The Stone Key

by Isobelle Carmody

  SHE SHOOK HER head, looking at me in a way that silenced me.

  “No. You are a change-bringer. Whatever choices you make lead to change for the rest of us. But it is not something you chose.” Then she said, “When you leave this place, we shall not meet again.”

  I stared at her, my skin rising to gooseflesh. Because I could see from the vacant look in her eyes that she had sunk into a futuretelling trance. I did not want to ask, but I had to know. “What do you mean?” I whispered.

  “Before the next Wintertime ends, you will bid farewell to all that you love and you will journey far over land and sea to face the beast.”

  “All that I love?” I echoed.

  “All,” Dell said, serene and implacable.

  CONTENTS

  TITLE PAGE

  DEDICATION

  CHARACTER LIST

  MAP

  PART I STONEHILL

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  PART II SANCTUARY

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  CHAPTER 12

  CHAPTER 13

  CHAPTER 14

  CHAPTER 15

  PART III THE HEARTLANDS

  CHAPTER 16

  CHAPTER 17

  CHAPTER 18

  CHAPTER 19

  CHAPTER 20

  EPILOGUE

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  ALSO BY ISOBELLE CARMODY

  PREVIEW OF ALYZON WHITESTARR

  EXCERPT FROM THE STONE KEY

  COPYRIGHT

  for Mallory,

  who found me on a table

  and read me on a plane,

  and for Daywatcher Whitney

  and Moonwatcher Nick,

  who were my guides on this

  unexpected and unexpectedly

  enchanting quest

  CHARACTER LIST

  Angina: Empath guilden and enhancer; twin brother of Miky

  Ariel (aka H’rayka, the Destroyer): sadistic enemy of Obernewtyn; distorted Talent; allied with the Herder Faction and Salamander

  Atthis (aka old One): Agyllian or Guanette bird; blind futureteller

  Avra: leader of the Beastguild; mountain mare; bondmate to Gahltha

  Blyss: Empath guilder

  Bram: Sadorian tribal leader

  Bruna: Sadorian; daughter of Jakoby

  Brydda Llewellyn (aka the Black Dog): rebel leader

  Calcasuus: horse; companion of Jakoby

  Cassy Duprey: Beforetimer, later known as Kasanda

  Ceirwan: Farseeker guilden

  Daffyd: former Druid armsman; farseeker; brother to Jow; beloved of Gilaine; unguilded ally of Obernewtyn

  Dameon: blind Empath guildmaster

  Dardelan: rebel leader of Sutrium

  Darius: Twentyfamilies gypsy; beasthealer

  Dell: Futuretell guilden

  Domick: AWOL Coercer ward; former bondmate of Kella

  Dragon: powerful Empath guilder with coercive Talent; projects illusions

  Druid (Henry Druid): renegade Herder Faction priest and enemy of the Council; charismatic leader of a secret community that was destroyed in a firestorm; father of Gilaine; presumed dead

  Elspeth Gordie (aka Innle, the Seeker): Farseeker guildmistress; powerful farseeker, beastspeaker, and coercer, with limited futuretelling and psychokinetic Talent

  Fian: Teknoguild ward

  Gahltha (aka Daywatcher): Beast guilden; bondmate to Avra; a formidable black horse sworn to protect Elspeth

  Garth: Teknoguildmaster

  Gavyn: Beast empath; beasts call him adantar

  Gevan: Coercer guildmaster

  Gilaine: mute daughter of the Druid; farseeker bound to Lidgebaby; beloved of Daffyd; slave in the Red Queen’s land

  Gilbert: former armsman of Henry Druid

  Grufyyd: bondmate to Katlyn, father of Brydda

  Gwynedd: Norselander; rebel leader of Murmroth

  Hannah Seraphim: director of the Beforetime Reichler Clinic

  Harwood: powerful coercer

  Helvar: Norselander and shipmaster of the Stormdancer

  Iriny: halfbreed gypsy; half sister to Swallow

  Jacob Obernewtyn: Beforetimer; wealthy patron of Hannah Seraphim

  Jak: teknoguilden; bondmate to Seely

  Jakoby: Sadorian tribal leader; mother of Bruna

  Javo: Obernewtyn’s head cook

  Jik: former Herder novice; Empath guilder with farseeking Talent; died in a firestorm

