“Well, look what we have here?”
Shann whipped around and her heart sank to new depths. Three hu-mans in blue one-piece uniforms loomed over them, silver staffs pointed at their heads with casual arrogance. Crew.
The middle one leaned forward, his disgustingly pink mouth twisting into a cruel smirk. “A small Kelanni girl in a red cloak and at least one of the other conspirators—it’s just as that Lyall said. Looks like I owe you a month’s worth of credits, Chavez. You two will come with us. Now.”
<><><><><>
Chapter 26
Shann ran her fingertips over the dull metal wall of her prison deep within the sky ship. It was smooth, yet cold to her touch. She recalled the chamber in the warren, the underground home of the Chandara, where she had been incarcerated for a short time along with Rael and Boxx. There, the floor was solid rock, and the walls were hard-packed soil interspersed with winding roots that glowed with a gentle lambency. This cell was unnatural. Antiseptic. The glare from the overhead panels hurt her eyes.
Rael stood, examining the solid-looking door that barred their exit. At its heart was a complex mechanism with a winking red light. Alondo sat slumped in a corner, staring into a bottomless well. As she watched him, her heart melted and the sting went out of her voice. “Mind telling us what you’re doing here?”
He raised his head, his expression that of a child whose parent had just asked a question, the answer to which was blatantly obvious. “Lyall needed my help.”
“You were supposed to return on the ship,” she chided him.
There was the child again. “I couldn’t just leave him.” He took a deep breath. “We have always been there for each other, ever since we were youngsters. If I got into trouble, Lyall would always help me, and if he was in trouble, I would help him. Whatever happens, we always face it together.”
“I asked you to leave because I wanted you to be safe.”
Alondo met her rebuke squarely. “You asked me to abandon my friend. I’m sorry, but I couldn’t do that.” Shann deflated like a punctured balloon. Lyall had placed her in charge of the group, but it was clear that she had a very long way to go before she acquired his instinct for dealing with people. She had sensed Alondo’s distress—even done her best to comfort him—but she had utterly failed to anticipate what he might do. For the thousandth time she wished that Lyall would rejoin them and that things could be as they were.
“Alondo?” The voice came from Rael, who was concentrating on the door as if he could open it by force of will alone.
“Yes?”
“What do you make of this?” Alondo got to his feet and joined the boy. Rael indicated the lock with its single flashing light. “You’re the engineer. Do you think there’s any way to disable this thing?”
The musician returned a generous smile that warmed Shann’s heart. “Patris is the thief, not me. I suspect locked doors are more his department. Still... ” He hunched down and ran his fingers over the casing, then put his ear to it. Shann held her breath.
“Electrically powered—same as most of the devices in your world of Skell. Wires that connect it must run behind the wall here somewhere. If we could get to them we might be able to isolate it from its power source. From the books I read and the experiments I did at the observatory I believe that pretty well anything that is electrical can be disabled by its own power—shorted out. Am I right?”
“Quite correct,” Rael said.
“All right then. These walls look pretty solid. They left us with our packs and equipment when they threw us in here. They probably figured we didn’t have anything on us that we could use to break out of here. They’re probably right.”
“It’s not like you to admit defeat,” Shann prodded.
“Hey, I’m admitting nothing,” he returned with a grin. “Let me borrow your staff, would you?”
She unsheathed it and handed it over. “Don’t break it.”
“I wouldn’t dare.” He gripped one end of the darkwood and probed with the diamond blade, seeking a cranny in the mechanism’s outer casing. Suddenly, there was a distinct click and the tiny light turned from red to green.
Rael blinked. “That was incredible. How did you do that?”
Alondo turned his head, but instead of self-satisfied triumph, his face registered alarm. “It wasn’t me.”
