Neophytes of the Stone

by C Lee Tocci

  “We can fly as low as twenty five hundred, but it’ll blow through the fuel faster.”

  “I’m not interested in fuel efficiency, you idiot!” The Duke’s voice was vicious and biting. “I’ve invested too much into this little enterprise to nickel and dime her to death.”

  Lilibit could feel the pain and cold slowly fade. In her pocket, Ewa-Kwan began to buzz anxiously. She groped for her pocket to comfort her angry stone.

  “She’s waking up!”

  “She can’t be! I gave her enough sedative to knock out a football team!”

  “Well, she’s obviously burnt through it. Give her some more. We don’t want her waking up on the plane.”

  A hard hand grabbed her wrist and a sharp pang pricked her arm. She struggled against its grasp, but the dark of sleep rose up around her.

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Pursuit

  “She’s not dead. She’s not dead.” Gil-Salla’s words were like a chant.

  Todd couldn’t tell if she was stating a fact or trying to convince herself; all he knew was that Tai-Kwee lay cold and silent between his fingers. How many minutes passed, Todd couldn’t count, he was lost to himself. It could have been minutes or years. Time had no meaning. There were only different levels of pain and grief.

  And then, the faintest buzz from Tai-Kwee. At first, Todd thought that he might be imaging it; that it was just hope tricking his mind. But then the murmurs grew stronger and slowly the voice of his stone seeped back into his soul. He pressed his stone to his cheek, letting the familiar humming refill and heal him.

  Life before Tai-Kwee was a lost memory. That once he could have he lived without its strength and comfort was inconceivable. That he might someday lose its companionship again was unimaginable. He shied away from the thought as he pushed himself to his feet.

  Nita was still sobbing, Devon awkwardly comforting her. Marla, grey faced, clutched her stone and whispered wordlessly to Ulex while Donny sat stunned and motionless. Jeff, green beneath his freckles, fiddled frantically with his computer.

  “They’ve descended to twenty-five hundred feet. They were at forty thousand feet.” Jeff’s voice sounded ragged and panicky.

  “Forty thousand feet?” For the first time in his life, Todd actually found a use for math. “That’s about seven or eight miles up.”

  “Are they landing so soon?” asked Marla.

  “No.” Jeff’s voice grew steadier. “They’ve requested permission from air traffic control to travel at twenty five hundred feet for passenger comfort.”

  “Whatever happened to us, must have happened to Lilibit as well.” Todd forced himself to think. “That means that whoever has her, doesn’t want to hurt her, otherwise they wouldn’t have changed their flight plan.”

  “Yeah,” Jeff agreed, his eyes still on his e-world. “And they wouldn’t have bothered with the adoption if they meant to kill her. From some of their classified project files, it looks like they’re interested in her ability to draw gold and minerals.”

  “But,” Marla’s voice was hushed with fear. “They’re using the name that the medical institute, NAVMRI made up for her, That must mean that someone from the Institute is involved.”

  “Someone or something.” Gil-Salla stared unblinking into the flickering hearth.

  “Syxx.” The name stuck in Todd’s throat.

  Gil-Salla nodded once.

  In the quiet that followed, Todd had a disturbing insight. He realized that, despite all their powers and their centuries of experience, he probably knew more about the world outside Kiva and the technology that existed there than the elders did.

  That was a scary thought.

  Keotak-se stood. “I shall travel to Commerce City and reclaim the Infant Stone Voice.”

  Gil-Salla nodded.

  “By yourself?” There were times that Jeff said things that made them sound ruder than he intended and Todd could see that this was one of those times. Jeff stammered as he continued. “I mean, you can’t go by yourself. I mean, you can go by yourself, but you can’t get into their complex. I mean, you might be able to get in, but you won’t know where to go…” Jeff took a deep breath and pulled himself together. “I think we should go with you. Me and Dave.”

  The set of Keotak-se’s jaw was impassive, but Todd could sense his anger, tightly held.

  “I think Jeff’s right.” The confidence in Todd’s voice surprised even himself. “I think we all need to go. If it is Syxx, then he’ll be expecting you to show up and he’ll have planned for it. He probably won’t be expecting that you’ll bring any help. And whether it is Syxx or not, you’ll need Jeff’s ability with computers to find out where she is and to get past their security.”

