by Ian Irvine
She had already stalked away.
Nish was still sleeping peacefully, his knees doubled up, one hand under his cheek. It made him look very young. Irisis stood looking down at him, reflecting. She knew now that she wanted this man, but would he want her? Either way, she was glad that her brief affair with Flydd had ended before they came west. She tucked a blanket around Nish and left him to recover.
The air-floater had caught a breeze and was moving more quickly now. In an hour they had left the enemy behind and were drifting across an empty, mist-covered sea.
'Can't we go any faster?' said Flydd, coming up beside her. 'If I stuck my head out the back and blew, we'd move quicker than this.'
'Off you go, then,' Irisis said coolly.
He did not reply. He looked terrible.
She felt contrite. How could she know what he had been through? 'What's the matter, Xervish?'
'I'm sorry,' he said. 'I didn't mean to sound ungrateful, earlier. This past week and a half …'
'You look as though you haven't eaten since I last saw you.'
'Close enough.' He stared up at the balloon. 'The bag's still losing floater gas. At this rate, we'll be lucky to make it to land.'
'How's Inouye?'
'Who?'
'The pilot.'
'I've never seen anyone go so close to anthracism and survive.'
'Can she come up and take over?'
'Only if you want to kill her' said Flydd.
'Then you'd better hang onto this.' She gave him the controller arm.
Hey!' he cried. 'I can't operate one of these.'
The alarm in his voice amused her. 'In that case you'd better start blowing.' She went down to the cabin.
Inouye lay on the canvas bench, her eyes as red as tomatoes. Her lips were like crumpled paper and her fingernails had gone black. Her skin was completely white, as if all the blood had withdrawn from beneath.
'I thought you were going to die,' Irisis said, taking the small woman's hand.
'I want to,' said Inouye in a whisper like the rustling of papers. 'The one thing I have left is to die.'
'You saved us all, and the scrutator. You've done more than your duty.'
'I couldn't save my family.' Inouye turned her face to the wall.
'I don't think the Council would harm them.'
'I'll never see my children again.'
How could Irisis answer that? She stroked Inouye's limp hair, then returned to the pilot's position and coaxed a little more speed from the rotor, at the cost of exhausting herself. Without training, or a controller tailored to her, piloting was a debilitating business. Fortunately the tailwind had picked up, though Meldorin was not in sight and from here must be a day's flight away — if the floater gas lasted that long. She leaned back against the cabin wall and closed her eyes, feeling as if she'd not slept in a week. There would be none tonight.
Flangers and Muss had rigged up a rope ladder between the bottom of the airbag and the rail, and run a line around the floater-gas generator, which had a huge dent in one side. Flangers was hammering out the crusted pins that held it to its mountings.
'Gently,' Irisis called. 'Don't make a spark —’
'There's no iron in it,' said Flangers.
'What about your hammer and punch?'
He looked down, grinning sheepishly. Morons! she thought.
'We're still losing altitude,' Irisis said to Fyn-Mah, who was standing in the doorway of the cabin with the map flapping in her hands. 'Better find a place to land. The gas won't keep us up much longer.'
'Turn due north. There are reefs and islets not far from here.'
'Doesn't sound very promising.' Irisis turned onto the new heading and an hour later, when she could barely stand up, saw surf breaking on submerged obstacles. 'I don't see any dry land.'
Fyn-Mah was now on the cabin roof with her spyglass. 'There, to the left.'
Irisis rotored that way, shortly encountering a platform of black rock fringed with olive-green seaweed. The surface was only half a span above the water, crisscrossed with water-filled gutters and rockpools, and none of it was dry.
'Is this the best we can do?' she said, dismayed. The wind was jerking the air-floater this way and that and she wasn't experienced enough to control it. She aimed for a flat slab of rock but overshot. The machine set down with a crash, right in one of the gutters. Water dribbled in through the canvas floor.
'Up!' yelled Flydd as a wave foamed towards them. 'The next wave —’
'I know, I know.'
