Lodestone Book One: The Sea of Storms (25 page)

Lyall reached up to his neck
control and did as he was bidden. He winced, “Curious.”

“What’s the matter?” Keris
inquired behind her.

“Shann has
detected a large source of what can only be refined lodestone.”
Lyall wore a puzzled expression. “Oddly though, it seems to
lie
above
us.”

Keris adjusted her control
experimentally. “Curious indeed,” she commented. “Let’s get to the
top, quickly.” Keris increased the pace. Five floors...six…seven.
Alondo was starting to pant.

You need to rest?” Lyall looked
at him with concern.

“No, no…,” Alondo puffed, “I’m
fine.” He added, “How many more floors to this thing?”

“Keris?” Lyall directed the
question to her.

“I’m not sure; ten
maybe?”

“Will you be all right?” Lyall
asked.

“Of course,”
Alondo wheezed with his hands on his knees. “I can do ten…ten is
good…
eleven
might
be a problem, but ten…ten, I could do.”

Lyall smiled. He put his friend’s
arm about his shoulders and started up once more.

The rest of the climb was
conducted in silence, their entire concentration expended on the
effort of putting one foot in front of another. Thus Keris was
unprepared for the sudden feel of wind and the light from an open
doorway which expelled them onto a stone platform, exposed to the
elements. They were at the top. Dominating the centre of the
platform was a huge silver globe, secured by clamps. They walked
over to it and Keris put up her hand and touched its surface. It
was perfectly smooth.

“It’s
changed
,” Shann was looking down at the
grey stone. “The lodestone is beneath us now.”

“It’s this platform,” Lyall
confirmed. “The whole thing must be virtually all lodestone…
Remarkable.”

Keris was
starting to walk around the massive orb. A quarter of the way round
she stopped. “
Over here
.”

The others joined her. Keris
pointed to a triangular indentation in the otherwise flawless
surface. “This has to be it,” she declared. She stepped up and took
out the access module she had stored in her pouch, inserting it
carefully into the hole. The workings inside the transparent casing
lit up with a yellow light, and a low humming sound emanated from
the globe itself. The module turned red, and a door began to open
on the globe’s curved exterior...and stopped. The gap was no more
than a hand’s breadth.

Another sound intruded into the
ensuing silence. Lyall ran to the entrance to the tower’s roof. “I
hear voices,” he called out, “they’re coming.” He raced back and
wrapped his hands around the gap in the door, pulling with all his
might. Keris and Alondo both joined him. Strain showed on their
faces and the tendons in their hands, but the door refused to
budge. Then suddenly it was free. They pulled it open, and Lyall,
Shann and Alondo scrambled inside. Shann reached out and pulled
Boxx up and over the threshold. Keris grabbed the module and pulled
it out of its slot. It went dark. Then she followed the others,
ducking her head to enter.

She glanced around quickly,
taking in the sphere’s interior. There was light emanating from
somewhere, but she could not discern its source. The concave walls
were the same silver colour, but otherwise featureless. At the
centre of the floor was a raised dais with four levers, two red and
two blue, just as the woman from the past had described. The dais
was encircled by a handrail. There was no other
furniture.

Keris went to
the controls. They looked simple enough. She looked up. Lyall was
struggling to try and close the door, which had jammed again.
“
Leave it,
” she
cried out, “
there’s no
time
.” He pulled back and joined the rest.
Keris placed both hands on the blue lever to her left.
“
Better hold onto something, I have no
idea what will happen when I pull this
.”

The others grabbed the handrail.
Boxx curled neatly up into a ball.

Keris shut her eyes, clenched her
teeth and pulled down on the lever with all her might.

Chapter
16

As the lever reached the down
position, Keris felt a low rumble, followed by a faint downward
pressure. She opened her eyes. Released from its mountings, the
sphere was now rising into the air above the tower, under the
influence of the lodestone platform. Keris moved to the handrail
next to Lyall and held on. It was a thrilling experience and she
could feel her heart beating faster. She was filled with awe at a
people who could have fashioned such wonders–her
ancestors.

The sphere
reached its maximum height. Through the jammed open door, she could
see blue lightning playing about the exterior surface of the great
globe. It was spectacular. A low whine started up and rose in
pitch.
A massive
concussion
. They were all hurled to one
side. Keris and Lyall held on to the handrail, but Shann and Alondo
lost their grip and tumbled over and over inside the globe. The
ball that was Boxx rolled around but seemed otherwise
unaffected.
Another huge bang. A sense of
falling. The impact of the sphere against the stone
platform.
Keris was bounced around and
fell with the others in a disoriented heap.

Her head felt
muzzy. She put her hand to her temple. It felt wet. White blood
stained the tips of her fingers. She forced her mind to analyse
what had happened. The Prophet’s men had caught up to them.
A petard
. A larger
version of the lodestone grenade. They had used petards to bring
down the sphere somehow, maybe by destroying the mechanism that
controlled it. It didn’t matter. What mattered was that the sphere
was not going to rise again, and with only one exit, it would soon
become a trap if they did not move. She looked over to one side.
The globe had rolled slightly on impact, so that the doorway was
lower down, but still exposed to the open air.

The tall figure of Lyall was
suddenly looming over her. “Are you all right?”

“Yes, yes.” She
waved a hand. “Get out of here,
go,
go!
” Her voice sounded muffled, as if she
were trying to talk with blankets stuffed in her ears. She shook
her head with annoyance. As she got her elbows under her and
struggled to a sitting position, she saw the backs of two cloaked
figures and one gaily clad musician clambering through the
threshold one by one. A distant voice in the back of her mind
suggested mildly that she would feel
so
much better if she simply lay
back down and closed her eyes. She thrust the thought away
savagely.

