The Stone Heart's Lament
Unpleasant Revelations

It was true dark bythe time Ruthy shoved him down into a clump of cattail grass and told him tosit, shut up and don’t even dare twitch. They’d been travelling for hours,first through the woods and then out on the plains. Rashari had no idea wherethey were. They’d passed through a narrow cleft in the Vay foothills and nowthe peak of Hy-mati-vy, the giant hill he and Madame Chimera had climbed toreach the Olim’g plain was just a memory, a black shadow lost in the generalblackness of the night sky. He didn’t know if they were still in Olim’g or ifthey had passed out of ogdegre territory completely. Orienteering was notexactly a strong suit but Rashari still had the creeping suspicion he knewwhere they were going – and it wasn’t back toward humanity.

“Who are you really?”He asked Ruthy as she set about loading a broad barrelled gun with somethingthat looked like a flare. They’d maintained complete silence for most of thejourney. Now they seemed to have reached some manner of rendezvous point, if hewas going to hazard a guess, and Ruthy was in the process of summoning hercronies, whoever they may be. Rashari was keenly curious to replace out who shewas truly working with (the djinn was a given, obviously, but as he was equallyobviously some manner of hireling Rashari had decided he didn’t count). What hewanted to know was if Ruthy was doing this for Veridree. He was willing to bethis throbbing left arm that it wasn’t.

“I told you to keepquiet.” She snapped, without much heat, firing the flare into the night sky. Itrushed upward several dozen feet and exploded in a lurid shower of red-orangelight, sending winking embers falling groundward like the debris of anexploding star.

“I know, but I’mcontravening that direct order.” Rashari rejoined easily, squinting against thebrightness of the flare. Ruthy had lashed his hands together behind his backseveral hours ago and the narrow rope bit into his flesh unpleasantly. Hesuspected Ruthy had tied the ropes that tight on purpose. He’d lost all feelingin his left hand once more, a disturbingly familiar occurrence. He dreaded tothink what the pins and needles would be like when his hands were untied. Itwould be ironic if after everything he and Madame Chimera went through to curehim of the Alraune infection he ended up losing his left hand anyway. “Youmight as well tell me, I’m going to replace out sooner or later.”

“Then you can wait.I’m not here for your entertainment.” Ruthy thumped down into the grassopposite him. He could barely see her in the dark. Her face was a blurry, fuzzywhite blob.

“I notice you didn’tdeny that you’re working for someone, and if it was Nylous you’d just say so.”Rashari chewed his bottom lip. “Why did you chase me out here? What is that youwant?”

“Maybe I wantrevenge?” Ruthy suggested, in tones of supreme boredom. He thought he heard therustle of her clothing as if she was rubbing her arms to keep warm. It was achilly night and there was no shelter out on the plain.

“What did I ever doto you?” He asked, a bit aggrieved. While he was absolutely sure that therewere people out in the world with a legitimate reason for revenge against himhe was equally sure Ruthy was not among them. He’d been scrupulously carefulnever to do anything to provoke her during those unpleasant few months she andRemus were an item.

“You did kill Remus.”She pointed out drolly. “You planned to betray him and make off with his ship.”

Rashari stared ather. “Not to be indelicate, but you don’t care a fig about Remus. You neverdid.”

He couldn’t be surein the gloom, but he thought Ruthy smiled, sharp and bladed, in the dark. “Ifyou’re so smart, why don’t you tell me what I want, hm?”

Rashari opened hismouth and then closed it. Oh, nicely done, Madame; nicely done. She really was good at this game. “No, no Idon’t think I’ll do that.” He said drily. “I’m only likely to incriminatemyself.” And if he was wrong, if Ruthy wasn’t working for DeLunde via somehorrid, vicious twist of fate, then he most definitely did not want to giveaway anything of his past. Bad enough if she already knew, as he suspected shemust, but it would be absolutely disastrous to give himself.

“Then I suggest youdo what I told you and shut up.” Ruthy replied cheerfully and this time hecould hear her smile in the sharpness of her words. “There really isn’t any wayyou can talk your way out of this. You are well and truly caught this time.”