The air-floater would not rise, of course, for the floater-gas generator was no longer connected. She spun the rotor hard, grinding the keel along the gutter and bouncing it up onto the next slab. Grapnels were flung out, pulled tight and the machine came to rest canted over on its side. Irisis let go the controller and lay down on the sloping deck. She simply could not stand up.
'What happens when the tide comes in?' asked Flangers.
'The Karama Malama isn't big enough to have tides,' said Eiryn Muss.
'Let's get the damn thing fixed and get out of here,' Flydd said tersely. 'I've spent enough time in this bloody sea.'
'You'll have to do it,' Irisis said. 'I'm utterly worn out.'
'It can't be that difficult,' said Flydd.
Flangers shot him an unreadable glance. He and Muss tightened the grapnel ropes to bring the deck horizontal, then brought the floater-gas generator down to the front deck and began to take it apart.
'Does anyone know how these things operate?' Irisis heard Flydd say.
'I imagine Irisis could work it out,' said Flangers.
'She's exhausted. Pull it apart, see what you can find. And don't break anything.'
'Which way does this screw?'
'It doesn't screw at all, you clot,' said Flydd cheerfully. 'You —’
Irisis was amazed to realise that they were enjoying themselves. Good-natured though the banter was, it irritated her. Men! She slipped over the side. Being a genius with her hands, she couldn't bear to listen as they squabbled about how to get the case open.
She trudged across to the far edge of the rock platform, the brown pea-sized bladders of seaweed popping underfoot. There was nothing to see but water. Irisis sat down on the wet rock, but even that was tiring. She lay on her back, feeling the cold water seeping through her coat but too drained to do anything about it. Irisis was hurt that Flydd hadn't recognised all they'd done to find him; she felt unappreciated. She could have fixed the device, weary though she was, but let Flydd have his go. When he failed, he must realise how much he needed her.
She put up with their incompetence for another ten minutes, then looked up to see dark clouds gathering behind them. A wave broke next to her and she scrambled to her feet. They were dreadfully exposed here — the mildest of storms would drive head-high breakers right across the platform. A strong wind would simply blow them away. It had gone on long enough. Irisis wobbled across to the air-floater.
'Get out of the way, you dills! Can't you see, it goes like this.' She twisted the housing one way, then partway back.
The mechanism clicked and she tugged gently on each end. The two parts slid open.
She laid the internal workings on the canvas, turned it over and said, 'There's the problem. The crystal that draws power into the mechanism was smashed by the impact. I'll pop in another one and we'll be on our way.'
It didn't turn out to be that simple, of course. There were no replacement crystals.
'We had a spare,' said Inouye in that dreary, husk-like voice, "but one of the other air-floaters had a problem on the way from Nennifer, and we had to give it to them.'
'Don't you have any other crystals?' asked Flydd.
'Only in the spare controller for the rotor. But it wouldn't fit.'
'What about my scrying crystal?' said Fyn-Mah.
'It wouldn't do at all,' said Irisis without looking up. 'I'll have to cut down the spare controller crystal. And that won't be easy without suitable tools.'
After an hour of careful labour, during which time the storm clouds came ever closer, she managed to obtain a suitably shaped sliver of crystal, which she tested with her pliance. 'It's far from ideal, but it's the best I can do.'
Flangers had pounded the dent out of the housing on the rock platform, keeping well away from the airbag in case of sparks. Irisis inserted the crystal and put the case together. Flangers and Muss climbed the ladder, hefting the device onto its frame. They filled the barrel with seawater. By the time all that had been done the airbag was as flabby as an old bladder.
Irisis held her breath as she worked the controller. The floater-gas generator shuddered and gave a cheerful whistling hiss.
By this time the sea had come up and waves were breaking over the platform, foaming all the way across and swinging the keel on its mooring ropes. The wind had risen, jerking the airbag this way and that. It took a long time before the air-floater began to lift; when it did, it reached a height of a few hundred spans and would rise no higher.
