312) The Salvation of Eden, Chapter 76 — Kohra finds her Power

A few minutes later, they were in position.

“Ready when you are!” Lenny noted cheerily. “You can do this! Remember the sequence. Tell us when you’re ready.”

Kohra took a deep breath. Exhaling slowly, she tried to calm her mind, trying not to think about how, once again, this was insane and she should never be here in the first place. What am I DOING?? Didn’t I say no?

Immediately, even through the fuzz of her rambling mind, she Connected. The Flux was extremely responsive here in the deep underground of the mountains, or wherever they were. She realized that if they died here, she didn’t even know where “here” was anymore. Nobody would ever know what happened to them….

The ForceBall was in her hand.

“I’ve got it.”

“Okay!” Lenny sounded downright giddy. “Now make it as big as you can!”

“But—” Kohra began, but Dominic interrupted.

“Kohra! You are NOT going to be able to argue back and forth once you get started. This ceiling is alive, don’t forget. These creatures can move. Once we start, you’ve got to keep going!”

“But the…THINGS will be on the ground, right in front of us!” The ForceBall blinked out of existence, and she shook herself out of Lenny’s grasp.

“It doesn’t matter!” Dominic raised his voice. “They only attack from above! Just don’t, like, lay down on the floor for a nap, and you’ll be fine.”

“This is crazy!” Kohra looked totally freaked.

“Come on, RELAX!” Lenny shouted.

“Screw you Lenny! We are all going to DIE!” she shouted back.

“SHUT UP!!!” Devona yelled.

“You shut up,” Lenny murmured, under her breath.

Closing her eyes, Kohra tried to block everyone out of her mind.

Inhale.

Exhale.

Okay Kohra, you decide. Either say yes or no, and then to Hells with what they think. It’s your call. Nobody can push you around.

Yeah, the answer is no.

She opened her eyes. Dominic was standing directly in front of her. “I think this will work.”

She rolled her eyes, shaking her head.

“No, I really do. Just hear me out.” He paused, waiting.

Kohra scowled, but nodded, slightly. “Fine.”

He grinned. “Okay, so I’m pretty sure these creatures are calibrated to the size of the vibrations they feel. That’s why the little one fell onto the pickle. But that means —”

“The big ones are going to fall on bigger things,” she finished. “Like us.”

He nodded. “So we just need to trigger the big ones. And the medium-sized ones. The small ones we should be able to deflect with shields and stuff.”

Lenny looked up. “Can you make it bounce?”

Kohra frowned. “What? The ForceBall? Uh…I, I’ve never, you know, I don’t know, I’ve never done it before. This is pretty new. But…I CAN move it around. Let me see. Hold on.”

Everyone was silent while Kohra closed her eyes. Dominic smiled to himself. Ms. B had told him this would happen. That someday, Kohra would start to find herself. He felt strangely proud, like he was watching “a moment” in his friend’s life.

She squatted, one hand in front of her like she was holding a ball. Then she started to bounce it, slowly, up and down, up and down.

“HA!” Her eyes flew open and she jumped up like a child excited to ride their first pony. “I can DO this!” She walked back to the edge of the alcove, looking out. “Okay.” She looked up at the toothy ceiling, and took a deep breath, exhaling slowly. “So, small, medium, then large?”

“No, start with large,” Dominic corrected. “Get the biggest out of the way first.” He put a hand on her shoulder. “And hey, no pressure, Kohra. I guess we can think of this first one anyway, as just a test. As long as we stay here in the alcove, we’re safe. So if it doesn’t work, no worries, okay? We’ll figure something else out.”

She concentrated, and immediately felt the ForceBall in her hand. Now that she understood Magnifying, sort of, she DID feel she could reshape the Ball a little. She could squish it, stretch it, and as before, roll it around on her hand.

Make it bigger. Ok, here goes. She tried to relax, focusing on breathing, synchronizing her awareness with the Flux, opening her mind and body to it, letting herself resonate.

It didn’t get any bigger.

She tried to focus even more intently, to use everything she’d learned about Magnifying.

This is stupid. This is what Amplifying was about, not Magnifying. Ugh…what do I do? I really need to do this. They are DEPENDING on me to do this. Come ON!!

Why can’t Dev do it? She’s probably better anyway.

Dammit!

Suddenly, the Ball grew, slowly at first, then quickly, until it was the size of a watermelon. Immediately, she dropped it on her foot, wincing in anticipation. But it didn’t hurt. It felt more like an apple by the time it hit.

“Don’t worry.” Reilly’s little hand grabbed onto hers, and squeezed. “Shape changing is ‘fernal impossible too. ‘Fernal Flux. ‘Fernal donkeyshit cavern. ‘Fernal Graxia. ‘Fernal Zhaalmohhrians!”

