The first thing she noticed was the noise, or rather, music, a low droning that went up and down like someone blowing through long tubes. It was in the background all the time. Sometimes the sound went so low that she could feel it in her bones.
As she stumbled into the dark, Tiaan wondered if she would ever see the outside again. It was the strangest place she had ever been. The inside was like a frozen foam of grey, rust-streaked iron, every surface being curved like the interior of a bubble. A long way below, past various guard chambers and working spaces whose purpose she could not discern, she entered a large circular chamber shaped like two saucers, one right way up with another upside down on top of it.
She was taken down a sloping floor to the depressed central section. To one side stood a round table, a pitcher and a set of mugs the size of small buckets, all made of iron. Ryll was led in, followed by Besant on her stretcher, her breast plates streaked with coughed-up blood. The stretcher-bearers set Besant down on the rim. Some dozens of lyrinx took up positions around her.
A young female, whose skin plates were so soft and unpigmented that Tiaan could see her breasts through them, gently held up Besant's head. A huge female bent over her, in the attitude Ryll had adopted when regenerating his hand. She stood up, shaking her head.
'Would you speak, Wise Mother?' she said.
Besant mumbled in her incomprehensible language. Every word brought bubbles foaming out of her mouth and nose. Again she spoke Tiaan's name and everyone stared at her. A massively built male, with green eyes shaded by brow ridges like shelves, produced the amplimet. It lit up the room with streamers of radiant light.
He gestured to Tiaan. The big female, who had yellow skin plates and sagging wattles at neck and chin, spoke Tiaan's language in a crackling voice. 'I am Coeland, Wise Mother of Kalissin. Show us the devices, human.'
Not daring to disobey, Tiaan donned the helm, held the wire globe in her hands and waited. Everyone was watching her.
'The amplimet goes inside,' Tiaan said.
Coeland gestured; the male with the brow ridges brought the crystal across. Before he reached her Tiaan felt the potential of it, stronger than before. There had to be a powerful node here.
Her craving for the amplimet was unbearable. Tiaan's eyes watered. She opened the globe so he could place the crystal inside. The light flared. He cried out and dropped the crystal. She caught it in her hands, a moment of painful bliss, then slipped it into the globe, closed it and fastened the catch. The lyrinx sprang out of the way as if it had bitten him.
Tiaan put down the globe. The field was so bright here that she could visualise it with her eyes open. The node must be a monster. She moved the helm on her head, afraid of the amplimet now. It was definitely channelling power by itself, much more than before. It had nearly killed her in the ice sphere, and there it had been much dimmer.
'Show!' Coeland said imperatively.
Tiaan adjusted her helm, reached for the globe, shrieked and snatched her fingers away. The wires were too hot to touch. Suddenly the metal table, pitcher and mugs were pulled up to the ceiling, where they stuck as if magnetised. Water rained down, sizzling on the wires. Her hair began to smoke. Ryll lurched forward and knocked the helm off with his bound hands. The light died down. He caught the falling table and pitcher, though the mugs clanged on the floor.
'You see,' he said to the Wise Mother. 'It taps great power but it is a dangerous device to control. She does not know what she is doing.'
'The field is strong here,' Tiaan said shakily, inspecting her fingers, which had lines burned across them. What if they thought it too dangerous and disposed of her? 'It takes time for me to learn a new field before I can control the flux of power.'
'We'll see about that,' said the elderly lyrinx. 'Tell us about the tetrarch, human.'
Again that question. 'I don't know what a tetrarch is,' Tiaan said
Again that interrogative stare, as if the lyrinx was trying to read her for the truth.
'It is a person we would very much like to find.' She turned to Ryll. 'Besant accuses you of cowardice, wingless one! You were to remain behind. How do you defend yourself?'
Ryll shook his head. He sat holding his shoulder, which was inflamed around the crossbow wound. 'No defence.'
'Then Wyrkoe will be your defender.' At her gesture a tall, slender female stood up.
'No!' said Ryll. 'No defence.'
Wyrkoe sat again.
'In that case you must take the consequences. You will be neutered at first light.'
Tiaan was shocked. What was the matter with Ryll? Was he too proud to defend himself, or had he given up? She looked around at the hard faces. After all he had done for her on the journey she could not see him treated so unjustly. Dare she?
'I will defend Ryll!'
Her words exploded into the silence. Every head jerked up, except one. Ryll's sank to his ankles. 'No!' he groaned.
Had she shamed him? It seemed so, from the malicious stares of the other lyrinx. One even laughed, or so she interpreted the braying sound. But to be neutered – how could he suffer that? It did not occur to Tiaan that it might be a blessed relief, an honourable way out.
'Very well,' said Coeland, 'defend your hero, human.'
Tiaan took a deep breath. Ryll let out another groan but it was too late. The order had been given.
'Had Ryll stayed behind I would have died and my crystal would have been lost, for I could not have caught Besant's flier.' She explained the details of the escape. 'Had Ryll not jumped, carrying me, I would have been captured.'
'He should have harnessed you in and cut himself free!' thundered the Wise Mother. 'Besant, the greatest of our clan, lies dying, sacrificed for a wingless travesty.'
'I could not have flown the wing,' said Tiaan. 'My shoulder is dislocated.' She had to explain the term.
The young female with the transparent skin took off Tiaan's upper garments and worked the arm. Tiaan gritted her teeth. The lyrinx, with a quick movement that made Tiaan shriek, popped the shoulder back in place. She then put the arm in a leather sling and pulled Tiaan's shirt over it.
'Ryll might have done the same,' Coeland observed.
'I still would not have been able to use my arm,' said Tiaan.
'Pfft!' Coeland made a dismissive gesture. 'Such weak creatures.'
'I could not have flown the wing!' Tiaan said furiously. 'And without Ryll giving me the warmth of his body I would have frozen to death. Anyway, had it not been for his foresight and courage you would never have had the amplimet at all.'
Coeland sat up at that and Tiaan was made to tell her whole tale. When it was finished the Wise Mother said, 'Ryll is cleared of the charge of cowardice, though you should be aware, human, that he would have preferred life as a neuter than to be defended by you! Take him away and attend his injuries.'
F ORTY -O NE
Kalissin was a most special node, a place where the latent energies of the earth might conceivably be tapped – if someone was strong enough, and foolhardy enough, to try. Fifty thousand years ago a rock and iron comet from the depths of the void had plunged to ground here, making the planet ring like a gong and blasting up such a cloud of shattered rock that the entire globe had been plunged into darkness. An age of ice followed that had lasted for thirty thousand years.
The remains of the comet had buried itself deep in the crust of Tarralladell. The rocky parts were fused to glass but the iron core formed a deep molten pool that stayed liquid for twenty thousand years until, buoyed by up-seeping gases, it began to rise again. Expanding gas blew the iron into foamy cells that swelled until the mass forced its way to the surface, melted up though the receding ice sheet and set into a solid spire.