‘Yes,’ she said, putting her hand to her chest. ‘But Flydd …’
‘Jal-Nish is too strong,’ said Malien. ‘There’s nothing we can do here.’
She began to slide through the crowd and they followed in her wake. They hadn’t gone far when Jal-Nish let out a cry of fury, which was followed by a low-pitched humming, like the song of the tears only more intense.
The sound beamed into the crowd like a sonic finger and everyone in its path fell down, moaning and holding their hands over their ears. Another hum; collapsing townsfolk cut a second long embayment in the crowd, leaving Nish exposed at the very end. He was still on his feet but didn’t seem able to move.
‘Run!’ he mouthed as Jal-Nish’s soldiers pounded towards him.
Irisis, ten paces away, turned to run back but Gilhaelith jerked her away.
‘He’s caught and you can’t do anything for him. You can’t fight the tears.’
Irisis was in agony, her eyes staring from a stark white face, but she allowed Gilhaelith to take her arm. Tiaan looked back through a gap in the crowd. The soldiers held Nish and as soon as they hauled him out of the way Jal-Nish would be free to use his sound beam again.
‘Where’s the thapter, Tiaan?’ said Gilhaelith in a low voice.
‘Down there in the little park.’
‘Come on.’ He ran and Malien did too.
Irisis was just standing there, staring at Nish, who was being dragged off. Another sonic blast roared through the crowd, dying out not far to Tiaan’s right.
Irisis took a deep breath and turned Tiaan’s way, her eyes bright with anguish. ‘Farewell, Tiaan.’ She held out her arms.
‘You’re not coming?’
‘I can’t leave him.’
‘But Jal-Nish will crucify you!’
‘I’ll find a way round him,’ Irisis said lightly. ‘You know what I’m like with men.’
Not this one! Black icicles formed in Tiaan’s chest. ‘I’ll never see you again. I know it.’
‘Of course you will. We’ll be drinking together in Tiksi before the new year.’ Irisis hugged Tiaan, then quickly stepped back. ‘Farewell, Tiaan. It … knowing you has been the great privilege of my life.’ She wiped her eye, then pretended that it was just a speck of dust. ‘Go quickly, and do what you can for us.’
Tiaan went, Merryl at her side, slipping through the crowd, which opened before her and closed up tightly behind. She could not look back.
Before they reached the street corner and turned towards the little park, an officer shouted, ‘There they are!’
She darted a glance over her shoulder. Red-coated soldiers were forcing their way after them. Merryl took her wrist and ran. Malien and Gilhaelith were almost out of sight.
Tiaan was not used to running. She’d spent most of her time in the thapter, these past two years. There was a burning pain in her side, and the soldiers were less than a hundred paces behind. One had gone to his knees, pointing his crossbow. Merryl jerked Tiaan around the corner as he fired.
In the park, Gilhaelith was climbing into the thapter. Malien must have been inside, for it began to move. Tiaan was fading badly now. She could hardly run and her backbone was a mass of pain where it had been broken long ago. The thapter raced towards them as a soldier turned the corner, levelling his crossbow.
As he fired, Malien whipped the thapter between them and the soldier, so that the bolt slammed into the side. They scrambled in and the machine was up and away, climbing fast.
Then not so fast. Then, not fast at all.
‘What is it?’ whispered Tiaan.
‘I don’t know,’ said Malien. ‘It’s as if the air has turned to porridge and the thapter can scarcely force its way through it. Or …’
‘Or as if he’s holding us back with the tears. I’m doing everything I can but it’s not working. He’s too strong.’
Tiaan closed her eyes. Clutching the amplimet, she tried to sense the ebb and flow of the field, to see if there was anything linking them to Jal-Nish, but she sensed nothing.
‘What if I put the amplimet in its socket,’ Tiaan said suddenly, ‘together with your crystal? And we try to fly the thapter together?’
‘It’s a big gamble,’ said Malien. ‘It could make things worse.’
‘It’s only a gamble when you’ve got something to lose.’
As she was inserting the amplimet, the thapter lurched and stopped in mid-air, then began to creep backwards as if Jal-Nish were reeling them in. Tiaan put her hand on the controller and Malien her longer one over it, and both tried to draw power simultaneously.
The mechanism screamed as though trying to thrash itself to pieces. The thapter lurched backwards.
‘Stop!’ gasped Malien. ‘We’re pulling in opposite directions. Take your hand off. Let me control the thapter, Tiaan. Just try to deliver the extra force I need.’
Tiaan took her hand off and the strain eased, but the thapter gave another backwards jerk, and another, and the further it went the tighter the grip of the tears became.
‘Follow the way I use power,’ Malien added, ‘rather than trying to do it your own way. Ready?’
‘Yes. I think so.’ Tiaan drew power as gently as she could. A grinding sound issued from downstairs.
‘Gently,’ said Malien. ‘Close your eyes and just sense the flow, and go with it rather than trying to drive everything before you.’
This time, after some effort, Tiaan was able to follow the way Malien worked, though it was already giving her a headache.
‘More,’ said Malien. ‘But just a little more.’
Tiaan gave her more. The thapter stopped its fitful backwards jerking, floated at the point of balance for a moment, then slowly began to climb.
‘A trifle more,’ said Malien. ‘He’ll double the effort when he realises what we’re doing.’
The pull on them increased. Tiaan drew more power. The pull increased again. ‘This isn’t going to work,’ she said. ‘We’re giving him time to match us.’
‘I can’t do any more. I’m at my limit.’
‘Just keep doing what you’re doing. Leave the rest to me.’
Malien gave her a doubtful glance.
‘Trust me,’ said Tiaan. ‘We’ve got nothing to lose.’
She tuned her mind to the stored power in the crystal, which had been there since their trip through the gate to Tallallame, and took as much as her mind could bear.
The mechanism screamed, she felt a tearing sensation like glued paper being ripped apart and the thapter shot up into the sky, faster than it had ever gone. She kept the power flowing until, with a wrench that she felt inside her skull, the pull of the tears ceased completely.
Gilhaelith cried out and crushed his knotted fists to his temples. Tiaan had forgotten he was there.
‘What’s the matter?’ said Malien.
‘The recurrence of an old pain I can do nothing about,’ said Gilhaelith. ‘I’ll have to lie down. Could you give me a hand, Merryl?’
Merryl helped him down the ladder.
‘You had a plan?’ said Tiaan, removing the amplimet so Malien could take over again. She could use it, but preferred not to unless she had no choice.
‘I wondered if it might be possible to draw so much power from the node at Ashmode that it failed. It would send out a sensory reverberation that might –’
‘I don’t think there’s any way to draw such power without killing ourselves in the process,’ said Tiaan. ‘I’ve already thought about it. And there’s no saying it would work anyway.’
‘Then there’s nothing we can do for Flydd or Yggur, or any of them,’ Malien said heavily.
SEVENTY-NINE
‘It’s as if we’ve escaped under false pretences,’ said Tiaan wretchedly.
‘I know,’ said Malien, ‘though we would have wanted them to escape, even if we could not. Let’s not lose hope – we may yet find a way to do something.’
‘Then we’d better think quickly. Jal-Nish didn’t seem like a man who would gloat over-long.’