Free Stars of Charon (Legacy of the Thar'esh Book 1) by Sam Coulson Page A

hooded forms walking slowly between
the stones. But when I turned my light toward them, they were gone.
    “Well I
give Growd some credit,” Ju-lin commented.  “He may have found the creepiest
place in this side of the galaxy. I wonder what they expected to find.”
    She
reached out and slapped one of the stones as she passed.
    “Don’t
touch the stones,” the words slipped through my lips before I knew they were
coming.
    “What?”
Ju-lin spun and flashed her light in my eyes. “Why not?”
    “I—I
don’t know,” I stammered. “I just mean that we don’t want to leave any traces
that we were here. You never know what all they will scan for.”
    “Hm,
right,” she lowered her flashlight for a moment and then swung it back up at my
face, blinding me.
    “What
gives?” I held up my hand to shield it.
    “Something
about your voice,” she lowered her light again and turned back forward. “It was
like you knew something about this place. Do you?”
    “No,” I
thought I saw the glint of a pair of purplish eyes to my right, I flipped my
flashlight to the spot. Nothing but a clean white stone. “Only that I want to
get out of here.”
    “Well, I
won’t disagree there,” Ju-lin responded. “Look, there, one of the Tevarite stones.”
    I
followed her light. The stone was distinct, where the others were leaning at
angles, the pure white stone stood perfectly straight up from the ground,
towering eight to ten meters above us and was at least four meters across. As I
looked up toward the pinnacle I saw the sky had changed, thick cloud cover was
moving in. I followed Ju-lin as we circled the stone. On the far side we found
the entrance to the cave nestled into its base. The entrance looked tall enough
for us to walk into, but the path was steep.
    We paused
and both took a deep breath. Ju-lin shifted her weight from one foot to the
other.
    “Well,
why not?” Ju-lin flashed a forced smile as she took a few steps into the cave
and started lowering herself into the passage.
    For a
moment, I was left alone at the mouth of the cave. I flipped off my light and
looked up at the stars. The air was clear, and aside from a small breeze, the
night was calm and still. There was something familiar about this place. I was
certain of that. And the familiarity made me uneasy.
    “Get a
move on Berry-boy,” Ju-lin jeered from below.
     
    I ended
up sliding more than climbing into the cave. Looking back up, I saw that the
entrance was steep, but scalable. The dirt was dry, and there were plenty of good
handholds, so at least getting out wouldn’t be too much of a chore. I looked
around. The cavern was broad, much larger than I had expected. It was about ten
meters wide with plenty of room to stand. The path inside was obscured by the
sloped surfaces of the stone.
    “Looks
like those surface rocks go deep,” Ju-lin commented. “Still, as far as caves
go, it could be worse. At least it’s dry. There are footprints here, leading
deeper into the cave there. This is the spot.”
    “Looks
like quite few of them,” I said noting several different shapes and sizes of
prints on the dusty floor.
    “Still,
it’s odd,” her voice was quiet. “It’s peaceful in here. I wouldn’t think that,
especially how it was up there with those damned stones. Almost like a church.”
    “Or a crypt,”
I responded.
    Ju-lin
shook her head, “you know, Eli, I’m beginning to think you are trying to make
this as creepy as possible. I mean really, I was fine until you started getting
spooked by the stones, and now you’re afraid of ghosts. Hm, yeah, Eli.” She
glanced at me. “That’s better than Eli cio . Elicio sounds so formal.
Maybe if you loosen up a bit we can get that nickname to stick. Everyone’s got
a nickname back on the colony. The Governor , Missy-T , Jager ,
it’s like nobody even has a real name anymore.”
    “And
‘Ju-lin’ isn’t?” I was pretty sure she was talking just to fill the silence,
but I didn’t see any