Stones: Theory (Stones #4) (18 page)

How is it possible?

It must be the seven Stones that allow Ryzaard to move around almost without detection.

His first thought is to grab Yarah and jump to Ryzaard’s lab. Together, they can destroy it and everything and everyone in sight. He see’s jagged shards of energy jumping out of his Stone. Anger and rage take hold of his mind. If Ryzaard has hurt Jessica in any way, Matt will make him pay. He feels Ryzaard’s neck firmly grasped in his hands as he wrings the life out of the old man.

His fingers reach out for Yarah.

“I’ve got it.” Yarah’s voice echoes faintly in his mind. “All the strands of light are wrapped up. Nothing is loose.”

Her words bring Matt back into the world of his mind. He remembers that he was teaching her how to bind the strands of light to her Stone so it will escape detection by Ryzaard.

Taking a deep breath, Matt calms himself. “Good job, Yarah. Can you come out now? We have to hurry.”

“Be right there.”

When she comes out of his mind, Yarah’s eyes scan the room. “Where’s Jessica?”

Matt drops his gaze to the floor and shakes his head. “Gone. Ryzaard’s been here, while we were working on the Stones. He’s taken her away.”

Yarah leaps at Matt, hugging him tightly. “We have to find her!” Tears from her shuddering body drop like a warm ocean mist onto his neck. “Ryzaard might be hurting her. Let’s go, now!”

“We will.” Matt looks into her eyes. “But first we have to be ready. We’ll go after her tonight. Are you sure you can wrap the light threads tightly around your Stone?”

Yarah nods her head vigorously. “Not a stray strand. As tight as can be.”

“Good.” Matt turns and picks the cloaking box off the foot of the bed. “Then we can finally use this for something else.”

“What do you mean?”

Fear rises in Matt’s chest, replacing the anger.

With effort, he pushes the terror and panic at losing Jessica to the back of his mind. Like so many times before, Ryzaard has taken her to force Matt to come. If he ever wants to see her again alive, he must concentrate now on the plan that’s been knocking around inside him for weeks.

Sitting down on the floor, he motions for Yarah to move across from him. “I’ve been studying this box for the last few months, trying to figure out how it works. So far, I haven’t made much progress.” He holds it up in his palm. “All I know is, if we’re going to go after Ryzaard and find Jessica, we need to know how to use this.” He slides the lid open with his thumb and places it on the floor between them.

Wiping the tears from her eyes, Yarah drops her gaze to the stone box and then looks up at Matt. “It’s just a stone box.”

“I had a dream, and in that dream, we were facing Ryzaard using this.” Matt’s fingers brush against the box. “We have to figure out how it works before we go after him. There isn’t much time. Will you help me?”

Yarah nods. “What can I do?”

“You and I have an advantage over Ryzaard and the others.” Matt puts his hand on the little girl’s shoulder. “We have each other. Maybe, if we work together, we can figure out how to turn this into a weapon. Ready?”

“Ready.”

“OK. First, close your eyes and find your Stone. Then look for me. I’ll do the same.”

Matt lets his own gaze drop down and is immediately engulfed in the darkness of his mind. A thin film of light clings to his body as tight as a second skin. Some distance away, a single point appears and grows larger as he looks at it. Whether he is moving to it, or it is moving to him, he can’t tell. As it approaches, he recognizes the shape of the Stone. It floats into his fingers when he stretches out his hand.

At the instant of contact, a universe of stars suddenly jumps into view around him.

He turns, looking for Yarah.

A woman floats in the darkness a few meters away. “Now what?” she says.

“Is that you, Yarah?”

A look of surprise appears on the woman’s angelic face. “What do you mean?”

Matt shakes his head. “You look so—”

“Old?”

“Grown up.” Matt casts his glance in a circle. “Look for the box.”

Yarah stares into the blackness in front and behind her. “I don’t see it.”

