Edit: I've updated this chapter very slightly to correct a continuity error that I noticed which was bugging me.
2 – Chaser
Maddy slowly slipped back into consciousness. Her mind began to tick over and make up for lost time. Her internal dialogue began piping up again.
Ah. My head hurts. Ouch.
I think I might have been drinking. I feel very hung over.
I don't remember any drinks. But then again, do I ever?
Wait, wait, wait. We were on Tomahna, and we'd fixed the power, and something blew up the bridge.
Ow, my head.
So where am I now?
Open your eyes and get up.
Go on, do it. I want to see where I am.
Come on. Eye open, sit up.
Ow, my head.
Open your eyes, you idiot!
Maddy opened her eyes. Her vision was blurred slightly, but she could see the night sky. That was about all. She finally managed to sit up.
Her glasses had fallen off her face. Where were they? Ah, there they were, in the water. Astonishingly not broken. She picked them up and slipped them on.
She was sitting in a shallow part of the Tomahna lake, amidst the rubble that constituted the remains of the bridge. A quick glance around showed her that, astonishingly, nothing else appeared to be damaged. Scattered around her were planks of wood, bits of stone, metal, and four other bodies. She crawled over to Jordan, her head still swimming, and shook him.
"Jordan. Jordan!"
Jordan groaned and opened his eyes. "Oh... Maddy. Where on earth are we?"
"Tomahna," replied Maddy, "sitting in the lake."
Jordan sat up with another groan and rubbed a hand over his eyes. "Why are we – oh, right. The bridge."
The two of them roused Rachel, Brittany and Jane, before the five of them clambered out of the lake using the most intact part of the bridge as a ladder.
"Is everyone okay?"
"Just a bit of a bruise," replied Jordan, "I'll be fine."
"I think I landed on my keys," muttered Rachel.
"I broke a nail," said Jane, sounding thoroughly annoyed.
"Britt?" asked Maddy, who had posed the question in the first place.
Brittany was sitting on the ground, grimacing. "I think I sprained my ankle. It hurts like hell."
Jordan, who knew a little about this sort of thing (not nearly as much as Brittany herself did, but since she was in pain her medical reasoning was rather clouded), bent down and gently examined Brittany's ankle.
"Apologies in advance, Britt... does it hurt if I do this?"
Brittany swore very loudly. Rachel covered Jane's ears. Jordan straightened up. Brittany, slightly embarrassed, cleared her throat.
"Uh... yes, Jordan. It does."
"So I gathered. Well, the good news is that your ankle is not sprained."
"Really?" Brittany grimaced even as she said this. "Then why does it hurt, pray tell?"
"That's the bad news," replied Jordan. "It's not sprained, it's broken. I think we'd better get you to hospital."
"Bugger that," replied Brittany, whose normally polite speech had been loosened slightly by the pain. "What am I supposed to tell them? The bridge blew up whilst visiting a friend? No way, Jordan. I've got a much better idea."
Atrus packed the last of the necessary materials into the box he'd brought with him. Finally... what had ever possessed him to bolt the thing down in this weather? The bolts had frozen solid and he'd spent all day getting them undone. Right... time to get going.
There was a terrific crash from outside. Atrus jumped about a foot in the air and nearly dropped the box containing the image modulator (which would have been disastrous). He set the box down, chiding himself for his skittishness, and opened the door.
Even without going to the elevator, he could tell what was happening. The air was positively crackling with electricity. Atrus' hair was standing on end. When Atrus approached the elevator, the light on the door was blinking red.
Great, thought Atrus. It's another electromagnetic storm, and it feels like a big one. The electromagnetic interference is stopping the electromagnets in the elevator from working properly, which means I can't get to the linking book. Looks like I'm here for the long haul. I'd better just sit tight and wait for the others to call on the viewer.
