Lodestone Book One: The Sea of Storms (30 page)

“It’s good to
see you, Keris.” The dark presence raised its left hand and pulled
back the hood. Small intense eyes burned in a round face; a mouth
with sides turned upwards in a half smile.
Mordal
.

Keris felt a
pang of guilt at the sight of her former mentor but thrust it away.
She recalled their fateful discussion on a spring afternoon in the
keep garden a lifetime ago, or so it seemed. That discussion had
taken her on a journey neither of them could have imagined. She had
travelled farther and farther from Mordal and all that he
represented. Yet now here he was, standing before her.
Full circle
. “I have
come as you asked,” she began.

Mordal’s eyes twinkled. “Thank
you. I am pleased to see you looking well, Keris.”

She looked downcast. “I’m sorry
about the boy, Nikome. I tried to talk to him, convince him to
stand down. He wouldn’t listen. There was an explosion and he…fell
from the tower.” She swallowed.

Mordal raised a hand in a
conciliatory gesture. “Do not concern yourself with that. It was
unfortunate, but he disobeyed a direct order. I am gratified that
you were not hurt.”

Keris felt off balance. Of all
the reactions she could have expected from him, kindness was the
last. She allowed some small part of her to hope that her plan
might actually work out. She gathered her courage about her. “Have
you considered my proposal?”

“Yes indeed,” Mordal responded.
He added lightly, “I would like to hear more about those devices
you found.”

“There’s not much more I can tell
you about them. The mechanism at the tower was destroyed, as you
know. The communication device is in our possession, but it does
not operate on demand. The woman from the past appears only at
certain intervals. She mentioned a power generation problem. That’s
all I know.”

Keris had been very careful about
how much she revealed to him through the Speaker Ring. She had told
him about the holographic machine and the messages sent by the
woman from the past, but she had deliberately not mentioned the
Chandaras’ involvement. She had informed him that they were
travelling to the tower to investigate another device but had not
admitted to knowing its purpose. It was all very much a calculated
risk on her part. She knew she would need to limit the damage in
the event that it all blew up in her face.

To begin with, her idea had been
simply to convince Mordal of the threat to the Kelanni. She would
use the tower to transfer to the other side of the world with Lyall
and the others, while he would remain here as a powerful friend and
ally, working to undermine the Prophet’s schemes. With the
destruction of the tower, things had changed. It seemed to Keris
that the best way to proceed now would be for them to join forces
and find a way to cross the Great Barrier together. However,
achieving that objective would be a much harder task. It would
involve a great deal of trust on both sides. Right now, they had
many more reasons to distrust one another. If this plan was going
to stand any chance of working, it would have to be handled very
carefully indeed. She and Mordal were the key. She had to convince
him of the danger that the Prophet posed to them all.

She studied the ageing Keltar. He
appeared thoughtful. Keris decided to press home her advantage.
“You should come with me to our camp. Alone. I will go in first and
explain what is going on. The leader, Lyall, is a reasonable man
and he will listen. The girl will be a problem, but I can handle
her. Once I have their agreement, you can meet with them and we
will arrange a truce. I will also show you the mechanism we are
carrying so that you can see it for yourself.”

“I don’t think that will be
possible.” Mordal’s quiet voice seemed to fill up the
night.

“What do you mean?”

“I’m afraid I have a confession
to make,” Mordal continued. “I did not come here to discuss your
proposal.”

“Then what–?”

His smile vanished. “I want you
to return with me to the keep, to claim your rightful place as my
successor.”

Keris looked
confused. “
Have you not heard what I have
been saying? All Kelanni is under threat. Besides, you must know
that after what happened at Gort, there is no way I could return
even if I wanted to
.”

“Do not worry. I have taken care
of everything.”

“Taken care…how?”

“No-one will know about the
incident at the compound.” Mordal’s tone assumed an edge of pride.
“Remember Ferenek? You spoke to him of your suspicions before you
knocked him unconscious in his office. When he came to, he started
asking awkward questions. A short while later he…met with an
unfortunate accident.”

“But why?”

“He knew of your involvement,”
Mordal stated simply. “Then there were the nomads you travelled
with over the plains. I could not be sure exactly what you had told
them, so I felt it safest to make sure they could not
talk.”

Keris felt as
if she had been punched in the stomach.
All those people – dead.
The shock
of it was too much to bear. He was killing
indiscriminately–
for
her
.

“Nikome is
gone,” Mordal continued. “The soldiers know nothing. The only other
person who is aware of your involvement is Saccath. Once he is
silenced, we can return to Chalimar together and you can assume
your rightful place. As far as anyone is concerned, you have been
engaged on an extended mission under my orders. No-one will be any
the wiser. Do you see? I have
covered
for you. All you need to do
is decide to come with me now, and all will be
well.”

Keris was still
reeling from the enormity of the revelations.
No…it can’t be…it has to stop. I…I cannot allow this to
continue.

“I only did all
of this for you, Keris.
For
you
. You have to come with me now.” Mordal
advanced toward her and grabbed her by the arm. She pulled away in
horror. His voice assumed a hard edge. “
You will come with me now, or you will not leave this
place
.” In one swift movement, his staff
was balanced in his thick fingers, brooking no argument. She backed
away. He began to circle her, a smile playing on his lips once
more. “Unfortunately, I cannot allow my actions to become known.
What will it be, Keris? Shall we leave and embrace our future
together. Or shall we ‘dance’ one last time?”

Madness?
Obsession?
Keris knew little of such
things. It was impossible to believe that this was the same man who
had taken her in and nurtured her, who had impressed on her the
conviction that the Kelanni needed to be protected and cared for.
Yet somehow he had turned into a monster.

