The Kallanon Scales (20 page)

“I am.”

“Bear with me,
please. Is the Blue Dom able to fly home without you?”

“Yes, there
are always two pilots and two navigators.”

“Good. How
would you feel about working for me as a pilot? We need to go
somewhere by ship, for sorcery will place us in too visible a
position.”

Matt’s cheeks expanded and he released an explosive breath.
He did not like the sound of that. He glanced at Krikian, who would
not meet his gaze.
He does not like it
either.
“I guess it depends on where you
want to go and which ship you need me to fly.”

“I heard you
can pilot anything,” Torrullin murmured, aware of the growing
ambiguity.

Cat said, “He
can, but we’re not sure where this leads.”

“I think we’re
talking dangerous, Cat,” Matt murmured.

Torrullin
approached. He gestured for Krikian to get up and leaned against
the table in the space provided. “Yes, it is dangerous, even
life-threatening. I won’t lie to you.”

“I thought you
wanted to talk to Cat.”

“Until Krikian
told me you are a pilot. A pilot needs a navigator; could Cat
serve?”

Matt nodded
reluctantly, Cat vigorously.

“If you decide
to take this on, you are in effect with us, not working for us.”
Torrullin paused, his gaze penetrating. “Here is the crunch. I
cannot tell you more unless you agree, for to do so will place you
in danger. There are those out there who would murder you over this
knowledge. If you stay, we protect you here and wherever you
go.”

Cat leapt up.
“You’ve trapped us! Even if we know nothing, if we leave right now
…”

“… the
murderers will believe you know too much, yes. I am sorry, but I
had no choice. I needed you to look at a map and I needed to have
you do so where we could not be seen or heard, and then a pilot was
gathered into the party. I did what I had to and hope you will
understand why that is.”

“I don’t
believe this,” Matt murmured. He was calmer than another would be
in a similar situation.

“If you want
to go, we will spread it around you were guests,” Torrullin said,
watching the Xenian.

“Will that be
believed?” Matt asked and Cat added, “Is it that dangerous, what
you have to say?”

“Probably not,
to the first, and yes to the second.”

“Matt?” Cat
prompted.

“I don’t know.
We only know Krikian. We could take our chances.”

“Four people
were murdered recently,” Krikian stepped in. “And they knew as
little as you do. The stakes are high, Matt. We need you.”

“Jesus,” Cat
muttered.

“You could
have warned us on the concourse, Krikian,” Matt said.

“My loyalty lies first and last with my Vallorin. However,
this
is
a
voluntary mission and you may leave now. No one will stop you, I
promise, but be aware there is real danger now in your
leaving.”

Matt glanced
at Torrullin, who said, “We shall not force compliance. You are
free to go.”

“Do you need
an answer now?”

“I do.”

There was
silence.

Cat spoke
first. “We’ve cooked our goose, brother, in coming in blindly. I
kind of like my skin intact and if staying means we get to live,
I’m staying. Besides, what is on Xen? Dirt, pollution, poverty? We
fly because it takes us away, even if it means we sit in a tin can
for months. Each flight carries its dangers, so what is new? Maybe
this time it’s off the scopes, but we’re on Valaris, not Xen. If I
never get to go back, I won’t miss it.” She was resolute. Four
murders were terrible, but on Xen, a murder took place every five
seconds.

“Moses, Cat,
just like that?”

“Yes, like
that. What do we have to lose, really?”

“Our
lives?”

“And we don’t
fear that at home? Even on board the Dom factions are in place.
Three months ago that fat fag nearly killed you, remember? Weigh it
up and then try and turn this down, whatever crap flies with it.
Matt, we’d have sorcerers on our side.”

A smile tugged
at Matt’s lips. “God, Horace would do his nut.” He glanced around,
aware everyone was closely involved in the outcome. No one ate. The
stakes were high, and when had they not been? He turned back to
Cat. “Are you sure?”

“No, but I
have made up my mind.”

Matt rose and
extended his hand to Torrullin. “Count us in.”

Torrullin
gripped it. “Thank you. Welcome to the team.” He nodded once to
acknowledge he understood a swift decision was harder than a
considered one. He pushed away from the table, saying, “Clear a
space for the map.”

