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“You are exhausted from the training, and today will be difficult.No matter what your leaders decide, you will be saying goodbye to your nephew.I wanted to spare you from that for a while longer.”
I turned in his arms and stared at his compassionate gaze, stunned by how very much he understood.My trust in him grew.
“You’re right.Either way, today’s going to be hard,” I said.“But whether we’re leaving to see him off or to go to Whiteman, I’m not giving up on finding a way to end this.An island isn’t a permanent solution; it’s temporary safety.We need to stop this plague, or this hell we’re in is never going to end.No human will ever be safe.”
He nodded slowly.
“Mya told us that we have a responsibility to help kill the hounds since we were the ones who accidentally created them.”
“What do you mean you created them?”I asked, stunned.
“I told you about our curse, but I didn’t explain everything.
“Mya saw our history when she touched the primary crystal in our caves.It showed her a time long ago when my people first came to this land in search of a new home.My brothers and I found a possible location in the caves.The crystal's power was similar to the power we had in our homeland.It gave eternal life to the creatures that lived there.Whatever we hunted was resurrected, whole and healthy, to be hunted again.There would be no hunger if we lived in those caves.However, some of our people saw the dissimilarities as dangerous.We were locked away in the caves for pursuing the crystals and cursed by our own people so we would never know peace.
“We have no memory of the time before the caves and our exploration of them.It was taken with the curse.We hunted and explored with no understanding of where we were or how we got there.
“It took many months before we noticed the deer we hunted for food weren’t coming back the same.When we did, it was already too late.The hounds hunted us in those caves for countless lifetimes.Only the sturdy rock wall surrounding our city kept them at bay and gave us any peace.
“It was a bleak and lonely existence I would not wish on anyone.”His hand caressed my stomach again.“We will not stop until we kill every last hound.”
“So the hounds were made in those caves because of the curse that locked you in there?”
“Yes.”
“And there’s magic in the crystal?”I still couldn’t quite wrap my head around the magic aspect involved in his story.Yet, I’d seen the hounds with their glowing red eyes.I’d seen how they couldn’t be killed and felt that unexplained darkness when Molev ripped the heart out of one of them.
“Yes.In the source crystal.”
“Is the crystal still there?”
“Yes.”
“If the crystal is how the curse and the hounds were created, what would happen if we destroyed it?”
He lifted his hand from my stomach and looked at the bracelet he wore.The coarse leather cords encased a chunk of raw crystal.
I ran a finger over the stone.It didn’t feel like anything.Just stone.
“I do not know,” Molev said.“It is a large crystal that extends from floor to ceiling.Five times taller than I stand.”
A knock on our door interrupted our conversation.
“Get out here,” Steve called.“There’s news.”
I scrambled out of bed and tugged on my pants as I hopped toward the door.Molev was slower to rise until I tripped.He moved lightning fast and caught me in his arms before I hit the floor.
“Take care, Andie.”
“Yeah, got it,” I said breathlessly, looking up at him.
“The news will still be there after you’re dressed.”
“Right.”He steadied me and watched as I finished pulling on my pants before stepping away to open the door.
We joined the others in the living room where a uniformed soldier also waited.
“Okay, we’re all here,” Roni said.“What’s the verdict?”
