The Darkness Before the Dawn - By Ryan Hughes Page 0,81
the counter, drank a long, sloppy draught from that, then he opened the easiest cabinet to reach—the grain bin—and sat down in front of it to munch a handful of the dry seeds. When that began to take effect he stirred enough to shuffle into the pantry and eat a sack of nuts and a raw erdlu egg, which in turn revived him enough to thaw one of the inix flanks from the cold-box and devour that half raw.
He took a water flask and an erdlu egg back into the library for Kayan, but without a conscious mind running her body he couldn’t get her to take any of either. Finally he just dribbled a little water into her mouth and counted on reflex to make her swallow, and when she’d done that a couple of times he switched to the erdlu egg and kept feeding her tiny spoonfuls of it until she had eaten the whole thing.
Erdlu egg was one of the most nourishing foods he knew of. Less than an hour after he’d eaten his, Jedra began to feel stronger; and Kayan recovered some of her color as well. He fed her another one, hoping she would regain consciousness inside the crystal and break her link with it, but when another hour passed with no change in her condition he lay back on the cushion and tried to mindlink with her again. If he could reach her, maybe he could pull her back out of the crystal.
Her presence was so faint it was hardly detectable, but when he concentrated he could sense it. It was a little like the crystal itself had been: faint and hard to reach. However, now that he’d had some experience breaking through the barrier into it, he knew what to look for. He imagined reaching through and touching Kayan, envisioned his hand penetrating the barrier that separated them and his whole body following through until he stood beside her again in the grassy courtyard.
He felt the barrier resist, then a moment of dizziness, and he was there. It was much easier the second time.
The moment his vision cleared, however, he realized he’d made a mistaken assumption. He hadn’t gone straight to the courtyard. He was back in the clearing in the forest where they had originally arrived. Only this time the trees weren’t in a loose ring at the edge of the grass; they had moved closer and now leaned toward him with menacing branches and dangling vines.
Was Kayan mad at him again? She’d called up the thunderstorm last time she was angry; if she’d regained consciousness and thought Jedra had abandoned her. she might have turned the world against him again. It might not even have been a deliberate decision.
Wind rattled the branches and made them swoop back and forth overhead. The vines swung madly, some cracking like whips as the branches flung them back and forth. Jedra ducked a particularly low one, but he felt another thump into his back and coil around his waist.
Get off! he commanded it, thinking that the world should obey his wishes too, but the vine clung stubbornly. Another one swooped down and grabbed his right arm. He pulled it free with his left hand, but more and more vines snared his arms and legs faster than he could fight them off.
Kayan, call them off! he mindsent. Kayan!
She didn’t respond. Something did, though. The vines yanked Jedra into the air, and thunder blasted out of a clear sky. Cursing and trying to stay upright, Jedra tried everything he could think of to escape, but he couldn’t make the vines burn or freeze solid and he couldn’t break them either psionically or with his own physical strength. He was trapped.
Then he heard the thump of massive footsteps. The forest shook with them, and Jedra bounced at the end of the vines. A deep, throaty roar echoed through the trees, and the sound of splintering wood accompanied another heavy footfall.
Time to leave, Jedra thought. He built up his mental barrier again to block the mindlink with the crystal world, but the world refused to fade. Either he didn’t have the strength to build a complete barrier, or else the barrier didn’t make any difference now.
The footfalls and the roaring grew closer. Jedra saw a treetop disappear, and a moment later the loud crack of its trunk breaking reached him. He heard more trees topple over, then the last one separating him from the creature crashed to the ground,