The Lodestone Trilogy (Limited Edition) (The Lodestone Series)

by Mark Whiteway

  “That’s just why we needs t’ get a hold o’ them right away,” the woman insisted. “I spoke wi’ Palanna this mornin’. She says it’s all over th’ village. People are sayin’ you bro’t in a ’u-man last night an’ are shelterin’ ’im.”

  “I don’ trust them officials,” Yonach said. “I wouldn’ turn no one over t’ them, not even that pasty-faced creature upstairs.”

  “I don’ wanna hear it,” the woman ruled. “You take ’im to Kieroth an’ deliver ’im to the Directorate right now. I won’t ’ave you risk this entire family fer some cursed ’u-man.”

  An odd grunt signalled the death of the conversation. The engineer’s mind worked rapidly. If the Directorate got a hold of him, then he was under no illusions what that would mean. Wang had already warned him that if he were captured by the Kelanni, then he would be on his own. Moreover, the Captain would not want to risk information about the Accumulator Device getting out, especially since they were so close to completing it. McCann strongly suspected that certain agencies in Kieroth would be alerted and he would meet up with an untimely ‘accident’ not long after.

  The alternative was scarcely any rosier: going on the run on a hostile planet with no clothes. He could steal some clothing, he supposed. Of course, with no Speaker Ring, there would be no way to summon Helice for a pick-up. He would have to try and contact one of their Kelanni operatives in Kieroth in order to relay a message, and they were notoriously difficult to locate, for very good reasons. To make matters worse, he had absolutely no idea of where he was or which direction the town lay. The only thing he was certain of right now was that he needed to get out of this place before the drach showed up.

  He turned on the landing and spotted the Kelanni child who had peeked at him earlier. The alien boy was dressed in a long nightshirt and had large round eyes that were fixed on the bearded hu-man. McCann smiled encouragingly. The youngster responded by giving him a swift kick in the shin and then running away.

  The engineer rubbed his leg, cursing silently to himself, before hobbling back to resume the search for his gear, with what little dignity he had left.

  ~

  Keris beat out the last of a half dozen small fires that had broken out across the Reach’s deck and turned to survey the chaos. She did not have Patris’s know-how when it came to the ship, but most of the damage appeared superficial—a hole in the deck here, a burnt patch there. Most of it was in the upper part of the structure—above the water line—and miraculously, the mast and sail were intact. During the bombardment, the ship had drifted under its own momentum and was now lodged safely in the deeper waters of the inlet. Random chance had worked in their favour. Of course, there was no guarantee they would be immune from further aerial attack, but for the moment, the skies were clear.

  She looked down once more to see Lyall and Alondo approaching. Alondo was grey-faced.

  “Any sign of Shann or the boy?” she asked.

  “I’m afraid not,” Lyall said. “Their avionic was blowing smoke as it headed inland. I lost sight of them after they passed into the hills.”

  “We have to go after them right away,” Alondo urged.

  “Agreed,” Keris said. If they’re still alive. Without two of the component carriers, the mission would be lost. Determining their fate was now top priority. However, she also saw an opportunity to put forward her original proposal once again. “You two should head out and find them. In the meantime, Boxx and I will determine where these hu-mans have stashed their weapon.”

  Lyall glanced about the deck and lowered his voice. “What about the drach? Do you think it’s safe to leave Patris with them?”

  “We have no choice,” Keris declared. “Don’t worry. I’ll deal with the drach, if necessary, when the time comes.”

  Lyall seemed about to object but finally responded with a nod. Keris turned towards the sterncastle to gather the rest of her equipment.

  “How will we find you?” Lyall called after her.

  “I’ll find you,” she said.

  ~

  A quick search of an adjacent room turned up neither McCann’s boots, nor his trousers, nor his weapon, but it did turn up one item of significance—his datapad. It had been shoved carelessly in a drawer— no doubt by some primitive who saw it as nothing more than a useless trinket. The engineer returned to his room, clutching his prize, shut the

  door firmly behind him, and sat on the bed. Let’s hope these fools haven’t dropped it, or sat on it, or something.

