The Stone Heart's Lament
Trouble

It took the best partof a half hour to extricate himself from the cockpit and by the time he’dmanaged to crawl out of the glider his muscles were seizing with pain. Hecollapsed onto his hands and knees and vomited profusely. Brilliant flares oflight ignited in front of his tearing eyes and his head felt like it wassplitting apart at the seams. It was all he could do not to fall face firstinto the mess. The bullet wound in his shoulder throbbed abominably. Thescorpion stirred, sensing his weakness. Fingers digging into the dirt he clawedat the sharp edged blades of grass under his palms.

Rashari.

Smith’s presence cutthrough the static in his brain like a knife. Instantly he felt better. Blindlyhe groped with his good hand across the ground and felt the raised joints ofSmith’s metal legs and then the smoothness of his new body far closer to theground. He also felt the invisible connection between himself and Smith, thebinding of spirit to spirit that tied the two of them together in ways that wentso far beyond mere magic. So long as he had Smith Rashari would never fearlosing himself to the scorpion. Slowly, bit by bit, he started to feel stronger;the cold in his bones receded. He sat up on his knees and wiped his mouth andchin with the back of his hand, grimacing at the mess he’d made all over theground. Throwing up was so undignified. He still felt sick, but he no longerfelt like his insides were trying to crawl out of his mouth and make a breakfor it. He looked up at the crumpled glider, the top of Madame Chimera’s head justvisible through the cracked glass of the cockpit dome. She was hurt. He had toget her out. Awkwardly he stumbled to his feet, lurching violently before hewas able to gain his equilibrium. He staggered toward the glider.

Madame Chimera wasstill strapped into her seat in the back of the tiny glider cabin, her chinresting against her chest, the collar of Remus’ heavy trench coat turned up andobscuring most of her face, so that Rashari could only see the bridge of hersharp nose and the pale smudges of her eyelashes jumping against her cheek.Madame Chimera’s skin was pale, its natural burnished hue muddied by bruises. Herfine white hair was stuck to her brow with sweat. She twitched as he watched,thin brows quirking into a grimace, as if she was caught in the grips of anightmare. Rashari frowned as his gaze tracked down her body. Her arms werelimp at her sides, but her claws were out, long deadly fingers quivering andflexing. Whatever else was wrong one thing was sure: she was definitely notsleeping peacefully.

Rashari look. Smith jumped up onto the wing. He scuttledalong its length before leaping up onto the top of an intact section of theglass dome above Madame Chimera’s head. His eight lilac eyes were fixed on thefist sized jewel nestled in Madame Chimera’s lap.

“The Heart ofAnoush,” Rashari sucked in a harsh breath. “What was she doing holding it inher bare hand like that?” The Heart was dangerous, it contained the remnants ofa Seraph, and while Rashari was mostly certain the Seraph Anoush was as closeto dead as a goddess could get, he, more than anyone, knew just how dangerousmostly-dead Seraphim could be. He shot Smith a sharp look, tinged just a littlewith old resentment. “Help me get her out of there.”

Stepping away fromthe glider he looked around him for something to use to break the glass or prythe dome up off the cabin. Several branches had fallen from the tree whenthey’d hit it and he hefted a few of the thicker, sturdier boughs, testing theweight and grip in his hands. He discarded one after the other and settled fora smaller branch, one that tapered to a splintered point at the end. Smithscrambled over the top of the dome toward the tree branch skewering the cockpit.Using six of his legs to cling to the branch Smith used his remaining frontlegs to start sawing at the branch from either side. He used slicing up anddown motions of his limbs to cut into the bark. It was slow, awkward work butas Rashari hadn’t any tool more suited to the task there was little he could dobut wait and let Smith work. When he was done and the branch was cut in twoRashari hurried over to check on the work. The branch was severed from the treebut he still couldn’t lift the dome. There wasn’t enough room between thesevered tree branch and the glass shell, if he tried to lift the dome it wouldcatch the branch again and get stuck.

I can try cutting more of the branch. Smith offered butRashari was already hurrying to the back of the craft, his sharp stick in hand.The cockpit dome was designed to hinge at the back, so it opened from thefront. Without any tools there was no way he could take up the hinges. He washesitant to smash out the glass in case he hurt Madame Chimera in the processbut he wasn’t sure what else to do. He looked at the stick in his hands. Thepointed end was narrow enough to fit into the groove where the dome met thebody of the glider. The metal rim was not especially strong – he could seekinks in it where the impact of the crash had bent the shell out of shape. He mightbe able to pry up one side of the dome using the stick for leverage. He justdidn’t know if he’d be able to lift it enough.

“Cut the branch,” Hetold Smith. “Start cutting at the trunk, get rid of the whole thing. I’m goingto try and get the dome up.”

