Alchymist twoe-3

by Ian Irvine

  Tiaan, limp-kneed and dripping perspiration, jerked up on the flight yoke. Nothing happened, for she still held the amplimet in her hand. It took some time to realise what the problem was. She banged it into its cavity, waited a second till it settled and jerked again.

  The thapter shot into the air, buffeted by the steam blast as the wave of mud swept diagonally across the ridge, carrying trees, bushes and three unfortunate lyrinx with it, before pouring in a brown curtain over the cliff to her left. She'd overdone it yet again.

  She hovered while it passed, looking for survivors. There was no sign of Malien and two-thirds of the ridge was covered in waist-deep sludge. The bodies of the fallen slaves, as well as Forgre, had been swept away. Five slaves cowered near the untouched end of the ridge, their faces scarlet from the steam.

  Had she killed Gilhaelith? The lyrinx had taken him up the ridge into the forest, but that patch of trees had been swept away by the mudslide. She curved around the clifftops, just in case he'd got away. Yes, there he was. The lyrinx was just below the top of the cliff, still carrying him. Gilhaelith wasn't struggling. Surely he didn't want to go with it?

  She turned towards them. The lyrinx caught an updraught and began to flap off, barely keeping Gilhaelith's weight in the air. As it passed below the point, heading for distant Alcifer, one of the slaves let out a furious cry of betrayal and hurled a rock, cracking it on the back of the skull. Its wing-beats faltered and it dropped sharply. Now, Tiaan thought.

  She went round, passing close to the labouring beast to prevent it from getting away until she could think how to wrest Gilhaelith from it safely. Tiaan's brain fizzed from the power it was using.

  It bared its teeth and one clawed hand struck out at the thapter. It was just a reflex, for she was too far away and the metal was proof against its claws. Its wings rippled. Gilhaelith shouted something but Tiaan could not make it out. Did he want her to attack, or keep well away? As she circled, the thapters wake buffeted the creature. Again it dropped; its wings missed a beat; its mouth hung open. She crept towards it, driving it to the cliff and the tall trees that reached two-thirds of the way to the top.

  The lyrinx shuddered and its chameleon skin flared red, then white, then purple. It tried to duck in under the upper canopy of a tree but Tiaan smashed through the small branches after it. Its eyes were staring, its mouth opening and closing.

  One wing struck a branch. The lyrinx fell, saved itself with a great flapping of leathery wings and crashed into the lower branches. Everything disappeared in a whirling cloud of leaves. When that cleared, the lyrinx came out on the underside of the canopy but it was no longer holding Gilhaelith.

  Tiaan panicked, whirling the thapter this way and that, thinking he'd fallen. She was about to dart down the cliff when she heard a thin cry and spotted him clinging to the fork of a denuded branch.

  Tiaan brought the thapter around and underneath, feeling quite desperately weary. Her hand-shook on the controller; her spine throbbed mercilessly. Spans below, the lyrinx was struggling up through the foliage towards him.

  She made the minute adjustments necessary to bring the hatch up beneath Gilhaelith, but he shook his head and began to crawl along the branch away from her. His trouser leg had been shredded, one boot was missing and he had blood down his side. And still he did not want to be rescued. What was the matter with him?

  He raised his hands, out and up in the classic mancer's pose. He was drawing power against her! Without thinking, Tiaan rammed the branch from beneath. He lost his grip and fell through the hatch, landing so hard that it winded him. As the lyrinx beat its way towards her, Tiaan rotated the craft in the air and shot upwards.

  Gilhaelith lay collapsed on the floor. The surviving lyrinx were converging on the untouched end of the ridge, where the remaining slaves huddled. Malien had survived, surrounded by a small protective bubble, though she was on her knees.

  Tiaan raced the lyrinx there. As she settled the machine next to Malien, the slaves surged forward then stopped, staring at the thapter. They could never have seen anvthing like it. Tiaan's head boiled over. The lyrinx that had abducted Gilhaelith was now circling some distance away, signalling furiously down.

  Her eye was drawn down, down, to Alcifer. From behind the central dome a winged creature rose into the air, followed by a second and a third. Others joined them, leaping into the sky with their massive thighs. Dozens. Hundreds. A whole wall of them.

