The Lodestone Trilogy (Limited Edition) (The Lodestone Series) (127 page)

“Rael says that if you succeed in setting off these devices, they could devastate this entire island.”

“Yes, they will,”
Keris exploded. “I will die. You will die. Lyall. Alondo. Boxx. All the hu-mans on this island.
But it will be over.
The hu-man threat will be gone and our world will be safe.”

Shann forced herself to stay calm. “There’s no guarantee of that. Rael told me that if all three of these things go off at once, there’s no way to predict exactly what will happen. You could end up destroying the world.”

Keris shook her head firmly, as if trying to divest herself of the notion. “Nonsense. This island is surrounded by ocean. Nothing could reach that far.”

“Rael may not be much good with the cloak and staff, but he’s seldom wrong about these sorts of things. Annata gave us the instrument we need to disarm the weapons safely. Please, Keris, let’s use it.”

“Annata is dead,”
Keris spat. “Her people are dead. She knows nothing of our world. Of necessity and sacrifice. Her scheme of using four component carriers isn’t tenable. It’s too complex. Too time consuming. Too many things to go wrong. The moment Susan Gilmer betrayed us, it was dead in the water. This...” She stared at the point of her staff weapon. “This is the only way. The only way to be sure. I’m sorry.”

Faces drifted through Shann’s consciousness. Lyall—the dedicated leader, eyes blue and hard as sapphires. Alondo—the entertainer and genius with machines, round-faced with a quick wit and a ready smile. Rael—the boy mathematician, awkward, shy, considerate, and thoughtful. Patris—the thief-sailor, quiet, clever, and resourceful. Boxx—the Chandara, with the wisdom of a sage and the innocence of a child. All of them had come so far. Sacrificed so much. Her heart welled up into her throat. “I can’t let you do this.”

Keris’s fingers flexed on the haft of her staff weapon. Her voice was as razor-sharp as the diamond-tipped blade. “You don’t have a choice.” Shann drew her staff in response and held it, point first, in attack posture. Keris blinked. “Are you going to fight me?”

Shann’s brow furrowed, but her voice held clear and steady. “If I have to.”

“You must know that I am well able to defeat you.”

The woman was right. She probably didn’t stand a chance. Keris possessed superior height, strength, and reach, not to mention vastly greater experience and training. Shann had defeated her younger incarnation during the experience at the Dais. However, when she later came barrelling out of the grey mist and attacked the woman’s older self, the former Keltar had disarmed her as easily as if she were taking a toy from a child. During their voyage to the island, Shann had managed to inflict injury on Keris while under the influence of the colcachra, but she retained no memory of it and, as Lyall later pointed out, Keris had been deliberately holding back. Now, she had no reason to do so. The most Shann could probably hope for would be to delay her.
I have no choice. I have to try.

Shann mapped out the field of battle in her head just as Lyall had taught her. Keris was situated between her and the accumulated lodestone in the bronze globes. Hers was the first move.
Stay out of range—counterattack where possible.
Shann pulled back Saccath’s staff and held it before her with hands outstretched, moving from an attack to a defensive posture. Keris nodded once. Approval? Respect? Her sorrowful features broke into a half-smile; then she sprang into motion, flared her cloak, and shot into the air, propelled by the power of the refined lodestone in the globes behind her.

Shann tensed as she kept her eye firmly fixed on the soaring figure high above her. At the apex of her leap, Keris whirled her staff and dived towards her, diamond blade aimed at her head like a lance.

Shann backed up rapidly along the raised walkway, forcing Keris to alter her line of flight. The strategy was a risky one. The farther she retreated from the globes, the more she reduced the other woman’s advantage, but the greater the probability that she would be driven back past the invisible force barrier. If Keris could then disable or destroy her bracelet, she would be able to return to the central area and complete her work, uninterrupted.
Or she could just kill me. She might even take the view that that would be more merciful.

She came to a halt, knotted her muscles, and thrust out her staff to deflect the oncoming blade. Keris pulled back her staff at the last instant and whirled it around to meet Shann’s weapon. The vast interior of the hu-man facility echoed to the sound of darkwood clashing against darkwood. Shann was driven backwards. She could hear Rael beyond the barrier, yelling something at her, but she was preoccupied with trying to ward off the other woman’s blows. Any moment now, Keris would penetrate her defences with a timely thrust and it would all be over.

“Shann,”
the boy called. His voice held a note of urgency. She pulled back, giving more ground and hazarding a glance over her shoulder, and was met with a puzzling sight. Rael had divested himself of his cloak and was kneeling on the grille at the junction just beyond the barrier, fiddling with something. Suddenly it dawned on her. He was setting up his cloak as a lodestone baseline for her to use.
Looks like I underestimated you.

Shann blipped her lower lodestone layer, feeling the reassuring push behind her. Before Keris could react, the diminutive girl bent her knees, activated the boost control, slammed her lodestone fully open, and launched herself towards the harsh ceiling lights.

Rael’s quick thinking had given her a chance. She flew over Keris’s head and made straight for the globes. If she could get to them first—dominate the lodestone within them—then maybe she could fend off Keris. For a while at least. The great bronze spheres loomed in front of her. Behind, she could see Keris dashing back along the iron-grey walkway in a vain effort to outdistance her. Rael must have retracted the lodestone in his cloak as soon as she had pushed off it.
If I live through this, I will owe him my life. We all will.

