As they reached the surrounding circle, Ryll’s truce-blue faded and they disappeared into the crowd. They were gone almost an hour. When they returned, Ryll said without preamble, ‘We will do it.’ He clasped Tiaan’s hand, then each of the others’. ‘But first you must break the mind-shock circle, if you can.’
‘I can,’ said Tiaan, ‘since I know how it was made. How long will it take you to get to Nithmak?’
‘We can run forty leagues in two days and nights,’ said Daodand. ‘Though, running with so little water …’
‘The children will die of thirst,’ said Tiaan.
‘Most will,’ said Liett. ‘Unless you allow us sufficient power to fly them there.’
‘We can’t, Tiaan,’ said Nish. ‘What if they break free and begin the war over?’
‘You expect us to trust you,’ cried Liett, ‘yet you do not trust us in return.’
‘That is the privilege of the victors,’ said Nish.
Malien shushed him and conferred with Tiaan for a moment, then called Irisis. ‘Is there a way to cut off the field controller on one side only?’
Irisis had to think for a minute. ‘You might do it this way, with the amplimet …’
After listening to the explanation Tiaan said, ‘It won’t work for long, but it should last long enough for them to break out. And once they’re going full speed in the dark, the mind-shockers won’t be able to encircle them again.’
‘What about us?’ said Irisis.
‘What do you mean?’
‘What if Orgestre orders the field controller directed against us?’
‘They’ll be far too busy trying to contain the enemy,’ said Malien. ‘They can’t do both.’
‘We wouldn’t see the children die,’ said Tiaan to Ryll. ‘We’ll allow you power for flight, but should anyone abuse this offer, I’ll withdraw that power while you’re flying. From all of you.’
Liett’s yellow eyes glowed. ‘I think that I like you after all, little human! You have my word.’
‘And mine. Let it be done,’ said Ryll.
‘And done swiftly,’ Irisis added. ‘While our opponents are sleeping.’
They went up in the thapter. It was well after midnight and the night still overcast. Shortly the agreed signal was flashed vertically from the lyrinx camp. Tiaan used the amplimet to break the mind-shock circle on the western side. The lyrinx burst out and the clankers retreated in terror. Soon the fliers among the lyrinx, perhaps a tenth of their number, took to the air carrying the children.
‘We’re taking an almighty risk,’ said Nish. ‘If they break their word and the war begins again, we’ll be the most reviled names in all the Histories. Our best choice will be to go straight to the Well, for there’ll be no hiding on Santhenar.’
‘They won’t break their word,’ said Tiaan, but her hand shook on the controller and the thapter dipped. She steadied it and flew west into the night.
‘Tiaan,’ said Gilhaelith from the base of the ladder, ‘did Tirior really take your field map?’
She flushed. ‘Of course not.’
‘May I see it?’
‘Why?’
‘My globe is in error in some small respects. I’d like it to be perfect before … you know.’
She smiled. ‘I’m a geomancer too – I understand perfectly.’ Withdrawing the folded map from the lining of her coat she passed it to him.
SEVENTY-FIVE
Nish was sitting miserably on the floor of the thapter, which was lurching and bouncing all over the sky. It had been harried by two thapters since dawn, and now a third machine had joined them.
‘Are you all right?’ he heard Malien say to Tiaan.
‘I think I can manage for a while yet.’
‘Use the amplimet to keep above them.’
‘I’m trying to.’
A crossbow bolt spanged off the side. Nish glanced at Irisis, who was sitting cross-legged, apparently unconcerned, making another of her pieces of jewellery. This one was a brooch in silver filigree, like two figure-eights joined at the centre. She didn’t look up.
‘How did we get ourselves into this mess?’ said Nish. ‘What if the lyrinx escape and attack our defenceless cities –?’
‘Will you shut up!’ she hissed. ‘We made our choice, so don’t start whining and wringing your hands like a third-rate Minis.’ She worked for a few more minutes, then exclaimed, ‘Now look what you’ve made me do,’ and slammed the brooch down on the floor.
‘I’m sorry,’ Nish said at once. ‘You seemed so calm.’
‘Of course I’m not calm! We may have made the biggest mistake of our lives, and we’re bound to pay for it. I’ve been regretting it since the moment I opened my mouth, but –’
‘But what else could we have done? Come here.’ She sat beside him, taking his hand. ‘You’re right,’ Nish said. ‘Let’s not waste the time we have left on useless regrets. We did what was right and we’ll face the consequences.’
It didn’t appear as though the other thapters were trying to destroy Malien’s machine, but only to force it down on the salt. Tiaan kept just ahead of them for hours as she followed a roundabout course south and west, trying to draw their fire away from the lyrinx. Thus far she’d always managed to get away, through the superior range of the amplimet.
Gilhaelith was sitting up the other end, Tiaan’s map spread out on the floor before him while he made minute alterations to the geomantic globe. It was like watching grass grow.
From the heights, after the sun came up, Nish had seen terrible sights. Early on, a fleet of Orgestre’s constructs had torn straight through a band of running lyrinx, trampling them under the iron feet, smashing flesh and bones to jelly. There had been children among them.
Not long after that, the field had been whipped away from a group of flying lyrinx. They had done everything they could to keep aloft: their limbs went like bellows, their great wings thrashed, but without the aid of the Secret Art no effort could keep them in the air. Males, females and children all plummeted to the bed of the Dry Sea, their impacts making little purple marks that were swallowed by the white immensity of the salt. Nish had gone below after that. It had seemed better not to know, or at least not to see it. But it confirmed that he’d made the right decision.
The sound of the mechanism cut off abruptly. Nish scrambled to his feet but it started again at once as Tiaan tapped into another field.
‘Is everything all right?’ he said hoarsely, looking up the ladder.
‘So far,’ replied Malien in a strained voice.
‘I just hope they know what they’re doing,’ said Nish to Irisis.
‘They’ve fought this kind of battle before,’ said Irisis, intent on a new brooch.
Several hours afterwards Malien called down. ‘One of the thapters has turned away towards the Foshorn. I think Flydd’s in it. I wonder what he’s up to?’
‘I’m sure we’ll find out before too long,’ said Irisis.
Tiaan went higher and shortly the other two craft turned back. By the time they reached Nithmak in mid-afternoon, the first of the fliers were already there. A narrow stair wound around the peak from top to bottom. Though the mighty winches were still in place, the five constructs Tiaan and Malien had seen previously were gone.
Most of the fliers were spread out around the base of the peak, or hanging from the sides, though several hundred had assembled on the flat top, Liett among them, when the thapter landed. They were assembling javelards and catapults for the inevitable attack. Tiaan remained where she was, slumped in her seat, eyes closed.
‘Are you all right?’ said Irisis.
‘Just clearing my mind before we begin on the gate.’
‘You’d better have a sleep first,’ said Malien.
‘There isn’t time.’
‘The runners won’t be here for a day and a half. Remember your first gate, Tiaan. You wouldn’t want anything to go wrong this time.’
When Nish rose late the following morning after the first decent sleep he’d had in weeks, Tiaan was walking around and around the tower, as if trying to find courage after the disaster of her previous gate. Everything rested on her. What if she couldn’t make it work, or it went wrong again?