  'Quick, Malien!' she shouted. 'They're coming.'

  An ashen Malien dragged herself up over the side. The slaves moved tentatively towards the thapter.

  'Where's Talis?' cried Tiaan.

  Malien shook her head. 'He's gone. Forgre too.' Her voice was tight with grief.

  The fizzing exploded in Tiaan's mind. She lifted the yoke and the thapter rose jerkily, though its whine hardly changed. Something was wrong.

  'I've hardly any power' she said. 'They must be using some kind of node-drainer.'

  'Can't be,' slurred Malien. 'It's not stopping them from flying.'

  The slaves began to run towards them, crying and holding out their arms. 'What about the slaves?' said Tiaan.

  'Go, before it's too late.'

  Tiaan looked into the desperate eyes of the slaves and wanted to weep. How could she leave them behind — she had been one herself. But there was no choice. Feeling like a murderer, she jerked up the yoke. The machine lifted sluggishly. Men and women with staring eyes clutched at the sides but there was nothing to hang on to. The thapter rose to half the height of the trees but would climb no higher, and it moved forward no faster than a running man. A wall of lyrinx were spiralling up from Alcifer, rolling into a flapping cylinder that was closing rapidly on her.

  'What am I to do?' cried Tiaan. 'I can't get past them.'

  There was no answer. Malien lay slumped on the floor on top of Gilhaelith. Tiaan fixed the field in her mind. There was plenty of power in it, but when she drew it, only a trickle came.

  'I'll try to draw from another node,' she said to herself. She found one, more distant, latched onto it and the thapter shot up through the closing cylinder of lyrinx.

  Gilhaelith shook Malien off and came to his feet, looking dazed. The thapter lurched and he fell through the hole to the lower level. He began to climb back up. Tiaan couldn't afford the distraction, for lyrinx were now rising out of Alcifer in their thousands. She dropped the hatch and kicked the bar across. Gilhaelith began to beat on the metal.

  The lyrinx spread out to cut off her escape to the east, the south and the north. She had no alternative but to turn west. Within a minute the power began to fade, and shortly the thapter was back to its previous pace. The burst of speed had taken it west; snow-tipped peaks loomed ahead. She looked over her shoulder. The lyrinx were gaining rapidly.

  There was still an hour to sunset, but that wouldn't save her. This close, the enemy could track her all night. She tried another node but the acceleration was less and did not last as long. They had anticipated her. She kept going, switching from one node to another as soon as the power began to fail, jerking and hopping across the sky but never getting far enough ahead to lose them.

  The thapter passed over, or rather between, the mountains, for Tiaan dared not try for extra height. Beyond, a grass-covered plain extended into the distance. She continued west, now travelling swiftly with a strong tailwind. The lyrinx had spread out for leagues to north and south.

  Malien stirred and rolled over onto her back, observing what Tiaan did without speaking.

  'I can't get away,' Tiaan said. 'What if I were to turn back and fly straight at them?'

  'They might take all your power,' said Malien hoarsely. She shook her head. 'It was a trap and I walked right into it. They lured us here. That's why Gilhaelith's whereabouts were common knowledge. I can't believe I didn't realise it.'

  'You'd still have gone ahead,' said Tiaan.

  'But more carefully. And Forgre and Talis might still be alive. Now I truly stand alone in the wo
rld.'

  Tiaan did not have the words to comfort her. On they went, carving their staccato path, sometimes gaining, sometimes losing. They passed across the plain into swamp and forest. The thapter dipped sharply, as if it had lost power for a second, after which the hum resumed, though at a lower pitch.

  'What was that?' said Malien, sitting up.

  'It was as if, for a second, the controller wasn't working, though I could still see the field.'

  Tiaan continued at a reduced pace. At sunset she looked back, but could not see the lyrinx at all. 'They've given up! They've turned back, Malien.'

  Malien climbed onto the side, staring into the east. 'I believe you're right. I wonder why?'

  'I suppose they realised that they'd never catch us.'

  'Can you draw power now?'

  'No more than before.'

  'Curious,' said Malien to herself. 'Could they have attached a draining device to this machine?'

  'Which way should I go, north or south?'

  'Try south.'