She was probablyright; probably. Rashari brushed thefingers of his right hand over his bandaged left palm. The situation was bad, withoutquestion, but it wasn’t yet dire enough to use his trump card. If he was rightand they really were headed back to the Adaline Fault–well – call it fatalisticcuriosity if you wished, but Rashari wanted to know what was going on there.Was Pandora up and running again? Had the Project ever even stopped; he’dthought he was delivering a crippling blow when he left, but he he now realisedhow naive that sort of thinking was. DeLunde could fail a thousand times tomake another like him and they’d still keep going, undaunted. Collateral damagemeant little to Project Pandora.

Maybe the rumoursabout the research facility in Adaline were coincidental and DeLunde hadnothing to do with his predicament (and maybe Ruthy had kidnapped him todeclare her undying love for him – the chance of one was as likely as theother). No, he couldn’t believe any of this was coincidence. There was only onereason DeLunde would venture back out to Battlan, and that was Project Pandora.Ruthy had known all about the Heart, after all. He had to accept that theDeLunde scientists were even now preparing for his return to captivity,restoring the old facility to working order and completely ignoring just why itwas abandoned in the first place. Everything that had happened had formed partof an elaborate plan to draw him out here so he could be returned to DeLunde’scustody. He’d always feared that his father might be looking for him all theseyears. He wasn’t gratified to discover he was right.

The thought of facinghis father again put his teeth on edge, but there was no evidence that wouldhappen. It was easy to forget that Project Pandora was not just his father’swork alone. There had always been others involved. There was a chance hisfather didn’t know about him at all. If he was honest (which he wasn’tgenerally but some weaknesses must be faced before they tripped one upentirely) there was a part of him that might actually want to see his father again; in the way that one wanted to get anightmare task out of the way, when the anticipation became too much. Sometimesthe only thing left to do was to face your personal demons. Running away haddone nothing to help him forget after all.

He’d given it thoughtover the years, whether or not he hated the old man for what he’d done and whathe’d failed to do. He’d eventually come to the conclusion that he didn’t. Hedidn’t love the man anymore, not like he had as a child, or even when he was acaptive in Scarria and still believed that his father’s primary concern was his welfare and not his own ambition, but hedidn’t hate him. What would be thepoint? He was committed to opposing his father and everything Project Pandorastood for, but that was a matter of philosophy. It was a conscious decision tooppose something that was ill-considered and dangerous. It wasn’t aboutrevenge. It wasn’t about a child lashing out at the father who hurt him andfailed him. It wasn’t.

(Perhaps if herepeated the words enough times he’d actually believe them?)

All the small hairson his body suddenly stood up on end and he tensed, whipping his head around,instantly sure there was someone behind him. A figure materialised out of thegloom, the faintest will-o-the-wisp quiver of sickly green light limning hissilhouette. In the black emptiness of his face his rapier smile was stillvisible.

“’Ello, luv, got yerboy then, I see.” The djinn from the crash site stood right behind him, histrouser leg nudging Rashari’s shoulder as he brushed past and plopped down onthe ground between Rashari and Ruthy like the inverted apex of a loosetriangle.

Ruthy hissed like anangry cat. “You are late Jaquard.”

“Did yer miss me?”The djinn – Jaquard – chuckled warmly and snapped his fingers, igniting acolumn of green flame above his fingertips. The firelight striped his narrowface in bands of shadow and chartreuse. He looked like a plague victim; a happygrinning cadaver. “Y’ aright there kid, or should I call you Sebastien? It’s afair stretch to Adaline. We might as well get proper acquainted – OW.”

“Idiot!” Ruthy hithim, a viper quick strike across the face before her fingers tangled in hislong hair and wrenched his head back. A knife appeared in her other hand andnotched under Jaquard’s chin. “I should kill you now. You utter moron.” Shesnarled, quietly furious.

“You won’t,” Jaquardwas smiling despite the uncomfortable angle of his head. “You need me to getyou and the boy safely through Djinn territory. And anyway, what differencedoes it make if he knows? He’s got t’have guessed anyway. He’d be a right idiotnot to.”

“Shut up,” Ruthyreleased Jaquard, shoving him in the back of the head. She spirited the knifeaway with a deft flick of her hand and glared at Rashari. “Both of you. Not oneword.”

