggled, and Tangerine seemed to be grinning.

“Now focus on the crystal and on Tangerine,” Gwen continued. “Just like that.”

While Aiko held the lantern, Gwen took her first good look at the wound. It was deep but narrow – definitely from a knife or a crucifix. She shared a troubled look with Aiko and then took up the needle before Ember became distracted.

“There,” Gwen announced. “Only five stitches. I don’t understand how anyone could have taken a crucifix to Tangerine. Everyone knows Ember’s hounds, especially after he swallowed that crate of grenades at the airport.”

“Now that that is over,” Jean-Claude said, “you silly little girls might want to look at these beans. Your supper is rather on the black side. And then I need you to tell them about what is happening back at the fortress.”

“Jean-Claude says to attend to our supper before it burns,” Ember replied. “And then he wants me to tell you something important about back at the fortress. I am saying it exactly like you, you silly old ghost!”

Ember was settled in against the rock wall with Tangerine’s head and a plate of beans in her lap, and the imp in the crook of her other arm. He chittered at her happily, telling her about his latest adventures as he helped himself to her slightly crispy beans. As the others settled in with complaints about their overdone meal, Crystal was defending herself with claims that she had turned down the heat when all the excitement had started. Cantara said she would have been better off to have turned it off and saved their Sterno.

“So,” Aiko asked over a cup of warm blood. “What is it Jean-Claude wanted you to tell us?”

She knew she should not encourage the girl, but Aiko was as curious as any of the other women.

“Last night,” Ember actually gulped. “Brother Jonas and the Paulean Guard took over the fortress. They locked April and the others in their quarters and wouldn’t give anyone any food or water.”

“I should have dropped him off the Statue of Liberty,” Crystal muttered darkly.

“Is that when Tangerine got hurt?” Alex asked.

“Well,” Ember paused as if listening to someone. “That happened the next day. They were trying to capture my boys.” She frowned. “Should I be mad that Strawberry bit one of their heads off?”

“No,” Cantara rubbed Strawberry’s ears, “it’s less than a traitor deserves.”

“Oh,” Ember brightened, “so I won’t worry that she bit someone in half last night. But I’m not sure I like her eating people.”

“I thought you said Brother Jonas took over the fortress last night?” Gwen asked, confused. Was she being blonde again?

“Oh no,” Ember corrected, “that was the night before last. This morning April took back the fortress…”

“Good,” Gwen nodded empathetically. “I hope mom boxes his ears.”

Tears began to stream down Ember’s cheeks, and her face shone wetly in the lantern’s light.

“Ember, sweetie, what’s wrong?” Crystal soothed.

“Jaime’s dead.”

In the silence that followed her words, Gwen quietly sobbed. Stunned, the others did not speak for some time. Here on the mountains where it was a conflict between women and nature, it was easy to forget that a battle was being fought back in the foothills, and people they loved may be dying.

“Vampyres?” Cantara spat darkly.

“No,” Ember sniffed, “one of the Paulean Guard. I wished my boys had eaten them all.”

“Why are you crying so much, Gwen?” Crystal demanded through her own tears. “You thought he was a creep.”

“Just because he couldn’t keep his eyes off this bodacious body,” Gwen retorted, “doesn’t mean I didn’t like him. Besides, he could be really sweet when he wasn’t showing off or being such a boy.”

It was hard to laugh and cry at the same time. It took mad skills that Gwen apparently lacked, and she started to cough and choke.

“Jean-Claude says I need to tell you something really important,” Ember sniffed. “And I am not crying like a baby!”

“No one thinks you are, sweetie,” Gwen soothed. “I’m doing all the blubbering.”

“Jean-Claude says my puppies might have saved everyone’s life,” Ember replied, slightly mollified. “They found all the Eaters of the Dead.”

“You must tell them where and how many, ma petite,” Jean-Claude urged, “or they won’t understand.”

“I’m getting to it,” Ember complained. “You silly old ghost. Gees, for someone with all the time in the afterlife, you sure are impatient.”

“What about the Eaters of the Dead?” Cantara grumped.

“There’s a really, really, really huge nest right by the fortress,” Ember disturbed the sleeping imp and the Hellhound as she stretched out her arms. “And it’s growing. But Jean-Claude says Gabriel is getting help, and everybody should be okay if he gets back in time.”

