The Corruption Stones

Prologue

Prologue

　　Quin KeeLin looked out at the snow dusted mountain caps in the distance, the mountain range was considered to be the Spine of the Gods and so it was called thus. Her right hand held her cloak tightly at the neck, she was doing her best to keep out the bone cutting chill that penetrated the thin dress she wore under it, to no avail. In her right hand she carried a small velvet pouch, gripped tightly in pale, numb fingers. Snow stuck to her bangs and eyelashes, obscuring her already poor vision. There would be a blizzard soon, and if she didn't find shelter she would be in big trouble.

　　Her joints were stiff from the cold and the wind was continuously whipping in her face. With a shaking hand she reached back and pulled her hood over her head, though it did little good. She took a step forward and the snow broke around her foot, sending her sprawling backwards. She rolled down the face of the mountain, then suddenly she was airborne, falling 10, 20 feet. She landed hard on her back, the shock jarred her all the way to her teeth. She couldn't cry out however, the snow collected in her open mouth and choked her airways.

　　With a start, Quin KeeLin noticed that she had landed on the frozen water mass that was the Olanni river. Famous for water that was deceptively sweet, and for the colony of merfolk that dwelled beneath the freezing waves. The Olanni Mer were more feral than their ocean counterparts, having abandoned the culture that the other Mer had worked hard to develop. The Olanni actively hunted humans. Trembling, Quin KeeLin gripped the velvet pouch in her hand as hard as her frozen fingers would allow.

　　A sharp crack made her squeal, her voice was hoarse and pained and came out with a puff of powdery snow, but she cried out again as another crack shook the frozen ground beneath her. A sharp scream came from the water under the ice and Quin KeeLin began shivering from something other than cold. Another crack echoed through the snow muffled silence and a pallid blue hand shot from a hole in the ice, webbed fingers outstretched and reaching. Tears rolled down Quin's face and froze to her cheeks as the hole began to get wider, growing underneath her immobile body like a black mass. The cries of the Mer were all around her now, growing with the hole in the ice. She could see their silvery darting shapes under the water. Waiting for her.

　　Water colder than the snow splashed up onto her and she closed her eyes, surrendering herself to her fate. A scaly hand gripped her forearm, small enough to belong to a child, but strong. With a sharp tug she was pulled into the water. Instantly her lungs filled with liquid cold and her vision began to swim.

　　

　　Merakii looked at the triumph her sister's had brought home to her. A girl, and a pretty one. She swam forward, her tail undulating like an eel through the water. She reached out a webbed hand and stroked the girl's face. She had died in agony, she could tell that by the way her eyes and mouth were open, wide as if to scream. Her youngest sister Chelan held out a drenched blue pouch, bleeding indigo ink into the water. Merakii took it from her and opened it, spilling it's contents into her palm. With a hiss she dropped the objects which fell to the river floor glinting like fire on the way down.

　　"Jewels?" Chelan hissed, her voice like the ebb and flow of the ocean.

　　"Cursed they are," Merakii responded.

　　"What would you have us do with them?" said another Mer, this one named Comori.

　　"Leave them, when the ice thaws the river will take them to where cursed things go, far away from here." She pinched a lock of the dead girls auburn hair between her thumb and forefinger. "Peace my loves, tonight is a celebration"