The Lodestone Trilogy (Limited Edition) (The Lodestone Series) (140 page)

Alondo rubbed the back of his head. “Owww.”

“The door.”
Rael pointed at the indicator light, which was now shining a steady green. “Must be some sort of power failure.”

Shann stumbled forward and bent her fingers around the doorjamb. “Give me a hand.”

Rael appeared at her side but made no move to assist her. “Are you sure this is wise?”

She struggled to get a grip on the door. “What are you talking about?”

“It seems that Lyall went to great lengths to bring us here. His plan, whatever it is, must include us travelling with him back to your side—to Kelanni-Drann. If we leave...”

“Rael is right,” Alondo put in. “We ought to wait for Lyall.”

Another dull impact sounded from far off. The cell shuddered and creaked around them. “Look,” she said. “This place is coming apart around our ears. We have to get out of here. Now.” Rael hesitated, as if he were going to make an argument of it; then he thrust his slender fingers into the crack, adding his effort to hers.
“Alondo,”
she called.

The musician roused himself, inserting the diamond blade of Shann’s staff into the chink and using it as a lever. She wanted to caution him again about damaging it but suppressed the urge. The three of them strained for what seemed like an age. At last, the door gave way with a creaking groan, revealing a gap just wide enough to squeeze through.

Shann retrieved her staff, casting an anxious eye over it. The blade and shaft appeared intact, superficially at least. She signalled the others to stay put, then eased herself into the corridor. It was deserted. She could hear raised voices, but they were reassuringly distant. She waved for Rael and Alondo to join her, remembering their route through the bowels of the sky ship and mapping out the return journey in her head. Rael poured his thin limbs through the opening. Alondo huffed and puffed after him.

She groaned inwardly and grabbed an arm, while Rael pulled him by the shoulders. “That’s it,” she said through gritted teeth. “When we get out of here, you’re going on a diet.”

“Hey, that’s not fair... owww.” He popped free like a cork from a bottle, knocking her to the ground and landing on top of her in a heap. He pushed himself up and diffidently offered her a hand. “Sorry.”

She took it and glared at him. “Diet. Definitely.”

Ignoring his deflated appearance, she led the way once more through a succession of identical-looking passageways. Two more detonations rocked the sky ship, causing them to stagger and claw at non-existent handholds.

Rael went over to where Alondo was sitting on his rump and helped him up. “I don’t think this is an internal systems failure. The impacts are external, and too randomly distributed.”

Shann felt her brain starting to fog up again. “What?”

“He means the ship is under attack,” Alondo offered.

How could that be?
Who would attack the hu-man sky ship? Apart from the three of them and the hu-man crew there was no one else on this island... was there? No time to speculate. “Come on,” she urged.

Finally, they stood before the elevator that had brought them here. She was reminded of the cage at Takala Flats where the Diametric Drive had sat, cocooned in its nest of metal rods, but whereas that lift was open to the elements, this one was enclosed, like an upright coffin, though mercifully it was empty.

“Where are we headed?” Rael inquired.

“Out the way we came,” she said curtly.

“The main hatchway in the loading bay.”

“If you say so.”

“I’m not sure that’s the best option.”

She turned to face him. “What are you talking about?”

“In an emergency such as this it will probably be locked down. It may even be guarded.”

Her eyes hardened to points. “Then I’ll fight our way through.”

“Maybe there’s an easier way.”

“Lifeboats,”
Alondo blurted out.

“That’s what I was thinking,” Rael said. “A vessel this size would have to have some sort of emergency escape system. It would not be locked down—that would defeat its object. And there would be little point in guarding it.”

Shann rested her little fists on her tiny hips. “All right, where is it?”

Rael considered the problem as if it were a mathematical puzzle. “This level is roughly amidships, wouldn’t you say?”

“I would say,” Alondo agreed.

“An escape system would most likely be located at the point most easily accessed from all parts of the ship—”

“Amidships. I get it,” Shann cut in. She glanced left and right down the intersecting passages. “Which direction?”

After a moment’s hesitation, Rael nodded decisively towards the right-hand passage. “That way.”

<><><><><>

Chapter 27

As she trailed after Rael, Shann’s inadequacies pecked at her like angry mylars. Rael and Alondo were people—people with extraordinary abilities. And yet she had treated them as mindless raleketh, to be led about by the nose. It had not occurred to her to consult either of them. Maybe when they met up with Keris again she should step aside—allow her to take over. The former Keltar possessed infinitely more skill and experience than she did.
Lyall, I don’t deserve the trust you’ve placed in me.

Yet in spite of her mistakes, a single shaft of light had now burst through the lowering gloom—the realisation that Lyall was not lost to them, but that he had set in motion an intricate plan to defeat the Prophet once and for all.

Since then, the mood had palpably lifted. Rael was far more engaged, and Alondo was virtually his old self again. Shann, too, felt reinvigorated. Yet she was also perplexed.

In the sitting room at the observatory in Kieroth, she had stared into the whirring timepieces with their interlocking levers and springs, wheels within wheels, tiny universes, their parts moving in perfect harmony to achieve a common purpose. Now she was one of those wheels—an essential cog in Lyall’s grand plan. There was just one problem: She had absolutely no idea what she was supposed to do.

“I think this is it.”

Rael’s announcement snapped her back to the present. They were standing in front of a door shaped like an upright oval and ringed by tiny lights. There was no window and no clue to what lay beyond. “How do you know?” she asked.

