The Lodestone Trilogy (Limited Edition) (The Lodestone Series) (109 page)

<><><><><>

Chapter 2

A full day’s sailing due north across the Aronak Sea; the coastline falling away and disappearing to the east; the Great Barrier of Storms, a brooding grey line on the western horizon. Then northeast into the vastness of the Erigone Sea. Annata’s Reach was a mote—an insect with wooden body and one canvas wing, lost on the surface of an immense pond.

For Shann, the accident that had prematurely ended her last voyage and almost cost her her life had done nothing to diminish her love for life at sea. She stood on the ship’s prow, the avionic looming on the forecastle behind her, and leaned over the forward rail, watching their little ship cut effortlessly through the water, pushing aside a bow wave that spread out behind them on both sides like an arrow. A gentle breeze caressed her olive cheeks and ran its fingers through her dark, cropped hair. On land there were towns and great cities, filled with thousands upon thousands of people, half of them wanting what the other half had. Here in the midst of the ocean, life was simple, pared down, reduced to its bare essentials. Ten Kelanni. One Chandara. Two cabins and seventy feet of deck. Soon it felt as if all her troubles had melted away.

Alondo spent most of the first day lying deathly pale in his bunk. Now he was up and about and keeping food down. The seasickness that he suffered on the journey from Sakara did not seem to be affecting him as badly on this trip. Maybe the moon-faced musician was getting his sea legs at last?

The same could hardly be said of the four drach. Kelanni of this world had never developed seagoing vessels—they regarded the ocean as far too perilous and unpredictable for travel. Hence, this was a new and highly unpleasant experience for all of them. Perpetually nervous and edgy, they glanced continually at the ocean as if it were an enemy surrounding them and spoke to each other in whispers. Rael, the gangly boy mathematician, was pleasant enough but appeared more distant since undergoing trial. He seemed to find excuses not to talk with her much of the time, being seemingly preoccupied with the avionic. Shann told herself that it was just her imagination, but she couldn’t quite shake the nagging feeling that something wasn’t quite right.

Lyall, too, was distant. Patris’s conversation was limited to ship’s business, and Boxx, the shelled Chandara, was permanently resting.

In a strange turnaround of events, the only one who seemed willing and able to talk with her freely on their first day at sea was Keris.

Shann still felt awkward talking with the former Keltar, but it was not resentment over what had happened to her parents that was the problem. She no longer held Keris responsible for all of the evils committed during her time in service to the Prophet. What she felt now was closer to... guilt. During her trial at Drani-Kathaar, she had stood over the younger Keris with her diamond-bladed staff at the girl’s throat, ready to take her life. As she listened now to Keris the grown woman, she could not seem to get that image out of her head.

“I was brought up on a small holding on the Dagmar Manse—the eldest of five.”

The news that Keris was part of a family—and a large one at that—was a shock to Shann, although she was not sure why. “You have brothers and sisters?”

“Three brothers. One sister. More now, for all I know.”

“You don’t know?”

Flowing dark tresses framed Keris’s drawn expression. She gave a weak smile. “I haven’t seen them since my parents sold me into service.”

Shann’s sense of shock had grown as she tried to digest the implications. She lay in her bunk that night wondering what kind of parents could do such a thing. At least Shann had vague memories of parents who loved her. In a sense, Keris was more of a victim than she was.

By dawn, her reflective mood had returned like a tenebrous cloud that promised early rain. She stared down at the seawater flowing past their tiny vessel. The trials at the Dais had touched each of them deeply, shifting the relationships between them. There was still no telling where that process would end.

“Did you drop something overboard?”

Shann spun around. Alondo stood there, bright red hat perched on his head and a twinkle in his eye. Her heart gladdened at the sight. Of all her friendships, his had been the most constant. She was grateful for that at least. She smiled at him. “No—just sea-watching... you’re looking a lot better.”

“Well, don’t let this handsome, cheery face fool you. My stomach still heaves every time we encounter a heavy swell.”

Shann let her smile fade. She felt the need for a deeper kind of exchange. “Alondo, do you mind if I ask you something?”

“Certainly. What is it?”

“What did you see? During your trial at the Dais, I mean.”

The musician joined her, leaning on the forecastle’s forward crenellation and gazing out over the wide ocean. “I saw my past—a part of it, anyway. I was back in Lind. But there were people there who were not supposed to be there. Oliah, for one.” He turned to her and his face brightened. “You were there, though.”

“You appeared in my trial too. Although—it wasn’t really you.” She saw the bemused expression on his face. “It was Boxx’s way of communicating with me during the trial.”

“Boxx spoke to you during your trial?”

“Yes. It told me that my mind had created an image of someone that I trusted. Apparently, that was you.”

The twinkle in Alondo’s eye returned. “I feel honoured.”

Shann would normally have answered with a suitable riposte, but this was not the time for light banter. Now that she had begun, she felt the need to get her feelings out in the open; more than that, she needed to get to the bottom of something—something that had been bothering her from the moment she and Keris returned to the Dais after their encounter with the hu-man McCann at the Tower of Akalon. She gathered herself and pressed on. “You... that is to say, Boxx, told me what I could expect to happen and gave me the choice as to whether or not I wanted to continue.”

“I’m assuming you chose to face the trial.”

“Yes.”

