Thirty-two

It occurred to Tiaan that Minis might have come the other night in search of absolution. He wanted to please everybody and to have everyone like him. Minis jumped every time he heard his foster-father's voice.

She walked around and around her room, treading softly so she would not be heard. Her legs were now strong enough for an escape attempt, though she hadn't worked out how. Every Aachim kept an eye on her. Thyzzea and her family watched Tiaan especially closely, since her flight would mean their punishment.

To flee, she must have command of a construct, and that meant getting Vithis out of the way. Could she play on his obsession with his clan? If some of them had survived the gate, he would surely drop everything else to find them.

A plan began to germinate. She spent half the night working it out.

Thyzzea was woken in the early hours of the morning by moans from Tiaan's room. She slipped in through the open flap. 'What's the matter?' she said softly.

Tiaan jerked up in bed, the bedclothes falling all around her. 'I saw them!' she said, staring into an infinite distance.

The girl took her hand. 'Who did you see, Tiaan?'

"They were crying out, as in torment,' Tiaan whispered.

'What are you talking about?'

'It's my fault they were lost.' A tear ran down Tiaan's face. Her eyes closed and she sank onto the pillow, fast asleep.

Thyzzea went out. 'Just a bad dream,' she said to her mother Twice more that night the Aachim were disturbed by similar dreams, though Tiaan seemed not to be aware of them. However, when Thyzzea came to wake her at dawn, Tiaan would not rouse.

Thyzzea shook her by the shoulder. 'Tiaan, wake. Vithis will be here soon.'

Tiaan hid her face and began to wail and groan. 'All my fault. All my fault.'

Abruptly Thyzzea was thrust out of the way. 'What is your fault, Artisan?' grated Vithis.

Tiaan groaned, tossed her head from side to side and squeezed a tear out from under one eyelid. The Aachim's hand caught her shoulder.

'I saw them,' she whispered. 'Just as I saw Minis, after I first used the crystal. I saw lost Inthis—'

'My clan!' He screwed up his face in anguish. 'What did you see?'

In a single movement he heaved her out of bed and held her high. Tiaan almost gave it away then, for her borrowed nightgown was revealing. She had to force herself not to react, as if she was still asleep.

'They were crying out for help.' Opening her eyes wide like a sleepwalker, Tiaan looked wildly about. Her voice rose to a shrill cry. 'I saw them, standing by a broken construct.'

'Lord Vithis,' said Zea, who had come in quietly. 'This is not seemly.'

Vithis put Tiaan down. 'You saw Inthis? Where, Tiaan?'

'There was a man who looked like you,' she improvised. Last night, after working her plan out, Tiaan had dreamed it, over and over. Her dreams were especially intense after using the amplimet and now she could hardly distinguish what was dream and what was fiction.

'Like me?'

'Not as tall, and younger. There was no grey in his hair but he had your face.' An easy guess.

'My cousin, Nythis! Did you see anyone else?'

The desperate hope in his eyes almost undid her How could she work such a shabby deception on him? Though Vithis had used her, that did not make it right to give him hope where there was none. But if she did not, she was doomed.

'I did see others,' she said faintly, 'though not so clearly as the man. There were three children . . . No, four, and two young women, both tall and black haired. Or were there three? It's fading.' She used the commonest images of Aachim. Hope must do the rest, and make them into his lost loved ones.

'Gia and Mien, surely,' he said with an exhalation of breath. 'Is that all, Artisan? Just those few?'

She screwed up her eyes as if trying to see what was far awav. 'Other constructs lay in the distance — some were broken, others whole. There may have been more people; I couldn't see clearly.'

'Where, Artisan?' He reached for her, as though to shake her, but thought better of it.

An image from the dream came to her. 'It was no place I've ever seen before.'

'What did it look like?' he gritted.

Tiaan had not thought her plan through that far but another memory, or dream, sprang into her mind. All the land was white. White as snow, though I don't think it was snow.'

'Ice?' said Vithis.

'It could have been ice ... There were no trees, no animals. The sky was so dark it was almost purple.'

'A purple sky? There are such places in the void,' said Vithis. 'But it is endless. They might be anywhere.'

He twisted his long fingers, then turned to Thyzzea, who stood in the doorway behind her mother. 'Call Urien; and find Larniz the Mapmaker, at once.'

Thyzzea glanced at Zea, who nodded. She hurried away. What else, Artisan?' said Vithis. 'You haven't given me enough.’

Tiaan didn't want to make up anything else. It would be too easy to be trapped by an inconsistency. She couldn't remember much about the time when the gate had opened, though she recalled the feelings very well; the cries, the torment, the loss. Wait; there had been something, just before Vithis had taken control of the gate. Clan Inthis, panicking, had ignored his pleas to stay back. A host of constructs had roared up the spiralling path to the gate, and she recalled that their smooth metal had a bluish tint. None of the constructs she had seen since had that colour. They were all black.

