by Ian Irvine
Hot tar ribboned onto her shoulders. She bent the four legs as far as they would go, then straightened them all at the same time. Three legs pulled free, the other did not, and the machine began to topple. Tiaan threw her weight the other way and managed to save it, though it left her directly in front of the cracks. The next blast would burn her to a crisp. She could hear it coming, a breathy roar.
Flexing the legs again, she gave a mighty heave. The stuck leg pulled free and the walker shot forwards and up as the flames roared by. Tiaan felt the heat on her backside.
Further on, she went down into a hollow where heavy black fumes had pooled on the floor. As the walker crabbed through it lifted inky tendrils as high as her head. Eyes stinging, she lurched down the corridor, having no idea where she was going. Since the explosion, Tiaan could not remember Merryl's directions, and most of the wall lamps had gone out. She just kept moving because she could not remain where she was.
Creeping along, breathing through her sleeve, she thought she heard human voices coming from one of the branching tunnels ahead. 'Hello!' she yelled.
No answer. She moved to the intersection. Definitely voices, from the middle tunnel. She crept up through the gloom, turned a corner into a wider tunnel lit by a single lantern on a pole, and stopped.
Half a dozen people had their backs to her, staring at something that she could not make out. They looked like the human slaves the lynnx had kept here. The walker's legs clacked and they turned, squinting into the dark. She moved forwards and, with wild cries, they broke and ran. What was the matter? Tiaan realised, belatedly, that she must have made a terrifying sight, half human and half machine, and coated with droppings of tar.
'Wait,' someone yelled from around the corner. 'That's just Tiaan.'
The voice was familiar. 'Merryl?'
He appeared, carrying a lantern. She was so glad to see him. 'The tunnel's on fire, Merryl. I couldn't get through.'
'This passage leads to an exit but there's a construct stuck in the tar and we can't get past it.'
'A construct?' Tiaan edged forward curiously.
He caught her arm. 'Careful. The tar's sticky over there. I've sent people to pull shelves out of a storeroom, to stand on. We may be able to climb over the top.'
'Is there anyone inside it?'
'I don't know.'
The construct, which was just like her own thapter, though only half the size, was two-thirds buried in sticky tar. The former slaves, four men and two women, came panting up, carrying long planks, and began to lay them across the tar. The timber ran out just before the construct; they hurried off for more.
When planks had been laid all the way, they began to scrape the tar off with shovels and mattocks so they could climb over. Being unable to help, Tiaan waited where the tar was firm, working her wasted leg muscles until they hurt.
She had to be able to walk unaided. The planks were too narrow for her walker and she was wondering how she would get across when someone hissed, 'What's that?'
The work stopped. Tap, tap, tap came clearly from inside the construct.
Tiaan felt a spasm of fear. The Aachim had chased her halfway across Lauralin. If the ones inside were freed, they would come after her and these unarmed slaves could not stop them.
'Don't let —’ Tiaan broke off. She couldn't condemn those inside to suffocation.
'What's the matter?' called Merryl, who was stripped to the waist and covered in sweat. It was growing hotter all the time.
'Oh, nothing.' In her condition, Tiaan was afraid to trust anyone.
She watched as the tar was scraped off the top of the construct. It took ages, for it clung to the tools and they had to be cleaned every minute or two. Someone climbed up, holding the lantern aloft.
"Tunnel's collapsed further along,' the man announced. 'We'll have to find another way out.'
'All the other passages run back in the direction of the fire,' said Merryl.
The hatch of the construct was forced up, tearing the coating of tar into clinging strands. A head appeared in the opening. Tiaan edged back into the shadows, hoping it was some obscure Aachim who had never seen her.
It was Minis. Her heart began to hammer. She had sworn revenge on him and all the Aachim kind, but what was the point of that if they were all going to die?
Another Aachim climbed up beside Minis. Tiaan recognised her too, despite her haggard look. Tirior had also been in on the betrayal. Minis climbed down onto the boards and Tirior followed. A third person emerged, a short, stocky young man with a cap of dark hair that clung to the contours of his skull. Cryl-Nish Hlar, Nish. Her nemesis. If there was any man in the world she loathed as much as the Aachim, it was him.
