‘Not a spy. A watcher, helping to maintain order. This is a vital manufactory …’
‘Is it?’ she said. ‘But there are hundreds. Why is ours so important?’ Irisis leaned forward.
‘We build the best clankers, because we make the finest controllers of all.’
‘Why is that?’ she whispered, taking his hand and sliding it inside the sheet.
Nish’s eyes bulged. Sweat broke out on his forehead. ‘Because,’ he said hoarsely, ‘we have the most perfect hedrons and the best artisans anywhere. The scrutator wants to know why, to protect us from harm and make sure no one steals our secrets.’
‘Someone has to be the best. And if we have the best crystals, it stands to reason we would make the best controllers …’
She looked at him sideways. He hesitated, knowing he’d said more than he should. She slipped her hand lower. He groaned.
‘It’s something about this place!’ Nish burst out. ‘Our artisans are much better than others, even when they use inferior, imported crystals. It must be the node here.’
She resumed her caresses. ‘A lowly prober isn’t sent to solve those kinds of problems. That’s mancer’s work.’
Nish looked chagrined, as if he’d revealed too much already.
‘How long have you been a prober, Nish?’
He flushed. ‘Just since my father’s letter came, a week ago.’
‘And perhaps if he knew what you’ve told me, you’d be a prober no longer.’
He went still. She considered him, head tilted so that the glossy hair stroked his shoulder. Her eyes ran up and down before settling about his middle. ‘I know something else you may like.’ She bent over him.
Now he moaned when she stopped prematurely. ‘What are you really probing for, my little spy?’
‘I can’t tell you,’ he gasped. ‘A prober who talks is no prober at all, and likely to end up a slave. Or dead!’
‘Or in the front rank of the army, which amounts to the same thing. Let’s see if I can guess. This place is full of rumours but who can tell truth from falsehood? What does a prober do? He stays alert for people who aren’t doing their job, those who have unfortunate ideas, and those who think someone else could run the world better than our leaders. None of that here, though. This is a well-run, happy manufactory.
‘But there’s one other thing that probers do.’ She paused, gave him a long look, then bent her head again. He choked. She looked him fair in the eye. ‘They hunt spies!’
The expression on his face almost made her laugh. He could not think straight. How she loved this power she had over men. Few women did these days.
‘Please,’ he whimpered.
She just stared at him. He put his hands around the back of her head, trying to pull her down. She went with him a little way then stopped, and when he tried to use his strength she bared her teeth. They were alarmingly sharp.
There was only one way to get what he wanted. Nish licked dry lips. ‘There is a spy, father is sure of it. Twice now, secrets of clankers made here, and only here, have been discovered far away.’
‘Who is the spy?’
‘We don’t know. Whoever he is, he’s too clever.’
‘Or she!’
‘Or she,’ he repeated.
‘I’ll help you. People will be wary of you, since your father is known to be perquisitor. But why would they suspect me?’
He looked uncertain.
‘You’re worried that I’ll take the credit,’ she said with a lazy smile. ‘You need not – spycatcher is the last thing I want put to my name.’
‘What do you want, Irisis?’
‘What you offered Tiaan. What is mine by right. I want to be crafter, in charge of the entire controller works, and, one day, chanic of the province.’
‘But you’re only an artisan, and it’s not long since you were prentice.’
‘Crafter!’ she said coldly. ‘Then chanic.’
‘Most artisans never become crafter, and few – very few crafters will rise to be chanic.’
‘I have the talent for it; and the heritage. My father, my uncle, my grandfather, my great-grandmother and her mother before that, all were crafters or better. For four generations my family has held the position here. I’m going to be the fifth.’
‘You’re not old enough.’
‘That rule can be broken, in an emergency.’
‘Not by me.’
‘A chief examiner can. You promised it to Tiaan. I heard you.’
‘You didn’t want me at all!’ Nish cried. ‘All you wanted was what you could get out of me.’
‘Are you unhappy with what I’ve given you?’
‘N-no!’
‘Good, because I can’t stand whiners. Were you lying to Tiaan? I hate liars more than anything, Nish. I hope you never lie to me.’
The fury of his thoughts showed on his face. ‘I … I might be able to do something for you. I have … some influence with my father, and more with my mother. I think I can sway them, as long as there is something in it for them.’
Irisis did not believe him, though she had not expected much. ‘There will be. Now, how shall we seal the deal?’
She looked down and he up. He put his hands around her head, drawing her down, and this time she went willingly.
Irisis rolled over and shook Nish awake. He struggled out of deep slumber into listless lethargy.
She leaned on one elbow, gazing at him. ‘While you were snoring, I’ve been thinking.’
‘Oh?’ he said dully.
‘I have an idea who the spy might be.’
He sat up abruptly. ‘Really?’ He clutched at her arm, staring into her eyes. ‘Who?’
She smiled, showing those teeth again. ‘I think it’s Tiaan.’
He burst out laughing. ‘Tiaan? You’d never make a prober, Irisis.’
She hurled herself off the bed, flinging the sheet around her with a gesture simple yet elegant. She looked like a marble statue carved by one of the masters of old, though her face spoiled the pose. ‘No? What was she up to yesterday?’
‘Visiting her mother. She goes down every month.’
‘Tiaan was a long time away.’
‘Maybe she had shopping to do.’
‘And maybe she was meeting an accomplice to hand over our secrets.’
‘Probers require proof,’ he said loftily. ‘Not idle speculation born out of malice.’
‘I’ll prove it to you!’ she hissed. ‘And now, Nish dear, get out!’
Nish left Irisis’s rooms physically sated but more anxious than before. If she betrayed his confidence, he would suffer. No prober’s position then. No future at all, just the front-line until a lyrinx tore him apart.
Irisis was wrong. He’d had his eye on Tiaan for months. There had been nothing suspicious about her behaviour. Tiaan worked night and day, talked to her solitary friend, the old miner, and occasionally visited her mother in Tiksi. That was her entire life.
If there was a spy or a saboteur, and it seemed there must be, it had to be someone else. Possibly Irisis, unlikely as that seemed. With a thousand workers in the manufactory it would not be easy to find out.
Better patch things up with her. He could not afford to make enemies, especially of someone so well connected. And as he returned to his bench the image of her long, lush body grew in his mind. Nish knew he’d struck gold with Irisis. He might never find a better lover and he wanted more of her lessons. Better humour her, take her suspicions seriously, offer to help with her career and, if necessary, hint at a subtle prober’s threat behind it.
But if he found the least scrap of evidence against Irisis, he would destroy her. Not without regret, but without hesitation.
FIVE
Gi-Had’s news came as a great relief to Tiaan. She had begun to doubt her own competence, but if hedrons from other manufactories were also failing there must be more to it than bad workmanship. Did the enemy have a way of disabling them from afar, or were they being sabotaged here? How could a crystal be sabotaged yet look unmarked? She had never heard of such a thing, nor had the other artisans. She was not out of trouble yet.