The Lodestone Trilogy (Limited Edition) (The Lodestone Series) (126 page)

“Of course.” Shann tried to sound a great deal more confident than she actually felt. Could one flying cloak support two people? She had no idea. During the descent into the Pits of Kharthrun she had leaped across a gap while carrying Boxx. Of course, Rael weighed a great deal more than the Chandara. However, in this instance, all she really needed to do was to control their downward flight. That might prove difficult if the boy had a panic attack on the way down. She briefly considered knocking him out, but decided against it.

“W-what do you need me to do?” Rael stammered.

“Nothing. It’s absolutely essential that you don’t do anything.”

“I... I don’t know, Shann.”

Shann hardened her voice. “Look. Do you want to stay up here for the rest of your life?” The flicker that passed over the boy’s face suggested he was seriously considering it. On the walkway far beneath them, Keris’s hand gestures were growing increasingly impatient.

Shann made her decision. She took up a position behind Rael, opened both the bronze and the new lower lodestone layer of her cloak, clamped her arms around the boy’s waist, ignoring his half-strangled cry of alarm, and shoved him off the network of ceiling girders.

With the black cloak, extending lodestone and bronze together would create a downward thrust which would be tantamount to suicide from this height. However, Alondo’s addition of a lower lodestone layer to the red cloak afforded rather more options.

As they fell towards the globes, the refined lodestone accumulated within the hu-man devices should push increasingly against the new lower lodestone layer. At the same time, the lower lodestone layer should push against the bronze layer above it, and the bronze should pull the lodestone, further slowing their descent. Finally, Rael’s new electrostatic boost feature should increase the power of the lodestone in her cloak, adding to both effects.

It all sounded fine. Trouble was, it was all theory. As far as she was aware, the red flying cloak had never been tested in this configuration before. As they began to fall through the air together, it occurred to her that she had just gambled both of their lives on a theory.

She turned the boost control on full. A sudden pressure on her shoulder harness threatened to wrench her shoulders out of their sockets. However, the globes were no longer rushing up to meet them. She felt Rael slipping from her grasp and threw her other arm around the boy’s slim waist once more, clasping him tight. Their descent slowed, until they finally hung suspended together in mid-air directly above the three globes. She glanced down and saw Keris gazing up at them with an expression of utter disbelief.

The boy in her arms made a slight whimpering sound, pulling her back to reality. They were starting to drift.
How to get down from here?
Several options presented themselves. Extending the upper lodestone layer gradually would create a downward pressure to overcome the existing balance of forces, but she was reluctant to introduce another force into the mix. She could try withdrawing either the lower lodestone or bronze layers, but she was not completely sure what effect that would have.

In the end, she reached for the boost control and started to turn it down incrementally whilst leaning forward and angling towards Keris’s position. She drifted down and landed adroitly on the walkway in front of the tall woman, releasing Rael. The boy sagged visibly, so that she thought that his legs were going to give way, but he somehow remained upright, though his face was set and pale.

Keris stared at them both for a moment, then seemed to gather her wits. She looked around, checking that the coast was still clear, reached into her pouch, and extracted something—a lime-green band, set with rectangular patterns of silver and gold.

She wrapped it around her wrist and walked slowly towards the globes, past a sign inscribed with unknown red lettering. Shann watched as the air began to crackle around the woman’s outline before closing behind her. Keris turned and walked back, the invisible barrier fizzling around her once more, giving her an oddly divine appearance. Clearly the bracelet worked. Perhaps the hu-mans never expected them to get this close to their devices.

“All right,” Keris said. “Shann, you go first. Set your component on the nearest globe and get back here as soon as it’s done. The boy goes next. Then I will set mine.”

“And then we go and free the others,” Shann reminded her.

Keris gave a single nod, removed the bracelet, and handed it to Shann. As their fingers briefly touched, Shann peered into the other woman’s eyes, but her sharply defined features remained as inscrutable as ever. The moment passed, and Shann turned and headed for the barrier. Flashing lights buzzed around her like angry insects, but she felt nothing as she passed through.

Shann moved rapidly over the bare iron walkway to where the first of the great globes sat silently. She ran her fingers over its perfectly smooth surface, as if trying to convince herself that such pure evil could really exist. Then, without further hesitation, she pulled out the pure white disc—the instrument of its nullification. She placed it firmly against the outer casing. When she took her hand away, it stayed in place. There was a high-pitched buzzing—almost inaudible. Moments later, the disc began to shine with a roseate glow. Shann left the disc where it was and returned through the barrier.

She pulled off the bracelet and handed it to Rael, half expecting him to begin yelling at her after the heart-stopping descent she had inflicted on him, but instead he simply said, “What do I do?”

She smiled reassuringly. “It’s simple. Just place your component next to mine on the sphere and wait till it turns red.”

The boy donned the bracelet and strolled through the barrier, gazing in fascination at the sputtering display of sparks that briefly enveloped him before continuing on towards the globes. Shann kept her eye on him, like an anxious mother watching her infant trying to walk for the first time. Soon he was back, with a satisfied smile. “All done.”

Keris held out her hand and he gave her the bracelet. Shann permitted herself a feeling of cautious optimism. After a couple of false starts, things at last seemed to be going according to plan. She hoped that Lyall and the others would not be made to suffer too greatly before she and Keris could free them.
Hang on, we’re coming. Just a little while longer.

