No Stone Unturned

by Frank Morin

The Strider shrugged. "Padraigin seemed to understand, and raced off to find Aifric."

  Connor stopped listening. It was too hard to do that and try to move. Fighting Dougal's control was like wrestling a torc with his bare hands. How had the elfonnel fought him?

  It was out of control, raging mad, hungry for vengeance. It was a creature of elements and raw, simple emotion, which had been stoked to a boil.

  Like a rampager.

  Oh, he was so slagged. Connor needed to move his hand.

  Just then, Shona took his left hand in hers, and Verena grabbed his right, drawing it to her lips. He struggled to move them, wanting to howl at the girls for interrupting his moment of epiphany. He only managed to twitch each hand, not even enough to pull them free.

  Shona soothed him. "Don't try to move. Hold on, and we'll get you help."

  Verena leaned over him and he managed to roll his eyes to his side.

  "What?" She leaned closer, intently watching.

  He rolled them again and twitched his hand.

  "Do you need another sculpted stone?" she whispered so Shona couldn't hear.

  Connor rolled his eyes side to side, then twitched his hand again. Hesitantly, Verena pulled his hand down toward his side. He blinked his eyes in thanks and twitched his hand again. It touched the pouch at his belt.

  Verena caught on and pulled out the only other stone available to him. Her breath caught in her throat when she saw it.

  "No, Connor. This is a really bad idea."

  Connor twitched his hand toward the bag again.

  "Are you sure?" she looked terrified that she might be misunderstanding.

  He blinked his eyes closed.

  "What are you doing?" Shona asked. "What is that?"

  "Perhaps his one hope," Verena retorted, shoving his hand into the bag.

  Shona snatched for the bag, but Verena pushed her hand away. "Leave it. We'll know in a minute."

  Connor focused all his will on absorbing porphyry.

  He felt nothing. Dougal was somehow blocking his affinities.

  Chapter 83

  "So where is this enemy?" Hamish shouted. He was hovering five hundred feet above the first row of hills surrounding the Carraig. The vast bulk of Mount Murdo reared before them, and if Aifric wanted to climb that, she'd have to do it alone. His thrusters were almost spent.

  "Working on it," she said, leaning her face close to his, her arms and legs wrapped around his back. It made flying a bit tricky, but he had enough practice that he'd managed all right.

  "You don't know?"

  "Of course not. It's the secret hiding place of a concealed enemy. They don't put up signs. Don't worry, I can find it."

  "How?"

  She hesitated. "I have really good hearing."

  "Are you serious?"

  "It has to be somewhere close. I'll hear something."

  They didn't have time to hunt around the mountain for a mystery enemy. He glanced back toward the Carraig. The Striders were still playing catch-the-devil with the elfonnel, and the army had swallowed up Connor, but they wouldn't last.

  "Just start flying," Aifric ordered. "We have to start somewhere."

  "I have a better idea." Hamish activated his long view goggles and scanned the mountainside. There was so much to see, he couldn't study any one area in detail, but just swooped his vision across the hills and valleys below them as he slowly hovered toward the east, hoping to spot something, anything.

  His swooping gaze caught sight of a familiar object and he paused to focus on it. Verena's Swift. It had floated away from the battlefield and gotten tangled in the branches of a tall pine tree. The supply box behind the seat contained all the stones he needed to resupply.

  "I've got to stop for a minute," he said, aiming for the Swift, his optimism buoyed by the prospect of a fully functional suit.

  "We don't have time," Aifric cried. "Every second counts."

  "And if we crash, we'll definitely be late."

  Despite her arguments, he needed to land. His thrusters were down to the last breath of power, and he could resupply in a matter of minutes.

  Then he saw what Aifric was hunting.

  "There!" He pointed at a squat Sentry tower, almost concealed within a copse of trees.

  "Go!" Aifric cried.

  Hating to leave the promised security of the Swift, Hamish decided he could drop Aifric and maybe return before losing all power. He moved toward the Sentry tower, not daring to open the thrusters wide for fear they'd crumble to dust under that much strain. As they neared the spot, he picked out the form of the giant, Gregor.