Kohra looked over in surprise. It wasn’t like Reilly to swear like this. The little girl was looking up at her, blue eyes twinkling in the gloom, a tiny smile curling the corners of her mouth.

She looked back out into the sparkle-studded blackness. Reilly squeezed her hand. She laughed. “‘Fernal stalactites.”

She turned to Lenny and Devona. “All right, you ready?”

Lenny’s grin was practically a leer, she wanted to do this so badly. Devona just nodded, without expression.

Probably jealous. At that moment, Kohra realized, it really wasn’t her fault. If she could do this, with Lenny and Dev’s help, then she should! And if it made Dev withdraw or get all weird or whatever, then…then that’s okay. That’s for Dev to deal with, not for Kohra to hold herself back in order to avoid.

She felt a twinge of guilt. But — Come on, Kohra, this doesn’t matter. Focus on what’s right in front of you. And DO IT!

The Flux responded instantly, like a racehorse champing the bit, and the ForceBall was in her hand. She looked up at the stalactites, lurking.

Her eyes narrowed. She thought of Col, remembering him slugging that Guard. She thought of her mom. Her dad. She vowed, right then and there, that she was going to see them again. And no Gods-damned carnivorous rock-snails were going to stop her!

Placing both hands under the ForceBall, she flexed her legs, gritting her teeth. “Give it to me.”

Even before Lenny’s hand touched her shoulder, they Connected, the Flux surging through the three of them like a river in spring thaw. Kohra released, thrusting the ForceBall out of her hands as it grew bigger and bigger. But she kept the Connection, feeling its trajectory as it sailed into the air.

Instinctively, she reached up high with both hands, arching her back, then sprung forward, thrusting her arms down with every ounce of strength she had.

“RRRRAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!”

The ForceBall smashed into the ground about ten feet in front of her, two massive stalactites immediately dislodging from the ceiling above. As they fell, Kohra bounced it, hands held in front, willing it up, up, then forward, and DOWN!!! with all her strength. More stalactites fell as the first hit the floor.

Dominic realized that they were falling ahead of the ForceBall, as though the creatures were adjusting for its rate of movement. Very sophisticated! I guess that makes sense. Otherwise, you could just run through it.

But Kohra couldn’t watch any of this or think about what was happening. Indeed, she was barely aware of anything at all except the incredible POWER surging through her, coalesced and focused into the invisible battering ram she was slamming repeatedly on the floor.

To everybody else, it was like Kohra started writhing and shouting, and suddenly the ceiling turned into an artillery bombardment, huge slabs of sharpened stone plummeting down and smashing into the floor below.

Kohra kept the ForceBall bouncing in a straight line, all the way to the darker area in the distance. There was a loud splash, and she lost the Connection, swooning, collapsing backward against Lenny.

The floor was littered with huge stalactites, their bloated bodies having spread out at their impact sites, like giant sluggy pancakes with oversized seashells on top. They were moving already, no doubt having realized it was a ‘false alarm’ and they might as well head back home to the ceiling. But they were slow, much slower than the small one had been. This was going to be easy.

Dominic looked up. Success! The ceiling was clear of the biggest stalactites in a straight line. He squinted. At the end of the swath of fallen stalactites, he could see ripples.

“There!” he pointed. “It’s water! We’ll be safe there!” He paused. “At least from the stalactites, I think. Hey, Kohra, you okay? Can you do it again?”

Kohra was bent half-over, holding onto Lenny with one hand. Everything was spinning. She waved him off with her other hand.

Just give me a bloody second.

“Kohra? You okay? Can you do it again?”

Gods, Dominic! She looked up, ready to snap.

But he was grinning, his eyes shining with excited pride. In…her?

He pointed to the ceiling. “You did it! Kohra, it worked! It’s clear! Do it like one, maybe two more times, and we can just charge through the little ones! Can you do it?” He put a hand on her shoulder. “You can! I know you can!”

She nodded. She felt like she was going to pass out.

She straightened, turning to Lenny. “Thanks Lenny.”

She looked back at Lenny and Dev. “You ready?”

Lenny jumped up and down. Then stopped abruptly, snapping to attention like a soldier. “Sir! Yes sir! Ready sir!”

Reilly laughed.

Devona nodded.

Kohra turned back to the stalactites. “Okay.” She concentrated, feeling for the Flux which, again, surged forward eagerly, the ForceBall immediately in her hands. “Now!”

As Lenny touched her shoulder, the incredible rush of POWER washed through her again, the ForceBall swelling quickly as she released it, holding its trajectory in her hands, up, up, then DOWN, but with less strength than before, bouncing it along the same approximate path as before, although she had to make some adjustments to avoid the already-fallen stalactites.

A second stalactite-shower, this time mid-sized, swarmed hungrily down, smashing on the floor. Dominic found himself actually feeling sorry for the poor creatures, waiting all this time for a meal, only to be tricked.

