“Shann,” the boy called. His voice held a note of urgency. She pulled back, giving more ground and hazarding a glance over her shoulder, and was met with a puzzling sight. Rael had divested himself of his cloak and was kneeling on the grille at the junction just beyond the barrier, fiddling with something. Suddenly it dawned on her. He was setting up his cloak as a lodestone baseline for her to use. Looks like I underestimated you.
Shann blipped her lower lodestone layer, feeling the reassuring push behind her. Before Keris could react, the diminutive girl bent her knees, activated the boost control, slammed her lodestone fully open, and launched herself towards the harsh ceiling lights.
Rael’s quick thinking had given her a chance. She flew over Keris’s head and made straight for the globes. If she could get to them first—dominate the lodestone within them—then maybe she could fend off Keris. For a while at least. The great bronze spheres loomed in front of her. Behind, she could see Keris dashing back along the iron-grey walkway in a vain effort to outdistance her. Rael must have retracted the lodestone in his cloak as soon as she had pushed off it. If I live through this, I will owe him my life. We all will.
As she passed over the nearest globe, she twisted in the air and pushed off its lodestone, making for the centre of the construction. Another idea was taking shape in her mind. Back at the house adjoining the observatory, Rael had said that the new cloak might give them the capacity to hover for brief periods. Shann proved as much during her and Rael’s foolhardy descent from the network of iron girders that spanned the ceiling. But what if it were possible to do more? What if she could use the balance of opposing forces within the cloak to control her position?
She twisted her body again, using the lodestone in the opposite sphere as a brake. Her trajectory slowed and she settled at a point in mid-air above the three globes, flying cloak extended behind her, feet together, and arms folded over her chest. It was a peculiar sensation. The lodestone beneath buoyed her up, like gigantic hands, gently holding her in place. Artificial lights shone down from above, illuminating her upturned face. She felt serene. Elated. Powerful.
She lowered her head to see Keris watching her from the walkway. Shann could hear the tall woman’s mind working. If I attempt to set off the weapons again then the girl will launch an attack to stop me.
Shann permitted herself a brief smirk. That’s right. If you want to go ahead, you’re going to have to knock me off this perch first.
Keris regarded her a moment longer before marching back along the walkway. Time to make preparations. Shann carefully extended her upper lodestone layer. Theoretically, the downward push from the upper layer should counteract the upward push from the lower layer, and the result should be equilibrium.
As she operated the control at her neck, however, it rapidly became clear that something was very wrong. A growing pressure on her shoulder harness was followed by a creaking sound. It was as if the cloak’s inner mechanism was trying to tear itself apart. Shann’s heart began to pound as she quickly reversed the move. Gradually, the creaking died away. She had drifted downward slightly but was still hanging suspended over the immense spheres. Mercifully, the cloak appeared undamaged.
Her mind raced as she pieced together what had happened. The two lodestone layers had started to push each other apart with immense force. If she had carried on, the supports would probably have ruptured and the flying cloak would have broken apart in mid-air, leading to an unspectacular and possibly lethal fall. She swallowed. Out on the raised walkway Keris had turned and begun running towards the globes in her long loping stride. There was no more time.
She raised her fingers gingerly to her neck control once more and this time began to extend bronze and upper lodestone layers together as rapidly as she dared. Extending all three layers was the same configuration she had used before during her descent with Rael, but she still could not be certain of the effect of bringing the other two layers to bear while in mid-air. As the upper layers fully deployed, she felt herself rising slightly, but otherwise the mechanism seemed to operate smoothly and the cloak remained stable.
The woman reached the end of her run, flared her cloak, and leaped up the side of the nearest globe. Shann held Saccath’s staff before her in one hand; the other was at her neck controls. Keris flashed towards her, whipped her staff around... and slashed at empty air. As her momentum carried her forward, she cast about in frustration. Far above, Shann watched with godlike amusement. It worked. Shutting off the upper lodestone layer removed its downward pressure on bronze as well as bronze’s downward pull. She had shot upward, like a cork in a bottle.