  "That's got to be it," Aifric said, her voice excited. "It makes sense that Dougal would bring Gregor on this mission."

  "When this is over, you'd better explain how you know all this."

  "If I tell you, I'll have to kill you."

  She didn't sound like she was joking, and he wasn't sure how to respond to that. They floated high over a concealed clearing behind the Sentry tower. Gregor had not seemed to notice them creeping closer so high overhead. Aifric pointed past his ear and whispered, "There. That little house. He'll be in there."

  "You realize that once we land, Gregor will just swallow us up in the earth?"

  "Can you stop him?"

  "If you had let me stop to replenish, I could have," Hamish said. "I've got almost nothing left."

  "Do you have enough to buy me a few seconds?"

  "I hope you know what you're doing," Hamish grumbled.

  "Trust me."

  He hated when people said that, but patted her arm and said, "Be careful."

  Hamish had seen what Gregor could do, and even with his stones at full power, and all his weapons at capacity, he would have hesitated to face him. But if Aifric was right, this was the only way to save Connor.

  So Hamish dove.

  He slowed as he passed over the little, round, earthen house in the clearing, and Aifric leaped right off his back. She lacked Kilian's impressive fire to slow her fall and improve her presentation, but she landed on the roof and rolled with the impact, landing on her feet in the entrance. Almost before she touched down, she slipped through the curtain door.

  If they lived through the day, Hamish would tempt her threat and find out who that Healer really was.

  Of course, he had to live through the day first.

  As soon as Aifric touched down, Gregor rotated. He didn't turn like anyone else would, but the entire top of his tower rotated to face the unexpected threat.

  Hamish dove for his face.

  The huge Sentry actually showed surprise.

  So Hamish shot him in the face with five hundred hornets. The little projectiles rained down over the huge Sentry, a quarter of them exploding with fantastic enthusiasm. The unexpected barrage knocked Gregor right over backward, but he didn't even have the decency to fall off his tower. Instead, it flowed horizontal with him, wrapping him in a protective cocoon that insulated him from Hamish's hornets.

  With the little speedsling empty, Hamish holstered it and pried the last piece of soapstone out of his suit. The little rock was the one holding the inner layer of the defenses in his battle jacket in place. When he extracted it, the water that had been swirling in a constant, slow circle under the hardened granite leaves of his jacket stopped moving. It began leaking out the seam of the bladder that he'd sewn into the jacket.

  Hamish sighed. People were going to think he peed himself.

  He threw wide the little stone's power and dropped it at the base of Gregor's tower. Just then, spears of earth shot out of the tower at him, and he activated the full power of his quartzite thrusters to escape. They gave him a single roaring thrust, just enough to dodge above the first volley. Then the thrusters crumbled to dust, their powers spent.

  For a second, Hamish glided over the trees in glorious silence, but for the wind in his face. He glanced back in time to see water gushing out of the ground at the base of Gregor's tower. That would interrupt the Sentry's hold over the earth
for a moment.

  Hopefully that was enough time for Aifric.

  Hamish's grin faded as he began the long fall toward the ground. At the last minute, he activated all the remaining marble in his jacket. Gushing flame charred the ground but provided enough lift to slow his fall so that he didn't shatter on impact.

  Groaning from the abuse, Hamish climbed to his feet and oriented on a nearby towering pine tree. As he started to run, he activated a small speakstone, the partner to the one he'd attached to Aifric's sleeve when he patted her arm.

  He had agreed to help Aifric, but that didn't mean he trusted her.

  Immediately he heard a cry of pain from a man's deep voice.

  Then Aifric spoke, her voice cold and without mercy.

  "Hello Lord Dougal. It's time to die."

  Chapter 84

  The mental binds holding Connor prisoner evaporated.

  He gasped and shot upright in a convulsive move as all his muscles responded at once.

  "He's back!" Shona cried, hugging him.