  Todd forced himself not to look away as Keotak-se glared down at him. Gil-Salla watched them both with narrowed eyes.

  “I believe the Raven is correct, Stone Warrior.” Cohanna spoke to them all, but her eyes looked off into space, as if she were listening to distant voices. “While it is true that for the past ten centuries you have on occasion walked the paths beyond the Sienna Sentries, it has only been to pursue your quests. You have rarely used the tools of that world. Gil-Salla never travels far from her hearth and I, well I will only say that my journeys beyond the Mort-Gre’el have not taken me into the world of Men.

  “But Syxx has been immersed in the world of Men. He has always known their weaknesses, but he knows their strengths as well. He will know the tools of Men and he will know how to use them. These young ones have this knowledge as well. It will not be wise to reject our best resources against an enemy who we know will not hesitate in using all within its means against us.”

  Gil-Salla nodded in agreement “Young Jeff will accompany you, Stone Warrior, and Todd as well.”

  “What about me?” Marla’s voice squeaked indignantly.

  “And how will we travel, Flame Voice?” Keotak-se ignored Marla’s question. “Commerce City is more than five hundred miles away.”

  “We’ll fly, of course.” Jeff answered quickly.

  “That is what I planned, young neophyte.” Keotak-se voice was almost expressionless, but he still made young neophyte sound a lot like little boy. “But how shall you travel?”

  “First class, complimentary beverage service.” Jeff’s little computer beeped away as Jeff made the reservations.

  Todd shook his head. Keotak-se was going to have to be a lot less subtle if he hoped to make a dent in Jeff’s ego.

  “But what about me?” Marla tried again.

  “Keotak-se’s going to need an I.D. to get on board.” Jeff ignored Marla as well. “We’ve still got our school I.D. cards, but I don’t suppose you have a driver’s license, do you?”

  Keotak-se only response was a cold stare.

  “Not a problem.” Jeff continued blithely. He held up his palmputer and the synthesized sound of a camera shutter clickity-clicked.

  “We don’t have time to get him a phony I.D.” Todd said, staring over Jeff’s shoulder at the image of Keotak-se that appeared on the small screen. While he watched, the picture was cropped, the background color changed and it was framed within a realistic looking driver’s license.

  “We don’t have to get a phony one. I just tapped into the Motor Vehicles Bureau files over in Grey Rock and created a real one for him.” Jeff was so busy with his machinations, he barely had time to be smug. But he managed to squeeze it in. “We’ll just stop off on the way to the airport and pick it up. We’ll need to move quick though. The Bureau closes at four. I’ll get us booked on the seven p.m. flight for Commerce City.”

  “But what about ME?” Marla stamped her foot.

  Todd and Jeff turned to stare at her. “You want a driver’s license too?” asked Jeff.

  “No!” Marla huffed. “But I’m coming with you.”

  “No you are not.” Keotak-se’s clipped words didn’t hide his temper, barely held in check. “None of you are coming. I will go alone and retrieve the Infant Stone Voice. I
t is my responsibility.”

  “With all due respect, sir,” Todd forced himself to meet Keotak-se’s glare, “it’s my responsibility. She’s in my clan. We are her clanmates. I’m her chieftain. I have to go.”

  “Me too.” Jeff stepped up beside Todd.

  “Me too.” Marla stood on Todd’s other side and crossed her arms.

  The silence that followed was scalding and Todd doubted that they have would been able to defy Keotak-se for very long, but then Gil-Salla spoke.

  “The Ravens shall accompany you on this quest.” Gil-Salla said this with so much certainty, it sounded like it had already happened. “They are stone warriors pledged to a Stone Voice. It is their vocation to defend and serve.”

  Keotak-se did not argue, but he did not look pleased with the decision either.

  Marla’s brow was pinched with a new worry. “I don’t know if we can fly, Jeff. Look what happened to us when Lilibit went up in a plane.”

  “That will not be a concern.” Gil-Salla replied. “It has always been that a Stone Voice can not travel too far from the Earth Stone. If she rises above five furlongs, her connection with the Stone begins to ebb. Stone warriors, however, are not bound by the same impediments. So long as the Stone Voice remains connected to the Earth Stone, your stones will continue to channel.”