He sits, quietly biding his time. Just waiting. She'll be here soon. With Tomahna empty, this is absolutely her next port of call. And when she shows... he'll get her. That's the hard part taken care of. All he needs then is a few globes and a little bit of time. He's waited twenty years for this moment, and that will only make it taste sweeter.
He snaps to attention. Hairs standing on end. Someone's coming. Crouch. Wait... there's the link. Look out slowly... who is it?
Yes... he knew it. Okay... wait... got to time this perfectly. If she's too close to the book, she'll be back to Tomahna in a flash... if she's too far away, she'll be off to those meddling Protectors before you can say "transfer".
Now!
"Okay... you should be fine, but don't put too much pressure on it for the next few days at least."
Brittany tested herself gently on her good foot and crutch. She was wobbly, but at least she could walk.
"It's not too bad a break," continued Dahk, "so you should be fine in two weeks or so."
"Thank you so much, Dahk," replied Brittany. "I don't know what I would have done without you."
Dahk smiled, looking a little puzzled. "Surely you have Healers on the surface?"
"Well, yes," said Brittany, "but our Healers – doctors, we call them – are not nearly as good as you D'ni Healers."
"Well, it's a pleasure," replied Dahk. "Any friend of Atrus is a friend of all D'ni."
The five of them left the Healers' Guild Hall slowly, to accommodate Brittany's foot, and made their way over to the common library.
"You see, Jordan?" said Brittany, grinning. "I told you D'ni doctors – Healers, rather – are much better than our doctors."
"And you were right, as always," replied Jordan. "What's the time?"
"Surface time is..." Brittany struggled to look at her watch. "About five o'clock in the morning."
"Okay. Well, you can't go home. Clearly we're all going to have to stay together... just like old times."
Brittany was about to argue, but immediately saw the sense in what Jordan was saying. "Okay, fair enough. But there's no point going to bed now. Let's go back to Tomahna and make some breakfast. Yeesha's an early riser, she'll be hungry soon, and I don't think Atrus is home yet. Because he would have come looking for us," she answered the unspoken question.
The five of them linked to Tomahna and collectively bunny-hopped their way over to the elevator to go over to the kitchen. Brittany sat down on the couch with a groan and put her crutch to the side. Rachel and Maddy darted into the kitchen to find something to eat. Jane drifted out onto the balcony and looked down at Yeesha's room.
"Hey, Yeesha's light is on," she chirped. She yanked at the lever to move the bridge and dashed down towards her friend's room before Jordan could stop her. A few seconds later, however, she came back up, looking a little confused.
"Yeesha isn't down there."
Jordan frowned. "That's strange. Maybe she's already up." Even as he said it, however, he doubted himself. They hadn't seen her on their way through Tomahna – and come to think of it, why hadn't she come looking for them and discovered them in the lake? Jordan's gut was beginning to get worried. "Let's go for a walk, Jane."
Jordan and Jane went back over to the elevator to have a look around. Rachel and Maddy emerged from the kitchen.
"I don't like this," said Rachel. "Yeesha wouldn't wander far if she woke up and nobody was here."
"I'm sure there's a reason," replied Brittany, repositioning her foot. "Maybe she wanted to be up early to check on one of her experiments."
"You're probably right," said Maddy. "I'm sure it's all fine."
"Mum! Mad! Britt!"
"Or maybe not." Maddy and Rachel dashed off in the direction of Jane's shout. Brittany looked as they vanished.
"Yeah, okay, thanks," she muttered, grabbing her crutch, heaving herself up off the couch and hobbling off after them.
Rachel and Maddy found Jane and Jordan in Atrus and Catherine's bedroom.
"What's going on?"
Jane, who had been kneeling on the floor in front of the fireplace, held up her hand. She was holding a largish, heavy chain in her hand, suspended from which was a large blue stone. Rachel and Maddy looked at it curiously.
"What is -"
Brittany hobbled into the room after them.
"Thanks for the help, guys." She spotted the chain in Jane's hand. "Hey, isn't that Yeesha's necklace?"
