FIFTY-EIGHT

They returned to Fiz Gorgo only to discover that Yggur, Flydd and the others had just gone to Lybing. Tiaan didn’t follow immediately, for Irisis’s leg was infected and needed a healer’s attention. By the time they reached Lybing a week later, the news from the east coast was immeasurably worse. Attacking the underground cities had proven the most disastrous blunder of the war. The dispossessed lyrinx had gone to war and fought with unparalleled ferocity, annihilating the human army at Gosport. Less than fifteen thousand of its fifty thousand had survived, and none of them uninjured. The armies at Guffeons and Maksmord had capitulated after similarly bitter fighting that had reduced them to half their number in little more than a day.

Smaller armies, protecting human settlements all the way up and down the east coast, had suffered similar fates. Many towns had been overwhelmed, their people killed or forced to flee into the countryside where they would be easy targets. The walls of the principal cities, greatly reinforced over the past six months, now sheltered huge numbers of refugees but would soon be besieged. Of all the nations of the east only populous Crandor had managed to stay the lyrinx tide. Its armies had fought the attacking hordes to a standstill but Governor Zaeff held little hope. Roros and the other cities of Crandor would soon be islands in a sea of the enemy. With no possibility of outside aid, in the end even proud Roros, the greatest city in the world since Thurkad had been overrun, must fall.

The west had seen little action thus far, but regular flights over Almadin showed that the lyrinx hordes had crossed the Sea of Thurkad and were advancing ever closer. Battle was only days away, but this battle could not be won. The enemy were simply too many.

Tiaan’s thapter landed on the lawn of the White Palace after dark and they went straight to conclave. It was an open meeting and the extravagantly over-decorated audience chamber was packed with people, standing in little groups waiting for the proceedings to begin. Few were talking. Everyone seemed too stunned.

Irisis had never seen such luxury as was displayed in the hall, though she paid little attention to it. It seemed like a sad folly that would soon be gone. She threaded her way through the groups, looking for Flydd. He was not up on the dais with Governor Nisbeth and the other dignitaries.

Painfully standing on tiptoe, she saw Yggur over in the far corner and headed for him. Flydd was standing beside him, talking to Klarm. They made the oddest of trios: tall, broad-shouldered Yggur, his ageless features as though frozen in ice; withered, scrawny little Flydd who barely came up to his chin; and handsome, unflappable Klarm, not even chest-high to the scrutator.

Flydd didn’t look as though he’d eaten since they’d left Fiz Gorgo weeks ago. Bone and gristle were all there was left of him. He nodded as Irisis approached, with Nish and Tiaan close behind, but kept speaking.

‘I promised our people in the east that if we all worked together we had a chance,’ Flydd said bitterly. ‘Then I took this ruinous gamble, and lost.’

‘Not you alone,’ said Klarm, twisting strands of his beard together. ‘Our Council voted on the attack, as did the eastern governors, and to take the blame on yourself devalues everyone else.’

‘I did my best to talk you into it,’ said Flydd.

‘You’re an overly proud man, Flydd, for such a meagre one,’ Yggur said waspishly. ‘You know we didn’t have a choice. We had to destroy the threat of the uggnatl and I believe we’ve done that.’

‘We can’t resist this tide,’ said Flydd in anguish. ‘All my life I’ve fought to save humanity. Now I’ve brought about its destruction.’

Irisis stopped a few steps away. She’d rarely seen Flydd in such a state. Nish and Tiaan pulled up behind her.

‘Better we left the east to their own devices,’ said Flydd, ‘than raise hopes so savagely dashed. Not only is the east defeated, it feels betrayed.’

‘It’s not defeated until Crandor falls,’ said Klarm, ‘and that may take longer and cost more than the enemy are prepared to pay. There’s steel in the hearts of the dark folk from Roros, and their fingers wield a blade cunningly.’

‘I don’t doubt it,’ said Flydd more steadily, ‘but it would take whole forests of steel to make up for the new –’

‘Not here!’ hissed Yggur, looking over his shoulder.

‘What is it?’ Irisis asked, lowering her voice. ‘Have the enemy succeeded in making more node-drainers?’

‘Later,’ said Flydd.

Why was he holding back? What had the lyrinx come up with now?

‘Have you asked the Stassor Aachim for help?’ Irisis asked.