  He set the device reverently on the bed in front of him and spoke the activation command. “Inquiry.”

  There was an agonising pause. Then the small screen began to glow. “Applications working.”

  McCann began to breathe once more. “Display current location on planetary surface.” A topographical map appeared with a winking red light at its centre. There were no features he recognised. “Overlay known Kelanni settlements.” There was no change on the screen. The red icon continued to flash patiently, as if waiting for him to make up his mind. “Is Kelanni settlement database still intact?”

  “Affirmative.”

  “Then why am I not seeing any settlements marked?”

  “No Kelanni settlements lie within the display area.”

  It’s a machine, McCann reminded himself. You have to tell it what to do, remember? “Enlarge display area to fifty-kilometre radius.” Still nothing. “Enlarge to one hundred kilometres.” There. A flashing blue symbol at the southeastern edge. “Identify settlement in grid... Thirteen Delta.”

  “Kieroth. Level four Kelanni settlement, located on Kelanni-Skell. Population, circa twenty-three thousand. Location of the headquarters of the Scientific Directorate, a pseudo-scientific ruling body which—”

  “Stop.” The town was some distance away, but he could make it there on foot in three, maybe four days. “Can you tell me where my trousers are?”

  “Please restate inquiry.”

  McCann smiled. Confounding the all-knowing device gave him a perverse sense of pleasure. If the datapad was here, chances were the rest of his things were here also. Once he found them, he could get out of this place and start looking for a contact. “Discontinue.” The friendly window of light went dark. He started to get to his feet but never made it. The back of his head exploded in scintillant pain and the world went black.

  ~

  Keris lay flat against an overhang of ancient grey stone next to Boxx and peeked over the edge, watching the goings-on below. A large building with a mono-pitched roof sat in a valley a hundred and fifty feet below her. It was constructed of stones of a lighter grey, but they seemed far too regular—too perfect to be natural.

  The main structure was surrounded by a smattering of other buildings, lesser in size and presumably therefore in importance, and a knot of three parked avionics. Cables ran between the outbuildings, and there were buzzing and humming sounds coming from some other mechanical devices, the purpose of which Keris could only guess at. Of one thing, however, she was absolutely certain: she had found the location of the hu-man weapon.

  She had suspected that finding it would be child’s play, and so it had turned out. Any device designed to accumulate and concentrate large quantities of refined lodestone would have to stick out like a sore thumb, even at a distance. Just as important, the direction would be towards the horizon—seemingly out of reach. Her cloak should prove as effective as a wayfinder.

  She had left the beach of smooth round stones with Boxx in tow. Halfway up the path, she turned and had a view of Annata’s Reach anchored peacefully in the waters of the inlet and Patris sailing the launch back to the ship. Not long after, she blipped her lodestone layer experimentally and received her first positive contact. From then on, it was simply a matter of following a signal that grew steadily in strength. Here, virtually on top of the thing, the slightest exposure of lodestone felt like a kick in the shoulders. Whatever the weapon was, it was in that building somewhere.

  She could see
tiny figures moving about between the structures, singly and in groups. The lack of a tail indicated that they were humans, although at this distance, it was difficult to make a positive identification beyond that. She needed to gather more information— security, including guard patrols, locks, and points of entry and egress, as well as the layout of the compound and exact location of the weapon.

  So far, her observations had not shown any organised system of guards, but perhaps that was not surprising. The hu-mans would surely know that Kelanni of this world had no ships, nor any other method of maritime travel. Out here on a remote island in the midst of the vastness of the Erigone Sea, they would not be expecting infiltration. There was no indication that security had been stepped up following the attack on the ship by the two hu-man aircraft, suggesting that both machines had been destroyed before they could raise the alarm. Lyall and the others would still have the element of surprise, provided of course that Keris did not inadvertently tip their hand.

