Set in Stone (26 page)

Was she crazy? How could he relax with her sitting so close, her warm breath tickling his ear?

She smelled like leather and roses, and her rich voice tugged at his heart. It was easier to fight the pedra today than to sit beside her and try to relax.

"Relax," she whispered again in his ear. "Focus on the granite. Feel every grain against your skin."

He tried to do what she asked. He rolled the granite powder through his fingers and thought back to that very morning when he'd done the same on the barge.

His hand started to itch.

Connor's eyes popped open and he met Shona's gaze. "It's working. I feel it."

She grinned and touched his hand. "Like an itch just under the skin?"

"Yes." The feeling intensified and rolled up his arm to his chest. He gripped the granite powder and willed its power into him.

With a rush, strength blossomed in every muscle, like nothing he'd ever felt before. He staggered to his feet, unable to remain seated with so much power roaring through his body.

The muscles of his chest and arms swelled impossibly, and his shirt ripped up the back. He stared in wonder at his bulging muscles, threw his head back and laughed with the pure joy of the moment.

The Guardians all leaped to their feet and shouted, as if he'd won a great victory.

Rory, grinning like the others, said, "Well done, lad."

Shona stood close beside Connor and traced a hand down his arm. She smiled, "Oh, Connor, I am very impressed."

Tomas stepped in front of Connor and said, "Your Curse-punch was just the beginning. You absorbed just enough power to focus it in your fist. Now you've taken a full measure of granite, confirmed your affinity. Now you're strong!"

He turned to a nearby tree as thick around as Connor's waist, and grasped it by the trunk. His body swelled with power and the leather plates on his shoulders and back shifted with his expanded size.

He ripped the tree out of the ground.

Roots snapped and earth flung in all directions as Tomas lifted the tree high, turned, and heaved it. It sailed over the camp, past soldiers who dove out of the way, and crashed down into the forest on the far side. The entire clearing shook, wood splintered as branches snapped off against other trees, and the air filled with the smell of earth and wood.

Tomas turned and thumped his chest as his body shrank back to his normal burly size. "That's the power of a granite Guardian lad, strength of the mountains."

Shona sniffed. "Show-off."

Tomas grinned. "Your turn."

Connor returned the grin. The feeling of overwhelming strength was heady, and in that moment, he felt like he could lift the entire manor house off its foundation. He selected a tree almost as big around as the one Tomas ripped from the ground, grabbed it by the trunk, and heaved.

Nothing happened.

Connor frowned, set his feet, and pulled harder. The hugely expanded muscles of his back strained, and the tattered remains of his shirt slid off his shoulders. The tree shook and groaned, but stayed fast in the ground.

Shona drew near and placed one hand on the center of his back. "Focus, Connor. One of the important things to learn is to regulate your power."

He paused. "What do you mean?"

"You absorb strength from the granite, but you control how much of it to use. It's called the tap rate."

She stepped to one side, to a rock half as tall as she and covered with moss. She gripped it and lifted it easily over her head. "I can lift this rock by applying just enough power. I don't need a full measure of granite."

She dropped the rock and returned to him. Her skin faded to gray and her body hardened to the perfectly sculpted lines he'd seen when she fought the pedra. She gave him a little wink, "Sometimes, we need to max-tap. It burns through the granite much faster, but can increase our power ten-fold."

She grabbed the tree he'd been struggling to lift, and with a single heave of her shoulders, ripped it from the ground.

Connor stumbled back as earth cascaded up from snapping roots. Shona tossed the tree aside, and her skin returned to its normal, softer lines.

She raised a single eyebrow at him. "Think you can keep up?"

Rory said, "Good show, lass, but ware the powder stores."

Shona tossed her hair back and said, "You insisted we do this, so we do it right. I have enough left for Ilse."

Connor rushed to another tree, this one even thicker around than the last. He grabbed it and focused on the granite strength burning through his body. He willed it to life.

At first it tried pooling in his fist, and he stared in wonder as the skin of his hand faded to gray. He fought the Curse, fought the granite power, and drove it out to the rest of his body. His muscles swelled with renewed strength, and the itch of the curse expanded through all his limbs.

He groaned with the need to scratch, but the feeling passed quickly, and his skin faded to gray all over. His feeling deadened until his entire body felt like living granite. He turned to the tree and this time easily pulled it out of the ground.

Connor laughed as he hefted the mighty tree. He turned to look at Shona, but as he did so, the tree shifted in his hands and started to fall toward the camp.

Connor grunted and tried to catch it, but the momentum built so quickly that despite his incredible strength, he could not stop it.

"Look out," Connor shouted. Soldiers scattered as the tree fell toward them.

Captain Rory and Tomas leaped forward and planted themselves directly underneath the falling tree. The image of the one Fast Roller's ankles shattering under the impact with the stone pedra flashed into Connor's mind. He could not allow that to happen to Rory.

Connor roared with the effort and drew deep upon the power of the granite. His body swelled further, and power burned up his arms. Connor leaned against the weight of the falling tree with all his strength.