  Tiaan moved the lever in the required direction. Nothing happened. She tried again, then the other way.

  'Malien!' she said in a panicky voice. 'It's not answering the controls.'

  The song of the mechanism suddenly stopped and the thapter arced down towards the plains.

  'Malien,' Tiaan screamed. 'I've got nothing. It must be the amplimet. It's trying to kill us.'

  'But a crash would destroy it too.' Malien swayed on her feet, popped the crystal and took the controls. It made no difference; they kept plummeting earthwards.

  'We're going to die,' said Tiaan. 'I never thought it would be like this.'

  'I can see the field but I can't draw power from it either.'

  'Why not?'

  'I don't know. It just isn't working. Nothing's working.'

  As abruptly, the song of the mechanism was back. The thapter lurched left, then jerked so hard to the right that Malien was thrown against the wall. The whole machine shuddered, before curving into level flight.

  Malien moved the yoke every possible way, but it made no difference. She let go. The yoke moved left by itself. The thapter veered in the same direction, a little south of west, and the note of the machine went up a notch.

  Tiaan sat on the floor, her chin resting on her knees. 'I don't know what's happening, Malien.'

  'Someone . . , something has taken control of it and I can't get it back. So that's why the lyrinx gave up. They knew they could snatch it away from us whenever they wanted to.'

  'Either that; said Tiaan, 'or the amplimet is up to its treacherous work again.'

  'But why now?' said Malien. 'Why here, after coming all this way?'

  The thapter, whining gently, sped on.

  'I suppose there's a node it wants to communicate with.'

  Fifty-six

  'Xervish,' said Irisis one chilly night a few days after she'd come back from Snizort. They were sitting on either side of the fire after another of her masterly dinners. Everyone else had gone to bed. She was working on a piece of jewellery in silver filigree.

  'Mm?' He was perusing a chart of central Lauralin, showing Nennifer and the surrounding mountains.

  Flydd had been in a better humour since their return. He spent most of his time working in a large journal, either writing, sketching maps, charts and plans, or making endless lists and calculations. Only the relationship with Yggur was little changed. He circled Yggur, snapping and snarling, while Yggur maintained a chilly reserve. They could never be friends. It remained to be seen whether they could work together at all.

  'How did you come to meet Eiryn Muss?'

  'Why do you ask?' Flydd said without looking up.

  'He's the strangest man I ever met. What does he want, or care about, or feel? No one knows.'

  'He's the best spy there is — that's all I care about.'

  His tone told Irisis to mind her own business, and for that reason she'd long delayed asking him, but she couldn't hold it in any longer.

  'Did you know he's a morphmancer?'

  'What!' he rose out of his chair. 'Where did you hear that?'

  'I spied on him before we went into Jibstorn. He doesn't assume a disguise at all — he simply shapechanges, clothes and all, and it only takes him a minute.'

  Flydd let out his breath so violently that the candle flames flickered and danced. 'I often wondered how he did it so perfectly, and so quickly.'

  And you never asked?'

  'Every craft has its secrets. As long as the job's done, what does it matter how it's done? Why didn't you tell me this before?'

  'You get cranky whenever I approach one of your precious mancer's secrets, Xervish.'

  'Cranky, me? Is there anything else you want to get off your chest?'

  'Well, er …'

  'It's important, Irisis,' he said snappishly. He sat down again, pulling his chair closer to the fire.

  'What else was Muss looking for in Snizort?'

  'What do you mean?'

  'Apart from the flesh-formed creatures, and the phynadr we stole?'

  'That's all.' He seized her hands in his gnarled paws. 'Why do you ask?'

  'After we'd found them, he was still looking for something. Muss didn't find it and was mightily put out.'

  'Put out?'

  'It's the only time I've ever seen him show emotion. He was really vexed.'

  'What can he have been looking for?' Flydd began to pace back and forth on the worn flagstones. 'He's a morphmancer, a powerful adept. And he went to Gumby Marth just after the battle, defying my orders.' He paled. 'He must have been after the tears.'

  'Did he know about them then?' said Irisis.

  'I told him when he met me, after Troist picked me up …"

  'So why was he looking for them at Snizort, weeks before?'

  'I don't know. No one knew …Unless …'

  'Xervish?'

