Steel and Stone: A Novel in the Alastair Stone Chronicles

by R. L. King

  Stone’s thoughts moved fast. Harrison was here now—he could simply do what he’d come here for, tell the man he felt he could take things on his own from here, and ask him to send him home to Earth. He hoped they could talk more at some later date, but even if that ended up not being possible, at least he’d have his magic and his life back. That was what he wanted, right?

  But then he pictured the conflagration raging at Faran’s shop back in Drendell—the blasted-out space and the sheet-covered body of Runa, who, while she hadn’t exactly been kind to him, had treated him fairly. The woman who was dead, along with her husband, due to some sadistic mage’s whim.

  Because they’d helped him.

  “I want to go with you,” he said quickly, before he could think too hard about it and reconsider. Even so, some corner of his mind was aghast: What the hell are you doing? This isn’t your fight. Go home where you belong, you idiot!

  Errin looked surprised, and even Harrison showed a fleeting reaction.

  “What?” Errin demanded.

  “I want to go along with you to Drendell. My magic’s doing well, and I’ve always been strong with auras. I can help.”

  “Out of the question,” Harrison said.

  “It’s not safe,” Errin agreed. “You’re supposed to be dead, remember? If they find out you’re not—”

  “Safe?” Stone snorted. “These bastards have nearly killed me. They’ve treated me like garbage, killed people who helped me, tossed me into prison for existing, and tried to torture me into giving up what I know about you lot. I haven’t been bloody safe since I got here. And now I’ve got a chance to do something worthwhile. I want to take it. You said you’ve got disguises.” He pointed at Harrison. “If you can disguise him, you can damned well disguise me.”

  Harrison regarded him for several silent moments, expressionless, his unblinking gaze even more unsettling than usual. “Why were you looking for me, Dr. Stone? What did you intend to ask me?”

  Stone saw no point in lying. “I was going to ask you to send me home. I’ve been practicing with my magic all day, and I’m sure I’ve got the principle down. I thought I could take things from there on my own. I wanted to get back to my life.”

  “But now you have changed your mind?”

  “No—I still want to get back home. But I’ve seen what these bastards can do. If I can help get someone out of their clutches, I want to do it. Especially now that I can fight back against them. Please—let me do this. You’ve seen me in action. You know what I can do. I won’t be a liability.”

  The silence stretched between them as Harrison’s gaze still didn’t waver. Finally, he inclined his head. “Very well, Dr. Stone. You can accompany us.”

  “Trevor—” Errin began.

  Harrison raised a cautionary hand. “No, Errin. I understand his reasoning—and I do know what he is capable of. Can you have our smaller construct ready to transport in an hour?”

  She sighed, clearly aware arguing would be useless. “Yes, I’ll be ready. Do Karol and Kira know yet?”

  “Kira does—she was with me when I got the communication. I will find Karol. Dr. Stone, I must go now. Meet us at the teleportation pad on the lower level in an hour.”

  “I’ll be there.”

  When Harrison left, Errin sighed. “He can be so damned stubborn sometimes.”

  “What’s the problem?” Stone followed her as she exited the airship and crossed the workspace to where he’d noticed the series of anthropoid structures in various states of repair when he’d first come here. “He’s got all kinds of power, doesn’t he? I’d be surprised if they could get near him.”

  “He does, and it wouldn’t be easy,” she agreed. “But he’s wanted in every one of the mage cities. Sometimes I think he takes dangerous chances just because he gets some kind of rush from it. Like he’s taunting them.” She shrugged. “I get it—I like a rush too. That’s why I build machines like this. But there’s daring and there’s foolish.”

  “Do you think he’s being foolish?” Stone asked. He watched while she selected one of the constructs, a humanoid collection of gears, wires, and shiny metal surfaces about six feet tall, and began tinkering with something in its abdominal area.

  “Honestly, no. Rovenna has been making noises about wanting out for a long time, but she’s in a difficult spot due to her position. It’s entirely possible this latest incident pushed her over the edge, and it makes sense to want to be there to catch her. I just generally like to plan these things a bit better. Doing it on such short notice disturbs me.”

  “Do you trust this Galen?”

  “I do. He’s one of our most reliable agents in Drendell. If everything goes well, we can be in and out in a couple of hours. And if we can get Rovenna on our side, it will be a big win for us.” She pulled a sheaf of wires from the construct’s core and examined it. “Everything worthwhile is worth taking risks.”

  “True indeed,” Stone said. “All right—I’ll let you get on with what you’re doing.”

  As he left, he couldn’t resist glancing back at Errin, and didn’t miss her troubled expression as she continued working on her task.

  33

  Half-convinced Harrison and the others would leave without him, Stone arrived early at the downstairs teleport pad. He was waiting with Anzo when Errin and Karol arrived, the humanoid construct rolling along behind them. Both of them looked serious, but not tense. Errin wore a black gear bag over her shoulder, and Karol had a backpack.

  “Are you sure you want to do this?” Karol asked Stone. “It’s not likely to be dangerous, but we can never be certain.”

  “I want to do it,” Stone said firmly. Even though Harrison had mentioned illusions, he’d changed out of his black T-shirt and jeans and into a Calanar-style outfit. “You lot have helped me more than you know—I want to repay the favor.”

