The woman opened the door wide. “Please come in.” They entered the panelled hallway. “I must ask you to wait. I am not sure the Master will see you, I’m afraid. There has been an incident this morning. Whom shall I say is calling?”
“Alondo and Lyall, the Scientists,” he said.
The woman looked at him strangely, turned and disappeared through a door at the end of the hall.
Lyall rounded on Alondo and hissed. “What did you tell her that for?”
Alondo was unrepentant. “You want to get in to see him don’t you? Besides, I have no idea what a scientist is, so we could both be scientists for all I know.”
Lyall was about to counter when the door opened and the woman buzzed in. “This way,” she said. “The Master cannot see you for long. He is in the middle of a crisis.”
They followed her through another door to a large reception room lined with clicking mechanisms of bronze and glass. Lyall dug his friend in the ribs. Alondo tore his eyes away from the machines and fixed on the elderly figure in the centre of the room.
With his bent-over figure, beady eyes and hooked nose, the old man looked like a bird ready to pounce. “You. You’re not from the Directorate. I don’t know you. Who are you?”
“You are Hannath?” Alondo began. “You come highly recommended, sir. We need help with a machine.”
“What? A machine, you say? Why are you bothering me with this? I’m not a repairer.” The oldster waved a bony claw dismissively. “Go visit the machine shops in the town and stop wasting my time.”
Alondo adjusted his tone to one of sympathy. “Your…housekeeper…said something happened this morning,”
“Something happened?” the old man replied angrily. “I’ll say. It’s an outrage, that’s what. My ungrateful assistant has run off with that stupid girl and taken the Candachra with him.”
Lyall’s ears pricked up. “You mean Chandara?”
“That’s their name in Old Kelanni…” The old man put a hand to his scalp. “Hang on a dahn. Where are you from?”
Alondo replied without hesitation. “We came through the Great Barrier by ship, across the Aronak Sea.” Lyall shot his friend a look of annoyance. They had agreed that they should withhold that kind of information until they knew who could be trusted. Too late now.
“You…you’re the accomplices of that wretched girl.” Hannath’s tone grew higher and more querulous. “This is all your fault. My goodness, it’s an invasion. How many of you are there?”
Lyall’s heart leapt. Alondo ignored the old man’s question. “Shann. You’re talking about Shann. And Boxx. They’re alive. ” He turned to face Lyall. “See, I told you. I told you I saw her in that carriage-thing.”
“I’m sorry, my friend,” Lyall said. “I should have listened to you.” He addressed Hannath. “Her name is Shann? Short hair, short in height, short temper?”
The old man harrumphed.
“Where are they now?” Lyall inquired.
Hannath threw up his arms. “How should I know? They stole an avionic. They could be anywhere in Skell by now. He left the pressure calculations half done. How am I supposed to keep the launch on schedule now? The Directorate will hold me responsible. Not to mention that it’s one of their machines he stole. How could he do this to me? And all over some girl.”
“You’re saying that Shann…ran off with this boy?” Lyall asked in disbelief.
Hannath flapped his arms, enhancing the bird impression. “Yes, yes. Haven’t you been paying attention?”
Lyall turned to Alondo once again. “That doesn’t sound like our Shann.”
“That just proves how well you know her,” Alondo countered.
Lyall raised his eyebrows. “And I thought we’d been busy these past few days.”
“Lyall, we have to find her.”
Lyall put a hand on his friend’s shoulder. “We will, my friend. We will.”
“Forget about her,” Hannath blustered. “Just bring that boy back here. He has work to do.”
~
“So…what will happen when we get back?” In the cramped conditions of the cockpit, Shann could not turn around to look at Rael. For the same reason, he could not see her face. For now, that was something she was grateful for. She did not want him to see the guilt that she knew was etched on her features.
“How do you mean?” she heard him say over the whir of the engines.
“What will they do when they find out we took the avionic?”
