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

Waking up in the morning, Ember rolled over onto an empty spot where Huckleberry had been sleeping only an hour before. She wondered how they could sneak off like that while one of the women was always awake and on guard. Although she knew it would be useless, Ember asked both Crystal and Gwen if they had seen where her babies had gone. Even though both swore they had remained awake on watch, neither could say when or how they had left. Even when Cantara checked the perimeter of the tent and the ground around it, she found nothing. Not even a single paw print. She shrugged an apology to Ember.

It was a mystery for another day.

It was Ember’s turn to cook breakfast. She did not think the eggs had turned out too badly, considering they had come out of a milk carton, and she thought frying up a little beef jerky to go with them had been a nice touch. So she did not understand why Aiko had vomited. The vampyre had not even eaten any of it. And why had Gwen and Cantara shared such a troubled look? It’s not like any of them had never seen Aiko vomit before. She had been so drunk on demon’s blood in London they all thought she would vomit for a week. And she was rather green around the gills for days afterwards. And she definitely had not burnt the eggs!

“Aiko,” Gwen was saying, moving up to the stricken vampyre, “are you feeling okay?”

Aiko turned, scowling as if she did not know whether to be angry, troubled or vomit again. “The smell of Human food is making me nauseous. More so than normal.”

“Come with me,” Gwen instructed, leading an unwilling vampyre back towards the fire.

From her pouch, she took out several sachets of herbs. With a spare pot, she mixed it up with a little blood and water, heating it over the fire. In three minutes, she handed a strong-smelling brew to Aiko.

“It smells like ass,” Aiko complained.

“It helps if you pinch your nose while you drink it,” Gwen offered. “Drink it, it will help you feel better.”

Ember pouted. It meant she had two more dishes to wash, and she hated having to rinse out cups dripping in blood. Why couldn’t she eat normal food? She only puked it up eventually anyway.

They weren’t going to bring the tent with them anymore. A lot of their hiking would involve some serious climbing and Cantara wanted them to lighten their load. She went through everyone’s pack, picking and choosing seemingly at random until she had accumulated a tidy haul. These she packed amongst the camping gear they were not taking with them and had the others help her cache the whole in a shallow hole they had dug between two unique rocks. Light, she explained, was the only way they could travel from here on, especially as they would be climbing off the main trail, where the terrain would be so rugged flat would be an impossible dream.

Ember’s pack felt empty, at least until they reached the first hill. Nothing that vertical was a hill. This one she would call a cliff. She had climbed some rock walls in class with more of a slope. By the first hundred feet, she knew why Cantara wanted to leave almost everything behind; she was sweating, panting, and her arms and legs felt as limp as spaghetti. Why hadn’t they continue on that perfectly wonderful trail they had left down below? Okay, so someone or something had dumped a pile of rocks on their heads. A solid rock chose that moment to leave the dirt setting it had been sitting in for the last couple of thousand years. Why her? Four of the others had already used it as a hand and foothold, and now she was sliding down the hill she had expended so much energy to climb up.

Aiko reached out a hand and caught her knapsack. Ember scrambled with her feet until she found a toehold, and used it to steady herself as she sought a handhold. Twenty feet to climb again. If she ever saw that worthless chunk of stone again, she would give it more than a piece of her mind.

“Thanks,” she breathed. “I got it now.”

It was not the first mishap they had climbing up to the ridge. Twice rocks came rolling down from above. It happened. Wind, vibration, stress and natural erosion. Two in such a short time so soon after the rockslide was suspicious. Cantara sent Alex and Aiko on ahead to check things out. Alex melted into the hill face, moving through the dirt and rock as if she were swimming through water. Above her head, a mist crept up the side, the two rematerializing at the peak. Aiko turned to her companion and nodded, one of them moving off to the right, the other to the left. A careful search revealed nothing. They were alone on the ridge with the wind and the dust. Aiko turned back to her waiting companions and shrugged.

When Ember reached the top, she kicked a rock over the side out of spite. It was already a long enough journey up without having to climb any of it again, and now she had a painful scrape on her right side. With her luck, it would leave a nasty scar. Gwen laughed at her after she made the girl lift her shirt so she could take a look. A little scratch like that wasn’t going to leave a scar, and most of it would probably disappear by morning. Easy for her to say, she didn’t have a sweaty shirt scratching against a rock bite and leaving a nasty rash.

“Keep a sharp eye out,” Cantara warned. “We still don’t know for sure if we are being followed.”

