Firecrystal Deep

By Lorain O'Neil

Retired schoolteacher Miri Prescott is a God. Surprise!

Waking up in a spaceship, kidnapped and back in her eighteen year old body, isn’t the kind of thing that’s supposed to happen to Miri. But with everyone insisting she’s the Adrus, the lost given God of the Adruminion, relentlessly lusted after by the Demesdom, it just isn’t doing her any good arguing that, heh, she can’t even tweet!

Spirited away to the Adruminion, Miri learns that it’s an empire ruled by her former (who’s quite definite on being her current) mate, and that it’s at war with the Demesdom, a realm ruled by the man she once desired. Two vast galactic kingdoms ruled by alpha males each ferociously in love with her and willing to stop at nothing to have her.

Which makes befuddled Miri one reluctant Adrus.

Maybe.

Or maybe little Earth-human Miri has a mighty big secret --of what was left behind back on Earth.

Criminal record and all!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lorain O'Neil
• Release date: Jan 6, 2015
• ISBN: 9781310736094

Book preview

Firecrystal Deep

by Lorain O’Neil

Copyright 2015

All rights reserved.

Smashwords Edition

Table of Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Sample chapter from The Hilarious Dead Guy’s Last Chance Undies [humorous mystery]

Sample chapter from The Liar Charms [humorous urban fantasy/suspense]

Sample chapter from A Kiss From Moët [humorous magical realism]

Sample chapter from Angelique Rising [humorous dark romance thriller]

Sample chapters from ALIEN ADVANTAGE [humorous adventure]

Sample chapters from COQUINA HARD [historical fiction]

Sample chapter from Bound Fairy [fantasy adventure romance]

Sample chapter from Haunting The Rainbow [mystery]

Chapter One

Miri

There were stars. Everywhere. Miri was floating in a universe of stars. She opened her eyes wide, staring. It was beautiful but... so alone. There was no one there but her. How did she get there? And where was ‘there’? Where was she? How could this be?

A dream she decided, she was having a dream. The most incredible dream she’d ever had. So she would enjoy it! She relaxed, enraptured in the idyllic beauty, swathed in the colossal silence. It was like being in outer space, drifting along through far glimmering cosmos in detached serenity, undisturbed, but then she realized, no, that wasn’t right, space was cold, she was not. She wasn’t warm either, she just comfortably was. And that’s when a very uncomfortable thought hit her.

Maybe she was dead.

Dern!

Or maybe she was laying by the side of the road somewhere after a car accident, unconscious, bleeding to death. She needed to get out of there, I need to wake up!

How?

Fighting back the beginnings of hysteria she blinked uncomprehendingly, seeing nothing but the distant stars twinkling and... watching? That’s what it felt like. Ridiculous. She forced the thought away. What would happen if she called for help? She opened her mouth, inhaled a large breath and in so doing discovered there was air. Her lungs filled up and in plaintive entreaty she hailed the vast darkness.

HELLO?

Soundlessness. Her voice was apparently nonexistent here. Next plan. She would float somewhere. Could she move? Not just float? Could she be like Superman and fly around? She started to flap her arms like a bird and that’s when she saw her arms were bare. She looked at the rest of her body. She was naked. And there was something very odd about her nakedness, something she couldn’t quite place.

Maybe she could propel herself via some other method like maybe thought. Thought worked in dreams, it wasn’t easy, but a deliberate conscious-type thought injected into a dream could sometimes affect it, she knew. So Miri started thinking that she was moving and felt it. She was moving. Only problem was that she didn’t know where.

What am I doing here?

Suddenly she knew what had been wrong about her nakedness, her body was not what she expected, it was different.

How old am I? I’m eighteen.

But that made no sense because she had memories, memories of being older. She remembered the day in her thirties when she’d put on her make-up and for the first time it had not made her look pretty; the hot flashes in her fifties of liquid heat pouring over her and blooming from within her; the slow steady decline of her body when she’d hit her sixties. No, she was not eighteen, could not be eighteen, but she felt eighteen, and that was it: her body was her eighteen year old body, it had come back! And then she hit a wall. Literally.

It was hard, as hard as steel. She couldn’t see it, but she could touch it, stroke it, and that’s what she did, her hands flying over it searching for... anything. And she found it. An indentation that she sank her fingers into and twisted, turned, pulled, until part of the wall abruptly gave way and searing white-hot light invaded, blinding her. She shrieked, recoiled, scrunching her eyes tightly closed. After a few moments she risked a peek: the light wasn’t so bad anymore. Trembling, she groped her way up into it and was flabbergasted at what she saw.

