FORTY-FOUR

Things were never the same between Tiaan and Nish after that. Saving his life had transformed the way she felt toward him. On the long trip back to Fiz Gorgo, battling fierce headwinds all the way, Tiaan mulled over every aspect of their relationship, to see if she might not have been as wrong about him as he had been about her.

There was no chance to speak to Nish in private, then or later. When they finally landed in the yard, in the early morning more than a day later, the entire population of the fortress was waiting for them.

‘What’s the matter?’ she called as she climbed down the side.

The smile faded from Malien’s face. ‘What have you done to my thapter?’

‘We had a … few problems.’ Tiaan put her feet on the ground, which seemed to be heaving, and had to clutch at the racks to avoid falling on her face.

‘Are you all right?’

‘I’ve not slept in forty-eight hours.’

‘You failed then,’ said Yggur, eyeing the empty racks.

‘Four of the soldiers were lost, and Phar got away at the beginning.’

‘I was talking about the silk.’

‘It’s inside. Five bolts. Not as much as Nish wanted, but it was all we could get.’

The others came out, still filthy, ragged and smoke-stained, but proudly bearing the precious rolls of cloth between them.

‘You’ve done well,’ said Yggur. ‘I didn’t think you would return at all, least of all actually bring back any cloth.’

‘Then why did you send us?’ said Nish.

‘I didn’t send you. This was your mission, Nish.’

‘But you permitted it, even at the risk of the thapter.’

‘If we dare not take risks we’ll never win this war.’

‘Nor if we take foolish ones,’ said Flydd, but he was smiling too.

‘You took the best team in the world,’ said Yggur. ‘If you couldn’t succeed, no one could have. Come inside. Breakfast is ready.’

Tiaan was seated next to Irisis at breakfast. The crafter seemed unusually friendly, or perhaps Tiaan could now allow her to be.

‘Is there no challenge you cannot rise to?’ said Irisis, open in her admiration.

Tiaan didn’t know how to answer. ‘I just did my best. I couldn’t leave them to die.’

‘Not even Nish?’ Irisis said, but Tiaan knew she was joking. ‘Thank you for saving his life, Tiaan. He’s my dearest friend and everything to me.’

‘I’ve been wondering about him all the way back from Thurkad. Wondering if I might not have been wrong about him. In some things.’

‘Perhaps you were, in some things,’ Irisis said. ‘We did you wrong, Tiaan, back at the manufactory, and I’m very sorry. It was my failing, more than his. I was a nasty, inadequate woman and I used him against you.’

‘You, inadequate?’

‘Another time,’ said Irisis. ‘But since we hunted you across the mountains and lost you to the lyrinx, and Nish’s father was so terribly injured …’

‘I remember that day all too well,’ said Tiaan.

‘Ever since, Nish has been a changed man. He grew up that day.’

‘I’ll never forget the way he treated me in Tirthrax,’ said Tiaan with a flash of fire.

‘But there was a good reason for it. Flydd sent Nish after you and, when he reached Tirthrax, he saw you bringing the Aachim through the gate. He truly believed that you’d betrayed our world.’

‘He was cruel …’ Tiaan trailed off, replaying the scene in her mind.

‘If you knew how he has suffered this past year, Tiaan, and all the great things he’s done, you would think differently of him. I know you would. But I’ll say no more than that. Talk to him, if you care to, and he can plead for himself.’

Flydd fell in beside Nish as they went inside. ‘Remember your despair after we came back from Nennifer and you couldn’t get anything done?’

‘I remember,’ said Nish.

‘Look how far you’ve come since. And keep it in mind, Nish, whenever you wilt under the burden of all we have to do – as I do. We just go one step at a time, and no matter how low we’re brought, we never, ever give up.’ He squeezed Nish’s shoulder and passed inside.

Nish stood there for a moment in reflection. The plan had come a long way, and so had he. One step at a time. He smiled and followed.