  Jow: former follower of the Druid; brother to Daffyd; beastspeaker

  Kader: Healer with empathy and farseeking Talent

  Kasanda: mystical leader of the Sadorians; left signs for the Seeker to help in her quest

  Katlyn: herb lorist living at Obernewtyn; bondmate to Grufyyd, mother of Brydda

  Kella: Healer guilden with slight empath Talent; former bondmate of Domick

  Lark: Norselander from Herder Isle; son of shipmaster Helvar

  Lidgebaby: powerful coercer-empath; an infant bound to the Druid’s Misfit followers at birth

  Lina: young, troublemaking beastspeaker

  Linnet: coercer-knight

  Louis Larkin: unTalented highlander; inhabitant of Obernewtyn; honorary Beastspeaking guilder

  Malik: traitor to the rebellion, allied with Herders

  Maruman (aka Moonwatcher, Yelloweyes): one-eyed cat prone to fits of futuretelling; Elspeth’s oldest friend

  Maryon: Futuretell guildmistress

  Matthew: Farseeker ward with deep probe abilities; slave in the Red Queen’s land

  Merret: powerful coercer with beastspeaking Talent

  Miky: Empath guilden; twin sister of Angina; gifted musician

  Miryum: AWOL leader of coercer-knights

  Pavo: Teknoguild ward; died of the rotting sickness

  Powyrs: rebel sea captain

  Rasial: white dog with powerful coercive abilities; second to Avra in Obernewtyn Beastguild

  Reuvan: rebel seaman from Aborium; Brydda’s right-hand man

  Roland: Healer guildmaster

  Rushton: Master of Obernewtyn; latent Talent

  Salamander: secretive, ruthless leader of the slave trade

  Sallah: rebel mare; companion to Brydda

  Seely: unTalented caretaker of Gavyn; stranded on west coast

  Straaka: Miryum’s Sadorian suitor, killed in the rebellion

  Swallow: Twentyfamilies D’rekta, or leader

  Zarak: Farseeker ward with beastspeaking Talent

  PART I

  STONEHILL

  1

  I OPENED MY eyes to find a young gull perched on my chest, peering at me with a speculative black eye. When I moved, it gave a startled squawk and flapped away. It stopped atop a rock and watched me.

  “Give up, for I am too big for you to swallow, little brother,” I croaked, and struggled to sit up. The night’s storm might have been a dream, for there was not a cloud in the dazzling blue sky that arched overhead. The sun was hot enough to have dried the exposed part of my hair and clothes. I had drunk as much of the brief flurry of rain as I could, but I was thirsty.

  Indeed I had woken thirsty for the last few days, and it was doubtless thirst that had woken me.

  Or maybe the gull had pricked me with its claws. I looked around and found it was still watching me like a small baleful sentinel. But then my gaze went past it, for beyond it in the distance, only half visible through a dense golden haze of sunlit sea spray lay the city that had occupied most of my thoughts since I had awakened the first time on the sand. While I had rested in or
der to give my body time to heal, I had come to feel certain that the city was Morganna, but it was impossible to be sure at this distance. I could see that it was walled, but I could not tell if it was a complete wall or merely overlapping sections of wall.

  I had asked the ship fish Ari-noor to bring me to Murmroth, at the other end of the west coast from Morganna, but the currents and shoals in the strait were such that any ship wanting to travel to Murmroth had to begin its journey on the coast just past the mouth of the Suggredoon, so it could very well be that I had lost hold of the ship fish not far from Morganna.

  The thought of ships had preoccupied my mind the last few days: somewhere on the sea sailed the Black Ship with its deadly cargo of plague that the Herder leader intended to unleash upon the west coast. I had come to the west coast with the sole desire of finding the plague carrier before his sickness became contagious, but I had no idea where he would be left ashore. In a city, certainly, and in my estimation a large city, but which one I had been unable to discover.

