The Crystal Warriors Read Online Free PDF Page B

that in spite of his own fear, Ikawa stopped and looked back into the room, now awash in a ball of pure crystalline light that shimmered and grew, lapping over them with a strange pressure they could actually feel.
    Ikawa screamed. The 37mm gun barked one more time. The shell howled past him, merging with the ball of light and the nightmare image from beyond. Ikawa screamed even as he fell towards the light, drawn in by a hurricane roar that sounded as if the universe were being ripped asunder.

Chapter 3
    T he center of the pentagram swirled in a maelstrom of arcing flames. Flickers of lightning crackled over her head, and Mornan looked to Danuth, The other two sorcerers were useless, their powers nearly spent. Mornan felt a ripple of fear, knowing that just Danuth and she might not have sufficient control over whomever it was that Danuth and the apprentice were bringing through.
    A bolt of lightning slashed out from the center, booming with a deafening roar that caused Mornan to stagger. There was tremendous power here, she thought. What had Danuth and that damn fool apprentice locked on to? There was another surge of power, and then the first portal worked by the exhausted sorcerers opened wide.
    For a brief nicker of time she could see into the realm beyond. She saw the winged demons and started to form her words of command, but there was something wrong―
    The other portal was opening too soon! The two should never have opened together. Danuth had fouled up and let the power they were generating get out of control!
    Fascinated, she gazed through the opening. This was a place she had never seen before, and to her amazement she saw that this was a realm of men, not demons. Something had gone wrong.
    What was this? She screamed with rage as the demons escaped the sorcerers, fleeing through the other portal to the land of men. She turned to Danuth but before she could even voice her anger, it ended.
    A 37mm shell, fired by the Chinese, burst through the mysterious portal and exploded. Mornan was cut in half without ever knowing how or why.
    * * * *
    Mark felt as though he had been sucked into the heart of a tornado that was the pathway to death. He was falling, tumbling through an endless corridor in which time seemed to have no meaning. Memories of Dante came to him and he remembered how some of the condemned souls―was it for adultery?―were forced to tumble forever in the middle of a maelstrom. Seized by panic, he wondered if this was Hell. And the despair of such a thought caused him to cry out.
    Even as he screamed he hit the ground. A body landed on top of him and he heard Goldberg swearing.
    So Goldberg was down here as well. Opening his eyes, Mark dared to look around. In front of him was a swirling cloud of light, and he saw bodies hurled out of it like riders tossed off a merry-go-round gone berserk.
    He rolled away from the cloud and came up against something warm and sticky―the shattered body of a woman. Mark recoiled and stood up. Other forms were standing up around him: his men and the Japanese. Ikawa was already standing to one side, surrounded by some of his soldiers.
    The whirlwind was starting to lose power; its light was growing dim. It pulled in on itself, and with a faint hissing pop, disappeared.
    " Has nalarn, Kulmica! "
    Mark turned. A shrouded figure stood in the shadows that surrounded them, its arm raised like the hand of death.
    "What the hell is this?" Goldberg whispered to Mark.
    " Has nalarn, Kulmica Sarnak. Juikal! "
    A lightning bolt snaked from the shadowy figure's hand and slammed into a Japanese soldier. He disintegrated into a vaporized mist.
    "You bastard!" Walker screamed. Leveling his Thompson, he fired a quick burst. The bullets stitched into Danuth, knocking him off his feet.
    Danuth tried to get up and point in Walker's direction. There was another bolt, but it went high, arching over Walker's head.
    A fusillade snapped out from the Japanese and American guns. Within seconds