As Quilla
unrolled the parchment, weighing the corners with condiment
containers, Torrullin said, “Over the next few hours you will be
informed of the situation. Go with what you hear, strange as it
sounds. For now, look at this.”

The Xenians
leaned over the map with him, as did everyone else, except
Caballa.

Cat’s eyes
flicked over it. “The Forbidden Zone?”

Matt blurted,
“Are you people completely nuts?”

Torrullin
laughed. “Extreme indeed, but that is where we are headed.”

Cat tapped the
parchment. “The Tennet system. Not much known about it today, for
obvious reasons, but this I have seen on another map.” She looked
up at her brother. “Remember when the big dome was repaired four
years ago and they uncovered storerooms from pre-dome under the
foundations? Old tins and tools, not even of historical value,
right? What wasn’t generally made known were the maps found, and
these made their way to the Navigation School. Star maps, and we
were in seventh heaven. This …” She stabbed at the map. “… is part
of the Glucano Galaxy.”

She had
everyone’s attention. She looked to Torrullin to see if she was
right.

“This is why
you are here. We do not know.”

She returned
her focus to the map. “Well, I believe this was once a Siric
enclave, but the maps came later, charted by humans, and some of
the original names were changed.” She flicked from name to name.
“Some of these are original, some aren’t. This is a later map or
one put together from different sources.”

Quilla and
Taranis glanced at each other.

Cat looked at
Bartholamu, who said, “We recognise some of those names as Siric,
yes.”

“These two
moons,” Quilla pushed a pen into view and she took it, “are the
wrong way. Trap at the top, Link at the bottom.” She wrote the
corrections in tidy script, using the written form, not Xenian
symbols. “Common Tongue.”

“Cat has an
eidetic memory,” Matt explained.

“Excellent,”
Torrullin murmured, who had one as well.

“This is
Pharos,” and she penned it in above the circle missing a label,
“and this is Atrudis. Pharos is Old Earth, but Atrudis?” She looked
up.

“Valleur,”
Vannis muttered.

Cat was busy
again. “These are galaxies. Plot their positions on a universe
chart and you will find the Glucano Galaxy, where lies Tennet. I
see you already have Dantian, but that is to be expected.”

“Why?” Vannis
frowned.

Cat looked at
him. “Home base, of course.”

“Excuse me?”
Torrullin said.

She
straightened. “We’re in the Dantian Galaxy right now. Valaris lies
in one of her solar systems.”

Vannis threw
his hands into the air.

Torrullin
pinched the bridge of his nose. Dantian, Rift-breaker, a Valla who
died in the place he was named for. Gods.

“You didn’t
know? Well, admittedly, it’s no longer called that, but Dantian was
the original name. A human cartographer long before the Valleur
came to Valaris.”

Vannis groaned
into his hands. “Gods, I brought him to his death before I
conceived of a new world.”

“Don’t,
Vannis,” Taranis said.

Torrullin
sighed. “It cannot now be undone.”

Matt,
mystified, stared at his sister, who shrugged at him.

Tristamil
murmured, “We had the directions before us.”

“Actually,
it’s not that simple,” Cat said. “It’s not enough to know one
point. We need to measure the angles of these arrows and then
transpose them onto a universe chart. I assume you are looking for
a route smack into Tennet?”

Torrullin
nodded. “Can you do so?”

“With a
universe chart, yes.”

Torrullin
glanced around the table.

“Do not look
at us, we have no need of charts,” Bartholamu shrugged.

“There is one
on the Dom,” Matt spoke up. Heavens, imagine being able to travel
space without charts. “Why do we need to go to Tennet?”

“It will be
explained,” Torrullin said. “Tris, would you take Matt to the Blue
Dom?”

“Yes,”
Tristamil grinned.

“Don’t linger
over buttons and gadgets.”

“I will go,
too,” Taranis offered. “Safety in numbers.”

“Now?” Matt
asked, surprised by how fast things moved.

“Now,”
Tristamil winked and rounded the table with Taranis. They each laid
a hand on the Xenian and the three disappeared.

