Lodestone Book One: The Sea of Storms (51 page)

There was a
round head above her. Its eyes were closed and its mouth quivered
oddly. The head had a name.
“Boxx.”

The creature opened its eyes and
the sensation of warmth faded. “You Are Awake,” it said.

Shann’s head
felt muzzy. Her back ached and she realised she was lying on
something hard. She tilted her head to her left. Smooth round
stones stretched away into the distance. There was the sound of
water, lapping gently.
A
beach
. She squeezed her eyes shut and
opened them again.

“Wh-where is this?”

“This Is Beyond.”

“Beyond the Great
Barrier?”

“Yes, Beyond.”

“Lyall…Alondo…where are
they?”

“Gone.”

“The ship?”

“It Is Gone.”

Shann’s mind
kicked in, replaying her most recent memories. They were
pulling
Annata’s Reach
through the storm barrier–the other ship fired–they were
hit–she saw the Prophet’s ship go down in the storms–a wave struck
them–she clung to Boxx to stop him being swept
overboard–then…what?

She struggled to sit up. Her
salt-stained clothes had partially dried in the warmth of the suns
and they felt stiff.

“How did I get here?”

“The Tree–It Bore Us.”

It indicated a
large timber laying half out of the water–from the
Reach’s
smashed hull.
She got to her feet. Her muscles protested loudly, but she ignored
them. The sky looked peculiar–a deep cerulean blue, unbroken, save
for a few wisps of cloud. Ail-Mazzoth was gone–lost somewhere
beyond the distant horizon, where the Great Barrier brooded like an
angry frown.

She turned and
walked up the stony beach. Ail-Kar was chasing Ail-Gan towards a
line of hills to the east. The beach gave way to a shelf of grey
rock, strewn with boulders. There were strange patches of white
powder on the ground. Shann bent down to touch one. It felt
cold–colder than anything she had ever felt before. Curiously, she
scooped up a little of the powder and held it in her hand. It
seemed to be made up of tiny crystals. She watched in fascination
as the crystals turned to…
water
. She raised her hand to her
mouth and allowed the drops to fall on her tongue. They were
deliciously cool. She scraped up a handful of the stuff, ignoring
the growing numbness in her fingers. Soon, she had slaked her
thirst.

Boxx had
climbed onto a small boulder and was watching her patiently. As the
suns began to set, she felt the air grow colder. Shann began to
shiver. The light was fading rapidly, and the sky was gradually
turning darker and darker, blue into black. Suddenly, a bright
point appeared. But it was not one of the streaks of light that
appeared regularly over the skies of her home. It hung motionless
overhead. Shann gasped as another appeared near it…and then
another. Soon the blackened sky was filled with twinkling points of
light, like diamonds on velvet, filling her vision. The words of
Alondo’s tale back at the Calandra came back to her.
“It was a land of the darkest dark, where the sky
is bright, but there are no suns.”
Her
mind reeled.
It was true–Arval had been
here.

She turned to Boxx. The Chandara
was perched on its rock, its upturned face illuminated by the
myriads of tiny lights. “What are they?” she asked.

Boxx’s high
pitched voice was charged with reverence.
“They Are Called Stars.”

—
End of Book One
—