‘You have to rest and get better.’
‘But I’ve two controllers to fix. No one else can do it. The war …’
‘They’ve been fixed and sent to the front a long time ago.’
‘What?’ She stared at him, uncomprehending. The world seemed to have gone mad.
‘Irisis fixed the controllers while you were … sick,’ Joeyn said as gently as he could.
She clutched at his hand. ‘It can’t be so!’
‘It is so, Tiaan.’
‘Joe, I fixed the first controller before I went to bed last night. If Irisis has done the others, she’s just copied me.’
‘Are you sure?’ He gave her a look that said he doubted her sanity.
‘Of course I’m sure!’ She told him exactly how she had shielded the controller. ‘Irisis hates me. She’s always trying to take the credit. She’d love to see me sent down.’
A spasm crossed his face, one that alarmed her.
‘Where am I?’ She looked around at the unfamiliar room. ‘This isn’t the infirmary.’
‘It’s the sickroom in the breeding factory.’
‘I hadn’t realised that I was that sick …’ She broke off, staring at his craggy face. His eyes shifted as if he could not face her. ‘No!’ she gasped. The very air was choking her. She opened her mouth wide, to scream.
Joeyn slapped her face, just hard enough to bring her to her senses. She broke off.
‘Don’t!’ he said. ‘Or I’ll think you’re mad too.’
‘That’s why I’ve been sold to the breeding factory? I’m not mad. Yesterday I solved …’
‘Tiaan,’ he said gently, ‘you’ve been here for more than a week, delirious the whole time. Before that, you screamed for half a day without stopping. Little wonder the healers thought your mind had gone. Gi-Had had no choice. The manufactory must have reliable artisans.’
‘Irisis has replaced me?’ Her voice rose dangerously.
‘Hush! She’s done better than that. By special decree she has been made acting crafter, though she is only twenty-one.’
How Irisis must be gloating. Tiaan wanted to die.
‘I won’t stay here! I’ll never submit to this place. If I can only get to Gi-Had, I’m sure I can convince him …’
‘The deed is done, Tiaan. It can’t be undone. Twice you have had mad fits and two healers have diagnosed you with incurable crystal fever. Gi-Had could not keep you on, even if he wanted to. A mad artisan is worse than none.’
‘But I’m not mad.’
‘People with crystal fever always say that. It’s no use. You are indentured to the breeding factory.’
‘But Gi-Had is a fair man …’
‘He has a manufactory to run and clankers to produce. There’s been a disaster up north, a whole cluster of clankers destroyed in a day.’
‘I heard that …’ Tiaan broke off. She had been going to say ‘yesterday’.
‘You’re a breeding-factory woman now, Tiaan. Artisan Tiaan is gone forever. I’m so sorry.’ There were tears in his eyes.
The door opened. A big woman who could only have been the matron hurried in. ‘Visiting time is over. Say your goodbyes. Tiaan needs her rest. Her first day is coming up!’ She hurried out again.
Only then did the horror fully strike Tiaan. Her work, her life, her very existence had been taken away. All that was left was the profession she despised most in the world. The urge to scream was almost irresistible. She opened her mouth, saw the look on Joeyn’s face and quickly closed it again. ‘I won’t be a woman of the breeding factory, ever!’ she hissed. Only her rage stopped her from collapsing.
‘I don’t see …’ he said doubtfully.
‘I’m not mad. I’ll run away.’
‘In time of war, refusing to do your appointed job is treason.’
‘Men don’t get sent to breeding factories!’
‘And women aren’t sent to the front-lines to be slaughtered, like my sons,’ he said softly. ‘I did not say it was fair, Tiaan, just that there’s nothing can be done about it.’
‘I won’t stay here. This place disgusts me.’
‘A runaway on the road has no place, no rights. Anyone can enslave you or strike you down without penalty.’
‘I don’t care!’ she raged. ‘I will give myself to no man save of my own choosing.’
‘Times change. The war …’
‘Curse the damned war! It’s just an excuse to take our rights away. Joeyn, you said you would help me if ever I needed it. I’ve never needed it more.’
He looked anxious. For her, she knew, not himself. ‘Of course I’ll help you, if you have truly made up your mind. What do you want me to do?’
‘Go to my room in the manufactory and, if it has not been cleared, bring away my clothes, journal and tool bag, and my wire globe and helm. And there’s a book!’ She explained where she had hidden the copy of Nunar’s treatise. ‘Keep it hidden. I’m not supposed to have it.’
‘Tiaan, the crystal was the source of your madness. If you ever touch one again …’
‘I’m not mad!’ she said vehemently.
The door opened, the matron again. ‘Time for visitors to go. Now!’
‘Please, Joeyn,’ Tiaan said.
He nodded and went out.
‘Disgusting old man!’ said Matron. ‘We’d certainly not use him here. Out of bed!’ She hauled Tiaan out by the arm. ‘Stand there. Let me look at you.’
Matron inspected Tiaan like a carcass in a butcher’s shop, prodding and poking her mercilessly.
‘Hmn! Beautiful hair, though a terrible cut. Looks like it was done with an axe. Nice eyes – unusual colour. Good skin, apart from a few minor blemishes, though we’ll soon fix them. Nose, not as broad as they like, but it’ll do. Ears …’
She brushed back Tiaan’s hair. ‘Oh yes, very neat.’
‘Such dark lips – they’ll go for that. Open your mouth. Teeth’s where they mostly fall down. Hmn, not too bad, at least they’re all there. Those two could be a bit straighter but nobody’s perfect.’ She checked Tiaan’s gums, her tongue, her throat, muttering to herself all the while.
‘Good, good! No disease, no sores.’ She moved Tiaan’s head from side to side and made some marks on a slate. ‘Head, eight out of ten. Or should that be seven and a half? Smile for me, please?’
Tiaan felt like biting Matron’s hand off, but at the same time, inexplicably, she wanted to do well on the test. She smiled.
‘Oh, very good. Dimples, too. Definitely an eight!’
Matron continued. ‘Shoulders a bit narrow. Still, many like them that way. No accounting for folk!’ Her own shoulders were almost an axe-handle across and heavily larded. ‘Hmn! You’re scrawny, girl. Not much demand for that look around here. We’ll soon fatten you up, though.’ She rattled a knuckle down Tiaan’s ribs, weighed her breasts in big, damp hands. ‘Not bad; not bad at all. Could be bigger, especially the left one, but I can’t see too many complaints.’ She flicked a nipple with her fingertip until it stood up, then moved on.
Her belly was not full enough, her pubic hair too coarse and curly, her thighs too slender, her feet definitely too big. And last was the worst. ‘Oh dear, just look at these hands! What have you been doing, girl? Your hands are as rough as a navvy’s, and there’s a festering splinter in your finger.’
Her figure only rated six and a half, though Matron supposed she could bring that up a point with some proper feeding and grooming. ‘Overall, better than I expected. Especially after – well, let’s not go into that. I think we’ve made a good buy after all. Come along now, there’s a lot of work to do.’
‘Work?’ said Tiaan, feeling dazed.
‘Bath, manicure, haircut, skin-polishing – we’ll be lucky to be finished by dinnertime.’