Alchymist twoe-3

by Ian Irvine

  'Quick!' cried Flangers. 'It'll have the range next time.'

  They sped down the coast, which was rocky as far as Irisis could see. There was no sign of a cave, or even a large crevice beneath the rocks.

  They rounded the northern curve of the island. The two ships were anchored offshore on the eastern side, half a league away, and the soldiers two-thirds of the way up the hill. The air-floaters were coming fast, with the advantage of the wind. Inouye brought the machine up a few spans and turned, giving them a view all the way around the island. The third boat, having disgorged its troops, was rowing furiously towards them, parallel to the shore. A soldier stood at the bow, ready with a crossbow.

  'They're not here,' said Irisis dully.

  'They've got to be. Keep going.' Fyn-Mah had gained control of herself. Her arms were folded across her chest and she wore her customary impassive expression.

  'We've got to turn away,' wailed Inouye. 'We're practically within range.'

  'Flydd's our only hope, Pilot; said Fyn-Mah. 'If we can't find him, the whole world is dead.'

  Inouye wiped a tear from her eye, though it might have been the wind in her face. Gripping the controller hard, she clenched her jaw. The rotor screamed, the air-floater shud-dered as if it had been struck from behind, then leapt forwards. The pilot's pale hair streamed out behind her. Irisis hoped she was not drawing more power than her body could handle.

  They shot down the eastern shoreline, between the off-shore ships and the soldiers on the ridge. A javelard was fired from the leading ship, the missile arcing towards their position of just a few moments ago. The other ship readied its weapons. As they reached the rocky point, where a wave-carved platform extended a hundred spans offshore, Muss cried, 'I saw something. Go round, Pilot.'

  Inouye threw the steering arm out at right-angles, flinging the machine into such a tight turn that Irisis's stomach lurched. They hurtled back the other way. To their left, some way inland, an oval outcrop rose above the surrounding landscape. Its surface was mottled with red and yellow lichens and patches of green moss. In the crevices behind it, scrubby bushes stuck up like bristles on a brush.

  'Up there,' yelled Muss. 'I saw something behind that rocky dome. Go lower.'

  The spy certainly had keen eyes. Irisis was clear-sighted compared to most people, but had seen nothing.

  The machine curved towards the dome. Seized by a sudden panic that Flydd would think they were the enemy, she climbed onto the railing at the front, hanging onto the airbag's guy ropes, and roared, 'Flydd! Nish! Where the blazes are you?

  Come out or we'll leave you behind.'

  The machine was hurled the other way, so hard that Irisis was left hanging by one hand. She yelped and snatched at the rail. Crash. It sounded as though a javelard spear had come through the wooden keel up into the cabin. Looking back, she saw that it had. The point stuck out through the cabin door. Flangers broke it off and kicked it over the side.

  She threw herself to the deck and almost went over again as the air-floater turned even more sharply. Another spear whistled through the air, just missing the airbag. Whatever else Inouye was, she was a brilliant pilot. Then, as she clutched the lowest rail, Irisis saw, as clear as anything, Nish stand up on the round rock. Her eyes misted over.

  'It's Nish!' she screamed. 'Go down.'

  'I don't dare,' said Inouye. The soldiers up the hill were within easy range. The pilot turned; turned again. Her cheeks were blotched, her eyes glassy.

  She's taking too much power, Irisis thought. She's going to burn her mind out. Without thinking, or even knowing what she was doing, Irisis ran to Inouye's side and wrapped the chain of her pliance around the controller, putting crystal to crystal.

  Laying an arm across the pilot's shoulder, she sought for the node. Inouye's whole body was shuddering with the strain. Irisis took some of the load through herself, into her pliance and thence into the controller. To her amazement, it seemed to be working. The colour came back into the pilot's cheeks. The rotor spun more quickly.

  'Flangers!' Irisis screamed. 'See if you can do something about the soldiers with the javelard. Quick, they're nearly ready to fire.'

  Flangers was already behind the loaded weapon, tracking the soldiers as the air-floater ducked and dived. He fired.

  'Missed!' He cursed under his breath and reached down to reload.

  Muss was on the other side, holding a crossbow inexpertly. Come on! Irisis thought, I could do better than that. He fired, though with no result.