Between her words and the hounds, the cold didn’t matter anymore. Their supper sat in their stomachs like blocks of ice. They had all left someone they cared about behind at the fortress, and while the messenger might be too young to realize the import of her words, they all knew what so many Eaters of the Dead meant. Time was running out, not only for their mission but for those who were fighting to make it possible. And with Ember’s record for making important discoveries, it was hard to discount her news, no matter how improbable the source. They were all getting used to her imaginary friend, Jean-Claude, and the way he always seemed to be right.

Morning was cold and rough, despite the hounds having lingered through breakfast. As she washed up the dishes, Cantara eyed the cliff face they needed to scale this morning. It rose nearly two hundred feet straight up, its surface a hodgepodge of crumbly sandstone and smooth granite. She needed to keep the others minds focused on the day’s climb and not on what was happening back at the fortress, or the sacrifices they were making would mean nothing.

“Aiko!” Cantara asked. “Can you check the packs? And Ember and Alex, can you see if you can forage a little wood?”

It wasn’t likely, not this high up in the mountain, but they had used an awful lot of Sterno and propane last night. The small cylinder was almost empty. Gwen and Crystal were already busy folding up the thermal blankets they had used as a windbreak and salvaging as much of the rope and twine as they could. With the weight constraints climbing put on them, they could only carry a limited number of supplies. After this morning’s breakfast, there would be no more canned food left, only the foil freeze-dried packs. Things were already running low, rope as well as food and wood, and they had hardly begun their climb. At least their water could be replaced by melting snow.

The day’s troubles started ten steps from their campsite. Rocks and stones began to rain down on them from, well, nowhere. One hit Ember on the shoulder, leaving a nasty welt. The fall was too widespread and scattered to be natural. Once, after a rock the size of her head missed her, Alex disappeared into the rock. Burrowing through it to the top, she searched stretches in both directions but found nothing. The mountain was haunted.

They reached the cliff face. Standing on the bottom and looking up, it seemed to go on forever. This morning Aiko would take the lead and Cantara the anchor. Hopefully, this formation would allow the djinn could keep a close eye on the more inexperienced climbers, giving them advice and encouragement on the more difficult stretches of their climb. Aiko climbed like a monkey. She was probably the only one there who could scale the entire height free hand and Cantara had to remind her to slow down and find easier passages. Maybe she should have chosen Alex to lead off. Of course, that girl tended to melt into the rock whenever she got frustrated, and Cantara wasn’t sure what would happen to the rope when she did. Somehow she did not think she would like finding out that answer.

Above, Aiko paused to hammer home a piton. The clean ping of the hammer hitting its head let them all know that there was solid stone underneath. After clipping a line to the piton to anchor her, she climbed higher using minute cracks and outcrops. Again she struck home a piton with a clarion ring of steel on steel. Here, the vampyre added a second for safety’s sake, and then adding a second line for those waiting down below. Finished, she continued her climb.

Crystal climbed over this new stretch of rock, followed by Alex and Gwen. The piton and ropes made it easier, and they were rising rapidly. Already the ground was fifty feet down and looked further. A fall from this height would be nasty and result in a few broken bones, if not worse. Next, Ember reached the smooth stretch of stone. She was climbing well despite her sore shoulder. A third of the way up, one of the pitons gave out. As it popped out of the rock with a loud ping, the second piton took up her weight, groaning ominously.

“Are you okay?” Cantara called up. “Everyone freeze and anchor.”

“Yeah, I think so,” Ember called down. “I got a good handhold and a good toe-hold.”

And then that handhold and the second piton gave way. As Ember fell, her weight pulled at the entire string of climbers. Aiko sank her hands into the stone to get a better grip as she anchored the whole line, her fingers sinking in like it was mud. Below, Cantara worked her way to the stricken girl, who was hanging upside down by the safety line. One of her feet was tangled in the other line, preventing her from righting herself, and to add insult to injury, her hair was wrapping itself around the anchor line. She was stuck good.

Cantara reached Ember, spending a few moments to reassure herself the girl was secure before climbing to untangle her foot. As she worked with the recalcitrant rope, the djinn swore someone was working counter to her. The moment she got one loop untangled, two more would wrap themselves around the girl’s boot, and she found herself staring at six rope ends where there should only have been one. And then she discovered that someone or something had tied the boot laces to the rope in a perfect bow. It was a fight she ended with one of her daggers, and although they would miss that length of rope, she couldn’t keep the girl hanging there all day.