As Matt turns, his fingers brush against the point of a hard object. He stops and peers down closer by his hand.

There it is. A transparent box, visible only at the edges and corners, floating in the space between them, right where it would have been back in the real world where they are still sitting on the floor of the hotel room facing each other. He moves his palm under it and brings it up to eye level. Made of glass or crystal, stars are visible through its side and open lid.

“Here we go,” he says. “Can you see it?”

Yarah’s eyes squint. “Barely.”

They both stare at it, looking for anything unusual that catches their attention. Running his fingers along the outside, he watches for any change or shift that might hint at how it works. But there’s no reaction.

“What if we put a Stone in it?” Yarah says.

Matt nods. “Worth a try.” With his white Stone suspended between thumb and index finger, he inserts it, point down, into the opening. What he sees doesn’t surprise him. The Stone vanishes. All of it. He can still feel it with his finger, but there’s no visual signature. When he pulls it out, it glows white just like before.

“Let me try.” Yarah holds up her Stone and slides its tip inside the box with the same result.

“We already know the cloaking box can turn off a Stone. No surprise there.” Matt breathes deeply, thinking out loud. “But there has to be more to it than that.”

As he stares down at the clear box, an idea comes to him. “I wonder what it does to the filaments of light. Let me see if I can find out.” He hands the box to Yarah, holds his Stone in both hands and concentrates on its white surface. In a few seconds, delicate hairs of neon white grow out of its surface, tightly wrapped in a shell around it. “I can see the threads of light, just like before.”

Yarah’s voice comes from all directions. “See what happens when you put it in the box.”

“Right,” Matt says. “Here goes.” He lowers the Stone and its bright halo of infinite threads into the opening with an immediate reaction. “Interesting.”

Yarah’s voice booms. “What’s going on?”

“When I put the Stone into the box, it draws off all strands of light, unwinds them and sucks them away from the Stone’s surface, making it black.” He pulls the Stone out. “That must be how it works. The box drains the power and turns the Stone off. My guess is that Ryzaard knows this much. Remember that stainless steel cube he had in his lab?”

“The one that made our Stones stop working?”

“Right,” Matt says. “Ryzaard figured out how to make the cube work like the inside of this box. When he turns it on, it sucks away the filaments of light coming off any Stone close to it.” He drops his gaze down to the little box. “Let me have another look.”

Concentrating on his Stone again until he sees the tightly wound tendrils of energy, Matt watches carefully as he brings the Stone close to the open box. Until the tip of the Stone breaks the plane of the box, there’s no reaction. But as soon as any part of the Stone touches the plane, the lines of energy over the entire Stone are instantly pulled into the box where they disappear.

Matt repositions the Stone and touches it to the outside surface of the box. There is a slight jump in the lines of energy. It doesn’t matter whether it’s the sides, top or bottom. The result is the same. A slight flutter, and then nothing. Another thought jumps into Matt’s mind.

What about the lid?

Matt closes it and tries the experiment again, touching the Stone to the sides. This time nothing happens. The lines don’t change, not even a flutter. Just to make sure he isn’t seeing things that aren’t there, Matt tries it again, with the lid open and then with it shut.

It’s clear. No changes happen to the Stone with the box lid shut. It acts like a switch. Open the lid, and the box is on. Shut the lid, and the box goes off.

Good to know.

Slowly learning how the box works, through trial and error, Matt tries to think of something else they can try. “Hey, Yarah. Let’s touch the outside of the box with our Stones at the same time.”

“OK.” Yarah’s hand falls away from the box, leaving it floating in the darkness between them.

“Make it so you can see the threads of light,” Matt says.

Yarah concentrates for several seconds. “Got it. I can see them, wrapped around my Stone.”

“Good.” Matt opens the lid of the box. “Now bring the tip of your Stone up to the side and touch it at the same time I do.”

Following Matt’s instructions, they both tap the sides of the box at the same time.