  Fyn-Mah pushed through behind Irisis, shaping the air with her fingers. Tossing them high, she clapped her hands together with a crack like a dry stick breaking. A series of puffs crystallised in the air between her and the enemy javelard, one after another. The last puff burst around the weapon and the soldier behind it. He went head-first over a smooth rock and came to rest with his legs waving in the air. The javelard fell over but another soldier wrestled it up onto its stand and began to aim it.

  'Go down, now!' snapped the perquisitor, pale with the strain.

  'He'll put a spear right through the airbag. He can't miss.'

  'The spear is jammed in the javelard,' said Muss calmly, 'Hurry, before they free it.' Inouye threw the machine about so sharply that Irisis fell to her knees. It seemed to skip across the air, bounced and fell. The keel slammed into the rock. Struts creaked and groaned.

  Irisis looked around frantically. 'Flydd, Nish?'

  'Here,' came Nish's voice from the other side. 'You nearly took my bloody head off.'

  Leaving her pliance wrapped around the controller, she leapt over the rail. Inouye shrieked but Irisis could not be in two places at once. 'Come on. Get in! Where's Flydd? Is he …? Is he …?'

  'He's down there.' Nish pointed to the crevice. 'He's hurt his ankle.'

  She skidded down the steep side of the rock, ploughing red lichen off with her boot-heels. 'Xervish? Are you all right?'

  'Of course I'm all right,' he said querulously. 'Why wouldn't I be?'

  'Well, you're taking your bloody time. This isn't a picnic.’

  He was leaning on the stone and looked more emaciated than ever, if that was possible.

  'What's the matter with you?' she snapped.

  'I've been running for the past hour and I've hurt my ankle.'

  'You look like an old bag of bones,' she muttered.

  'And you're as fat as a pig! Hey, what do you think you're doing?'

  She hoisted him over her shoulders and scrabbled up. He was heavier than he looked.

  'Come on!' Fyn-Mah was screaming.

  Her boots slipped on moss. Nish gave her his hand and heaved, which got them up the steep part. Irisis ran across the top, looking over her shoulder. The soldiers were struggling to free the jammed spear. The two air-floaters were approaching rapidly. The third was still hanging back. Must be scrutators in it, Irisis thought, the gutless swine.

  Flangers fired his javelard, its spear smashing through the cabin of the leading machine. It kept coming. He slammed another spear in place, winding back the cranks like a sweat-drenched, red-faced demon.

  They reached the side. Irisis's knees were so wobbly that she dropped the scrutator onto the deck.

  'Bloody cheek!' he roared.

  She tried to throw her leg over the rope rail but it wouldn't go. She tried again, then Nish's hand slid under her thigh and heaved her on top of Flydd.

  'Go!' screamed Fyn-Mah, as Nish vaulted the rail. She pulled Irisis off Flydd. 'Are you all right, surr?' she said tenderly, helping him into the cabin.

  She does care for him, Irisis thought as she got up. That's going to change a few things.

  The front of the air-floater tilted and the machine shot up at a steep angle. Nish fell backwards, slid all the way down the deck and slammed his head into the stern post below the rotor. He sighed and lay still.

  'Nish?' Irisis shrieked, hanging onto the ropes as she went down the canted deck.

  He did not answer. The naked blades of the roto
r were whirring just above his nose, for the wire guard did not run underneath. Stay unconscious, she prayed, falling to her knees in front of him. If he sat up, the rotor would puree his head.

  'What's the matter now?' yelled Fyn-Mah from inside.

  'Bloody fool's knocked himself out.'

  Inouye levelled out. Irisis, ever so carefully, eased Nish out from under the rotor and carried him into the cabin. Fyn-Mah was decanting the deadly quicksilver into its flask. She stoppered it. The machine tilted up again.

  Laying Nish on the rear part of the floor where he'd be as protected as possible, Irisis kissed him on the forehead, then went out and slid down the steeply sloping deck to the pilot, who was choking and shuddering as she clung to the controller arm. Abruptly Inouye doubled over, clutching her belly. Steam wisped from her mouth. Irisis threw her arms around the little woman and tried to take power through herself. Her entrails grew boiling hot. If she failed it would anthracise them both.

