The Lodestone Trilogy (Limited Edition) (The Lodestone Series) (124 page)

Chapter 14

“Change of plan.”

Keris was a rock—as indomitable as the granite cliff that towered over them. Susan Gilmer was in the process of mounting the cab of one of a collection of battered, rusting hoppers, scattered about a roughly flattened loading area. She stepped back down and turned to face the tall Kelanni. A ring of steady lights on raised gantries shone down on them like the faces of a jury. “Excuse me?”

“Lyall, Shann, and I will go in by a different route,” Keris announced. Shann glanced at Lyall, but he seemed as surprised as her. She knew the tall ex-Keltar well enough to know that the woman had not simply changed her mind about the operation. She must have planned this all along. Clearly she was up to something. But what? “Alondo, Rael, and Boxx can use this carriage. We will be ready to intervene in case anything goes wrong.”

A chorus of objections sounded, with the hu-man woman’s voice finally gaining the ascendancy. “That’s not a good idea; if you are seen, then it will all be over.”

“That is our concern,” Keris replied.

“The heck it is,” Susan Gilmer exploded. “This is my butt on the line as much as it is yours.”

Shann was still trying to piece together the hu-man colloquialisms when she heard Keris say with utter finality, “The matter is decided.”

Rael shook his head. “No. I’m going with the three of you.” He was staring at the ground, but his voice was steady.

“I’m sorry. That isn’t possible,” Keris ruled.

Rael locked eyes with her. “Why not?”

“I’m afraid you don’t possess the necessary skills.”

“I’m going with you, no matter what.”
His voice carried that same determined quality as it had at the observatory in Kieroth, and when he overruled her and decided to follow the floating mechanical eye.

Keris took a deep breath and drew herself erect, but it was Lyall who spoke. “And I’m not leaving Alondo inside that thing with only Boxx for company.”

The musician shifted the burden of the instrument he carried on his back, removed his cap, and ran a hand through his wavy brown hair. He appeared distinctly uncomfortable, being the focus of contention. “No. It’s fine. I’ll be all right—really.”

Shann felt a wave of sympathy for Alondo. The little man was a singer, an entertainer, a teller of jokes and stories. He was completely out of his depth taking part in a raid against a camp of hostile hu-man creatures. “Why can’t he and Boxx come with the rest of us?”

Keris looked straight at the girl. The tone of her voice, once edged with impatience, now carried the weight of the respect Shann had accumulated during their travels together. “The route we are taking will involve use of the flying cloak. We might be able to carry Boxx, but it would be a hindrance. Alondo is out of the question. I’m sorry.”

“Then I will travel with Alondo and Boxx,” Lyall said. “We will meet up with the rest of you inside.”

Keris turned to Rael, who was standing next to Shann. “This isn’t a practice session. There will be no time for Shann or me to wait for you or coach you. You will just have to keep up.”

The hard illumination cast shadows across the boy’s grim visage. “I understand.”

“Very well, then,” Keris said.

“Now just hang on one blasted minute,”
Susan Gilmer blustered.

Keris faced her squarely. “Kelanni is our world, not yours, human. We will remove the threat that the hu-mans have created. If you wish to assist us, then you may do so. If not, then stand aside.”

Tension crackled in the silence as the two women stood off against one another. It almost felt as though Keris were deliberately trying to provoke a conflict with the hu-man woman. But to what end? Shann could not see that there was anything to be gained by sowing dissension in their ranks—not when they were this close to achieving the goal of neutralizing the hu-man weapons and saving their world.

Not many days ago she would have sounded off—challenged Keris’s authority—maybe even sided with the hu-man woman. Now, though, it was as if she had gained a new insight—an ability to see beyond the obvious. Keris would not be doing this without an extremely good reason—one that might ultimately prove critical to the fulfilment of their mission. Shann held her tongue.

Suddenly, a wave of resignation broke over Susan Gilmer’s features.
“‘Oh brave new world that has such people in it.’”
She looked around the quizzical faces of the Kelanni. “Something Shakespeare once said.”

“Interesting,” Alondo observed. “Who is this ‘Shakespeare’? Is he a member of your expedition?”

“Not exactly,” she said. “Although the setting was an island, not unlike this one.”

“A pity. I’d like to meet him,” said the bard.

Susan Gilmer smiled faintly as she climbed into the cab. “Where do you want to meet up?”

“Proceed to a point near to the central structure as planned,” Keris instructed. “We will join you when the time is right.”

“Very well.” The hopper’s engine sputtered and juddered into life, and a line of burning white lights at the front of the cab snapped on. She jerked a thumb over her shoulder at the hopper’s side loading door and yelled,
“All aboard!”

The hinges creaked as Lyall lifted the hatch, and Alondo manhandled Boxx inside before clambering in after the Chandara. Lyall smiled encouragingly at the others and hauled himself up and over the side, disappearing into the bowels of the hopper.

As the door clanged shut, Shann felt a cold shiver run down her back. She had always assumed that on this, their final decisive assault, they would all be going in together, watching out for one another, facing whatever awaited them as a party—a team... a family. Yet suddenly their group had been split in two. It felt as if a part of her were missing. She turned to Keris. “Are you sure we’re doing the right thing—dividing up like this?”