  “Okay, get tickets for Keotak-se, you, Marla, Donny and me,” said Todd.

  “How ‘bout us?” asked Nita.

  “No,” Todd shook his head. “You and Devon stay here.”

  Nita opened her mouth to argue, but Devon caught her eye and cut her off.

  Jeff looked at Keotak-se’s leather tunic and leggings. “I don’t supposed you have anything in your closet from the current century.” He didn’t wait for a reply. “Didn’t think so. We’ll stop at the Big and Tall store in Grey Rock and get you something a little less conspicuous. We need to get something for Todd too. You’ll stand out like a sore thumb dressed in handmade rags like that.”

  Jeff’s words rankled Todd but they didn’t have the time to argue. Seeing the sunbeam cast through the hall’s chimney hole, Todd guessed the time to be early afternoon.

  “We’ve got about three hours to get to Grey Rock.” Todd took a deep breath. “Let’s gets moving.”

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  The Color of Fear

  The sound of nothing. That was the first thing that Lilibit became aware of. The complete absence of anything making any sound at all. Never in her memory could she recall the world being so silent. It wasn’t just quiet; it was noiseless. Not even the air moved. Since there was no other sound, she actually heard her own eyelids as they slowly opened.

  Pink. Everything was pink. She was lying on a bed covered with a pink comforter; a jumble of pink pillows that looked like they’d been carefully placed to look like scattered cushions. Pink drapes hung from a point above the bed and surrounded it, creating a canopy that blocked out the rest of the room. She sat up and rubbed the grogginess out of her eyes before pulling back the drapes.

  More pink. The wallpaper was dark pink roses over pale pink texture. The carpet was the color of cherries and even the ceiling was painted a light mauve. Hundreds of dolls, which sat on dozens of shelves, were all dressed in pink. And a five story dollhouse, so tall she would need to stand on a chair to reach the top floor, stood against the far wall.

  Lilibit used to like the color pink, but now, not so much.

  It took her a moment to recall what had happened, and then she leaped from the bed and ran to the only door. The painful memory of the plane trip was vague and confused. She didn’t know where she was or what time it was, but she knew she’d have to hurry if she was to get back to Kiva before they noticed that she was missing. She turned the door handle.

  Locked. She tried it again, rattling it and then twisting it with all her weight. Finally she kicked the door. She hurt her toe.

  She ran to the windows, pulling back the shades. It was a regular working window, but behind the glass was a huge illuminated photograph of a mountain landscape. It looked real, but when she opened the window and touched the picture, she could feel the cold hard concrete behind it.

  A soft click sounded like a gunshot in the quiet room. She whipped around to face the door.

  The Duke stood in the doorway, smiling. “I’m so glad you’re awake,” he purred. “Are you feeling better?”

  “I need to leave.” Lilibit kept her back pressed against the windowsill. “I need to get back to Kiva.”

  The Duke didn’t seem to hear what she said at all. “You had us so worried. You fainted and when I couldn’t rouse you, I brought you back here so that you could recover.”

  “I’m fine.” Lilibit fought back the panic that rose in her throat. “I feel fine now. I need to go home.”

  “But Lilibit, my darling,” the Duke looked sincerely concerned. “I don’t think you understand. You are home. This is your new home. You’re going to be staying here with us.”

  “No!” Lilibit stamped her foot. “I need to go back to Kiva! You can’t keep me here!”

  “Now don’t be like that. We’re going to get along so well together. Just you wait and see. You’ll have all the toys you could ever want. All you have to do is couple of little chores now and then. Easy little things, and then the rest of the day will be yours to do whatever you want.”

  “No. I won’t do it.” Lilibit thought she sounded like some stupid spoiled brat, but she couldn’t help it. It was just the way it was coming out. “You can’t make me.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that.” The Duke looked disappointed but did not take one more step into the room. Instead, he stood by the door and sighed. “I was hoping you’d be more cooperative.”

  “Oh, she will cooperate,” spoke a smooth dark voice from the far side of the room. “I will guarantee it.”

  Lilibit spun to find another figure standing in the room. He must have been in the room the entire time, since Lilibit had been facing the only door. The room was brightly lit, but somehow the man managed to step out from a shadow. He was tall and dressed all in black. His head was shiny and bald. His eyes were black too, flat and deathly empty. Lilibit’s legs trembled like water beneath her. She recognized those eyes.

