"Maybe. For short periods of time. But at the high level of power required to induce hallucinations, I doubt that you can maintain a focus for more than a few minutes before you exhaust yourself. Talk about a heavy psi drain."
Quinn smiled again, unconcerned. "I have found that even two or three minutes of a nightmare is long enough to control anyone I wish. No one can withstand such visions for long."
"Let"s get back to Nancy. Where is she?"
"I told you, she is waiting for us." Once again, Quinn swept out a hand, indicating the doorway to the underworld. "And I can promise you that she will wait forever in the catacombs if you do not accompany me. I took the precaution of removing all of her amber."
"I can"t believe that you would leave her down there without amber. That"s a death sentence."
"One that only you can commute." He tossed a flashlight to her. "Get up."
She picked up the flashlight and got unsteadily to her feet. The nausea had receded, but she was still shaky. It wasn"t just the aftereffects of the hallucinations, she thought. This was fear, pure and simple. She hated feeling afraid.
And from anger came strength.
She rezzed the flashlight and went toward the dark stairwell. "What, exactly, do you want from me, Quinn?"
"I know your secret, Lyra," he said. He followed her, his voice once again serene and a.s.sured. "I know your true power. You are so much more than a mere tuner. With me you will explore your true and full potential."
Another chill tightened her insides. She started down into the darkness. "What are you talking about?" she whispered.
"When you walked into my cla.s.sroom shortly after your discovery of the amethyst ruin, I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that you were the woman I needed."
"So I can tune amethyst," she said. "That"s no secret. So what?"
"Do not try to deceive me. I know what the scientists and the researchers at the AI lab do not know. You found three of the pyramid stones."
She was stunned. "I don"t know what you"re talking about."
"Of course you do. What"s more, you can work the stones."
"How do you know that?"
"The only reason you would have taken care to conceal those particular stones from Amber Inc. is because you recognized their power. As soon as I researched your genealogical records, my conclusions were confirmed."
"You researched my ancestry?"
"It"s all there in the records of the Arcane Society, my dear. As is the information that only one who is descended from a long line of crystal workers can rez the full latent energy of the stone. You are that woman."
She stopped halfway down the staircase and turned to look at him. "You"re a member of the Arcane Society?"
"Yes."
"Wait a second. Are you telling me that the Society has my genealogical records?"
"One of your ancestors who came through the Curtain was Arcane. Didn"t you know that?"
"No, I sure as heck did not know that."
"She evidently lost her connection with the Society during the Colonial era," Quinn said. "That was not unusual. Life was hard and chaotic in those early years. People were focused on survival. Many members of the Society drifted away. Their descendants have forgotten their roots."
"I can"t believe this. The Society lets just anyone use their records to research someone else"s family tree?"
"There is nothing private about an individual"s family tree, either within the Society or outside of it," Quinn said.
"There sure as heck ought to be."
"Anger is a destructive emotion."
"No s.h.i.t."
She arrived at the last step. On one side of the subbas.e.m.e.nt wall psi light glowed through the ragged crack in green quartz. She clicked off the flashlight and went toward it. Quinn followed.
"All right, I"m here with you in the tunnels," Lyra said, moving through the opening. "Where is Nancy?"
"Patience, Lyra. That was always your problem in meditation cla.s.s. You never achieved a proper degree of harmonic balance." Quinn checked a locator. "Take the first turn to the right."
Obediently she went toward the first intersection. The heels of her shoes clicked lightly on the quartz floor of the tunnel. "What is it with you, anyway? Amethyst is just a pretty gemstone. Okay, I can generate some attractive images in the relics that came out of the ruin. But when you get right down to it, those chunks of amber are nothing more than alien sculptures."
"Raw amber may have its limitations, but some of the amber artifacts that were created by the aliens are imbued with great power."
"I"m telling you, they"re just a bunch of carved rocks."
"Not all of them," Quinn said gently. "Not the pyramids." His voice sharpened abruptly. "Move, woman."
When she did not follow instructions quickly enough, she got another taste of a psychically induced dreamscape. This one warped the already odd proportions of the catacombs into a deeply disturbing world. She froze, terrified that in her disoriented state she would stumble into an alien illusion trap or an energy ghost.
"Remember, your friend"s life depends on you," Quinn said, voice sharpening again.
He released her from the hallucination. She sucked in a deep breath and continued down the hall.
"What, exactly, do you want from me?" she said. "Aside from the ultimate harmonic relationship thing, I mean."
"Don"t pretend to be nave, Lyra. It doesn"t suit you. You"re going to tune those three very special amethyst relics for me."
"What makes you so sure I"ve got them? I"m telling you, AI confiscated everything in that ruin."
"Your friend Nancy tells a different story. She said you stashed the pyramids somewhere underground. Unfortunately, she did not know the location."
Another wave a fury swept through her. "She would never have told you that willingly. What did you do to her?"
"Calm yourself. I did not hurt her. There was no need. I simply put her into a trance and asked her a few questions about you."
"What kind of questions?"
"Shortly after I began to comprehend your true potential, I wanted to know more about you. The only person you are close to is Miss Halifax. She was the obvious one to interrogate. She remembers nothing of the session, of course. I made certain of that."
"You really are a lowlife."
"The news that you had concealed three pyramids of amethyst came out quite accidentally, I a.s.sure you. But once I had it, I knew for certain that you were the right woman."