“But... why would Boxx give you a choice like that?”

Shann put a hand on his arm, causing him to turn and see the intensity in her eyes. “Did you at any time wonder why it was that we were summoned in a particular order?”

“I... guess I figured that each scenario had been prepared specifically for each subject.”

Shann shook her head. “No, that’s not it. It was Boxx’s way of trying to save us unnecessary hurt.”

Alondo frowned. “How do you mean?”

“Boxx said that some were chosen to undergo trial later, because their inner pain was so much greater. It hoped that the four component carriers would be selected from the first four candidates, so that the others would not have to undergo trial; they would not have to face that part of themselves.”

“What was it that you had to face, Shann?”

This was the part she had been dreading, only because it meant reliving the experience all over again. She felt her insides knot.
I have to do this, so I can move on.

“I saw myself as a little child, witnessing my parents being taken away.”

A look of shared pain flashed over his face. “That’s awful.”

“There’s more. The person responsible was Keris—a younger version of her, at any rate.”

“Keris took your parents? Did you talk to her about it?”

Shann nodded. “She claims she doesn’t remember the event. Which is perfectly possible. It was a long time ago, after all. Besides, we can’t know if that’s really what happened. You said yourself that events during your trial were jumbled—people out of place and time. The same thing happened to me. I was running from the soldiers in Corte; then you appeared. But I hadn’t met you then.”

Alondo appeared deep in thought. “Integrity... That’s what Boxx said the tests were all about. Somehow, the Dais must have accessed our thoughts—our memories—and then constructed a test, designed to see what we would do under extreme pressure...”

“Alondo, I’m worried about Lyall.”

“Because he failed his trial? Maybe he was given the same choice you were and chose not to go through with it.”

Shann bit her lower lip. “Lyall knew that we needed one more component carrier or all would be lost. Do you really think he would have backed away?”

“No,” Alondo said. “No, I suppose not.”

“Has he spoken to you about what happened to him?”

“No, but then Patris refuses to talk about his experiences as well. I think everyone will eventually share what happened to them in their own way and in their own time... you included.”

Shann frowned. “I already told you what happened to me.”

“But you didn’t say why you failed in the first instance. Or what happened when you went into the dome with Boxx for the second time.”

Shann felt suddenly exposed, like a tiny ship in the midst of a vast ocean. She had convinced herself that she was being honest—talking things out. But she had actually been throwing up defences—barriers to avoid facing the truth. Alondo had seen right through them. She took a ragged breath. “I... fought the younger Keris. Almost killed her.”

“But you didn’t.”

“No.”

“What changed your mind?”

“At the Tower of Akalon, Keris risked everything to save me. When I asked her about it, she said that the risk of failure wasn’t worth my life. It was then that I knew... ”

“You knew what?” Alondo urged, gently.

“I knew that even if it was true—even if Keris was the one who took my parents away—that she is not the same person now as she was then.”

“You still feel guilty over what you tried to do, though.”

Shann swallowed, removing the last vestige of her protective barrier. “Yes.”

Alondo placed a protective arm about her narrow shoulders and stared out to sea once more. The wind freshened from the south, flicking spray from the wave crests and making their little vessel rise and fall in the crosscurrent. “There’s not much we can do about our feelings, Shann. They have a way of creeping up behind us and catching us unawares. It’s what we do about those feelings that determine what kind of a person we are. However you felt—whatever emotions were running through you at the time—in the end, you did the right thing. You should be proud of that.

“As for Lyall—well, he has a lot of things on his mind right now. One is holding together this fragile alliance of ours. I have no doubt that we can rely on Rael’s wholehearted support, but when it comes to Frang and the rest of his drach—their position is a little more ambiguous. Now we are beyond avionic range, Lyall believes they will keep in line, since they don’t have the necessary skills to pilot a ship. When we get to Helice it might be a different story. For now though, I think we can look forward to a relatively peaceful voyage... ” A loud
crash
behind them was followed by a sharp exchange of raised voices. “Of course, I could be mistaken.”

~

“What’s going on here?” Lyall demanded. Keris stood toe to toe with one of the drach, a small man with ferrety eyes and a pinched face. Each had a hand on the hilt of their weapon. Each seemed to be waiting for the other to blink. Behind them, the open door to the sterncastle creaked on its hinges as the deck rolled in the swell. “I asked you both; what’s going on?” he repeated.

Keris’s voice carried a hard edge. “This... person tried to pilfer our belongings.”

“That is a lie,” the drach countered.

Everyone on the tiny vessel was gathering—drawn to the site of the altercation. Patris, Rael, and Boxx appeared behind him. Shann and Alondo descended the ladder that led to the foredeck. Ahead of them, Frang and the other drach strode purposefully across the main deck. They looked as if they were spoiling for a fight.
This is going to get ugly very soon unless I do something.

“I saw you,” the tall woman insisted.

Lyall took a step forward, bright blue eyes flashing beneath a swirl of sandy hair. “What did you see exactly, Keris?”

“When I entered the sterncastle he was there on his own, bending over Shann’s pack.”

“Did you actually see him take anything?” Lyall probed.

Keris scowled.
“I know what this filthy gundir was doing.”

Frang arrived and muscled his way to the centre of the group. His voice was a bass growl. “What’s all this?”