The glider had heldup in the crash for the most part, which was just as well because if the hullhad crumpled completely both he and Madame Chimera would have been crushed intopaste, but the impact had still caused a lot of damage. The nose of the gliderwas imbedded in the trunk of the tree, and was now looking distinctly flat. Themetal body of the craft was dimpled with stress fractures that meant gettingthe dome up, even after the tree branch was removed, would not be easy. Theglider was creased and rumpled like a stiff linen napkin balled in an angryfist. Looking at it Rashari had to take a moment to wonder at his own jadedluck; he had to be the luckiest unlucky bastard alive. If he and Madame Chimeramanaged to walk away from this wreck with all their vital faculties intact hemight even have to reconsider his opinion on Aramantine engineering. Of courseconsidering Madame Chimera was still unconscious that was a pretty big if.

He and Smith workedin silence. The tree branch was thicker at the base and Smith took his timecutting through it, but once the tree limb had thumped to the ground – Smithdropping nimbly down with it - Rashari was able to use the stick, and some goodold fashioned elbow grease, to lever the dome up. Smith leapt up into the cabinand swiped the Heart of Anoush from her lap with the tips of his two frontlegs, a virtuoso display of dexterity considering that his ‘legs’ had no meansof gripping objects and Smith was still very new to having so many limbs in thefirst place. Then again, adapting to having legs was nothing in comparison tothe adjustment it had taken Smith to get used to being a robot when he’d oncebeen a god. Rashari reached out a hand and caught the Heart just as it slippedout of Smith’s precarious grasp. The stone landed in his palm, solid and cool.It looked and felt like a shiny billiard ball, dark blue-black in colour,deceptively innocuous when one considered just how many people had already diedin pursuit of it. He shoved the Heart into the pocket of his coat and reachedout for Madame Chimera, hands hovering a few inches from touching her.

“How am I going to dothis?”

The question wasrhetorical, mostly because he received no actual good answer. Surprisingly,given his vocation as a raider, he’d precious little experience madhandlingunconscious women. Hauling her out bodily would require a better position thanhe had presently. The ground was too low. He didn’t have the leverage to lifther up and out. Madame Chimera was also tall and lean, much more so than mosthuman women. Her body was all willowy lines and graceful angles. Rasharigenerally found her Chimera proportions very fetching. She reminded him of aparticularly fine piece of sculpture worked from steel he had admired once in asmall industrial town on the northern coast of Dushkuland. There was somethingat once delicate and impossibly strong about her slenderness. Right now howeverthose long limbs were a problem. Carrying a body was as much about leverage andgrip as it was about strength or weight, and Madame Chimera would make a veryawkward burden to carry.

In the end heclambered up onto one of the wings and, balanced precariously, and half lifted,half dragged her up until he could cradle her against his chest. She didn’tstir once, despite the fact that the entire process was hardly a smooth affair.With the utmost care Rashari swept her damp hair from her brow and peeled backher borrowed (or should that be inherited?) coat to check for any injuries. Onesleeve of the coat was sticky with half-dried blood from the cut she’d receivedto her arm during their first crash landing (it was ludicrous to think that hadbeen less than forty-eight hours ago) Her skin had darkened in places to aburnished gold-brown where bruises bloomed, but other than that he couldn’t seeany sign of an injury that might account for her lack consciousness. Gently andswiftly he ran his fingers through her hair, ghosting over the contours of herskull, seeking out any lumps or bumps. He found nothing, which was at oncereassuring and troubling. The last thing he wanted was to discover a potentialskull fracture, but on the other hand Madame Chimera was still very muchinsensate and that was clearly not good.

Rashari.

Smith’s sharp warningjolted him out of his inexpert medical examination and he looked up swiftly.Smith was perched on the wing at Madame Chimera’s feet but his attention, tojudge by the glow from his eyes, was fixed on the sky to the east, back towardAramantine. At first Rashari couldn’t see what had worried Smith. The sky wasstill in the early flush of dawn, bathed in a rather beautiful wash of paleblue, peach and gold stripes for as far as the eye could see. The squat, uglytrees dotting the flat plain were limned in brilliant gold, casting longelegant shadows over the ground; the dawn transforming the stark landscape intosomething quite beautiful. Then he saw it. There were no birds in the sky butsomething else was in flight; a dark shape, like an ugly black fly, marred theperfection of the view. The sun’s glare made it difficult to see the objectclearly but Rashari didn’t need to. There was only one thing it could be.

“Oh Pit be damned,”He snarled. “It’s another bloody glider.”

There was no goodreason for a glider to be out here. People didn’t take pleasure flights rightout to the edge of the Battlan Steppes. In fact most sane souls wouldn’t dreamof coming out here at all. So there really was only one reason a glider wouldbe flying straight at them. Whoever was in that glider, meant trouble.