He reached up with the pick, as high as he could, but not high enough. He edged forward a bit, just under the shattered zone. Still he could not reach. Going right under, and lifting the pick high, Joeyn eased the handle up to a single crystal, trying to slip the knot over the end. The cord fell down.
Creeping back to the safe area, Joeyn replaced the knot and tried again with the same result. He tried a third time. The cord slipped over the crystal. Putting down the pick he pulled the cord tight and gave it a jerk. The crystal did not move. A harder jerk and the cord broke.
Joeyn cursed, which brought on a fit of coughing. He bent double, gasping and choking.
'Don't stand there, please. Get out of the way!' She imagined the roof thundering down on him. No crystal was worth that risk.
The fit ended. He wiped his mouth, gave her a weak kind of a grin and looked up. 'It's not my day yet, Tiaan.'
'How many dead miners have said that?' she murmured.
'Thousands.' A better grin.
Tossing the cord aside, he slipped along the wall, reached up with the handle of the pick and with a single blow snapped off the small crystal. Unfortunately it fell back among the others. Dust filtered down from the roof. Tiaan caught her breath. Joeyn flipped the pick end for end, caught the handle, stood on tiptoe and flicked the crystal out. He caught it in his other hand, creaked backwards and landed in the safe area. Chips of stone fell from the roof.
As he came across, there was a spring in his step she had never seen before. 'My lady!' Holding out the crystal, he bowed.
'Thank you.' She embraced him, the hand holding the crystal touched her ear and she went rigid against him.
'Something the matter?' he asked, stepping back.
She rubbed her ear. 'It felt as if something stung me.' Tiaan took the crystal. It was smaller than the ones she normally worked with, not much thicker than her thumb. It might not do for a hedron but it looked perfect for her sensor helm. Unlike the other crystals it was perfectly clear, save for a hexagon of tiny bubbles midway along its length.
It did not sting her hand but Tiaan could feel the potential in it – stronger than any crystal she'd ever had.
S IX
'Nish!' Irisis wailed, right in his ear. 'Get up, quick!' Rolling over, he blinked at the bright lantern and tried to pull the pillow over his head. 'Later,' he moaned. 'I'm too tired.'
She poured icy water onto the back of his neck.
Nish shrieked and leapt out of bed. 'What the hell do you think you're doing?'
'Look what Tiaan's done now!' she said savagely.
He rubbed sleep from his eyes. She was holding out a controller, the most beautiful piece of work he'd ever seen. At least it had been. Several arms were broken off and the others twisted as if someone had jumped on them.
'What happened to it?'
'Tiaan smashed it, the vicious little cow.'
'Why would she do that?' Nish could not believe anyone would wantonly destroy such a precious thing, least of all Tiaan.
Irisis sat on the bed, holding the controller against her breast. Its broken arms dangled uselessly. 'I only finished it yesterday!' Her lip trembled and she turned away, as if ashamed at that loss of control. 'It's taken me a month to make and it's the best one I've ever done. I came in early to fit the hedron but the controller was gone. It was behind the door of Tiaan's cubicle, like this.'
'There's a guard down at the offices, night and day.' Nish rubbed the back of his neck, still throbbing from the ice water. 'Better speak to him.'
'I have! The only artisan who's been in the workshop since I left was Tiaan. She's in the pay of the enemy. You've got to stop her, Nish.' She moved up close behind him.
Her warm breath aroused distracting thoughts. He turned away. 'It could be just an accident.'
'Don't be stupid! It was in her cubicle, Nish. It didn't float there. She destroyed my controller, just as she sabotaged the others.'
'That's hard to believe.'
'What does it take to convince you?' she raged. 'Will you let her destroy the manufactory?'
'It takes evidence!' he said vehemently. He longed to get back at Tiaan but probers must follow the rules. His father would never trust him again if he accused someone who subsequently turned out to be innocent. Especially the best artisan in the manufactory.
'Go and talk to the guards,' she said icily.
'I will.'
'Bah!' she snorted. 'You're secretly in love with her. You don't want to find her out.'
Nish went looking for the guards who had been on duty outside the offices overnight. Their post was close to the artisans' workshop. He found the midnight guard in the refectory and explained what had happened.
'No one went near the workshop on my shift,' she said, pointedly turning her shoulder to him. He was a lowly artificer, after all.
Nish had to take her word, though the damage could have been done in a few minutes while she was at the privy, or gossiping to another guard, or warming herself by the furnaces. After all, there had been no one watching the guard.
The day guard, who was talking to Foreman Gryste, had seen no one go into the workshop except Tiaan and, sometime after that, Irisis.
'My door was open,' said Gryste. 'If anyone else came past I would have seen them.'
'Where's Tiaan now?' Nish asked Irisis, who was coming out of the workshop.
'She's gone out again. Come on!'
Nish followed her towards the front gate. 'Where did she go?'
'How would I know?'
They asked old Nod at the gate. 'She went down to the mine,' Nod said.
'She goes there all the time,' said Irisis as they walked out into the wind.
'She has to select the best crystals.'
'You're a fool, Nish! She's selling our secrets to someone there. She's going to meet him.'
'Don't call me a fool,' he said coldly. 'And don't ever call me Nish again. My name is Cryl-Nish.'
His anger made her step backwards. Bowing her head, she took his hand. 'I'm sorry,' she said breathlessly. 'I didn't mean to offend you, Cryl-Nish. Please come and see for yourself.'
As they emerged from the forest Tiaan came out of the adit and took the path to the village. Irisis and Nish followed, keeping at a safe distance.
'Where's she going?' Nish asked.
'To old Joeyn's place, I'd say.'
They tracked her to a hut above the village. Tiaan went inside, then she and the miner came out and sat on the porch.
'What are they doing?' Irisis whispered.
'Drinking tea.'
After some time, Tiaan and Joeyn headed back up the path to the mine.
'Come on!' said Irisis.
Nish went with her to the hut. She slipped inside. 'Quickly!' she said as he lingered on the path.
Nish thought it unlikely that there was anything to be found, but humoured her. Shortly, however, feeling under the old man's blankets, his hand touched a folded piece of paper. He carried it to the doorway.
Both sides of the page were covered in writing in a tiny hand. It was a description of the preparation of a hedron. 'That's Tiaan's writing,' Irisis said, coming up behind him. 'The traitorous slut!'
Nish examined the paper, which was rough-cut on three sides, razor smooth on the fourth. 'Looks as if it's been taken from a book.'
'It must be from her day journal.'
They found nothing else. Without saying a word Nish went back to the manufactory, searching Tiaan's room and then her work cubicle. Her room revealed nothing. Her day journal had a leaf missing, neatly razored out.
He locked the cubicle, put the key in his pocket and went to see Overseer Gi-Had. There he explained that he was a prober, working secretly on his father's behalf, showed his letter of appointment and told Gi-Had about the ruined controller and the missing leaf.
'I don't believe it!' said the overseer, though he looked worried.
'Anyone can be corrupted by the enemy.'