She was in a room, inside a large cut-glass ball glittering in the center of that room, a ball that looked like some kind of giant Christmas tree ornament. An odd looking woman was standing before it, gaping at her in spellbound disbelief. The woman staggered back and with a shrill frightened squeak scampered from the room.

Not good, Miri thought, her heart pounding. I gotta get outta here.

Grasping the side of the opening she hoisted herself upward onto the ball. It was difficult, her arms were weak, the facets sharp, and the gravity falling upon her overwhelming, but she did it. And then she toppled right off the ball onto her keister landing on the floor with a squawk. Floundering, she used the ball for support to pull herself upright.

I have GOT to figure out what’s going on.

The room was not large and the only thing in it was the big crystalline ball, its cut-glass edges flickering rapidly in a pink glow interspersed with bursts of purple and red glints. Like a sunrise on fast forward she gawked in bafflement. Reeling, she stumbled haltingly for the open arched entranceway through which the woman had fled but just as she was about to reach it a man skidded through, his eyes riveted on her in thunderstruck surprise.

Jeez, I’m naked.

But that didn’t seem to be it, the man didn’t appear to be ogling her because of her nudity but because she was her and she was out, out of the crystal ball thing which from the cataclysmic look on the man’s face she knew hadn’t been supposed to happen.

Adrus, he inhaled at her incredulously, like it was her name. It wasn’t.

Um, hello, Miri stammered meekly, uh, look, I don’t really know who you are or what I’m doing here. A wave of cold air swept over her and she wrapped her arms about herself, instantly the man pulled off what he was wearing, a glossy green tunic that reached down almost to his knees and handed it to her, she put it on gratefully.

Thank you, she murmured hoping politeness might get her somewhere, my name is—

Adrus, he repeated in total lack of inspiration, you are... early. I have no instructions for this. Please, are you all right?

The woman who had watched her emerge from the ball was cowering behind the man. She whispered to him urgently.

Perhaps you should return to your birthing sphere for the rest of the journey, Adrus, he said, his eyes luminous in apprehension. It will not be long now.

–Miri, she continued rather lamely, having no idea what the man was talking about, my name is Miri. I’m not Adrus. I think there’s been some kind of mistake. I’m a little confused. How did I get here? Who are you people? What journey?

The man and the woman looked at her and then the woman spoke, softly.

"This is one crystalized foul-up, Bernacular. You’ve got to do something."

The man blinked and, coming up with nothing, the woman stepped forward.

Adrus, she said, delicately taking charge and swallowing nervously, I am Sa, this is Bernacular. ‘Adrus’ is your title. You are the Adrus. I understand why you are confused, your knowledge has left you. You’ve been gone so long. The birthing sphere cannot give it back to you but there are many people waiting for you, people who can teach you everything you need to know. We will meet them shortly. Please, come, I will help you.

Thanks but I just want to go home.

These were strange looking people. They were not old but their hair was snow white and short, but not the cut-short hair of a bob but rather the it-grew-that-way-short of a cat or dog. Both were taller than Miri and Miri was a tall person. Their skin had the faintest of a dusky golden hue and their eyes, though brown, were a light brown (practically pastel) Miri had never seen before.

The man was wearing black pants and a tight black shirt that Miri guessed was an undershirt. The woman was also wearing black pants but with a white tunic embroidered with minute flecks of pale sparkling turquoise about her neck.

When Miri said ‘home’ the man’s face broke into a wide eager smile he didn’t seem able to contain. Oh Adrus, he sang out exuberantly through that smile, "you are going home! We’ve waited so long for your return. Many gave up, thought you were dead, but most of us knew, knew you were still alive, kept safe, would come back to us. The war for both sides is at a hopeless impasse now, but with your return―"

Bernacular, she doesn’t know what you’re talking about. She doesn’t have the knowledge anymore. Do you, Adrus? Do you remember the Spidurs?

I... everything is a little hazy for me, Miri sputtered. I don’t know about any war. I know what spiders are but I don’t know—

Message for you, Bernacular, a man’s voice vibrated in the air making Miri jump. "From the Doyen. He knows."