  With luck, it would be Morganna, but it might as easily be Aborium or even Murmroth. For this reason, my plan had been to call at every city and ask if the Black Ship had recently put in anchor there. But I had not reckoned on losing contact with the ship fish that had borne me across the treacherous strait or on smashing my head on a rock in a shoal and nearly drowning. Indeed it was only the aid of the mystic Agyllian birds, who had come to me on the dreamtrails, that had enabled me to reach the west coast alive. The Elder of the Agyllians had warned me that I must rest so the curative capacity the birds had taught my body could heal me swiftly. And I had obeyed.

  Other than my apprehension about finding the plague carrier in time, it had been far from unpleasant to sit on the sloping white sand and gaze out to sea. Spending such long periods of time in the water with the two ship fish and hearing the wavesong, or feeling it, for it seemed as much to be felt as to be heard, had given me a deeper appreciation of it. The wavesong had flooded me with appreciation for those I loved, for those who had come to my aid.

  The thought of love brought to my mind an image of Rushton, but it was too painful to let my thoughts dwell on the Master of Obernewtyn, given our estrangement. I thought instead of my two protectors, Gahltha and Maruman. I missed them terribly, though I knew they were aware that I was safe because Atthis had sought assistance from their spirits in order to save me.

  I turned my head to look out to sea. Despite the day’s clarity, I could not see even a shadowy outline of Herder Isle. Two Islands, I reminded myself, for although the Herders had long ago destroyed the isthmus once connecting the two islands, the link had been renewed when the high wall surrounding the Faction Compound had fallen into the channel, creating a stone path from one to the other.

  The dangerous, terrifying period I had spent inside the Herder Compound, first at the mercy of the Herder priests and then through the fall of the Faction on Herder Isle, seemed as if it had happened ages ago, rather than only a few days earlier. There had been much still to be done to secure victory when I had left for the west coast. I wondered for the hundredth time what was happening there and whether the Norselanders, the shadows, and the renegade novices had managed at last to overcome the ruthless captain of the Hedra force and his remaining warriors. I wondered if the Stormdancer had been repaired yet. I had meant to travel across the strait in the ship, but it had been damaged when the Herders tried to invade the Land, and the shipmaster, Helgar, had told me it would take at least a sevenday to make the ship seaworthy. I had felt such despair hearing his words, knowing it would be too late then to cross the strait and find the plague carrier in time to stop him from infecting anyone.

  Only later that night had I thought of calling to the ship fish, Ari-noor, who had rescued me already. She had not come, but her pod-sister, Ari-roth, did.

  Against all odds, I had reached the west coast. I reckoned that since the Black Ship had to travel from Norseland, having first provisioned itself and made whatever repairs it needed after its last trip, before weaving through various shoals and currents to reach the west coast, the Black Ship was only just now likely to be setting its plague carrier ashore. And it would take some days for the plague to become effective. So I had a few days in which to act.

  The thought that the ship might even now be anchoring on the west coast made me uneasy. I was glad that I had left instructions for the Stormdancer to travel straight to Sutrium so the rebels could be alerted as to what had happened on Herder Isle and to warn them that no one must cross the Suggredoon, in case I failed.

  I had ensured that the plague would be contained if I failed. But it sickened me to think of how many would die on the west coast.

  “All,” had said the One, the supreme leader of the Herder Faction. “All will die.”

  The memory of these words was enough to thwart my attempt to relax. I sat up and massaged the stiffness from my muscles while looking out over the shimmering waves. I thought of the true dream I had experienced when I had almost died, of Cassy Duprey and Hannah Seraphim’s first meeting.

  It had been fascinating to see Rushton’s Beforetime ancestor Hannah Seraphim, for my Beforetime visions of the past had always centered on Cassy Duprey, a Beforetime sculptress whose father had been director of the Govamen program working on the computermachines that had caused the Great White holocaust that had destroyed their age. I had known that Cassy and Hannah Seraphim had met, but I had not previously seen them together.