‘We gave them farspeakers but they’re not answering,’ said Malien. ‘How can my people have come to such a state?’

‘They’ve been heading that way for a long time,’ said Yggur. ‘Withdrawing further and further from the world.’

‘Then why take all the thapters from Snizort,’ said Irisis, ‘if they didn’t intend to use them?’

‘So no one could attack Stassor with them,’ said Malien.

‘What about Vithis and his great beam weapon?’ Nish said. ‘We could beg him for aid.’

‘We’ve already begged,’ said Klarm. ‘Our embassy was fired on at the border.’

Yggur, who was looking up at the dais, said, ‘We’re called.’ He turned to the three travellers and put out his hand. ‘Let’s not have this crisis overshadow your truly mammoth deeds. Well done, Tiaan, Nish and Irisis.’

‘Too well done,’ said Irisis. ‘It would have been better if we’d died in the first attempt.’ She fell in beside Nish, who was more silent than usual. They headed up to take their places. The silent crowd were already sitting down.

Tiaan did not follow them. ‘I’ll wait for you outside,’ she said to Irisis. ‘I don’t think I can bear to hear what they’re going to say.’

‘We can’t do anything to help the east,’ said General Troist after the situation had been summed up to the silent gathering. ‘Let’s concentrate on what we can do for ourselves.’

‘Not much,’ said Yggur. ‘The enemy’s numbers are far greater than we had estimated, and in the east they’ve used their flesh-formed creatures to devastating effect. They released thousands of uggnatl, and other creatures like it, onto the battlefields. They had a lot more of them than we’d thought.’ Yggur signed to an aide standing to the side, who held up the stuffed body of Flydd’s uggnatl. Irisis could smell it from where she sat, a breath-catching odour of decay. ‘The little beasts are so fast and agile that they’re difficult to hit. They brought down our soldiers by attacking their legs, and once on the ground they had no chance.’

‘We still have no defence against them,’ Troist said heavily. ‘Apart from leather leg armour, yet another burden for our overburdened troops.’

‘Leg armour was tried in the east,’ said the scrutator. ‘The uggnatl simply went for the groin, the one thing most men fear more than death. So would I have, in my day.’

That drew a smile or two around the room, for Flydd was such an ugly, withered old coot that no one could imagine him at the business of procreation. Those who knew what had happened to him at the hands of Ghorr’s torturers did not smile, however.

‘What about mail or plate armour?’ called a uniformed officer from the front row.

‘It’s too heavy,’ said Troist. ‘It slows our soldiers too much against the lyrinx. Thankfully the ones bred in Oellyll succumbed to the fungus, so we won’t be facing them.’

‘My council has long feared it would come to this,’ said Governor Nisbeth, after a quiet word to her councillors. ‘We made a plan for the end last spring. Now we must put it into effect. We won’t send your brave men to certain death, General Troist. Our soldiers have been dying for more than a hundred years, and it has availed us naught. Our beautiful land must be abandoned, since it is undefendable. We will evacuate Borgistry to the last peasant and go east into the Borgis Woods. There are vast cave systems in the Peaks of Borg, as well as along Lake Parnggi and in the southern arm of the Great Mountains, beyond the lake. It’s rugged, inhospitable country, but we know it well. Let the enemy pursue us there if they dare. In the caves, we’ll maintain what’s left of our civilisation for as long as we can endure.’

‘Nobly spoken,’ Flydd declared. ‘Where’s Grand Commander Orgestre?’

‘Packing his bags and slipping out the window,’ someone in the crowd said in a low voice. No one laughed.

Flydd scowled. ‘What of your army, Troist?’

‘We’ll form a rearguard to shield the escape, then make our way east by paths suitable for clankers.’ He paused. ‘What a sorry day this is.’

There was another silence. No one wanted to break it.

A very tall man at the back of the room stood up and threw off his hood, and a mass of woolly hair sprang out in all directions. There was a stir around him. It was Gilhaelith. He began to walk up to the front, and such was his presence that no one said a word. He reached the foot of the dais and stopped.

‘How the devil did you get in here?’ said Yggur, rising to his feet. ‘Guards –’

‘Sit down, Yggur,’ Flydd said wearily. ‘Gilhaelith is the one man who might tell us something we don’t know about our enemy.’

‘He betrayed Fiz Gorgo,’ Yggur said savagely, ‘and I won’t have a bar of him.’