The ridge tops was a bit like walking on a tightrope, and a little like climbing a giant staircase. If they were not tiptoeing along trying to avoid sliding all the way back down, Cantara was leading them up over a small mountain. The first one they came upon rose fifty feet into the air, its bulk blocking the way. They would be able to walk along its surface for a hundred feet before they would have to climb down again. All six looked up at its glassy surface and sighed. All it lacked was a little grease to make it more slippery. They would need to use ropes and pitons, well four of them would. Alex and Aiko took one look at its surface and took the easy way up. At least Aiko had the good sense to carry up a rope. On the top, she had Alex help her pound in an anchor, setting up a snatch clip and stringing the rope. She dropped it down to the others, turning to Alex to have her help supply an anchor.

Cantara nodded and sent Crystal and Gwen up first. She wanted some time to study Ember, still convinced she was somehow leaving a trail for her Beast Crew. No way they could follow them all the way up here, not up that first cliff, nor this second one that required ropes to climb. All the girl kept doing was pulling up her shirt to worry at the scratch on her side. She wasn’t even paying very much attention to the girls climbing up the cliff ahead of her, as if where they were going was not really important to her. Did she even know why they were here? The only time she looked back the way they had come was to mutter something dark about pulling down a cliff with her bare hands before turning back to study her abrasion.

“Okay, Ember,” Cantara urged. “You’re next. Just go slow and watch where you put your feet. And keep the safety line attached.”

“Okay,” Ember nodded.

It was only a cliff. She had been climbing since she was four, free climbing since she was seven. It was a little smooth, but if she had to, Ember thought she could climb it without a rope. But not today. With the safety line clipped to her safety belt, Ember took up the second line. Finding handholds and footholds where none existed, she slowly lifted herself up off the ground. Above, her girls slowly took up the slack, ready to anchor her should the need arise. She came to a section where she needed to lift herself up using the rope and her upper body strength alone, her feet walking along a sheer section of rock. The rope snapped.

Above, the weight of the falling girl suddenly tugged on the arms of the two girls anchoring the line. To their left, Alex pulled up the broken line and came away with less than ten feet. The rest fell to the ground and draped itself over and around Cantara. She looked up, watching the girl dangling on the safety line. Handhold by handhold, she began to free climb the cliff face, racing to reach the girl before her spinning slammed her into the cliff a second time. That last time had left a trail of blood dripping from her face, and at a guess, Cantara would have to say she had a scalp laceration at the least. At the worse, she was dangling there unconscious, unable to assist in her own rescue.

“Ember!” Gwen called down to the stricken girl. It was damn hard to yell and play tug-a-war with an inert weight dangling over the side of a cliff, a weight doing its damnedest to pull you and everything down to the cold embrace of gravity and the soft landing of stone and dirt.

As Cantara reached Ember, Aiko managed to set up another line and drop it down to her. Cantara snapped it onto her safety belt before reaching out to stabilize the spinning girl. She was still conscious but very groggy. It took several minutes for her to orient herself and find toe and handholds. Working with those above, Cantara guided her the last few yards up to the top of the ridge. The wound on her scalp was bleeding profusely, as all head wounds tended to, and the blood was running down into her eyes and making the stone around them slick and slippery. Alex reached down to pull her up to safety as the djinn gave her an extra boost. She climbed up beside her and moved straight for the frayed rope.

“This rope has been chewed,” Cantara accused.

Gwen nodded distractedly. She did not know how Ember could complain for hours about a small scratch to her side but did not blink at a wound to the head that was going to require stitches.

“If it were my puppies,” she shot back, “they would have swallowed the whole coil.”

“Yeah,” Cantara retorted. “How about Blueberry?”

“Monkeys don’t chew on things,” Ember replied smugly.

“No,” Alex agreed, “they just throw poop.”

“Not my Blueberry,” Ember steamed, “he’s got manners. He’s almost always a perfect gentleman, except when he’s eating bugs.”

“Besides,” Crystal cut in, “both you and I checked that rope Cantara before we used it.”

Disgruntled, the djinn moved to help Gwen clean up the scalp wound. She had done enough battlefield repairs to have developed a deft hand with a needle, and while Gwen and her crystals could distract the girl, it was still a painful experience. She would need a little rest before they continued. It was close enough to lunch to give them an excuse, and yet Cantara would not feel safe until they climbed off the exposed summit. And not only because it was a little cool and windy up here, but because they were vulnerable and visible from miles away. Tying off her last stitch, she left Gwen to clean up and went to consult with Aiko and Crystal. Both had gone to the far side of the ridge to scout out their path.

“What do you think?” Cantara asked.

“There’s a sheltered niche on the far side,” Aiko explained. “We can repel down the side with ropes set for self-slipping. It’s too steep to climb any other way.”