Still grinningJaquard shifted and nudged Rashari with an elbow. “What d’yer reckon, mate?Think she’s mad?”

Rashari blinked atthe djinn. “I think you might be.” He frowned. “What did you do with MadameChimera?” It was difficult to tell but it didn’t seem that the djinn wascarrying any life threatening injuries, and he refused to believe that thislunatic could have bested Madame Chimera at all, much less with all his limbsstill intact.

“Gave her a right runaround,” Jaquard grinned wider, a feat that Rashari would have said wasimpossible if he wasn’t witness to it himself. “She was fun. Feisty, got a bitof fire to her, not like most of her breed. Last I saw she was hightailing itback to the Ogdegre village.”

Rashari relaxedinfinitesimally which meant that he was definitely not prepared for Ruthy’s slaparound the chops when it came. “I told you to shut up.” She snapped whirling onJaquard, but she stopped when he raised both hands, all ten digits spread andmagic flames dancing over his flesh like water.

“Don’t get yerknickers in a bunch, luv.” He purred, smile diminishing into something deeperand far more ominous. Ruthy eased down slowly, watching the flames dance. Inthe reflected light of the magic fire she looked displeased but hardly afraid.Rashari had the feeling this was not the first kidnapping they had workedtogether and despite Jaquard’s overt insolence and Ruthy’s over-the-topannoyance Rashari sensed a solid partnership between them. All this drama was aploy, a feint. They wanted him to think they hated each other, wanted him tounderestimate the strength of their working relationship. Rashari wasn’t surewhere his sudden insight came from but he trusted his intuition. It rarelyserved him ill. He wasn’t sure what all this meant, or precisely who Ruthyreally was (but clearly she was more than Nylous’ main squeeze) but he hadlearned something, or more accurately had been allowed to confirm his suspicions. Sebastien. Jaquard had used his old name, which meant he was right.Ruthy was working with DeLunde. Well...that was that then. Only thing to do wasto bide his time and wait. It was almost a relief, at least now he knew hewasn’t going crazy.

His left hand gave atwinge; he didn’t think that was coincidence. Nor was it due to the ropes orthe Alraune curse. Deep in his core he could feel the scorpion stirring. Healmost smiled. As much as he could glean anything from the scorpion he knewthat it did not relish the prospect of captivity anymore than he did. Thescorpion had helped him escape Scarria all those years ago, when all was said anddone. Whatever it truly wanted it seemed content most of the time to stay putinside him soul, breaking free every now and then when Rashari let it or wastoo worn down to stop it.

“May I sleep?” Heasked aloud, infusing his tone with just enough surliness to suggest thecorrect amount of defiance expected from a prisoner in a tough spot, but notenough to suggest he was planning anything. He rolled onto his right hip, balancedawkwardly between sitting and falling flat on his face in the grass.

“Yes, do that.” Ruthyagreed shortly. “Jaquard take first watch. We’ll set off at dawn.”

“Aye, aye Captain,”Jaquard drawled, soft and low, but somehow Rashari didn’t think he was beingsarcastic. Ruthy had never captained a raider airship to the best of his knowledge,but there were other organisations wherein she could have earned the rank. TheAdran Imperial navy, the Imperial legions and the air corps all used the rankof captain. So did the Marre Noir.....oh. Rashari stopped himself from suckingin a surprised breath, his heart contracting painfully in his chest. The MarreNoir: the Adran Empire’s intelligence division. Oh, he was an idiot. It was soclear to him now. Ruthy was a spy. Of course she was a bloody spy! There werealways spies planted within raider sects. Some raiders were open and even vocalabout their extra-curricular information sales with various world governments.It was generally accepted that there were spies hidden in the ranks and thatthe selling of secrets went both ways. Pit take him, LePortail. The old man had warnedhim. Cryptically and in such a way that almost encouraged him to miss the clue,but still. He was not an amateur at this. A black tide rising, LePortail had saidback in Aramantine and he hadn’t listened. A ‘black tide’ translated into OldAdran was Marre Noir.

Stunned he stared outat the blackness in front of his face. He’d never stood a chance, had he?