Stones: Theory (Stones #4) (17 page)

“The hardest part is just finding them. After that, it’s just a matter of thinking about it. Watch this. Try to feel it. I’ll go slow.”

Matt focuses on the tightly bound filaments of light, going into them even closer so that each line is like a ribbon in front of his eyes. He picks one out and stares at it until his mind comprehends it, like a math problem that suddenly becomes clear. Then he wills the line to move.

And it does.

“OK, now your turn,” Matt says. “See if you can move the line.”

“On your Stone?”

“That’s right. Give it a try.”

Yarah’s voice trembles. “But you’ll have to let me take over your mind. I’ll be in complete control, and you won’t be able to do anything. It might hurt you.”

“Maybe. Let’s find out.” Matt clears his mind. “I wouldn’t let anyone else do this. I trust you.”

“OK,” Yarah says. “Let me know if I should stop.”

Matt opens his mind to her and waits.

Seconds later, an uneven organic sphere drops down from the darkness above him. A low pink glow burns within. As Matt watches with a wary eye, it moves closer. A seam opens up in its side. Without warning, it lunges at Matt. The seam turns into a gaping hole. Matt flinches, but holds still as the hole engulfs his head and body, swallowing him whole. The shining Stone vanishes, and his world is plunged into darkness.

The blackness presses upon him as if it were exactly molded to the outline of his body. Open space melts away. He tries to push against it or move, but his muscles refuse to respond. It is complete sensory deprivation. He is blind, paralyzed and deaf.

In the claustrophobic space, he opens his mouth to scream. But there’s no space to scream into. All sense of time falls away, leaving utter helplessness in its wake.

Matt can’t take it anymore.

Yarah, stop
, he thinks.

The darkness lifts, like a glove pulled off a hand. Matt sees the Stone again, its light shining in the darkness.

“Did it!” The excited voice of Yarah rings inside Matt’s head like a massive bell in a small room. “I moved threads of light on the Stone. Thousands of them. Bent them around into funny shapes. It’s easy.” Yarah giggles and then stops. “I felt so powerful, like I could do anything. Did I hurt you?”

The shock of his descent into darkness lingers in Matt’s memory. “Doing fine. Now I know what it’s like to be completely assimilated.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’ll tell you later,” Matt says. “For now, I want you to try it on your own Stone. Can you stay connected to me while you try it so I can help you?”

“I think so.” Yarah takes a deep breath. “I’m pulling out, but I’ll leave the door open.”

Matt has the distinct sensation of sitting in an empty room as a shadow slips by. The only light he can see is the shape of his own Stone.

“Here goes.” Yarah’s eyelids drop down. “I see my Stone. Like yours.”

Matt hears her faint voice like someone speaking through the wall in another room.

“Go in close so you can see its surface.” He senses her movement. “Think about the strands of light until you see them coming off your Stone.”

“I don’t see them.”

“Be patient. Don’t try too hard. It takes time.”

Sensing her frustration, Matt tries to soothe her. “Breathe slowly. Look along the edges. Relax. It will come.”

“What will it look like?”

“Delicate lines popping up from the surface, like a spider’s web.”

“I’m staring at it, but I can’t . . .”

After more than a minute, Matt senses a shift in Yarah’s emotions. “Do you see it now?”

“So beautiful.” Yarah says. “Like angel hairs.”

“That’s right.” Matt stares down at the filaments of light around his own Stone. “Now listen carefully. You have complete control over the angel hairs. They will move wherever you want them to. Think about them waving back and forth, like long grass in the wind.”

“It’s working,” Yarah says. “I can move them.”

“OK. Good.” Matt speaks slowly and carefully. “When the lines of light are pointing away from the Stone, other Stone Holders can see it. They know where you are.”

“Like Ryzaard?”

“Exactly. He has a way to detect those hairs of light if they’re poking out. So what do you think we should do?” Matt is hoping Yarah will discover the answer on her own.

“Wrap them around and around, so they don’t point out. Make it tight, like a shell, around the Stone.”

“You’ve got it,” Matt says. “Now try it. If you concentrate on it, the strands of light stay where you put them. Then you won’t need to use the cloaking box.”

He can sense her already following his directions, working the light.

“It’s hard,” she says.

“Keep practicing. Let me know when you have it.” Matt opens his eyes and turns around to look at Jessica sleeping on the bed.

But she’s gone.

“B
ack so soon?” Jhata still stands at the balcony railing, looking out on the ocean below. “You’ve only been gone for ten minutes.”

Ryzaard walks out of the interior of the cathedral-like building into the open. “I brought you a gift, something that might interest you.”

“Another implant prototype?”

Ryzaard shakes his head. “Different altogether. Come take a look.”

Following him off the balcony, Jhata walks back into the interior of the cathedral.

Ryzaard stares down at Jessica, lying on the floor, encased in an oblong field of light. “He’s a very careless young man. Seems to have lost her again.”

Jessica’s eyes flick open. As she tries to sit up, her skin brushes against the light. She grimaces with pain and pulls back.

“Best to lie still.” Ryzaard kneels down beside Jessica. “That energy field has a particular affinity for your central nervous system. Do that a few more times, and I’m afraid you’ll find that it will get fried.”

Jhata stands alongside Ryzaard and looks down. “I’m impressed. How were you able to score this?”