Tiaan hesitated. If she was wrong, it would ruin all the work she'd done so far. She gave a little shudder, opened her eyes and looked Vithis full in the face.

'What do you remember, Artisan?'

'The constructs were different to these ones. The metal was blue.'

His smoky brown eyes lit up. 'Are you sure? Only Clan Inthis knows the secret of working the blue metal.'

'They were blue,' she said. 'All of them. That's all I remember.' She closed her eyes again, as exhausted as if she had not slept at all.

Thyzzea came running in. 'I've sent word to find the map-maker, Lord Vithis.'

'Where's Urien? I need her counsel.'

'She has ridden to the main camp near Gospett.'

He scowled. 'I knew nothing of this. When did she go?'

'Last night. She planned to take a construct from Gospett and meet those returning from Tirthrax. Word came yesterday afternoon that they were on their way, I'm told.'

Tiaan went rigid under the covers. She could only hope the seed she had planted in Vithis would germinate before Urien got back.

'Why did she conceal this from me?' he said fretfully. 'How far away are they?'

'Near a place called saludith, south-east of here' said Thyzzea. 'Two days, if they travel hard'

'How may I help you, Lord Vithis?' The speaker was an extremely burly man, thick of arm and leg, with a bald head and a short, dense beard quite as black as coal.

The artisan has had a vision — at least, I hope it's a vision, and not an hallucination — about lost First Clan. She saw people in blue metal constructs, in a barren land that was all white, with a purple sky. Not covered in snow, but possibly ice. That's all you saw, Tiaan?'

'Yes,' she said faintly.

Where could they be, Mapmaker?'

'If not for the sky I would have said somewhere on this world, in the frigid south, or the doubtless equally frozen north. But a purple sky? Can it be the void?'

'Surely you know your trade, Mapmaker!' Vithis said imperiously.

'None of us has ever ventured into the void, Lord Vithis.'

'Then consult the archives!'

'Such records would be from the ancient past. We don't have them.'

'Why not?'

'Our libraries had to be left behind on Aachan, including most of what we know about the void.'

'So you can't tell where this place is,' Vithis said furiously.

'My construct is packed with maps and charts, but none are of the void.'

'What if we had ended up there?'

'We would have died, with or without my maps. Others may have the information you are seeking, but I do not.'

'Do you know anything about seeking out the lost, Mapmaker?'

'I am not a mancer, Lord Vithis.'

'You're dismissed. I'll go after Urien. If anyone can find them, she can.' He turned to the door.

Larniz followed him out, calling, 'Lord Vithis?'

'What is it?' Vithis cried. 'I can't wait for any man.' 'It may be more fruitful to mind-search the artisan—'

Vithis returned. 'You're right. I must not favour one approach over another. Once I come back, we will attempt a dream-forcing. Larniz, run and find Minis for me. I'll put her under his personal guard. I can't trust treacherous Clan Elienor if I'm not here to watch over them. Tiaan must complete the recovery of the constructs. When that's done,' he gave Larniz a meaningful look, 'we shall see.'

Shortly, Minis appeared and formally took custody of Tiaan. They went straight to work. The day was hard, and the work slower than before, so by the time exhaustion put an end to it in the mid-afternoon, Tiaan had only done two trips. Eighty-nine constructs still remained to be moved. Another day's grace though, by the end of it, Vithis and Urien would be back.

Minis had stood in the shooter's turret all day, with another Aachim, and there had been no chance to talk to him alone, much less implement Tiaan's plan. She had to gain his cooperation. There was no possibility of escaping without it.

On the way home Minis got in beside her, but did not speak. Vithis must have ordered him to keep his distance.

'What does dream-forcing mean?' Tiaan asked when they were approaching the camp, now shrunken to barely a few hundred tents. Everyone was gone but the last of Clan Elienor, Minis and a few of Vifhis's guards. In the distance she could see a towering pavilion, the temporary monument erected to the Aachim dead.

'It's a form of truth-reading, whereby knowledge, or secrets, hidden deep in the subconscious mind can be drawn to the surface . . .'

'Is it painful?' she asked, imagining what it would be like to have Vithis rummaging through her mind, not to mention having all the lies she'd told him exposed.

'Not physically . . .' He trailed off, looking over the side at the withered grass.

'But what?' she persisted.

'It reveals everything, including what has been mercifully forgotten. Nothing can be held back. Dream-forcing is always traumatic for it can reveal truths hidden even from oneself. Especially from oneself,' he said softly. 'It's rarely used — it hurts the forcer just as much, and can drive them insane.'