Oh no, he’ll be mad as a crystal cuckoo you didn’t tell him, Bernacular, the woman named Sa grimaced. Adrus, if you will come with us we will go to where this ship is commanded from and you may speak to your Doyen... to the people awaiting you.

Ship? She was on a ship?

Miri followed Sa in stunned compliance, mystified.

But why am I here? What do you want? Where is this ship going? Will you—

Sa looked at Miri with anguish in her eyes struggling to keep her tone level and friendly.

Oh Adrus, it’s gone! The knowledge of millennia, all of it. It was the only way you could have survived the Spidurs, they have hunted you all this time even after many of your own people were convinced you were dead. But so cruel. What happened to you was so cruel. In your prime! But you are found now, by us not the Spidurs or the Demesne, and you will resume your rightful place and the Spidurs will be defeated. Ah, I’m doing it now too, aren’t I? Talking about things you probably know nothing of. Here, Adrus, this way.

Sa guided Miri down hallways in a patient gait, her smile strained though warm and reassuring. But when Miri passed a small round window and looked out she stopped dead, her face registering nothing but stark fear.

All that was beyond the window was night.

Where are we? Miri croaked.

You would not recollect this tunnel, Adrus, Bernacular said, we have just crossed the four suns, we will—

Four suns?

"Are we... are we... in space?"

Yes, Adrus, we are taking you home.

"There are no four suns at my home! There’s only one!"

"That was your hiding place, Adrus, not your home. It was where you hid from the Spidurs. To prevent the Spidurs from finding you, you were reduced to nothing but your living essence, that is why you know nothing. The birthing sphere could only restore basic things, like language, health. Not even your own body. You still have the Earth human body you were rebirthed in, the sphere could not give you a new one though it has made repairs. But the Earth human bodies are very beautiful, far more beautiful than ours, though... not as strong. No matter. Your power remains untouched, you will re-learn everything, you will be home. You will see the Crustacae again. And your body, this body, though weak, will be well cared for, we have brought all the information from that world on how to take care of it. And you will have your crystals and once you have again learned how to use them you will have all the strength of before. Bless you, Adrus. We are honored as we never dreamed, to be here, at your finding and return."

They were in a large room, large compared to the other room Miriam had been in. Three men were sitting before consoles all of them staring agape at her as she entered. And then one stood, sunk to his knees, bowed his head before her. The others quickly followed.

Adrus, Sacred and Hallowed, one of them intoned. Another one gasped, crying.

Aw crap Miri thought. I wanna go HOME!

Both Sa and Bernacular looked at Miri expectantly, like they were waiting for her to do something.

Um... you can get up if you want, she said feeling foolish. They men rose, staring raptly at her, reverently.

We are reborn! the man who had spoken before erupted.

Yeah? Well not me, I’m screwed!

The Doyen is waiting, Bernacular, the other man said, unable to tear his eyes from Miri. And you know he’s not very favorable to that, especially where the Adrus is concerned.

Summon him.

A large blurry cloud appeared in the air then coalesced into a transparent figure, a man. Miri gawped, stupefied. The man, even translucent and only appearing from the waist up, was still the most gloriously handsome, impressive, terrifying person she had ever seen.

Predator.

The figure’s chilling eyes snapped unwavering on her just as I know him! shotgunned inexplicably through Miri’s brain in an avalanche of primal familiarity, as if her soul was trying to wrench itself free to reach him.

"WHAT IS THIS?" the figure demanded in blistering wrath.

It’s her, but she emerged from the birthing sphere on her own... early, Bernacular responded quickly in supplication.

Her name’s Miri, Sa mumbled like she’d had to pluck up all the courage she had just to utter those few words. She turned. This is your Doyen, Adrus, the... he is... she didn’t seem able to formulate an acceptable explanation.

Our commander, Bernacular interjected and Miri caught Sa’s censorious look of disapproval.

With monumental effort Miri fought the chaotic, almost immobilizing electric thrill that coursed through her body at the man’s probing gaze. Sir, she shuddered before the opalescent figure, my name is Miri Prescott, I think your people have made a mistake. They think I’m somebody else. I see that you are, well, from some other... planet? [She didn’t really think it wise to ask such a question.] And you’re looking for someone, but it’s not me. I’m not this Adrus, really, I’m just a schoolteacher in my world –retired. So if you could maybe turn this ship around, take me back, I swear I won’t say anything to anyone, I mean, who’d believe me? They’d lock me up in the looney bin for sure. I’ll just—

"ADRUS! This is dangerous! You are not yet in a protected zone! You should NOT have emerged. Bernacular, you must—"

"Craft!"