The reaction is stunning. Threads of energy tremble and jump, become intertwined with each other, but still keep within a tight circle around the box.

“Wow, there’s a difference when the Stones are used together.” Yarah’s eyes light up.

Matt nods. “That may be the only advantage we have over Ryzaard.” He looks down at the Stones. “But I’m not sure what this does for us.”

It gives him another idea.

“Remember when you came into my mind and
took it over
so you could learn to move the strands of light on my Stone?”

“Yeah.” Yarah, still in the form of a grown woman, floats next to him with an apologetic look on her face. “It was hard for you. I remember you said something about
total assimilation
.”

“I wouldn’t trust anyone else to do this to me,” Matt says. “Let’s try it again. Once you’re inside my mind, go as deep as necessary to get control of my Stone. Take yours with you. That way, you’ll be in control of both Stones, one of them directly, and one of them
through me
.” He swallows in anticipation of the claustrophobic feeling of utter helplessness. “Then you touch both Stones to the outside of the box. See what happens.”

“What do you think will happen?”

Matt shakes his head. “I’m not sure. Maybe nothing.” His eyes open wider with a look of subtle fear. “Just don’t take long to do it.”

Yarah nods. “Let me know when you are ready.”

Matt closes his eyes and plunges back into darkness. “Go for it.” It occurs to him that he is about to leave one alternate reality and plunge into a second alternate reality below that. A deep breath comes into his lungs. He steels his spine for what comes next.

It doesn’t take long.

An amorphous organic sphere with a pink glow drops down from above and hovers over him.

I see you, Yarah.

As he stares up at it, a black seam appears along its side and opens up. Matt fights the urge to raise his arms, to push back, to run. The opening morphs into a gaping hole full of infinite blackness. As it descends down over him, he has the distinct impression that he and the space around him are being swallowed whole.

As it closes over him, he is thrust into chilling cold.

The seam closes up, forming a tight seal. Space and time are sucked away. Even the darkness is gone. All that remains is a tangible sense of
nothing
. Breathing stops. Just like before, he experiences complete sensory deprivation.

And then a brilliant flash engulfs him. The
nothingness
opens up, and the world comes back into existence. Opening his eyes, he and Yarah are sitting on the floor of the hotel, each holding a Stone in their hands.

The cloaking box is between them with its lid open.

Yarah’s face is pale, drained of blood. “What just happened?” she says.

Matt shakes his head. “You’ll have to tell me.”

“I did what you said.” Yarah reaches out and takes Matt’s Stone from his open palm. “I went inside you, found the Stone. Then I brought the two of them together like this.” The two tips touch the box from opposite sides. “There was a flash or explosion, and it all disappeared.”

“Strange.” Matt looks down at the Stones. Both of them are jet black and remind him of dead rats. Taking his Stone in his hand, it feels heavy, like an ordinary rock. He tries to open his mind to it, but he finds nothing to grasp. He looks across the room and tries to jump there. Nothing.

“My Stone’s dead,” Matt says. “What about yours.”

Yarah hefts her Stone in her hands. She closes her eyes to find the connection. After thirty seconds she looks up in frustration. “It doesn’t work.”

Matt gets a sick feeling.

What if we destroyed the Stones?

T
hey let me go.

Less than five minutes before, Jessica had been resting on the bed in the YMCA hotel room. Matt and Yarah were doing work on the Stones. The sound of their voices whispering in the room put her to sleep.

There was a blur. She woke up inside a cathedral, smelling the ocean and staring up at Ryzaard from the inside of an energy shell that almost ripped her nerves from her body when she moved.

Jessica stands at a railing at the edge of a courtyard across from the cathedral structure. As her heart races out of control, she peeks over the railing at a cliff face that drops away to the floor of a large plain 500 meters below. In the distance, she sees an organic-shaped brown smudge. A faint cloud of smoke floats above it. It’s a village, and she estimates it’s twenty kilometers away.