“Well,” he replied, “I imagine the good Director will have to postpone his tour.”
“That’s not what I meant,” she said.
“To be perfectly honest, I’m not sure. There will be questions asked by the Scientific Directorate. Hannath will be annoyed, not the least because he’s supposed to be responsible for me. Of course, if we do discover the ‘First Ones’, then that might go some way towards smoothing things over.”
“Why did you do it?” she asked. “Why did you push Ravid aside?”
“There was no other choice,” he said. “Once Hannath realised what we were trying to do, there would have been no chance to get away.”
There was a silence, filled by the rising and falling cadence of the engines. Finally, it was Shann who spoke. “Thank you.”
“For what?” he asked.
“For believing in me.”
The avionic rose high over the jagged knife-like arêtes of the Cathgorns, a patchwork of blinding white snow and night black stone. Beautiful, yet dangerous. Fear inspiring, yet enticing. A part of her longed to be down there, delving into its mysteries. Another part revelled in the security of the clouds and the thrill of the open sky.
A flash. A glint of bright sunlight in the corner of her eye. Shann twisted around in her seat to try and get a better look, squashing Boxx into the corner in the process. A thin silver shape was tracking them. Shann gesticulated to get Rael’s attention, and pointed behind them. “It’s another avionic, Shann,” he called out.
“Why is it following us?” she asked.
“Avionics share similar flight paths. It’s nothing.”
Shann recalled the time the Prophet’s men were pursuing them across the Eastern Plains. “Can you alter our direction?”
“Where?”
“Anywhere,” she said. “It doesn’t matter. Just see what they will do.”
“Shann, I don’t think–”
“Please,” she interjected.
“All right,” he said. The engines’ pitch fell, as their aircraft banked to the left.
Shann twisted in her seat, straining for a view of the other flying machine. “There,” she indicated. “It’s altered course to follow us.”
“I see that.”
“Who are they?” she asked.
“It must be the drach,” Rael said.
“The drach? But you said that the avionics weren’t guarded.”
“They aren’t,” Rael replied. “But if there were drach at the avionics field and they saw what happened…”
The nose of their craft rose slightly, and Shann felt a forward momentum. “What are you doing?” she demanded.
“I’m slowing down.”
“Why?”
“I’m not running from the drach,” Rael declared. “We can’t set down in these mountains. But as soon as we’ve cleared them, I’m going to land and we’re going to turn ourselves in.”
“But–”
“Forget it, Shann. It’s over.”
Shann fell into a morose silence. There didn’t seem to be anything she could do. She was locked out of the controls, and Rael’s tone made it clear that the matter was not up for debate. Rael had returned Saccath’s staff to her before they left; she could feel its reassuring pressure against her back. However, the thought of battling one–perhaps two–of the blue coated watchkeepers was not appealing. Attacking them would undoubtedly alienate Rael, brand her a renegade and ensure that she would not get any more help from these people. As for talking her way o
ut of it–well, that seemed even less likely to succeed. If her experience with watchkeepers was anything to go by, they were overly attached to their sense of duty. The chances of them simply allowing her and Rael to continue on their journey unmolested seemed negligible. No, they would be taken back to Kieroth, Rael would be disgraced and she would probably be imprisoned. How did I get myself in such a mess?
Boom. The avionic lurched to one side, throwing her violently against Boxx and then back against the other side of the cramped cockpit. “What’s happening?” she cried out.
“Th-the other avionic,” Rael shouted. “It fired some sort of beam at us.”
“The drach are shooting at us?”
“No, no…they wouldn’t do that,” Rael sounded confused. “In any case, avionics aren’t fitted with weapons.”
“Try telling that to them out there.” A bright yellow streak flashed over her head, narrowly missing the cockpit. “What are you doing? Why are we still flying in a straight line?” she yelled.
“Sorry, I…” Rael started to bank the craft into a wide turn.
