Lodestone Book One: The Sea of Storms (48 page)

“I don’t have any answers for
you, Shann. I hold myself responsible for a lot of things that
happened. But I cannot change the past. I can only try and work for
a better future–and to change the person I used to be.”

Shann’s eyes
blazed. “You say you are no longer Keltar? Then what are you?”
Keris pushed past Shann and strode off across the deck.
“
What are you?”
Shann called after her.

Keris did not
look back.
“I am nothing.”

~

A few minutes
after Shann had left Lyall made his excuses to Patris and exited
the forecastle. Looking across the deck, he saw Shann and Keris in
the shadow of the stern castle, deep in conversation.
Perhaps they are working out their differences at
last?

He decided to leave them to their
discussion. Besides, he had another important task to perform. He
climbed the ladder to the foredeck and walked slowly to the
starboard rail. It was a beautiful night. A balmy breeze blew
through the rigging. Waves lapped gently against the overlapping
strakes. Sidelights were strung along the curve of the hull,
reflecting over the water. Black clouds drifted lazily across a
dull pink sky. Lyall leaned against the rail, lost in the view.
Then he recalled the reason for his late night stroll. He raised
his right hand to his mouth and spoke into the Ring in his
forefinger.

“Oliah.” The stone came to life,
exhibiting its familiar green glow.

“Alondo, are
you all right?”
Oliah’s silken voice was
slightly distorted, but it was unmistakeably her.

“This isn’t Alondo, this is
Lyall.”

“Where’s
Alondo?”

“He’s…not feeling very well.
Don’t worry; it’s nothing serious–just a bout of seasickness. It
seemed to come on the moment we left the harbour. Boxx is caring
for him and Shann just took him some food.”

“Can I speak to
him?”

“He’s lying down right now. I
promise, when he’s feeling better I’ll get him to Ring
you.”

“What about the
others? How is Shann?”

“Shann is just fine. Patris is
keeping her hard at work. He’s a little put out because I won’t
tell him where we’re going. I told him it was for his own
protection, but I don’t think he liked that answer.”

“Maybe you should
consider telling him?”

“No, I don’t want to risk him
turning the ship around.”

“I doubt he would do
that.”

“I don’t know–I think if I was in
his boots and someone told me that we were going to attempt to sail
this ship into the Great Barrier, I would think we had all gone
mad. In any case, I have no intention of forcing him to come with
us. I’m sure he will be more than happy when we cut him loose in
the launch with a bag of astrias.”

“What about
Keris?”

“She seems to be up and about
already, thanks to Boxx. In fact I saw Shann speaking with her,
just a moment ago.”

“Shann doesn’t trust
her.”

“I know. I was hoping they could
put that behind them. How are things back in Sakara?”

“The city was in
uproar after you left. The official line is that a band of
renegades led by a woman–a criminal from Chalimar–tried to set fire
to the city and then escaped by ship. However, there are lots of
rumours flying around about this woman–that the Prophet is in fear
of her, that she has the strength of many men. They are calling her
‘The Heroine of Gort,’ saying that she attacked the garrison there
single-handed. Chalimar has already tripled the bounty on
her.”

“I’m sure Keris will be delighted
to hear that.”

“When will you reach
the Great Barrier of Storms?”

“Some time the day after
tomorrow, according to Patris. If the wind holds, that is. We’ve
been fortunate so far. Patris is worried about turbulence near the
barrier, but I plan to have him on his way well before we encounter
it.”

“Lyall?”
Her voice sounded suddenly
fragile.

“Yes?”

“I’m worried about
what will happen to Alondo. We talked about what you were planning
to do and I agreed he should go along but the truth is I…I don’t
want him to go. I don’t want to lose him, or Shann. I know I’m
being selfish, but–”

“It’s all right, Oliah. I already
told them that they won’t be coming with us.”

“You did? But Alondo
never said –”

“I only discussed it with them
the night before we left. They were both still adamant about
coming. I was going to insist when the news came about Keris’
disappearance and–well, there just wasn’t any opportunity for
debate after that. I figured it didn’t matter, because I could
still send them back with Patris when the time came.

“Do you think Alondo
will agree to being sent back?”

“Probably not. But I’ll pick him
up and throw him in the launch if necessary. I’m more concerned
about Shann. She can be extremely stubborn when she wants to be.
But I’ll deal with that when the time comes. They will have more
than enough food and water, and Patris and Shann are our two best
sailors. They should be safely back in Sakara in a few
days.”

Lyall fancied
he could sense the tension easing in her voice.
“I don’t know how to thank you. But…what about you and the
others?

“Boxx is essential to Annata’s
plan and it will only deal with Keris, so she has to come. Besides,
I suspect that there’s nowhere in all of Kelanni that would be safe
for her now. As for me–well I have my own reasons for doing this.
Our method of traversing the Barrier is a good one–even Keris
thinks it has a chance of success, and she is a born
sceptic.”

“What does Shann
think?”

“I haven’t told her the details,
although it’s partly based on her idea. I didn’t want to worry her
unduly. In any case, by the time we enter the Barrier, she will be
on her way back to Sakara with the others.

“Remember, Oliah, if you don’t
hear anything after we have crossed over, it doesn’t necessarily
mean that there is anything wrong. It’s quite possible that the
Ring may not work from the other side. These are
untested–”

A creak on the
deck timbers behind him.
Lyall tore the
Ring from his finger and stuffed it into a pocket
self-consciously.
He turned to see
Patris.
How long have you been standing
there?

“Who were you talking to?” Patris
asked.