  Verena embraced him on the other side, and the two recoiled from touching each other. Connor didn't have time to deal with them because as soon as his mind broke free of Dougal's restraint, the porphyry began eating into his hand.

  Connor threw his head back and screamed, his voice changing into the wild howl of a rampager. Everyone recoiled from him, shocked faces forgetting about the elfonnel for a moment.

  Connor was the new horror, and he was already in their midst.

  He lunged to his feet as his limbs swelled and his hands and feet transformed into terrifying claws. Strength boiled through him and he embraced the rage of porphyry. It was his best defense against the enemy attacking his mind.

  That enemy tried to regain dominion over him, but the force of that will, which had been like iron bands before, now felt like whispers of smoke.

  Dougal's voice echoed as if from a great distance. "How?"

  Connor roared and drove the hated man away. As the transformation concluded and he took a deep breath, he sensed fear and smelled fresh meat all around. He was surrounded by mortals, their pulsing blood triggering a desperate hunger. He growled, and many of them screamed.

  Then one of them stepped right in front of him.

  Verena.

  The sight of her was like purifying fire and it burned away the ravening hunger, redirecting his rage against the monster that threatened her life. He glanced to the side where Shona's familiar rosewater scent was mingled with rank fear, and she recoiled away from him, looking more shocked than he'd ever seen her.

  He turned back to Verena and crouched a bit lower, extending one mighty claw toward her. She swallowed, but stepped closer and pressed the back of his hand against her smooth cheek.

  "Come back to me when this is over," she said, and her hands shook against his paw.

  He sniffed her scent, drawing the smell of her hair, high mountain winds, and a hint of mint deep into his lungs and holding it as a shield against the rage. Then, with a howling challenge, Connor leaped the ranks of shocked troops and tore across the plain toward the elfonnel. The monster had turned from pursuing Striders a quarter mile away and bellowed an answering challenge. It was a thousand times larger than Connor, imbued with elemental powers and nearly invincible.

  He didn't care.

  Driven by burning rage, he sped for the monster faster than a fully fracked Strider, covering dozens of yards with every mighty leap. As the elfonnel lunged at him, its massive maw wide open to snap him into its gullet, he coiled and leaped like a living spring.

  Connor soared over its mouth and landed on its left nostril. Barely pausing to tear great gashes in that tender target, he leaped again, crossing the monster's head in a flash. He swarmed over the left side of its face, targeting the two massive silver eyes there.

  Those soft targets exploded with satisfying gore, drenching him with silver liquid that burned his tongue and only enraged him further. He wanted to rip the cursed monster apart one inch at a time, but first he had to disable it.

  As the elfonnel reared, shaking its head in agony, Connor dug his claws into its hardened armor and leaped, heading for the eyes on the other side.

  Chapter 85

  Hamish nearly collided with a tree as he ran, so absorbed was he in listening to the speakstone pressed against the side of his helmet. Aifric really had attacked High Lord Dougal and injured him in his secret hideout.

  Were Healers allowed to do that?

  "You've made a terrible mistake." Dougal's voice sounded far too calm.

  "The only mistake I made was in not reaching your heart with that stroke." Aifric spoke calmly, like one who was comfortable with killing. It wasn't the voice of a Healer.

  Then Gregor's voice boomed across the stone, sounding distant. He was probably still outside the little house. "Are you all right?"

  Hamish cringed, imagining the huge Sentry preparing to break through the door and tear Aifric apart. He ran harder, entering a tiny clearing and finally catching sight of the Swift, still hovering twenty feet into the air. If he had any thrusters left, he could reach it in a second.

  Instead, he started to climb the tree, moving as fast as he could, but knowing he'd never replenish his suit in time to help Aifric.

  Dougal's voice called out, but instead of ordering Gregor to murder Aifric, he ordered, "Return to your duty."

  "There is one inside with you," Gregor said, his customary Sentry-speak suppressed, his voice concerned.

  "She is a spy, and I need her presence. This is the critical moment, my friend. Shield this house from any and all contact. Even you must not risk your earth senses within."

