Lodestone Book One: The Sea of Storms (18 page)

“The Prophet is not who he claims
to be.” Keris met his piercing gaze. “He is not Kelanni. He wants
to bring about our destruction as a people.”

“You’re
mad
!” he
exclaimed.

“No,” her voice was calm. “We are
being deceived. Ask yourself, why would the Prophet enslave so
many? Why does he need so much of the lodestone? Why has he never
revealed his true purpose?”

Ferenek looked a little less sure
of himself. “I am a soldier,” he declared. “It is not my place to
question doctrine.”

“You are not a new born dagan,”
she countered, “that you should run with the herd over a cliff. Use
your head. Ask questions. See whether what I say is true or
not.”

Ferenek shook his head, as if
trying to free himself from the disquieting thoughts she had
planted there. “You must be returned to Chalimar to answer for what
you have done. I will not let you pass.” He drew his short bladed
weapon.

In a single movement, Keris
knocked the blade away with one end of her staff and brought the
other end down against his temple. The man crumpled like a puppet
whose strings had been cut. She stepped over the unconscious
form.

Yes, you
will.

~

It was not a killing blow.
Ferenek would wake up with a bad mood and a splitting headache, but
no more. She reflected on her short discussion with the man.
Ferenek might be overly attached to form and discipline, but he was
not a bad man. If she had had more time, she might have been able
to get through to him. She could rely on the fact that he would be
making a full report to Mordal of her actions. It hardly mattered;
she had no intention of returning to the keep.

Keris hurried out of the casemate
and made her way towards the main gate. Clouds of smoke were
billowing up from the direction of the barracks. The few people who
saw her hurried past, paying her no attention.

She tried to imagine what
Mordal’s reaction would be. She was convinced that she was doing
the right thing; all the same, she did not enjoy the thought of
disappointing him. She was in a very real sense his protégé, the
person he had nurtured to be his successor. He believed that the
Prophet’s way was right, but he had also instilled in her a love
for the Kelanni people and a desire to protect them.

“The people
need us,” he would insist, “to keep them on the path, and to
prevent them being manipulated by others. We must not let them
down.”
You trained me too well.

A thought
occurred to her. If she could convince Mordal of the Prophet’s true
intentions, then she would have a powerful ally. Mordal had said
that he trusted her instincts. Maybe it was time to put that trust
to the test? She looked at the back of her hand. The lodestone ring
was dark, but it was still Linked to one held by Mordal. She had
considered throwing it away, but now she thought better of it. She
did not know if he would listen, but if he didn’t, then she would
not have lost anything.
I have to try to
explain–I owe him that much.

She passed through the gate and
turned right, trudging through the sand beneath Gort’s imposing
walls. Passing out of sight of the gate, she came to the eastern
side of the massive bulwark. There, propped up against the outer
wall, were a haphazard collection of loose timbers, as if left
there by a work crew. Keris pulled the timbers apart and located a
sack. As she loosened the neck, the sack moved, and a round head
with bead-like eyes popped out. The mouth rippled. “Is It Time To
Leave, Keris?” Boxx asked in its high, child-like voice.

She helped untangle it from the
sack. “Yes, it is time to leave.”

~

They’ve caught
up to us.
Shann saw the dark-robed Keltar
slice through the air and alight on the road in front of them, like
a thrown down challenge.
I’m ready for
you.

She pulled her staff free of the
saddle pack, and ran to meet the tall woman with dark flowing hair.
She stopped a few steps away and planted both feet in the sand,
holding the staff in front of her with both hands, daring the foul
servant of the Prophet to take one more step. Shann was still
dressed in the tan coverall of a tribute.

The tall woman stood in the road
calmly, not reacting to the other’s provocative gesture.

From behind
her, she heard Lyall call her name, “
Shann
.” His tone of voice was not
one of encouragement. It sounded sharp, more like a rebuke.
Confused, she turned her head to see him walk past, coming between
her and the imposing woman. He stopped before the Keltar and bowed.
“Welcome–Keris, isn’t it? I am honoured to make your acquaintance
at last. I am Lyall. The other man over there by the morgren, who
also owes you his life, is Alondo. And our overly zealous companion
here,” he indicated the girl behind him, who was still poised to do
battle, “is called Shann.” He turned to face the girl. “Put the
staff away, please, Shann.”

Shann complied,
feeling a detached sense of unreality, as if she had somehow fallen
asleep and was trapped within her own fevered imaginings.
What’s going on?

“Forgive me,” Lyall was saying,
“the girl’s reaction is my fault. I had not explained the nature of
our escape from the compound or your part in it…” His voice trailed
off as he saw a creature with jointed legs and a segmented shell
scamper across the sand and come to a halt next to the Keltar. It
stood up on its rear legs, appraising them. “That is a Chandara, is
it not?” His voice was filled with wonder.

“Indeed,” Keris spoke up. “It is
part of the reason I am here. I am sure you must have many
questions. Ail-Gan will be rising soon. If you would like to make
camp, then I would be pleased to tell you of the events that have
led me here.

Lyall nodded. “Alondo,” he called
out, “we make camp here. Break out the awnings and see what rations
we have left. We have a guest for dinner.”

~

The wind dropped and the air fell
to stillness as Keris began her story. She told of her meeting with
Mordal, and her orders to find the one who had attacked a Keltar,
bearing the cloak and staff. Her investigation in Corte that had
led her to the Inn where Shann worked, and her discovery that the
Innkeeper had been executed.

Shann, who had
been looking distinctly uncomfortable listening to the words of a
Keltar, suddenly rounded on the woman. “Poltann is dead?
You…you
killed
him?”