“Why does this mountain hate me so much?” Ember complained as Cantara helped her upright.

“I don’t think it’s the mountain,” Cantara replied grudgingly, “and I don’t know why they are picking on you.”

“Who?” Ember demanded.

“Gremlins,” Cantara admitted ruefully. “Come on, I’ll climb with you until we get past this stretch.”

Overhead, the once-solid stone was now rotting and crumbling at their touch. The stone was corrupted in a way only evil could. With her rock pick, Cantara hammered through the rotten stone, carving out hand and footholds into the honest stone beneath it. As she worked, Ember swore Cantara was muttering something about gremlins, and from what the girl heard, she wouldn’t want to be a gremlin at the moment. What was a gremlin anyway, and why did they hate her so much? For that matter, what did Cantara have against gremlins? And why would she want to tie one into a knot that would take a thousand years to undo?

It was a long, arduous climb. Aiko began hammering out footholds wherever she was forced to use pitons, keeping them on the cliff face much longer than a normal climb would have. They were all glad to find a flat plateau stretched out before them when they climbed over the lip, exhausted, torn and blistered. Ahead, almost too far to walk on their sore and rubbery limbs, a collection of rocks offered a place to shelter and rest. For lunch, and maybe a nap, and a couple of days’ vacation. The list grew as they stumbled their way across the plateau. Room service and a masseur topping every list, followed by a long slumber on a soft bed. They were met by shadows and hard rock and utter disappointment. Where was a Day’s Inn when you needed it?

In amongst the rocks, they collapsed. Hungry, but too tired to do anything about it at the moment, they sat in a huddle and waited for either more energy or a quick death from exhaustion. Ember rolled over and took her pack off, rummaging through it for the meat sticks she knew she had packed in there.

“So,” she asked through a bite of meat, “what’s a gremlin, and why do they keep trying to throw me off the mountain?”

At first, Cantara refused to answer, staring back at the curious looks that surrounded her as if she could will them away. Finally, she sighed.

“Back on my home plane,” she began, paused, and sighed again. “We have a pest that infests our cities, much like rats and squirrels do your own. These – gremlins- are a little more intelligent than your pests and as mischievous as your raccoons. Well, maybe a little bit more, oh - let’s say destructive.”

“And so?” Ember demanded.

“The rockslide in the pass, the chewed rope, solid rock rotting beneath our hands,” Cantara explained, “these are all pranks a gremlin would pull. And to do what they did, it would have to be a pretty big pack.”

“How big is one of these gremlins?” Aiko asked, drawing one of her blades.

“About the size of a squirrel,” Cantara admitted. “It’s like fighting shadows or the wind. They disappear in a flash, reappear behind or above you.”

“And why are they after me?” Ember demanded. “Is it because Tangerine ate one of them?”

“When?” Cantara demanded. “What did it look like?”

“After the rock slide, in the pass,” Ember replied. “And it kind of looked like a chewed up lizard with a bat’s head. You know, kinda gross like, so I didn’t take too close of a look.”

“Does that sound like a gremlin?” Crystal asked.

Cantara nodded and frowned.

“If we cannot fight them with our blades,” Aiko asked, “how do we kill them?”

“There is an old trick we djinn learned from the Mongols,” Cantara explained. “Their country is much like my own homeland, and the gremlins have been crossing over for centuries. It’s called a gremlin trap.”

“And how do you make one?” Gwen asked, curious.

“Do you still have the tin cans from breakfast?” Cantara asked. “The ones you insisted on carrying because you did not want to litter?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay, we need them and the tent poles and anything shiny,” Cantara explained, “like the foil from the freeze-dried food packs we’ll be eating for lunch. We tie a string across the two pegs and hang everything from it, like a wind chime. The more complicated the bits, the longer it will hold their attention.”

Gwen understood right away. See, she wasn’t always too blonde. It was like a mobile hanging above a baby’s crib. It could attract and hold a baby’s attention for hours on end, swirling and twinkling and flashing. She had some old crystals with her that she could give up to the cause, and a half dozen shells Jaime had given to her.

“Uhm,” Gwen interjected, “just one thing. Well, two. Why are they stalking us? And why are they picking on Ember?’

And those were two questions not even the djinn could answer. The six fell quiet as they ate their lunch, wondering if something more sinister lay behind these recent attacks, or if this pack were merely angry with Ember because of something her dogs had eaten – a place they had all been in the last few months.