Lodestone Book One: The Sea of Storms (26 page)

Keris was
almost as shocked as the soldiers. She had never seen anything like
the weapon that Alondo wielded. She gathered her wits, pointing the
tip of her staff at the still prone Keltar. “Your men are
defeated.
Yield!
”

“Never!
” The young man got to his
feet and rushed Keris. She sidestepped neatly, swinging her staff
and striking him in the back with the darkwood. Shann was walking
towards them. Keris held up her hand. “Leave him to
me.”

Dark clouds were rolling in,
obscuring the suns and casting the tower in a premature evenfall.
The cloaked youth turned again to face her. He laughed mirthlessly
“Others are coming after you. You will not escape.” He raised his
hand to his neck and leapt away. Keris bent her knees, flared her
cloak and jumped into the air after him. He twisted around to face
her and she caught the look of pure hatred in his eyes as their
staffs clashed.

As Keris
parried a low strike, she heard Lyall shouting from below. She
couldn’t make out what he was saying, but she detected a note of
urgency in his voice. Glancing to one side, she saw smoke billowing
from the roof’s exit.
I have to end
this
.

She blipped her bronze layer,
dropping below her adversary and then pushing off again, to try and
come up behind him. If she could damage his cloak’s mechanism and
give herself a decisive advantage, then maybe he would be more
inclined to reason. He appeared to read her intentions and
swivelled in the air, holding out his staff in a defensive posture.
Her staff met his with a crack that reverberated across the
rooftop. Before he could respond, she shifted her grip and followed
up with a succession of strikes. The Keltar was driven backwards
and descended, landing on the platform with a slight
stumble.

He backed up and as he did so,
Keris could see that he was getting near the parapet. She touched
down and advanced towards him. There was an acrid tinge of smoke in
the air. “Don’t be a fool,” she cried out. “Come with us and let us
explain what we have found.”

She saw the side of his mouth
quirk into a half smile. He feinted to her left and then shifted
position, coming at her from the right. The diamond blade moved in
a vicious arc, aimed at her head. Keris pulled back as the staff
sliced through the air in front of her face. Swinging low with her
own staff, she took the man’s legs out from under him. The youth
went down again, sprawling on the hard stone.

He rose to a
crouch, opened his cloak and sprang upwards.
A massive detonation
. The ancient
tower rocked and the platform beneath Keris’ feet swayed slightly.
The young Keltar instinctively shifted the direction of his flight
away from the blast. Too late, the expression on his face
registered his fatal mistake. He snapped open the bronze layer of
his flying cloak in an effort to brake, but his forward momentum
carried him out over the edge of the parapet.

Keris was
running towards the youth across the stone roof .
“
Nooo!
” She threw
herself down at the parapet, hand outstretched, fingers extended
into empty space in a futile attempt to grab him. The only
lodestone this high up was the roof itself, which at the angle he
was at, would only serve to push him further away. She could only
watch in horror as he began to fall backwards, down the face of the
tower, cloak fluttering uselessly in the wind. The image shrank
rapidly, and in a moment was gone.

Keris sagged against the parapet
in defeat. As she did so, the first large raindrops splashed
against her head and against the stone. Lyall walked up to her as
she lay there, with Alondo and Shann behind him and Boxx behind
them, bobbing up and down like a child that was trying to get a
better view.

Lyall looked down at her, his
blue eyes seeming to acknowledge the depth of her pain and
frustration. He extended a hand to help her up. “Let’s get out of
here.”

~

The rain was
falling in parallel streaks, pattering against the stone. Lyall
stood at the roof exit, ripping up pieces of cloth and handing them
around. He offered one to Boxx, but the Chandara only looked at him
with a puzzled expression. “Soak these with rainwater and hold them
over your mouth. Breathe through them.” He looked at each of them
in turn.. “As we descend, keep close to the outer wall and try to
keep low to the ground. Stay close together and above all, whatever
happens,
don’t panic
.”

He led the way back into the
tower’s interior, followed by Shann, Alondo and Boxx, with Keris
bringing up the rear. The atmosphere inside the tower was heavy
with smoke. Lyall was acutely aware that there might be another
explosion at any moment, but there was nothing he could do about
that. They had to escape the tower as quickly as possible, and this
was the only way.

Smoke curled around them and the
heat increased. Fire was taking hold in the upper part of the
tower. The petards had done more than destroy the transporter
mechanism; whether by accident or design, they now threatened to
raze the tower itself. Patches of red and orange were visible
through open doorways, and there was a rushing sound, as the flames
greedily tried to suck in more oxygen.

He heard a loud coughing. It was
Alondo. Motioning Shann to carry on the descent, he turned back to
his friend. “Are you all right?” he shouted. There was another
round of coughing, but Alondo nodded. Lyall put one arm around
Alondo’s shoulders, urging him on. He glanced back at Boxx and
behind it, the outline of Keris. Both appeared to be coping. They
descended through two more floors, and the smoke began to thin
noticeably. Alondo signalled that he was able to continue unaided.
Lyall released him and moved back to point, quickening the
pace.

Lyall had no idea what had
happened to the soldiers but right now, a possible ambush was the
least of his worries. In any case, he seriously doubted whether
they would want to face Alondo’s vortex arm again. His weapon had
that effect on people and animals alike.

He was proud of his team, Shann
especially so. She had faced a trained Keltar and held him at bay
long enough for Keris to deal with him. The girl’s bravery was
beyond question. The rest would just be a matter of training and
practice. In a way, Keris concerned him more.