The cell door began to slide open and all three of them instinctively took a step back. Standing in the open passageway was the lithe figure of Lyall, flanked by two burly, blue-uniformed hu-mans. Shann suppressed an overwhelming desire to throw her arms around Lyall’s neck. Instead, she forced herself to hang back and study his expression. A flock of fleeting emotions flitted across his features. Surprise. Anguish. Pain. And something that might have been love. Then it was gone, and he spoke from behind an unreadable mask.
“I am pleased to see that you are all well. I had you brought in for your own safety. You are to be taken back to our side of the world; the side that people here call Kelanni-Drann.”
“Why are you doing this?” Shann demanded.
A small crease appeared in his forehead. “Don’t you want to go home?”
She shook her head. “That’s not what I meant. Why are you helping Wang?”
Lyall’s voice was calm—serene, almost. “I have spoken with the Prophet. He has agreed to free Aune in exchange for the four components.”
“You must not do that,” Rael said. “The destructive power—”
“I have come to believe that the Prophet is working in the best interests of the Kelanni people. Together, we will usher in a new age— an age of peace and unity.”
The hu-mans on either side of Lyall shared a secret smirk. Shann felt as if her mind were slipping into a dark chasm. She hung on by her fingertips. “You can’t be serious.”
“I am. I invite you to join me. If you refuse, I will of course understand. However, you should both know and comprehend what is to come. When we return to Kelanni-Drann, the Prophet will take up residence at the keep in the heart of Chalimar. There his throne will be elevated. And nothing of worth will ever bring it down.”
Shann cast about for support. Rael seemed lost for words. Alondo looked as if he was about to be sick. She turned back to see that Lyall was holding something in the palm of his hand—a dull grey flat piece of metal. “I leave you this—the traditional parting gift of the Kelanni people. May it fulfil your hopes and bring you all that you desire.” He held it out to Rael like an offering.
The boy’s mouth twitched, but he said nothing. He merely took the irregular slab and secreted it inside his grubby green jacket. Lyall fixed his eye on her. “Remember your first lesson, Shann, and all will be well.” He bowed formally, eliciting further sardonic grins from his hu-man accomplices. Then the cell door slid shut and the lock began to flash bright crimson once more.
Alondo sagged back against the wall like a puppet whose strings had been cut. Rael stared at the door like a frozen mannequin. Shann could taste defeat. It dried out her tongue and constricted her throat like a bitter herb.
“Why?” she managed to get out. “Why would he do this?”
“He’s gone mad,” Alondo declared, staring at the floor. “The loss of Aune has finally driven him over the edge.”
Shann thought about it. Lyall’s manner had been decidedly odd, but his thoughts were calm and coherent. He did not seem to her like a man who had lost his mind. Except... “Alondo? What is this Kelanni tradition of a parting gift? I never heard of that custom.”
“I don’t know,” Alondo said. “I never heard of it either.”
“And why give a parting gift to Rael?” She looked up at the tall boy, who had still not moved from his spot near the door. “No offence, but he has known both of us longer than he has known you. Why give it to you?”
There was a long pause, so that she wondered whether he had heard her. Finally he spoke. “Lyall gave it to me because he knew that I would recognize it for what it is.”
S
hann felt curiosity rise within her like a bubble of air. It was too early to call it hope. “Why? What is it?”
He drew the rough metal slab from his inner pocket and turned it over in his hands. “The common name for it is ‘slag’. It’s the residue— the by-product—which is produced when refined lodestone is produced from lodestone ore.”
Alondo nodded. “I remember. There were heaps of it at the refining facility at Persillan.”
“What does it do?” Shann asked.
“Do?” Rael repeated. “If you’re asking whether it has any special properties, the answer is ‘no’. It has no repulsive force.”
“Is there anything else you know about it?”
Rael shrugged. “Inertia is positive, so it isn’t a type of lodestone— not according to the classical definition, at any rate. It’s metallic, so it would probably be a fair conductor of electricity, I would think.” He hefted the lacklustre lump. “Light. Malleable.” He snapped a small piece off the edge. “Good cleavage. I don’t think any extensive tests have been done on it. It has no practical use that we know of. Like I said, it’s a waste product. Which is interesting in itself... ” He drifted off, and his expression acquired that faraway look once more.