His hands slipped to one end of
his staff and he swung it towards her in a wide arc. She jumped
back instinctively, the diamond blade passing inches from her
midriff. “I’m gratified to see that your reflexes are as keen as
ever, Keris.” He spun around and then leapt into the air a short
distance, aiming the staff at her head. She side-stepped neatly,
and the blade flashed past her harmlessly. “Good, very good,” he
approved. “Now, are you going to obey my wishes or are you going to
defend yourself?”

He was advancing on her again.
Keris felt as if she were in a waking dream. One hand moved
involuntarily to her own staff, gripping the smooth darkwood. It
felt solid, reassuring. Her other hand moved to her neck control
and she adjusted the bronze layer of her cloak, seeking the
pressure of natural lodestone. As she registered the strengths and
directions of the familiar push of the ore, it was bizarrely the
words of Mordal himself that came back to her, spoken in a
different place and at a different time.

“Battling another
Keltar is unlike any other battle you will ever fight. When
encountering anyone else, the lodestone will furnish you with a
decisive advantage in height and momentum. However, when you are
facing another Keltar, those advantages are cancelled out. Instead,
the field of battle and the configuration of lodestone deposits
become all-important. A clash between Keltar is primarily a battle
of tactics. Even superior strength and agility can be overcome by
superior positioning and spatial orientation. You must immediately
determine the location and strength of any deposits and then ‘own’
them, denying your opponent any advantage.”

Keris tested
the push on her lodestone layer from different directions, mapping
out the floor of the corrie in her head.
One directly behind her–weak. Two behind Mordal, one to the
left–medium strength, and one he was almost standing on–the
strongest of the three. His was the clear advantage. No doubt he
had planned for this eventuality when arranging to meet her. The
spot he had selected, even the place he had chosen to stand, were
far from random. Keris cursed her own lack of foresight. She would
have to go on the defensive and stall for time, hoping to
reposition herself so as to challenge his dominant
stance.

Start with what
you have
. She backed off rapidly and
activated her cloak, leaping and pushing off against the deposit
behind her. It was more to see what Mordal would do than anything
else. The next move was clearly his. The aged Keltar flared his own
cloak and pushed off the big deposit, soaring over her. She
descended, holding out her staff with both hands defensively. He
dived, his staff meeting hers with a loud crack, then let loose
with a flurry of blows as they both descended. He drove her down,
finishing off with a powerful slicing move as her boots hit stone,
forcing her to her knees. He locked staffs with her, eyes wild with
elation.

Keris gritted
her teeth and strained for a moment before shoving him back. Mordal
swung his blade and slashed her arm as she rolled away. Keris felt
the flash of pain. She embraced it, allowing it to keen her senses.
Getting her feet under her, she rose to face Mordal once again. He
was still positioned between her and the main deposits of lodestone
in the ground. In spite of his age, his reactions seemed
unimpaired.
If I don’t come up with
something soon, I’m finished.

Grenades
. She was loath to use her
limited supply, but they would be of little use to her if she were
dead. She reached into her pouch, fingers closing on a round
metallic shape. Pulling it out, she quickly twisted one hemisphere.
A low whine emanated from the lodestone grenade, rising rapidly in
volume and pitch. She tossed it in Mordal’s direction. It bounced
once on the stone and exploded in a burst of light and flame.
Mordal, however, had already leapt beyond the blast. As he settled
back to the ground, cloak fully extended behind him, he was
laughing and shaking his head. “Keris, Keris. Why not just accept
the inevitable? Leave those other fools and come back with me,
now.”

Keris was not listening. She had
used the interlude to scan the field once more for lodestone and
she detected something she had missed before, something that gave
her a faint glimmer of hope. If Mordal had missed it too… She raced
to her left, using the small and medium deposits to give her a
combined lift, so that she rose up the steep wall of the
semicircular basin.

Mordal had an amused expression
as he extended his cloak once more and thrust upwards, using the
momentum of the strong deposit. She saw him hurtling towards her,
staff at the ready, in anticipation of the imminent clash. Hers was
a risky manoeuvre. It required precise timing and there were too
many ways it could go wrong, but she was desperate. As she flew up
the side of the cwm, she felt the pressure from her objective, a
lodestone deposit embedded halfway up the rock wall. As she drew
level, she slammed open her bronze layer, arresting her upward
rise, then pivoted feet-first toward the rock wall, withdrawing the
bronze and exposing the lodestone layer. She shot forward on a
horizontal trajectory away from the wall. Mordal could not react in
time, and she careened into him, impacting his lower abdomen. Pain
lanced through her shoulder as they were both sent into an
uncontrolled spin. The ground whirled crazily as Keris fought to
right herself by using her cloak to brake her descent. She was only
partially successful, landing in a heap on the stone
floor.

The various
cuts and bruises on her body screamed for attention but she
dismissed them, casting her eyes about for Mordal. There was no
sign. Then she saw it–a dark shape near the rear of the dimly lit
basin. It was not moving. Keris got to her feet with a grimace,
holding the cut on her right arm with her left hand in order to
staunch the flow of blood. She made her way over to the latent form
and dropped to one knee, extending her bloodstained fingers to
touch his shoulder. Mordal’s eyes were open, expressionless–his
neck broken. She got to her feet, tears forming rivulets in the
grime clinging to her olive cheeks.
Why…why did you make me do it?
She
ripped the Speaker Ring from her finger and hurled it at the body,
excising her final connection to her mentor. The Ring bounced off
and plinked on the rough stone before coming to a dead
stop.