‘Too gloomy,’ said Tiaan. ‘This place might be a paradise but it’s a –’ She screamed and hurled herself backwards, landing in the leaves.
Irisis’s sword flashed and something went flying through the air. The leaves rustled. ‘Back to the clearing, quickly.’
SEVENTY-SEVEN
‘What was it?’ said Nish, helping Tiaan up.
‘It was like a snake with legs,’ said Irisis, ‘and it nearly had you. It was so quick. I just cut a bit off the tail.’
‘You saved my life,’ said Tiaan.
‘Well, at least a nasty bite on the ankle.’
In the open space, Tiaan dusted herself off, felt at her throat and said, ‘The amplimet’s gone.’
Nish and Irisis ran back, swords drawn. ‘Here it is,’ said Nish, reaching to pick it up. ‘The chain must have broken when you fell.’
As his fingertip touched the crystal there came a brilliant flash of light and he was thrown backwards into the bushes.
‘Nish!’ Irisis ran after him.
‘It’s all right,’ he said. ‘I haven’t broken anything.’ He got up, holding his sore ribs.
‘Come on. There’s bound to be more than one of those little beasts.’
Tiaan bent over the amplimet. ‘It’s glowing brightly now, as if there’s a powerful node nearby, but I can’t sense any field at all.’ She touched it gingerly. It flashed again, but did not sting her. ‘It feels different.’
‘It may well be,’ said Gilhaelith. ‘Objects carried between the worlds are often changed.’
She held it out at arm’s length. ‘Corrupted?’
‘Not necessarily. The Mirror of Aachan took on the taint of its owner, and Shuthdar was an evil man. Once corrupted, such an artefact is impossible to cleanse, and only the strongest can control it.’
‘Well, at least the gate is still working.’ Lyrinx were coming through faster than ever, now running full-tilt. They’d already worn a path out of the gate.
‘What say we climb that hill?’ said Gilhaelith. ‘I’d like to see a little of this world, if I’m to spend a day on it.’ He added under his breath, ‘Or a lifetime.’
They headed up an incline along a trail made by soft-footed animals that wound up the hill. Near the top they emerged from the towering trees into a clearing that capped the hill, and its neighbour. The spongy grass was long and blue-green.
They followed the ridgeline up onto the next hill, which was higher, and the one after that, which was also bare and looked over the surrounding countryside. The forest of giant trees extended in every direction. On the other side of the ridge they looked into a steep valley with a winding river; the sun, orange rather than yellow, reflected off the water.
Tiaan gazed at the scene and sighed. ‘It’s just lovely. I wish I could live here.’
Gilhaelith was staring into the distance, shading his eyes with his hand. Winged creatures wheeled above the river, further along. ‘The lyrinx haven’t wasted –’
Irisis pulled him down. ‘Those aren’t lyrinx! Look at the length of the necks, and the reptilian head.’
‘They’re hunting.’ Nish crouched down in the grass, squinting at the creatures.
‘They’ll be hunting us if we don’t find some cover,’ said Irisis. ‘Let’s go back.’
‘They’ve turned our way.’ Nish started to run along the edge of the hill.
‘Come back,’ she yelled. ‘Down into the forest.’
‘I don’t suppose anyone has a crossbow?’ said Tiaan.
‘Of course not!’ Irisis snapped, angry with herself for not bringing a useful weapon. ‘Get down. Crawl through the grass.’
They had not gone far before the winged creatures soared overhead, blotting out the sun with their membranous wings and emitting raucous cries. ‘If we stand together,’ said Gilhaelith, ‘and put our swords up, we might have a chance.’
‘I doubt it,’ said Tiaan. ‘There are half a dozen of them and they’re as big as lyrinx.’
They did so anyway. The flying creatures came to ground not far away, staring at them and showing no fear. ‘They’re not afraid of humans,’ said Gilhaelith, ‘and that’s a bad sign.’
‘Masterly understatement,’ said Irisis. ‘Get ready.’
‘For what?’ said Nish, looking for a stick, a stone or anything he could throw to keep them away.
The creatures began to move inwards, until a hideous growl erupted from below, though to Tiaan’s ears it was the sound of massed throats pretending to be savage beasts. A band of lyrinx came storming out of the shrubbery, wings spread, mouths agape. The racket was incredible.
The flying creatures whirled; then, as one, they kicked themselves into the air and flapped away.
‘Thank you,’ said Tiaan as the lyrinx made a protective circle around them.
‘We will escort you back to the gate,’ said the leader, a stocky female with miniature crests running down the front of her breastplates. ‘This is no world for helpless humans.’
They reached it an hour later, suitably chastened. The lyrinx were coming through as fast as before. The amplimet was still glowing but Tiaan had no idea why. ‘It seems to have picked up some kind of a charge,’ she said.
‘That’s not unknown in the Histories of mancery,’ said Gilhaelith. ‘Some of the very first magical devices, as the Art was then called, were crystals or glasses that had become naturally charged in a field. The first mancers were just people who could make use of that power.’
‘Will the charge remain if we go back through the gate?’ Tiaan asked.
‘It may last for a while, unless the return passage changes the amplimet again.’
‘How long?’
‘An hour, a day, a month? How would I know? This is surely the first time an amplimet has been taken through a portal. But sooner or later the charge will fail and then, most likely, the amplimet will be useless.’
‘You mean …?’
‘It may no longer draw power at all.’
‘I don’t care,’ Tiaan said, ‘as long as it lasts until we complete our work here.’
Ryll was still standing by the gate when they reappeared, and the gate continued to work. Nish and Irisis went out, but Tiaan remained beside Ryll. ‘How many are there to go?’ she asked.
‘Less than forty thousand,’ said Ryll. ‘There were more but the … the waters took them. Three hundred and seven thousand have passed through, plus more than a hundred thousand children, carried.’
‘So many? The gate has only been open a few hours.’
‘It was before dawn when you left. Now it’s morning of the next day, our last on Santhenar. If the gate lasts, in two hours we’ll all be through.’
‘Time passes differently in the Three Worlds,’ said Gilhaelith.
They went out into the light. An easterly sun was slanting low across what had been the Dry Sea. There was no salt to be seen, just water all the way to the horizon.
‘The Sea of Perion rises swiftly.’ Malien detached herself from the crowd that covered every available surface on top of the pinnacle. ‘Already it’s over fifty spans deep.’
‘And still forty thousand lyrinx to go,’ said Tiaan. ‘They must be clinging to every part of the peak.’
‘Like bees to a honeycomb.’
‘What happened to the Well?’
Malien gestured over her shoulder. It was just behind them, looming above the tower like the black eye of a cyclone. They moved around to that side of the peak. The funnel of the Well went down through the water, all the way to the bottom of the sea, and probably below that.
Apart from a few wheeling lyrinx the sky was empty, not a thapter or air-dreadnought to be seen. ‘Has Orgestre given up?’
‘I doubt it. Flying lyrinx have kept the thapters away.’
The Well was less than a league away now, and tracking directly towards them. Irisis studied it with her spyglass.
‘I can see a clanker in there,’ Irisis burst out. ‘Carried up as if it were made of paper. And all sorts of other things. Trees. Bodies.’ She shivered. ‘What power the Well must have.’