A creepy sensation trickled through her. "What, exactly do you know about the pyramids? Why are you so interested in them?"
"The three you discovered are not the first amethyst pyramids to be found. My grandmother also discovered one. She, too, had a great affinity for amethyst. She understood that there was enormous power in the stone."
"What happened to her pyramid?"
"In the end she destroyed it." Quinn"s voice flashed with rage again. "She was a weak woman. She wrote in her journal that she considered the stone extremely dangerous. She was convinced that once it was tuned to a specific individual, it could be used to generate and focus enormous power, regardless of whether he or she could work amethyst."
"I get it. You think you can work the pyramid stones, but you can"t do that unless they are tuned to your frequencies."
"My grandmother refused to tune the pyramid for me because she concluded that I was psychically unstable."
"Gee. Wonder how she got that impression."
Quinn drew a deep breath and visibly steadied himself. Once more he slipped into his serene, guru voice.
"When I found out that she had rendered the stone powerless, I had no choice, of course," he said. "I had to kill her."
"You murdered your own grandmother?"
"What else could I do? She deliberately tried to keep me from fulfilling my destiny. She was even planning to notify the authorities of the Arcane Society that I was unstable. They would have tried to smother my talent with drugs. If that hadn"t worked, they would have made certain that I disappeared. I could not allow those fools to interfere with my destiny."
"And just what is this high-rez power you think you"re going to get?"
"My grandmother believed that whoever could master just one of the pyramid stones would gain the ancient powers of the aliens."
"Hmm."
"Think what that means." Quinn flattened one of his palms against a glowing tunnel wall. "I will have the powers of those who built these catacombs and the underground rain forest. Who knows what I will be able to achieve once I have that level of talent?"
"Not to rain on your parade, Quinn, but the aliens are gone. They couldn"t make it here on Harmony. Maybe their powers weren"t so great, after all."
"You have no imagination. I have searched for more pyramid stones for years, and at last I have found them."
"You know, I think your grandmother was wrong about those pyramids-"
"Silence."
"This is so typical of the Dore luck. I join a meditation cla.s.s to reduce my stress levels, and what do I get? A mad guru."
"Enough. I will not allow you to provoke me. You would do well to remember that you will remain alive only so long as you serve me."
"Serve you?"
"Well, I had planned to offer you marriage," he conceded. "But when Sweet.w.a.ter returned, you rushed straight back into his arms, in spite of how he had betrayed you. It was obvious that you are incapable of appreciating what I could give you. So, yes, instead of sharing my power, you will serve me."
"What made you think there might be more pyramid stones?"
"My grandmother was convinced that there were others. She did not believe that the one she found was the only stone of its kind. But I knew that only another amethyst worker was likely to find others. Do you realize how rare your talent is?"
"I"ve heard that a lot lately," Lyra said.
"For the past six weeks I have tried to drive you closer to me. To woo you. Twice a week I sent you the most exquisite amethyst orchids."
"So you"re the one. Well, that figures. I finally get a secret admirer, and he"s a nutcase. And here I was blaming the plumber. Tell me something. If you wanted me to like you, why did you try to scare the c.r.a.p out of me with those d.a.m.ned hallucinations?"
"I wanted you to turn to me for help. I wanted to show you that I and I alone could save you from the nightmares. But you kept resisting. For a time I saw it as a tribute to your spirit. I even admired your strength of will. I enjoyed proving that I was your master. But then Cruz Sweet.w.a.ter came back into your life. I tried to remove him."
"You were the one who hired those thugs to try to kill him," Lyra said. "You tried to take him out not once but twice. The second time you were there, on the other balcony, generating one of your stupid dreamscapes. But that didn"t work either, did it? You"re a real, all-around screwup, aren"t you, Quinn?"
Quinn"s normally serene features twisted into a demonic mask. "And you"re a real b.i.t.c.h."
"Does this mean that the ultimate harmonic relationship is off?"
"Turn left."
"Sure."
She rounded another corner and saw the vaulted entrance of a small antechamber. Nancy stood there, scared, her arms tightly wrapped around her waist, but under control. Quinn had not bothered to tie her up. He had taken her amber. That was more than enough to confine anyone underground.
"Lyra." Relief and panic mingled on Nancy"s face. Her eyes glittered with tears. "I"m so sorry."
"This is my fault, not yours." Lyra rushed toward her, hugging her fiercely. "It"s going to be okay. I promise you."
"Enough," Quinn said. He looked at Lyra. "You have seen her. She is alive, and she will stay in that condition if you do exactly as I say. Take me to the three stones."
Lyra released Nancy, stepped back, and kicked off her heels. "It"s a long hike from here. I"m not going to last much longer in these shoes."
"Hurry," Quinn hissed.
Lyra looked back at Nancy. "Stay right where you are, okay? It will be all right, I promise you."
"Trust me, I"m not going anywhere without amber," Nancy vowed.
"Move," Quinn ordered. He backed up the command with another disorienting wave of energy.
"You know, if you don"t stop doing that," Lyra said, "I"m going to throw up on your fancy robes."
Quinn blinked, startled. He took a hasty step back, scowling. "Let"s go."
"I"ll need a locator," she said to Quinn.
"Give me the frequency coordinates. I"ll enter them in my locator."
She rattled them off quickly and waited while he punched in the numbers.
"Now," Quinn said. A feverish excitement glittered in his eyes. "Take me to the stones."