“By the time I arrived, the
execution had already taken place,” Keris explained.

“What about Gallar? What happened
to her?”

“Gallar?” Keris
inquired.

“She…worked at the
Wayfarer.”

“I’m sorry; I don’t know what
happened to anyone else. The Captain acted beyond his orders. I did
the only thing I could, which was to order the soldiers to return
to Chalimar to ensure that there were no further executions. The
innkeeper was the only person who died, of that I am
sure.”

Alondo broke in; his voice
charged with empathy. “I’m sorry, Shann. There was nothing you
could have done.”

“You knew about
this?”
She exclaimed.
Alondo lowered his head.

“It was too dangerous for you to
return to Corte.” Lyall was firm. “We arranged for Hedda to travel
there to see what had become of Gallar, your guardian. If she is
alive, then Hedda will see to it that she is safe.”

Shann fell silent, seemingly
mollified for the present.

Keris went on to describe how she
had trailed them from Corte to Lind, and had caught up with them at
the pass.

“I was preparing to intercept
you, when I was…taken by a perridon.” She saw Lyall raise his
eyebrows. “I was preoccupied at the time. Anyway, it knocked me
unconscious and carried me to its nest. The Chandara rescued
me.”

Lyall looked over at the strange
little beast. It lay perfectly still next to Keris. It was not
clear whether it was even listening. “I have never heard of
Chandara leaving their forest.”

“They were seeking a Kelanni. I
am not sure, but I think it was just co-incidence that I was the
one they found. They saved me from the perridon and brought me back
to their Great Tree. I think they even healed my broken leg
somehow. I don’t remember much, except that when I woke up in the
Tree, I was whole.”

“Incredible.” Lyall seemed lost
in thought.

“They waited for me to recover.
Then I was taken to an audience chamber, where they activated
this…” Keris reached into the pack on the creature’s back. It did
not react. She drew out the silver machine with its multi-coloured
workings.

Alondo reached a hand out. “May
I?” She handed him the device and he inspected it closely, turning
it over in his hands. “Fascinating,” he breathed.

“What is it?” Lyall
asked.

Alondo’s voice sounded far away.
“I have absolutely no idea. But it’s beautiful…very sophisticated.
I’ve never seen anything quite like it.” He looked at Keris
enquiringly. “Who made it?”

“It comes from more than three
thousand turns ago.”

Alondo regarded her with an
expression of disbelief. “How could you possibly know
that?”

“It spoke to me,” she maintained.
“There was the image of a woman from the past, who called herself
‘Annata’. Somehow, she sent the machine to us, to warn us about the
Prophet. He is building a device to destroy the
Kelanni.”

Lyall leaned forward. “Did she
say where this device is?

“Not precisely. She said that it
was being constructed at Persillan, but that after the revolt there
eleven turns ago, it was moved to an island that lies somewhere
beyond the Great Barrier of Storms.”

Lyall looked at Alondo. “The
bronze coloured globe,” he offered. Alondo nodded
slightly.

Keris looked from one to the
other. “The what?”

Lyall turned back to Keris.
“We…heard that there was a device found at Persillan at the time of
the revolt. Also that the revolt was ended by an explosion of great
power.”

“Really?” Keris
was intrigued. “The revolt happened before I was appointed as
Keltar. We were never told any details, other than that the Prophet
had been victorious.”
I wonder if Mordal
knows about this; it might make it easier to convince
him.

Shann appeared to rouse from her
self-absorbed state. “You’re saying there’s a woman in that thing?
She must be no higher than my hand.”

“Keris said it
was the
image
of
a woman, Shann,” Lyall reminded her.

“All right,
prove it.
Show her to
us,
” Shann demanded.

Lyall considered this. “Can you
activate the device, Keris?”

Keris shook her head. “I’m sorry;
I don’t know how it works. It was the Chandara who operated it last
time.”

Their eyes turned to the
creature. It lay with its head on the sand, unconcerned.

“Chandara–” Lyall addressed
it.

“Its name is Boxx,” Keris put
in.

“Your Chandara has a name?”
Alondo registered surprise.

Lyall’s forehead creased, as if
he were trying to remember a half forgotten song. “That’s very
interesting.”

“How so?” Keris asked.

“Well in the Ancient tongue,
‘Boxx’ means ‘Key.’”

You must take
Boxx with you. It is the key.
That was
what the woman Annata had said.

Keris was curious. “How is it you
know Ancient?”

“It…used to be a hobby of mine.”
Lyall gave a half smile. “Boxx, can you operate this
machine?”

The Chandara raised its head
“Yes.”

“Then please, would you do so?”
Lyall motioned to Alondo, who placed the machine in the sand,
directly in front of Boxx. The creature reached out a foreleg and
touched a control on the side. A series of lights appeared on the
base of the machine. They all glowed red, except for the one on the
far left, which was a steady yellow. The party watched expectantly,
but nothing else happened.

“I don’t see any ‘woman,’” Shann
said flatly.

Lyall ignored her. “Boxx, where
is the woman that appeared to Keris?”

“She Cannot Speak Until The
Time.”

“What time?” Lyall
enquired.

“The Time Of Her
Speaking.”

Keris smiled ruefully. “I should
have warned you, having a conversation with one of these is a
unique experience. I usually feel a headache coming on about
now.”

Lyall was not one to give up
easily. “Boxx, when is the time of her speaking?”

“In Two Zero One
Turns.”

Alondo figured it up. “That’s
more than a whole turn of the season.”