THIRTY-ONE

Nish acted instinctively. If he didn’t save Irisis, no one could. Bracing his back against the rail he kicked out with both feet, striking Muss so hard in the chest that he slammed into the wall.

Sliding his rope around the rail, he tore the knife from Muss’s belt and awkwardly hacked himself free. He had to get down to the warding chamber and there was only one way to reach it in time.

He snatched the coil of rope and fled down the ladder, then into the dome. Knotting the rope around his waist, he ran around the inner edge of the room, looking down into the dome chamber. A third of the way around the circle Nish skidded to a stop, whipped the free end of the rope around a bench and tied it tight. He gauged the distance to the dais, ran on for ten steps and hurled himself over, praying that he’d judged correctly. If the rope was too long, he’d hit the floor hard enough to snap his thigh bones, or worse.

Nish fell free for an awfully long time, passed through the network of frozen light then swung in an arc across the chamber. He curved down, his feet almost touching the floor, then up straight towards one of the remaining carbonised mancers, a broad, shapeless woman wearing a pointed leather hat, now mainly char.

There wasn’t time to try and sway out of the way. He smashed side-on into the corpse, shattering it into stinking fragments that clung all over him. The blackened head went flying across the floor.

The impact set Nish spinning on the rope as he shot up towards the far wall and through the beams again, trying to clear the char and muck out of his eyes. He got one eye open just before he reached the top of the wall. He saw Tiaan move, calculated the necessary swing and pushed off with one foot. Now on a different trajectory, he flashed between the rose-crystal wards just as Tiaan, arms outstretched, sprang for the amplimet. He cannoned into her chest and she went flying off to the left. Nish spun the other way and thudded into the base of another of the wards.

Low down, it was solid as rock. Something went crack and a brilliant pain shot up Nish’s right arm. He’d broken it. Momentum gone, he orbited around the inside of the wards, passed out through a gap then in again, and rotated on the end of the rope several times before grounding against the ward that had broken his forearm.

The amplimet sat in the middle of a small alabaster pedestal, its central spark throbbing balefully. Tiaan was nowhere to be seen. Nish wiped crumbly bits of black foam from his face and looked down. Irisis lay directly below him, staring up.

‘How are you?’ he said haltingly, supporting his arm.

Irisis sat up, rubbing the back of her head, and winced. She inspected her fingers, which bore a faint bloody smear. ‘Just a bump on the head. What’s the matter with your arm?’

‘Broken.’

‘That wasn’t very smart.’ She grinned and unfastened the rope from around his middle.

‘I didn’t do it deliberately.’ Nish could hardly think for the pain shooting up his arm.

Again the speaking horns trumpeted their plaintive cry for help, but it wasn’t answered. The turret could no longer be seen through the frozen light which, oddly, shed no illumination downwards.

‘What do we do now?’

‘We find the damn platinum box,’ Irisis said quietly. Tiaan wasn’t in sight, though she couldn’t be far away. ‘We get the crystal into it any way we can, wire the lid on tight and chuck the box into the hottest fire we can make.’

He glanced back at the amplimet. ‘Not so loud.’

‘It can’t hear, Nish. It isn’t alive.’

‘Heat will end it.’ Despite all the trouble it had caused them, Nish was uneasy about destroying such a precious thing.

‘It’s the only solution, but no one else is going to do it. They all want to make use of the wretched thing, though it’s too dangerous for anyone to use safely. Even Malien is afraid of it, Nish. Doesn’t that tell you all you need to know? Once it’s gone, there will be nothing anyone can do about it.’

‘Flydd will crucify you,’ said Nish. ‘And me.’

‘I’d do it anyway. Some objects are just too deadly to have around. I’d better look for the box.’

‘It fell over there.’ He pointed.

Irisis began to crawl out between the wards. Nish tried to keep to her heels, but it wasn’t easy to crawl with a broken arm.

‘What if it’s watching us?’ he said, supporting himself on his left hand. His right clutched at his coat buttons in a vain attempt to take the weight off his forearm.

‘I don’t think it can do anything to you, since you have no talent for the Art whatsoever.’

‘So people keep telling me,’ he murmured. ‘Can you see the box?’

‘No.’

‘Do you think Flydd’s still alive?’

‘How would I know?’

‘What if everyone’s dead but us? It might be better if the scrutators do succeed.’

‘What?’ she hissed in outrage.

‘If we can’t replace the Council with honest leaders, because they’re all dead, what’s the point of bringing it down? That can only result in anarchy, and the lyrinx will defeat humanity all the sooner. You can’t seize power, Irisis, and neither can I.’