Keris finally spied her quarry and pushed off the nearest globe, rising to meet her. Shann waited until the woman was almost on top of her, then slammed open the red cloak’s upper lodestone and withdrew the lower lodestone layer. As the upper lodestone began to push down on bronze and the bronze pulled at it, she dropped like a stone, once again evading the woman’s staff thrust.
Shann felt a flush of exhilaration. It was as if she had complete mastery of the air. She extended her lower lodestone layer gradually,
slowing her fall and bringing her once more to a state of equilibrium, suspended above the globes. As she did so, she heard Lyall’s words ringing in her mind. Overconfidence. Most Keltar suffer from it. It makes them contemptuous of others, but it also makes them think of themselves as invincible. Don’t make the same mistake, Shann.
In spite of her newfound agility, she knew that she couldn’t expect to dodge Keris forever. She was tapping the red cloak’s boost facility constantly in an effort to stay one step ahead of the ex-Keltar. However, Rael had warned them that the ‘electrostatic charge’, as he called it, would run down completely in fifty dahns. That wasn’t long. When the charge was exhausted, the refined lodestone in her cloak would lose its extra power and her movements would slow. And even before then, the other woman might well anticipate her actions. If that happened, she would find herself locked in one-to-one combat with an undisputed master of staff lore. She was not sure how long she could hold out, but the final outcome seemed all too certain.
Keris descended slowly towards her, one hand tweaking her neck controls experimentally. She’s as smart as I am. Sooner or later she’s going to figure out the techniques of using the new cloak. Then it will all be over.
The tall figure loomed over her, waiting for her to make her move. Shann twisted in the air, opened her lower lodestone and withdrew her upper, rising rapidly at an angle, trying to stay out of the other woman’s reach. Keris moved to intercept her, cutting down her options and presenting Shann with a simple choice: surrender her dominance of the lodestone—or fight.
Shann grasped her staff in both hands and braced herself for the inevitable assault. Their staffs came together with an almighty crack. Shann felt the impact in her forearms. The woman followed up with a concatenation of blows that threatened to instantly overwhelm her. She tried to get a hand to her neck controls, but she was too preoccupied with expending every ounce of effort in trying to ward off the other woman’s onslaught. I’m not going to last like this.
Then the impossible happened. Keris suddenly ceased her attack and sheathed her staff, adjusting her neck control so that she floated in front of Shann. Shann’s first instinct was to counterattack, but something in the woman’s demeanour stopped her. Keris pointed behind her. Puzzled, Shann stole a glance over her shoulder and her eyes grew wide. A tiny figure stood on the walkway, gazing up at them curiously. It was the very last person she expected to see.
Boxx.
<><><><><>
Chapter 17
As the two cloaked women alighted side by side on the raised walkway, the little shelled creature regarded them with shining eyes of unfathomable black. Its wide mouth undulated from side to side. “Explain The Meaning.” Shann’s face flushed, like a little girl caught by her parents in the act of some misdemeanour. She glanced at Keris and saw that the other woman was looking to her for a res
ponse. Try as she might, she could think of no explanation that the Chandara might comprehend. “Keris And Shann. Component Carriers. Each Conflicts With The Other. Explain The Meaning.”
Shann opened her mouth and then closed it again before finally responding, “It’s nothing... It doesn’t matter.” As her embarrassment faded, her mind started to fill with questions. “Wh... what are you doing here? How did you get away?”
“Susan Gilmer Set Us Free.”
Shann frowned. “Susan Gilmer? But she gave you up to the humans. We saw her.”
“We only observed events from high up,” Keris reminded her. “We were too far away to make out what individuals were saying. Perhaps we misinterpreted what happened.”
Shann thrust all such speculations aside. “Where are the others?”
