Lyall cut in. “I’m afraid I’d have to agree with Keris. Your idea is fine in theory, Shann. Unfortunately though, a ship, even a relatively small ship, weighs a lot. It would take a lot of lodestone to push it–far more than we could possibly lay our hands on. If we had unlimited time and resources then maybe it would be possible, but we don’t. Still,” he beamed at her warmly, “it was a great suggestion.”
Basking in his smile of approval, she felt herself blossom once more. However, the fact remained that they were no further forward.
Boxx was still enjoying the fruit and seemed not to be paying any attention. Suddenly it raised its head. Juice was running from the corners of its mouth, lending it a comical appearance. “It Is A Boundary.”
Lyall had a bemused expression. “In a way, yes.”
“A Boundary Between Here And There.”
“Boxx is right,” Lyall declared. “Any boundary can be crossed. We just need to figure out a way.” He pursed his lips for a moment. “All right, let’s approach this from a different angle. Is there any instance of anyone ever successfully traversing the Barrier? ”
“I know of one.” It was Alondo.
“You do?” Keris asked incredulously.
Alondo nodded, “Uh-huh. Captain Arval is said to have crossed it once.”
“Captain Arval?” Keris turned away dismissively. “You mean one of those ridiculous stories.”
“Stories are a part of Kelanni culture,” Alondo maintained. “They also happen to be a valuable source of inspiration for songs, so I always pay attention to them. I have found that in among the exaggerated claims, there is more often than not, a grain of truth.”
Lyall leaned forward on his stool. “Go ahead, Alondo. Tell us the story.”
Alondo glanced in Keris’ direction. “The legend says that Arval was offered a great sum of money by the Lord of Kalath-Kar to determine what lay beyond the Barrier. He travelled to the Isle of Panna. There he captured and tamed three giant perridons. He tethered them to the bow of his ship and used them to pull it through the tempests.”
Shann was intrigued. “What happened? ”
“Well this is where the account starts to get a little strange. It says they were ‘brought forth into a land of darkest dark, where the sky is bright but there are no suns.’”
“What does that mean?” Shann asked.
Alondo shook his head. “I have no idea. However, it goes on to tell of how the crew of the Calandra were terrified and on the brink of mutiny. Arval was forced to take them back across the divide. Afterwards, some of them were said to have gone mad. Others never took to sea again. ” He paused for a reaction but everyone seemed lost in their own thoughts. Surely it could not be true. Annata would not send them to such a terrible place.
“What I found interesting, ” Alondo continued, “is that this one is quite unlike the other stories surrounding the good Captain, where he is portrayed as the all conquering hero. He came close to losing his ship and crew. ”
“It’s nothing more than a legend,” Keris reminded them.
Lyall had a faraway look. “Perhaps. But it’s given me an idea. I think there might be a way to combine Shann’s rather inventive notion of using lodestone with Arval’s fanciful tale. It’s risky, but I think we may just have found a way to cross the Great Barrier.
“How?” Alondo asked eagerly.
Lyall’s eyes sparkled. “First things first. We are going to need a ship. ”
~
Shann stood with her back to the wall of the shipwright’s office, watching the world go by. Opposite her, a hodgepodge of buildings large and small, boarding houses, moneylenders, traders of every description. Carts drawn by striped graylesh trundled past along the cobbled street, conveying goods from the docks and back again. As she watched, an argument broke out between a round faced, hook nosed merchant and what she took to be a customer. The round faced man seemed to be demanding money. Over on the street corner, the tall figure of an Asoli, in distinctive green jacket and feathered headgear watched over the altercation, ready to intervene. The sky was overcast and a warm drizzle had begun, spattering on the round cobblestones and trickling down the back of her neck.
Shann felt like a fifth wheel. Alondo and Boxx were back at the Calandra. Alondo had had expressed the idea that if he could discover what type of energy the machine used, they might be able to power it from this end, so Lyall suggested that he stay behind with the Chandara and work on it. He would take her and Keris into town. Then they would all meet up at the Calandra later that evening. Lyall had been rather cagey about his plan for them to cross the Barrier. All he had really said was that it would be necessary to arrange to modify a ship.