  Her best option would be to lay low till nightfall and go in under cover of darkness. Keris glanced at the sky. It was overcast, and the suns were not visible, but she judged it to be well past noon. She eased herself back from the edge of the overhang, stood up, and headed for the shadow of a nearby boulder to wait it out. Boxx took the signal and scuttled over, settling its head down on the rock shelf next to her.

  Keris had always frowned on dishonesty. Both common sense and her training taught her that sometimes it was necessary in order to get the job done, but at the back of her mind, she always had the sneaking suspicion that resorting to deception increased the chances of a bad outcome. She had deliberately deceived Mordal, her mentor, which had set off a chain of events that had ultimately led to his death and the deaths of a number of others. At the time, her intention was to save lives, but that only reinforced the point that if you lie, you tend to lose control over what happens as a result—and then you have to live with the consequences.

  She had not lied to Lyall about her reasons for wanting to scout the location of the hu-man weapon, but she had not been completely truthful either. Ever since she had learned of Annata’s scheme and of the instrument that had been divided into four separate components, Keris’s mind had been assessing the task from a tactical point of view. It was evident from the outset that any plan that required four persons to enter hostile territory and arrive unharmed at the same time at a prearranged location was fraught with the possibility of mishap. In the game of shassatan, you needed to have more than one gambit in mind, as the situation on the board could change from one move to the next. Annata had insisted that this was the only safe way of neutralizing the weapon. But it was not the only way.

  When it became apparent that the weapon was being constructed here on the island of Helice, another possibility had occurred to Keris: premature detonation. Yes, it would cost the lives of all of them, as well as the lives of all the hu-mans on the island, but they were so far away from any other part of civilisation, it seemed virtually certain that the devastation would be confined to that relatively small area. And from a tactical point of view, that plan had a much higher chance of success.

  Keris had met Annata—had seen how she lived. The woman from the past came from a world of marvels, but up to the time of the plague, she had lived a life of privilege and comfort. She would not consider the possibility of self-sacrifice, since it was not in her nature. Keris, on the other hand, had been forced to fight and claw her way up. She knew that there were times when spilling blood was the only way to get the job done.

  There were good reasons, she told herself, for not revealing her full plan to Lyall. He would probably insist on giving the others time to return to the Reach and sail to a safe distance before setting off the weapon. Yet if Annata’s device did not work for whatever reason, there would be no time for that. If they made it as far as the weapon and failed to destroy it, they would not get a second chance. She would have to act on her own, before anyone could stop her.

  She looked across at Boxx. It lay with its head resting on the rock platform, its eyes like twin black beads, staring straight ahead. If the little creature understood their plight at all, then it did not seem concerned. Perhaps it was for the best. There was no reason why others should have to bear the burden of knowing what was about to happen. Let them continue to hope, right up to the end.

  Keris settled back and waited for the cold shroud of night to envelop her.

  <><><><><>

  Chapter 7

  For the third time in two days, Shann clawed her way back to consciousness. This time, the anxious figure bending over her was not Alondo or Boxx. It was Rael.

  The boy looked a mess. His features were lined with grime, and his hair was partly flattened and partly sticking up from his head. His once-proud green coat—official uniform of the Scientific Directorate’s Physics and Astronomy division—was now filthy and marked with dark streaks. I probably don’t look a whole lot better myself, she mused.

  The crash and the events leading up to it were a blur. Had they really downed two of the hu-man craft? It seemed unlikely. Were they both still alive? That seemed even less likely. And yet, persistent aches in her head and arm insisted otherwise.

  Rael gazed intently at her, his hand raised in front of her face. “How many fingers am I holding up?”

  “Seventeen,” she said, dismissively. “Where... are we?”

  “The island of Helice. Don’t you remember?”

  “No, I mean, where on the island?”

  “I don’t know; some way from the Reach, I think. Can you get up?”