Two days later, with twenty people sewing the silk, the air-floaters were complete. He’d reclaimed the silk from the dirigible, and Inouye had discovered part of an air-dreadnought airbag hanging in a tree ten leagues away, giving them just enough to complete the airbag of the third air-floater. There had even been a little time to use the thapter for training the pilots and artificers. Every pilot had made at least one flight under Malien’s stern guidance. No one had crashed it, though there had been sufficient incidents to make Nish fear for what would happen if they did recover any machines from the battlefield.

‘Everything’s ready,’ he said to Yggur, after having worked all night. ‘We can go as soon as you say the word.’

‘Excellent!’ beamed Flydd. He shook Nish’s hand. ‘And on time, too. It’s a pleasure to deal with a man who’s as good as his word. Well, Yggur, if you would just explain to Nish how he’s to move the thapters without access to the field, he can be on his way.’

Yggur looked as though he’d had no more sleep than Nish. ‘My devices aren’t ready yet.’

‘What?’ said Flydd, putting on a show of surprise. ‘But you said you were nearly finished a week ago.’

‘I am nearly finished, but I haven’t tested them to my satisfaction.’

‘Why not?’

‘There are a few wrinkles still to be ironed out.’

‘But everything depends on them.’ Flydd seemed to be taking a malicious pleasure in Yggur’s discomfiture. It was a weakness in his character that Nish could only appreciate, in the circumstances. The two mancers might be working together but they would be forever rivals.

‘I’m aware of that,’ Yggur said, stone-faced.

‘And the least delay to the schedule could be fatal to our chances of being ready for the spring offensive.’

‘Yes,’ said Yggur. ‘It could.’

‘Well, I won’t pretend that I’m not disappointed,’ said Flydd. ‘Bitterly disappointed, in fact. It’s a major setback.’ He gave Yggur a sly glance, then said cajolingly, ‘When do you think it will be ready?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘Tomorrow?’

‘Not tomorrow!’ Yggur snapped.

‘What about the day after?’

Flydd had such a strange, coquettish look on his craggy face that Nish wouldn’t have been surprised if he’d batted his eyelashes.

Yggur cracked. ‘I don’t know, damn you.’

‘Then I won’t keep you,’ said Flydd. ‘I’m sure you’re anxious to get back to your workshop and try to make up for lost time. Good day.’ He nodded and turned away, taking Nish’s arm and pulling him after him. ‘Wipe that grin off your face, Artificer,’ Flydd said sternly. ‘Show some respect for your betters.’ But as soon as Yggur was gone, Flydd clapped Nish on the back, taking the sting from his words. ‘Well done, lad. You can go to bed now.’ He went off, whistling a cheerful air.

The following day the thapter set off for the south-east, carrying the patterns for various devices that were to be made up by manufactories there, including Tiaan’s plans for master and slave farspeakers. It was to be a lightning trip, both Malien and Tiaan taking turns and going night and day, as Flydd hoped to be back in just over a week.

The trip proved uneventful, apart from their first brief call at Tiksi, where Tiaan hoped to see her mother. Unfortunately Marnie was not at the rebuilt breeding factory.

‘She lost everything in the fire,’ said Matron. ‘I haven’t seen her in nearly a year.’

‘Poor Marnie,’ Tiaan wept. ‘Cast out on the streets with nothing. Doesn’t anyone know what happened to her?’

She was unable to find out, for the city’s records had been lost in the fires.

Thence they turned west to her old manufactory. Tall, dark-skinned Tuniz was still overseer, and she reminded Flydd of his promise, that if she met all her targets for a year he would send her home to Crandor, to the children she had not seen in two years.

‘I remember,’ said Flydd. ‘And have you met all your targets, Overseer?’

‘Not all, but nearly,’ she said, anxiously baring her filed teeth.

‘Then the condition has not been met and I owe you nothing!’ She winced. ‘Nonetheless,’ Flydd went on, ‘I do want to send you home, and will if you complete this last task to my satisfaction. I have here a number of samples.’ He showed her Golias’s globe, several different slave farspeakers Tiaan had made, plus her detailed designs of each. ‘Can you make me, say, ten master farspeakers, and one hundred of the slave variety, in a month?’

