Lodestone Book One: The Sea of Storms (37 page)

Keris backed away, staff held in
a defensive posture, covering their retreat. She reached the
position where Shann and Lyall waited, black cloaks now draped over
their shoulders.

Keris shot a glance at Lyall.
“Alondo is The Fool.”

Lyall nodded.
“Agreed.”

“Mannatar gambit?”

“Risky,” Lyall
returned.

“Do you have an
alternative?”

“No.”

“Then it’s
decided,” Keris declared with finality. A succession of waves from
Alondo’s vortex arm washed over the serpent, causing it to sway its
head back and forth.
How much longer can
Alondo hold out?
“I am the mannatar; you
are the dagger. The girl will have to provide you with a lodestone
base line.

“You taught her co-operative
mechanics?”

“No, of course not.” Keris faced
Lyall’s questioning look and sighed. “The girl has no more than a
simple grasp of the basics. Besides, she seems to have a…resistance
to learning from me.” Lyall cursed under his breath. “I am the
mannatar,” she reminded him. “Make haste.” She ran forward, flared
her cloak and leapt into the air.

Shann’s mind whirled in
confusion. “Wha– What is she talking about?”

Lyall’s attention was fixed on
Keris as she engaged the serpent with a swift mid-air thrust. Her
diamond blade was deflected by the creature’s thick overlapping
scales. It whipped its immense head around and snapped at the empty
space where Keris had been only moments before. “It’s
shassatan.”

Shann was even
more confused than ever.
“The board
game?”

“That’s right. Keltar use it to
teach tactical thinking and as a form of shorthand–a kind of
code.”

Shann’s heart
stopped as she watched Keris twist in the air, narrowly avoiding
the clashing jaws once more. The woman dropped to the ground,
whirling her staff in a complex pattern. Backing away, she reached
her hand into her pouch, extracting a small silver sphere.
One of the precious lodestone
grenades
. She gave it a half twist and
tossed it towards the creature. There was a low whine which rose in
pitch, culminating in a blinding flash and the sound of detonation.
The creature swayed as if disoriented. “B-but I’ve never played
it.”

“Then this will have to be a
quick lesson.” Lyall spoke rapidly. “In shassatan, each of the
pieces is assigned a role which determines its relative strength
and movement. Some roles are given; others may be chosen according
to need. Keris has selected ‘the mannatar,’ named after a crane
fly, an insect that stings repeatedly. It’s a distraction tactic.
Whilst Keris is keeping the serpent occupied, we need to attack one
of its vulnerable spots.”

Shann wanted to say that she
couldn’t see where it had any vulnerable spots, but she shoved the
thought aside. “What do you want me to do?”

“We have to work together. It’s
called ‘co-operative mechanics.’ For example, if we leap together
using a natural deposit, and I get above you, I can use the upper
lodestone layer of your cloak to propel myself higher and farther.
That will enable me to leap high enough to reach the other side of
the fissure.”

“Wouldn’t that knock me to the
ground?”

“That’s right, Shann.
Action–reaction. But you should be able to use the natural deposit
to brake your fall somewhat.”

Somewhat.
Shann wasn’t sure she
liked the sound of that. But the others were under imminent threat.
There was no choice. She pursed her lips. “Let’s do
it.”

Keris had set off two more
grenades. With a throw of some skill and accuracy, she managed to
pitch one of them into the serpent’s gaping mouth as it clamped
shut. Smoke was ejected from the nostrils on top of its head, but
it seemed otherwise unharmed.

Shann and Lyall
trotted forward, cloaks extended, searching for lodestone.
Immediately, the Kharthrun Serpent reacted to their movement,
lunging towards them. A monstrous head filled Shann’s field of
vision, nostrils flared, neck ridges rippling, shining crimson eyes
set in an angular skull. Hot breath washed over her like an
imprecation. Lyall threw himself to the ground. Shann was forced to
dive to one side, rolling away. She sprang to her feet. The serpent
had pulled away and was thrashing around with a bestial rage. She
saw a figure tossed in to the air like a rag doll. It came to rest;
a broken heap, dark against the pure white stone. Shann felt a sick
feeling deep in the pit of her stomach.
Alondo.

Keris
discharged her last two grenades. Then she shot into the air once
more, launching forth a battering series of blows, driving the
diamond blade between its thick scales. The dark haired woman was
now battling the creature alone. Baiting it. Drawing it to
her.
We have to act now
.

Shann’s hand
moved to the cloak’s control mechanism, feeling the push of
lodestone a little to her left. She shouted at Lyall,
“
Over here
.” She
ran towards the spot, Lyall only a few steps behind her. Bending
her legs, she launched herself skyward. As she rose into the air
she saw that Lyall was already above her.
A sudden crushing pressure
. It felt
as if a giant foot had stamped on her back. The ground hurtled up
to meet her. She landed on her side, knocking the breath out of
her.

Pain lanced
through her chest as her lungs fought for air. Shann struggled to
her feet and looked up. Lyall was on the other side of the chasm,
standing over the supine form that was Alondo. The serpent flexed
its huge neck, knocking Keris to one side. She tumbled away across
the rock surface. The leviathan towered over the tiny figures of
the Kelanni. Shann watched as it fixed its malevolent gaze and made
a vicious strike–
directly at
her
.

Lyall cried out
a warning from the opposite side of the fissure.
“
Shann
!”
Instinctively, she held her staff in front of her with both hands.
A clawed arm reached out and caught her a glancing blow.
Crack.
Her darkwood
staff split in the middle, and she was sent sprawling. The
splintered sections of her staff skittered away.