Lyall looked around; then smiled
disarmingly. “No-one here but me.”

~

Shann found life at sea
exhilarating. She revelled in the rhythmic rise and fall of the
waves, the smell of the sea in her nostrils, the cries of the birds
that wheeled overhead, seeking out scraps of food. She liked
nothing better than to climb up to the tiny crow’s nest and view
the ocean from far above. Whitecaps stretched to the far horizon on
every side, so that it was easy to convince oneself that their
little ship was the only thing left in the entire world.

She was sitting
in her basket shaped perch atop the mast, when she saw it. A thin
brown line between the blue-green sea and the blue and pink sky.
She hollered down to the deck below.
“Land–I see land.”
Patris and Lyall
were the only ones on deck. They both turned their faces up to her.
She pointed towards the southeast.
“There.”

She hopped out of the crow’s nest
and scurried down the rigging to join the other two. They were
already at the gunwale, looking out at the direction she had
indicated. Shann took a place beside Lyall. The brown line was a
little less distinct from this vantage point, but was still
visible. “What is it?” she asked.

“The Isle of Panna,” Patris
announced.

Panna…
Panna
…that name rang a bell somehow–from the tale Alondo had told
about Captain Arval. “That was where Arval went to tame the three
giant perridons,” she recalled.

Patris chuckled. “You’re a fan of
the Arval stories, I see.”

Lyall’s sharp glance reminded her
that she shouldn’t give too much away. “Not really,” she said. “But
I know someone who is.”

Patris lifted his head, sensing a
change in the wind. He strode across the deck to the pillar which
rose from the afterdeck and checked the binnacle into which the
directional lodestone device was set. “I take it our course is
still due east?” he called.

“Yes, if you please,” Lyall
said.

“Then I will need to adjust our
heading.” Patris began busying himself with the ship’s
tackle.

Shann looked up at Lyall “Maybe
we should divert there and search for a couple of
perridons?”

Lyall was still gazing at the
island in the distance. “Don’t worry, Shann. We will have our own
‘birds’ when the time comes.”

Shann was about
to ask for an explanation, when Patris yelled,
“Hey ‘first mate,’ how about some help over here? Jump to
it.”

Soon Shann was lost in the
minutiae of guiding their tiny vessel and Lyall’s strange comment
lay forgotten–lost in the vast emptiness of the Aronak
Sea.

~

It was late in the morning of the
third day when they first spotted the Barrier. At first it was
nothing more than a lowering bank of angry clouds on the distant
horizon. Slowly, it grew, occupying more and more of the eastern
sky, dark and forbidding. Soon the wind started to pick up, causing
the canvass to flap and buffeting the sides of their tiny
vessel.

Lyall finished tying off a
bowline and looked around the tiny vessel. Alondo and Boxx were at
the ship’s forward rail. Alondo was transfixed by the distant
storms. He had finally emerged from the stern castle that morning,
seeming to have found his sea legs at last, although he still
looked a little pale. The rail was a little high for Boxx, who kept
jumping up like a small child to get a view of the storm front.
Keris was also above deck. She was seated on a crate on the
afterdeck–off by herself as usual, checking her equipment. It
appeared that she and Shann had not spoken since their conversation
that first night at sea. Then the woman had seemed fragile.
Vulnerable. Willing to talk. Now her inner strength had returned,
and the shutters had gone up once more.

Lyall shook his head. Perhaps in
the end it didn’t matter. Soon they would be parting, perhaps
forever: Shann sailing back to Sakara with Patris and Alondo; Keris
accompanying him and Boxx towards–what? As the Great Barrier of
Storms loomed ever closer, Lyall felt an odd sense of calm. If this
was to be the end–the culmination of his life–then it seemed to him
that it was a good one. It was perhaps fitting that the road from
Persillan should end with him finally joining those who had died in
a desperate effort to end tyranny. On the other hand, if they
should by some miracle make it to the other side to continue the
struggle, then maybe he could finally find some justification for
his having survived, when so many had not. Perhaps he might even
discover finally what had happened to Aune.

He heard a
voice calling his name–intruding into his private thoughts. Patris
was standing before him. The man’s lean face was etched with worry
and he ran a hand through his hair as it was blown about by the
gathering wind. “We have to change course.
Now
.”

Lyall steeled
himself. Time for Patris and the others to leave. As he opened his
mouth, he was cut off by a cry from behind him.
“A ship.”

Lyall turned to see Keris on the
afterdeck, pointing astern. He hurried across the deck and up the
ladder, with Patris just behind him.

As they joined her, Keris pointed
again urgently. There was no mistaking it. They were being pursued
by a square rigged ship, perhaps three times the size of theirs.
Already it was looming large on the horizon. With their attention
focussed on the Great Barrier, they had failed to notice the larger
vessel as it crept up on them. Lyall leaned over the stern rail,
straining his eyes for a better view. His heart sank. Emblazoned on
the foresail, Lyall could clearly see the three interlocking
circles with the symbol of the flame riding high above them. The
Three and the One.

The Keltar had found
them.

Chapter
31

“Can we outrun them?” Lyall
projected his voice at Patris, as the swirling wind tried to snatch
it away.

Patris shouted back at him. “Can
a single masted cog with a bilge keel outrun a three masted carrack
in full sail? Not likely.”

“Isn’t there anything we can do?”
Lyall tried not to sound desperate.

“Perhaps we might–”

A distant thud.
A whooshing sound
. The water just off the
stern exploded, drenching the three of them.

“Lodestone
cannon,”
Patris yelled.