“They Are Coming. Alondo Is Hurt. It Is Not Serious But I Could Not Heal. No Time.”
“Then as soon as he arrives, we will have all four component carriers. Together, we can disable the hu-man weapons.”
“Yes, Shann,” Boxx trilled. But Shann was not looking at the Chandara. She was focussed on the tall Kelanni next to her. Worlds passed between them. Finally, the older woman’s face shed its careworn appearance and she nodded once.
“Let’s get going,” Shann said. She led the way as the three of them hurried back along the iron walkway towards the invisible barrier. Just beyond it, Rael waited with an anxious expression. “It’s all right, everything’s fine,” she assured him. Then she asked, “How did you get Boxx through the barrier?”
“It wasn’t my doing,” he replied. “I don’t even know how it managed to pass. When it saw what you and Keris were doing, it grew desperate to reach you. I tried to explain about the barrier but it ignored me and... well, it just rolled up into a ball and forced its way through. It may be that its shell has properties that protect it against the barrier’s energy somehow.”
Or maybe it simply compelled itself to endure the pain. Shann looked down at the little creature, but its face was as unreadable as ever. She knelt in front of it, removed the emerald link from her arm, and tightened it around the Chandara’s forelimb. She met Keris’s questioning look. “When you are safely through, come back for me.”
She watched as the two of them stepped through, tiny lights buzzing and flashing around them like insects. On the other side, Keris removed the bracelet from Boxx and tossed it towards Shann. The green-gold band struck the invisible barrier, causing it to flash briefly before rebounding and falling to the metal grating.
“Seems it only works when it’s being worn by someone,” Rael observed.
Keris walked forward and picked it up, wrapping it around her wrist.
A clanging. Boots on metal. “I’ll be back soon,” Keris called. She turned and sprinted off down the walkway. Moments later she returned and strode through the barrier, handing the spare bracelet to Shann. “Come quickly. The others are here.”
~
Susan Gilmer stood on the raised gantry surrounded by three Kelanni and one Chandara, a faint smile playing over her lips.
“To be honest, we thought the same as you to begin with,” Lyall confessed. “When we heard the loud banging on the side of the hopper and the shouts of the hu-mans, and then saw Susan Gilmer standing alongside them, we figured we had been sold out.”
“I’m sorry; it seems there was a quisling among our people,” Susan Gilmer explained. “They must have gotten wind of the plan to infiltrate the facility here and tipped off Wang. When I realised too late what was happening, I had no choice other than to play along in the hopes that I could free you later.”
“And that’s exactly what she did,” Lyall continued. “She knocked out two guards with that lightning weapon of hers and freed us from the hopper where we were being held.”
Shann stood next to her, listening to the story but offering no comment. Until recently, Keris would have expected that Shann would seize the first available opportunity to let Lyall know that the former Keltar had taken it upon herself to detonate the hu-man devices and destroy them all and that it was only Boxx’s intervention that had prevented her from doing so. However, the girl said nothing, and when Lyall asked whether they were all right, she glared at the boy Rael, willing him to silence. Clearly, she considered that the most important thing right now was the unity of the party. The girl had grown in ways that Keris could not help but admire.
The hu-man woman pressed her lips together. “You don’t have a lot of time. It won’t be long before they discover that you’ve escaped, and this is the first place they’ll look. You’ll have to hurry.”
The barrier fizzled and crepitated, and Alondo stepped through as if on cue, supported by Shann. “The first weapon is neutralised,” she announced cheerfully. “We’ve both set our components on the next one, and I retrieved the other two components. It’s your turn now.”
She passed the bracelets and the pure white discs to the tall woman, who took them from her. Keris selected the one engraved with the smiley face and thrust it safely into an inner pocket. Lyall had insisted that the four components of Annata’s device be marked distinctively, so that each component could be readily identified by the bearer to whom it was linked. He had charged Alondo with the task of doing the engraving. Clearly, that had been a mistake. Keris could only conclude that the caricature on hers was intended as some kind of obscure joke.
