‘Well, Besant,’ said Ryll. ‘Do you believe me now?’
Besant, the large female with the scarred crest, twitched her face muscles. Was she reluctant to make the concession to a deformed, unmated male?
‘You have done well, Ryll,’ she said in a deep voice. It took some time for Tiaan to recognise it as the common speech, so thick was her accent. ‘The device has tapped an unknown source of power. The human may teach us much. I will send her to Kalissin.’
‘And me?’ Ryll said, too eagerly. ‘Is this my chance? Shall I be mated now?’
‘This could improve your desirability. I give you leave to seek a mate, though I doubt very much if a mate would chose you.’
They allowed Tiaan back her possessions, except for the amplimet, knife and crossbow. She was returned to her room, fed several times on charred strips of bear meat and water, and taken outside occasionally by Ryll to use a pit dug in the snow. Once she went by a pair of lyrinx squatting over a small, mushroom-shaped object, their hands shaping the air around it.
‘What are they doing?’ she asked.
‘Watching,’ said Ryll, and would say no more.
Tiaan expected crystal dreams that first night, and hoped they might be of her lost lover. Her dreams turned out to be horrors unlike anything she had ever imagined. She dreamed that her room was full of cages, each containing a warped travesty of the wild creatures she knew.
A misty orange field swirled around the cages, squeezing the creatures in whirlpool coils. They shrieked in agony, blood dripped from mouths and other orifices, and one by one they began to change. Flesh and bones deformed, skin and sinews stretched and crackled. Teeth shattered and fell from gaping mouths, to be replaced by new ones as sharp as the teeth of sharks.
Soon those creatures that survived were transformed into staring monsters. Their eyes were fixed on her. Tiaan paced back and forth all night to keep the dreams away.
The following night she also dreamed, but these were withdrawal dreams, a desperate craving that grew worse with every hour she was parted from the amplimet. Her body was wracked with aches and longings. She thought of nothing all day but how she might recover the crystal, and dreamed of nothing all night. That was the worst thing about withdrawal – it took so long to get over. Some people never did.
‘What is the matter?’ Ryll asked her on the second afternoon, when she lay shaking on her skin, tormented by her longing. ‘Are you ill?’
Tiaan was in no state to think up a cover story. ‘I must have the crystal,’ she whispered. ‘Please. I cannot bear to be without it.’
‘Ah!’ he said, and went out.
Only later did Tiaan realise that she had given him the perfect hold over her.
THIRTY-FIVE
Following Ullii’s directions the searchers went straight to the last of the caves. Irisis was at their head. A pair of soldiers approached the bearskin door, spears at the ready. Irisis, with recklessness born of despair, thrust past, tore down the skin and leapt inside. The cave was empty.
‘She’s gone!’ Irisis said bitterly.
‘And within hours.’ Arple had uncovered red coals from the ashes.
‘Now do you see the worth of your seeker,’ said Nish from the entrance, ‘and give her credit for what she’s done?’
‘Indeed,’ replied the perquisitor. ‘She’s proven her worth. We’ll find many uses for her in the war, I’ll be bound.’
As Irisis came out, Ullii shivered and drew closer to her friends. With a harsh laugh Jal-Nish turned away, ordering a search of all the caves and signalling down to the clankers to recall the other squads.
Fresh prints led up the mountain. The climbers followed them, while far below the clankers headed up the valley. The forces rejoined late in the afternoon.
It began to snow that evening. They tried to follow the tracks with flares, but after dark lost them in the deepening snow. Making camp in the shelter of a bluff, they had a full night’s sleep for the first time in many days. In the morning Ullii was again called upon. She pointed more south now, and was required to show the way many times in the next days, for they saw not a single track in that time.
The snow was heavy going and the clankers, with their broad footplates installed, could make no better time than a slow march. They were plagued with freezing oil and breakdowns, which Nish and Tuniz were called upon to fix. Nish discovered just how much he loathed his trade. He always ended up with bloody, frozen fingers and his father’s curses ringing in his ears. Every operation was ten times as difficult as it had been in the workshop. Even unflappable Tuniz was heard to swear on occasion.
It was not windy, but intensely cold, especially in the clear nights. On the third afternoon a blizzard blasted down on them. They could not move at all the following day, and the fifth brought wind to whirl the fresh snow up into clouds. They struggled on, slower and slower, and finally the clankers shuddered to a stop.
‘What is it?’ screamed Jal-Nish. He had to scream to be heard over the wind. Everyone gathered behind the clankers.
‘Field’s too weak,’ said Simmo from the second machine. ‘We’ve been running on the flywheels for the last quarter-hour but they’ve run down.’
‘Does that mean we’re stuck here? Incompetent fools!’
‘There’s another node ahead, surr, and it’s a strong one, but we’re having trouble drawing from its field. It’s strange, perquisitor, surr. I’ve never seen anything like it.’
‘What do you mean?’
Simmo conferred with the other operators before answering. ‘Seems to be a double node. We’ve never come across such a thing before. We can’t work it out.’
‘Then get the artisan to show you. That’s what’s she’s here for. Artisan Irisis, get over here.’
Irisis froze, her guts churning. This was it. She was going to be exposed. She would never fool Jal-Nish. Looking despairingly around the circle of pinched faces, she caught Nish’s eyes on her. He was stricken.
She assumed her famous arrogant expression. At least she would go down fighting, and when the worst did happen she would take the perquisitor with her. Clutching her pliance, Irisis strode forward.
‘I expect I’ll have to modify the controllers,’ she said.
‘How long will that take?’
‘As long as it takes, surr. We can’t take risks up here.’
‘Get on with it.’
Climbing into the clanker, Irisis began to pull the controller apart. Ky-Ara crouched beside her, watching her every move as if she was operating on his own child. He whimpered as she removed each controller arm. It was hard to concentrate.
‘Ky-Ara,’ she said pleasantly, ‘would you be so kind as to bring the other controllers here?’
He went reluctantly, with many a backward glance from those liquid eyes.
‘Nish!’ Irisis called. Nish came out of the huddle. ‘Stand guard on the hatch and don’t let anyone through.’
‘What about Ky-Ara?’
‘Especially not that whimpering fool. Or your father.’
Ullii came trailing up behind Nish, thrust her head under his arm and peered in through her goggles. Nish indicated her with an inclination of the head.
‘Come in, Ullii!’ snapped Irisis. ‘But don’t say anything, all right?’
Creeping in, Ullii sat down in her seat.
Irisis worked steadily for an hour or so, visualising the strange double node with her pliance and trying to tune Ky-Ara’s controller to the field. In spite of the cold she began to sweat. The double node was the strangest she’d ever encountered, a large glowing globe and a smaller one, orbiting each other. Orange mist whirled around and between the two, flowing from one to the other and emitting occasional bright pulses. It disturbed her, and when she tried to visualise the associated field her brain hurt, the way her nose did when she caught a breath of pitch smoke. There was something noxious about this field. It fluctuated from weak to strong more quickly than her defences could cope.