Alchymist

Her eye was drawn down, down, to Alcifer. From behind the central dome a winged creature rose into the air, followed by a second and a third. Others joined them, leaping into the sky with their massive thighs. Dozens. Hundreds. A whole wall of them.

'Quick, Malien!' she shouted. 'They're coming.'

An ashen Malien dragged herself up over the side. The slaves moved tentatively towards the thapter.

'Where's Talis?' cried Tiaan.

Malien shook her head. 'He's gone. Forgre too.' Her voice was tight with grief.

The fizzing exploded in Tiaan's mind. She lifted the yoke and the thapter rose jerkily, though its whine hardly changed. Something was wrong.

'I've hardly any power' she said. 'They must be using some kind of node-drainer.'

'Can't be,' slurred Malien. 'It's not stopping them from flying.'

The slaves began to run towards them, crying and holding out their arms. 'What about the slaves?' said Tiaan.

'Go, before it's too late.'

Tiaan looked into the desperate eyes of the slaves and wanted to weep. How could she leave them behind — she had been one herself. But there was no choice. Feeling like a murderer, she jerked up the yoke. The machine lifted sluggishly. Men and women with staring eyes clutched at the sides but there was nothing to hang on to. The thapter rose to half the height of the trees but would climb no higher, and it moved forward no faster than a running man. A wall of lyrinx were spiralling up from Alcifer, rolling into a flapping cylinder that was closing rapidly on her.

'What am I to do?' cried Tiaan. 'I can't get past them.'

There was no answer. Malien lay slumped on the floor on top of Gilhaelith. Tiaan fixed the field in her mind. There was plenty of power in it, but when she drew it, only a trickle came.

'I'll try to draw from another node,' she said to herself. She found one, more distant, latched onto it and the thapter shot up through the closing cylinder of lyrinx.

Gilhaelith shook Malien off and came to his feet, looking dazed. The thapter lurched and he fell through the hole to the lower level. He began to climb back up. Tiaan couldn't afford the distraction, for lyrinx were now rising out of Alcifer in their thousands. She dropped the hatch and kicked the bar across. Gilhaelith began to beat on the metal.

The lyrinx spread out to cut off her escape to the east, the south and the north. She had no alternative but to turn west. Within a minute the power began to fade, and shortly the thapter was back to its previous pace. The burst of speed had taken it west; snow-tipped peaks loomed ahead. She looked over her shoulder. The lyrinx were gaining rapidly.

There was still an hour to sunset, but that wouldn't save her. This close, the enemy could track her all night. She tried another node but the acceleration was less and did not last as long. They had anticipated her. She kept going, switching from one node to another as soon as the power began to fail, jerking and hopping across the sky but never getting far enough ahead to lose them.

The thapter passed over, or rather between, the mountains, for Tiaan dared not try for extra height. Beyond, a grass-covered plain extended into the distance. She continued west, now travelling swiftly with a strong tailwind. The lyrinx had spread out for leagues to north and south.

Malien stirred and rolled over onto her back, observing what Tiaan did without speaking.

'I can't get away,' Tiaan said. 'What if I were to turn back and fly straight at them?'

'They might take all your power,' said Malien hoarsely. She shook her head. 'It was a trap and I walked right into it. They lured us here. That's why Gilhaelith's whereabouts were common knowledge. I can't believe I didn't realise it.'

'You'd still have gone ahead,' said Tiaan.

'But more carefully. And Forgre and Talis might still be alive. Now I truly stand alone in the world.'

Tiaan did not have the words to comfort her. On they went, carving their staccato path, sometimes gaining, sometimes losing. They passed across the plain into swamp and forest. The thapter dipped sharply, as if it had lost power for a second, after which the hum resumed, though at a lower pitch.

'What was that?' said Malien, sitting up.

'It was as if, for a second, the controller wasn't working, though I could still see the field.'

Tiaan continued at a reduced pace. At sunset she looked back, but could not see the lyrinx at all. 'They've given up! They've turned back, Malien.'

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.