She cast an appraising eye over the musician. He was standing awkwardly, putting all of his weight on one leg. “While we’re gone, get Boxx to work on that ankle.”
Alondo grimaced. “I’m pretty sure it’s just a sprain.”
“Nevertheless, we need you to be able to move as fast as possible.”
“Keris is right. Let Boxx take a look,” Lyall urged.
“Sure thing, Chief,” Alondo smiled.
Keris felt settled. Calm. As if a massive weight had been lifted from her shoulders. For the first time in many days, she dared to hope that her life might actually continue beyond this point; that Annata’s crazy scheme, hatched over three thousand turns ago, might actually work.
“Look.” All eyes turned to Shann and then followed her pointing finger. A loose collection of hu-mans had entered the building and were striding purposefully across the immense floor.
Keris’s nostrils flared as she drew her staff. “Leave them to me.” As she moved forward, she felt a restraining hand on her shoulder.
She turned her head and saw Lyall. His eyes were like steel. “No. We need you to accompany Rael so that you can both disable the second weapon. We will hold them off. Go, quickly.”
Keris nodded once, flicked her eyes over the disparate collection of individuals that had somehow become her family, then turned on her heel and headed for the barrier.
~
“Here they come.”
The iron grating rang to the sound of running boots as the hu-mans mounted the steps to the upper level and raced towards them. Shann and Lyall stood on the walkway, staffs at the ready, with Boxx peeking out between their legs. Behind them, Susan Gilmer’s features were lined with apprehension, while next to her, Alondo had unslung his instrument and was kneeling on the ground, making adjustments.
“Boxx, get back,” Shann chided. The little creature dropped to all sixes and scuttled back to Alondo’s position, then stood on its hind limbs once more, head bopping up and down for a better view.
Up ahead, the tailless creatures came to a halt and surveyed the ragtag band of Kelanni, hu-man, and Chandara blocking their path. After a brief debate, two of their number headed back to the previous intersection and took the curved walkway that led off to the right, around the central structure.
“They’re trying to outflank us,” Lyall announced. “I’ll intercept them. You stay here and keep the main force occupied.”
Shann opened her mouth to object, but he was already making for the inner cross section next to the barrier, preparing to head them off. Susan Gilmer stepped up to take Lyall’s place b
y her side. Her hu-man face had grown even paler. “I hope your friend will be all right.”
“Lyall will keep them at bay.” Shann lowered her eyes. “I wanted to say thank you.” The fair-haired woman shot her a sideways glance. “For freeing Lyall, Alondo, and Boxx, I mean.”
Susan Gilmer smiled in a kindly way that reminded her of Oliah. “You’re welcome. I’m... sorry things didn’t turn out as I’d intended.” Silence fell between both women as they stared straight ahead. Finally, the hu-man woman spoke. “Can I ask you something? A favour.”
“Anything.”
“If I... If something happens, would you find Mac... Alexander McCann. Tell him... tell him I’m sorry.”
McCann. The hu-man who had spied on them from the Tower of Akalon, and whom she and Keris had battled before tricking him at the last into taking a one-way trip to the tower in the Cathgorn Mountains, where death lay in wait, either in the form of the vicious creatures that infested its slopes or the intense cold. One thing was clear: No good could be served now by revealing the full truth to this woman. Shann responded in the only way she could. “I promise.”
Susan Gilmer returned her smile. She looked tiny. Vulnerable. How far would she go to defend them against her own people? As if in answer, she extracted a stubby silver tube from her breast pocket and levelled it against the figures milling together a short distance away. “The dark-haired one in the middle,” she began, “that’s the Captain, Wang. He’s dangerous. Be careful.”
Shann peered intently at the squat, red-faced figure as he barked a curt series of commands. The Unan-Chinneroth. The Prophet. The murderer of my parents and the subjugator of my world. Somehow, I thought you’d be taller.
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