  Harrison shimmered into place on the pad. “Are you all ready?” he asked them without greeting.

  When Karol and Errin nodded, he turned to face Stone. “If all goes well, we will only remain for a short time. Please stay close to us, don’t reveal your identity to anyone, and don’t display any magical abilities unless necessary.”

  “Don’t worry,” Stone assured him. “I have no desire to draw attention to myself.”

  Harrison pulled a handful of small items from his pocket and offered them around.

  Stone took one; it was a simple chain-link bracelet. “Illusion generator?”

  “Yes.” He turned first to Errin, then to Karol, focusing on them for a couple of seconds each. Errin changed from dark-haired and athletic to a shorter, stockier form with shoulder-length, mouse-brown hair. Karol’s broad-shouldered, muscular physique morphed into a portly, dark-skinned, middle-aged man with a receding hairline.

  “Won’t mages be able to penetrate these?” Stone asked, clasping the bracelet around his wrist.

  “Not without a great deal of effort,” Harrison said. “They are of a more advanced design than those you saw in Las Vegas.” He concentrated on Stone for a moment.

  “What do I look like? Anybody got a mirror?”

  “Boring,” Errin said with a grin. “Just the way we like it.”

  Harrison shifted last, becoming a thoroughly nondescript young man with short, dark-blond hair, drab gray work shirt, and dark pants.

  “Where are we meeting Rovenna?” Karol asked. “Is she coming to the Underground?”

  “Yes. Galen will bring her.”

  “Is that safe?” Stone asked. “If it turns out you can’t trust her, won’t that compromise the location?”

  “The Underground’s never held at the same place twice,” Errin said. “They move around for just that reason.”

  “Let’s go,” Harrison said. “Karol and Errin first with the construct. I will follow with Dr. Stone.”

  All business now, Errin stepped onto the pad and the machine followed her. As soon as Karol joined her, Harrison focused on them and they shimmered out.

&
nbsp; “I meant to ask you if you plan to show me how to work these things,” Stone said.

  “We will discuss that when we return. This one will not function for you as configured, though—only Kira and I have the key.” He motioned for Stone to step on.

  He did. “You mean leaving this area? Only you and Kira control that?”

  “It is a safety measure. The pads are magically keyed only to certain auras.” Harrison stepped onto the pad next to Stone.

  Once again it seemed as if nothing had happened, except the view suddenly changed from a featureless hallway to a small room with battered wooden walls and no windows. Stone looked down; the only sign of the teleport pad was a stained circular rug on the floor.

  Kira and Karol had already stepped aside with the construct, standing near the room’s single door.

  Harrison moved off the rug and motioned for Stone to do the same. Then he made a brief gesture and the rug flashed green before settling back to its normal, dull pattern. “Remember this location,” Harrison told Stone. “The teleport pad here has been attuned to the auras of everyone in our group. If anything goes wrong, get back here and it will return you to the Nexus. If we are temporarily separated and you need to bring anyone with you, have them grasp your bracelet.”

  “How far is where we’re going from this location?” Stone asked.

  “The pad is centrally located to most of the Underground venues in Drendell,” Errin told him. “We’ll only have to go half a mile or so—and we’ve got a vehicle.”

  They followed Harrison, with the construct floating along with them, up a flight of stairs that looked rickety but felt solid. Another door opened into a narrow garage, where an enclosed van that seemed like its best days were well behind it waited. Stone couldn’t read the writing on the side.

  As he climbed into the back with Errin and helped guide the construct to a sitting position, he couldn’t help noticing Harrison seemed even more vigilant than usual. In fact, all three of his companions were watching all around them—not nervous or fearful, but definitely paying attention to their surroundings.

  “Are you expecting trouble?” he asked, taking a seat behind Karol, who was driving.

  “We always expect trouble,” Errin told him. “These things usually go fine, but we can’t get complacent. There are a lot more of them than there are of us.”

  Stone settled back and remained silent, memorizing the route they took. This was a different part of Drendell than he’d spent his time in, so nothing looked familiar. He wondered how big the mundanes’ city was, and how much of it was inhabited. Several street lights illuminated their way, though more were barely flickering or non-functional. A light, steady rain fell.

  Fortunately—especially since Stone still hadn’t learned to read the language—their route didn’t involve many turns. Only a few minutes later, they were pulling up in front of a looming, shadowy building that looked like a darkened warehouse. At first it didn’t appear anyone was there, but after a moment a man stepped out from behind a pile of boxes and ambled up to the driver’s-side window. “Can I help you?”

  “We’ve got a delivery,” Karol said. “For Loman.”

  “Ah, right. They’re expecting you. Go on in.” He pulled open a roll-up door and stood aside.

  “Security seems a bit sparse,” Stone commented as they rolled through and the man pulled the door back down behind them.

  “That’s just what you see,” Errin said. “They’ve got lookouts stationed in several points—mages and non-mages—as well as warning wards.”

  “This isn’t the only way in, either,” Karol said. “Most of the Underground locations have at least two ways in and out—a main one and a hidden one.” He drove the van to the other side of the warehouse and parked it next to a battered pickup truck. “We walk from here.”

