Read Online The Crystal Sorcerers by William R. Forstchen - Free Book Online

quietly, "that when an enemy is stirred it might be long before he goes back to sleep. Perhaps this find here is only part of a puzzle to be unraveled, and indicates a broader plan. It could even mean that Sarnak's attack fits into someone else's designs."
    Allic nodded approvingly at Ikawa's comment. On several occasions in the past, this outlander's military insight had been proven. He had learned to take any advice from this quarter with utmost seriousness.
    "That will be in our report as well," Allic said. "Now, is there any other business to attend to?"
    The assembly looked to each other without comment.
    "Fine then, it's been a rough couple of weeks here. Let's all take the rest of the day off and try to relax a bit."
    Allic looked over at Storm and Leti and smiled.
    "I am certain that you two have some catching up to do with a couple of gentlemen on my staff," and his statement was met with chortles of delight from all the Americans and Japanese present.
    "At least cut down on the thunder tonight," came a disguised voice from the back of the room, that was obviously Walker's. "I got my beauty sleep to catch up on."
    Leaving the conference room, the group followed a narrow passageway out to a private garden Mark had never seen before, so vast was the palace and citadel complex. Though bizarre in its arrangement, Mark found the garden to be fascinating in an uncomfortable sort of way. When he had been a boy, an uncle returning from Florida had brought back a Venus's-flytrap for him. The plant had delighted him, and what he saw now rekindled those memories. Several of the plants had a strange beauty to them, with open fronds, bloodred in color, that emitted a musky cloying scent. Some were obviously traps, with viselike jaws a foot across gaping wide open. In the center of the garden was an open orchid several feet in diameter, dark yellow in color and wafting a lavenderlike scent to the breeze.
    Curious, Mark started to draw closer.
    "Don't," Storm whispered, coming up to his side. She picked up a clump of dirt and tossed it towards the orchid. With lightning speed half a dozen tendrils snaked out, slamming into the dirt clod, pulling it straight into the heart of the flower, which closed like a steel door slamming shut.
    "Jesus," Walker gasped, looking nervously at the deadly plant.
    "The tendrils are armed with poison barbs," Leti announced. "You're paralyzed before you even hit the ground, then it simply digests you. If you're lucky it starts feeding on you head-first, killing you fairly quickly. Otherwise it will slowly feed on you for days, and you're still alive, feeling everything but unable to move, or even use your shielding."
    "The bastard probably kept these for the poisons." She pointed around the garden.
    "And for entertainment," Allic said coidly. "Those cadonna can take a hand off as clean as a razor. You can still find them in several of the wilder places on this world; usually we destroy them on sight. It's just like Sarnak to have a garden like this. I should have destroyed them the day we took this place."
    With a snort of disgust Allic brought his hand up. A slash of light snapped out, sweeping across the garden. Horrified, Mark watched as many of the plants writhed upon the ground, like snakes that had been cut in half. A sickening stench filled the air and the party drew away.
    Following Storm's lead, the group left the smoldering garden, looking nervously about. Gradually the party split up until Mark suddenly realized that he and Storm were alone. At the end of a winding path, Mark was amazed by the splendor of the view before him as the edge of a sheer cliff dropped to a broad lake hundreds of feet below.
    "There is a certain stark beauty to the place," Storm said, dangling her legs over the edge of the cliff.
    Mark had to nod in agreement. The mountains that surrounded the inner citadel of Sarnak's former realm had the sharp, desiccated look he had seen before in southern Arizona and New Mexico .