Chimaera

by Ian Irvine

  ‘What do you think of the morality of this attack?’ she said once the three of them were settled on their course from Fiz Gorgo to Alcifer.

  ‘I can’t say it bothers me,’ said Irisis. ‘How can it be worse than what the enemy has done to us, and hope to do with these uggnatl?’

  Not long after dawn, Tiaan settled on a misty mountaintop a few leagues away from Alcifer, where they could hide unseen. The thapter sank a little way into powdery autumn snow, whirling it up all around. The snow hissed as it turned to steam, which burst out on all sides before drifting away on the keen southerly.

  ‘How long do we have?’ said Irisis, yawning.

  ‘About five hours,’ said Tiaan. ‘I left early, just to be sure. All six cities have to be attacked at the same moment, otherwise the lyrinx would send out a mindspeech alert.’

  Nish and Irisis dozed for most of that time. Tiaan was tired but too tense to sleep, and it was too cold at this altitude to make walking pleasant. She closed the upper hatch, sat on the warm floor above the mechanism and studied the plans of Alcifer, working out how she was going to carry out the attack. It was not going to be easy.

  They could only attack in daylight, of course. Tiaan’s attack was timed for noon, as was the attack on the city west of Thurkad. There was a three- or four-hour time difference between here and the lyrinx cities on the east coast.

  ‘It won’t be long now,’ she said later, as they descended towards the sea, north of Alcifer. ‘Alcifer is down to our right.’

  ‘And well protected,’ said Irisis, shading her eyes. ‘I can see lyrinx in the air from here. Look.’ She counted them. ‘At least fifteen.’

  The farspeaker belched. ‘Where are you, Tiaan?’ The voice was unidentifiable.

  ‘Who’s asking?’ she snapped, bending over the slave farspeaker attached to the binnacle.

  ‘Xervish Flydd!’

  The way he said his name identified him, though passage through successive fields had dragged his tones out to something between a bark and a croak.

  ‘We’re approaching Alcifer now, surr. Just ten minutes away. There are a lot of lyrinx in the air.’

  ‘Also west of Thurkad. Perhaps they know we’re up to something.’

  ‘Or they are,’ said Irisis.

  ‘Call when you’ve done it.’ The farspeaker squelched and Flydd was gone.

  The magnificent ruined city spread out before them, just like the map impressed in Tiaan’s mind. ‘I’ll circle a few times, as we do whenever we’re spying on them. We’ll locate the air shafts, then I’ll hurtle down and hope to dump the spores into one on the first attempt. We can’t afford to have them guess our intentions. If we have to make a second attempt there’ll be fliers everywhere and it’ll be ten times as difficult.’

  ‘And deadly,’ said Irisis.

  ‘Where are the air shafts?’ asked Nish as Tiaan began to circle. He was looking down as if he expected to see them boring through the hillside.

  ‘We know of three, though they’re not easy to see. Two are concealed within partly ruined buildings in the centre of Alcifer. The third is at the base of a cliff, under the trees over there somewhere.’ Tiaan pointed to her left, where a series of grey cliffs fell into the forest that had grown over the rim of the city. ‘There may be others.’

  ‘What do they look like?’

  ‘They’re shafts bored through rock, about a span across. One has a giant bellows outside, to pump in fresh air. It would be the best place to dump the spores but it’s the hardest to get to, so I won’t risk it.’

  As they curved around the edge of the city, the wheeling lyrinx began to climb towards them. ‘Which shaft are you going for?’ asked Irisis.

  ‘The two within Alcifer will be easiest to find. I’m going for the one beneath the dome – see the sun shining on it? The dome is open underneath, so I’ll go down to the left, come in between the columns and see if I can get close enough.’

  ‘I thought we’d just fly over and drop it in,’ said Nish.

  ‘I may not be able to get that close. One of you will probably have to jump out and heave it in. Keep an eye on the fliers. And you might want to get your crossbows ready.’

  The lyrinx closed the gap.

  ‘Ready?’ said Tiaan.

  ‘We’re ready,’ said Irisis.

  ‘Hang on!’ Tiaan turned sharply left and dived steeply.

  Nish let out a muffled cry as the thapter hurtled towards the dome. The lyrinx folded their wings, diving after them.