  Part Four

  Globe

  Forty-three

  Inouye began to jerk as if she were having a fit. Droplets of sweat burst out all over her, saturating her clothes in a few seconds. Irisis grew hot all over. Her eyes clouded until she could see nothing but floating specks of blue light.

  The pilot slid from her grasp and power struck Irisis like a sledgehammer, knocking her to her knees. She fought against it, catching Inouye's hand with her free hand. If she let go the controller would fail, for it was tuned to Inouye alone.

  As the air-floater turned, she saw the soldiers at the jave-lard halfway up the hill. They had freed the bent spear and were inserting a good one. The lever went back, the spear hur-tled towards them. She threw her weight against the steering arm, having difficulty keeping her balance. The air-floater did not move quickly enough. The heavy spear whistled over her head, smashing through the back end of the cabin and out the front Nish! Nish was inside. 'Shoot them!' Her voice cracked.

  Flangers was cranking a crossbow. 'No spears left. Not many bolts, either.'

  The pair of air-floaters were approaching. Both were armed with javelards and soldiers bearing crossbows, though they were not yet in range.

  Another spear shot by, passing close to the top of the airbag. Where had that come from? Her erratic movements had taken the air-floater offshore and it had come within range of one of the ships' more powerful javelards. Irisis felt a flurry of panic but bit down on it. She would get everyone to safety or kill them all in the attempt.

  'I need some help here,' she gasped as Inouye's weight pulled her hand off the controller.

  The air-floater kept turning. Irisis, realising that it would take them towards the air-floaters, pulled the steering arm the other way with her boot. That brought them past the soldiers on the hill and, as they drifted west, she saw the soldiers from the third landing boat climbing the ridge ahead of them. There was nowhere to go.

  A bony hand fell on her shoulder. 'Turn north-east towards the air-floaters,' said Flydd, taking the steering arm. He fired Flangers's crossbow one-handed, to no effect. 'We may be able to do something.'

  'I can't imagine what.' Irisis muttered, but did as she was told.

  As they passed over the water, she cast a glance over her shoulder. Flangers was pouring the flask of quicksilver through a sieve while the perquisitor did something under-neath with her hands. Irisis could feel the cold from here. Pellets of frozen quicksilver, far heavier than lead, rattled into a bucket. Fyn-Mah gave the scrutator such a look of hopeless longing that Irisis was touched. Flydd did not notice.

  With a gloved hand, Flangers scooped a handful of pellets into a silk bag. He placed the bag in the cup of the javelard binding it loosely with thread.

  'Get a move on,' roared Flydd.

  Flangers swung the javelard around, tracking the air-floater to their left. It was doing the same, and fired first. The spear was aimed high, and looked as though it was going to fall short, but a gust drifted the air-floater into its path and out through the airbag just above its base, emerged a couple of spans away and fell past them.

  Irisis gave the floater-gas generator as much power as she dared. Floater gas whistled up the pipe, though it seemed to be coming out the rents in the airbag just as quickly. Try as she might, she could not keep the machine level.

  'Can you patch it?' she called over her shoulder.

  Fire, dammit,' said Flydd.

  Flangers fired. A scrap of silk drifted in the air, then the soldiers on the leading air-floater screamed and threw their arms in the air. A scatter of holes appeared in the airbag, tore into a huge gash and the airbag began to collapse. The air-floater went nose-down. 'Again' said Flydd.

  While Flangers charged the javelard with another bag of quicksilver pellets, Muss climbed to the roof of the cabin. He hauled up Flydd, who was carrying a repair patch — a square of canvas coated in sticky tar.

  'Keep it steady,' said the scrutator, wincing as his weight went onto his twisted ankle. He held the canvas in place while Muss pressed it against the lower tear in the balloon and smoothed it down, taking care to eliminate any wrinkles.

  Flangers fired at the second air-floater, but this time the silk did not break and the bag of pellets tore harmlessly through the wall of the cabin.

  'I've pellets left for one more attempt,' Flangers called. Flydd, struggling with the other piece of tarred canvas, snapped 'Get on with it. The quicksilver won't stay frozen forever.'

