Geomancer

Xervish Flydd picked up a quill. 'Have you anything to say, Crafter Irisis, before I sign the warrants?'

'Only that the charges I have denied are false. I would never do anything to betray the cause I, and my family, have worked for over these past hundred and fifty years.'

'All traitors say that!'

'Once I am dead, you will still be looking for the real traitor and the sabotages will go on.'

'Hmn,' said the scrutator.

Nish put his head in his hands. He could not look at Irisis. The thought of attending the execution, as he would be required to do, was too ghastly to contemplate.

'Has any other witness anything to say?' said the scrutator.

Nish could think of nothing that would count as mitigation. No one else spoke either.

'Before I confirm the sentences,' the scrutator went on, 'which I am entitled to do on the evidence before me… Well, I like to be sure. I propose to call a witness, and carry out a test, of my own. Call the seeker!'

Nish sat up. It seemed irregular to say the least, and surely several of the sabotages had been carried out before Ullii arrived at the manufactory.

Ullii was led in, wearing her mask and earmuffs. She was trembling as she took her place beside the scrutator. He spoke softly to her and gave her his hand. As Ullii drew it to her nose, Nish felt a moment of jealous outrage. That was his role; surely the smell of that withered old man could not do the same for her?

The scrutator gave an imperceptible twitch of his snaky eyebrow. Nish, who was sitting up the back, heard the door-bolts click. The guards took their positions, two on either side of the door.

'I have here,' said the scrutator, holding up a chain and the broken remains of a pliance, and in the other hand a milky hedron, 'evidence which Overseer Gi-Had kept under special guard. It is the remains of Artisan Tiaan's pliance, destroyed when she tried to read one of the failed hedrons. The enemy felt this evidence so threatening that they attacked the manufactory to recover it. Fortunately they did not get it.' Reaching across, he put the objects by Ullii's hand.

'Seeker, Artisan Tiaan saw something in these artefacts. Can you read anything from them? Please stand so everyone can see you.'

Ullii stood up, shaking. For someone who avoided people at all times, this was the worst ordeal she could be put to. Holding the hedron out, she said something in an inaudible voice. Irisis, who had risen to her feet, sat down and the light faded from her eyes.

'Speak up, seeker!' rumbled Flydd. 'No one can hear you.'

In a voice that precisely imitated his, she said, 'It is dead. I can see nothing in it.' She laid the ruined pliance on the benchtop.

Among the crowd, someone let out a great sigh. 'And this crystal,' said the scrutator, 'which is the failed hedron from Disgraced Operator Ky-Ara's original controller?'

Ullii reached for the crystal but drew back at once. Emitting a single sharp scream, she began to curl up into a ball.

'Stop that!' the scrutator said sharply. 'Come back, seeker.'

Ullii froze, then slowly, gracefully uncurled.

'What do you see in the crystal, seeker?'

She gasped, clutched at his hand and said. 'A clawer! Spying on me.'

'Do you mean a lyrinx?'

'Yes,' she whispered.

'What else?'

'A man. The clawer is giving something to a man. White gold!'

'A man? The spy! Can you see his face?'

'No. His back is to me.'

'And that is all you can see?' Nish could read bitter disappointment in the scrutator's frame.

'Yes,' said Ullii.

'Very well. Have you anything to say, Artisan Irisis? Do you admit that this man is your paymaster?'

'Don't be absurd! My family is rich. I have more money than I can ever spend.'

'Doesn't mean you don't want more! Thank you, seeker. You may go down. Clerk, if you would be so good as to hand me the charge sheet, I will confirm…'

Suddenly something occurred to Nish and he sprang to his feet. 'Scrutator! scrutator!'

'Yes?' he snapped. 'It's too late for special pleading now, artificer. The trial is done.'

'It's new evidence,' he cried. 'Please, I beg leave to put a question to the seeker.'

'Oh? What question could you possibly ask that I haven't already thought of?'

Nish chose his words with particular care in case he insulted the scrutator. 'I know her better than anyone, surr. The seeker never volunteers, because it never occurs to her, and she only answers what she is asked. You asked the wrong question, surr. With great respect.'

'Respect is a commodity you've always been short of, boy, like your wretched father. Very well, put your question.'

'Ullii,' said Nish, his heart pounding, 'would you take up the crystal?'

Turning her masked eyes to him, she reached out, touching the hedron with one fingertip.

'No, take it in your hand, Ullii.'

She gave a little cry of anguish, or of terror. The scrutator clasped her other hand. Ullii took up the crystal.

'Look at the image of the man with his back to you. Do you recognise him?'

'No,' said Ullii.

'Bah! Damned nonsense,' came a voice from the crowd. 'I already know who the paymaster is.' Foreman Gryste stood. 'I've been doing my job, even if no one else has.'

'Are you suggesting that I haven't been doing my job?' the scrutator asked mildly.

Gryste faltered. 'No, surr. I'm sorry. I have the man in my cells, surr.'

'Oh?' said the scrutator. 'Which man, foreman?'

'The one who's always hanging around, sticking his fat nose into everyone's work, and doing none of his own. It's Muss, surr. Eiryn Muss.'

'The halfwit!' Flydd burst out laughing.

'He's no halfwit, surr. He's a cunning spy and he's fooled us all.'

'Even me, foreman?' Flydd said dangerously.

'I'm afraid so, surr.'

The scrutator gestured. 'Bring Muss here, and keep a firm hold of him. Don't let him see anything secret on the way.' He laughed at his joke.

It was like watching a corpse laugh; but Nish wondered, as he had once before, if Muss was more than he seemed.

The scrutator did not resume his questioning of Ullii. There was silence for a few minutes, then the guards came pounding in. 'Surr, surr!'

'What is it, man?' the scrutator inquired.

'The prisoner has fled, surr,' the leading guard cried.

'How?'

'The lock is burnt completely from the door. Sorcery!' He shivered.

Flydd did not look surprised.

'What did I tell you, surr,' said Gryste. 'This proves it.'

'It proves something, foreman, though I don't know what.' Flydd turned to Nish. 'Go on with your questioning, artificer.'

Nish's confidence had taken a battering. There seemed little point in continuing. 'This man you saw in the crystal, Ullii, does he have a talent of any kind?'

'A very small talent,' she said softly. 'Tiny!'

'Then you should be able to see him in your lattice.'

Ullii shrugged.

'Search your lattice, Ullii. Is there anyone in it with the same kind of knot as that man's talent has?'

Irisis was on her feet, quivering with emotion. The scrutator stood as well.

Ullii folded up. 'Yes.' She looked down at the polished surface of the bench.

A buzz went through the crowd. One by one, everyone rose. 'It's Muss!' cried Gryste. 'After him, before it's too late!'

'Silence!' The scrutator held up his hand. 'The first person to make a noise goes to the front-lines.' No one moved.

'Is that man in the room, Ullii?' said Nish.

'Yes,' she whispered.

'Would you point to him?'

She pointed to the centre of the room. Slowly the crowd moved away until one man was standing all by himself.

'How dare you? You lying little slag!' roared Foreman Gryste, and launched himself at her.

He disappeared under a dozen bodies. They stood him up again, holding him tightly.

'Soldiers, search the foreman's room. Chronicler and teller, go with them. Ullii, you go too, and seek out anything that may be hidden. Run!'