The Lodestone Trilogy (Limited Edition) (The Lodestone Series) (131 page)

They climbed the side of the valley together, threading their way through a jumble of monochrome silhouettes. Her breath condensed before her in the frigid air. The sky was clear and the shining firmament wheeled overhead in a magnificent procession. Even by the half-light, she could see the strain on the musician’s face. Sooner or later he was going to collapse or pass out from the pain. If she were reduced to carrying or dragging him, they would not get very far.

An ancient-looking line of jagged black rocks jutted out from the top of the rise, occluding the stars. They looked as if they had resisted everything that time could throw at them. Perhaps they could serve as a suitable protective barrier?

She altered direction, making a beeline for them. The high-pitched wail drifted up from the valley floor, spurring her onward. Dark sentinels loomed over the two of them like dispassionate spectators. She half-dragged him the final few steps.

Flash!
A blinding light shone all around her, transforming night into day. Before she could turn around, a huge fist slammed into her back, throwing her headlong. Her head struck bare rock and the light went out.

~

“Shann.”

The unwelcome sound penetrated her consciousness, making her skull ring like a bell.
Perhaps if I just ignore it, it will go away.

“Shann.”

The inside of her head chimed once again. The word was familiar somehow. It was a name. Her name. And the voice. A female voice. Keris? She screwed her eyes shut.

“Shann. Wake up.”

All right, all right. Just stop ringing that bell.
She forced her eyes open and saw a tall, lithe woman with a sharp face and a deep frown kneeling over her. “Wh... what happened?”

Keris sat back. “That was going to be my question. When that horrible sound began, the hu-mans fled. Then Susan Gilmer said that the weapon was about to explode and I knew.”

Shann propped herself up on her elbows. The ringing in her head had diminished, to be replaced by a dull ache. “Knew what?”

“That I was responsible. That the weapon that was about to go off was the one I had attacked.”

Shann shook her head and immediately regretted it. “That’s not true. Susan Gilmer did something she called a ‘diagnostic’. She said that the damage was only superficial. She didn’t think it could be the cause.” It was a lie, or at the very least a distortion of the truth. But no purpose would be served by making Keris feel guilty over what happened. The hu-man weapons were destroyed. Kelanni was safe. They had won. Right now, those were the only things that mattered.

Keris did not react. Shann could not tell if the woman believed her story or not. “Where is Susan Gilmer now?”

“She stayed behind.”

They each bowed their heads in silent contemplation. Finally, Keris spoke. “I didn’t trust her. I was suspicious of her motives. Yet in the end, she saved us all.”

Shann pushed herself upright and saw another cloaked figure standing a little way off. Lyall. She cast about her but no one else was in sight. “Rael and Boxx will be here shortly,” Keris added. “When the explosion happened and the island wasn’t incinerated, Lyall and I immediately headed back to look for you, using our flying cloaks to cover the distance. The others are following on foot.”

A thought struck her. “Alondo. Where’s Alondo?”

A dark shadow passed across the other woman’s face, suddenly making her appear much older. “Keris?”

Their eyes met and Shann knew the truth even before the words were out. “I’m sorry. He didn’t make it.”

~

Shann scrabbled to her feet and for the first time saw a figure lying on the ground just beyond Lyall. Her legs threatened to give way beneath her, as if they were still slumbering. She staggered towards Lyall, who stepped forward and caught her small, wiry frame, supporting and restraining her at the same time.

She sagged in his arms. “Let me see him.”

“No, Shann,” Lyall’s voice was gentle but insistent. “It’s better that you don’t.”

“I want to see him.”
She fought, squirmed, and hammered her tiny fists against his shoulder until, finally, he relaxed his grip. Slipping out from his grasp, she stumbled past him and came to a stop next to the body.

Alondo was lying stretched out and stock-still, eyes closed, lips parted. A voice inside her kept insisting that it could not be him. He looked so different in death to the way he had looked in life. The ever-present smile was gone. The light in the eyes. And... the hat. Of all the absurd and idiotic things that could have passed through her mind at a time like this, she realised that it was the first time that she had ever seen him without his cocky red hat.

Her legs finally gave way, and she fell to her knees beside him. Her chest began to heave and her throat erupted in great sobs. Tears flowed, obscuring her vision, but they could not blot out the terrible reality before her.
I should have gotten him out of that place sooner. If we had made it just a little farther...

She felt Lyall’s comforting hand on her shoulder. Keris stood on the other side of the body, hiding her feelings behind a mask of stoicism.

“Hey there!” The shout came from a small, barren rise off to her left. She turned to see the tall figure of Rael waving at them from the summit, with Boxx perched upright next to him. The two of them began trotting down the hill, oblivious to the tragedy that awaited them.

As the lanky youth approached, his pace slowed and his smile vanished. What should have been a celebration of victory suddenly bore the horrible stench of defeat. “How... ?” he asked.

“Caught in the blast. Susan Gilmer is gone, too.” There was something in the way Keris spoke, as if every word were hung with guilt.
She still believes she’s responsible—that it was her attempt to damage the globe weapon that caused the deaths of two people. And who is to say that she isn’t right? Maybe she deserves to feel that way.

Boxx sidled past Rael and took up a position on the other side of the body. It drew itself up to its full height, cocked its round head to one side, and regarded Shann curiously. “Alondo Has Stopped.” Shann’s throat was too constricted to speak. All she could manage was a nod. “Shann Is Sad. Like Before, When Others Were Missing From Ship. Water Flowed From Shann’s Eyes. Yet Others Were Here. They Were Found. There Was No Need.”

