The Hammer - Cor Series Book I

With the labyrinth behind him, the journey through the passages was easier than Corvan expected. Just as Tsarek said, he only needed to keep moving down, always down, ignoring any tunnels that branched off or climbed upward. At first, he picked his way past large stone formations, but after a time he saw tracks in the dust created by animals he could not identify. The tracks eventually became a path winding through caverns and tunnels headed ever downward.

He walked as far as he could while there was a bit of light from occasional patches of purple moss. Whatever the hammer had done to heal his eyes, it had also sharpened his night vision such that it was relatively easy to navigate. When the moss faded, he would try to rest. There was still some light from the hammer’s insignia, but it also appeared to be fading. He decided it would be best to leave in in the holster in case he really needed it. His father was right. It was terrible not seeing the moon and stars. Without their light, the darkness was overwhelming, crushing Corvan with its vacant weight.

Lying on the stone floor would have been unbearable except for the warmth of his grandfather’s cloak. He thought often of his grandfather and wondered what he was planning to tell him about this underground world. What exactly was a Cor-Van? And why was Tsarek so afraid of having anyone hear his name with a pause in the middle?

There were so many thoughts and worries that it was almost impossible to rest. He lay in the darkness, listening to the sounds of dripping water and the pattering feet of what could either be small animals or incredibly large insects. He hoped they were not spiders. He hated spiders.

When he rested, he gnawed on one piece of the beef jerky and allowed himself a few chocolate chips. He was continually hungry, but at least there was a steady supply of water. It dripped from the roof and pooled in small depressions that ran in small streams alongside the path.

The vision from Tsarek’s crystal often haunted his thoughts. He couldn’t escape the image of Kate murdering his parents. Was it possible for someone to change that much? Kate sometimes got very mad, but how could that grow to wanting to kill everyone around her? Was the vision warning him that she would soon meet Tsarek’s master and become just as evil?

His only comfort in the dark times was the ice disk from the base of Tsarek’s crystal. The patterns in the tiny pinpoints of light reminded him of the constellations he’d studied while lying out on the rock on warm summer nights. It almost seemed he could make out Orion and the Big Dipper. At the last resting place, he had noticed a brighter glow over the handle of the Big Dipper. Now that glow had become a tiny full moon that was making its way along the edge of the glass.

He puzzled over this for a while, and then it came to him. Tsarek’s crystal had showed him the future—at least a possible future. In a similar way, the round crystal must reflect what was on his mind in the present or possibly even what was really happening now. It showed the stars because he was thinking of a starry sky. Maybe it could also reveal his home.

Cupping it in his palm, he concentrated and imagined himself walking up to the gap in the rock that faced his house. The stars in the ice glass spun, and the outline of his home came into view. A tiny yellow square flickered, and his mother appeared in his bedroom window. He focused on her. The window rushed closer in the glass until he could clearly see her face. Tears ran down her cheeks, but she was singing. Her hand rose toward him as if she knew he was watching.

“I’m here, Mom,” Corvan said. A tear slipped down his cheek and splashed on the glass.

His mother stopped singing and stared out the window. A puzzled smile flickered across her face. She wiped her eyes with the back of her sleeve and then turned away from the window. The light went out.

Lonely isolation welled up inside him. He was trapped deep inside the Earth, far away from his home. Even if he could find the temple building that Tsarek had mentioned, how could he ever find Kate in time?

Kate. Would the glass reveal her whereabouts?

He turned his thoughts to her, and memories flooded back. Days of building forts and riding bikes and hiking through the coulees. He smiled. Kate was his best friend in the world. At least in the world above. Down here, he wasn’t sure he knew who she was anymore. Pushing that thought aside, he concentrated on the Kate he once knew.

A fond memory stole into his heart. He and Kate were lying on the rock and watching for falling stars. A coyote barked in the field, Kate jumped and reached for his hand. It barked again, then all was silent. They lay there a long time, hand in hand, looking up at the stars, until his mother called him in. Neither of them had ever talked about it.

As he thought about this memory, the glass grew warm and caught a glimpse of Kate’s face in the darkness. Tears were trickling down her cheeks.

“Hang on, Kate, I’m coming for you.”

The image of her in the mirror looked at him in shock, then it called his name so clearly that he almost dropped the glass. He tried refocusing his thoughts on Kate, but now the glass remained black. After putting the glass away, Corvan lay back and pulled the cape over him. A sharp rock poked into his ribs as if to remind him that he was not asleep. He wondered if it were possible for things to get any worse than this. His father used to say, “Cheer up, Son, the worst is yet to come.” His dad wanted him to be thankful for what he had in the present instead of focusing on what could go wrong in the future.

Lying on the rocky floor, with the rhythmic drip of water falling around him in the darkness, Corvan tried to come up with something good. The only thing that came to mind was that his collarbone had healed rapidly, and he didn’t need the sling anymore. It didn’t hurt at all to move his shoulder. It seemed the hammer healed bones after all; it just took a bit longer.

With a heavy sigh, he sat up. It was no use. He might as well walk a little farther. Pulling his pack onto his shoulder, he unclipped the hammer and followed its feeble glow around a corner to where another cavern joined the main trail. He pointed his light up the steep slope.

A pair of running shoes stuck out from behind a rock.