They leaned on the rim of the basket, on opposite sites for balance, watching the manufactory recede until they could no longer see it. The balloon was climbing quickly.
‘Cold up here,’ said Nish.
‘Ain’t it!’
What he should have done, Nish realised, was to pull the release-valve rope. Too late now. They were travelling over rugged country where it would be risky to land.
They were drifting south-west. Nish was amazed at how fast the balloon was going. Landmarks below, that he had spent days labouring across, fled by in minutes. This was the way to travel! He began looking for the plateau where the battle had occurred.
Maybe an hour later, S’lound interrupted his thoughts. ‘Looks like we’re going down again.’
Nish had forgotten the brazier, which had died down to a thick layer of coals. The pitch burned hot but it also burned quickly. He climbed the rope ladder, swinging alarmingly in the wind, and fed the stove with more black slabs. It erupted greasy yellow and brown fumes. Nish got down hastily.
‘Disgusting smell,’ he said breathlessly as he regained the basket. The climb had been unusually hard work.
‘Ain’t it.’
A man with a small choice of words. Nish lifted the lid of Ullii’s basket. ‘Would you like to see …?’ She snapped the lid down again.
Nish sighed. It was going to be a lonely journey.
They were now travelling so fast that they were past the plateau before he recognised it. Everything looked strange from above. By late afternoon they had crossed the first prong of the range and were moving rapidly towards the second. Beyond was the wilderness of Tarralladell, somewhere in the middle of which lay circular Lake Kalissi, where Ullii had seen Tiaan previously. But that had been months ago.
Nish tapped on the lid of the basket. ‘Do you think you could come out now, Ullii? I need to talk to you.’
After a considerable interval her head emerged, swathed in a bag of spider-silk with a black hat crammed on top. ‘What?’ she said in the tiniest voice.
‘Can you still see Tiaan?’
‘Of course! That way.’
She was pointing west-north-west, by Nish’s reckoning. He bent to his map. ‘If we’re now here, and she’s seeing this way …’ The two lines intersected in Mirrilladell, a little way south of the Great Mountains. But the two sightings were close together, so the intersection would not be accurate.
S’lound interrupted his musings. ‘It’s not long to sundown. Were you planning to fly all night?’
‘Definitely not! We might end up anywhere.’ They were floating over the second prong of the range, though the flat lake-lands of Faralladell were visible in the far distance. Nish pulled the valve rope and the balloon began to descend, rather too rapidly. He yanked the other rope, which closed it again. They drifted down toward a stony ridge.
‘Do you think we can land there?’ he fretted.
‘Haven’t a clue,’ S’lound said cheerfully. ‘Ain’t been in a gasbag before.’
Nish eyed the vertical outcrops of slate. If they hit one, the balloon would tip over and probably be wrecked, or catch fire; or split open, dropping everything except Ullii’s basket, which was tied down. Then, relieved of its load, it would be off again, carrying her. Nish imagined her shrieks dwindling away. He dared not risk it. Climbing up, he tossed more pitch into the brazier.
The further side of the slope was even worse – incredibly steep, with rocks and pointy trees everywhere. ‘I thought flying was going to be the hard part,’ he muttered. ‘It’s not a patch on landing.’
The valley bottom was hopeless, covered in trees, and the other side just as bad. It was nearly dark now. He spotted a bare area on the adjoining ridge. The balloon was drifting toward it. ‘Let’s try there.’ Nish spilled air from the valve. They lurched in an updraft. Beyond, the trees loomed up like a jagged wall. He felt the panic of having no idea what to do. The wind was too strong, too gusty.
He jerked the valve closed. ‘We won’t make it! More fuel, S’lound!’
S’lound scampered up the ladder and crammed the brazier full of pitch, but Nish knew it was too late. It took ages for the stove to lift the balloon when it was already going down.
‘We’re going to hit the trees!’
A panting S’lound heaved something over the side.
‘What was that?’ said Nish.
‘One of the soldiers’ packs.’
Between them they sent the other packs after it, except for S’lound’s. There was no pack for the scrutator. Had he been planning to come at all? Maybe it was another of his tests. If so, had Nish passed or failed?
The balloon slowly began to creep up. The treetops rushed towards them. ‘Hang on,’ yelled Nish.
The basket struck the top of a tree, drifted into another and snagged on a branch. The balloon tilted right over. Nish and S’lound threw their weight from side to side. The treetop bent, a strip of weave tore from the side of the basket and they were free.
‘Close!’ said S’lound.
‘Ain’t it,’ Nish replied, gently mocking the soldier. ‘We’ll have to keep going now.’
They saw no other landing place before it grew dark. It was eerie, drifting along in black silence, having no idea whether they were mountain-high or just spans from the ground, or even which way the wind was taking them. The brazier cast odd-shaped patterns of light on their faces.
Ullii came creeping out of her basket, exclaiming at the strangeness of it all. S’lound grilled antelope steaks on the top of the brazier. They were delicious, though with a tarry flavour.
It became extremely cold. They climbed up and down to feed the fire, lingering there to warm themselves. In the early hours S’lound sprang into the basket, dusting his hands. ‘All the fuel’s gone. Anything else we can burn?’
‘We’ve a couple of flasks of tar spirits but I daren’t use it. The mechanician was designing pipework to feed it slowly into the brazier but it wasn’t ready in time.’
‘Might as well chuck it over, then.’
‘It could be handy, if we can’t find any dry wood.’
They drifted along for another hour, falling but having no idea how fast. ‘Tarralladell is covered in forest,’ Nish observed gloomily. ‘We’ll be wrecked in the trees.’
‘And lakes,’ S’lound replied. ‘More likely we’ll end up in a lake.’
‘With luck a frozen one.’ Nish stared into the darkness. ‘I hope …’
‘What?’ said Ullii.
‘I hope we haven’t drifted as far as the sea. If we have, we’re dead!’
No sooner had he spoken than they went smack into something. Water gushed in through the sides and bottom of the basket.
FIFTY-SIX
Despite Minis’s warning, Tiaan had no choice but to use the amplimet and call him again. Haani looked on, fascinated. Previously Tiaan had waited until the child was asleep.
He was even slower to answer this time, and fainter, despite the undoubted power of the amplimet here. When Minis finally appeared, he looked drawn. His cheeks were dark with stubble, his face soot-stained.
Tiaan, he said after a long interval when he seemed to be looking for her but not seeing her. His voice was hoarse; it sounded as if it hurt to speak. What’s wrong? he said in that strange, letter-by-letter way of speaking. Can you not find the way?
‘I’ve been inside Tirthrax for a day and a half.’ She visualised the vast oval hall for him. ‘I’ve struck the gong a hundred times. All the alarms have gone off but no one came. Tirthrax is empty. What do I do now, my love?’
He threw his hands up around his face. His eyes were staring. I don’t know. He disappeared.
‘Who was that man?’ asked Haani.
‘What?’ It took a while for her to realise that the child had spoken.