Tiaan sprang the walker backwards, colliding with the wall. She covered her face, peering through her fingers at Minis, and tears sprang to her eyes. She had invested all her foolish, youthful dreams in him, and he had cast her aside. She had to get away before he saw her. Whirling the walker around in its tracks she set off the other way, into her personal darkness. Towards the fire.
'Tiaan!' yelled Merryl.
She increased her speed, for his cry had given her away.
'Tiaan,' he yelled, pounding after her.
She could not move quickly in the gloom and Merryl caught her around the bend. 'Tiaan, what is it?'
'Those three are my enemies.'
He took her arm. 'You can't get out that way. Can't you smell the fumes?'
Just enough light came around the corner, now that her eyes had adjusted, to illuminate a dark, noxious cloud creeping along the floor. An odd tendril or two escaped upwards. One caught in the back of her throat and her lungs contracted.
All right,' she said hoarsely. 'But don't tell them my back has been repaired. Please.'
'I'll say nothing,' said Merryl. 'I know nothing.'
At the corner she almost ran into a racing Minis. 'Tiaan? Is it truly you?' He stopped abruptly, staring at the walker. His eyes lifted to her face. 'Tiaan,' he whispered. 'What happened?'
Her back was throbbing. She couldn't deal with Minis. All she could do was keep him at bay with words. 'My back was broken when the construct crashed,1 she said harshly. After your father attacked me without provocation.'
'I'm sorry. I tried to stop him . . .'
'Spare me your lies! I had enough of them in Tirthrax.' She ground the words out, then went past in silence. Tirior stared at her. Nish gaped. Tiaan did not acknowledge either of them.
In the open area, she said to Merryl, 'Is there any other way out?'
He pointed to the left, where another small tunnel yawned. 'It may be possible that way. If not, we're trapped and will die here.'
'Is the way the construct came in completely blocked?'
'It seems so.'
'Then we have no choice. Shall we scout this passage out?'
They had gone only a hundred paces up the small tunnel when they encountered a rivulet of molten tar oozing along the floor.
'I was afraid of that,' said Merryl. 'It seems we're doomed to end our lives here, Tiaan.'
Tiaan said nothing. They went back to the construct.
Tirior examined the walker shrewdly. 'An ingenious device. Did you make it?'
'What's the matter with your machine?' said Tiaan, ignoring the question.
'The node has gone dead and taken all the fields with it.' Tirior was watching Tiaan, head tipped to one side, no doubt wondering how the walker could still move. It would not take her long to work it out.
'Merryl' Tiaan said quietly. 'Order your people to take the Aachim, before they attack us.'
Tirior's hand darted for the pack she wore on her chest. Tiaan hurled the walker backwards, slamming painfully into the wall.
'Take them,' roared Merryl, throwing his handless arm across Tirior's throat and twisting her other arm up behind her back. The freed slaves did the same with Minis.
'Him as well' Tiaan shouted, pointing to Nish.
'You misjudge us' Tirior said softly,
but under her breath she was muttering in an Aachim dialect Tiaan did not recognise.
Tiaan felt power flow from her controller and the walker's legs slowly splayed. Had Tirior not been exhausted from the mancery that had got her into Snizort, she might have succeeded.
'Stop her mouth!' Tiaan cried.
One of the slaves wound a strip of cloth three times around Tirior's head and pulled it tight. Tiaan felt the flow ease. Her heart was beating irregularly and she felt faint. So close.
'You taught me the value of your word, Tirior.' Tiaan wrenched open the pack, Tirior had been reaching for a small glass tube, capped in gold, with a scintillating powder inside. Tiaan tossed it into the tar and pressed it down with one of the walker's feet. 'Bind them, please. Merryl.'
Cord was found in a storeroom and the three prisoners' hands bound behind their backs.
'I'm not your enemy, Tiaan,' said Nish. I was wrong about you before. I'm sorry.'
