Gemstones

Rachel crossed the glass gangway that led from the White Spear to Tower Two. She tried not to stare through the transparent floor at the Grand Plaza several hundred metres below. When she entered Tower Two's perimeter corridor, she walked to the Air Route and headed for level 249 where Lisa would be in her new quarters.

It was a long walk but it felt good to be moving around a bit more. She had spent too long sitting in meeting rooms and discussing promotions, and it was beginning to make her feel restless. She had discovered long ago that too much thinking time wasn't good for her mind. It only served to stir up troubles memories from her past. Memories of her father's death still haunted her. In the last few days she had found it better not to spend too much time on her own.

She paused outside Lisa's quarters, and then swiped her wrist console against the door, waiting for the lock to disengage.

When the door slid up into the ceiling, Lisa accosted her at once. 'I'm bored,' she said. 'There's nothing to do here.'

'I thought you liked it here,' Rachel said.

'How can I like being locked in my room all day?'

Rachel wasn't sure what to say to that. Her daughter had matured so much since her quickening. She was almost as tall as Annie and her skinny arms and legs were starting to fill out with the first signs of wiry muscle, but in some ways she was still the same little girl that Rachel had always known and loved.

Rachel looked to Annie for help but Annie just shrugged with her hair a floppy mess. It was so unlike her that Rachel almost laughed. Annie must have heard the same complaint a thousand times already. She had more wrinkles than Rachel remembered. Things had been hard on them all.

'Can we go back to the house, mom?'

'What?' Rachel said, shaking her head. It looked as though Lisa was finding it harder to adjust to her new accommodation than Rachel had thought. 'It's not safe there, honey. You know we can't go back.'

'But you took us there so we would be safe from the city apartment. How can it be unsafe in the house? Nobody knows we live there anyway. Nobody even cares.'

'Oh, Lisa,' Rachel said wrapping an arm around her daughter's waist. 'I know you're bored, but there's some things you don't understand. It isn't safe for anyone to be outside the towers right now. Even I'm not supposed to go out there.'

Lisa frowned. 'Why not?'

'That's what I've come to talk to you about. Things are going to get a bit tricky around here soon. It'll be tough on all of us. We're all going to have to do our part.'

'What's happening,' Annie said as thin wrinkles bunched across her brow.

'We got some bad news today,' Rachel said. 'It looks like the Kamari are planning an attack on Central Command.'

'Then Lisa's right,' Annie said. 'We should go back to the house. We can't let your daughter get caught up in a war zone.'

Annie's words stung Rachel more than she had expected. She was used to taking great risks with her own safety, but she had always tried to do what was best for her daughter. 'Everywhere's a war zone now,' she said. 'The safest place to be is right here.'

'Okay,' Annie said, but she didn't look convinced.

Rachel rested a hand on her shoulder. 'The tower shields have been activated. Nobody can enter or leave the Grand Plaza anymore. The tower guns were built for exactly this kind of situation. No army in history has ever managed to damage any of the towers. We're safe here and we can't go anywhere else.'

Annie chewed her lip as a range of expressions passed across her face.

'What's that in your hand?' Lisa said, staring with a glint in her deep brown eyes .

'This?' Rachel said, opening her fingers to reveal what she held in her palm. 'It's a gemstone. I took from Lord Goran. I was playing around with it but I can't seem to figure out how it works. I thought you might have some ideas.'

'What does it do?' Lisa said.

'I'm not sure, exactly. All the lords have gemstones. They hang them around their necks with a piece of string.'

'But what do they do with them?'

'I've seen Lord Hades grasp his gemstone just before he teleports away to someplace else.'

'What does teleport mean?'

'It's like when you are in one place but you want to be somewhere else.'

'Like me?'

'Similar. But when someone teleports, they don't really travel anywhere. They just disappear from one place and reappear in another.'

'Oh, like that.'

Rachel nodded. She had no idea how her daughter could pick up such strange concepts so easily. Maybe everything sounded equally crazy at her age. Rachel was still struggling with many strange concepts herself.

'Lord Goran did the same thing in Wolfhammer Hall,' Rachel said. 'He disappeared and didn't come back - until now.'

'So it's a teleporter?' Lisa said, gesturing towards the gemstone in Rachel's hand.

'Maybe. I'm hoping it is, but it might not work on its own.'

'What do you mean?'

'I was thinking, maybe it only works for the lord that it belongs to, or maybe it needs something else, a power source or a secret command to make it work properly.'

'Give it to me,' Lisa said.

'No.'

'I might be able to make it work.'

Rachel sighed and handed it over. 'Just be careful please. Don't try anything without asking me first. I just need some ideas about how it might work.'

Lisa turned it over between her hands. 'It feels cold.'

'Yes. It does sometimes.'

'What's the string for?'

'It's just a string. The lords use it to hang the gemstone around their necks.'

'Did you try that?'

'What?'

'Hanging it around your neck?'

Rachel shook her head. 'How could that make any diff—'

Lisa hung the gemstone around her neck and grasped it in her left hand. She disappeared at once.

'Shit,' Rachel said.

Annie spun around. 'Where did she go?'

'I shouldn't have given it to her. I thought it wasn't working.'

'Where is she?'

'I don't know, Annie. I think she's teleported somewhere.'

'Where?'

Rachel shook her head and let out a long sigh. 'What was I thinking?!' Thrusting her hand into the pocket of her combat trousers, she pulled out the other gemstone.

'You still have it,' Annie said. 'I thought you gave it to Lisa?'

'This is another one. Lord Goran had two around his neck when I found him wandering around in the Old Quarter.'

'Oh.'

Rachel glanced around the room, trying to shape her thoughts. 'I need to find her.'

'Can you follow her with that thing?' Annie said.

'I don't know. I'm still not sure it'll even work for me, and I don't know where she went.'

'Is she safe, Rachel? Will she be all right?'

'I hope so.'

'You have to help her.' Annie raised her hands to her mouth with tears forming in her eyes.

'It's okay, Annie. I'll think of something.' Rachel placed the string over her head until it was hanging around her neck. She grasped the gemstone in her left hand, just like Lisa had done and she disappeared at once.'

'Oh dear,' Annie said, glancing around the empty room. 'Please come back safe, both of you. Lisa, where are you?'

A few seconds later, Lisa appeared in the middle of the room again.

'Lisa!'

'Hi Annie, where's mom?'

Annie rushed across the room and wrapped Lisa in her arms, squeezing her as the girl squirmed and giggled in her embrace.

'I'm okay, Annie,' Lisa said. 'You can let me go now. I need to breath.'

'I thought you'd been hurt.'

Lisa rolled her eyes. 'I'm a big girl now.'

Annie held her at arm's length as she wiped away her tears. 'Yes, you are,' she said. 'But please don't scare me like that again.'