  'What if it was him all along?' Flydd breathed. 'Muss had charge of the device Ghorr gave me in Nennifer, to break the node-drainer. And a morphmancer might easily overcome the scrutator magic that sealed the box. What if Muss tampered with the device, so as to create the tears?'

  'If he did, why didn't he use it himself?'

  'No one could predict what would happen. Safer to let you and me do it.'

  'If it was Muss, why didn't he go directly to the node? Why was he looking for the tears in Snizort?'

  'He must have thought they'd form at the node-drainer,' said Flydd. 'By the time he realised otherwise, the tears were gone. Jal-Nish had them.'

  And Muss has been hunting them ever since,' said Irisis.

  'I wish you'd mentioned this before I sent him back to Lauralin.'

  'Why does he want the tears anyway? Who is Muss?'

  'He's been my faithful, meticulous spy for many, many years. It's hard to believe he could be otherwise.' He stood up. 'But one good thing has come out of your news, Irisis.'

  'What's that, Xervish?'

  'I feel inspired again.'

  'No progress on the construct mechanism, Yggur?' Flydd said the following morning.

  Yggur had just emerged from his workroom, looking as though he'd neither slept nor changed his clothes in days. On returning from Snizort he had taken the construct's mechanism to pieces and begun working on it by himself.

  'I don't expect miracles. It's only been a few days.' He did look disappointed, though.

  'I wonder how Tiaan managed it?' said Nish. 'It didn't take her long to make one fly.'

  'Now there's a thought,' said Yggur. 'What happened to the flying construct after Vithis took Tiaan?'

  'It burned. It was covered in tar.'

  'Did you learn anything while you were in it? About how she made it fly, I mean?'

  'It was Tirior's construct, but Tiaan made it go when Tiror could not, using the amplimet to draw on a distant field. A little later, Tiaan had us blindfolded while she did something to the mechanisms, and after that it flew.'

  'But how did she make it f
ly?' said Yggur to himself.

  Vithis had custody of her amplimet for a long time,' said Flydd, 'yet never succeeded in making any of his constructs fly. Which means …'

  'That Tiaan alone knows the secret and he couldn't get it out of her,' said Nish.

  'There must be more to it,' said Flydd.

  'There's more,' said Yggur with a remote smile. 'I've had a full report come in by skeet. When Tiaan escaped from the Aachim she had the amplimet, but the construct didn't fly. Something vital must have been lost in the one that burned, and she couldn't replace it. We're getting closer.'

  'And she's getting further away,' said Flydd.

  'After flying a construct, merely hovering must be galling to her. She'll want to replace what was burned as quickly as possible.'

  'She'll go back to Tirthrax,' said Flydd, bright-eyed, 'where she first discovered the secret, doubtless with Malien's aid. We can expect to see a flying machine again before too long.'

  'Malien's still alive?' Yggur exclaimed. 'That is good news. What can you—?'

  Ask Nish,' said Flydd. 'He's met her!' It galled Flydd, for he'd desperately wanted to meet the legend when he had been in Tirthrax, but she hadn't shown herself.

  'I had a couple of run-ins with her,' said Nish, looking down at his hands. 'Neither to my credit, though at the time I thought I was doing the right thing.'

  'I'm beginning to see a possibility,' said Yggur. 'I've a mind to take the air-floater to Tirthrax and talk to Malien.'

  'You can't have it!' said Flydd.

  Yggur grew very still. 'You, a beggarly ex-scrutator, presume to tell me what I can do?'

  'It's all we've got and if we lose it, we're finished,' said Flydd, daunted but defiant. And we will lose it. The lyrinx will be watching the skies, and so will the scrutators.'

  What's the point in having an air-floater if you haven't the courage to use it?'

  I need it for a plan of my own. Anyway, I thought you were going to make a flier with the construct mechanism?'

  It may take years to discover a secret that Tiaan or Malien could show us in a few minutes. What's your plan?'

  Flydd hesitated. Secrecy was a way of life to him. His tired eyes searched Yggur's face, then he seemed to come to a decision. 'It also relies on a flying construct, though I'm not planning to build one. I'm going to track Tiaan down and ask her for the secret. Then, go to Tirthrax and make a flying construct from the damaged machines there.'