"Yeah," replied Jane. "She treasures this thing. And it was just lying on the ground there in the fireplace." She pointed at the fireplace. The five of them bent down towards the fireplace.
A single clear chiming note pierced the air softly. Jane looked at the necklace in her hand. The blue stone was glowing. Cautiously, she touched it.
Running. She looks back over her shoulder. He's behind her. She stumbles. Makes it to the fireplace. He's hot on her heels. She grabs for the button. Once. Twice. He's reaching in. Grasping, finding only her necklace. The gears mesh and the door closes. He jerks his hand back. Her necklace falls to the ground.
Jane gasped and dropped the necklace. She blinked several times.
"What happened?"
"I – I'm not sure," stuttered Jane. "I saw... something. When I touched the necklace."
"Isn't that thing supposed to be able to pick up memories?" asked Brittany. "What did you see?"
"I – I saw Yeesha being chased into the fireplace. She looked really scared."
"Who was chasing her?"
"I don't know... I didn't see."
Rachel frowned. "I don't like this at all. I think something happened to Yeesha while we were unconscious in the lake."
"So what do we do?"
"I think we have to go upstairs and contact Atrus. Hopefully he can help us."
Right. The hard part is done. No time to waste. It's going to take really quite a while for him to get the chair ready to go again, seeing as he had turned everything off before leaving here twenty years ago. So... at least a day or two. Shame he couldn't have got it all set up and then nabbed Yeesha. That was originally his intention. But when he had had to use that bomb to get out of the linking chamber, then ran into her in the bedroom like that... he had no choice.
Brittany sat with Atrus' journal in front of her, fiddling with the crystal viewer. The others had gone to search Tomahna for anything that might be able to help them locate Yeesha. Brittany decided that she would try and contact Atrus using the viewer, since she was not likely to be much of a help with a broken ankle.
Atrus' drawings of the crystal shapes were fortunately fairly clear – some of the crystals were a bit similar in shape, and Brittany had learnt from past experience that some drawings could be easily confusing. With Atrus' clear drawings, however, Brittany was quickly able to key the appropriate combination into the viewer. When she pressed the centre button to establish contact, the dull whine of the static changed pitch several times before Atrus' face swam into view on the screen. Something was clearly wrong, however, as the image and sound were both choked with static, and Brittany had to lean close to hear what Atrus said.
"...ah, my friends, are you there?" Atrus squinted. It was clear that his connection was as bad as Brittany's was. "I really hope you're getting this, because I'm barely receiving you. Listen, there's a terrible electromagnetic storm here on Rime, and I can't get home until it's over. But I know what you can do in the meantime – go to my desk in my bedroom. Below the top drawer you'll see a symbol. Press on it to open two compartments; the commentaries I wrote on Haven and Spire are inside. Okay?"
"Atrus, I -"
"Oh, and tell Yeesha not to forget her homework. She -"
The static surged suddenly and the image dissolved into swirling grey particles before settling down into the calm static of the idle image. The dull whine of the static returned, as Brittany cursed in frustration. She pressed the button again, but the connection refused to reopen, instead seeing the screen splutter with static like an engine refusing to start. After trying a few more times, Brittany sighed in defeat and sat back.
The elevator opened behind her and Maddy stepped out. Brittany turned on her chair to greet her.
"Any luck?"
"No," sighed Maddy, "I've drawn a blank. The others are still looking, but I'm not confident. What about you?"
"Well," replied Brittany, "I managed to make contact with Atrus, but there's a big storm going on there and it was interfering with the connection. He can't get back here until the storm dies down."
"What did he say when you told him what happened?"
"I didn't have a chance to tell him. He had only just finished talking when the connection dropped out, and I haven't been able to reopen it."
"Well..." Maddy sighed. "We have to try and work out what's happened."
"You're right," replied Brittany. "And I think I know where to start."