“Really neat
trick,” Cat murmured, and bent over the map.

Torrullin
glanced at Quilla and looked at Vannis. His grandfather was not a
happy man, Vannis had taken on the weight of old guilt, but perhaps
that was better than ever-present grief.

Torrullin
grimaced, and bent with the Xenian woman.

In the end, it
was not easy.

When Matt
mentioned the Zone moved at a speed, it became necessary to track
that movement and speed, direction, its twists over the time
elapsed.

Accomplished
using Blue Dom’s computers, Matt lied to the crew about his
presence there. He sent them off, saying he would guard it in their
absence.

He made copies
of graphs, as well as a huge duplicate of the universe chart, and
calculations, pages and pages of them.

It took days
to gather, with Krikian, Bartholamu and Taranis guarding the Xenian
in turns. When he was satisfied he had everything they would
potentially require, Matt wiped all trace of his forays into the
computer from its memory and called the crew back. He
simultaneously handed his and Cat’s resignation in and that did not
go down well. There were union issues, but Matt found he no longer
cared. His curiosity was aroused.

He walked away
without regret.

Cat worked
tirelessly. Her work area grew ever larger and Torrullin moved her
into the Throne-room, bringing in the big table. No one was
permitted entry.

The
rumour-mill ground, but Torrullin said nothing to ease the
situation. All he would say when Kismet accosted him, and later
Pretora, was he would call a meeting soon.

Mid-afternoon,
fourth day since the map was unfurled, the Xenian brother and
sister had what they believed the precise location of the Glucano
Galaxy. After congratulations, Torrullin asked Cat to bend her mind
to negotiating a course to Tennet from Valaris, one that would
yield a degree of stealth. This became the greater challenge.

The evening
meal came and went with Cat picking at her food and Matt wolfing it
down, both eating in the Throne-room with charts before them, forks
in one hand, pencils in the other. Torrullin wandered as a ghostly
presence and drank too much coffee.

Finally, Cat
laid her pencil down and pushed the plotted course to Matt to
check. He did so with Torrullin a silent spectator on the other
side. It was late and the Keep was quiet and unmoving, everyone but
the guards abed.

Matt nodded
his approval and handed the sheets of precise calculations to
Torrullin. He shook his head. It was not his area of expertise. He
noticed how exhausted brother and sister were.

“Thank you,
both of you. We will go into the detail in the morning. Get some
rest now.”

Brother and
sister looked at each other. They had not thought themselves tired,
but they were. Dark rings under eyes told the tale. Both nodded and
clambered stiffly to their feet. The plotted course fluttered to
the table.

“I will hold
onto that,” Torrullin said, retrieving it. “Do you need any of this
now?” He waved over the table.

Cat shook her
head. “It’s all there.” She pointed at the papers in Torrullin’s
hand. “I won’t be forgetting these charts now. Shall we clear it
away?”

“I’ll do
it.”

They walked
off slowly. Cat looked back to see Torrullin wave his hand over the
cluttered table. The space emptied.

He looked up,
eyes hooded, and her heart lurched.

Sleep with
devils and you will get burned.

~ Ancient
wisdom

The Keep

T
orrullin lay sleepless, turning the
prophecy over in his mind.

He admitted
after a while it would be a case of recognition when events
happened.

Retrieving the
course to Tennet from the table beside his bed, he gazed at it. He
was not mathematically poor and could decipher some of it, but was
of the kind that relied on instinct and sorcery and was soon
cross-eyed. He replaced the sheets and laid back, fingers absently
tracing the Dragon on his naked chest.

Exhausted, yet
rest was elusive.

A knock
sounded on the door. Caballa?

Torrullin
rose, and the door opened before he could take a step. He reached
for his sword. He considered dousing the lights when Cat’s head
peered around.

“Cat?” he
said, surprised to see her, as she asked simultaneously, “Are you
awake?”

Gods. “Come
in.”

She slipped in
and closed the door. She eyed the sword and he replaced it next to
the bed.

“I thought you
were asleep.”

“I can’t,
Matt’s snoring. I walked the balcony and saw light under your
door.” She approached, eyes on the Dragon.