Rael pointed at an adjacent section of wall where there were symbols etched in red. “Because of what it says here.”

“You can read hu-man writing?” she marvelled.

“Not exactly,” he replied. “But mathematicians are trained to identify patterns. I recognize this word from a sign over a door at the weapon facility. I think it means ‘exit’. Or possibly ‘emergency’. Either way... ”

There was yet another dull thud, and the corridor juddered. Instinctively, she grabbed onto Rael for balance. The vibration died and she let go immediately. The sky ship was taking a pounding. There was not much time.
Encourage them to use their talents.
“Alondo, can you get this thing open?”

“Sure, let me take a look.” The musician bent down to examine the door.

A bass rumble started up from somewhere deep inside the sky ship. She could feel a vibration from the deck plates that jarred her teeth.
What now?
“Could you hurry it up a little?” she urged.

“I’ve located what must be the door control,” Alondo replied. “But it seems to be housed behind glass. I can’t see any obvious way to open it.”

“Stand aside.” Alondo and Rael turned their heads. Her fingers brushed the darkwood, feeling its reassuring smoothness.
“Now.”
They stepped back. She drew her staff, took aim, and thrust it at the panel. The glass shattered and the lights surrounding the door began to glow bright green. Immediately an intermittent alarm sounded—a regular, insistent pulse that made her temples throb—followed by urgent, raised voices from somewhere off to her left. Boots pounded against the metal floor. Headed their way.

She stepped up to the broken panel, located a prominent red button, and punched it. The door clanked and swung open. “Get inside, both of you,” she ordered. After a moment’s hesitation, they stepped through the open hatchway. As she made to follow Rael, she caught a movement out of the corner of her eye. Three blue-coated figures were rounding the corner right behind her. She yelled through the opening, “Get out of here,” kicked the door shut, and turned to face the advancing crew, staff held out defensively before her.

She had not taken to heart every lesson Lyall had taught her, but there was one at least that she understood intimately. One in which she would not let him down.

Sacrifice.

~

Hatchet-faced and raw-boned, with close-cropped hair, the lead hu-man skidded to a halt before Shann and glowered at her, then lurched forward in an ungainly manner as the others barrelled into him from behind. He hastily regained his composure and rounded on his companions. “Watch it, will you?”

The other two withdrew sheepishly and chorused like a double act. “Sorry, Chief.”

One of them, a fresh-faced youth with a disgusting pink complexion, looked up, and his eyes grew as large as a fish’s. “
Look.
It’s one of them. One of them natives that we threw in the brig. They’ve escaped.”

Hatchet-face bawled at him. “That’s the stupidest thing I ever heard. Of course they’ve escaped, you idiot.”

The other hu-man, a compact and sinewy type, seemed unfazed by the outburst. “D’you think it’s them that’s attacking us?”

Hatchet-face turned to Shann and sized her up with an unpleasant look. “Not them, but their green-skinned friends maybe. Talk. Who’s out there?”

“I don’t know,” she replied honestly.

“We need to get to launch positions,” the youth urged.

“I know that,” Hatchet-face snapped back. “All right, girl, you just ran out of time.” He drew a stubby silver tube and levelled it at her. She stiffened. A clap of thunder shook the passageway and knocked her feet from under her. She lay on the floor for a moment before realising that she was whole. The thunder had not come from the hu-man’s weapon.

She snatched her staff and scrabbled to her feet. The hu-mans lay prostrate on the floor. Hatchet-face had dropped his weapon and was clutching his head. The others were moving slowly and painfully. Ignoring her own bruises, she advanced, placed a boot on Hatchet-face’s chest, and whipped the diamond blade around so that it rested against his throat. The man squeezed his eyes shut and made a half-strangled sound.

She heard a clank, followed by a creaking. She hazarded a glance behind her and saw Alondo’s moon face peeking out from behind the open hatch door.

He took in the scene and then smiled quizzically. “If you’ve quite finished playing with your new friends, it’s time to leave now.”

~

“You’re sure you’ve got this thing figured out?” Shann tried to hide the anxiety in her voice and almost succeeded.

Rael pursed his lips. “No problem. An escape module is for emergency use, so its design has to be pretty well idiot-proof.” A witty riposte popped into her head, but she dismissed it. She was in no mood for jesting. “Are you strapped in?” he asked.

“Yes,” she said. “Let’s get out of here.”

Rael pushed a large lever forward. There was a snap, followed by a whooshing sound, and she was hurled back into her seat. She turned her head towards one of the tiny windows in the module and saw empty sky rushing past. Soon the pressure on her shoulders eased and she felt the module descend slowly. At length, she felt a light bump and the module settled back and came to rest.

Rael got up from his seat, went to the rear hatch, and opened it. Daylight filtered into the tiny compartment. Shann joined him, with Alondo just behind her, and jumped to the ground first. They were on the valley floor some distance from the sky ship. As they watched, an incandescent glow appeared at its base and the ship began to rise, slowly at first, then gathering speed until it was a blazing star amid the cerulean sky.

It was Shann who broke the silence. “I know what you’re going to say.” She paused to allow for a response from the other two, but there was none. She pressed on with a heavy heart. “You’re going to say that I should have listened to you—that we should have gone along with Lyall’s plan and remained on board the sky ship.”