Stone of Tears

She sucked Sara’s foot and nodded as he held her head to his leg. She didn’t feel so afraid now that his hand was on her, and so looked over to the trees again.

The dark thing, mostly hidden by one of the vine-covered walls, darted closer. Rachel bit down harder on Sara’s foot and let out a little whimper as she looked up at Chase. He was pointing at the boxes.

“And just what is that thing, that stone, or jewel or whatever it is? Did it come out of the box?”

Zedd nodded. “It did. But I don’t want to say what I think it is until I’m sure. At least not out loud.”

“Father,” Rachel whined, “it’s coming closer.”

He looked down. “Good. You just keep your eye on it for me.” He looked back to the wizard. “What do you mean you don’t want to say? Do you think it has something to do with what you said about the veil to the underworld possibly being torn?”

Zedd frowned while he rubbed his smooth chin with his skinny fingers and looked down at the black jewel sitting in front of the open box. “That’s what I’m afraid of.”

Rachel looked over to the wall to watch where the dark thing was. She gave a start when she saw the hands reach over the edge of the wall. It was a lot closer.

But they weren’t hands. They were claws. Long curved claws.

She looked up at Chase, at all his weapons, just to be sure he had enough. He had knives, a lot of knives, around his waist, a sword strapped over the back of his shoulder, a big axe hooked to his belt, a few other things that looked like clubs, with sharp spikes sticking out of them, hanging from his belt, too, and a crossbow on his back. She hoped it was enough.

All the weapons scared other men, but they didn’t seem to be scaring the dark thing that was coming closer. And the wizard didn’t even have a knife. He just wore that plain, tan robe. And he was so skinny. Not big like Chase. But wizards had magic. Maybe his magic could scare the dark thing away.

Magic! Rachel remembered the magic fire stick Wizard Giller had given her. She reached into her pocket and put her ringers around it.—Maybe Chase would need her help. She wouldn’t let that thing hurt her new father. She would be brave.

“Is it dangerous?”

Zedd looked up at Chase from under his eyebrows. “If it’s what I think it is, and it were to fall into the wrong hands, “dangerous” wouldn’t even begin to describe it.”

“Then maybe we should drop it down a deep hole, or destroy it.”

“Can’t. We may need it.”

“What if we hide it?”

That’s what I’m thinking. The problem is where. There are things to take into consideration. I need to take Adie to Aydindril and study the prophecies with her before I know for sure what to do with the stone, and what to do about the boxes.”

“And until then? Until you know for sure?”

Rachel looked over to the dark thing. It was closer, as close as the wall came to them. With its claws over the top of the wall, it lifted its head up and looked right into her eyes.

The thing grinned at her, showing long, sharp teeth. Her breath caught in her throat. Its shoulders shook. It was laughing. Rachel’s eyes were as big as they would go. She could hear her heartbeats making a whooshing sound in her ears.

“Father…” she whined in a small voice.

He didn’t look down. He just shushed her. The thing put its leg over the wall and dropped down in front, still looking at her, still laughing. Its shiny eyes looked at Chase and Zedd. It hissed and then laughed as it hunched down.

Rachel tugged Chase’s pant leg and strained to make her voice work. “Father… it’s coming.”

“All right Rachel. Zedd, I still don’t know…”

With a howl the dark thing sprang into the open. It ran like a streak, just a blur of black. Rachel screamed. Chase spun just as it hit him. Claws flashed through the air. Chase fell to the ground as the thing leapt on Zedd.

The wizard’s arms flailed about. Flashes of light shot from Zedd’s fingers, bouncing off the dark thing and tearing up dirt or stone where they hit. The thing knocked Zedd to the ground.

Laughing in a loud howl, it jumped back on Chase as he was pulling his axe from his belt. Rachel screamed again as the claws tore at Chase. The thing was faster than any animal she had ever seen. Its claws were just a blur.

Rachel was terrified Chase was being hurt. It flung the axe out of Chase’s hand, laughing that awful laugh. It was hurting Chase. Rachel had the fire stick in her hand.

She jumped forward and put the fire stick on its back. She screamed the magic words to make the fire stick work. “Light for me!”

The dark thing burst into flames. It made a horrible scream as it spun to her. Its mouth opened wide, teeth snapping as flames burned all over it. It laughed again, but not like people laughed when they thought things were funny. Its laugh made her skin prickle. It hunched over and started walking toward her, still on fire, as Rachel backed up.