Nightblade by Jason Howard

Author:Jason Howard [Howard, Jason]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-02-02T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Two

Atch (slang)

–verb

1. to commit murder for fun

2. (noun) a morally deficient, reprehensible person: these atchers think I’m a bad person for cheating on my husband, but they don’t know what it’s like to live with that chulgar. He’s always talking about how much he loves his parents and wants to be a good father to our children, it’s nauseating!

Two images flashed through their minds after they touched the orb: the sun setting over a beautiful waterfall—and darkness. The final image was one of the sun rising over a cracked and barren wasteland.

Ivor’s voice emanated from the orb and said, “Light shows you the way, but it also reveals you and can blind you. Nothing can be seen without light. Light is the source of life and death, the embodiment of energy. Darkness is often feared, but why? Evil needs the energy of light as much as goodness does. Darkness is just a different type of purity. Remember this or you will fail in the coming test. You will proceed into utter darkness for the coming test. You may make your own light, with the torches or magic. Even with that light, you will find a different kind of darkness ahead.”

Hundreds of torches suddenly came to life. The torches dangled over a platform high above Zac and Artem, hanging from the cavern roof by chains. Chains hung down from the platform. It was clear that the only way to get to the torches was to climb the chains.

Zac started for one of the chains but Artem stopped him.

“I can make light for us, we do not need a torch.”

“Good, that’ll save us some time,” Zac said.

“What do you think the clue meant?” Artem asked.

“I’m not sure . . . maybe when we go inside we’ll understand it better.”

“Let’s go,” Artem said.

Ahead they rounded a bend and were greeted by darkness. Artem’s green light didn’t extend far.

There was a slithering noise.

They tensed up.

There was a flash of blue light above them.

“What the hell—”

Zac was cut off by a cackle of laughter.

“Thank you,” a reedy feminine voice said from the darkness. “Ooooohhhh, thank you.”

“Back to back,” Artem said.

From the edge of the green light streaked a hunk of something. It thunked into Zac’s chest—wetly. It smelled horrible.

“What the hell is that?” Zac said, trying to keep his voice even.

“It’s . . . a thigh,” Artem said as he stooped, waving his glowing hand over it.

“Meat from one of the others before you,” the voice said. “And they were afraid of the dark too.”

“I’m not afraid of the dark, I’m afraid of creepy ghost women that throw bloody thighs at me,” Zac yelled. “How about you just let us pass—we’ll do something for you. We saw the thing about the sun coming up and the waterfall.”

She laughed—Zac laughed with her, like it was some inside joke they were sharing.

“What are you doing?” Artem whispered.

“I’m stalling,” Zac said as they walked briskly forward, deeper into the gloom of the cavern. Zac glanced up and saw Artem’s green light clawing at the top of the cavern, which seemed far, far away.

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