‘The controller’s gone!’ said Nish.
‘I’m starting to see a story here. First they sabotage the crystals, then my best artisan, and now they’re stealing the controllers. What’s next? And why steal them? Are they planning to use them against us?’
‘I don’t know, surr,’ said Nish.
‘I don’t like this at all. It’s too big for me. For the first time since the letter, I’m wishing your father would hurry up.’
I’m not, thought Nish.
‘Anything else missing?’ said Gi-Had.
‘I don’t think so.’
‘The porters’ boxes have been torn open, but nothing else taken, as far as I can recall from the shipping manifests. Not even the white gold.’
‘Maybe the beasts have no use for it,’ Nish said.
‘I wouldn’t advise you to think of them as beasts. They’re as smart as you or I. We’ll take back what we can and send a salvage party for the rest. Any sign of Tiaan?’ he said to Ell-Lin, who was standing up on the bank, well away from the gruesome scene.
‘None here, surr.’
‘Very well. Come down. Take what you can.’
They loaded up and began the trek, arriving at the manufactory without incident after dark. News of the attack had already reached them. Tiaan had not been seen.
‘She was poorly dressed,’ said Nish, consulting the inventory of clothing the matron had given him. ‘Her feet were wrapped in rags. She’s probably dead by now.’
‘Neither you nor I can afford to think so,’ said Gi-Had. ‘I’ll make up a search party and you’ll be on it.’
Nish knew better than to complain, though his back was crucifying him. ‘In that case I’ll need –’ he began.
‘You won’t be leading it,’ Gi-Had said coldly. ‘Don’t imagine I’ll be giving you responsibility anytime soon. Gryste!’ he bellowed.
The foreman came running. Within minutes a salvage party and a search party had been formed and sent out. They searched the road all night with blazing torches, and on into the following morning, but found nothing.
Returning bone weary and in great pain around noon, Nish looked up to see Querist Fyn-Mah standing by the great front doors, scowling fiercely at him.
FIFTEEN
Nish gaped at her. ‘How … how did you get here?’ As far as he knew there was only one road from Tiksi to here, and he’d been on it.
‘I was already in the mountains. Hunting!’ The word tolled like an execution bell. ‘Did you find her?’
‘Not a trace!’
Fyn-Mah caught him by the arm. He resisted momentarily, though only long enough to think better of it. She could be the means of his rehabilitation, or destruction. He went with her to the wall where it was sheltered from the driving snow, and from being overheard.
‘Bloody damn fool!’ she said in a low voice. ‘What were you thinking, to do such a thing?’
‘I was … Irisis said … I didn’t …’ Nish could think of nothing to say.
‘Do you realise what you’ve done?’ she hissed. ‘Tiaan had just made a desperately needed breakthrough. We were eagerly awaiting her thoughts on the bigger problem …’
‘What bigger problem?’
‘You don’t even know?’ she exclaimed. ‘The failure of the field at Minnien. Fifty clankers were destroyed in a few hours.’
‘I had no idea.’ The implications were horrifyingly clear.
‘We’ve always thought Tiaan had potential, though only recently has she begun to show it. In a few days she solved two controller problems. Two, artificer! She may have helped us with the third had she not been conspired against. Was that malice, or treachery of the highest order? Is that why the lyrinx are all around?’
‘All around?’ he gasped.
‘The mountains are full of them. We’re losing the war, Cryl-Nish. If more fields fail, we’re finished.’
‘I didn’t know.’ He was stricken with horror at his folly. ‘I just didn’t know. What is my father going to say?’
‘I’d be more worried about what he will do. And all this for the sake of your –’ She broke off, jerking her knee up towards his groin.
He flinched. She let her knee fall again.
‘I don’t know what you’re alluding to,’ Nish lied.
The knee came up again, so fast that he had no chance of avoiding it, crushing his testicles. Pain shrieked through him as the blow toppled him backwards onto the frozen ground.
She stood over him, looking down. ‘You dare lie to a querist? Clearly the whipping has taught you nothing, boy!
‘Now you listen! Are you stupid as well as a liar? I had not thought it. We have special ways of finding out the truth. I’ve been here since yesterday morning and in that time I’ve questioned two hundred people. I know everything! Surely you realise that? I know you boasted about your family connections as you crudely tried to seduce Tiaan, and then threatened her. I know how Irisis seduced you, and every jerk and thrust of your little fornications.’ Her voice rose higher. ‘I know all about her lies, how you conspired to cover them up, and your betrayal of your prober’s position. I suspect Irisis of being behind the sabotages and the poisoning of Tiaan. I suspect you connived at the death of Apothek Mul-Lym, Cryl-Nish, even if you did not actually hold the flask to his lips. If that turns out to be true nothing can save either of you.’
‘No,’ he cried. ‘I don’t know anything about that.’
She fixed him with her dark eyes, saying nothing. It was worse than her interrogation.
‘I’ve been a fool,’ he whispered. It was the only thing he could think of to say. ‘An utter fool. I deserve the front-lines.’ He hoped the admission would gain him some credit.
‘You’ll probably get them. Your father will be bitterly hurt by this stupidity, Cryl-Nish. If it is stupidity, and not collaborating with the enemy.’
‘I would never do that, I swear it!’
‘I’ll leave that to your father. He can tell a liar just by looking at him.’ She sighed. ‘He had such hopes for you.’
‘Then why did he send me to this awful place?’
‘A test. Not such a hard one, for someone expected to rise high. But you failed, and for the crudest of reasons.’
‘What can I do?’ he whispered. Nish was not a coward; nor was he excessively brave. The thought of the front-lines was a nightmare.
‘There’s only one thing can save you, if anything can. Find Tiaan and bring her back unharmed.’
‘She’s probably dead,’ he said despairingly.
‘Then so are you!’
‘How will I find her?’ he said to himself.
‘A true prober would not ask. And you won’t solve it on your back!’
He got up, holding his bruised organs. After wandering through the manufactory he ended up near the artisans’ workshops. Irisis was glowering at her bench. He ducked away. If she had murdered Mul-Lym the apothek, as seemed probable, he wanted no further contact with her.
Trudging through the dormitories, lost in his miserable thoughts, Nish noticed that he was passing the door of Tiaan’s room. He’d never seen inside. He lifted the latch. The room was tiny, considerably smaller than Irisis’s. Tiaan probably had not cared.
All it contained was a narrow bed, a chair, table and lamp. A rod set in the wall at both ends would have served for hanging clothes, while a small chest sat at the end of the bed, though it was empty. All trace of Tiaan was gone. Not surprising; she had been taken to the breeding factory more than two weeks ago. What had happened to her possessions?
He found nothing in her work cubicle and her fellow workers did not know either. Nish went to the ratifier’s office, where the manufactory account books were kept. She was out, but her assistant, a slender, beautiful young clerk with red lips and a roving eye, smiled at him. Nish gave him the thinnest smile in return. He did not want to antagonise the fellow, nor encourage him.