First the incident at the
compound, and now this. It was as if, having turned on her former
friends, she was now being forced to witness their destruction, one
by one. It was clear that it was all taking a toll on her and that
sooner or later there would be a price to pay for that. Lyall was
not sure what he could do to help her, other than to be there for
her, and to remind her from time to time of the importance of what
they were trying to accomplish.

Regarding that,
there was now the question of what they were going to do next. The
device that was intended to transport them beyond the Great Barrier
was destroyed, gone forever. Assuming they all made it out of here
alive, then the others would be looking for an answer to that
question. And they would be looking to him. Right now, he didn’t
have an answer for them, but he was determined that he would find
one. Lyall glanced back and saw them following him as they
descended through the ruined tower.
I
can’t let them down.

They finally broke through to the
ground floor and rushed out through the entrance, pausing to take
great lungfuls of fresh air. The welcoming rain began to drench
their clothes and their bodies, washing away the smell of stale
smoke. Lyall scanned the area around the base of the tower. There
was no sign of the soldiers or anyone else. Silently, he led the
others in single file back towards the wagon and the waiting
graylesh.

Behind them the tower burned,
flames lighting up the darkening sky.

Chapter
17

The rain had ameliorated to a
gentle teasing drizzle. Three Kelanni and one Chandara sat around a
small fire near the edge of the Eastern Plains. The Kelanni had
blankets pulled over their heads in an effort to try and keep dry.
The blankets steamed slightly in the heat of the
campfire.

Despite their victory at the
tower, the air smelled of defeat. Even Alondo appeared subdued.
Earlier, he had broken out rations of dried raleketh meat and
handed them around. Shann had done little more than pick at
hers.

The injury on her arm no longer
hurt, but her mind still seemed conscious of it somehow. Boxx had
done something to the wound. At the time, she thought that the
creature was just performing some peculiar ceremony and she did not
have the inclination or the strength to object. In a few moments,
an odd sensation suffused her arm, like hot needles, yet strangely,
not unpleasant. Instinct told her she should pull away, but her
body did not want to. After a while, she realised that the pain was
gone. She probed the area of skin experimentally and to her great
surprise, it appeared to be whole. The Chandara sat up on its hind
legs, eyeing her curiously. She rubbed her arm. “Thank you.”
Satisfied, the odd little beast dropped to all sixes, waddled off
and lay down, its head resting on the ground.

The conversation was subdued,
mainly because none of them wanted to talk about the only subject
on everyone’s minds–what were they going to do now. Back across the
open plains, smoke could still be seen rising from the tower,
commingling with the dark clouds overhead, barring passage to the
other side of their world. They had been guided there by Annata,
the woman from the past, yet the device she had used to communicate
with them was silent now and she herself was long dead, bones
turned to dust and washed away by centuries of rain. They were on
their own, burdened with the knowledge of impending disaster, yet
powerless to prevent it.

A dark shape moved across the
brooding sky and descended to the ground near the campfire. It
moved into their midst, the lambent firelight casting its visage in
flame and shadow. The face grinned. “Greetings, people.” Keris
looked up at Lyall, and then looked back at the fire. No-one spoke.
“I have good news,” he began. “There does not seem to be any sign
of the Prophet’s men. If the soldiers who confronted us at the
tower have returned to their masters, then they have no doubt
reported that we gave them a sound thrashing. I think it will make
them think twice about attacking us again.”

There was still no answer from
anyone. Lyall carried on, “I’m very proud of you all. Everyone was
magnificent today. You all did a terrific job.” Keris made an odd
snorting noise. Lyall looked at her with an inquiring expression.
“Keris?”

“…
A
terrific job,” she repeated. Lyall allowed her to marshal her
thoughts. She continued staring into the depths of the fire as she
spoke. “Well let’s see…we… sustained injuries, failed to prevent
the destruction of the tower, our
only
means of travel to the other
side of the world
and
almost got ourselves killed in the process.” She picked up a
stick and threw it savagely into the fire as if to punctuate her
final word. “
Terrific
.”

Shann found herself reluctantly
agreeing with Keris’ assessment. She wondered what she might do
now. Go back and try to free the tributes at Gort again, maybe? If
she were killed in the attempt it would hardly matter, as they were
all facing destruction anyway. Or she could simply go back to
Corte, find Gallar if she was still alive and wait for the end. She
found neither prospect very appealing.

Lyall did not seem at all
flustered by Keris’ outburst. “Did they teach to give up so easily
in Keltar School?” Keris looked away from the fire for the first
time and stared at him. Lyall stood his ground. “Look, none of that
matters...all right, it’s a setback, to be sure. But we are alive
and well. And the fundamentals have not changed. We know that the
Prophet is out to destroy the Kelanni and we have to get to the
other side of our world to stop him.”

“How are we going to do that,
Lyall?” Alondo asked in a quiet voice.

“We have to cross the
Barrier.”

“Do you know someone who knows a
way through?” Keris challenged.

“As a matter of fact, I do.” The
rain had stopped, and the clouds were breaking up, allowing
Ail-Mazzoth’s massive orb to dominate the western sky. “Boxx, is
the machine you are carrying still operational?”

The Chandara rose to its hind
legs at the mention of its name. “Yes, Lyall.”

“Do you know when Annata will
appear next?”

“Yes, Lyall.”

“Can she show us how to continue
to the other side of this world?”

“You
Must
Continue. It Is The
Key.”

Lyall smiled. “Well, that’s one
vote in favour.” He looked at the others one by one. “We know that
Annata has machines and knowledge far beyond ours. We all glimpsed
the wonders at the tower. Her people built a machine and sent it
through time to warn us. In doing so, they have placed a great
responsibility on Keris, and now on us, as well. I do not believe
that they would give up and neither should we. If we work together,
past and future, then I believe we will find a way.