  The demon Syxx. She knew his name now. Though her memories from before arriving at Dalton Point were few and jumbled, she remembered this man from when he’d stolen her, years ago, and had turned her over to a research institute to be tortured. And she recognized the eyes as the same as the terrifying monster that nearly killed her on the cliffs of the Sienna Sentries. Her body froze in shock as Syxx stepped towards her.

  “Now, Lilibit,” Syxx’s eyes bound her as tightly as iron shackles. “I’m sure you’ll reconsider. So long as you behave like a good girl and do exactly as your told, there’s no need for anyone to get hurt.”

  Lilibit silently screamed at her body to run, but it wouldn’t respond. Syxx’s hand reached out to stroke her cheek. Where his hand touched, a biting chill sucked warmth and life from her skin. Her back arched as the pain stabbed through her jaw and spiked into her brain. She opened her mouth to scream, but nothing came out.

  From her pocket, Ewa-Kwan flared. A wave of heat, almost burning her hip, shot upward to block Syxx’s icy spear. The cold retreated a heartbeat before Syxx pulled back his hand. The demon’s smile flickered.

  “Oh yes.” Syxx wiped his hand against his leg as if to rub away the touch of Lilibit’s skin. “I think you will do everything that you are asked to. And do you know why? Because you do not want to find out what would happen if you disobey.”

  Lilibit’s knees buckled beneath her as she sunk to the floor. Unable to look away from the dark dead eyes, she nodded.

  Chapter Forty

  Covert Operations

  Jeff seemed oddly at home sitting in the first class cabin of an airplane. For the rest of them, Keotak-se included, it was their first time even in an airport, never mind getting on a plane, but Jeff led them throug
h ticketing, security and boarding with a confidence that obviously came from experience. Once again, Todd found himself wondering about Jeff’s past and what kind of life he’d had before being dumped into that foster home at Dalton Point.

  They’d had to check Todd’s knife and Keotak-se’s staff; they had no luggage so Jeff bought a ski bag at the airport. It was strange to check such a big bag with only those two items in it, but for Todd, it was even stranger being separated from his father’s knife, even for the hour or so they were in the air.

  There had been a little snag at the car rental desk when “Mr. O’Taksay” couldn’t produce a credit card, but the attendant had let Jeff put it on his card since “their teacher” had evidently lost his card with his luggage.

  They now stood in front of a huge S.U.V.

  Jeff looked disgusted. “I wanted to get a hummer,” he muttered, “but they’re hard to get on short notice.”

  Everyone ignored him as they piled into car.

  It was well after dusk by the time they were on the road, Keotak-se behind the wheel, driving slow enough to make Todd bite back his impatience; Lilibit was being held somewhere nearby, probably terrified, possibly in danger. Todd’s scalp buzzed with alarm. He rubbed his head.

  Commerce City was a bleak grey city full of tall ugly buildings and bright flashing lights. They pulled off of an access ramp and onto the highway.

  Jeff hooked up his computer to the S.U.V.’s TV screens. A satellite picture of the area flashed on each of the screens on the seatbacks in front of each of them.

  “The Endrune Corporate Campus is ten miles north of the city.” A section of the map brightened as Jeff pointed it out. “It’s over two hundred acres and it has sixty-two buildings, none of which we care about right now.” The map rotated, zoomed out and another area lit up. “About thirty miles northeast of the city, Endrune owns another parcel, much larger, about eight square miles. It’s a dried up oil farm; they stripped the land decades ago: oil, minerals, trees, even the topsoil. It’s about as dead as a piece of the earth can be. But in the past two months, they built this new complex. Very hush-hush. Very high security. I’ve checked out the plans. It’s six stories high. The first floor has a couple of offices and support areas, storage and an industrial kitchen. The top floor is sectioned off into very secure living spaces, almost like prison cells. The middle four floors are for ‘Research and Development’ but they look empty. No basement, not even an elevator pit. They spent extra money to mount all the elevator equipment on the roof. There’s nothing in any of their systems saying what the complex is for, but about four hours ago, Security logged in two vehicles entering the compound: C.E.O. Duke Dauntry along with eight other people. I’m figuring that Lilibit is one of the others.”