Geomancer

The snow had a crust and in places there were no tracks at all. A dense overcast did not hint at moon or stars. Within minutes the night had swallowed up the firelight. Tiaan was no longer sure she could find her way back. She tramped harder, making sure she left tracks.

'Haani?'

No reply. How had the child gone so far, so quickly? Tiaan stopped within a windswept clearing. The stunted pines hardly broke the wind at all. The snow was packed hard. There were no footprints.

A blast blew through her unfastened coat. Pulling it tight, Tiaan looked around frantically. No sign; no sound. She held the amplimet up in fingers that were numb, and called more light from it. It waxed then waned, as if it was dying.

Hobbling across the clearing, she checked the patches of snow on the other side. No sign. She did a complete circle, came on her own marks, and despair crept like ice into her bones.

Backtracking, she found a single small print pointing left, before the clearing. It was under a tree. The child liked to climb trees. She looked up. 'Haani?'

'Haani,' she roared with all her might. All she heard was the whistling wind.

The light was dimming and Tiaan could not coax more from the crystal. She could hardly hold it, it was growing so cold. As she opened her mouth to yell, the cry of a wildcat came on the wind.

Haani screamed, to her left. Tiaan ran that way, her numb feet thudding the ground. Not far on, she stumbled on a bloody print, and another. Tiaan hoped it was just a cut foot. As she burst into another clearing, Haani was frantically trying to climb a tree. She kept slipping down the icy trunk.

Tiaan trod on a branch, which snapped loudly. Haani screamed and ran into the dark. Tiaan pounded after her. 'Haani, stop! It's me, Tiaan!'

Again came that wildcat cry. Haani shrieked, just ahead, and when Tiaan ran into the clearing the child came racing back the other way, looking over her shoulder, and crashed into her. Tiaan threw her arms around Haani, who screamed and screamed.

Squeezing her hard, Tiaan yelled, 'Haani, you're safe now!'

Haani went rigid, stayed that way for a minute then began to weep in great wracking sobs. Tiaan lifted her up. The child clung to her desperately. The foot injury was minor, though she was at risk of frostbite. Tiaan put Haani's feet in the pockets of her coat, wishing she could do the same for her own.

It was snowing hard now, the amplimet practically dead. Before she had gone far Tiaan lost her own tracks. She had no idea which way to go.

F IFTY -O NE

A week went by while Nish sat around in Tiksi, until he was completely fed up with idleness and his own company. Irisis and every other able-bodied person, apart from Ullii, had gone back to the manufactory days ago. Having heard nothing about his fate, he lived in fear of it. Fyn-Mah had given him access to her files on lyrinx flesh-forming. Nish read until his eyes ached, but found it difficult to concentrate.

Eight days after their arrival he was called to the master's mansion and ushered into the same chamber. Xervish Flydd lay back in the chair with his eyes closed, sucking on his beard.

'Good morning, scrutator!' said Nish politely.

The scrutator gave no reply. He simply ignored Nish. Nish cleared his throat several times, shuffled his feet and tapped on the table, wondering if the scrutator was asleep. He did not think so. Eventually Nish took a piece of paper out of his pocket and began sketching on it, considerations for improving the clanker javelards. He worked on that for an hour before the man sat up suddenly.

'I've been thinking to put you in the front-line, Cryl-Nish!'

The paper went one way, the pencil another. Nish bent down for them, trying to conceal his shock. He'd thought he had escaped that fate.

'And you could hardly appeal such a judgment, artificer, after the trouble you've caused. Even your own father's reports say so. Poor Jal-Nish. Well, it's up to me now. Have you anything to say for yourself?'

'I believe I've done some good since then,' Nish said weakly.

'Indeed? That's not what I heard from the plateau.'

'What did you hear, surr?' Nish had to force the words out, he was so afraid.

'I heard that you threatened Ky-Ara, which led to the destruction of his clanker.'

Nish looked around frantically, wanting to deny it but not daring to. There was no truth the scrutator could not dig out and the process would be most unpleasant.

'For the want of a clanker the artisan was lost. The crystal too! And a perquisitor maimed.'

'Ky-Ara should have resisted me,' Nish muttered.

'Indeed he should, and will be brought to account for his negligence. As will you.'

The scrutator glanced down at his bony hands. The fingers were gnarled and twisted as if they'd been broken in a torture chamber, then set by someone who knew nothing about bones. He flexed his fingers, which moved as awkwardly as the limbs of a crab. Nish shuddered and tried vainly to conceal it.

The cold eyes saw everything. 'On the other hand, you have shown courage, Cryl-Nish. And courage, I need not remind you, is an essential quality in the front-line soldier.'

'I may be more use to you at the manufactory as an artificer,' Nish said desperately.

'I doubt it! You're an indifferent artificer, Cryl-Nish, though you work hard at it.'

'I've done my best. Artificing was not my choice.'

'Indeed you have, but your best is not good enough.'

'What about my project for Fyn-Mah? To learn about the flesh-formers?'

'Have you done any good with it?'

'No, but I've only…'

'Leave it to her!'

'But…'

'No buts, artificer,' growled Flydd.

Nish stared at the floor in despair. He was doomed. Then inspiration struck. 'How have you gone with Ullii, surr?'

The scrutator's mouth curled down, and then suddenly he smiled. 'I see what you're about. You hope to prove useful in an endeavour that an old monster like me has failed at.'

'Well, er… the seeker is difficult to work with.'

'I found her not unusually so.'

Nish's mouth fell open. 'But…'

'People are not necessarily what they seem, boy. Sometimes we show others what they want us to see. You, for example, think of the scrutator as a bloody old bastard.'

Nish could hardly deny it, so he remained silent.

'I understand your friend Ullii very well. We got on famously and parted friends.'

Nish could not believe that, although the scrutator would hardly lie about something so easily checked. The piece of paper fluttered from Nish's hand. He watched it drift down but did not go after it. 'Then it's all over for me. I'm done for!'

Those eyes burned through him again.

'Perhaps I can use you after all, Cryl-Nish. I don't have the time to keep watch with Ullii. And why should I when you could do it for me? I think I will send you back to the manufactory. You can be a second-rate artificer by day. At night, when the seeker is not out hunting crystal in the mine, you will ensure that she keeps watch.'

'Watch for what?' Nish said stupidly.

'For people using the Secret Art. What else?'

'Oh!'

'Also for Tiaan. One day she will reappear and I want to know immediately. By skeet, and damn the expense! And then I want her found. This is the sole reason I have spared you, artificer. So you and the seeker can track down Tiaan and, more importantly, this rather interesting hedron she seems to have discovered. Don't fail me, boy, or you're lyrinx fodder!' The following morning Nish and Ullii were on their way back to the manufactory with an escort of six foot-soldiers and a clanker. Ullii was uncommonly cheerful. She did not say much, but when Nish mentioned the scrutator she said 'Xervish!' and smiled at some memory. There had to be more to the man than that unprepossessing exterior showed. No doubt there was – one did not rise to one of the most powerful positions in the land without having many talents.