  They got the construct out, Errin gathered her tools and Karol his backpack, and they headed for a rusting, industrial-looking elevator. Next to it, a pair of men were rearranging a stack of crates using a forklift. Karol trotted over and had a brief conversation with them, and then they returned to their work.

  “They’re mages,” Errin told Stone. “They know us, so it’s not a problem.”

  The rattling, unsteady elevator didn’t fill Stone with confidence as they descended, but apparently it was more sturdy than it appeared because soon it opened on a wide passageway. Faraway voices echoed against the concrete walls, followed by a muffled cheer.

  Once again, Karol jogged ahead toward a substantial, closed metal door. Stone though he would knock, but as he approached another man shimmered into existence off to the side. The two spoke, and then the man receded back into whatever illusion hid him.

  “They’ve got this all worked out, don’t they?” Stone murmured to Errin as Harrison headed toward the door.

  “They have to. You already know what the mages do to people who break the law. They can’t be too careful about this.”

  “How often do they run these things?”

  Karol opened the door and held it for the rest of them to go through. “A few times a year, spread out over the five major cities. We don’t always go—we weren’t planning to go to this one, actually, until this situation with Rovenna turned up.”

  “Usually we only go when we’ve got some good prospects to help out, or we’ve got a new construct to test.” She patted the humanoid machine’s metal shoulder. “This one’s actually not quite ready, but it can fake it long enough for us to talk to Rovenna.”

  Without the heavy door blocking it, the sound from inside got much louder—a combination of shouts, cheers, and numerous conversations. Stone stopped a moment, taking the place in.

  It looked as if it had once been an underground parking garage, though one that had fallen to ruin many years ago. Wooden beams and metal scaffolding reinforced its walls in several places, and while it appeared the support columns were sound, the floor in several places was cracked and buckled as if an earthquake had disrupted it. The main illumination came from a series of large fixtures in the high ceilings, though brighter portable lights had been scattered around the floor. The whole space was roughly rectangular, measuring perhaps a hundred feet on the long side, and a bit less on the short side.

  If Stone had to estimate, he’d guess there might be about fifty to seventy people here, both men and women, spread out around the floor and mostly arranged around two makeshift “arenas” delineated by metal barriers. On the far side of the room, several temporary structures that looked like shed-tent hybrids had been set up, along with several spread-out tarps covered in what looked like various machine parts. Off to the left Stone spotted a temporary bar with several more people loitering around it. As he watched, another cheer went up from the left-side arena ring.

  “Come on,” Errin urged him, coming back to take his arm. Harrison, Karol, and the floating construct had already gotten ahead of them. “We need to get set up.”

  They hurried over, following Harrison and Karol to one of the structures. A woman with a clipboard gave Karol a sheet of paper as they entered.

  The inside was empty except for a tarp spread on the floor, a single small table, and a bright, adjustable work lamp. Harrison directed the construct to the middle of the tarp and set it down. “I will find Galen and see if Rovenna has arrived.”

  “We’ll get this thing ready to go,” Errin said. She dropped her bag on the table and began laying out tools. “How much time have we got, Karol?”

  Karol consulted the sheet. “We’re up in two fights, in the north arena.”

  “What about me?” Stone asked. “All right if I take a look around?”

  “Yes, but stay close,” Errin told him. “We need to stay together so we can be ready to go. If Trevor makes contact fast, we might leave directly after our fight.” She pointed off to the side, near the bar, where a series of wooden crates were stacked about seven feet high. “The other exit is on the other side over there, behind that stack of boxes. They’re all co
nnected, so they can be shoved aside.”

  “Do you expect to make a quick escape?” Stone asked.

  “No, but it never hurts to know where all the exits are.”

  “If you wouldn’t mind,” Karol added, “take a look around at the auras, and see if anybody looks suspicious.”

  “Got it.” Stone slipped back out and found a spot to the side of the tent where he could get a good look at the area.

  Currently, the left-side arena was between bouts. One man and woman, both dressed in work clothes and vests similar to Errin’s, were leading their combatant—a mostly-humanoid, three-legged thing that looked like it had been assembled from scrap metal—back toward their tent as the crowd parted for them. Stone could barely make out the other construct, which was shorter, squatter, and painted bright red, as its three handlers gathered around it in obvious disappointment. Most of the crowd had already begun gravitating toward the other ring, where another pair of constructs circled each other warily.

  Stone watched in fascination. This was an area of magic he’d never seen on Earth—as far as he knew, either nobody there had figured out how to combine magic with technology or else they hadn’t bothered to try. He knew it was possible to summon a spirit into an inanimate object and animate it that way, but it was difficult and dangerous enough that he’d never heard of anyone doing it on a scale this large. Maybe he could ask Harrison about it once they returned to the Nexus, before heading back home. Probably not something he himself would have much success with, though—his mechanical aptitude had never been high, and he could see from the design of the various constructs that whoever had built them, magic aside, had some serious skills in that area. He wondered where Harrison had learned it—from the sound of it, he’d been tinkering with mundane machines since well before he discovered his magic.