Alchymist

Malien climbed onto the side, staring into the east. 'I believe you're right. I wonder why?'

'I suppose they realised that they'd never catch us.'

'Can you draw power now?'

'No more than before.'

'Curious,' said Malien to herself. 'Could they have attached a draining device to this machine?'

'Which way should I go, north or south?'

'Try south.'

Tiaan moved the lever in the required direction. Nothing happened. She tried again, then the other way.

'Malien!' she said in a panicky voice. 'It's not answering the controls.'

The song of the mechanism suddenly stopped and the thapter arced down towards the plains.

'Malien,' Tiaan screamed. 'I've got nothing. It must be the amplimet. It's trying to kill us.'

'But a crash would destroy it too.' Malien swayed on her feet, popped the crystal and took the controls. It made no difference; they kept plummeting earthwards.

'We're going to die,' said Tiaan. 'I never thought it would be like this.'

'I can see the field but I can't draw power from it either.'

'Why not?'

'I don't know. It just isn't working. Nothing's working.'

As abruptly, the song of the mechanism was back. The thapter lurched left, then jerked so hard to the right that Malien was thrown against the wall. The whole machine shuddered, before curving into level flight.

Malien moved the yoke every possible way, but it made no difference. She let go. The yoke moved left by itself. The thapter veered in the same direction, a little south of west, and the note of the machine went up a notch.

Tiaan sat on the floor, her chin resting on her knees. 'I don't know what's happening, Malien.'

'Someone.., something has taken control of it and I can't get it back. So that's why the lyrinx gave up. They knew they could snatch it away from us whenever they wanted to.'

'Either that; said Tiaan, 'or the amplimet is up to its treacherous work again.'

'But why now?' said Malien. 'Why here, after coming all this way?'

The thapter, whining gently, sped on.

'I suppose there's a node it wants to communicate with.'

Fifty-six

'Xervish,' said Irisis one chilly night a few days after she'd come back from Snizort. They were sitting on either side of the fire after another of her masterly dinners. Everyone else had gone to bed. She was working on a piece of jewellery in silver filigree.

'Mm?' He was perusing a chart of central Lauralin, showing Nennifer and the surrounding mountains.

Flydd had been in a better humour since their return. He spent most of his time working in a large journal, either writing, sketching maps, charts and plans, or making endless lists and calculations. Only the relationship with Yggur was little changed. He circled Yggur, snapping and snarling, while Yggur maintained a chilly reserve. They could never be friends. It remained to be seen whether they could work together at all.

'How did you come to meet Eiryn Muss?'

'Why do you ask?' Flydd said without looking up.

'He's the strangest man I ever met. What does he want, or care about, or feel? No one knows.'

'He's the best spy there is – that's all I care about.'

His tone told Irisis to mind her own business, and for that reason she'd long delayed asking him, but she couldn't hold it in any longer.

'Did you know he's a morphmancer?'

'What!' he rose out of his chair. 'Where did you hear that?'

'I spied on him before we went into Jibstorn. He doesn't assume a disguise at all – he simply shapechanges, clothes and all, and it only takes him a minute.'

Flydd let out his breath so violently that the candle flames flickered and danced. 'I often wondered how he did it so perfectly, and so quickly.'

And you never asked?'

'Every craft has its secrets. As long as the job's done, what does it matter how it's done? Why didn't you tell me this before?'

'You get cranky whenever I approach one of your precious mancer's secrets, Xervish.'

'Cranky, me? Is there anything else you want to get off your chest?'

'Well, er…'

'It's important, Irisis,' he said snappishly. He sat down again, pulling his chair closer to the fire.

'What else was Muss looking for in Snizort?'

'What do you mean?'

'Apart from the flesh-formed creatures, and the phynadr we stole?'

'That's all.' He seized her hands in his gnarled paws. 'Why do you ask?'

'After we'd found them, he was still looking for something. Muss didn't find it and was mightily put out.'

'Put out?'

'It's the only time I've ever seen him show emotion. He was really vexed.'

'What can he have been looking for?' Flydd began to pace back and forth on the worn flagstones. 'He's a morphmancer, a powerful adept. And he went to Gumby Marth just after the battle, defying my orders.' He paled. 'He must have been after the tears.'

'Did he know about them then?' said Irisis.

'I told him when he met me, after Troist picked me up…"

'So why was he looking for them at Snizort, weeks before?'

'I don't know. No one knew… Unless…'

'Xervish?'

'What if it was him all along?' Flydd breathed. 'Muss had charge of the device Ghorr gave me in Nennifer, to break the node-drainer. And a morphmancer might easily overcome the scrutator magic that sealed the box. What if Muss tampered with the device, so as to create the tears?'

'If he did, why didn't he use it himself?'

'No one could predict what would happen. Safer to let you and me do it.'

'If it was Muss, why didn't he go directly to the node? Why was he looking for the tears in Snizort?'

'He must have thought they'd form at the node-drainer,' said Flydd. 'By the time he realised otherwise, the tears were gone. Jal-Nish had them.'

And Muss has been hunting them ever since,' said Irisis.

'I wish you'd mentioned this before I sent him back to Lauralin.'

'Why does he want the tears anyway? Who is Muss?'

'He's been my faithful, meticulous spy for many, many years. It's hard to believe he could be otherwise.' He stood up. 'But one good thing has come out of your news, Irisis.'

'What's that, Xervish?'

'I feel inspired again.'

'No progress on the construct mechanism, Yggur?' Flydd said the following morning.

Yggur had just emerged from his workroom, looking as though he'd neither slept nor changed his clothes in days. On returning from Snizort he had taken the construct's mechanism to pieces and begun working on it by himself.

'I don't expect miracles. It's only been a few days.' He did look disappointed, though.

'I wonder how Tiaan managed it?' said Nish. 'It didn't take her long to make one fly.'

'Now there's a thought,' said Yggur. 'What happened to the flying construct after Vithis took Tiaan?'

'It burned. It was covered in tar.'

'Did you learn anything while you were in it? About how she made it fly, I mean?'

'It was Tirior's construct, but Tiaan made it go when Tiror could not, using the amplimet to draw on a distant field. A little later, Tiaan had us blindfolded while she did something to the mechanisms, and after that it flew.'

'But how did she make it fly?' said Yggur to himself.

Vithis had custody of her amplimet for a long time,' said Flydd, 'yet never succeeded in making any of his constructs fly. Which means…'

'That Tiaan alone knows the secret and he couldn't get it out of her,' said Nish.

'There must be more to it,' said Flydd.

'There's more,' said Yggur with a remote smile. 'I've had a full report come in by skeet. When Tiaan escaped from the Aachim she had the amplimet, but the construct didn't fly. Something vital must have been lost in the one that burned, and she couldn't replace it. We're getting closer.'

'And she's getting further away,' said Flydd.

'After flying a construct, merely hovering must be galling to her. She'll want to replace what was burned as quickly as possible.'

'She'll go back to Tirthrax,' said Flydd, bright-eyed, 'where she first discovered the secret, doubtless with Malien's aid. We can expect to see a flying machine again before too long.'