Can anyone do it?'

'Only a handful of us, for it requires a powerful comprehension of the Art. Foster-father is able to dream-force, though, in your case, he would not.'

She relaxed. 'Why not?'

'He desperately wants to know the fate of our clan, so dream-forcing you would be particularly hazardous for him. I expect Urien will do it, when she returns tomorrow, but take no comfort from that. She's a hard woman.'

Tiaan pressed her hands to her head, which was still ringing from the day's exertions. All the more urgent that she go on with her plan. Minis must come to her tonight. He lifted her onto the side, looking around for the guard, but the man had already gone. Minis sprang down, reached up his arms and she slid into them. He turned in the direction of Thyzzea's tent. Tiaan had to distract him. She'd have no chance to subvert him there.

As they passed the large tent house he shared with his foster-father, she made a gagging sound and sagged in his arms. 'Minis, my head is spinning.'

'It's not far now.'

'Could I have a drink of water, please?' she said hoarsely, plucking fretfully at his sleeve. He carried her to his tent, settling her in a round chair just inside the door.

'I'll call the healer. I—'

'No need,' she said hastily. 'It's from using the amplimet. It happens every night.'

He frowned. 'I've never seen you like this before.'

'It usually comes on after I finish work. I'll be all right in a while.'

He fetched her a container of water. She drank the lot and had her head on the edge of the chair. 'The light hurts my eyes. I need to lie down somewhere dark for a few minutes.'

Again that troubled look. 'You . . , could go in my chamber.'

'Please,' she said.

He picked her up, torn between anxiety and longing. Tiaan hooked one arm around his neck. She felt bad about using him but there was no alternative.

Minis laid her on the bed, and the look in his eyes burned her. She turned away, too exhausted to deal with him. The work took so much out of her. Sleep, and the crystal dreams that came with it, were the only remedy, but that was not what she had in mind.

The room was plain, being just a walled section of a tent, though the fabric was woven like a costly tapestry. The only furnishings were an intricately patterned rug on the floor and two carved wooden chests. Both were of the finest quality and beautifully decorated, and the lids of both were up. The larger held folded clothes and other personal items. The smaller contained half a dozen books bound with covers of chased metal, a crystal seeing-globe and several mechanical devices whose purpose was not readily apparent. Another book lay on the chair beside the bed. It was also beautiful but, being in the Aachim script, she could not read it. What must his home have been like; his foster-father's mansion?

She felt a pang for their art, craft and civilisation, lost in the volcanic fury Aachan had become . ..

Tiaan woke to discover that it was dark outside. She'd slept after all and her headache was gone. Better get on with it. She looked out. Minis sat at a folding table, writing in a journal. A candle cast a pool of yellow light in front of him. He looked young and, for the first time, carefree. Her heart lurched, but she fought it.

'Minis?'

He came at once.

'Thank you,' she said. 'I feel better now.'

He smiled, though it faded at once, as if he'd caught himself imagining what he had no right to. 'I'll take you home.’

Could I.., have something to eat? I'm famished.’

'Of course. I was about to have my dinner.'

He brought her a platter on which sat a spherical knob of the spicy red sausage she'd grown accustomed to eating, as well as sticks of cheese, bread, pickled vegetables and wine. It was all very fine but she did not take much. Tiaan had never felt so nervous, not even on that fateful day when the Aachim had come through the gate and she had first seen Minis in the flesh. How different it could have been. This cosy domestic scene could have been real. And, Tiaan was shocked to realise, a part of her still wanted it.

Ashamed of her fickleness, she reminded herself of little Haani's pointless death, the crushed chest, the thin arms and legs hanging lifeless. Tiaan rubbed the worn leather bracelet on her left wrist, the birthday present from Haani. Her twenty-first birthday felt a thousand years ago.

You were in on it from the beginning, Minis. Or, if not, you did not have the courage, when you realised what the clan leaders were doing, to refuse to be a part of it. Either way you failed me.

She was not sure how to go about her plan. Tiaan was, by nature, neither cold nor calculating, but now she had to be. She looked up. Minis's eyes were on her and it sent a shiver up her spine. She poured a dribble of wine into her cup, filled his and sipped, holding the cup in both hands. The wine was so beautiful it was hard not to keep drinking, but that would be fatal. Time passed. She filled his cup again, his third. Enough to loosen his inhibitions.

His big eyes were moist. 'Tiaan, I'm so sorry. I've been the biggest fool of all time.'

Yes, you have!'

I — you don't know what it's been like for me. Both my parents were killed when I was five.'

Was this an excuse? 'How did it happen?'