Alondo slumped against the wall and stared at the floor once more. “It doesn’t matter. None of it matters. Lyall has sided with the Prophet and we are prisoners. It’s like he said. Nothing can stop the hu-mans now.”
Shann sighed. Try as she might, she could not think of a way forward. “I hate to admit it. But it seems you’re right.”
“No, you’re wrong, both of you.” Rael’s eyes refocused as his mind re-emerged from its distant wanderings. “You heard what Lyall said but you didn’t listen. He said that nothing of worth would bring Wang down. This,” he held up the piece of slag, “is ‘nothing of worth’.”
Shann felt as if she were trying to peer through fog. “Are you saying that Lyall was trying to give us some kind of a message?”
“I believe so, yes. There were hu-mans with him, so he couldn’t reveal what he was planning in so many words. He needed to couch it in terms that they would not pick up on, but that we would understand.”
Shann’s mind still felt foggy. “But if that’s true, then what was he trying to tell us? How can something that is of no practical worth defeat the Prophet?”
“I have no idea,” Rael replied. “But it is absolutely imperative that we find out.”
~
The following morning, Shann awoke to the sound of a distant explosion. Almost immediately, their tiny cell juddered, bouncing her across the floor and setting her teeth on edge. She almost ended up in Rael’s lap before hastily recovering her composure.
Alondo was holding onto his hat. “What in the name of—?”
Boom.
The overhead illumination flickered and plunged them into gloom. Shann was thrown backwards, her back slamming against the far wall. The floor stopped bucking and she got to her feet, gingerly.
Alondo rubbed the back of his head. “Owww.”
“The door.” Rael pointed at the indicator light, which was now shining a steady green. “Must be some sort of power failure.”
Shann stumbled forward and bent her fingers around the doorjamb. “Give me a hand.”
Rael appeared at her side but made no move to assist her. “Are you sure this is wise?”
She struggled to get a grip on the door. “What are you talking about?”
“It seems that Lyall went to great lengths to bring us here. His plan, whatever it is, must include us travelling with him back to your side—to Kelanni-Drann. If we leave...”
“Rael is right,” Alondo put in. “We ought to wait for Lyall.”
Another dull impact sounded from far off. The cell shuddered and creaked around them. “Look,” she said. “This place is coming apart around our ears. We have to get out of here. Now.” Rael hesitated, as if he were going to make an argument of it; then he thrust his slender fingers into the crack, adding his effort to hers. “Alondo,” she called.
The musician roused himself, inserting the diamond blade of Shann’s staff into the chink and using it as a lever. She wanted to caution him again about damaging it but suppressed the urge. The three of them strained for what seemed like an age. At last, the door gave way with a creaking groan, revealing a gap just wide enough to squeeze through.
Shann retrieved her staff, casting an anxious eye over it. The blade and shaft appeared intact, superficially at least. She signalled the others to stay put, then eased herself into the corridor. It was deserted. She could hear raised voices, but they were reassuringly distant. She waved for Rael and Alondo to join her, remembering their route through the bowels of the sky ship and mapping out the return journey in her head. Rael poured his thin limbs through the opening. Alondo huffed and puffed after him.
She groaned inwardly and grabbed an arm, while Rael pulled him by the shoulders. “That’s it,” she said through gritted teeth. “When we get out of here, you’re going on a diet.”
“Hey, that’s not fair... owww.” He popped free like a cork from a bottle, knocking her to the ground and landing on top of her in a heap. He pushed himself up and diffidently offered her a hand. “Sorry.”
She took it and glared at him. “Diet. Definitely.”
Ignoring his deflated appearance, she led the way once more through a succession of identical-looking passageways. Two more detonations rocked the sky ship, causing them to stagger and claw at non-existent handholds.