They crept north-west, crossing the southern coast of Meldorin after noon the following day. She'd expected to see lyrinx everywhere but, apart from a sea eagle wheeling in the distance, the sky was empty. Some way off to their left she saw a town or port, abandoned long ago, with trees growing in the middle of the streets. They crept on. Directly ahead, a range of mountains towered above them. The air-floater would never rise that high.
'Go east around it,' said Flydd, who had a rolled map in one hand.
'We've got to set down,' Irisis said, rubbing her swollen eyes. 'I can't go any longer without sleep.'
'I'm not keen on stopping just here. I believe there's a lyrinx town not far away.'
'There'll be no light tonight.' Irisis cocked an eye at the dense overcast. 'It'll be just as dangerous floating in the dark, if we can't get higher than this.'
'We'll have to take that risk. Keep going as long as you can.'
It was completely dark before they had passed by the eastern end of the range and turned back onto their north-westerly tack.
'What's ahead of us?' said Irisis.
'Grassland, then forest, swamp, more forest, more grassland and, finally, desert.'
'And the lyrinx control the lot?'
'Most of it,' said Flydd. 'Not being keen on water, they keep clear of the bog country.'
'Even so, I don't see how we're better off than we were before.'
'There are creatures in Meldorin that even the lyrinx are afraid of.'
'Very comforting. So where are we going?'
'I'll tell you, if we get there.'
She shivered and drew her coat around her. There had been snow on the mountains and she could feel it on the wind.
The dark became so intense that finally they were forced to land, creeping down with the rotor off while Flangers stood at the front, and Muss at the rear, with lanterns held out on poles to watch for trees and other obstacles. Normally they were forbidden on air-floaters because of the danger of explosion. Irisis held her breath all the way but they made it safely to the ground, hammered in wooden pegs and tethered the machine.
'If there are lyrinx about, we've just told them exactly where we are,' said Fyn-Mah.
Forty-four
Can't be helped.' Flydd paced up and down, cracking his knuckles and muttering under his breath.
'I'll make the camp fire,' said Irisis. 'I'm starving.'
'Can't risk fire here, in case there are enemy patrols on high. Have something from the stew pot.'
'Cold bean-and-onion soup? We've been eating that for weeks.'
'The youth of today!' he muttered. 'When I was on the clanker-hauling team, I would have given my right foot for a bowl of bean-and-onion soup. Fetch me some, would you?'
'Get it yourself!' Irisis felt like hitting him. They'd passed half a dozen isolated peaks where they could have hidden for the night, built a roaring fire and cooked a decent meal from the supplies they'd bought in Jibstorn. Not even a brazier was permitted on the air-floater, lest it set off the floater gas. Irisis could think of nothing but the haunch of venison in the larder.
He was unfazed. 'Shall I wait on you with a bowl?'
'No thanks, I'm going to sleep. Why don't you pull the airbag down and patch those gashes properly?'
'Good idea.' He strolled down to the galley as if nothing had happened.
They warmed a flat iron against the floater-gas generator. Flangers ran it over the patches until the tar softened enough for the patch to be eased off, re-tarred and replaced smoothly. A larger patch was placed over that, just to be sure. Irisis set the floater-gas generator running and went to the cabin. She lay on the floor next to Nish, listening to his steady breathing, and suddenly, out of nowhere, realised that she loved him.
This changed everything — she could no longer be fatalistic about their probable fate. She had something to live for. And everything to fear.
The night passed uneventfully. Nish was still asleep in the morning, which bothered her. It was almost two days since he'd hit his head. However, he was breathing normally and nothing seemed broken so she left him to it.
The airbag was so full that the machine was straining at its ropes. They did not wait for breakfast, just went up as fast as they could and kept going, north by north-west.
In the mid-morning they passed over a city, also abandoned and partly overgrown. 'Garching,' said Flydd. 'It was held to be a beautiful place, in its time. A garden city at the foot of the mountains.' He scanned it with the spyglass, frowning.