‘You imprisoned me for no other reason than that you disliked me,’ said Gilhaelith, almost serenely. Not a trace of his previous bitterness was evident.

‘I imprisoned you for dealing with the enemy.’

‘And I merely did my best to escape.’

‘Which showed Ghorr the way. Without him –’

‘Enough!’ grated Klarm, and they both fell silent. ‘You came to our Council for a reason, Gilhaelith. What is it? Have you anything to offer humanity in its final hours, or are you here as an emissary for your lyrinx masters?’

‘I barely escaped from Alcifer with my life,’ said Gilhaelith. ‘They planned to eat me once they’d finished with me.’

‘How did you escape?’ said Flydd, with an edge to his voice.

‘Your attack with the spores threw them into confusion. I acted with dispatch and was lucky enough to spot an air-floater, which brought me here.’

‘Hmn,’ Flydd said, as if sifting his words for any grains of truth. ‘What do you have to offer us in this emergency?’

‘Information.’

‘In exchange for what?’

‘A place on the Council.’

‘Not in my lifetime,’ said Yggur.

‘You declined to be on it,’ Flydd snapped. ‘You have no say.’ He looked up at Gilhaelith. ‘First you’ll have to convince us to trust you and, considering your history …’

‘Very well,’ said Gilhaelith. ‘I’ll give you this freely, as a token of my good faith. The relics the lyrinx took from the tar pits of Snizort are most precious to them.’

‘We already knew that, but go on,’ said Flydd.

‘They stole me away from Nyriandiol to locate the relics. Indeed, the only reason they built their city underground at Snizort, decades ago, was to find them, and they prolonged the battle for Snizort for a day, at the cost of thousands of lyrinx lives, just so they could get them safely to Alcifer.’

‘Why do they value these relics? What can they possibly mean to the lyrinx?’

‘I don’t know, but the matriarch personally took charge of them when Alcifer was being evacuated. If you can seize the relics, the enemy would bargain with you to get them back.’

‘Where are they now?’ said Flydd.

‘She was trapped with them when part of the underground city collapsed.’

‘And yet the other lyrinx left Oellyll?’ Flydd said doubtfully.

‘The infection was spreading and they dared not stay. But the relics are safe and Gyrull is still alive. It will just take some digging to get them out.’

‘You seem to know an awful lot about it.’

‘Yes,’ said Gilhaelith without elaboration.

‘It’s valuable information,’ said Flydd, ‘though I’m not about to risk an army digging under Alcifer. As soon as the lyrinx discovered we were there, they’d wipe us out. Do you have any information that can help us stave off the enemy? Considering your record, Gilhaelith, nothing else will do.’

Gilhaelith opened his mouth, but closed it again as if he’d thought better of it.

‘Come on, man!’ said Flydd. ‘I know you assisted them to develop a more powerful device than their node-drainers.’

After a long, reluctant hesitation, Gilhaelith said in a low voice, ‘I was forced to it, and this is for the ears of your Council only. They’ve grown a new device which they call a flisnadr, a power patterner. A device for controlling the flow of power from a field, rather than just shutting it off.’

‘Have they now?’ said Flydd. ‘I’ve been thinking along those lines myself. We must talk more about this privately, Gilhaelith.’ He put out his hand. ‘Welcome aboard.’

The evacuation of Borgistry began at once, the people melting into the uncanny Borgis Woods. General Orgestre’s army, the smaller, had gone with them, while Troist’s force remained behind to guard the rear, in case the enemy came on more swiftly than expected. The Council and the governor were relocating to Hysse, a fertile valley surrounded by almost unclimbable ridges, between Parnggi and the Ramparts of Tacnah. Irisis was to go with them, along with Tiaan. Nish was to remain as Troist’s adjutant for the time being, though he regretted it now. There was no saying he’d ever see any of his friends again.

Three days later, Tiaan, Nish and Irisis were standing by Malien’s thapter while the last of the refugees assembled. Nish didn’t know what to say to his friends. He’d rehearsed his farewells a dozen times but couldn’t find any words that fitted such a desperate occasion. Irisis wasn’t saying anything either, and Tiaan just bore the faraway look she’d had since seeing the piles of lyrinx dead.