‘The slave farspeakers will be no trouble,’ said Tuniz, after a careful study of both. ‘The master globes are another matter.’ She ran her fingers through her frizzy hair and asked Tiaan a number of technical questions. Once they’d been answered to her satisfaction Tuniz said, ‘If I divert all of my crafters and artisans to the task, I believe we can do it, surr, though I’ll need to talk to my chief crafter to make sure.’

‘Call her. I plan to return in a month, more or less. Have them ready and I’ll take you home to Crandor in this thapter.’

Her eyes shone. ‘It will be done, surr. You can count on it.’

They went to several other manufactories nearby, where Flydd left other commissions, and headed directly home.

‘I’ve done as much as I can, for the moment,’ Flydd told Yggur when they arrived back at Fiz Gorgo on schedule. ‘Though to make a difference in the spring I have to give our allies more than words.’

‘I hope we can give them much more. Nish left just an hour ago for Snizort.’

‘Was he prepared?’ said Flydd, meaningly.

‘As well as could be managed. Though of course –’

‘I meant, did he have some way of moving the thapters in the absence of a field?’

‘Of course,’ said Yggur airily, as though it had been the most trivial of tasks, hardly worth discussing. ‘He could not have gone, otherwise.’

‘How is it to be achieved, as a matter of interest?’

‘Oh, I made up some little devices that store power,’ Yggur said in an offhand manner. ‘Enough to drive a thapter for leagues. I charged them up from the field just before he left.’

‘I noticed it was drawn right down as we came in,’ said Flydd. ‘Malien had more than a little trouble getting the last couple of leagues, and at one stage we thought we were going to come down in the swamp. What kind of devices?’

‘Just something I put together with a little tinkering,’ said Yggur.

‘Sounds like they could transform the war,’ said Flydd. ‘With enough of them we could make our craft independent of the field. Let the lyrinx attack the nodes as they dare, then.’

‘Unfortunately, the core of my devices relies on a most rare crystal, the only one known capable of storing the amount of power required. I had the only three in existence and I used them all.’

‘Might I know the name of this crystal?’ said Flydd casually, though he knew Yggur wasn’t going to tell him anything useful. Noble and dignified he might be, as a rule, but Yggur couldn’t resist the urge to get his own back.

‘Inkspar.’

‘I’ve never heard of it.’

‘It’s rare, as I said.’

‘Only three devices? That’s going to limit the number of thapters we can recover.’

‘If they recover more than three, which I doubt, they’ll have to shuttle the devices back and forth in the air-floaters. It’s inconvenient, but not a fatal problem.’

‘It could be if they’re under attack.’

‘It was the best I could do.’

‘Oh well,’ said Flydd. ‘It’s out of our hands now. They’ll either come back or they won’t. No point worrying about it.’

‘Plenty of point, just no use,’ said Yggur. ‘Oh, and I’ve found Merryl.’

‘Merryl?’ The scrutator frowned. So many names in the past couple of months. So many faces. ‘Ah, the one-handed prisoner. The fellow who speaks the lyrinx tongue. How did you find him?’

‘One of my spies was asking around and someone knew him. Merryl was in a refugee camp south of Gnulp Forest.’

‘Was?’

‘Well, he’s here now.’

‘Why didn’t you say so?’

Hurrying down to the other end of the fortress, they ran into Tiaan, who was talking to Malien. ‘We’re going to talk to your friend Merryl,’ said Flydd. ‘Would you like to come along?’

Her face lit up. ‘Merryl is here?’

‘Yes,’ said Yggur. ‘He came in with one of my spies on the air-floater this morning.’

Tiaan had a lump in her throat. Merryl had cared for her in Snizort, asking nothing in return, and she would always think kindly of him for it.