  Hamish paused halfway up the tree, gaping. Had Aifric lied to him? Had he somehow helped Dougal further his plot against Connor? He wasn't sure what to believe. He'd heard Dougal cry out, heard Aifric promise to kill him. Had that been a lie?

  Dougal spoke again. "We have worked for this moment too long."

  Hamish frowned at the speakstone. That sounded more like Aifric than Dougal, but it was Dougal's voice.

  "The kite knows not whence the wind blows, nor wither it goes, but rises upon the currents, confident only in the string."

  Then Hamish heard only silence, so he scrambled up the tree, grateful the pine had lots of branches. Just as he hauled himself into the seat on the Swift and activated the quartzite thrusters to maneuver it to the ground, Dougal spoke again.

  "You are of the Mhortair, and you command the sounds with serpentinite." His voice sounded tight, as if he was in a lot of pain.

  "I was told you might know of the Assassins," Aifric said, her voice confident. "Few Obrioners do."

  "I know more than you think."

  Hamish stared at the stone, digesting the news. Aifric was an Assassin? Serpentinite sounded like another unknown power stone. There were even more secrets buried behind Aifric's deceptive smile than he'd imagined.

  He needed to get back there and learn the truth. As soon as the Swift settled to the ground, he leaped out and flung open the supply box. Wedging the speakstone into his helmet he began pulling fresh stones from the supply box and fastening them into his suit.

  "You made the mistake we counted on, although not in the way we expected," Aifric said. "I had assumed destroying you would define my career. Now you'll be nothing but a footnote as I move on to deal with the return of the Blood of the Tallan."

  That didn't sound good. What was she planning for Connor?

  "An event which you so rudely interrupted just now," Dougal said. "You impress me, girl. By your dress, you've managed to infiltrate the Carraig as a Healer. It is a shame you choose to interrupt the day I foster the return of the Blood of the Tallan."

  "We have different ideas about what form his return should take."

  "Indeed. I'm afraid I lack the time to debate the advantages of my vision of the future."

  "As if you could sway me." She actually snorted and sounded confident, but Hamish worried she was overpl
aying her hand. The key to succeeding in a surprise attack was to get it over with quickly, but she was dragging it out too long.

  Dougal spoke again, sounding far more confident than a wounded man facing a deadly Assassin. "Now, if you will hand me my sword, I will prepare to meet you properly."

  "If that's how you want to die."

  Hamish picked up sounds of a sword being drawn. Was she actually giving him a weapon? Was she cracked?

  He completed replacing the thrusters and the most important stones in his suit and grabbed up a handful of small diorite bombs from a special compartment. He was out of time, and Aifric was in more danger than she realized.

  Aifric said, "You will tell me how you controlled that monster and what you hoped to achieve by unleashing it on the school."

  "I think first I will teach you some manners."

  "This is going to hurt," she warned, and the sound of swords clashing echoed across the speakstone.

  Then he heard nothing but a strange crackling sound, followed by silence.

  Was the fight over? Had Aifric killed Dougal, or had he somehow flipped the surprise back on her?

  Hamish leaped into the air, engaging his thrusters and tearing into the sky, wishing he'd returned to help Aifric sooner. Worry of what he'd find when he reached her drove him on.

  As he powered through the air toward where Gregor's tower had been, Aifric's voice spoke, so soft he barely heard it above the rushing of wind.

  "Hamish, help me."

  He soared over the tiny clearing, bombs poised to throw, but paused and settled into a hover, not sure what to make of the sight. Aifric lay on the ground in the center of the clearing, face down, her hair disheveled. There was no sign of the little building she'd entered, no sign of Gregor or his tower, and no sign of High Lord Dougal.

  Hamish studied the clearing for a moment, searching for a trap, but finding no evidence that anyone else had ever been there.

  Aifric rolled over slowly, as if in pain, caught sight of him, and motioned him closer.

  Wary of a trap, Hamish settled to the ground beside Aifric. No one emerged to challenge him, the earth did not attack, driven by a Sentry's will. He and Aifric were completely alone.