The Cleansing (Book One: The Folara Chronicles)

001:Kara

Covered in skin-tight black to camouflage her movements, Kara Taan moved through the sea-dripping cavern inside the mountain known as Sentinel.

Nervous heat permeated her cool skin, and she paused to breathe. A fresh air vent wafted the nauseating scent of Shadow Eaters in a cavern above her. Fighting the reflex to gag , she crept forward along the carved-stone tunnel, concentrating on sensing their location, their sentience, and their actual danger to her.

This sensing had been a gift of the planet Folara when her species arrived generations ago. Every sentient species on the planet was able to sense other life forms.

Shadow-Eaters were hunters. Therefore dangerous. She determined elimination was necessary; they were above her and had sensed her as well. Living then, she cursed her luck-- the will-less ones were easier to kill.

Inside the mountain, Shadow-Eaters were clumsy, their six rubbery legs and lethally clawed forearms un-adapted to the often tight passages. They raced along, tearing their flesh on pendulate stalactites partially submerged in cave water as they hunted the Searchers who daily entered these tunnels seeking the Talisman.

There was a fissure. She felt the contours of the mountain in the darkness. Nothing was pitch-black in Sentinel for Kara, whose inner senses illuminated the rock through touch and smell, her special gifts a great asset to Galantyne's Searcher Team.

The fissure was large enough to be called a chimney, and Kara wedged herself into it, using her vision now that soft white limestone chalk reflected in the seeping rivulets. The chimney was long, and uniform in diameter, she had no trouble finding hand and foot holds.

Skittering above her alerted her to the Shadow Eater's proximity. She would have to reach their level soon, or they would find this opening and endeavor to slither toward her. She couldn't allow lower assimilation claws to rupture her skin. Living Shadow Eaters would surely assimilate her life force and then feed her body to their young.

She needed to move faster. She had to kill them before they killed her. Skilled at climbing, Kara barely touched the cave walls with any part of her body except fingers and toes. Wetness saturated the holes months of scrambling had put in her climbing shoes, but she ignored it, channeling breathing exercises as she ascended. Any second the indigenous creatures could breach her chimney and sabotage her advantage.

The opening was well lit by bioluminescent organisms glowing blue in the cave pool to her right. Kara slipped from the chimney to the pool without a sound, adjusting her sight to the silhouettes of the four-- count them carefully-- four Shadow Eaters she would have to kill.

She scanned the cavern noting several avens-- shafts which rose from the lowered ceiling to a passage above but which she knew would not reach the surface.

Shadow Eaters could not have entered from there. It was likely they'd come through this pool. She lay still on the ledge as they stumbled along. It would be best to take down the lead and the rear with her shuriken. The others would be on her instantly.

Kara's plan included hand to hand combat as soon as she'd thrown the stars. There would be no time for anything else. Shadow Eaters were clumsy as they lumbered, hunting, driven by the need for sustenance and energy stolen from other sentient beings. But they were flying flashes of whipcord ferocity when attacked. They also had the advantage of infrared sight as soon as movement was detected.

They would be on her in the water, and they were vicious -- but she was lethal.

Her shuriken hit their marks, and she slipped beneath the surface as they fell, seeing only the deadly red eyes aimed at her as another braced itself to fly. It hit the water causing sparkles of white light to rise like brilliant glowing waves, and the third impact razored through her awareness with precise intent.

Using the second's momentum, Kara rose, forcing her legs to catapult her into the embrace of the huge and deadly creature as she ripped its throat and dropped it in one fluid motion. The third had gotten behind her, its scream rose as did its spiked fins, as it prepared to assimilate. The glowing gold claw emerged and as Kara let the head of the second fall into the water with a gritting splash, she braced herself for the third Shadow Eater's attempt.

It hesitated, a split second she was unused to. Kara caught her footing, assumed defensive posture, and saw the flicker of its eye as if something distracted it from behind. A wash of cold permeated her at the thought of another Shadow Eater behind her. She couldn't risk a glance, even as the third plunged below the surface, a secondary attempt to catch her in the water.

Kara retracted her hand claws and dove over the Shadow Eater, plunging the hilt of her dagger into its rubbery neck. Immense spikes ripped at her uniform, and Kara stabbed again and again, as she fell backward, looking for any vulnerability. It whipped around to better see her, two forelegs reaching for its bleeding neck and back, before the assimilation claw rose just over her eyes. As if in slow motion, dripping ooze, she saw it begin its deadly descent.

Kara took a deep breath and doubled into herself rolling into a dive. She cut the four closest legs out from under it and smashed her claws into its stomach, her hand ripping through black muscle and fat. Even under water the smell and taste caused bile to form in her throat. The claw still came, tearing the water, parting it with sparkling intensity. Kara back cut the arm, saw it sever leaving black blood to drift to the bottom. It couldn't live without its claw.

She rose, took a deep breath and counted herself fortunate that no spears or arrows from Minions drawn by the scuffle dodged past her head. She hurled herself to the floor of the cave pool, feeling the colder water from a connecting tunnel as she dove.

Instantly the water revealed another Shadow Eater behind her. No time to check, no time to fight, Kara swam into the water rushing toward her at high velocity. She was sure there were few in the mountain who could follow her now.

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