Rael went over to where Alondo was sitting on his rump and helped him up. “I don’t think this is an internal systems failure. The impacts are external, and too randomly distributed.”
Shann felt her brain starting to fog up again. “What?”
“He means the ship is under attack,” Alondo offered.
How could that be? Who would attack the hu-man sky ship? Apart from the three of them and the hu-man crew there was no one else on this island... was there? No time to speculate. “Come on,” she urged.
Finally, they stood before the elevator that had brought them here. She was reminded of the cage at Takala Flats where the Diametric Drive had sat, cocooned in its nest of metal rods, but whereas that lift was open to the elements, this one was enclosed, like an upright coffin, though mercifully it was empty.
“Where are we headed?” Rael inquired.
“Out the way we came,” she said curtly.
“The main hatchway in the loading bay.”
“If you say so.”
“I’m not sure that’s the best option.”
She turned to face him. “What are you talking about?”
“In an emergency such as this it will probably be locked down. It may even be guarded.”
Her eyes hardened to points. “Then I’ll fight our way through.”
“Maybe there’s an easier way.”
“Lifeboats,” Alondo blurted out.
“That’s what I was thinking,” Rael said. “A vessel this size would have to have some sort of emergency escape system. It would not be locked down—that would defeat its object. And there would be little point in guarding it.”
Shann rested her little fists on her tiny hips. “All right, where is it?”
Rael considered the problem as if it were a mathematical puzzle. “This level is roughly amidships, wouldn’t you say?”
“I would say,” Alondo agreed.
“An escape system would most likely be located at the point most easily accessed from all parts of the ship—”
“Amidships. I get it,” Shann cut in. She glanced left and right down the intersecting passages. “Which direction?”
After a moment’s hesitation, Rael nodded decisively towards the right-hand passage. “That way.”
<><><><><>
Chapter 27
As she trailed after Rael, Shann’s inadequacies pecked at her like angry mylars. Rael and Alondo were people—people with extraordinary abilities. And yet she had t
reated them as mindless raleketh, to be led about by the nose. It had not occurred to her to consult either of them. Maybe when they met up with Keris again she should step aside—allow her to take over. The former Keltar possessed infinitely more skill and experience than she did. Lyall, I don’t deserve the trust you’ve placed in me.
Yet in spite of her mistakes, a single shaft of light had now burst through the lowering gloom—the realisation that Lyall was not lost to them, but that he had set in motion an intricate plan to defeat the Prophet once and for all.
Since then, the mood had palpably lifted. Rael was far more engaged, and Alondo was virtually his old self again. Shann, too, felt reinvigorated. Yet she was also perplexed.
In the sitting room at the observatory in Kieroth, she had stared into the whirring timepieces with their interlocking levers and springs, wheels within wheels, tiny universes, their parts moving in perfect harmony to achieve a common purpose. Now she was one of those wheels—an essential cog in Lyall’s grand plan. There was just one problem: She had absolutely no idea what she was supposed to do.
“I think this is it.”
Rael’s announcement snapped her back to the present. They were standing in front of a door shaped like an upright oval and ringed by tiny lights. There was no window and no clue to what lay beyond. “How do you know?” she asked.
Rael pointed at an adjacent section of wall where there were symbols etched in red. “Because of what it says here.”
“You can read hu-man writing?” she marvelled.
“Not exactly,” he replied. “But mathematicians are trained to identify patterns. I recognize this word from a sign over a door at the weapon facility. I think it means ‘exit’. Or possibly ‘emergency’. Either way... ”
There was yet another dull thud, and the corridor juddered. Instinctively, she grabbed onto Rael for balance. The vibration died and she let go immediately. The sky ship was taking a pounding. There was not much time. Encourage them to use their talents. “Alondo, can you get this thing open?”
The Lodestone Trilogy (Limited Edition) (The Lodestone Series) Page 94