“The boy is careless. When I popped in on him, all his attention was focused elsewhere. He didn’t even notice that she was gone.” Ryzaard takes a step back and motions down with his hand. “I’ll leave her in your capable hands. I’m sure you can make good use of her.”

“Indeed,” Jhata says. “But let’s not spoil her like this.” She opens her palm to Jessica. The envelope of light vanishes.

Jessica stands, visibly confused. Her eyes dart from Ryzaard to Jhata and sweep the inside of the cathedral, past the jade pillars and immense stained-glass windows, coming to stop on the wooden door at the far end. Still open.

“Go ahead,” Jhata says. “Run, if you’d like. There’s nowhere to hide. This is my world. I can find you whenever I want.”

Without a word, Jessica backs up a few paces, and then turns and runs for the door.

Ryzaard raises his hand, and a thin bolt of blue light jumps out of his palm, racing toward Jessica’s back. Jhata shakes her head, and the bolt dissipates into sparks and fizzle before making contact.

“She’s not going anywhere.” Jhata turns back in the opposite direction. “Follow me. We need to talk.” Her lithe figure moves back out onto the balcony toward the railing, looking down at the ocean below.

Following Jessica with his eyes until she disappears through the wooden doors, Ryzaard walks behind the kimono-clad Jhata out the other door.

“I’ve thought about your implant proposal.” Jhata’s fingers go down onto the railing. “I find it interesting.”

“Then you will accept?”

“Leave me the
Lethonen
implant. I’ll take a careful look at it and see what I can do. I assume you’re looking for something that can be controlled by your Stones?”

Ryzaard nods and walks to Jhata’s side. “Correct. I
will
want to access it through my Stones.” He drops the clear ball with the three green jewel pieces onto the table. “I’ll also need it to interface with our Mesh network on Earth.” He holds out a cylindrical jax inlaid with glass and steel. “This is the typical device we use for that purpose. A careful examination of it should give you everything you need.”

She picks it up, bringing it close to her eyes. “Primitive, to say the least.”

“I’ll come back in a few days to see how you are progressing.” Ryzaard turns away from the railing.

“I have no need for a babysitter or a boss. I’ll contact you if and when I’m ready.”

“I’m in a bit of a hurry for the implant.” Ryzaard turns his back to her and begins to walk to the cathedral opening. “Timing is important.”

Anger rises in Jhata’s eyes. She does nothing to tamp it down. Instead, she allows her hand to reach for a Stone. It takes less than a second for her to slip inside Ryzaard’s mind.

She stands in the center of an open plain divided into a precise grid system of interlocking squares. Ryzaard’s mind is well organized, a model of efficiency. No wasted space, no structures in his memory resulting from pure art or pleasure. The architecture of his mind has one purpose. Getting work done. All of it is neat, clean, quick.

His only downfall, if it can be called that, is his one-minded determination. He wants the implants, and he’s pushing her to provide them on his timeframe.

Jhata can’t recall the last time someone tried to give her an order. Since the finding of her first Stone, all who did found their lifespan tragically cut short. She isn’t going to kill Ryzaard, but she wants the assurance that she
can
when the time is right.

Whether Ryzaard knows it or not, that time will surely come. He’s a fool to trust her.

At the time she rebuilt his body, she installed a
kill switch
. She searches for it now. Seeing it one more time will be a comfort as she moves ahead with the plan to take him as a very temporary partner.

It doesn’t take long to find it.

On the far edge of the plain, a mountain range of memory bursts out of the orderly landscape. Flying low over the ground, she ascends the steep slope to the summit. There, at the highest point, is a crimson
torii
gate rising against the sky.

All Jhata has to do is pass through it. That simple movement is enough to trigger the kill switch, causing Ryzaard’s life to instantly end.

She stands a few feet from the base of the torii gate and gazes up at the two cross beams. It’s ironic. Having scanned his mind, she knows of his plans to blanket his home planet with the Shinto gates. He might be surprised to find that one had been erected inside the structure of his own mind. All she, or anyone, has to do is take one step through it, and Ryzaard will drop dead.

The idea intrigues her.

But not today.

Quickly ascending to the surface, her eyelids lift. During the entire time she spent in his mind, Ryzaard has walked two steps closer to the door.

“What about the girl?” Ryzaard pauses. “Shall I take her back?”

The sound of his voice grates on her nerves, but Jhata manages a smile. “You made a present of her to me, and I intend to keep her. She may prove useful when it comes time to deal with the boy.” Her eyes flash back in the direction of the cathedral. “I’ll keep an eye on her. Let her run. She can’t get off this world alone. I can find her whenever I want.”

“Please let me know if you need—”

“I have need of nothing more from you. For your own good, I suggest you leave now. I’ve had enough of you for one day.”

Ryzaard nods and vanishes.

M
att stares at the empty spot on the bed where Jessica rested only moments ago.

Not again.

With the Stone in his hand and his heart beating wildly, he opens his mind and concentrates on feeling any residual currents of movement in the room.

It must have been Ryzaard. It feels like Ryzaard.

As he kneels at the bedside with his eyes closed, a small disturbance washes over him, like ripples in the darkness from a passing boat in the ocean. In desperation, he reaches out to hold it in his mind, to analyze the direction and pull.

For an instant, he has it, but the signal is too faint.

It slips through his fingers and fades until nothing is left but a vivid sense of his own emptiness.

He had been careful to never leave Jessica, to stay as close as he could. She had been kidnapped while only a few inches away. Why had he not sensed the danger?