  I pictured Hannah’s pleasant face with its striking brown eyes and expressive smile and felt suddenly that Jacob Obernewtyn had loved her, and this was at least partly why he built Obernewtyn and funded her research into the Beforetime Misfits’ Talents, called paranormal abilities by the Beforetimers. I had hoped to dream of Hannah again as I lay hour after hour, drowsing rather than waking or sleeping, but past dreams were not something I could control.

  I had mulled over the dream endlessly, though.

  The meeting between Hannah and Cassy had obviously taken place before the young woman had invaded her mother’s mind to prove that she possessed paranormal abilities. The vision held no trace of the grief I had witnessed in Cassy, and I guessed from this that Cassy’s Tiban lover had not yet died when she had met Hannah.

  The gull’s caw startled me from my reverie, and I looked up to see it flap into the air, just escaping the sharp claws of the plains cat that had been stalking it. I sent a greeting to the cat, and she came gliding over.

  “Red meat would strengthen ElspethInnle,” said the tiny black cat with its enormous tufted ears and wild eyes. “Better than ubu.” She dropped next to me several of the prickly cactus fruits that she and her mate had been bringing me since I first beastspoke them for help. She sat down to clean herself.

  “My thanks, Mitya,” I told her, feeling my heart seize with longing for Maruman, who had cleaned his ears in exactly the same fastidious way.

  The plains cat ceased her ablutions to watch me as I rose carefully to my feet, her nose twitching daintily. I walked back and forth, testing my strength. For two days I had been practicing standing and walking, but this was the first time since I had awakened on the beach that I felt neither pain nor dizziness, and the double vision I had suffered since waking had finally abated. My heart quickened at the realization that I was finally well enough to begin my quest. Despite my fears about the plague, I thought eagerly of reaching the city that had been so tantalizingly out of reach, because it meant food and water. My stomach rumbled loudly.

  “ElspethInnle should eat some bloody meat,” said Mitya again.

  I said nothing, for I had already made vain attempts to explain to the single-minded little plains cat that I did not eat the flesh of anything that lived, for I could live well enough on fruits and vegetables and grains. She and her mate had not believed me, and they had brought me several tiny dead furry plains mice. I had finally convinced them to eat their kill. They had departed with it and returned an hour later with some of th
e prickly ubu. The cactus fruits had ensured my survival, but they had little taste and scant nourishment; even as I ate those Mitya had brought with her, I thought longingly of a hot bowl of vegetable stew with fresh baked bread and a bowl of rich honeyed milk. It made me salivate like a starved dog.

  “I will go to the city now,” I beastspoke the plains cat when I had finished my brief meal.

  “Many are funaga-li that dwell there,” said Mitya disdainfully.

  “Nevertheless, I must go there to find my friend,” I told her. “Where is Guldi? I wanted to thank both of you for helping me.”

  “Guldi prepares a den, for soon I will have kits,” Mitya sent. She gave me a look of glimmering pride, and I told her they were certain to be as beautiful and clever as their parents.

  “Of course,” she said complacently.

  I cast one last glance around me, needlessly, for I carried nothing at all with me; then I bid the little cat farewell again.

  I set off toward the city, glad that I was able to walk along the sand, for I was barefoot, having left my shoes from Cinda on the shore at Hevon Bay on Herder Isle. It angered me that I had not had sense enough to tie them to my waist before I entered the water. Aside from needing them to walk, there was a real danger that, barefoot and utterly bedraggled as I was, I would be judged a beggar and refused entry to the city. Of course, I could coerce my way out of any trouble, but given that I was still weak from my ordeal, it would be better to do nothing that would require exertion beyond walking. Certainly not before I managed to find some food.

  It would be best to slip into the city along the shoreline, thereby avoiding the guarded entrances, but it would depend upon where the tide was when I arrived.

  Driftwood lay scattered along the beach, and I began to gather it, reasoning that if I had to go through a gate, I could claim to be bringing wood into the city to sell. Once inside the walls, I would simply leave the wood somewhere and coerce shoes and some respectable clothes from a storekeeper. I needed to smarten my appearance if I did not want anyone to question my possession of a horse when I tried to leave. I would have to steal the horse, of course.

  But first I would find food and water, and then I would go to the waterfront and find out whether the Black Ship had anchored there recently.