“Why am I coming along? ” Shann had asked as they headed uphill towards the commercial district.
“Well, I thought it would be more interesting for you than just sitting around at the inn,” Lyall had explained. Now he and Keris were ensconced in the shipwrights, discussing the finer points of maritime vessel construction, and she was left outside in the street. Just waiting. In the rain.
She wrapped the simple russet coloured robe tighter around her neck and felt a jingle in one of the folds. Lyall had given her half an astria. To the orphan kitchen hand in Corte, it would have been a fabulous sum of money and she would have been consumed by thoughts of how she could possibly spend it. Now though, standing here on a street in a city filled with more wonders and temptations than she had ever seen, she found that there was nothing she wanted. At least, nothing that money could buy. You are not the same person who left Corte–that was what Lyall had said. More and more, she was coming to realise that was true.
She was debating whether or not to enter the shipwright’s to ask how much longer they were going to be, when the door opened and Keris stepped out into the street, closely followed by Lyall.
Lyall was contrite. “Sorry it took so long, Shann. ” He looked up at the sky and the gathering rain. “We’ve agreed on the modifications that will be needed. The chief artisan was curious, but fortunately, this is a town where people don’t ask too many questions so long as you have the money to pay. Our next task is to secure a suitable ship so that he can start work. We will also need someone to sail it, plus a certain quantity of lodestone. That last one may prove a bit difficult.” He began leading the way back down to the docks. “The other thing is that the alterations will take a while–ten to twelve days, he reckons. That can’t be avoided.”
They reached the corner where the Asoli was standing watch. A blur of movement. A dark figure shot past them. Shann swivelled on her heel to see the back of a dark blue coat disappearing into the rain. Behind her she heard Lyall ’s shout, tinged with frustration and anger. “The money pouch–it’s gone.”
<><><><><>
Chapter 27
Keris was already pulling her flying cloak out of her pack. “You haven’t brought yours, have you?” It was a rebuke, rather than a question. She fastened the neck clasps. “You are the Door; I am the Dagger,” she addressed Lyall. “River and Dam. Try not to lose sight of him.” She turned and sprinted up the street.
“Remember Keris, no violence,” she heard Lyall call after her. Does stomping on his head count? She shoved one lumbering pedestrian to one side, clipping a basket with her elbow. There was an angry shout as red and yellow fruits rolled across the cobbles. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw that the green uniformed Asoli on the corner was headed in her direction. She was attracting too much attention. And the thief was getting away. She cursed to herself and pounded away through the rain.
Keris blipped the upper lodestone layer of her cloak as she ran, seeking any natural lodestone that might lie beneath the old city. She needed to gain height, both to evade the Asoli and to track the criminal. The only deposits she could detect seemed to be fairly weak, but she managed to leap from one and immediately push against another, sailing up through the air to land on an adjacent roof. She dashed across the eaves, drawing stares
and shouts from the street below.
The thief would be working to a definite plan–he was probably not operating alone. An accomplice had no doubt been keeping watch over the shipwright’s office while they were inside. It was even possible that they had been targeted at the Calandra and followed here. She had tried to warn the others about the dangers of this place and had urged them to keep a low profile but as usual, Lyall had overruled her in his cavalier fashion. Now, once again, they were in a life-threatening situation. This is not a game.
Rain was falling steadily now; her boots felt slick against the smooth stone slates. She had to be careful not to lose her footing. Reaching the gable end, she hauled herself up onto the next building, then scaled the ridge. Standing on the apex, with one foot planted firmly on each slope, Keris had a bird’s eye view of the port city.