  Shann raised herself slowly and painfully, waving away his steadying hand. “We have to find the others.”

  “Well, we won’t be travelling in that.”

  Shann looked over to where he was pointing and saw what was left of their flying machine. The fuselage was badly battered, the cockpit was smashed, and smoke was still rising from one of the fan housings. A surge of guilt ran through her. “Will you get into trouble?”

  To her surprise, he laughed. “I don’t think so. Although since I’ve been involved in the destruction of two avionics, not to mention the phaeton in Kieroth, they’ll probably make me walk everywhere from now on as penance.”

  “What about the electro-thing?”

  “It was destroyed in the crash, so it’s still a secret.” His eye twinkled. “Unless you tell on me, that is.” Shann did not see how he could joke at a time like this, but she let it ride. “I think the avionic is safe now,” he continued, “at least, I don’t think it will burst into flames or anything. We should salvage what we can and then try to work our way back to the ship.”

  “Do you know which direction it is?”

  “I have a reasonably good idea,” he replied. “While you were doing your best to throw us around up there, I took a fix on our position. If the directional finder in the cockpit is still intact, then I should be able to track back. Just give me a moment to do some calculations.”

  She smiled wryly. “Your trouble is you think numbers are the answer to everything.”

  This time it was he who failed to see the funny side.

  “They are,” he said.

  ~

  Shann awoke the next morning at first light. Nights were cold on the island, so she was especially glad of the blanket that Rael had retrieved from among the provisions stored in the avionic’s hold. Unfortunately, there was only one, and Rael had graciously insisted that she have it, choosing to huddle in his dirt-smeared green coat instead. The boy lay on the ground with his back to her, still sleeping.

  She arose silently and headed for the tarn nearby where they had camped the previous evening. Small meltwater lakes seemed to abound in these hills, so fresh water was not an issue. However, she had spotted nothing that could be described as game, unless you counted some bulbous, multi-legged creatures with waving eye stalks that disappeared into spiral shells whenever they approached, or the ball of black fur that hissed and spat a
t them from a rock as they passed. It didn’t really matter. Shann did not share Keris’s talent for being able to live off the land.

  She knelt on the hard granite and sluiced water over her face, feeling the icy cold bring her to full wakefulness. Her headache was gone, but her arm still hurt. However, deprived as she was of Boxx’s ministrations, she had no alternative other than to put up with it. She squeezed her eyes dry and watched as the ripples on the surface gradually died away to reveal a reflection. Something was hovering above the water directly in front of her.

  Shann recoiled and scrambled to her feet. She recognised it at once—a copper-coloured sphere, indented, with a glassy ball at its centre, like an immense eye. It looked exactly the same as the machine-eye that she and Keris had encountered on top of the Tower of Akalon. That device had been controlled by the one who called himself McCann. There could be little doubt that another hu-man was operating this one, although she could not see anybody.

  Shann turned and sprinted back in the direction of their makeshift camp. Rael still lay sleeping, hunched in his grimy green coat. She skidded to a halt and fell to her knees, shaking him violently by the shoulders.

  The boy’s long legs kicked out instinctively and he came to with a start. “Wh... what the... Shann, what are you... ?”

  She dragged him up by the scruff of the neck and pointed. The mechanical eye had floated over and now hung in mid-air about five yards away.

  The boy rubbed sleep out of his eyes and tried to focus. “What’s that?”

  “It’s called a watcher,” she replied. “McCann, the hu-man we met at the Tower of Akalon, used one.”

  “Is that the same as a lookout?”

  She regarded him oddly. “What’s a ‘lookout’?”

  Rael shook his head. He looked as if he was still confused from sleep. “Nothing. Forget it... ” He peered at the floating eye. “Whatever it is, it’s an incredible piece of technology.”

  Shann rapidly donned her new red flying cloak and grabbed her staff before turning to face him once more. Her short dark hair was matted to her scalp, and water was still dripping from her delicate chin.