The girl let out a short laugh, remembering she had called Logan that. 'A chomprat is a furry beast about the size of a small pony with large ears and a pink nose. It usually eats through anything; hence the name.'
A big rat, Logan nodded to himself. A big fat rat that chomps. And a waterfoal, he guessed, would probably be a horse of the water… a sea horse! A sea horse? But Moknay had quipped that they weren't riding them! Were the sea horses here big enough to ride?
A familiar buzz suddenly flapped into Logan's brain, and the young man frowned as the sensation of discord returned. For the past three days he hadn't been bothered much by the feeling-oh, every so often it kicked him in the butt to remind him that it was there, but it had not returned with any strength. This time, Logan knew, it was growing stronger.
Cyrene noticed the young man clamp his hands to his head. 'Matthew? What's wrong?' she asked, concerned.
Logan snarled, 'Just this stupid feeling I get-like when the Blackbody attacked.'
Terror welled up within him and Cyrene as they scanned the forest to their backs for another flaring black form. Thankfully, Logan realized the infernal disharmony was not going to get much worse, although it continued to rattle about in his skull.
As the sun hung directly above them, Logan caught a brilliant flare to the northeast, slightly obscured by the Hills.
Some of the mountains gleamed with a golden light as the sensation increased.
'He's behind us!' Logan cried, pointing into the Hills. 'He must have entered the Hills and we passed him!'
The golden glow reflected in Cyrene's deep blue eyes and illuminated the fear that surged inside her. She, although not to Moknay's degree, Logan saw, feared the Jewel.
The young man motioned toward her horse. 'We've got to get him,' he said.
'How?' Cyrene questioned. 'He'll keep moving further into the Hills.'
The young man gave her an odd smile. 'That Jewel is acting like a beacon, and, besides'-he tapped his skull-'I seem to have this built-in radar. Even if he leaves the Jewel someplace, we can find it.'
Hope sprang to life within Logan as the two mounted the horse and charged eastward. Cyrene directed her silver-and-blue horse through a small, level pass through the foothills. The Jewel's glare continued to throb to their right, and the buzz in Logan's head amplified. Enormous boulders surrounded them as they thundered onward, pebbles and dirt kicked up under the hooves of Cyrene's mount. There was an abrupt culmination of yellow light in the east, and the horse halted, skidding to a stop in the loose dirt. Logan lost his balance and spilled to the hard- packed soil, the sensation of mismatchment echoing the eruption of yellow.
Shaking the fuzziness out of his head, Logan gave Cyrene a weak glance. A low rumble reverberated through his ears while he grumbled about falling out of the saddle. You'd think he'd have gotten better at riding horses by now!
A deluge of horror burst in the young man's breast as the low rumble magnified, and a shower of dirt drizzled down from the mountains above him. The earth beneath him shuddered violently, quivering back and forth as if wracked by convulsions. Thunder boomed as a boulder broke away from its lofty perch and tumbled down near the two. Cyrene's horse panicked, skittering backwards. Rocks began to cascade from the hillsides, and the golden glow in the east continued pulsating.
'Matthew!' Cyrene was able to choke, as fearful as her mount.
The world seemed to come apart as the ground heaved, a jagged crack gaping wide like a cavernous mouth along the rocky floor. Nearing a frenzy, Cyrene's horse wheeled about, thundering back toward the south. Logan watched in a stunned daze as the girl and horse charged back the way they had come.
A tremendous bellow seemed to blow open Logan's mind, and the quaking below him trembled in expectation. 'Cyrene!' he cried out. 'Jump! For Christ's sake, jump!'
There was a blur of white fabric as the blonde dived blindly from her mount, and Logan winced at the brutal jarring she took. He crawled desperately toward her and the taste of dust filled his mouth. A hideous, high-pitched shriek momentarily drowned out the rumbling as a titanic ledge of stone gave way and crushed Cyrene's silver- and-blue horse. Clouds of dirt mushroomed into the air, and tears streamed down Logan's dirtied face as he searched for Cyrene. Fortunately, her white clothing stood out within the swirling yellow-brown fog, and Logan grabbed her hand, struggling to get to his feet.