She watched the dark-haired woman disappear beyond the barrier.
Shouts.
She whirled around to see two figures in all-white coveralls hurrying across the floor of the building in their direction.

Rael swallowed. “What do we do?”

Shann drew her staff. “Stay low. Leave them to me.” They were already climbing towards the upper level, boots clanging urgently against the metal stairs. Shann advanced to a junction that blocked access to both the globes and her two companions, planted her feet, and prepared to stand her ground.

They appeared at the top of the stairs. One pointed in her direction and yelled something she couldn’t hear; then they began bearing down on her position. Hu-mans. She could see their pallid complexion, even at this distance. She studied them as they approached. One was young and slight, with a dark, curly brush; the other was larger—chubby and somewhat flushed from his exertions. They glanced at each other nervously. Clearly, they lacked the self-assuredness of soldiers or guards. Workers, then.
So much the better.

They skidded to a halt, a short distance away. The portly hu-man levelled a stubby silver instrument at her, but the other forced his hand down with a swift rebuke. Susan Gilmer had said that they would not be able to use their lightning weapons this close to the lodestone devices. Once again it seemed that she had been truthful. Shann bit her lower lip. If the woman’s intention all along was to sell them out, why volunteer such a critical piece of information? The smaller creature called out in a thin adolescent voice, cutting off her deliberations. “Kelanni. What are you doing here?”

Shann did not reply.
Keep them guessing.
No doubt Keris would return soon from setting her component and lend her assistance. Not that Shann needed it. She was sure she could handle these two.
Stop them here. Now. Make sure they don’t get away to alert the others.

She sprinted forward, abandoning her post, and made straight for the two men in white. They traded expressions of alarm and backed off. Shann flared the upper lodestone layer of her cloak, leaped, and pushed off the lodestone accumulated in the globes behind her, sailing over the heads of the open-mouthed hu-mans and landing with a clang on the walkway that led back to the stairs. Cutting off their escape.

They turned back towards the inner walkway surrounding the bronze globes, where Rael was hunched down, out of sight.
Oh no you don’t.
She powered after them, drawing Saccath’s staff from behind her as she ran. The red-faced hu-man was lagging behind, his breath laboured. Grasping one end of the staff with both hands, she swung the darkwood and scythed his legs from under him. The man went down hard like a sack of moba, his head impacting one of the metal side supports. He lay still.

Curly-hair pulled up short, his expression torn between concern for his fellow and fear for himself. As he turned once more to flee, Shann hopped over the unconscious form of his companion and brought the flat of her diamond blade down on his shoulder, driving him to his knees; then she whipped her staff in an arc, so that it struck his temple. The hu-man toppled sideways and fell from the gantry with a dull thud. Shann went to the rail and leaned over. The crumpled form did not move. She felt an odd twinge of regret.

“Shann.” The voice was Rael’s. It held a note of urgency. “Shann,” he called again. She exhaled slowly and pulled away from the rail. The boy was standing straight and gesticulating with his long, ungainly arms.
What now?

She trotted over to him. Her voice was tired and edged with impatience. “What is it?”

“It’s Keris,” he said, pointing urgently in the direction of the globes.
“I think she’s trying to set off the hu-man devices.”

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Chapter 16

“She’s what?”

Shann peered across the short gap to where the huge bronze spheres lay, coddled in their network of iron supports. Keris was probing the surface of the nearest sphere with her diamond-bladed staff, attempting to penetrate a section of the casing.

“Keris... Keris,”
she yelled. The woman’s face was strained, wholly absorbed in her efforts. She made no reply.

“She’s going to break the seal between the two pressurised sections. Once the two gasses begin to combine, it will create a chain reaction. No power in the universe will be able to stop it. The temperature of the reaction will increase without bound until... ”

“Until it explodes,” Shann finished off grimly. “How big will the explosion be?”

“Three devices that size going off together? My guess is that this island and everything on it will be obliterated. They could blow away half the planet.”

Why? Why is she doing this?
“We have to stop her.”

Rael flapped his arms like a stranded bird. “How? The only way through the force barrier is to use the protective band. And she has it.”

Shann’s mind worked rapidly. She turned and bolted back down the walkway.

“Where are you going?” Rael called after her. Shann did not answer. She had no time for explanation or discussion. She reached the point where the chubby worker lay face down on the metal grille and knelt down beside him. A thin line of red blood trickled down the side of his face, but he was still breathing. She grabbed an arm and felt his wrist. Nothing. She snatched his other arm and pulled up the white sleeve. A telltale green band. Tearing it off, she clasped it around her own wrist and dashed back to where Rael still stood, nonplussed.

“Wait here,” she commanded.

“What are you—?”

Shann did not hear the remainder of Rael’s question. She was already moving through the invisible barrier, flashes of light fizzing and sputtering angrily around her.

~

“Stop what you’re doing.”

Shann was shocked by her own boldness. She had railed against the former Keltar on more than one occasion. Denounced her. Even challenged her. But never before had she attempted to give her orders.

The woman lowered her staff and turned slowly, and Shann got another shock. Keris’s cheeks were smeared and her eyes were puffy and half closed, as if she had been crying. Her voice was tinged with high emotion. “Stay back. Don’t get involved in things you don’t understand.”