  Irisis turned north into the wind, trying to keep her distance from the air-floater. That proved impossible for it had the wind on its starboard quarter. She also had to keep the machine steady and hold Inouye up. Power kept flowing through the controller, so something must be clinging on in the pilot's subconscious.

  The second tear proved harder to fix, for it was well above Flydd and Muss's reach. They had to press the canvas patch on with poles. One side went on cleanly but as they smoothed the patch across, the canvas wrinkled. There was no way to fix it without setting down.

  Flangers fired. Several people at the front of the enemy craft, including the pilot, went down. As it fell, the controller arm was jerked to one side and the air-floater veered towards them. Irisis turned away as sharply as she dared, prompting a flurry of oaths from the roof of the cabin, but still the enemy shooter had a perfect, side-on shot.

  The spear whizzed by the cabin, clanging off the housing of the floater-gas generator. Irisis held her breath. One spark and they would light up the sky for ten leagues. Nothing happened, but the whistle of the generator died away.

  The pilotless air-floater fell in looping corkscrews towards the sea. The shooter abandoned his weapon to stand at the rail, staring down fearfully. The first craft had already hit the water and now lay on its side, its airbag deflated. The nearest ship was moving towards it, and the dark-clad figures thrashing in the water. The third air-floater signalled with flags but made no attempt to come after them. Definitely scrutators on board, Irisis thought sourly.

  'The floater-gas generator's busted,' said Flydd, climbing down. He was now limping badly. He looked around, marking the positions of the fleet, which was spread out to the south and east of them.

  Irisis let Inouye slide to the deck, for she could no longer hold her up. The machine slowed dramatically — Inouye's subconscious had finally given out. Flangers and Fyn-Mah carried her inside, and Irisis ran in after them to check on Nish. He was asleep and unharmed. She returned to her post, took out the controller's crystal, put her pliance in its place and set it to channel to the rotor what power she could. The air-floater limped on, slowly losing height as floater gas trickled out from beneath the wrinkled patch.

  'Which way?' she said to Flydd. 'With the fleet between us and land, I don't dare head south or west. If they've got other air-floaters, or we're forced to land, they'll have us. We can't go back towards Snizort, either.'

  The afternoon sun angled across one cheek. If Flydd had been gaunt before, now he was nothing more than bone and sinew over which
the skin was stretched drum-tight. As he clenched his jaw, knots formed under the skin.

  'Go north-west,' he decided at last.

  Towards Meldorin?' Irisis said incredulously. 'But the lyrinx control it.'

  We're outlaws. There's nowhere on Lauralin to hide; nowhere the scrutators won't track us down. So we must go to the one place where they don't dare, and take our chances with the lyrinx. Which reminds me — how did you get on in Snizort?'

  That adventure was so long ago Irisis could hardly recall what he was talking about. 'It began well, surr …' 'Oh?' he said sharply.

  This wasn't the way she'd imagined their reunion. They'd been friends for a long time now; she'd been so glad to see him and imagined he would feel the same. Evidently she'd invested too much in the moment — Flydd was scrutator first and human being second. 'We managed to take one of the flesh-formed creatures alive — a newborn infant.' 'But?' said Flydd.

  'The lyrinx attacked us on the way out and it was killed.

  They'd slain all the adults before they left. They nearly killed us too. We lost all six of our guards, and Fyn-Mah and Flangers were badly hurt. Only Muss was unharmed, but he was never around when the fighting was on.'

  'I don't allow him to fight, except to save his life,' said Flydd. 'He's too valuable to me. And the other?' 'The other, surr?'

  'The phynadr, dammit. I saw Muss before the battle of Gumby Marth and he said you had it.' 'I did …'

  'What happened?'

  'It didn't thrive, surr. We did everything we could.' She took him into a corner of the cabin and retrieved the bag from under a bench.

  He opened it. The phynadr had collapsed into a slimy mess with a strong, meaty smell, like buffalo broth. 'What a waste,' said Flydd, tossing it over the side.

  She just stared at him. Was that all? Didn't he even care? Suddenly she felt furiously angry. 'Thank you for trying so hard, Irisis,' she said sarcastically. 'Next time you get lost, you miserable old fleabag, you can rescue yourself.'

  'Hey,' he said. 'I didn't mean —’