He was lying on a straw-filled pallet, asleep. His left arm, the one lacking a hand, hung over the edge of the bed. Merryl stirred as they entered, and sat up. He was very thin.

‘I am Yggur,’ said Yggur, ‘the master of this place, which is known as Fiz Gorgo.’

‘I know who you are, surr.’ Merryl’s eyes turned to the smaller man.

‘This is the scrutator, Xervish Flydd, and … where has she got to?’

Tiaan stepped out from behind Yggur.

‘Tiaan!’ Merryl reached out to her. ‘I saw the Aachim take you. I was so afraid.’

‘That’s a long time ago now. What have you been doing these past months?’

‘Surviving. I became a slave for my own kind, hauling clankers out of the mud.’

‘Me too,’ said Flydd. ‘Not an occupation with much to recommend it.’

Merryl gave him a curious glance. ‘After it was over, most of us were abandoned to our own devices. Some of the slaves joined the army, but I did not.’

‘Not willing to do your duty, Merryl?’ said Yggur.

‘I never shirked my duty, surr,’ Merryl said mildly, as if nothing anyone said could touch him. ‘And I’ve spent the past twenty years paying for it. Not liking what I saw of the scrutators, I pretended to be one of the peasants pressed into hauling duties, and afterwards I disappeared into the countryside.’

‘You must have had a lean time of it,’ said Flydd. ‘The armies had scoured the land bare.’

‘I went hungry more times than I ate, but I wouldn’t have changed anything. I’ve been a prisoner of the lyrinx for half my life. They treated me well enough but I lived with the threat of being eaten if my usefulness expired. After that, even the freedom to starve was a precious gift. Why did you bring me here?’

‘We need to know about the lyrinx, Merryl,’ said Yggur. ‘Particularly any weaknesses we can use against them.’

‘I’ll write out a list for you.’

‘Just tell us!’ said Flydd.

‘The thoughts don’t flow, with mancers and the like staring at me,’ said Merryl, unperturbed. After surviving all the enemy had done, no mere human could bother him. ‘I work better in solitude.’

‘Whatever gets us the list the quickest,’ said Flydd, turning away.

‘Just a moment,’ said Yggur. ‘Why did they make a tunnel to the centre of the Great Seep, and what did they find there?’

‘The remains of a village of ancient times, under edict for sorcerous practices, I understand,’ said Merryl. ‘Apparently the village sank into the tar and the lyrinx wished to recover some relics that had been lost at that time.’

‘Why?’

‘I don’t know. Since I knew their language, they were always careful what they spoke about in my presence.’

‘And what did they find?’

‘Bodies, young and old, preserved in the tar, and other household items of that time. Some yellow crystals which, I heard, they were excited about. I didn’t see the relics, for the node exploded.’

‘Do they have any diseases or illnesses?’ asked Flydd.

‘Not many. They’re healthy, robust creatures, generally.’

‘But their children are sometimes born malformed, lacking the ability to develop wings. Sometimes they’re born without armour, skin pigment or claws.’

‘That’s so,’ said Merryl. ‘Such malformations are common, but not all survive to adulthood.’

‘I heard,’ said Yggur, leaning forward, ‘that one lyrinx working in the tar tunnel developed a dreadful skin inflammation that rendered him helpless.’

‘I saw several with that affliction,’ said Merryl thoughtfully. ‘They were in such torment that they sloughed their outer skin, though that was as agonising as if the layers of our skin were peeled away.’

‘The less said about that the better,’ said Flydd, rubbing his upper thigh.

Merryl gave him a puzzled look. ‘Sometimes grit gets in between the armour and the inner skin, which is irritating to them. But this inflammation was much worse.’

‘Do you know what caused it?’ said Flydd. ‘Was it the tar?’

‘I believe it was a mould, or fungus.’

‘Do they often get this kind of complaint?’

‘I never saw it before, in all my time with them. It may have come from one of the relics they found in the tar.’

‘Thank you,’ said Yggur. ‘That’s most interesting.’