NO! Identification!

Wait... wait...

The three men sprang to their consoles staring horror-struck at arrays of jumping colored lights.

Four, one of the men bellowed, "FOUR!"

What’s going on? Miri looked around wildly, feeling the shrieking tension permeating the room.

"Identification!"

"SPIDURS!"

"NO! NO!" the Doyen’s voice split the air near delirious with hatred. "MY LOVE—"

In one fluid move Bernacular waved his hand atop a console and the howling transparent figure disappeared. And before a near-paralyzed Miri, Bernacular appeared to transform: the unsure hesitant man was gone, replaced by warrior. Sa turned and fled. And Miri knew, somehow, that whatever ‘Spidurs’ were, they sure weren’t the garden kind, they were bad and from the look of grim intensity on one of the men glancing at her, this was going to be a death fight.

God I wanna wake up now. Pa-leeeze!

And for one infinitesimal moment something else invaded Miri’s being.

I want my Doyen!

The walls around her unexpectedly faded, she was standing staring out at the blackness, a blackness that was nevertheless rushing past. Like being in a tunnel. And far away in that blackness she saw large oblong red lights, four, coming at them. But she could not follow the sudden battle as Bernacular shouted orders in barely contained fury and displays of lights flashed luridly in the air above the consoles as the men’s hands flew over those consoles in a bizarre macabre synchronization with the lights.

Tunnelfy the lead! Bernacular railed in scalding malevolence, an instant later a disturbance shot out and away from them, lobbed right at the red light ahead, to their side. Whatever the cannonade was, Miri watched it captivated as it connected with the red light, pushing it even further to the side where it suddenly tumbled into evisceration. All Miri could think of was a race car shattered to smithereens as it hit a wall at a race track... but if we can do that to them can they do that to US? The pieces of red light blinked out simultaneously with the leaping console lights gleaming a garish orange.

One! a man at the consoles roared in obvious victory. Site the—

No, Bernacular answered in cold intonation. The lead’s gone, the others will be hungry, intemperate. They’ll try to take her alive.

Who’s ‘her?’ Me??

Let them come, get close, he growled.

Oh Bernacular... no... no... They’ll—

Miri didn’t have time to ask what ‘they’ would do because they did it. One of the red lights winked off for just a moment and then a giant cloud-like distortion flared from it, hurtling straight for them.

Turn! Turn! Don’t let it hit amidship— Bernacular rasped, fury emanating from him in almost tangible boiling waves. The thing, whatever it was, hit the ship and Miri screamed not knowing why as she was pitched across the room and bounced off one of the walls that wasn’t even really still there, and hit the floor hard.

NOW! Bernacular yelled and again a disturbance emitted from them, darted right at the Spidur ship that had sent the cloud, hit it dead on. The ship’s red light faded and once again the lights on the consoles glowed orange.

"What the HELL? What are they DOING?" Miri cried out lurching to her feet. Why do they wanna kill us? Just tell ’em I’m not this Adrus person! Tell them to stop!

Bernacular looked at her, his expression hardening. He turned to all three men seated at the consoles who hadn’t budged in the attack.

If they board, you know your duty to the Adrus, he snarled staring at Miri in dark brutal gloom. Each of them nodded. How far out are we—

Too far, Bernacular, they’ll never let us get there. They’ll doubleside us any moment now, one of the men said just as Sa tore back into the room breathlessly, carrying a large chunk of purple glass, steaming past them to a cringing Miri.

WHAT? Bernacular yelled at her. SHE CAN’T DO THAT, SHE HAS NO TRAINING!

"She has the power, Bernacular, she can try."

It could kill her!

What’s the choice?

He had no answer.

"Adrus... Miri. You have the power to destroy those Spidurs—"

Are you bonkers? I can’t even work a Gameboy! I’m not involved in this, I shouldn’t be here! Tell them it’s a mistake!

"They will take us all if you don’t save us, Adrus. And you can do it, with this," Sa thrust the purple glass into Miri’s hands.

"I don’t even know what this is."

"It’s a crystal, Miri, a crystal of the Adrus. And like it or not that’s you. I told you, you were stripped of your knowledge but not your mastery! It’s all still there, inside you. The crystal will channel it. Use it!"