Irisis stared at her long and elegant fingers for a moment and Nish regretted airing his worries. What could be gained by putting his fears on her?

‘Since we don’t know that our friends are dead,’ said Irisis, ‘we must assume that they’re not. We hold true to our purpose, Nish.’

She began to worm her way through the debris. It seemed darker than before. Nish couldn’t keep up and was resting on his good arm when it occurred to him that they’d left Tiaan unwatched. She was the key, and always had been.

‘I’m going back to keep an eye on Tiaan,’ he said.

Irisis didn’t answer. He couldn’t see her and didn’t know if she’d heard. Not daring to shout his intentions, in case Fusshte could hear, he made his painful way back to the rose-crystal wards.

He couldn’t see her at first, for Tiaan lay on her belly at the base of the alabaster pedestal, looking like any other bit of debris littering the blasted room. It wasn’t until Nish eased his head between the wards, and her dark eyes moved, that he realised she was there.

Tiaan was taking a more cautious approach this time. She raised herself to her hands and knees, her eyes darting around the room, then up. The turret was becoming visible again as the frozen light faded. Her shoulders quivered. She looked like an animal ready to pounce. What would she do once she got the amplimet? Could she control it, or was it already controlling her? Judging by the feral look in her eyes, it could be, in which case it was just an arm’s length away from its goal.

As she stared raptly at the crystal on the pedestal, Nish slipped through the gap. He had to be ready. The instant she sprang, so must he, whatever it cost him.

Up in the turret, a movement caught his eye. Fusshte was leaning out, almost as rapt as Tiaan. Whatever she was up to, he was waiting for it. He had something in his hand – a net or a metal basket. Fusshte dared not touch the amplimet, and he’d failed to force it to attack Flydd, but once it was in Tiaan’s hands it would be different.

Tiaan quivered. She was going for it. Nish swayed forward and pain shot up his arm. He had to ignore it.

She sprang and so did he, but too late. Her upstretched hands closed around the amplimet and tore it from its mounting. She let out a cry of bliss but, even before Nish crashed into her, Tiaan went rigid and her eyes became blank.

He threw his good arm around her slender waist. Tiaan flopped like a doll, then her eyes focussed. ‘Get away!’ she cried, beating at his face with her free hand.

Nish bent his head and took the blows, since he had no way of defending himself. Tiaan had gone into a frenzy, clubbing him over the ears.

She hit him on his broken nose and the agony made him let go. Tiaan raised the amplimet above her head, took three small steps and light streamed out, illuminating the chamber so brightly that he had to shade his eyes. Nish felt, rather than heard, a brittle crackling that might have been interpreted as laughter.

Fusshte froze halfway out of the turret; even the ring of ward-mancers ceased their violent shuddering. Chills oscillated down Nish’s spine. The amplimet had what it wanted at last.

Tiaan’s black hair stood straight up, she went as rigid as the carbonised mancers and her eyes bulged from their sockets as if poked out from the inside. Her mouth fell open. Steam wisped out, followed by a liquid gurgle, an attempted cry for help.

A shining net of woven platinum mesh fell from an embrasure of the turret to envelop her and was jerked sideways, toppling her off her feet. As Tiaan hit the floor the light from the amplimet faded, before flaring even brighter and more ominously.

In an instant the warding chamber went wild. The faintly glowing globes on the walls exploded, flinging chips of stone in every direction. The rose-crystal wards flushed a brilliant pink. The ward-mancers fell to their knees, their faces contorted as they struggled for control. Their terror was absolute – they were going to die as hideously as the inner ring had and there was nothing they could do to prevent it.

In the turret, Fusshte and two other scrutators were desperately flailing the wires to the platinum net, trying to get its opening over Tiaan’s feet so they could pull it closed and cut the amplimet off from the field. Unfortunately the mesh had caught on Tiaan’s heels, they couldn’t free it and the amplimet was surging ever closer to complete control.

Flydd hadn’t come back and Nish couldn’t see Irisis, so what was he to do? If he did nothing, the amplimet would take control. Or he could pull the mesh over Tiaan’s feet, stopping the amplimet but giving Fusshte all he wanted. Which should it be?

Tiaan began to kick and struggle, tearing at the unyielding mesh and trying to pull it off her, though her movements were uncoordinated. Perhaps it was the crystal telling her what to do.

‘Nish!’ Irisis was hissing at him from the shadows.

He spun around, trying to make her out in the smoky gloom.

‘Nish, you bloody fool. They’re trying to lift her up. You’ve got to stop them.’

‘Have you found the box?’

