The door was closed. A wisp of smoke came from the chimney. She knocked at the door. No answer. She knocked again and thought she heard a faint reply. Tiaan pushed open the door, afraid something had happened to him.
It was dark inside, the windowless hut lit only by the glow from an open fire. At first her eyes could make out nothing.
‘If it isn’t Tiaan!’ came a hoarse voice from beside the fire. ‘Come in, my dear.’
Tiaan made out a seated figure at a bench beside the fire. Joeyn started to get up but broke into a coughing fit.
‘Are you all right, Joe?’ She ran to him.
He wiped his eyes on his sleeve. ‘Miner’s lungs!’ he gasped, clearing his throat and spitting into the fire. ‘It’s always like this in the morning.’
‘I was worried. I thought something must have happened to you.’
‘I’ve made my quota. I didn’t feel like going to work today.’
‘But …’
‘I’m seventy-six, Tiaan. I only keep going because there would be nothing to do if I stopped. But some days I just don’t feel like working.’
‘Can I get you anything?’
‘I’m not an invalid,’ he said with a smile. ‘But I wouldn’t mind a cup of ghill, if you feel like waiting on me. It’s in the jar on the mantel.’
Taking down the jar, she picked out several curling strips of ghi wood and moved the pot over the coals. ‘Strong or weak?’
‘Like tar. Put in about five strips and leave it a good while. Let’s sit on the porch.’
He carried his chair out. Tiaan settled into the other. They watched the mist drifting between the pines. The wind sighed through the wattle fence. Finally Joeyn spoke. ‘It’s always nice to see you, Tiaan, though I’m sure you didn’t come to pass the time of day.’
‘What am I going to do about a partner, Joe?’
Looking her over, he smiled to himself. ‘I don’t see any problem.’
‘I’m afraid …’
‘It’s not such an onerous duty, Tiaan.’
‘I didn’t mean that. I’ll get the ghill.’ She rose abruptly, coming back with two wooden mugs. The steam smelt like peppery cinnamon.
While they sipped their ghill, she went over her problem with the crystal.
Joeyn sat ruminating. ‘So, you need me to find you another.’
‘The most powerful one you can. The last wasn’t strong enough.’
‘And I suppose it’s urgent?’
‘Gi-Had threatened to send me to the breeding factory if I didn’t solve the problem by the end of the week.’
‘As if he would! You’re too valuable to him, Tiaan.’
‘Why would he say that if he didn’t mean it?’ Tiaan was not good at reading people and could not separate idle words from serious ones. ‘He’s in trouble because of the failed clankers, and Foreman Gryste is whispering in his ear about me. He doesn’t like me.’
‘Gryste doesn’t like anyone, Tiaan. Especially since …’
‘What?’
Joeyn sniffed his drink. ‘He was passed over for overseer when Gi-Had came back from the war a hero. Then Gryste did his own service, was blamed for a defeat that wasn’t his fault and broken to a common soldier. He’s been at odds with the world ever since. And his habit doesn’t help.’
‘The nigah leaf?’
‘Yes. Makes a man angry. And it’s expensive.’
‘I’m afraid of him. The war is going really badly, Joe. Desperate people do stupid things.’
‘It’s been going badly since I was a boy. You stop believing everything you’re told after a while. I’m so old that I’ve seen the Histories rewritten.’
‘The Histories are truth!’ she cried. More than that, they were the foundation of the world. To challenge them bordered on blasphemy.
‘No doubt of it,’ he replied, ‘but whose?’
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’
‘Not many people do. Hardly anyone lives to my age any more. Have you ever heard of the Tale of the Mirror?’
‘Only as a monstrous lie.’
‘It wasn’t when I was a little boy. It was one of the Great Tales, and Llian of Chanthed one of the greatest chroniclers. Now he’s Llian the Liar, the man who debased the Histories. Why?’
‘I supposed someone proved –’
‘The greatest people of the age were there when he told the Great Tale – Nadiril the Librarian, Yggur, Shand, Malien the Aachim. No one said a word against the tale for a hundred and thirty years, then suddenly the Council of Scrutators had it rewritten. Why, Tiaan?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘This war has destroyed everything we once held sacred.’
She squirmed on her chair. ‘I don’t like that kind of talk, Joe.’
He went back to the previous topic. ‘I don’t imagine the breeding factory would suit you very well.’ He gave her a sly grin. ‘Though it is a life of luxury and pleasure …’
‘Don’t joke about it, Joe! I’m not going to be treated like a brood sow.’ Her face had gone brick-red. ‘I love my work, and I can do it better than anyone else. I just want to do my job and live my life.’
‘That’s all any of us want. Unfortunately the war …’
‘The cursed war!’
‘Still, I don’t suppose Gi-Had would send you down, Tiaan. You’re his best artisan.’
‘I do seem to have an unusual talent,’ she said thoughtfully.
‘So I’ve heard. Do you know where it came from?’
‘From my mother, according to her, though she tried to cover my talent up.’
‘Is that so?’
‘I first realised I was special at the examination, when I was six. In one of the tests they held up a picture, just for a second, then asked me questions about it. I knew all the answers. They were astounded, but it wasn’t hard at all – in my mind’s eye I could see the picture perfectly. I can still see it now, a family playing games on a green lawn. A mother, a father, a girl, two boys and a dog!’ She sighed heavily.
‘After that they showed me all sorts of images. There were maps of places I’d never heard of, the workings of a clock, a tapestry of the Histories. My answers were perfect, because every image stayed in my mind.’
‘What else did they ask you?’ Joeyn looked fascinated. ‘I never had the examination. It hadn’t started when I was a kid.’
‘Hadn’t it?’ Tiaan said, surprised. ‘Oh, all sorts of things. Reading, spelling, remembering, aiming and throwing, number puzzles.’ She smiled at a memory. ‘One didn’t seem like a test at all. The examiners put a little piece of honeycomb in front of me and said that if I didn’t touch it until they came back, I could have a really big piece.’
‘Did you eat it?’ Joeyn asked.
‘No, though I wanted to. Other tests involved making things out of gears and wheels and metal parts. I did badly on those.’
‘That’s odd, for a controller-maker.’
‘I never had those kinds of toys when I was a kid. Mother sneered at people who worked with their hands. Her daughter was certainly not going to.
‘The examiners seemed disappointed, as if that lack had cancelled out my other talent. I remember them talking in the corner, looking back at me and shaking their heads.’
‘So how did you end up at the manufactory?’ Taking another sip from his mug, Joeyn settled back in the chair.
‘The last test involved a collection of crystals; kinds of hedrons, I suppose. At least, some were. The others must have been dummies. They put the first in my hand. It was dark-green. A mask went over my face and they asked me to describe what I saw.’ She paused for a pull at her mug.
‘What did you see?’
‘I didn’t see anything. I felt as if I’d failed another important test. Someone took the crystal away and gave me another. I concentrated hard, but had no idea what I was supposed to see.’