A volcano threatened our vineyards; they were studying it when it erupted and buried them in red-hot ash. They were burned alive.'

She shuddered. 'What a horrible way to die.'

'I lost everything that day,' he said bitterly. 'Vithis took me in, even though he hated my parents and their values. He's of the old Aachim: the arrogant, unloving kind. Whatever they liked, he hated; whatever they praised, he derided. Whatever they believed, he denounced as lies, charlatanism and folly.'

'What about your foretellings?'

'Especially my foretellings! Each time my talent showed itself, he mocked me and told me that I was unworthy, even unmanly. And that's the worst of it. Though he sneers at my foretellings, he's superstitious and takes them to heart. He wants to believe, but can't because he doesn't believe in me! It's tearing me apart, Tiaan.' He bent his head to the table, though not in time to conceal the tears on his long lashes.

'Is that why you feel you have to please him?' she said.

The question appeared to surprise him. 'He's my foster-father, Tiaan. He's my only relative, and I'm all he has. We're bound together.'

'So when he asked you to use your empathic talent to reach across the void, you agreed.' She was guessing about that.

'There was no hope for us on our own world. I was proud to be chosen for such an important task.'

'How did you come to contact me?' She stretched out her hand, hoping he had been drawn to her, out of all the people in the world. 'Were you looking for someone like me?'

'It could have been anyone.' He was still staring at the tabletop.

She snatched her hand back, hurt and insulted.

Not noticing, he went on, 'We called out across the void, to anyone, on any world, who had the ability to hear.'

'You were not the only one to call?'

'Many Aachim who had seeing talents, or empathic ones, were set to the task. I called for four of our years, more than two of yours. Others for much longer.' He looked up and met her eyes. But I was the only one who ever got an answer. I saw you.'

That pleased her, though it did not make up for the previous insult. 'How did you call? Did you use some kind of crystal, like my — the amplimet?'

Another way entirely.' His mouth set. 'I cannot tell you about that.'

And yet you harassed me to tell you everything about my work, and talents, and our use of crystals,' Tiaan said coldly. 'Not only did you use me, you demanded everything of me and gave nothing back.'

'I was trying to save my people.' He could not meet her eyes now. 'Would you not have done the same? Besides, I didn't know you then.'

'You did the same, after you protested your love for me!'

'We . . , had to understand how your talent worked, and your amplimet, else how could we teach you what you needed to know?'

'From the result, you did not teach me very well.'

'Perhaps you didn't tell us all you should have.'

Again the blame was put on her. 'Why should I tell my enemies anything!' she snapped. Tiaan felt achingly weary and she was getting nowhere. She had to take charge. 'You claimed you loved me, but that was a lie. They told you what to say to me.'

'No!' he cried. 'That's not true.'

Tiaan quivered with fury. 'You can't lie to me, Minis. I've a perfect memory of our conversations. When I was trapped in that sphere of ice, near the manufactory, Tirior tried to get me to use geomancy. Even then I thought that she was keeping something from me. She took you aside and told you what to say. You protested, and Luxor looked shocked, but Tirior persisted. Finally you came back and told me that you loved me. That was your first betrayal, Minis.

'Once she saw that I cared for you, Tirior cynically used me. And, fool that I was, I believed you. I would have done anything to help the one I loved. But my feelings were incidental — once you gained my aid, I was as expendable as little Haani. You would have sacrificed a thousand of me to get what you wanted.'

'You are cruel, Tiaan.' Minis was grey about the lips. 'The child's death was an accident that I bitterly regret, but I can't bring her back. I did love you, and I still do.'

Tiaan looked into his eyes. 'You'll have the chance to prove it, tomorrow.'

'I'll prove it now. Do you still have the ring you made for me?'

The ring she'd crafted lovingly with her own hands, woven from the gold and silver old Joeyn had given her as he lay dying in the mine. 'The ring you rejected? Yes, I have it.' It hung on a leather thong around her neck. She drew it out.

'Give it to me.'

After a hesitation, she untied the knot and passed the ring to him. His eyes met hers. He held the ring between the fingers of both hands and took a deep breath. 'Tiaan, I swear by this ring, the most sacred object to me, that I will do all in my power to save you.'

'Tomorrow!'

'Tomorrow,' he said.

Was he trying to convince her, or himself? She held out her hand and he laid the ring on her palm. She put it back on the thong and unwrapped the amplimet. He sprang up in alarm but before he could stop her she had spoken.

'And I swear, by this amplimet, that if you fail me again you'll rue it all your remaining days.'

She looked up. He'd gone stiff and staring and she knew she'd done the wrong thing, but it could not be undone.

'Never, never swear upon an amplimet,' he whispered.

'It's too late. I've done it.'

'Yes, you've done it now.'