Five feet above Rory's extended arms, the tree stopped. Connor held it there for two long heartbeats, his entire body quivering with the strain before, with a final heave, he threw it. It sailed over the camp and smashed into the forest on the far side, splintering small trees and shaking the forest.

Connor stood panting for breath, but then the strength of the granite burned out, and Connor's muscles withered. Exhaustion clobbered him, and he staggered and fell to one knee, suddenly so tired he couldn't lift a single finger.

Shona dropped to her knees beside him and took his head in her hands. She lifted his face until their eyes met. Her blue eyes seemed to glow, and she laughed with delight.

She leaned close and said softly, "You are proving most interesting, Connor. I'm looking forward to finding out what else you can do."

Then a couple of the Fast Rollers arrived and hauled Connor back to the fire. Rory said, "I'm impressed, lad. You've got powerful affinity for granite."

Tomas barked a laugh. "Better than almost anyone I've seen first try, that's a fact."

Connor frowned, "How is it possible? I've never used granite like this."

"But you have," Shona said. "You grew up in a quarry, Connor, so you've been exposed to powdered granite your whole life, only in smaller quantities. Granite is your curse."

"It's my curse too," Tomas declared proudly as he led the other Fast Rollers in pounding Connor on the back, nearly knocking him to the ground.

Rory nodded. "Aye, we've proven he's a Boulder sure as strength."

"I thought you were Fast Rollers," Conner said.

"Not every Boulder makes it to our ranks," Tomas said with a grin. "We're the elite."

One of the other Guardians passed Connor a spare leather battle jacket like theirs. "Can't wear normal clothes into battle," he laughed as he showed Connor how to put it on. It hung a little loose, even after they tightened all the straps as far as they could go.

Tomas laughed. "You'll fill it out when the time comes."

"Don't mean you're a full Guardian yet, but it'll do for now," Rory said.

"Thank you, sir. I knew the quarry triggered my Curse somehow, but never thought it was the granite. How does it grant us strength?"

Shona said, "We don't have time to explain it all."

Rory nodded. "For now, accept that it is so. Granite is the most common power stone in Obrion. More Petralists and more Guardians show gifts in granite than any other."

"There are other stones?"

"Of course," Shona said. "Did you think every Guardian used the same stone and had the same powers?"

"Well, yes." He should have realized there were different types of Petralists after his time with the Grandurians. Kilian was no Boulder. Then there was the fast-running Strider, and the Healer. Of course they used different stones.

"You need to pay more attention," Shona said.

"I didn't know." Now that she mentioned them, it made sense, but how could he have figured that out?

"Nine are the stones that grant their power," Rory said, his voice slipping into a cadence. "Three for the masses, two for the many, and four for the privileged few."

"Oh now he's gone and cracked," the Healer said with a wheezing chuckle. "The boy won't be able to keep up."

Rory smiled ruefully. "I don't know any other way to say it."

Shona groaned, "It's a wonder you can count high enough to lead these men."

"What did you mean?" Connor asked before they could get distracted.

"He means that even though there are nine power sources, most of us develop affinities with one of three."

"Igneous stones," the Healer piped in. "Most common. All manifest first through these." He gave Connor a thoughtful look and muttered under his breath. "Almost always."

Shona added, "Maybe half of all Petralists and Guardians can develop at least a basic affinity with a secondary stone."

"Sedimentary," the Healer added. "Light and healing." He said healing with pride and tapped his chest. "But at best half of those gain enough power to make it worth the effort."

"What's important to us today," Shona said, "is that only a few Petralists can ever develop an affinity with one of the four metamorphic stones."

"Why is that important?" Connor asked.

"Because," Rory piped in, "conjuring can only be done by someone with a granite affinity combining their strength with a metamorphic elemental power. To conjure that stone pedra, one of Ilse's band must have a powerful affinity to a metamorphic stone, and lots of experience."

"Kilian, the Water Moccasin." Shona looked to Connor, as if expecting him to understand. He felt like a dolt when he didn't.

"Aye, that would do it," Rory said. "Mighty tricky merging that much granite with enough soapstone to hold it all together."

"It has to be," Shona said. "Didn't you notice the water?"

Finally Connor understood. They were talking about the water spurting from the pedra like blood every time it got hit. Somehow Ilse and Kilian had worked together to summon that monster.

He shivered. This foreign world of Guardians was so different from his own it was like standing on the edge of a precipice. The little he understood about it only served to highlight its danger, but he still lacked so much knowledge. Any one thing he didn't yet know could be the stone that could roll under his foot and throw him over the edge.

"We'll know soon enough," Rory said. "I've heard of this Kilian, but even he'll be exhausted after that beast."

Connor started to ask another question, but Rory shook his head. "You can't learn everything in one day, lad. Right now, everyone get some sleep. We march in one hour. It'll be a busy night."

Chapter 28

Connor crouched across from the Powder House at the edge of the tree line above the far side of Loch Wick. The sun had fallen behind the Maclachlan Mountains and deep shadows filled the valley.

He could not suppress a thrill of excitement to think an army crouched in the darkness right behind him, led by Lady Shona and half a dozen Guardians. For a moment he could imagine himself a hero, worthy to stand with the Guardians of the realm in driving the Grandurians from his home.