You’re NUTS! I don’t know how to—

Here they come, Bernacular stormed furiously, they’ll force us to slow to boarding speed and then... He did not finish his sentence.

Cast into the crystal, Miri, into its depths. Think of yourself flowing into it, through it, then out at the Spidurs, destroying them. Concentrate! Or we will all die. Or worse. Much, much worse.

Miri considered several logical (and several purely creative) responses to Sa, none of which seemed likely to keep her alive.

"Oh shit," she finally settled on, grasping the crystal tightly.

The moment she did, the crystal started glowing.

"Whoa..."

Picture it, Miri! Flying into the crystal, flying out at the Spidurs! Just—

The entire room seemed to explode and this time all of them were thrown up into the air. Miri was slammed backwards still clutching the crystal which was now shooting off sparks directly into her hands, she screamed as her flesh burned. But she didn’t let go.

And she saw it. There was something deep inside the crystal. Beckoning her. She peered into it and it seemed to grab her, rip her forward as if in a nightmare, entrap her in a world of jagged edges and angles without dimension and for a moment she froze praying for the horror to pass but then she saw something else. She didn’t know what it was but somehow a way out careened intuitively through her senses. She followed it and she was out. In space! Free. And awesome. Never in her life had she felt so powerful! The Spidur ships were there, they had attached themselves to something. With a simple wave of her hand –or something she thought of as her hand but knew couldn’t possibly be– she swatted them away, they were flung headlong into the tunnel walls and disintegrated to fine dust in one grand display of red fireworks.

I did that she thought. And I’m a schoolteacher!

Far away, she saw (or felt, she wasn’t sure) something approaching through the obscurity.

"Adrus! Adrus! Wake up!"

She wondered what it was.

"Look at her hands!"

Something very, very important was approaching, pulsing with heat, for her... her everything. Maybe she could fly out to it. Was that a good idea?

"She’s not coming back, Bernacular!"

But where, she pondered, was her body? She’d need that when she found him, oh yes. She’d left it somewhere and oooo... it was her eighteen year old body... a strikingly cute one!

"Break it! Smash it!"

Excruciating pain shot through Miri, she was writhing, agonized, no oh please no... And then there was nothing at all except the briefest of really ticked off thoughts.

Yep, guess I’m dead after all. Dang. I wonder what it was out there.

What was out there was her Doyen, his face contorted in seething guttural rage, his black eyes flaming as he neared her.

In determination.

Chapter Two

Seleanna, she heard.

Huh?

"Seleanna. Wake up."

Miri came up to the surface sluggishly, opening her eyes –everything was swimming and blurry.

Announce the Adrus is awake.

Yes, Doyen. Can they—

"No! No one until I approve it. Bring food. Her kind."

Some waterpomes and—

No, from that planet she was on! That’s what she’s used to. Go!

Miri’s eyes cleared. She was laying in a bed, a huge bed in a large room, facing an open doorway leading out to a balcony. White moiré draperies in the doorway billowed gently into the room on a breeze.

"OWWW..." she screeched.

"Damn them," she heard beside her and looked. It was that man, that man, towering above her, ferocious, leaning down in almost proprietorial right. Miri cringed at the steely resolve etched on his face as he scrutinized her; he was more than six feet tall, weathered but handsome, his eyes jet. To Miri he looked in his mid thirties, with powerfully broad shoulders and a physique like solid stone. His hair was thick and brilliant silken white but unlike the others it was longer, tied in a short ponytail at his neck. He was dressed all in black with fine silver edgings to his loose shirt, not a tunic like the men she had seen before, and he was wearing discretely about his neck a necklace of purple crystals that for some reason Miri’s eyes locked upon.

Pain lanced through Miri again, she held her hands up to her face, they were red, raw, swollen and hurting like hell.

Here, he said as he gently took one of her hands and rubbed a bronze colored cream on it. The pain vanished, replaced by a numbness that nevertheless it was getting through, loud and clear.

Never, never, had Miri felt anything like it. This man had power, a kind of melt-you-in-your-seat dynamism, the kind she knew instinctively to resist but also knew she didn’t stand a flippin’ chance against.

Holy crap, Miri chirped pulling a face.

I want to take you over my knee, Seleanna, he glared, "hard. Spank the SHIT out of you, but you wouldn’t remember why so what’s the point? But oh when you do remember and you will my little Adrus, oh what I’m going to do to you." He raised her other hand