He grinned to himself. Not sorry enough to get eaten.

Kohra had again fallen into Lenny. Her eyes were closed.

“Yes!” Dominic shouted, pumping his fist in the air. Clearly it didn’t matter if they made noise at this point. He turned to Kohra. “One more time should do it! This is amazing!”

She didn’t respond. He looked at Lenny, questioningly.

She nodded, motioning with her eyes for him to step back.

“Dev.”

Devona stepped forward, taking one of Kohra’s arms. They each slung one over their shoulder, holding Kohra up.

Dev leaned in close, whispering in Kohra’s ear. “We’re here, Kohra. Me and Lenny, we got you. We got you.” She kissed her cheek, pressing her nose into Kohra’s hair for a moment. “We got you.”

Kohra opened her eyes. The floor was a mess, stalactites everywhere, slithering slowly toward the wall, their shells bobbing in a slow-motion rhythm like tiny boats on ocean swells. She could feel Lenny and Dev holding her up, her legs half-standing, half-hanging. She felt so grateful she wanted to cry, emotions surging through her like the Flux had moments before.

She looked up. There sure were a lot of teeth up there still.

“Hey. Everyone. Wait a sec.” She took a deep breath. “I’m pretty woozy. I’m thinking, for the rest of the small ones, maybe we can all blast the path, with whatever we’ve got. Every size of impact seems to trigger different ones, so maybe together we can bring most of the rest of them down.” She frowned. “Does this make sense?”

“Yes!” Dominic shouted. “Let’s do it!”

Everyone stepped up, forming a ragged line. Dominic nocked an arrow. Gorb loaded his crossbow. Melkorn picked up a rock about half the size of his own head, hefting it like a shot-putter. Reilly stood beside him, hefting her own, much smaller rock. Lenny spread her fingers wide, ready to blast FrostBolts. Dev summoned a DarknessBall, and Kohra brought another ForceBall to her hand, this one, she figured, about the size of a coconut.

“Everybody!” Dominic commanded. “We shoot in barrages, each one covering about 3 paces at a time. Ok? One right after the other. Ready? On my command!”

Everyone stood poised. Dominic raised his hand. “THREE, TWO, ONE!”

They all shouted, a cacophony of “HAMMERRRR!!”, “MASTER BLASTERRRRRS!!” and variants of “RRRRRAAAAAHHHH!!!”

The ceiling let loose, a torrent of stalactites from medium to tiny, pelting the floor in a frenzy. Kohra wondered momentarily if they were getting annoyed.

“Again!” Dominic shouted. “The next THREE PACES!”

Another barrage. The floor was littered with broken rock fragments and sluggy bodies slithering over each other.

“Again!”

They kept this up until they hit the water to the far right.

“EVERYBODY!” Dominic yelled over the cacophony. “Huddle together! Gorb! Melkorn! Put your shields up, like umbrellas. Pull your hoods up, cover your heads however you can, and we quick-march together! Okay? Now!”

Everyone squished together, Melkorn and Gorb’s shields overhead. Except Kohra, who simply fell over, unconscious.

“Dammit!” Dominic swore. He stopped, looking wildly about. “We…I…what do we do?”

“I’ve got ‘errr!” Gorb roared, picking Kohra up and slinging her over his shoulder. Holding his shield over her body, he nodded. “Ye go wit’ Melkorn! See ya on d’udder side!”

“All right! Let’s go!” Dominic yelled.

They headed forward, stepping carefully through the stalactite-slugs. The creatures seemed to pay them little heed.

To Gorb, carrying Kohra was like carrying a sack of potatoes. Stepping through these loathsome creatures wasn’t much of a concern. A couple of times, he gave one a good smack with his war-hammer, just in case it was getting any ideas. No problem. They’d be at the lake, or whatever it was, in no time.

Melkorn and the others were having considerably more difficulty. There were just too many of them under one shield, and Melkorn stumbled constantly, threatening to bring them all down, right into the slithering mass of sluggy beasts.

Dominic steadied Melkorn on one side, as well as he could, with Devona and Lenny shoring up the other. Reilly took the lead, picking a trail. Synchronizing their steps, they started to move forward. It was slow going. But Dominic knew they had to take their time. Do this right. Every step had to be right. Just one step at a time. One step at a time.

He glanced ahead. Gorb and Kohra had almost made it to the water.

Then he saw the barrels. One in each corner ahead of them.

Wrenching his head around, he scanned behind. He couldn’t see the other barrels, but they were probably back there, in the other corners.

Graxia bought five barrels. One for each corner…. Where’s the fifth?

He saw everything at once. The sparks of light streaking forward, one to each barrel. The fifth barrel, its fuse already lit, swinging down from the ceiling, right toward the centre. Right toward them.

“EVERYONE RU —”