‘Not yet.’

Tiaan’s feet were already half a span in the air. Fusshte had realised that if he lifted the mesh by the drawstring wires, there was a good chance Tiaan’s feet would slip in.

Nish stumbled across the rubble. Halie and another female scrutator were leaning out of the embrasure of the turret, struggling to lift Tiaan and the heavy platinum mesh by its wires while Fusshte tried to hold the opening closed. They were making hard work of it.

Nish threw himself onto the net and the sudden load proved too much for the two slight women. One, not Halie, cried out, thudded head-first to the floor and didn’t move again. The mouth of the net fell open.

The amplimet flared dark, then bright. Panicking, Nish pulled the mesh down over Tiaan’s feet and drew the drawstring tight, whereupon Fusshte let out a cry of triumph and hurled a blast of light that set fire to Nish’s coat. He let go of the drawstring. The hole eased open and Fusshte froze, arms outstretched. The flames were singeing the hair on the back of Nish’s neck as he shrugged out of the coat.

‘Irisis?’ he yelped. ‘What am I supposed to do?’

‘Hold her until I get there.’

That proved more difficult than it sounded, for Tiaan was thrashing in the net, and the amplimet letting out blinding rays. Nish ended up sitting on her, jerking the mouth of the net closed then open again, hoping to prevent the amplimet going all the way or Fusshte using his Art.

Irisis staggered up, bruised, bloody and covered in dust and char, but she had the platinum box open in her hand. ‘Pull it off her, quick.’

Nish slid off and began to heave at the platinum mesh. It was incredibly heavy and Tiaan’s furious thrashing kept tearing it out of his good hand. He took the other end, Irisis stumbled round to join him and together they got the net up past Tiaan’s ankles. Her calves emerged. The mesh came up over her thighs, and the further they lifted it the more overpowering the light from the amplimet became.

As they drew it up Tiaan’s chest she let out a cry, half pain, half ecstasy, and raised her right hand high inside the mesh. Irisis gasped, dropped the box and began staggering around in a circle, tearing at her coat and shirt, ripping it in her desperation. She got her hands inside, pulled out her pliance and jerked the chain so hard that it snapped. She threw her pliance onto the floor and leaned against one of the rose-crystal wards, panting. A trail of smoke wisped up from her shirt.

Fusshte was hanging over the embrasure, mouth gaping open. He flung a metal goblet at Nish, but it missed. Nish hauled the net up and over Tiaan’s head. Only her arm to go.

The circle of ward-mancers wailed and collapsed. Only Tiaan’s arm and wrist, and the amplimet, were covered. Just the platinum mesh bunched around her arm held the amplimet back. She whipped her arm out and the crystal, in a roaring, cataclysmic crescendo, drove for the third stage of awakening it so urgently craved.

The skin of Tiaan’s fingers began to smoke but she was in such ecstasy that she wasn’t aware of it. Nish stood frozen in horror, thinking that it was going to anthracise them both, like the gruesome remnants all around. He threw his good arm around Tiaan’s chest, crushing her against him, and even tried to hold her with the broken one. Tiaan struggled listlessly.

‘Irisis, the box!’ he screeched.

In a wild instant, reality was overturned. Irisis took one step towards Nish and fell into the floor. Waves passed through the walls, floor and ceiling as if they were rubber. The solid walls became transparent, revealing the shadowy, sliced-up jumble that was the rest of Nennifer. It seemed to stretch to infinity like reflections in a pair of mirrors.

Irisis caught hold of Nish’s trailing cloak and pulled herself out. Parts of the floor were solid, other parts like jelly. She turned towards Tiaan, though it was like trying to push against a hurricane. Irisis leaned forward into the blast, put her head down and forced with all her strength.

Something rang off Nish’s skull and a soldier’s metal helm clattered onto the floor – Fusshte again. Nish staggered under the blow but didn’t look up. He just concentrated on holding Tiaan.

Irisis was nearly there. Tiaan began to struggle furiously, to kick and scream. Irisis reached out and caught her by the coat, dragging Tiaan and Nish to her. She tried to pull down Tiaan’s arm but it was as straight and hard as a metal rod. Tiaan belaboured Irisis with her other hand, stabbing at her face with stiff fingers. One blow caught Irisis in the eye and she gasped and had to let go.

Tiaan tried to wriggle free. She slipped in Nish’s grasp and in desperation he butted his head at the inside of her elbow. Her arm folded, the amplimet fell from her numb fingers and Irisis scooped it out of mid-air, thrust it into the platinum box and slammed the lid down.