Irregular roofs jutted into the air like a row of jagged peaks. Below her, a knot of curiosity seekers were running and pointing, following her progress. The tall Asoli in his distinctive green was visible in the centre of the throng. She peered through the curtain of rain up the length of the bustling street. After a moment, she spied Lyall and Shann racing away in pursuit of the thief, unmolested. Serendipity. Her clumsiness had diverted attention from the real chase. All she had to do now was lose her spectators and then execute the strategy.
The first was childishly simple. She ducked down the opposite slope and moved rapidly along the roof, out of sight of the crowd. She followed a course roughly parallel to that of Lyall and Shann. Thanks to her rooftop survey, Keris now had a map in her head of the streets in the immediate area. There was a fork in the road, ahead of Lyall and Shann’s position. Assuming the thief did not turn and face them that left him two choices. Whichever road he took, one of them would give chase and the other would follow the remaining route. Hopefully, Lyall would have explained the strategy to Shann as they ran together. If nothing else, the girl was quick. She would get the idea.
River and Dam. River–channel the enemy down a single path. Dam–close it off, trapping him in front and behind. Keris darted across the uneven roofs, hopping over the gaps between narrow alleyways. She moved with the grace of a dagan, as if she had been born to this rooftop world. There were fewer people in the street on this side, and most were too preoccupied with finding shelter from the downpour to look up.
She was near the point where the road forked in two. Keris clambered up to a chimney breast and spotted Lyall pursuing blue-coat down the right hand street. Shann had taken the left fork, with the intention of cutting right at the first intersection, narrowing the thief’s options.
They had to run him down quickly. Street thieves usually had a number of bolt holes at various points around the city, leading to underground or sewer networks. If he reached one before they could catch him, he would no doubt disappear like smoke. For all she had come to detest the Prophet’s form of oppression, at least crime in Chalimar was virtually unheard of. No-one wanted to fall foul of the Keltar or end up as ‘tribute.’ At least there, she didn’t have to deal with this kind of vermin.
Blue-coat ducked right down a passage between two low buildings. Keris slid down the right side of the high roof and scuttled along the eaves until she detected a deposit under the street below. She stepped off the overhang, using the lodestone to slow her descent. She touched down, cloak outstretched, in front of a thin, balding man in a stained apron. He was pushing a handcart laden with fish. The man gawped so that he looked like one of his charges.
“Pardon me.” Keris loped away, leapt into the air and disappeared over the rooftops of the street opposite. It seemed to be a warehousing area, of newer construction than the shops and offices. The roof area was lower and more even. She swept across her private world, high up over the city, until she reached the opposite end of the alley into which the blue-coated thief had vanished. Lying flat against the tiles, she waited, like a vara-cat, ready to pounce. Moments later, the thief appeared. He allowed himself the luxury of a glance behind him, to check for signs of pursuit. In that instant, Keris rose up and sailed through the air, alighting right in front of him. The man barely had time to turn his head back and register shock before Keris had an arm around his throat. She did not have a weapon, but against a worm such as this, she didn’t need one.
“You have something that belongs to us,” she breathed into his ear.
The man’s windpipe was constricted. “I…gcchhhh.”
Lyall appeared in the alley, looking anxious rather than pleased. “Keris, don’t–”
“You are under arrest.” Keris heard a sonorous voice behind her. She whirled around, still clutching the thief. A mountain of a man stood head and shoulders above her, clad in a green uniform, his height accentuated by his tall feathered hat. Asoli.
She released her hold on the thief and rapidly considered her next action. According to the edicts of this cockeyed city, the common pickpocket she had forcibly accosted was a law abiding citizen, whereas she had just committed a serious crime. She had no doubt that she could subdue the huge Asoli, even unarmed as she was. However, the thief would likely get away with their money in the confusion and if there were other Asoli in the neighbourhood, the results could be quite unpleasant. She had no idea what the penalty was for attacking one of the city watch, but she was certain it would not be trivial. And if Lyall and Shann were implicated…curse this wretched place.
Shann came running up and came to a halt just behind Lyall. She looked uncertain.
All of a sudden, the thief cleared his throat and spoke up. “Is there a problem, watchkeeper?
