chair.
«I will guard our friends,» Chaumel said, making his way across the platform toward them. Ferngal threw forked lightning, aiming for the silver and golden mages at once. Chaumel ducked, and it sizzled over his head. A second later, he had a thin and shining globe of protection raised around himself and the console, withstanding the attacks of the dissidents.
Plennafrey lifted off the platform. Asedow and Potria were already most of the way to the tunnel. Suddenly, half a dozen chariots loomed over them and dropped into their path, cutting them off. Jaw set grimly, Keff hung on. Tall clutched Plennafrey around the knees as she tried to evade the others, but there were too many of them.
«Traitor!» Lacia screamed, peppering them with thunderbolts.
«Upstart!» Ferngal shouted at Plennafrey. «You don't know your place, but you will learn! Together— now!»
The young magiwoman set up a shield, but spells from six or more senior mages tore it apart like tissue paper. Fire of rainbow hues consumed the air around them. An explosion racked the chariot beneath them. Keff, blinded and choking, felt himself falling down and down.
Something springy yet insubstantial caught him just a few meters above the tops of the generators. When his eyes adjusted again, Keff looked around. A net of woven silver and gold bore him and the others upward. Scattered on the surface of the machinery were the pieces of Plennafrey's chariot. It had been blasted to bits. Plenna herself, clutching Tall, was in a similar net controlled by Chaumel and Nokias. Ferngal and the others were halfway down the cavern, turning to come in again for another attack.
«Are you all right?» Chaumel asked them, helping them back onto the platform.
«Yes,» Keff said, and saw Plenna's shaky nod. «The generators are running out of control. We have to slow them down.»
Tall kicked loose from Plenna's arms and hurried over to the console. Using the amulet, he flicked switches and rolled dials, but Keff could see that his efforts were having little effect. Ferngal and the others were almost upon them. A bolt of blue-white lightning crackled between him and the console, driving him back. Bravely, the little amphibioid threw himself forward. Keff interposed himself between Tall and the dissidents, ready to take the brunt of the next attack.
«That's enough of this!» Carialle declared loudly. Suddenly, the power items stopped working. The dissidents' chariots all slowed down, even dipped. Everyone gasped. Lacia clutched the arms other chair.
«Stop this attack at once!» Keff roared, flinging his arms up. «The next thing we turn off will be your chairs! If you don't want to fall into the gear-works, cease and desist! This isn't helping your cause or your planet!»
Furious but helpless, Ferngal and the others drew back from the platform. With as much dignity as he could muster, Ferngal led his ragged band out of the cavern.
«Nice work, Cari,» Keff said.
«I wasn't sure I could select frequencies that narrow, but it worked,» Carialle said triumphantly. «They won't fall out of the air, but that's it for their troublemaking. I'm not turning their power items on again. Tall can do it someday, if he ever feels he can trust them.» Keff glanced at the globe-frog, who, in spite of the small burns that peppered his hide, was working feverishly over the console. The turbines slowed down with painful groans and screeches, and resumed a peaceful thrum.
«I doubt it will be soon,» Keff said. Plennafrey grabbed his arm.
«We have to stop Potria,» Plenna said urgently. «She's going to kill the Ancient Ones and she doesn't need power to do it. She's mad. If she can fly to where they are, that's enough.»
Keff smote himself in me forehead. «I've been distracted. We have to stop them right away.»
«She's gone mad,» Nokias said. «I will go.» The golden chair lifted off the platform.
«I will help, Mage Keff,» Brannel volunteered, emerging from his hiding place.
«We've got to follow her, Chaumel,» Keff said, turning to the silver magiman. «Can you take us, too?»
«Not to worry,» Carialle said cosily in Keff's ear. «She's out here. In the snow. Swearing.»
«Carialle stopped her,» Keff shouted. Nokias turned his head, and Keff nodded vigorously. The others cheered, and Plenna threw herself into his arms. He gave her a huge hug, then dropped to his knees beside Tall. The other two globe-frogs had come out from beneath the console to aid their chief. They all acted alarmed.
«Can I help?» Keff asked.
«Big, big power, stored,» Tall signed, pointing to the battery indicator. «Made by them,» he gestured toward the departed Ferngal and his minions. «Must do something with it, now!»
«A glut in the storage batteries?» Keff said. He could see the dials straining. The others, who knew from long use what the moods of the Core felt like, wore taut expressions. «What can you do? Can you discharge it?»
Tall nodded once, sharply, and bent over the controls with the amulet clutched in his paws.
On the surface, Carialle's fins rested on an exposed outcropping of rock not far from the entrance. She watched with some satisfaction as Potria shook, then pulled, then kicked her useless chariot. Asedow lay unconscious on a snowbank where he'd fallen when his chair stopped. The pink-gold magess hoisted her skirts and tramped through the permafrost to his. It wouldn't function, either. She kicked it, kicked him, and came over to apply the toes of her dainty peach boots to Carialle's fins.
«Hey!» Carialle protested on loudspeaker. «Knock that off.»
Potria jumped back. She retreated sulkily to her chair and seated herself in it magnificently, waiting for something to happen.
Something did, but not at all what Potria must have had in mind. Carialle detected a change in the atmosphere. Power crept up from beneath the surface of the planet, almost simmering up through solid matter. Instead of feeling ionized and drained, the air began to feel heavy. Carialle checked her monitors. With interest, she observed that the temperature was rising, and consequently, so was the humidity.
«Keff,» she transmitted, «you ought to get everyone out here, pronto.»
«What's wrong?» the brawn's voice asked, worriedly.
«Nothing's wrong. Just . . . bring everyone topside. You'll want to see this.»
She monitored the puzzled conversation as Keff gathered his small party together for the long flight to the surface. By the time they appeared at the chimney entrance, clouds were already forming in the clear blue sky.
Plennafrey rode pillion on Chaumel's chair with the three globe-frogs clinging to the back while Keff and Brannel shared the gold chair with Nokias. Nokias's remaining followers straggled behind. The group settled down beside Carialle's ramp. Potria, her nose in the air, ignored them pointedly.
«What's so important, Cari?» Keff asked after a glance at Asedow to make sure the man was alive.
«Watch them,» Carialle suggested. The Ozrans were all staring straight up at the sky. «It's not important to you, but it is to them. In fact, its vital.»
«What's happening?»
«Just wait! You nonshells are so impatient,» Carialle chided him playfully.
«The air feels strange,» Brannel said after a while, rubbing a pinch of his fur together speculatively with two fingers. «It is not cold now, but it is thick.»
The crack of thunder startled all of them. Sheet lightning blasted across the sky, and in a moment, rain was pummeling down.
As soon as the first droplets struck their outstretched palms, Chaumel and the others started shrieking and dancing for joy. A few of the mages gathered in handful after handful of the cold, heavy drops and splashed them on their faces. Plennafrey grabbed Keff and Brannel and whirled them around in a circle.
«Rain!» she cried. «Real rain!»
Under his wet, plastered hair, the Noble Primitive's face was glowing.
«Oh, Mage Keff, this is the best thing that has ever happened to me.»
In the center of their little circle, the three globe-frogs had abandoned their cases and stood with their hands out, letting the water sluice down their bodies.
«Thank you, friends,» Chaumel said, coming over to throw soaked sleeves over their backs. «Look how far the clouds spread! This will be over the South and East regions in an hour. Rain, on my mountaintop! What a treasure!»
«This is what'll happen if you let the Core of Ozran run the way it was meant to,» Keff said. Plenna gave him
