The Namura Stone (The Ammonite Galaxy, book 6)

Chapter 7

TEMAR WAS BACK on Xiantha after his scare, and they were sitting in a small group by the shore of the Emerald Lake, enjoying the peaceful scenery and still celebrating the recovery of Grace and Ledin too. Everything seemed calm, although Grace was finding it difficult to get back into her normal routine, even though a fortnight had gone by. She had been very shaken by the Enaran ability to find her and control her movements. Even when Arcan had explained what had happened, she was ashamed that she had not been able to counteract the threat. She felt impotent. She was terrified that they would do something like that again, despite Arcan's pointing out that they now had no need; they knew exactly how strong he was.

Six was floating on his back in the lake. He was in about two feet of water, so he touched the bottom fairly frequently, because he was pretending to be a submarine and the crew he was carrying weighed a lot more than they had a couple of months ago. It was amazing how much difference a few weeks made in children, he thought. In fact, he was rather worried that they might really convert him into a submarine and forget that he needed air to breathe.

Raven and Temar were perched on top of his chest, delighted, the one babbling his pleasure loudly and the other pummeling him with both feet and hands and shrieking with excitement. He felt more battered than he had when he had faced the Dessites, he thought. This had been Diva's idea. Why couldn't she pretend to be a boat, if she thought it was such a great activity? Hang it, he had swallowed more water than a sock hung in the petrifying well at the black peak on Kwaide. He had noticed recently that she came up with a lot of ideas for other people to implement. He frowned to himself. That would have to be remedied.

He pushed himself up on one hand and raised his shoulders out of the water, dislodging the smallest of the crew members, who was rescued by Ledin.

"Man overboard!" Six shouted. "—The last, brave heroine is being pounded by enemy shells!" He reached over with one hand and began to tickle the thin little belly in front of him. "The enemy will be merciless!"

As the last crew member finally toppled off in a fit of indignant giggles and was salvaged by Grace, Six looked around for Diva.

He soon found his target and splashed out of the water to where she was sitting, just where the shoreline mingled with the trees, where the sand was cooler. She was settled on a blanket to keep the sand out of her clothes, and she looked up at him guilelessly as he approached. The afternoon sun was blinding her, and so she missed the look of determination on his face which would otherwise have alerted her.

"Having fun?"

Six waited until he was within a foot and then pounced. "New game!" he shouted over his shoulder. "We wrap Mummy over and over in this blanket! It's called 'Roll the mole in the hole'."

A muffled shout of indignation was audible from inside the rug which was now heaving with a large amount of cross girl. Six sat on top of it with alacrity. "Hurry up, you lot, or the mole is going to get away!"

Raven came running up, and Temar was not far behind, carried quite willingly by Ledin. They threw themselves on top of the sackcloth blanket and began to try to roll Diva even more tightly into a cylinder, which they left open at the top to provide sufficient air for the occupant. Diva was tossing and turning, trying to unseat Six, but now taking care not to injure the children. Grace was telling them to stop, but couldn't hold back her own laughter, which was making Diva even crosser. Everybody was laughing and screaming at once.

They jumped up and down on top of her until Grace took pity on the victim, and made Six and Ledin stop.

The mole reappeared, looking distinctly disheveled and rather hot. She pressed her lips together firmly and gazed around her purposefully, eyes narrowed. "Right. Who's next?"