  Tiaan felt the Secret Art fizzing in her brain. ‘They know we’re up to something,’ she shouted over the shrieking of the mechanism and the roaring of the wind. ‘They’ll be everywhere in a minute.’

  ‘How are you going to get to it?’ said Irisis.

  Tiaan pointed to the right as she curved around the dome and its many extravagantly carved columns. ‘In there.’

  The dome was about two hundred spans across and supported on many slender columns. She couldn’t see far inside, though the tiled floor was scattered with rubble and rectangular piles of stone blocks.

  Tiaan turned sharply, slowed and darted in between the columns. It was much darker inside and her eyes were slow to adjust. She clipped a cairn of blocks, sending loose stone tumbling across the floor, jolting the thapter sideways.

  ‘Can you see the shaft?’ she yelled. ‘Irisis?’

  Irisis was standing up on the side. ‘No, I can’t. Are you sure this is the place?’

  ‘I’m sure it’s the one Klarm told me about.’ Tiaan turned in a figure-eight inside the dome. ‘But I’m beginning to think he got it wrong, or his spy did.’ She turned again, her stomach already knotted up. The lyrinx would be here in seconds. ‘He said the air shaft was in the middle but we’ve been across twice and there’s nothing here. We’ll have to go to the next.’

  She shot out the other side, but as they passed between the columns Irisis cried, ‘It’s just there.’

  Tiaan saw it out of the corner of her eye as well, though too late to stop. The vent was right on the edge, hidden between two walls of stone. The thapter shot into the sunlight and there were lyrinx everywhere. Several landed just outside; others flew in under the dome, and dozens more were approaching. What to do?

  ‘I don’t dare go back,’ she said. ‘They’d be onto us before we could get the barrel to the opening. We’ll have to try the one with the bellows.’

  She shot across the abandoned city, carving a curved trail to the other side, hoping thereby to confuse the enemy about her destination. There were flying lyrinx everywhere now, hundreds of them, and more appearing all the time.

  She turned down a broad boulevard where ruined, half-ruined and intact buildings towered on either side, screamed left into a smaller road and turned right into an alley. From there she flew up, soaring over the thoroughfare ahead, turned left again and headed towards a pentagonal pavilion with steepled roofs, set on a stone platform reached by broad steps on all five sides.

  ‘How do you do it?’ Irisis said.

  ‘What?’

  ‘Know exactly where you are, despite all the twists and turns. It’s as if you have the whole map in your head.’

  ‘I do,’ said Tiaan. ‘The second air shaft is in the building with the steeples. We’ve got to do it this time or they’ll close off all the shafts.’ The sky was dark with lyrinx now.

  She roared straight up over the steps, across the forecourt and inside.

  ‘To the right!’ Irisis yelled in her ear. ‘I can see the bellows.’

  Tiaan turned sharply, swept around in a circle and came to a stop directly before the enormous bellows, which consisted of a concertina-like timber and canvas structure, three times the size of the thapter, that was squeezing and expanding, powered by a series of phynadrs. The multiple intakes opened and closed as the bellows worked, directing a roaring blast into a long canvas funnel that ran down into the vent. ‘Nish,’ said Tiaan, ’see where it sucks the air in? I can’t take the thapter in under
there – you’ll have to carry the barrel. Hurry!’

  He threw himself over the side of the thapter, not bothering with the ladder. Irisis lowered the barrel. Nish heaved it onto his shoulder and ran, staggering under its weight. Irisis fitted a bolt to her crossbow.

  Tiaan darted a look over her shoulder. The first lyrinx was already sweeping in. She edged the thapter closer to the bellows.

  Irisis fired, so close that the snap of the bow hurt Tiaan’s ear.

  ‘I hope you got him,’ Tiaan said irritably. Even at close range it wasn’t easy to kill a lyrinx with a crossbow.

  ‘I got him.’ Irisis was already reloading.

  ‘Get a move on, Nish!’ Tiaan screamed over the hiss and whoosh of the bellows. ‘They’re here.’

  He had reached one of the intakes but was struggling to get the lid off the barrel. The suction of the bellows was so strong that with every blast it pulled him across the floor.

  ‘I can’t get the lid off,’ he yelled. ‘It’s too tight.’

  ‘Hold it out to the side,’ said Irisis.

  He did so. Irisis took careful aim, fired and the bolt stove the lid in with a puff of spores that was whipped into the bellows intake.