'What is it?' the girl screamed.
'The Jewel!' Logan responded. 'The second catastrophe!'
In reply, the entire portion of hill they stood upon crumbled and a violent tidal wave of rock crashed down the mountainside. Cyrene let out a curt shriek as she and Logan fell with the stones, clinging frantically to one another, gasping for breath in the dust-filled air. Pain tore through Logan's left arm as his sword wound reopened, and warm fluid began to trickle down his forearm. A savage shock snapped the young man's head back as he struck bottom, and all the wind was knocked from his lungs as Cyrene fell on top of him. The sensation of disunity heightened, aroused by the chaos about it, and the golden sun continued flaring in the east.
Run, Logan's mind advised, but his legs would not respond. Dazed, he lay there, stones and mountaintops shattering around him. The foliage of the foothills shivered fitfully and a tree careened to one side, a massive stone tumbling into it. Leaves wafted about Logan as he fought his muscles and the trembling earth and clambered to his feet. Unseen bruises ached all over his body, and the sharp, recurring pain in his arm kept reminding him of his vulnerability. Sore, he pulled Cyrene to her feet, and, together, they stumbled across the sloping hillsides. The entire world was bathed in an eerie golden light as the earth shifted and moved under their feet, unscrupulously trying to trip them up and send them to their deaths.
Cyrene stumbled, and, in trying to regain her balance, staggered up against a tree. The earth bucked, and tons of rocky soil broke free as the tree pitched forward. The blonde let out a shout, her slim arms flailing about as she started to fall. Logan's grip on her tightened as he heaved himself backwards, succeeding in pulling the girl away from the treacherous drop that had suddenly appeared before her.
Dust crept into Logan's throat, and he gagged, jumping as a boulder fell somewhere nearby. Yellow-brown dirt covered Cyrene's clothing, and her flowing skirt was torn and shredded. Both their fingers were scraped and bruised, and dust had accumulated in their hair. Their eyes became red and sore from the invading dirt, and particles of dust crawled under Logan's contact lenses, causing flashes of pain to accompany each blink of his eyes.
Half-stumbling, half-sliding, the couple forged their way down a hill and suddenly found themselves in the middle of the sun. Yellow-gold flames surrounded them, yet there was no heat. The buzz in Logan's head and a strange tingling around his neck informed the young man that they had found the Jewel.
An enraged god seemed to cry out, and the Jewel lashed out in a brilliant explosion of gold. Cyrene and Logan were flung backwards, batted away by a massive hand. Grimly, the young man waited for impact… the moment when he and Cyrene would smack into an unyielding mountainside and splatter like tomatoes. To his surprise, the pair struck the ground and it was the earth that gave way below them. Stars and flaring Jewels erupted behind Logan's eyelids as the ground collapsed. Cyrene fell beside him, spiraling down into what seemed to be a bottomless pit, and Logan reached out his left arm for her.
Soft fingers curled around his limb, and agony seared through the young man. Damn! he thought. His head was swirling so that he had forgotten the blood-leaking cut on his arm. Nonetheless, Cyrene grabbed hold, dangling from Logan's limp, numb limb. His right hand had luckily grasped the lip of their pit.
'Hold on,' he said through clenched teeth.
As if you're going to hold on? Logan asked himself sarcastically. The ground was unmercifully heaving back and forth, pulling away from his hand and then ramming back. Sharp stones ground into the palm of his hand, and sweat and blood made his grip falter. Assaulted by pain, Logan tried to pull himself from the gaping wound in the ground, his blood also causing Cyrene's fingers to slip. She frantically sought out new handholds on his arm as Logan pulled one foot over his shoulder and out onto level ground. At any moment the young man thought he would fall back into the crevasse, precariously perched as he was-half-in, half-out. The insistent buzz and tingle were not helping his concentration either.
Golden light warmly greeted his bloodshot eyes as he raised his head from out of the chasm, bloody fingers scrabbling madly for a hold. His left arm still dangled within the abyss, Cyrene clasping the injured limb with blackness grinning up at her. With a final heave, Logan rolled himself out of the crater, gradually reeling Cyrene up