Lyall got down on his haunches so that he approximated the Chandara in height. “Boxx, try to understand. Alondo is gone. His life is no more. He will not be coming back.”

The Chandara’s head bobbed up and down in an agitated fashion. “Alondo Has Stopped. Somatic Cellular Degeneration Is Underway.”

Lyall shrugged and looked up at Keris and then across to Rael. They both looked back blankly.

“Statistical Probability Of Successful Cellular Regeneration Is Two Point One Zero Two Out of One Zero. Falling Rapidly.”

Lyall shut his eyes and then opened them again. “Surely you’re not saying you can revive him?”

“Yes Lyall. But Only If I Act Now. And It Will Take All Of Me. All That I Have. My Time Will Come. We Change. We Eat. We Remember.”

“What’s it talking about?” Lyall threw open the question.

Before anyone could answer, Keris moved forward. “There’s no time for that. Boxx, revive Alondo now... please.”

<><><><><>

Chapter 20

The four Kelanni stood in a circle, their expressions of awe and wonder lit up by a gentle illumination. At the centre, Alondo’s supine form was bathed in ethereal light. Boxx’s three-fingered upper forelimbs were placed on his chest. Its eyes were closed and its mouth rippled wordlessly.

No one dared to move or speak. Shann’s eyes smarted and her throat felt parched. Lifetimes passed. She had almost resigned herself to the conclusion that the attempt had failed, when Alondo’s mouth suddenly opened and he sucked in a great lungful of air. Immediately the light faded and Boxx lowered its head.

Lyall dropped to his knees. “Alondo? Can you hear me?”

“Yes, of course I... ” The musician opened his eyes before pressing them shut again. “Owww.”

“What’s the matter?” Lyall demanded.

“My head... it feels like it was stampeded by a herd of raleketh.” He forced his eyes open once again and registered the expressions on the faces around him. “Why are you all standing around? What happened?”

“You were dead,” Lyall explained.

Alondo smirked. “I do the jokes, remember?”

“No, really, you... ” Lyall looked up at Keris, who was shaking her head vigorously.

“Well, I can’t lie around here all night.” Alondo sat up and one hand went to his head. “All right, which one of you took my hat? Owww.” Shann threw her arms around his neck, nearly crushing the life out of him. Eventually she released him and allowed him to get to his feet.

Before anyone could speak, there was a strange rushing sound that seemed to come from all around. Shann’s heart skipped a beat. Was another infernal hu-man machine preparing to wipe them out of existence? Then she saw it, rising majestically over a line of ancient hills: an immense pyramidal lattice of gleaming gold. At its centre, a shining azure sun pulsated with power. It was the hu-man vessel they had viewed earlier, occupying the floor of the steep-sided gorge. The Osiris. Its parts had been brought back together and given life once again. Another miracle.

The great ship hung bright against the backdrop of stars and then began to rise higher and higher into the night sky. They watched, transfixed by profound reverence and awe, until it was just another twinkling star lost among countless others.

Finally, Rael spoke, his voice no more than a whisper. “They made it. Lafontaine and the other hu-mans. Finally, they are gone from our world.”

“But what of the Prophet? Wang and the crew that follow him?” Shann pointed out.

Rael was still gazing at the sky. “Lafontaine said he would deliver his ultimatum to them from high above—leave in peace or be stranded here. They will have no choice but to follow. We’ve won.”

Shann thought back to her conversation with Wang at the hu-man facility. The red-faced Captain with wild eyes. Screaming orders. Demanding unquestioning obedience. “I’m not so sure.”

Lyall let out a heavy sigh. “Well, it’s late. We should camp here for the night.”

“What about the Captain and the others?” Shann asked.

“They’re probably far away by now,” Lyall assured her. “Nevertheless, we’ll take turns keeping watch, just to be sure. Come on, Shann. Let’s see if we can find something to build a fire with.”

Shann flashed him a smile and followed obediently.

“Don’t stray too far,” Alondo called after them.

~

Lyall and Shann walked side by side along an undulating ridge that wound its way through the spine of hills occupying the centre of the island of Helice. The others were out of sight some distance behind them now. The night air was bitterly brisk and the stars glistened with a cold intensity.

Vegetation was sparse; they had gathered little enough in the way of firewood. Indeed, it seemed to Shann from the outset that they were engaged in a pretty fruitless exercise, but she trusted the tall fair Kelanni with the light blue eyes. They had been through so much together since that rain-soaked night in Corte so long ago, when she had run forward on impulse, plucked the staff from the ground, and handed it to him. She had descended into the fire pits and faced the Kharthrun serpent in order to save him. If Alondo was the brother she never knew, then in a sense, Lyall was the father. Wherever he led, she would follow.

He knelt down and tried to wrestle a scraggy, dried-up stick from a crack in the rock to which it clung desperately. “So, how are you?”

Shann hesitated, unsure how she should answer the question. “All right, I suppose. Now that Alondo has... recovered. It was a shame about Susan Gilmer. I liked her. I think we could have been friends.” She smiled to herself. “Never thought I’d say that about a hu-man.”

Lyall finally gave up the struggle and stood up, ceding victory to the tenacious scrap of wood, and smiled. “I know what you mean. It’s easy to convince yourself that an enemy is wholly evil. However, the truth is seldom that simple, Shann. In spite of their grotesque appearance, I think the hu-mans are not much different from us. Some are good; others are bad. Some are strong; others are weak. Some would destroy anyone or anything to get what they want; others are prepared even to sacrifice themselves to save another.” He sighed and set off along the ridge once more.