The tension, and the impossibilities, cut off abruptly. All the lights went out in Nennifer as the Art that sustained it failed. Tiaan’s knees collapsed and she subsided gently on the rubble, wailing as if her heart was broken. The moon shone down through the dome onto the still, silent figures in the centre and the ring of ward-mancers crumpled around the periphery. Everyone was waiting for something to happen.

‘Now what?’ said Nish, hanging onto Irisis to prevent himself from falling.

‘The ward-mancers are free to use power without risking instant annihilation. Fusshte too. They’ll try to get the box.’

‘Take it!’ shouted Fusshte.

Nish prepared for the hopeless defence, but the fifteen ward-mancers came to their shaky knees and began to crawl away.

‘What are you doing?’ screamed Fusshte. ‘Attack them. Kill them and bring the box to me.’

The ward-mancers took no notice. They kept on crawling towards the door, head to tail like a line of caterpillars on a branch.

‘He asked too much of them,’ said Irisis. ‘They’ve broken. We’ve got a chance. Come on.’

Before he could move, Scrutator Fusshte stood up on the sill of the embrasure, a rope in his hands, preparing to slide down. Nish watched helplessly. He couldn’t fight scrutator magic and, with the amplimet at the third stage, he dared not open the box.

Fusshte had one leg over the side when a bloody, wild-eyed Flydd hurled himself through the door. He stopped there and Fusshte did too, staring at him. The crawling ward-mancers froze.

Flydd hobbled across the chamber and extended his hand. After a long hesitation, Irisis put the platinum box in it and Flydd raised his arm, holding the box high. Fusshte’s eyes followed it but he did not move.

‘We’ve been enemies since the day you bribed Ghorr to admit you to the Council,’ Flydd said, loud enough for the whole room to hear. ‘Oh yes, I know all about that, and before I’ve finished with you the whole world will know your other dirty secrets, Fusshte. You schemed, bribed, lied and slaughtered your way to power. I might even have forgiven you that, had you used your talents to help win the war, but you were happy for the war to go on forever. It kept your kind in power and you used that power to be rid of anyone who threatened you. Especially me.’

Fusshte said not a word, nor did his eyes leave the platinum box.

‘You condemned me to be flayed alive,’ Flydd went on, ‘you and Ghorr. You laughed at my agony and sneered when the torturers cut my manhood away. But a man can still be a man without his male parts, as a man can have them and be no true man at all. I swore I’d bring you down for that alone, no matter what it cost me, to show that I was more a man than you.’

Fusshte made no reply. The ward-mancers began coming to their feet. He gestured frantically at them but one by one they folded their arms and stood there in a line.

‘Here is the amplimet you so craved, Fusshte.’ Flydd shook the platinum box. ‘I challenge you for it – man against man. None of these witnesses will interfere.’

Beside Nish, Irisis drew in a sharp breath. Nish’s heart began to pound. Fusshte’s snake eyes glittered. His bony hands tightened on the rail of the turret and he leaned over, dark tongue darting through his lips. He was surely planning some treacherous attack that Flydd wouldn’t anticipate.

Nish glanced at Flydd, a small, battered and bloody old man who was practically collapsing with weariness. Yet Flydd would not give in and he used that iron will to drive himself upright. His eyes never left his enemy’s and his stare never faltered. Nish could hardly breathe as the moment was drawn out to its snapping point.

Fusshte moved blindingly fast, bringing his concealed hand up and hurling a dagger. It caught the light as it flashed across the room and Nish was sure it was going to plunge into Flydd’s right eye.

Flydd tilted his head to the left, the dagger skimmed his ear and embedded itself in the wall. Fusshte reached down for another weapon but Flydd flipped open the platinum box and the flickering glow of the amplimet lit up the room. Holding the box in front of him, Flydd reached in, plucked the crystal out and raised his fist. It glowed blood-red.

‘Xervish!’ cried Irisis. ‘Put it back. It’ll anthracise you.’

Flydd did not hesitate. How can he dare, Nish thought. Isn’t he afraid? Surely he can’t hope to hold the amplimet back by himself?

Flydd’s fist began to pulse, pink to blood-dark. The strain showed in the muscles of his face – would he control the crystal or would it turn him to reeking char?

No one moved. Fusshte’s tongue flickered across his lips again. A minute passed. Two. Three.

Flydd’s arm trembled; his body jerked, and suddenly Fusshte had a crossbow in his hand and was drawing a bead on Flydd’s forehead. Nish looked for something to throw but couldn’t find anything save chunks of charcoal.

‘Surr!’ Nish cried. ‘Get out of the way.’

