He was staring out the cobwebbed window when the overseer cried out. Nish tore open his own letter, which was not dated.
Jal-Nish Hlar
Perquisitor for Einunar
The Cleftory
Munning Har
Fassafarn
Artificer Cryl-Nish,
I am most displeased. Your report so alarmed Fyn-Mah that she sent it to me by skeet. I cannot believe your incompetence. Artisan Tiaan has brilliantly solved two problems that have plagued our clankers in recent months, and we have great plans for her.
Nish put down the letter, thinking out aloud. ‘But Irisis solved those problems.’
Gi-Had swung around, balling up a hairy fist. ‘Irisis made one mistake,’ he grated. ‘Tiaan wrote a report on what she had done before she went mad. It was found in her pocket by your father’s other prober. The one who isn’t an incompetent fool. Thinking I was in on the conspiracy, he sent it straight down to the querist. Now Jal-Nish questions my loyalty. My loyalty!’ he choked. Gi-Had tore a page off the back of his letter and thrust it in Nish’s face.
Nish read Tiaan’s report and blanched. There was no doubt that it was genuine. Irisis must have been behind it all – the sabotages, the faked evidence, and Tiaan’s crystal fever too. Nish knew he was undone. Doomed! Why had he been taken in by her? Why hadn’t he listened to that inner voice? He went back to his own letter.
Tiaan’s day journal reveals the development of an artisan of rare talent, unlike any in the sixty-seven manufactories in the south-east. Fortunately I have competent people reporting directly to me from your manufactory, though it took them a while to find out what had happened. This was no fit of crystal madness, idiot son of mine! It was brought on by tincture of calluna, a herb that causes hallucinations. Her bedclothes stank of it. Some traitor gave it to her, you thrice-cursed fool! Someone who cares only to see the enemy ruin us.
Clearly there is a conspiracy in this manufactory and I am coming personally to root it out. Everyone is under suspicion, particularly you and your friend Irisis. I have been told of threats you made against the artisan. Why, Cryl-Nish, why? As of this instant you are relieved of your position as prober and your whole future is at stake. I have instructed Gi-Had to punish you.
Immediately afterwards you will go to Tiksi, as assistant to Probationary Overseer Gi-Had. You will bring Tiaan back and ensure she is restored to health and to her position. I have ordered Querist Fyn-Mah to the manufactory. She will take charge of the investigation until I arrive. Make sure no evidence is tampered with or your head will swiftly leave your shoulders.
Do a good job and, if Tiaan recovers fully, you may in time be restored as prober. Fail, and you will be in the front-line as fast as you can be carried there. The scrutator has been informed and he is as displeased as I am.
Jal-Nish
Perquisitor
Nish’s shaking hand dropped the letter. As he bent to pick it up he caught Gi-Had’s eye. The overseer’s dark face had gone as pale as paper. Casting Nish a look of purest fury, he screamed, ‘Why did you do this, artificer? Guard!’ He threw himself out the door, bellowing so loudly that it shook the flimsy wall of his office.
A brace of guards came running, and more behind them. ‘Take this man to the whipping posts and strip him naked, ready for the lash. Bring everyone outside. The entire manufactory will watch!’
The guards dragged Nish away. The bellowing continued behind him. Gi-Had was a most frightened man. What had been in his letter?
Outside Nish was stripped and tied to the middle whipping post. Shortly he heard screams, scuffles, and a naked Irisis was bound to the post next to his. He cast her a furious glare. She stared him down. Her pale skin was covered in purple blotches, for it was well below freezing.
‘I curse the day I met you!’ he hissed.
She looked him up and down. ‘I can’t say that you were worth it either, little Nish!’
They stood there for an hour while the thousand people in the manufactory were assembled. Nish felt sure he had frostbite in his toes, which had lost all feeling. How could he have been such a fool? Irisis had been behind it the whole time. But why would she betray everything her life had stood for? It made no sense.
Finally Gi-Had appeared. ‘When my father hears of this …’ Nish blustered.
‘He ordered it!’ Gi-Had said savagely. Standing before the assembled workers, he read from the letter:
I, Perquisitor Jal-Nish Hlar, order Probationary Overseer Gi-Had to personally give twenty lashes to my incompetent son, Cryl-Nish, and to Artisan Irisis, for suspected complicity in the drugging of Artisan Tiaan and her banishment to the breeding factory, and for other crimes that I do not specify.
Tiaan will be restored to her position immediately. Once the investigation is completed, if their guilt is established, Cryl-Nish will go to the front-lines, Irisis to the breeding factory and …
He choked on the words.
Gi-Had will clean out the drainage pipes for what remains of his miserable life.
While waiting for the lash, Nish looked across at Irisis, who was still staring straight ahead. ‘My father is coming,’ he said out of the corner of his mouth. ‘What evidence is there against us?’
‘The word of one man,’ she said grimly.
‘Who, Irisis?’
Her lovely lips set in a hard line. ‘Even if I knew I wouldn’t tell you.’
‘Can he be blamed?’
‘Only if he’s dead!’ She bared those carnivore’s teeth.
The first lash fell on her creamy back. Irisis writhed, tossed back her head and opened her mouth, but let forth no scream. After that, as the knotted leather tore into his own back, Nish was in too much agony to notice. And agony it was, the humiliation even worse than the pain.
Gi-Had wielded the whip as if he was trying to flay them alive. Nish broke on stroke sixteen. He screamed, and again for each of the remainder, not to mention afterwards when a tar-boy painted the wounds with a bristle brush.
Only then did he realise what a strong woman Irisis was. She had bitten through her lip, her back was a bloody ruin that would be scarred for life, but she had not let out a whimper.
Nish watched, with a thrill of horror, the mixture of tar and blood dribbling down her backside. His own must be the same.
‘I can’t do anything!’ he gritted. ‘I’m bidden to Tiksi with Gi-Had.’
‘Just as well!’ she hissed back. Irisis stood up straight, thrusting out her chest, and at that moment he desired her more than he ever had.
Nish and Gi-Had left for Tiksi immediately, but after an hour were forced back by a blizzard so strong they were in danger of being blown off the path. By the time they struggled through the gates, four hours later, it was growing dark.
The manufactory was abuzz. Apothek Mul-Lym was dead, having committed suicide with an extract of tar. It had been a horrible death that left his lips and mouth blistered, and his corpse with a pungent phenolic reek. There were no witnesses. It was assumed that he was Tiaan’s poisoner, though many wondered why he had taken his life in such a painful way. His drug ledger was open at the next but last page. It showed a tiny vial of calluna to have been used, though no patient’s name had been entered.
A rumour spread that he’d been spurned by Tiaan, had poisoned her in revenge, and then, knowing the deed would be traced to him, had taken his own life. Gi-Had questioned Irisis and Nish closely but of course Nish knew nothing about it. If Irisis did, she gave not a hint of it under a six-hour interrogation, and no witness could place her anywhere near the scene of the crime. Finally Gi-Had dismissed her. The apothek’s death was the best solution for them all.