This is no good. We’ll be blown out of the sky. Shann began frantically examining the levers and dials in front of her. She did not know whether this was the same machine that they used the day before to travel to the launch site, but the controls were exactly the same. There were those that governed the power that was channelled to the fans, and others that corresponded to the bronze and upper lodestone layers of her flying cloak. As she familiarised herself with them once again, an idea started to take shape. “Give me control of this thing,” she demanded.
“What…what are you talking about?” Rael’s voice held a note of desperation.
“Turn the controls over to me,” she repeated.
“Don’t be ridiculous. You’ve never even flown an avionic before.”
“I can get us out of this. I can put him on the ground,” she said.
“What? We don’t even have any weapons. How are you going to do that?”
“Look,” she yelled, “I don’t have time to explain. I’ve…been in these sorts of situations before. Have you?”
“No, of course not.”
“Then give me control.”
There was a short pause. Then she heard him say, “You have control.”
“All right. Hang on.” She checked the relative position of the pursuing craft, then cut engine power to a bare minimum. She heard Rael gasp as the note of the engine died away and the avionic tipped forward and began dropping towards the mountainside.
Co-operative mechanics. Shann recalled Lyall’s impromptu lesson as they faced the Kharthrun Serpent together. On that occasion, she had provided what Keris called a “lodestone base line”. Time for a little role reversal, then, she smiled grimly to herself. However, she would probably only get one shot at it. Positioning was everything. If this was going to work, then she would have to be directly above the other machine, but sufficiently near to the ground that the other pilot would have no opportunity to correct.
Their aircraft was picking up speed as it fell. Shann opened up the engines, then cut power again almost immediately. A long time ago, she remembered hearing that some birds would feign a broken wing in order to divert a predator from their nest. If the pursuer thought she was losing height due to engine failure, it would probably be induced to follow her down. He might also conclude that if they were crippled, he could take his time, thereby giving her the opportunity she needed. In any case, it was going to be tight.
She pulled the machine left…right; then hazarded a glance behind her. He was pursuing her line, skimming over the jagged rocks and drifts of snow. Exactly where I want you
A blinding flash of light. Their avionic lurched sideways. Shann wrestled with the controls, bringing the craft back onto a level keel, but the port engine was now making a horrible rattling noise. It was now or never. “Can you see him?” she yelled.
“Yes,” Rael called back.
“How close?”
“He’s gaining.”
Using his lodestone to push against every available deposit and gain every possible advantage in speed. Just as you should. “Tell me when he’s breathing down our neck.” Her brows knotted as she put every ounce of concentration into threading an evasive course. The frozen landscape flashed beneath her in a blur.
An eternity passed. Then she heard Rael’s voice. “He’s nearly on top of us.”
She took a deep breath, then adjusted the fans to a vertical backward lift. Their avionic rose and braked simultaneously, engines protesting. Shann waited a split second longer till she judged that the other avionic was directly beneath them. Then she thrust the lever down, fully extending the avionics lodestone layer. Their aircraft shot vertically into the air, slamming her back into her seat.
“What happened…what did you do?” Rael exclaimed.
She pointed ahead of them. “Look.”
The chasing craft had slammed into the ground, kicking up clouds of snow and ice. It turned slightly before slithering to a halt, half buried in a snowdrift. Shann flew over the downed machine, then banked left, seeking a lodestone deposit to push off to try and gain more height. Their port engine had now added a grinding noise to its persistent rattle, and grey smoke was now emanating from it.
“We’re going to have to land,” she announced.
“No, we can’t set down in these mountains. It’s far too dangerous,” Rael protested.
“I’m sorry,” she said, “but this machine is going down whether we like it or not.”
~
The gruff engineer popped the cover of the avionic and hauled himself up, grimacing as he did so. He clutched his sprained wrist to his chest and clambered one-handed over the side of the cockpit onto the engine mounting before dropping to the snow-covered ground. He walked slowly around his craft, surveying the damage. It was not good. The nose cone was buried in a drift of snow and one of the rotors was badly bent. McCann gave the fuselage a hefty kick. The clang reverberated off the surrounding rocks. He wasn’t going anywhere in this thing.