Fusshte wound the cranks and the bow creaked as it bent. His finger moved for the lock lever.

Before he could fire, Flydd roared, ‘You’re mine, Fusshte. Mine!’ He thrust his arm high and strained until the tendons in his neck stood out.

Fusshte had his finger on the lever but before he could release it the wire of the crossbow glowed red and sagged away.

The amplimet flared and faded. Steam burst from Flydd’s nostrils. He strained again, his fist rock-steady though his arm had the faintest tremor. Flydd grunted, groaned, steam or smoke burst from his mouth and for a moment it looked as if his fist was dripping blood.

‘You’re mine!’ he cried, rising up on tiptoes. ‘Mine. Back, I say – all the way back.’

The crystal flared to coruscating brilliance, Nish gasped, and then the glow went out completely.

Flydd staggered and nearly fell, but recovered and extended his hand towards Fusshte, the amplimet pointing from his fingers. The central spark wasn’t blinking at all. ‘Mine!’ he roared.

Fusshte dropped the useless crossbow as if it had grown too hot to hold. His black-rimmed mouth gaped open and a mewling cry of terror issued forth. He threw himself backwards into the turret, which shook free and began to slide down the column until it crashed into the dais.

Flydd slipped the dull crystal back into its box and softly closed the lid. He headed for the turret, staggering in his weariness. Nish and Irisis followed warily, but when they peered in Fusshte and Halie were gone.

Flydd closed his eyes and pounded the sides of the turret in his anguish.

‘I expected more of Fusshte,’ said Nish, ‘after the way he faced down Ghorr at Fiz Gorgo.’

‘The chief scrutatorship was within his sights, back then,’ said Irisis. ‘But Flydd’s towering attack on the amplimet has crushed Fusshte’s hopes forever. He can’t hope to match the strength Flydd has just displayed, and the ward-mancers have repudiated him. If Fusshte can’t command their loyalty, all he can do is run.’

Shortly, Nish picked out his spidery shadow, high on a rope ladder that ran up the other side of the column. Fusshte was too high to attack and soon disappeared into the darkness. Halie, the other surviving scrutator, was close behind him.

‘They can’t get far,’ said Nish, leaning back against Irisis. ‘It’s over.’

‘That was the bravest, most reckless deed I ever saw,’ Irisis said to Flydd. ‘You could have –’

‘And I so very nearly did,’ said Flydd. ‘I was sure it would be the end of me.’

‘And yet you did not falter.’

‘I told myself I had to keep going, that there was no other option. And to my shame, there was a touch of pride in it as well. I had to prove that I was still a man.’

‘A touch of pride isn’t such a bad thing,’ said Irisis.

‘It was so near. And yet, it’s still not over.’ He looked up but Fusshte and Halie had disappeared.

Flydd climbed onto the top of the turret, turned to survey the ward-mancers and extended his hands towards them, then to the others in the chamber.

‘The two surviving scrutators have fled,’ he said so softly that Nish had to strain to hear, ‘abandoning Nennifer to the fate they brought upon it. Their Council is disbanded. Scrutator Klarm and I will take their place until a new regime can be installed. Does anyone challenge our edict?’

None of the ward-mancers spoke, though they bowed their collective heads. ‘Then it is done,’ said Flydd. ‘Go, inform the guards that a new council is in charge, and that Scrutators Fusshte and Halie must be held for trial and execution. Tell everyone to assemble in the air-dreadnought yard, well away from the walls, for the remains of Nennifer will soon collapse. Everyone must collect what food and clothing they can gather on the way.’ He turned to Nish, Irisis, Flangers and Klarm.

‘It’s not over yet. We must make sure that the amplimet has been driven back to the lowest stage of wakening, where it was when Tiaan found it. I’ve done the first part of the job, but it’s mancer’s work and none of you need be bothered about it.’

‘Let’s go home,’ said Irisis.

One of the seats rattled up above, and Nish looked up to see Muss’s slender figure disappear from the rail of the dome chamber.

‘First we have a mite of unfinished business to attend to,’ said Flydd. ‘After him, and be quick about it.’

‘What’s going on?’ said Klarm.

‘That’s what I’d like to know. All I know is that Eiryn Muss has been waiting for this moment for a very long time.’

‘And probably engineered it,’ said Nish.

Flydd gave him a keen glance. ‘He probably did.’

‘He’s a chimaera,’ said Irisis.

Flydd started. ‘Ah!’ he said. ‘Unwittingly, you’ve put your finger on the very key to his nature, though you don’t realise it. He is a chimaera and I don’t know how to deal with him.’