'What is it?' said Irisis, who was standing beside him, Inouye having recovered enough to take the controller.
'Oh, I was just thinking of the past. Garching features in one of the Great Tales, you know. I was wondering if such times will ever come again. If, indeed, there'll be any more Great Tales. Or anyone to hear the old ones.'
'I don't imagine the ancient days were quite as wonderful as they're made out.'
'I'm sure they weren't but, except for the dark days of the Clysm, they weren't as desperate as our time, either. I'm afraid, Irisis. Afraid this is the end, not just for us, but for every human on Santhenar.'
Again Irisis felt that chill. She had never heard him talk like this before.
'Surely the scrutators can't be that bad?'
'They're worse than you can imagine! I hadn't realised it before — I was too busy with my provincial concerns to see the true picture. But since this last phase of the war began it's become all too clear. The Council of Scrutators, for all their control, for all their spy networks, for all their power, are not only corrupt, but incompetent. They're fossils and must be swept away.'
A shiver of dread started at the soles of her feet and ran up the backs of her legs, all the way to her scalp. 'That's treason, Xervish, punishable by the most gruesome death that human ingenuity can come up with.' Irisis had fought the scrutators, opposed them in many ways, escaped from their bastion of Nennifer, but those crimes were nothing to what he was proposing. It was worse than treason — it was sedition, the worst crime of all, and it would mean not only his death and hers, but the execution of her family, her friends, and every single person of her family's line. The House of Stirm would be expunged from the earth.
'I never thought I'd say it' Flydd said, 'but the age of scrutators is over.'
'But who would order the world?' Despite everything she'd experienced, Irisis was no revolutionary. She believed in the system they had, faulty though it was.
'I don't know. The trouble with tyrants is that so few are benevolent. Power corrupts, and most of those who seek it are already corrupt. That's the insoluble problem — replacing the Council without making things worse.'
'What about you, surr?'
'I don't want it, Irisis.'
'I've heard it said that the only man suitable for high office is the one who refuses to accept it.'
'An appropriate paradox …'
He broke off and Irisis did not question him further. It was
all too disturbing.
Around the middle of the day they saw trees in the distance, and sunlight shining on water. 'Orist,' said Eiryn Muss.
A land of lakes, mires and swamp forests, it stretched northwest beyond sight. 'Where are we going, Muss?' asked Irisis.
'I don't know,' said the perfect spy, which was also worrying.
Sometime later, Irisis saw, away to her left in the west, a rugged coastline, and beyond it, what she took to be the Western Ocean.
'I presume we're not going across the ocean?' she said to Flydd. 'I hope not, since the patches are leaking again.' They had been losing altitude steadily, despite the floater-gas generator.
'We're not.' Flydd folded his arms across his skinny chest.
'Hadn't we better look for a refuge for the night?'
'I already have a place in mind,' he said.
'I didn't know you'd spent time on Meldorin before.'
'No reason why you should.'
'I wish you'd tell me what's going on!' For the past few weeks she had felt in control of her life, but as soon as Flydd reappeared, that had all been overturned. She didn't like it.
'I will, when I know myself.'
He turned away. She followed him down the back, where the pilot sagged in a canvas chair, listlessly holding the controller. 'How are you feeling, Inouye?'
'Better, though my fingers hurt.' Inouye inspected her blackened nails.
'You'll probably lose your fingernails,' said Flydd, 'though they'll grow back.'
'It doesn't matter' she said. 'I have no man to admire them.'
'If it is in my power' said the scrutator, 'you will be reunited with your family. You have my promise on that.'
'Oh!' A flush crept up Inouye's cheeks. She clenched one fist around the controller knob, concealing the other in her pocket. 'What may I do for you, surr?'
'I'd like to get there before dark. Can you go a little faster?' He checked the map against the country below. 'And somewhat to the left.'
The rotor spun up and the air-floater edged onto its new heading. Irisis watched the lakes and bogs go by. If Flydd did not want to tell her what he was up to, no force could make him. She supposed he had his reasons.