Nish, recognising several familiar faces in the crowd, waved. It was Troist’s tall horsy wife Yara and the twins, Meriwen and Liliwen, who would be fourteen now. He’d last seen them a year and a half ago at Morgadis. What must they be thinking after being forced to abandon all they’d held dear?

‘How long have we got?’ said Nish, wondering if there was time to say hello and farewell. The Council’s thapter stood inside a ring of clankers, the army camp was packed up, the latrines filled in and everyone was waiting for the order to depart.

No one answered, so Nish went across, a little tentatively. The twins sang out and ran to meet him. Yara didn’t run, but her face lit up at seeing Nish. He shook her hand and embraced the twins, sturdy girls who took after their handsome father. Their wavy hair, the colour of copper wire, hung in plaits halfway down their backs. They were almost identical, though Liliwen had thicker, darker eyebrows.

‘We’re very cross with you,’ said Meriwen. ‘You were supposed to come and see us in Lybing last spring, before the battle.’

‘Extremely cross,’ said Liliwen. ‘We cooked dinner and everything.’

‘I’m sorry,’ said Nish. ‘I was called away. You know what it’s –’

‘We think you ran away from Aunty Mira,’ said Meriwen, frowning at him.

‘Because you were too scared,’ said Liliwen.

‘Like you did last time,’ added Meriwen. ‘With your pants –’

‘Girls!’ cried Yara, scandalised. ‘How dare you speak to Cryl-Nish like that. He’s a great hero and he saved your lives. Twice!’

‘It’s a funny kind of hero that runs away from little Aunty Mira,’ sniffed Meriwen, then giggled.

‘With his pants down around his –’ chortled Liliwen.

‘Right!’ said Yara. ‘I’m going to wash both your mouths out, and don’t think you’re too old to get a good whack on the bare backside, either.’

They sobered up instantly. ‘Sorry, Mother,’ they chorused. ‘But please, please let us stay. After all, Nish did save our lives, twice, and we might never see him again.’

‘Don’t flutter your eyelashes at me, young ladies,’ said Yara. ‘Wherever did you learn such tricks? Your father will be horrified when I tell him. Now come away. Mira has something to say to Nish.’

And before Nish could turn and run, Mira stepped out of the crowd, right beside him.

‘M-Mira!’ he stammered. ‘I – I –’

She took his hand. ‘Nish, why didn’t you come to see me?’

‘I was too scared; too mortified …’

‘But why? You did nothing wrong. We were just two lonely, unhappy people, taking comfort where we could, until I had too much to drink and my nightmares overturned everything.’

‘But … the guards …’

‘It was all a terrible misunderstanding. I’d called them back and explained before you even reached the river.’

‘They weren’t hunting me at all?’ said Nish.

‘Of course not. I was terrified you’d drown. They were trying to bring you back, as an honoured guest who’d saved my nieces from degradation and murder.’

‘And all this time, I’ve been living in fear of you,’ said Nish. ‘And not just from that night. Whenever I did the … business of war, I imagined how disgusted you’d be.’

She sighed and took his hand. ‘You met me at my lowest point, Nish. War is a horror, but do you think I don’t honour my man, and my sons, for the way they fought and died? Of course I do. I hated the old warmongering Council with all my heart, but I respect the brave men and women who fight and die for us. And I honour you, too.’ She kissed him on the forehead. ‘Go now, they’re calling for you. And go with good heart. We’ll all be thinking of you.’

Nish turned away, turned back and waved, then strode to the thapter feeling better than he had in a long time.

Klarm, who had just returned from a surveillance flight in one of the thapters, came waddling up. ‘The enemy are two days away to the west, streaming through the forest. And another lyrinx army, almost as large, draws near to The Elbow from the south, heading up the Westway.’

‘Then we’d better get moving,’ said Troist. After making sure the refugees were well away, he was planning to retreat up the Great North Road through Worm Wood, then east, since the Borgis Woods were too rugged for his clankers. ‘If they send a sizeable force across Worm Wood by Booreah Ngurle, as they did last spring, we’ll be cut off.’

Nish embraced Tiaan, then Irisis, who thumped him on the shoulder and turned away abruptly. She practically ran to the thapter and got in without looking back. Tiaan didn’t even say goodbye – she seemed in another world altogether.

It wasn’t until the thapter had lifted off that Nish realised what he wanted to say to them, but by then it was too late.