There were
sounds coming from outside; coarse shouts, animalistic grunts, the
clash of weapons.
I must get out
there
. She went to get up and felt a warm
tingling contact at the side of her face. She turned her head
instinctively. The Chandara was sitting on its hind legs next to
her, three fingers of one limb touching the sticky smear of blood
at her temple. Its mouth rippled in a peculiar fashion, but no
words came out. “Boxx, what are you doing?” Her voice still sounded
odd in her ears.

“I Heal Keris,” it announced.
Then its mouth reverted to the same rippling motion.

“Sorry, no time for that now.”
She pulled away and got to her feet. Her legs swayed under her but
she fought to regain control, forcing them to carry her towards the
opening. Although it made no sense, she could still feel the
Chandara’s touch. It was as if the whole side of her face were
alive.

Framed in the entrance to the
sphere, she could see Lyall sparring with four soldiers in iron
studded leather breastplates. He was using the superior reach of
his staff to fend them off, whilst they circled, weapons drawn,
trying to outflank him. He flared his cloak and leaped out of their
midst, the soldiers giving chase.

Keris clambered out of the silver
globe, and from the corner of her eye she spotted Alondo to her
right, crouched down. Bizarrely, he seemed to be adjusting the
settings on that musical instrument he carried. At least he seemed
to have the good sense to stay out of the fighting.

Her mind was starting to clear,
and her tactical sense kicked in. In an instant, she registered the
relative positions of friend and foe alike, as if they were pieces
on a shassatan board. Alondo would correspond to “The Fool,” with
no offensive role. Lyall was “The Wheel,” around which the other
pieces revolved. She would be “The Dagger,” punishing each of the
opponent’s moves with a counter-move. “The Dagger,” for the
opposition would be the lone Keltar. She glanced around anxiously,
but he did not seem to be within her field of vision.

She moved out
onto the tower’s roof.
The sound of
clashing staffs, above and behind her
. She
wheeled around to see the Keltar battling another cloaked figure in
mid-air above the ruined globe.
Shann
. The tiny girl was twisting
and turning, parrying and dodging a furious array of blows. As
Keris registered the scene, she could not help but be impressed by
the girl’s tenacity. Wisely, she was not making it a contest of
strength but was using her superior speed and agility to good
effect. However, she was fighting a trained Keltar, and there was
no way for her to avoid every blow. Already her arm bore what
looked like a flesh wound. Sooner or later, a single vicious thrust
or slash would fully connect, and she would go
down.

Keris bent her
legs, retracted the bronze layer of her cloak fully and shot into
the air. The lodestone platform was a perfect base, affording
almost infinite possibilities of movement in the air. However, the
enemy had the same advantage. Overconfidence would be fatal.
Twisting in the air, she altered her trajectory so as to land on
the outer shell of the sphere near the top. She landed and pressed
herself flat against the curved surface. Shann had landed on the
platform and immediately taken off again in a different
direction
. Good girl. Don’t let yourself
get caught on the ground.
The Keltar gave
chase. He was trying to anticipate the girl’s next move and trap
her. He had not spotted Keris; she had the element of
surprise.
Just keep him occupied for a few
moments more, girl.

Shann reached
the apex of her leap. The Keltar was rising to meet her in the air,
readying his staff once more to probe her defences, waiting for her
to make a fatal error. His back was turned. Keris saw the opening.
She flared her cloak and launched herself skyward. Reaching the top
of her leap, she angled her body towards the Keltar, and slammed
open her bronze layer. Instantly, she felt the downward pressure of
the upper lodestone layer on bronze. She hurtled downwards, feet
first. Air rushed past as the pair of cloaked combatants rose to
meet her. Keris twisted at the last, feeling resistance, as her
boots impacted the Keltar’s side. She heard an “
oomph
” as air was forcibly expelled
from the man’s lungs. The massive blow sent him tumbling towards
the platform out of control, and he landed hard. Keris partially
retracted her bronze and slowed her descent, alighting directly in
front of the sprawling figure. From the corner of her eye she could
see that Shann had landed safely some way off. The girl was
breathing hard, but watching the confrontation,
intently.

The man turned
his face towards Keris. He was young and wiry looking, with fair
hair combed straight back. Keris had a flash of recognition. She
had seen him at the keep, but could not remember ever speaking to
him. He rose to his feet, clutching his side. “
You–you are Keris, the traitor
.”

The word stung Keris in a way she
had not expected. It felt like he had somehow turned the tables on
her and gained the advantage. She scrambled to maintain her moral
footing. “You do not understand what is going on here.”

“I
understand
well enough,”
the man sneered. “
You
have sided with these impostors against the
Prophet.”

“The Prophet is out to destroy
all Kelanni,” she countered. “You are being used.”

“Ridiculous!
” the young man
spat.

Keris was about to respond, when
she felt a pressure wave pass over her. She whirled around just in
time to see two soldiers come cart-wheeling through the air. They
landed on the stone roof in a tumble of arms and legs.

She looked back along the line of
their trajectory. Alondo stood with his boots firmly planted, the
open neck of his musical instrument pointed forward. He turned to
face two more soldiers who were advancing on him from the side. He
adjusted a control and then struck the strings. Keris watched with
disbelief as a shimmering ring rippled through the atmosphere and
struck with a force that knocked them backwards. He tweaked the
control once more, and commenced a rhythmic strumming. An aerial
vortex emanated from the device, twisting in the air like a coiled
serpent. The soldiers raised their hands in a vain attempt to
resist the force now washing over them. Faces contorted, they
turned tail and ran for the roof exit. The other soldiers got to
their feet and stumbled after their companions. Lyall chased after
them with his staff, completing the rout.