Alchymist

The construct fell unchecked.

'I've got it.'

There was no change in its downward plunge.

'I've got it!' Foam flew from his lips.

Irisis saw, through her spyglass, the fall become less vertical. The construct swerved wildly but recovered. It curved away, away, away, rose slightly, flattened out and headed west.

'I've got it,' he whispered.

From inside the cabin, Flydd let out a groan that trailed off to nothing.

Fifty-eight

Gilhaelith had stopped pounding on the hatch long ago. Tiaan lifted it and looked down. He was sitting on the floor, eyes shut, rocking back and forth. She closed the hatch -putting off the confrontation for as long as possible.

'Hey, there's an air-floater behind us – really high up.'

'Is it the one we saw over Alcifer the other day?' said Malien.

'It looks the same.'

The air-floater disappeared in the clouds. The thapter was slowing now, as they began to pass over swamp forest. The sun went down. They continued in the dark for hours, having no idea where they were going. Finally, in pitch darkness the whistling of the wind died away. The base of the thapter thumped hard against stone and sparks flew up.

A glowing globe blazed, revealing part of a dark wall and a wide doorway. All else was in darkness.

'What now?' said Tiaan.

'We wait,' Malien replied.

'This doesn't look like a lyrinx city.'

The air-floater ghosted down to their left. It was there one second, gone the next, as it went up in a rush. A tall man stood in the centre of the yard, a shadowed object in his left hand.

Malien said, 'Well, well. In a dozen lifetimes I wouldn't have expected this.'

'Who is it?'

She didn't answer.

'What do we do?' Tiaan squeaked.

"Go down. But keep your counsel, Tiaan. Let's find out what they want, first.'

Tiaan unfastened the lower hatch and quickly climbed down the side. Her back was aching but she managed to walk across to the steps without limping. The man extended a hand. I am Yggur. Welcome to Fiz Gorgo.'

Had she been capable of rational thought, Tiaan would have assumed him dead centuries ago. 'Thank you. My name is Tiaan Liise-Mar.' She looked around but Malien wasn't in sight. 'Surely you're not alone?' he said.

No:

Malien had gone down the far side of the machine and now appeared out of the darkness without warning. 'Well met, Yggur. I imagine you no more expected to see me again than I did you.'

'Malien!' he exclaimed. 'It seems like it was only months, ago I last saw you. And for all the change in you…' 'You flatter me. That was two centuries ago. It was in Chanthed, wasn't it, when Llian told his Tale of the Mirror and the masters voted that it become a Great Tale.' And he was banished from being a chronicler for seven years. No, Malien, we met for the last time in Gothryme, when the Charon sent Maigraith back through the gate.' 'Of course we did. My memory must be going. I wonder what-?'

He hastily interrupted her. 'Do you know what happened to Llian?'

He would be dead a hundred and fifty years, even if he lived into grand old age.' And Karan too, no doubt.'

'We all have our time,' Malien said. 'I'll not complain when mine comes. The old must give way to the young.' 'Quite. Come inside,' said Yggur.

They went indoors, to a large chamber off the hall, where a fire blazed. Shortly Gilhaelith appeared in the doorway.

There were lines on his forehead, blood spots along his ribs, and his skin had a greenish cast. He was furious.

'Where did you come from, fellow?' said Yggur. 'I feel as though I ought to know something about you.' He did not offer to shake hands.

'I don't see why,' said Gilhaelith curtly. 'I'm a trader in odd commodities and a dabbler in the arts and sciences. My name is Gilhaelith and these wretches have just kidnapped me from Alcifer.'

'Ah, yes, Gilhaelith. The geomancer who trades with the enemy!' Yggur turned his back. Tiaan, I apologise for taking over your flier in such an.., abrupt manner, but we need it desperately. We have a plan for the war.'

'I'm pleased to hear that someone has,' she said quietly. That terror of falling, of having control snatched away, would never leave her. 'But you're mistaken. The thapter belongs to Malien, not me.' She moved away from him, taking refuge by the fire. Thankfully Yggur did not follow, for she had no idea how to deal with such a legend.

Gilhaelith came up beside Tiaan. 'How dare you interfere in my life!'

She looked up at him, remembering how he might have come to her aid in Snizort, but had cared more about the amplimet. 'Do you mean to say you didn't want to be rescued?'

'I chose to be in Alcifer, and I was close to a breakthrough. Now all my precious instruments lie abandoned. You have destroyed the work of a lifetime.'

'I'm sure your friends the lyrinx will take good care of them!'

'What price did you pay, for them to repair your broken back?'

'Nothing I wasn't forced to. Unlike you, I've never dealt with the enemy for profit.'

'Why did Malien come after me?' he said in a low, quivering voice. ''Why me?'

Tiaan saw no reason not to tell him. 'You're the greatest geomancer and mathemancer in existence now, and no one else can help her.'

That mollified him a little. 'Certainly I am! Go on.'

She's concerned that the nodes are being overdrawn and will soon fail, to the ruin of all.'

'What does it matter if one or two nodes fail?' he said.

'Because they're linked! Malien has discovered that a drained node is replenished from those surrounding nodes at are linked to it. Those, in turn, are replenished from nodes further away. If enough fail, all the nodes could colapse and the whole world-'

'That's it!' he whooped. 'The missing piece of the puzzle.'

'What do you mean, Gilhaelith?'

He strode away without answering, already so caught up in the problem that Tiaan was an irrelevance.

She ran and took him by the arm, so outraged by his arrogance that she wanted to unsettle him, shock him. 'The lyrinx were using you!' she cried. 'I can't believe you didn't realise that. You were just the bait to lure me and the thapter to Alcifer.'

His mouth opened and closed, and Tiaan could see the calculations running. He'd been manipulated from the beginning, all unknowing. Panic flared in his eyes but he controlled it and turned away.

Yggur took his place, and to Tiaan he seemed equally forbidding. 'May I ask what that dispute was about?' he said pleasantly.

'It seems that Gilhaelith chose to live in Alcifer, under the protection of the lyrinx, and I've ruined his life's work.'

Yggur frowned. 'Is that so? I'd hate to think I've allowed a cuckoo into my nest. What is his life's work?'

'To master geomancy and understand all the forces that move and shape the world.'

'To what end?'

'He maintains it's for the noblest purpose of all – simply to understand the material world – but Gilhaelith has a compulsion to control everything around him.'

A dangerous man. You'd better tell me everything you know about Gilhaelith, Tiaan.'

The air-floater flew directly to Hripton, setting down outside the healer's house. Nish, Irisis and Flangers carried Flydd in. He was still breathing, though his chest barely moved and his lips were blue.

'What's the matter with him?' asked the healer, a woman of advanced years with a dowager's hump and white hair so thin that Irisis could see her scalp through it.

She explained as best she could without giving away any secrets. The healer lifted Flydd's shirt and drew in a sharp breath at the sight of his emaciated chest, practically bare of flesh, and the ancient scars crisscrossing his body. She laid hands on him, up and down. They turned him over and she did the same for his back.

'Something is damaged inside,' she said to Irisis. 'In his belly.'

'Is he going to die?' said Nish, who'd been silent for hours. He looked shattered.

'He may,' said the healer. 'Tonight will tell. He's dangerously ill.'