The mountain placed a massive hand on Keris’ shoulder. “This woman is being taken into custody for violent conduct. You will be asked to testify accordingly.”
The thief massaged his neck briefly, then smiled. “You mean…? Oh, I see the source of your misperception. No, no, there is no violence here. These people are…my business associates. I asked them to chase me before securing our deal–I get so little exercise, you know.”
Keris felt as if her mind was chasing to keep up with what was happening around her but was still falling behind. What is this thief up to?
The Asoli’s eyes narrowed. “You testify that you are engaged in peaceful commerce?”
The thief drew himself erect. “I so testify.”
The big man removed his hand from Keris’ shoulder. “Then you are free to go. Keep the peace.”
“Peace to you watchkeeper,” the thief called after the man’s retreating back. As soon as the Asoli was gone, he pulled a white kerchief from his blue coat and mopped his olive brow. He had a narrow face and sharp black eyes. “You people take some real risks. Don’t you know the commerce laws here in Sakara?”
It was Lyall who framed the question on all of their minds. “Excuse me, but…why did you vouch for us?”
“Because I recognised you.” The thief turned to his assailant. “You are Keris, the traitor from Chalimar.”
~
“You have garnered quite the reputation: operating as a rogue Keltar, assaulting another Keltar and half a dozen soldiers, as well as the commander of the garrison at Gort. They even say you killed your own overseer. Is that true?”
They were seated in the back room of the Calandra, where the party had breakfasted only that morning. The thief was seated at the head of the table. Shann and Lyall were perched on stools either side. Keris stood by the door, as if barring the thief’s escape, although the man did not seem in the least disposed to take flight.
Keris ignored his question. “Where is our money?” she menaced.
“Well, I don’t have that on me right now. I handed it off, you see,” he waved a hand dismissively. “We can discuss that later. Right now, I would be most interested to know what you are doing here in Sakara.”
“Don’t tell him anything,” Keris counselled.
Lyall ignored her. “Why do you want to know?”
The man leaned forward, as if settling in to tell a long sto
ry. “There are two kinds of traders in this city. There is the kind whose only concern is making money here and now. They would sell their own grandmother for a fraction of an astria and they would not care who was paying. And then there are others who realise that Sakara is a unique city and that their livelihoods depend on its continued existence.
“Until recently, the city was a haven of peaceful commerce under the Guild Heads. However, over the past few turns, things have changed. The Prophet has spies and informants everywhere. The Asoli still keep peace in the open city, but if the Prophet’s men can get a person off the streets, anything can happen. Every few days it seems, a body turns up, face down in the harbour. People are afraid that the Guild Master is losing his grip. There are even persistent rumours that the Keltar might stage a takeover and place the port under the Prophet’s control. That would be a disaster for those of us who desire to retain our freedom.”
“You mean the freedom to rob others,” Keris accused.
“I mean the freedom to conduct legal commerce, yes. If you are who you appear to be, then I would like to offer the services of myself and my associates. If there is anything you need, I’m sure I can acquire it for you–at a fair price.”
Lyall looked thoughtful. Keris’ eyes widened. “You can’t seriously be considering doing business with this individual?”
Lyall regarded her squarely. “They have a saying here in Sakara–‘it’s not the dealer, it’s the deal.’ Whether we like it or not, Keris, this is the way this city works.”
“But…we know nothing about this person,” Keris protested. “For all we know, he could be in league with the Prophet himself–sent to lay a trap for us.”
“Patris…I am called Patris…look, to show my good faith, let me give you some information and advice–free of charge. Chalimar is stirred up like a mannatars’ nest. They know of your presence in Sakara, and there is a sizeable bounty on offer. I know a lot of people who would love to get their hands on you. They only seem to be interested in the woman Keris, but I’m sure they would not hesitate to eliminate anyone who got in their way. My advice would be for you to leave the city as soon as possible.”
The Lodestone Trilogy (Limited Edition) (The Lodestone Series) Page 29