As she passed over the nearest globe, she twisted in the air and pushed off its lodestone, making for the centre of the construction. Another idea was taking shape in her mind. Back at the house adjoining the observatory, Rael had said that the new cloak might give them the capacity to hover for brief periods. Shann proved as much during her and Rael’s foolhardy descent from the network of iron girders that spanned the ceiling. But what if it were possible to do more? What if she could use the balance of opposing forces within the cloak to control her position?

She twisted her body again, using the lodestone in the opposite sphere as a brake. Her trajectory slowed and she settled at a point in mid-air above the three globes, flying cloak extended behind her, feet together, and arms folded over her chest. It was a peculiar sensation. The lodestone beneath buoyed her up, like gigantic hands, gently holding her in place. Artificial lights shone down from above, illuminating her upturned face. She felt serene. Elated. Powerful.

She lowered her head to see Keris watching her from the walkway. Shann could hear the tall woman’s mind working.
If I attempt to set off the weapons again then the girl will launch an attack to stop me.

Shann permitted herself a brief smirk.
That’s right. If you want to go ahead, you’re going to have to knock me off this perch first.

Keris regarded her a moment longer before marching back along the walkway. Time to make preparations. Shann carefully extended her upper lodestone layer. Theoretically, the downward push from the upper layer should counteract the upward push from the lower layer, and the result should be equilibrium.

As she operated the control at her neck, however, it rapidly became clear that something was very wrong. A growing pressure on her shoulder harness was followed by a creaking sound. It was as if the cloak’s inner mechanism was trying to tear itself apart. Shann’s heart began to pound as she quickly reversed the move. Gradually, the creaking died away. She had drifted downward slightly but was still hanging suspended over the immense spheres. Mercifully, the cloak appeared undamaged.

Her mind raced as she pieced together what had happened. The two lodestone layers had started to push each other apart with immense force. If she had carried on, the supports would probably have ruptured and the flying cloak would have broken apart in mid-air, leading to an unspectacular and possibly lethal fall. She swallowed. Out on the raised walkway Keris had turned and begun running towards the globes in her long loping stride. There was no more time.

She raised her fingers gingerly to her neck control once more and this time began to extend bronze and upper lodestone layers together as rapidly as she dared. Extending all three layers was the same configuration she had used before during her descent with Rael, but she still could not be certain of the effect of bringing the other two layers to bear while in mid-air. As the upper layers fully deployed, she felt herself rising slightly, but otherwise the mechanism seemed to operate smoothly and the cloak remained stable.

The woman reached the end of her run, flared her cloak, and leaped up the side of the nearest globe. Shann held Saccath’s staff before her in one hand; the other was at her neck controls. Keris flashed towards her, whipped her staff around... and slashed at empty air. As her momentum carried her forward, she cast about in frustration. Far above, Shann watched with godlike amusement.
It worked.
Shutting off the upper lodestone layer removed its downward pressure on bronze as well as bronze’s downward pull. She had shot upward, like a cork in a bottle.

Keris finally spied her quarry and pushed off the nearest globe, rising to meet her. Shann waited until the woman was almost on top of her, then slammed open the red cloak’s upper lodestone and withdrew the lower lodestone layer. As the upper lodestone began to push down on bronze and the bronze pulled at it, she dropped like a stone, once again evading the woman’s staff thrust.

Shann felt a flush of exhilaration. It was as if she had complete mastery of the air. She extended her lower lodestone layer gradually,

slowing her fall and bringing her once more to a state of equilibrium, suspended above the globes. As she did so, she heard Lyall’s words ringing in her mind.
Overconfidence. Most Keltar suffer from it. It makes them contemptuous of others, but it also makes them think of themselves as invincible. Don’t make the same mistake, Shann.

In spite of her newfound agility, she knew that she couldn’t expect to dodge Keris forever. She was tapping the red cloak’s boost facility constantly in an effort to stay one step ahead of the ex-Keltar. However, Rael had warned them that the ‘electrostatic charge’, as he called it, would run down completely in fifty dahns. That wasn’t long. When the charge was exhausted, the refined lodestone in her cloak would lose its extra power and her movements would slow. And even before then, the other woman might well anticipate her actions. If that happened, she would find herself locked in one-to-one combat with an undisputed master of staff lore. She was not sure how long she could hold out, but the final outcome seemed all too certain.

Keris descended slowly towards her, one hand tweaking her neck controls experimentally.
She’s as smart as I am. Sooner or later she’s going to figure out the techniques of using the new cloak. Then it will all be over.

The tall figure loomed over her, waiting for her to make her move. Shann twisted in the air, opened her lower lodestone and withdrew her upper, rising rapidly at an angle, trying to stay out of the other woman’s reach. Keris moved to intercept her, cutting down her options and presenting Shann with a simple choice: surrender her dominance of the lodestone—or fight.

Shann grasped her staff in both hands and braced herself for the inevitable assault. Their staffs came together with an almighty crack. Shann felt the impact in her forearms. The woman followed up with a concatenation of blows that threatened to instantly overwhelm her. She tried to get a hand to her neck controls, but she was too preoccupied with expending every ounce of effort in trying to ward off the other woman’s onslaught.
I’m not going to last like this.

Then the impossible happened. Keris suddenly ceased her attack and sheathed her staff, adjusting her neck control so that she floated in front of Shann. Shann’s first instinct was to counterattack, but something in the woman’s demeanour stopped her. Keris pointed behind her. Puzzled, Shann stole a glance over her shoulder and her eyes grew wide. A tiny figure stood on the walkway, gazing up at them curiously. It was the very last person she expected to see.

Boxx.

<><><><><>