He seemed different to the Nish Tiaan had known. He was more sure of himself, less angry, and made no attempt to fight those who held him. But Tiaan could not forgive so easily. 'Every time I've met you I've regretted it, Nish,' she said wearily.
'We were looking for you, to bring you out of here.'
Tiaan activated the walker and moved away. 'I have a plan,' she whispered to Merryl.
'I thought you must.'
'I think, with my crystal, that I may be able to operate the construct. If you can direct me to the way out, it will carry us through the fumes. For a while, at least.'
'I know every tunnel/ he said.
'Lift me into the construct and I'll see what I can do. The tar around it will have to be cleared away.'
'I'll have it done.'
Taking the amplimet from the walker, Tiaan put it in her pocket, undid the straps and lifted herself on her arms. Merryl carried her across. 'I'm not too heavy, am I?'
He smiled. 'You're no burden at all.'
He boosted her up the side and she slid her legs in. As her feet struck the floor Tiaan's knees buckled. Her muscles might have been made from cloth. Pulling out the operator's seat she sat down hurriedly.
The layout was much the same as in her thapter. She pressed the small recessed button and a hexagonal tube sprang out. Flipping the cap open, she removed the crystal, which was pale blue and striated down the sides. She had never seen one like it. Slipping it into her pocket, she put the amplimet in its place. In her own construct, or thapter as she had called it after learning how to make it fly, she'd made a special device to reduce power.
Tlaan hoped that would not he necessary here, since she was drawing from such a distant node. In any case, she had nothing to build it with.
She pressed the hexagonal tube in and closed the cap. After a long moment, a faint whine came from below, and a subtle tremor. It was working!
It took hours to remove the great gouts of sticky tar, and the work was so exhausting that the slaves had to rest after every few strokes. The job had just been completed when Merryl cried, Tiaan, look out!'
She got the hatch down just in time, as an even bigger clot buried the construct completely. By the time that had been removed, the air inside was stale. A day had gone by since her escape from the patterner.
The black miasma, which had advanced and retreated a number of times, was now flowing steadily across the floor. It would be up to their knees within minutes.
'Better bring the prisoners on board,' she said to Merryl, who was anxiously watching the fumes. Tiaan popped the amplimet out and pocketed it, just in case. There was no room for trust; the whole world seemed to be against her.
The prisoners were brought in and taken below. Minis gazed sorrowfully at her, like a dog that had been kicked. Nish, who looked as though he hadn't slept in days, simply lay down, pillowed his head on his arms and went to sleep. Tirior showed no expression at all. She was the one to watch.
Everyone came aboard save the two who were mattocking away at the sticky tar on the right-hand side. When the black fog was at the level of their thighs, Tiaan called them in. Should a sudden surge overwhelm the construct now, it would be impossible to get out.
Merryl set guards on the Aachim and Nish. The remaining slaves went below, leaving just her and Merryl in the operator's compartment. It would be very cramped down there, with nine passengers. Tiaan reinserted the amplimet and took hold of the trumpet-shaped lever. The whine rose in pitch but the construct did not move.
'It's still stuck in the tar,' said Merryl. ' I don't think —’
'I'll try to work it free.'
He peered anxiously ahead. A billow of black mist was rolling towards them. Tiaan pulled down the hatch and fastened it. It became dark inside, except for the subtle glow from the plate in front of her. The front panel thinned to transparency. The outside was dimly lit by glowing globes that shone intermittently through the fog.
She wiggled the lever back and forth, ever so gently. The whine rose and fell. With a delicate shudder the construct pulled free and rose in the air until its base was at the level of the black fog. Tiaan edged it forwards.
'Straight ahead or to the left?' she said, after they'd been travelling a while.
'The way out into the main pit is straight ahead, but we may not be able to get through that way . . .' Merryl was looking at her expectantly. 'Is something the matter?'
She realised that she was frowning. I originally came here looking for Gilhaelith. He's a strange, unlikeable fellow, but he was good to me.' Even though he'd cared more for the amplimet than about her safety, Tiaan had to know that he was safe.
