Alchymist

She brought the thapter to ground on a paved rectangle outside the smaller cubes. Best if we show ourselves as friendly,' said Malien. 'My people have not seen a flying machine before. At least, not since Rulke was slain, and his was a weapon of war. Tiaan, I ask only one thing — that you say nothing about my part in the creation of this thapter.' Of course,' said Tiaan, 'but why?'

'My people may well suspect that I made it, but it would be better if they did not know. That way—' She broke off as shadows appeared behind the smaller cubes. 'Later' Tiaan reached for the pack containing the amplimet and her other possessions. 'Leave everything,' said Malien. 'They will be brought, after inspection.'

Were the Aachim just being careful or were they, for all their brilliance, insecure? Tiaan was reluctant to leave anything behind, least of all the perilous amplimet, but there was no alternative. She climbed down onto the platform, which was made of compressed ice. It was bitterly, bone-achingly cold outside, far worse than Tirthrax, and the air so thin that just placing one foot in front of another was exhausting.

As they approached the entrance, a dark line divided it vertically into two halves, which separated into four individual cubes on either side, and each of those into four more, a pattern which Malien described as cubular. The myriad glassy cubes seemed to float through the air, leaving an opening which exhaled a breath of warmth. Tiny crystals of ice whirled and tumbled and twinkled in the sunlight. Gilhaelith would have been enchanted, Tiaan thought. The tetrarch had an obsession with numbers.

'Come,' said Malien, and they entered. 'I'm afraid.'

'Just so Karan and Llian must have felt as they entered the forbidden city of Shazmak. But they were met there by Rael, my son, and treated with all the hospitality due to visitors, even unwelcome ones such as I.'

'What happened to him?' asked Tiaan, not recalling that part of the tale.

'Alas, he drowned, nobly helping Karan and Llian to escape their fate. I still think about him every day. You need have no fear, Tiaan.' Her eyes glittered and she turned away.

'I would like to talk to you about that tale, sometime,' said Tiaan.

'I would be happy to. Have you read it?' 'The original is a forbidden book. There is a new Tale of the Mirror, but it was rewritten by the scrutators before my birth. Malien stopped in mid-step. 'Rewritten? The greatest of the Great Tales retold by a gaggle of spies and torturers? How did this come about?' 'I don't know.'

'Llian of Chanthed, who wrote the Great Tale, must lie uneasy in his grave,' said Malien.

'He's now known as Llian the Liar, the chronicler who debauched the Histories.'

'The Histories have indeed been debauched,' Malien said coldly. 'We must speak further about this. Ah, our hosts are coming.'

'Did you know Llian?' said Tiaan.

'As well as I knew any human man! The Histories were his life and his world. Nothing could have compelled him to tell them falsely.' 'But…' 'Later.'

Malien strode forward, holding out her hand to a stocky man of middle years, whose black hair was marked by twin streaks of white sweeping back over his ears. Half a dozen other Aachim stood behind him, three men and three women, all dressed in robes that reflected the light like metallic silk. 'Harjax,' Malien said cheerfully. 'I heard of your elevation. You will make a fine autarch.'

He took her hand, without enthusiasm. 'Thank you, Matah Malien. Why have you come, and how did you get here?'

'Come, Harjax, you've been observing us for ages. Tiaan Liise-Mar here, an artisan from the other side of the world has uncovered the secret of flight which has eluded all the mancers of this world, and Aachan, since the death of Rulke. In a short time she converted this construct, abandoned by Vithis in Tirthrax, into a machine that flies.'

'She may have assisted,' Harjax said, "but the mind behind this discovery was yours, Matah, as your hand was at the controls when it set down. What are you up to?'

'The secret of flight will benefit us all, Harjax.'

'Have you brought this thapter as a gift, then?'

'I had in mind to see what progress you'd made before—'

'You think you know better than everyone else,' he said with a sorrowful air, though it seemed just a veneer of manners or custom. These Aachim were angry folk. 'You show us no more loyalty than you did in the past.'

'Stassor is more magnificent than ever,' she observed calmly. 'You've done well for yourselves, without me, as you've made clear many times.'

'For good reason. You don't cleave to your own, Malien.'

'I am Matah,' she reminded him, 'an honour specifically created to free the recipient from such burdens, and permit her to think outside the cube, as it were. Anyway, flight has been discovered, for good or for ill, and you must plan what to do with it.' She glanced at Tiaan. 'Must we quarrel in the yard, forgetting all courtesy to our guest, or will you offer Tiaan her due?'

All this time, the Aachim had given Tiaan not a single glance, but now he turned dark eyes on her, of such singular penetration that Tiaan could not meet his gaze.

'The last time an outsider was admitted to our precincts, it brought about the downfall of a city — beloved Shazmak.'

'And the death of my son,' Malien said pointedly. 'He's gone forever, yet Shazmak endures. We can go back if we choose.'

'To a land infested with lyrinx!'

'They cannot thrive in the high mountains. They are no threat to us, now we have the secret of flight.'

'But they are a threat to the order of this world and we must consider what to do about it. Come inside.'

They followed the seven Aachim down a broad hall into a rectangular room that appeared to be made of glass, though unlike any glass Tiaan had ever seen. The walls glowed like oiled opal, the patterns forever changing.

The Council of Stassor was called the year before last,' said Malien. 'What choices have you made?'

'The situation changes rapidly,' Harjax said, uncomfortable with her directness.

'Meaning you cannot come to a decision. I'm glad you didn't invite me. I could have died of old age before you did anything.'

Harjax grimaced, for to speak so plainly bordered on insult. He indicated a small table around which were distributed a number of oddly shaped chairs, each like a bean opened in the middle and the ends folded out. They sat and refreshments were brought in. Tiaan's chair proved surprisingly comfortable. She took nothing to eat, feeling out of place and unwelcome, but sipped at a mug of clear liquid as thin and clear as water, though more refreshing.

'But when we do reach our decision,' said Harjax, 'it will be the right one. Look what happened before, when we allowed unfettered power to a leader who was not worthy of it.'

'Tensor was a fool, and no one knows that better than I,' said Malien, leaning back. 'I rue every hour that I let him have his way. But that's ancient history. The world that existed when you began your council last year has been forever altered. Should you ever reach your right decision, it will already be irrelevant. And our fellow Aachim, from Aachan—'

'We've met with Vithis's emissaries,' said Harjax. 'We found much to talk about. Much to agree upon.'

'I found much to fear and more to dread,' said Malien. 'Not least the way they abused Tiaan. They forced her to use the amplimet all day and every day for weeks.'

Harjax squirmed in his seat. 'To what purpose?' "To save their fleet of constructs, stalled by the destruction of the node.'

A justifiable end, I would say. And after all,' he gave Tiaan a sideways glance, 'it's not as though she's …'