Keris responded by turning on her heel and walking a short distance away, her cloak fluttering behind her like a banner. Shann and Rael followed. Behind them, the putt-putt of the engine became a roar and the vehicle turned and began heading off away from the cliff face, lights bobbing up and down as it trundled over the uneven rock surface. They watched it go; then Keris faced the other two. “Put on your flying cloaks.
Hurry.
”

Shann and Rael both unslung their packs and pulled their cloaks free. Shann secured her shoulder harness and neck clasps with a practiced hand and then made the necessary adjustments to Rael’s cloak, brushing away his fumbling attempts and pulling at his neck fittings impatiently, half-strangling him in the process. “You didn’t answer my question,” she asked Keris as she worked.

“I’m sorry,” Keris said. “I couldn’t explain it to you within Susan Gilmer’s earshot and now there’s no time. We have to get to the human weapon facility ahead of the others, if possible.” The tall woman dashed off after the hopper, tweaking the lodestone layer of her cloak as she ran.

“Why? What are we going to do?” Shann called after her.

Keris moved like a spear hurled towards its target.
“Finish this.”

~

Shann was rapidly growing irritated with both of them. Keris forged ahead like a woman possessed, leaping and bounding across barren rock. A long way behind, the boy mathematician bumbled and stumbled his way along, the journey etched on his body in the form of bumps and bruises. She was torn between coaching the boy—trying to keep him from crippling himself—and doing her utmost to keep up with the ex-Keltar. She felt like a rope stretched to its breaking point.

She considered shouting after Keris, telling her to wait up, but she knew it was useless. Keris had as good as warned the boy that if he decided to come along with them and could not keep up, he would be left behind. Shann half-wondered whether the woman was doing this deliberately in order to prove her point. Keris must have realised that as a bearer of one of the four components of Annata’s instrument, Rael was essential to the carrying out of their plan to neutralize the hu-man weapon. It was almost as if she no longer cared about that.
What are you up to?

One thing was certain: Keris was not going to stand still long enough to be questioned on the subject. Shann stooped down and helped the gangly youth to his feet for the hundredth time. He tried his best to smile. “I’ll be fine.”

“Then get a move on.” Her voice held a sharper edge to it than she’d intended. Here was another mystery. She decided to try and unlock it. “What are you doing here, Rael?”

The boy talked to her back. “What do you mean?”

“Why did you insist on coming with Keris?” she demanded.

“I didn’t... well, th-that’s to say, it wasn’t Keris that I wanted to go with.”

Shann shook her head. “You’re not making any sense.”

“You,”
he blurted out. “I... I wanted to go with you.”

“Me?
Why would you insist on coming with me?”

“I... well, that is... I wanted to make sure you were safe.”

Shann’s first impulse was to laugh out loud. “
You
wanted to keep
me
safe?”

His eyes were firmly fixed on the ground. “I’m sorry... I suppose it sounds pretty silly when you put it like that.”

“You got that right.” She grabbed his arm, but some of the annoyance had evaporated from her voice. “Come on, or Keris will end up leaving us both behind.”

“She’s stopped.”

“What?” Shann twisted around.

Hunched down at the crest of a steep rise, framed by starlight, Keris was a dark, motionless shape. “Come on.” Shann led the way forward, no longer concerned with whether Rael was able to keep up. Pushing off two successive deposits, she alighted just below Keris’s position and crept the last few feet to the top of the ridge, dropping down next to her. Beneath them sat a tall building, bathed in the stark illumination of the arc lights that ringed it. There was no other sign of life. Shann had no need to ask whether this was their destination—the intense concentration on Keris’s face said it all.

“How do we get inside?” Shann asked in hushed tones.

The woman raised her head.
“There.”

“You mean the roof?” Shann’s eye flicked from the roof to the ground and back again. “That’s pretty high. I’m not sure whether—”

“The red cloak’s boost capacity will enable us to traverse the distance,” Keris affirmed.

“No, I meant... Rael. I’m not sure Rael could make it.”

“This isn’t a training exercise—I warned him that it would be his responsibility to keep up.”

“I know that,” Shann acknowledged. “But we need him if we are going to be successful in disarming the weapon.”

Keris drew her lips together and her eyes narrowed. Finally she answered. “Very well.”

There was a loud scuffling behind them. They each glanced over their shoulders to see the gangly figure of Rael just behind them. “What’s happening?” he asked conversationally.

“Shhhh,”
both women chorused.

Rael lowered his voice. “Sorry. What’s happening?”

Keris moved to a crouched position. “We’re going in. Stay close.”

She set off on a low run across the ridge. Shann and Rael followed in her wake. Up ahead, the tall woman’s movements were swift and surefooted in the bright starlight. Behind her, Rael loped along with the apparent aim of kicking every rock and dislodging every loose pebble he came into contact with. It sounded as if a herd of raleketh were barrelling down the hill. Mercifully, the floodlit grounds surrounding the facility were deserted.

Keris hunkered down in the darkness just beyond the perimeter and raised a fist, indicating that the others should go no farther. Shann caught up to her. The older woman was silent, face set—eyes unfocussed.
Listening.

At first, Shann could hear nothing. Then her keen Kelanni ears caught the distant roar of an engine. The hopper was approaching the other side of the building. Keris rose and beckoned to the others. “Quickly—there isn’t much time.”