  Nish slipped, caught hold of the side then tossed the barrel into the intake. The movement sent him off-balance and he began to slide towards the aperture. Tiaan squeezed her controller so hard that it hurt. The suction was going to pull him in too, and she was surprised at how much she cared.

  Irisis cursed, leapt over the side in a single fluid movement and ran. Tiaan edged the thapter a fraction closer. Another lyrinx flew in, followed by a third and then two more.

  The bellows sucked so hard that Nish’s legs went from under him. He landed on his side and was jerked towards the intake, fingernails scratching against the glassy floor. Before he could get to his feet the bellows sucked again, pulling him halfway in. He threw his arms out, managing to jam himself in the opening. The bellows sucked and Nish’s arms shuddered with the effort of holding himself in place. The next pump would suck him through and send him plummeting fifty or a hundred spans down the shaft.

  Without even thinking, Tiaan spun the thapter, jerked it forward and thumped the front into the tapering canvas funnel of the bellows, pushing it almost flat. With a gruesome farting noise air rushed back the other way, ejecting Nish straight at Irisis. They both went down, Nish landing on his forehead.

  Tiaan looked over her shoulder. The lyrinx were approaching rapidly, two in the air, two on the floor. Was there time to pick up Nish and Irisis? She didn’t think so.

  Whirling the thapter on its axis, Tiaan scooted straight at the lyrinx in the air. As soon as she did, she knew it was a mistake. This pair were moving slowly, while the ones on the floor were racing towards Irisis and Nish.

  Thinking swiftly, she shot by so close that the thapter’s wake collapsed their wings and the lyrinx fell out of the air. Tiaan spun the other way, knowing she wasn’t going to make it. The running pair of lyrinx were practically on Irisis, who was in the lead, waving her sword. Nish was staggering, clearly dazed, and appeared to have dropped his weapon.

  The farspeaker blurted. ‘Tiaan? Where are you?’

  She thumped it with her fist, screaming, ‘Not now!’

  The running pair of lyrinx checked and one turned its head towards her, its mouth wide open as if in pain. The other threw its hands over its ears. The ones that had fallen thrashed their wings. Tiaan slid the nose of the thapter in between them and Irisis, tilting it as far as she could to the left. Irisis took Nish under the arms and boosted him up the side, where he clung to the ladder as if he could go no further.

  The four lyrinx were recovering. Letting go of the controller, Tiaan pulled herself up onto the hatch, caught Nish’s hand and he managed to drag himself the rest of the way. He fell over the lip and lay on the floor, making a low noise in his throat. She sprang down and caught the controller.

  Irisis came scrambling in and dropped to the floor beside him. ‘You can go now,’ she said unnecessarily.

  ‘I’m going!’ said Tiaan.

  One of the lyrinx sprang but she jerked the machine backwards and the creature landed short, on the smoothly tapering front of the thapter. Its claws scratched furiously but there was nothing to grip and with a shriek of claw against metal it slid off.

  Which way now? One of the fallen lyrinx was back in the air, another limping across the floor, favouring one leg. Where was the fourth?’

  ‘Hurry!’ screamed Irisis, ‘before they have the pavilion surrounded. They’re coming from everywhere.’

  Lyrinx were dropping from the sky all along two sides – three. Tiaan turned for the fourth but it was already blocked. There was one small gap on the fifth side. She headed for it.

  Something thumped at the rear and the thapter lurched sideways. ‘What’s that?’ Tiaan cried, though she knew full well.

  ‘The fourth lyrinx,’ said Irisis. ‘It’s on the shooter’s platform. See if you can throw it off.’

  ‘Shut the hatch!’

  ‘I can’t. It’s got one foot on the far rim.’

  Tiaan hurled the thapter from side to side so rapidly that Nish slid down through the lower hatch. He cried out, just once. ‘Any good?’ said Tiaan.

  ‘No.’ Irisis was loading the crossbow again.

  Tiaan pushed the controller forward and streaked towards the remaining exit. The back of the thapter kept wobbling as if the heavy creature was throwing its weight from side to side. It was going to spring through the top hatch, right onto them.

  ‘Shoot it, Irisis,’ Tiaan screamed. She couldn’t help herself.

