Free The Crystal Clipper by B. Roman Page B

Father would never have sent me here.”
    Suddenly, the monstrous roar is heard and a thunderous thud and rattle looms close to Saliana's chamber.
    “Holy cow! What's that?” Fear pulses through David's body and he blanches white, then flushes red with an adrenaline rush.
    “The Glass Snake! He's coming. Quickly. You must hide!”
    David scans the hall quickly and sees no hiding place. “Hide where?”
    “We must go back to my chamber,” Saliana urges him. “If I'm gone he'll suspect something.” As they rush to Saliana's chamber, the roar of the Snake is deafening.
    “Oh, my God. He's right next door. Here! Under the portal.” Saliana nudges David toward the wall and pushes on his shoulders till he slides to the floor. “Stay tight to the wall. He won't be able to see you there.”
    Quickly, Saliana snatches up her harp, sits on her chair and begins to sing, her voice quivering with terror. The Snake's blood red eyes peer through the portal at her, and it bellows with pleasure at the sound of her music. David anchors himself firmly against the wall, afraid to even imagine what this
Thing
looks like.
    After what seems an eternity, the Snake calms down, then thuds and rumbles away. David exhales loudly with relief. Sweat trickles down his brow. He tries to stand up, but his legs are jelly.
    “He'll be gone for awhile,” Saliana says, helping David to his feet. “The rituals are going on in the temple and they last for hours.”
    Blood starts to circulate back in David's legs and he shakes them back to full strength. “Good. That'll give me time to scout around for a way out of the Palace.”
    “Be careful of Jaycina,” Saliana warns him, not unlike her father. “Don't let her catch you.”
    “Your father warned me, too. But he gave me some special crystals to protect me.”
    “Please, please come back,” she pleads. “I so want to go home.”
    “So do I, Saliana. So do I.”

Fifteen
    Exploring deeper into the Palace, David finds himself engulfed in a labyrinth of mirrored corridors. He turns this way and that, unable to find an opening or a way out. The complex maze, the hundreds of multi-colored illusory images, confuse his brain and the vertigo begins again. David struggles to keep his balance and swallows hard on the bile that works its way up his throat.
    Focus
, he tells himself.
Focus on the floor, on the seams along the floor where it meets the walls.
But there aren't any discernible walls. Just row after row of his own distorted reflection bouncing back at him. He places his hand over the Moldavite.
    “Ishtar. Ishtar, are you there? I can't find my way through these corridors.”
    “David!” Ishtar responds sharply. “Where in the world have you been? Why haven't you contacted me? And how in the world did you get caught in the maze?”
    “Well, when I left the Tower, I turned to the left - Oh, great.” Filled with recrimination for not communicating with Ishtar, he chastises himself. “How could I forget? I saw Saliana. She's fine, or at least as fine as she can be.”
    “Thank heaven! Thank heaven.” Ishtar's voice is a litany of emotions: relief, gratitude, guilt, then determination, authority. “You must get her out of there, David. Listen carefully. If you are in the maze of mirrors you are in the East wing of the Palace near the Temple. Follow the blue mirrors until you come to the hidden staircase. I will direct you from there.”
    David squints hard to locate the blue mirrors among the kaleidoscopic shimmer of all the others. Finally, he isolates them. “There they are, Ishtar. I see them.”
    David follows their pattern with his hands, feeling for an opening where the staircase might be located. A strange, muffled throbbing sound catches his attention and he stops for a moment to listen. He can't quite discern what the sound is, but it is rhythmical and pulsating. It becomes louder, more intriguing, and beckons to him. David slips behind one of the mirrors and into the shadows