Read The Crystal Mountain for Free Online Page B

idea formed.
    “Kaanyr, to me, quickly!” she cried, conjuring the magic of a spell she had never conceived of before. She began the incantation, only distantly thinking about where it had come from.
    A blue glow formed around her, brighter than the emanation from Zasian. It turned the chamber a brilliant azure. For a heartbeat, Aliisza faltered, stunned by the peculiar effect. She regained her senses just before the energy of her magic evanesced and she managed to continue the enchantment.
    The cambion performed a drop-step to slide out of the way of the charging abomination and let Micus’s momentum carry him past. Then he retreated toward Aliisza.
    Perfect, Aliisza thought. She flung the completed spell forward, shaping it with a thought.
    A cage appeared, a shimmering barrier of bright blue bars that pinned Micus-Myshik within. Aliisza formed it in such a way that it confined the abomination where he stood. At the same time, she felt sharp sickness erupt in her belly. She doubled over from the pain of it.
    Micus roared in anger and defiance. She looked up as he battered the barrier with feet and weapon, but it resisted his efforts. He grew still, and Aliisza saw him close his eyes in concentration. Sweat poured from his face.
    She could feel the angel test the limits of the magic she had woven into the arcane cage. She could feel him try to shift, to leave the place, to travel elsewhere in the multiverse.
    The cage held Micus fast. When he realized he was truly trapped, he screamed and threw himself at the barrier.
    Beside her, Kaanyr kept shifting his view between the caged abomination and the alu. “What did you do?” he asked. “What’s wrong?”
    She shook her head, feeling the sickness recede. The strange blue glow faded with it. She rose upright and attempted to smooth her features. “I’m fine. It’s nothing,” she lied. “Magic has been behaving oddly ever since…” She left the thought hanging and shook her head to dismiss it.
    “But that’s not a trick I ever remember you performing before,” Kaanyr said quietly. “And you looked like you were in pain. What’s happening?”
    Aliisza reached a hand up and touched Kaanyr on the lips. “I said I’m fine,” she replied with a faint smile. “Just too much excitement. And you should know your girl well enough by now to understand that I’m still full of tricks.”
    The cambion stared at her a moment longer, then shrugged and turned to examine the cage she had created.
    He did not see her troubled expression as she contemplated what had just occurred. What in the Nine Hells is happening to me? she wondered.
    Eirwyn felt like she and Oshiga had been climbing forever. Up and up she flew, following the trumpet archon, ascending past the endless slopes of Mount Celestia. The pair winged their way through numerous layers of clouds, emerging each time above yet another realm with yet another great slope rising before them.
    The angel had never traversed so far up the sides of the majestic peak, and she had never fully realized how
    incredibly large it was. Once, as they had stopped for a rest upon a small tropical island with a beautiful beach of white sand and palm trees, Eirwyn asked her guide if the mountain was truly so massive. Oshiga had assured her that they were taking a shortcut between layers and would reach Venya soon.
    The two of them passed through yet another large bank of clouds, and Eirwyn shivered at the damp, cool caress of the water vapor. She concentrated on staying close to her guide, as he had instructed her, for he had warned that to fall behind or lose her way could result in being lost forever within the heavenly realm.
    She kept the archon firmly in sight.
    Eirwyn burst from the cloud cover abruptly and found herself soaring over rich, green farmland far below. The route Oshiga followed took them over a ridge of forest and then across the shoreline of a vast, blue lake. The angel stared down into the clear water as she kept