Three more
explosions
. As Shann oriented herself once
more, she saw a vision of Lyall perched on the head of the creature
from the Pits, stabbing and slashing furiously with his staff.
Gripped with horror, she watched as the beast flicked its head and
caught Lyall in its massive jaws. In an instant, it turned and
disappeared into the fissure with a final whip of its tail,
dragging Lyall’s body down into the night-filled
depths.

Chapter
24

Keris stood with her staff at the
ready, straining her ears for subterranean vibrations–any clue that
might presage the serpent’s return. As the silence persisted, she
permitted herself the luxury of a brief self-examination. Her mouth
tasted like ashes. Her body complained of various lacerations and
contusions and what she suspected might be a broken finger. The
pack she carried contained an analgesic plant that might provide
some relief; for now, such minor injuries were beneath her
notice.

She surveyed the aftermath of the
conflict. Boxx had unfurled itself from its defensive ball and
appeared unscathed. The girl was holding her side awkwardly, but
she was on her feet and was alert and responsive. That left Alondo.
Keris ran to the other side of the fissure and scrambled up the
terrace to where the musician lay. She dropped to one knee,
checking for signs of life. One side of his face was covered in
white blood, drying rapidly in the volcanic heat. There was no rise
and fall of his chest. His eyes were closed. He was not
moving.

“Boxx,”
Keris yelled across the gap. The girl appeared
over her, still clutching her side and breathing a little heavily.
In her free hand, she held Lyall’s staff.

“Keris–” she began.

“Don’t try to
move him,” Keris shot back, a little too sharply.
“Boxx,”
she called
again.

The Chandara arrived and lifted
itself up on its hind limbs, looking at her expectantly. Keris
indicated Alondo. “Can you do anything for him?”

The Chandara looked down at
Alondo with its bead like eyes. “I Can Try To Do Anything.” It
touched Alondo’s temple with the three fingers of its upper
forelimb. It closed its eyes and its mouth rippled
soundlessly.

“Keris–”
Shann’s voice was insistent.

“I’ll get to
you in a moment,” Keris snapped back.
You
are not seriously injured –be patient.

After a short while, Alondo’s
chest rose slightly and Keris heard a faint rattle in the
musician’s throat. She allowed herself to breathe once more.
Wearily, she got to her feet and made her way back to where her
pack lay. The girl came after her, grabbing her arm, pulling her
round.

Shann looked small. Her eyes were
puffy where she had been crying. “What about Lyall?”

Keris softened a little. “I’m
sorry, child, he’s gone.”

“B-but we have to go after him,”
Shann pleaded.

“I’m afraid that’s
impossible.”

Shann’s body
tensed.
“We have to go after him
now.”
She was holding Lyall’s staff in an
attack stance.

Keris ignored
the veiled threat.
Do I have to spell it
out for you, girl?
“Look, we can’t stay
here. That thing may come back at any time. If it does, none of us
may survive. Lyall is lost to us. We have to go on without him.”
Keris turned on her heel, without waiting for a
response.

“No!”
The word strangled in Shann’s
throat.

Keris sensed a
movement behind her, the whoosh of a diamond bladed staff.
I don’t have time for this.
In a single movement, she thrust her own staff backwards and
hooked it, slicing the girl’s legs from under her. She turned
around to see Shann lying on her back, her face a mask of pain and
frustration. The older woman’s eyes blazed.
“I will not fight you.”

Shann got to
her feet and stumbled off, heaving sobs wracking her diminutive
frame.
Let her go.

~

She was thin.
Scrawny, some might say. Tall for her age, with long dark hair that
ran down her back in waves. Pretty, in a severe kind of way. And
with the heart of an utharan mammoth, according to her
father.

The smaller children
came running up to her. They pulled at her coat, her sleeves.
“Keris. Look, it’s Keris. Keris will help us. Yes. Yes.” A little
boy was pushed to the front. He was blond, podgy, with a gap in his
front teeth. “A boy took Alerain’s spinner. Will you get it back
for us? Keris will get it back. Will you? Please?”

She was dragged along
to where a big-boned boy with close cropped, dark hair sat on the
ground playing with the spinner. Behind him, the Dagmar tower rose
above the manse like a finger pointed at the sky. “Give it back,”
she ordered.

The boy looked her up
and down and laughed unpleasantly. “And who will make me? You?”
Keris stood her ground. The boy’s smile disappeared in an instant
and he rose to his feet. “Why don’t you just try and take it off
me?” She flew at him, pummelling him with her bony fists and
kicking at him with her long legs. “Give…it…back.”

The boy staggered
backwards, raising his arms protectively. His face creased up. “I’m
telling my mother.” She watched his receding back. Then she picked
up the discarded spinner.

The little children
were cheering and jumping for joy. “She did it. Keris did it. Keris
is our leader. Keris is our leader.”

Keris is our
leader.
The older Keris sat with the
flying cloak covering her shoulders, keeping night watch, deep in
the Fire Pits of Kharthrun.
I never wanted
that.
But then someone had to be there to
right wrongs, to protect the weak. Then as now, she was a prisoner
of who and what she was.

The girl had returned to their
makeshift camp later that evening. She sat on her own and turned
away every time Keris looked at her. Shann needed to reach out to
someone, but it was not going to be Keris, that much was clear.
Boxx was preoccupied with his ministrations, and Alondo only
drifted into consciousness for brief periods. So the girl was left
to wrestle with her grief alone.

“Wh-what happened?” Alondo had
asked with his eyes still closed.

Keris was stone faced. “The
Kharthrun Serpent. It’s gone now.”

“Lyall?”

“We lost him. I’m
sorry.”

Alondo’s head moved from side to
side slowly. He pressed his eyes together. “Where’s
Shann?”