He dry-washed his face with his good hand, feeling the roughness of his stubble. How could this have happened? He had watched the couple leave the observatory building and had tracked them to the avionics field. The plan? Follow them till they got to a remote enough area, then use the gamma ray laser to put them down, eliminate the boy if necessary and take the girl in for questioning.
All was going fine. He had even gotten a couple of shots into them. And then…and then the pilot–whoever he was–had pulled some rookie stunt and the next thing he knew, he was kissing dirt. The pain in his wrist was nothing compared to the embarrassment of having to call Helice to have someone come rescue him. He could just see Wang, red-faced and screaming at him, calling him every name under the sun. If he ever caught up with the green-skinned jerk responsible, McCann looked forward to shaking him warmly by the throat.
He hauled himself back up to the cockpit one-handed and checked the coordinates on the navigational display. Then he looked up, squinting at the suns and noting their position. It was barely mid morning–more than enough time for them to get an avionic out to him before nightfall. Time enough also for him to get his story straight. Of course, there was no need for him to mention the fact that he had been forced down…wind. That was it. He could say that he had been chasing the other craft when a sudden downdraught of air had caused him to lose control and crash. Up here in the mountains, air currents were notoriously treacherous. No-one would disbelieve him–at least, no-one would be able to prove any different. He might even get some sympathy from Susan and one or two of the others.
The avionic would have to be abandoned here on the mountain. He would need to disconnect and remove the fusion power cell, but the rest of it could go to blazes. Tomorrow he could return to Kieroth in another machine and get his contacts to make some discreet enquiries at the observatory. If he could discover the couple’s destination and follow them there, then he might be a
ble to arrange a little payback.
McCann permitted himself a wry grin of satisfaction, then marched off to find his tools.
~
“Shann. Shann, are you all right?”
Shann felt the swelling goose egg where her forehead had impacted the control panel. It was hardly a controlled landing, but in the circumstances, she felt content to be still in one piece and not plastered over the mountainside. “Yes, I’m fine, thank you.”
The cockpit cover was badly cracked and smoke was still rising from the port engine. Rael released the canopy and extended a hand to help her out of the front seat. His expression was grim. “We can’t stay here.”
Shann took his hand. “You’re quite welcome.”
“No, you don’t understand,” Rael said. “These mountains are dangerous, especially after nightfall. Apart from the risk of hypothermia and frostbite, there are…well, there are creatures here.”
She reached back into the cockpit and checked Boxx over. The Chandara appeared unharmed. She held out both hands, but it scampered past her and dropped to the snow beside Rael, standing on its hind legs. Shann turned and jumped down, landing in front of Rael. “Well, I already met up with those horned beasts–valthar, you called them. I fended them off on my own, I might add.”
He was wide-eyed and glancing from side to side. “Valthar prowl the lower slopes. They seldom get up this far. The creatures here are…different.”
Shann felt a pit of something cold forming in her stomach that had nothing to do with the frigid air. “What do you mean, ‘different’?”
“We call them murghal–the common name for them is rime beasts or rime slayers. They…have a different chemistry to you and me, one that’s specially adapted to the intense cold up here. They have the ability to absorb heat, extracting it from whatever they touch and freezing it in the process. The blood running in their veins isn’t blood. It’s a green liquid that never freezes. They are like no other beasts on this planet. We have to get away from here.”
Shann remembered as a child being told stories about fearsome beasts like the Great Kharthrun Serpent. Her encounter with the Serpent had taught her that sometimes the name lived up to the nightmare. And Rael did not seem the kind of person who would be influenced by childish tales. The fear she saw in his eyes was genuine.
The Lodestone Trilogy (Limited Edition) (The Lodestone Series) Page 48