  Outside, lyrinx were falling from the sky in their hundreds. Tiaan raced for that small remaining gap, holding her breath. A lyrinx crashed into the side of the thapter, shaking it, but could not get a grip, and suddenly they were out into the open.

  The crossbow sang but Irisis cursed. ‘Got it in the shoulder, not the throat. Where the hell are my extra bolts?’ Not finding them, she cast the bow on the floor and went for her sword. ‘Nish, get up here!’

  Nish, blood running down his forehead and into one eye, began to pull himself up the ladder, crossbow in hand. He tried to aim it but the bow was wavering all over the place.

  ‘Careful!’ said Irisis. ‘You’ll shoot one of us.’

  Nish gritted his teeth, let go of the ladder and tried to aim the bow two-handed. He closed the eye that was wet with blood.

  ‘Look out! It’s –’

  The rear of the machine jerked as the lyrinx sprang. Nish’s crossbow went off at the same time. Tiaan jerked the controller sideways, knowing she’d moved too late. She tried to get out of the way but there was nowhere to go. The lyrinx came crashing through the hatch, smashing the binnacle and the screen in front of it, and knocking the farspeaker to the floor. One huge arm and shoulder slammed Tiaan against the side wall and she lost hold of the controller arm.

  A thud signalled that Nish had fallen down again. The creature’s great legs thrashed, slamming Irisis against the rear of the compartment. She cried out.

  Something hot and wet spurted against Tiaan’s back and the creature’s weight pinned her against the smashed binnacle and the mass of knobs and wheels. It gave a feeble roar. Reflected in the broken glass, its mouth was open, the grey teeth menacing, but its eyes were staring. Purple blood flooded from the bolt wound in its neck, drenching her.

  ‘Tiaan,’ cried Irisis. ‘Take the controller.’

  Tiaan couldn’t turn her head far enough to see out. They could have been heading for the sky or towards the ground. She couldn’t budge. All she could see was the floor and part of the side wall.

  ‘We’re heading straight for a building!’ Irisis screamed.

  Tiaan tried to reach the controller but her arm was pinned. The lyrinx was ten times her weight. She tried to push it off but it didn’t move an ell.

  ‘I can’t move,’ she gasped.

  ‘Nish!’ Irisis yelled.

>   No answer, apart from groaning. Irisis forced herself along the side, put her shoulder under the creature and shoved. ‘Any better?’

  ‘No,’ said Tiaan, panicking.

  ‘Reach out. The controller’s just here.’

  ‘I can’t turn my head that far.’

  ‘But you know where it is, Tiaan.’

  Irisis heaved the lyrinx and pulled Tiaan’s hand. It slipped free and Irisis slammed it onto the knob of the controller. ‘There.’

  ‘Where am I supposed to go?’ Tiaan gasped. ‘I can’t see out.’

  ‘Left and up.’

  Tiaan tried to move her hand but could not. Irisis put her hand on top, jerking Tiaan’s the required way. The thapter banked right and the weight on Tiaan eased enough for her to lift her head. Stone columns flashed by.

  ‘Ten more seconds and we would have piled straight into that,’ said Irisis, directing Tiaan’s hand in uneven motions. Something rolled across the floor and down the hatch.

  ‘How are we going to get the lyrinx out?’ Tiaan whispered. She felt as if the life had been crushed out of her. ‘I can hardly breathe.’

  ‘I don’t know. Nish?’ A weak groan from below. ‘Are you all right?’

  ‘Bloody farspeaker landed on my head.’

  ‘Just when we needed you, too,’ said Irisis unsympathetically. ‘Grab hold of something and hang on.’

  The lower hatch clanged – Irisis must have kicked it shut. She began fumbling around below Tiaan.

  ‘What are you doing?’ said Tiaan.

  ‘Strapping you in. You’ll have to turn the thapter upside down.’

  ‘I don’t think I’ve ever done that.’

  ‘Then learn fast. Look out – there’s bloody enemy everywhere and we can’t stop to hurl this fellow out. Wiggle the controller.’

  A crashing thump at the rear made the whole thapter shudder.

  ‘What was that?’ said Tiaan weakly. She didn’t think she could take much more.

  ‘They’re dropping rocks. You’ll have to bank to the right until the thapter’s on its side. That should drop the weight off you. Then take the controller and turn us upside down. I’ll make sure the corpse doesn’t catch on anything. Sounds easy, doesn’t it?’