Cantara nodded. Getting down was less of a pain than getting up had been. She left Aiko and Alex at the peak and took Ember down belted to her own safety belt. Repelling was easy. Basically, a controlled fall, bouncing off the face of the cliff in slow stages until you hit solid ground. Gwen and Crystal came down next. In four bounds, they had joined her on the saddle between two ridges. Up top, Aiko and Alex retrieved their ropes and equipment and chose their own way down. Alex simply melted into the rock, riding its grain down to the saddle like an elevator. Aiko became a mist and crept along the cliff face, pausing here and there whenever she thought she saw something. Satisfied it was only nerves, she rejoined her companions.

At the end of the saddle was a narrow crevice that became a chimney as it rose up to the height of the next ridge. They would climb it when they were ready to continue. For now, it was a sheltered place to eat their lunch, out of the wind and easily defended. Gwen helped Ember inside and found a comfortable place for her to sit. She took the girl’s hands in hers and studied her eyes. Her pupils looked normal, but the way she had had her bell rung Gwen was afraid she might have a slight concussion. Maybe it would be a good idea to let her rest here, at least for the rest of the day and through the night. By morning she should be stable enough to continue.

“I felt eyes on me as I was coming down the cliff,” Aiko was saying. “I could not see anyone.”

“I thought I saw something earlier when we were climbing up onto the ridge,” Cantara admitted. “I keep thinking it’s Ember’s Beast Crew, but how could they follow us up here. And there is no way they set that rockfall.”

“Either way,” Gwen cut in. “I think we should stay here for the rest of the day. I know you don’t want to lose daylight, but Ember needs to rest.”

Crystal looked at the others and then nodded at Cantara. “We could all use the rest today. And if we are careful, we might be able to catch whoever’s been following us.”

It was Alex’s turn to cook lunch. On the mountain, they were using a small Coleman stove, a little propane unit that threw out heat but little or no light. Given what had happened over the last two days, Cantara would not let them use anything else. Even the Steno could give off too much light at this height, giving away their position to anyone following. If they were to catch these skulkers, they needed to keep a very low profile, and no fires and lights were a big part of that, a total blackout like London during the blitz. Tonight it would be thermal blankets and shared body heat, and it could get cold at night even this low in the mountains.

Ember did not eat much of her soup and fell asleep shortly afterwards. Gwen kept a close eye on her, waking her every hour to ask her a standard three questions – what is your name, how many fingers do you see, and do you know where you are? So far, she managed to answer her with a few words still accepted in polite company, and only half a dozen threats of bodily harm. As sleepy as she was, Gwen doubted she had enough energy for a half-hearted swat. Poor girl.

It was growing dark. Either it had been later in the day when they had stopped for lunch than anyone had thought, or they had all been dozing on and off. Aiko and Alex were taking the first watch, and the other three settled beneath their blankets, joining Ember as far away from the cutting wind as they could. The evening grew quiet, and their breathing deeper. Man, was it cold. Cold enough to freeze a witch’s, well never mind, all her parts were more than chilled. Thermal blanket her hot little bum, she was positive thermal meant heat, and there was not a drop of heat on this entire mountain. And wasn’t rock supposed to retain heat or something?

“Is it always going to be this cold at night?” Gwen grumped, “because if it is, I would like to go home now.”

“You can cuddle with me,” Crystal volunteered, “as long as you keep your hands to yourself.”

“I always behave myself,” Gwen pouted. “Besides, you’re not even close to my type.”

“Ha! I’m everyone’s type,” Crystal retorted. “See, Cantara’s eyeing me with lust in her eyes even as I speak.”

“I’ll show you what I’m lusting after if the two of you don’t stow it,” Cantara snapped. “If we’re going to waste daylight, let’s get a little rest.”

And for the next hour, the only sound was their chattering teeth. In fitful moments of sleep, they all pictured themselves somewhere warm and comfortable, like say a sauna with a couple dozen salty boys. Far preferable to some freezer on the side of a mountain.

“Strawberry!” Ember suddenly squawked. “That isn’t helping.”

“Oh God,” Crystal spat. “Dog ass in the face!”

“How the f-!”

“Cantara!” Ember scolded. “Don’t you cuss in front of my babies!”

“Well,” Cantara sputtered. “How did they get way the heck up here?”

“Well, don’t ask me!” Ember complained, trying to fend off Strawberry’s tongue. “I’ve been fighting with rocks and boulders all day. And I’m pretty sure if they were in my pack when we started this morning, you would have made me leave them behind too.”

“Don’t even bother asking,” Alex threw up her hands. “Both Aiko and I were freezing in the mouth of this crevice, and they didn’t come past us. Even if we had been sleeping, we would have felt a couple of furry elephants step on us.”

“At least we won’t have to worry about being cold anymore,” Gwen offered, fending off Huckleberry’s tongue and Tangerine’s happy tail.

“No,” Crystal griped. “Just squished.”