'He's an important man,' said Merryl. 'Surely the lyrinx will have taken him with them.'
'I was important to them, yet they panicked and left me behind. They may have abandoned him as well. Do you know where Gilhaelith was working?'
'In a tunnel excavated into the Great Seep.'
A tunnel in liquid tar? How can that be?'
'They froze it first.'
'How?' said Tiaan curiously.
'One of their Arts.'
'If he was left behind, can he possibly still be alive?' she said to herself.
'Not if he's still in the seep.' He looked through the front. 'But, perhaps, in the tunnels near it ... We can go that way. It's not much further.’
Merryl was a man of the same heart as Tiaan. She thanked him, silently. 'He treated me kindly. I have to know.'
'Then go straight on.'
They came to a high point in the tunnel where the heavy black mist had not reached. Merryl cracked the hatch open to let in fresh air, but it stank so badly that he quickly closed it again. The construct went down sharply, plunging into fumes which the globes could not penetrate. Tiaan had to creep along, and even then was continually bumping into the sticky, gritty walls.
They turned a sharp bend, then another that formed the other half of an 'S', and the black fog thinned. Ahead, two tunnels diverged at a shallow angle.
'Which way?' said Tiaan.
Merryl was staring blankly through the screen. 'I'm . . , not sure. The fog has confused me. Have we missed an intersection?'
'We could have missed fifty for all I could see.'
'Take the left. I think:
After a few minutes, Tiaan felt the right-hand side scrape on the sandy wall. Shortly afterwards the other side did the same and the construct shuddered to a stop.
'It's the wrong way, said Merryl. 'Better go back.'
'I hope we can,' Tiaan muttered.
After much jerking and heaving the construct began to move backwards. They had been heading down the other tunnel for some minutes when Tiaan saw a red glow in a cross-tunnel to their left.
'We're running out of options,' said Merryl. 'Can you go faster?'
She increased speed as much as she dared, following a zigzag path away from the burning area until they hit a broad tunnel that ran straight. There were no fumes in it and they made good time. The walls and roof here were yellow sandstone, hardly tar stain
ed at all. After ten minutes they came abruptly into blackened rock and then, where the tunnel opened out, into solid tar. The tunnel kept on.
'Is this where Gilhaelith was?' Tiaan did not like the feel of the place.
'He would have been some way ahead. We're close to the outer edge of the Great Seep — the solid edge. In a few spans it becomes soft and beyond that it's liquid tar for a league.’
'How did they tunnel it? And why?'
Merryl spoke to the huddled slaves in a language Tiaan did not know. A woman answered in the same tongue.
'They used devices powered by phynadrs,' said Merryl, 'to draw the heat out and freeze the tar hard. Why, I cannot say, only that it was mighty important to them. Matriarch Gyrull worked there every day, and a matriarch does not risk her life needlessly.'
They crept on. Objects were strewn here and there as if discarded in flight — rotting, tar-stained remnants of clothing, a small wooden chest. Further on was a distinctly human-looking body.
Tiaan caught her breath. Not Gilhaelith, surely? She drew the construct alongside, opened the hatch and looked down.
The body was small, female, and tar-impregnated. 'It has a .., withered look; Tiaan said. 'As if long dead.'
'Many people, and many animals, must have become stuck in the tar over the aeons, and been carried down into the depths. I saw a number of them over my time here, all perfectly preserved. You need shed no tear for her, Tiaan. She's been dead hundreds of years, at the very least.'
'I'll go on, just in case . . .' She edged the construct down the tunnel. I thought you said they tunnelled in a long way.'
About a hundred spans, I heard.'
'We're only in twenty and I can see the end,' said Tiaan.
She lifted herself up on the side, the better to see. The end of the tunnel was but spans away, a smooth, shining black bulge dotted with fragments of wood and cloth. 'It's moving!' Warm tar was creeping towards them like molasses squeezed through a hole. The tunnel had collapsed, 'If Gilhaelith was in there, he's dead.'
Five