Irisis sat on a rock. The troops were well drilled and there was nothing she could do to help. How were they going to get the clankers up there? It seemed like madness, in this gale, especially after the fiasco that had killed Dhirr.
Soon the rope jerked. Rustina signalled back and the troops tied on the bags and bundles of equipment, which were lifted with no more than an occasional clink of metal against the yellow cliff. The rope came back down. The remaining soldiers were hauled up, Rustina last of all.
Jal-Nish stood back, looking anxiously around. They were particularly vulnerable now, if the weather cleared or a scouting party ran into them down here, with Arple the only trained soldier to protect them. Even the eleven above would have trouble with a pair of lyrinx. If there were more, they would be annihilated.
A couple of hours went by before the soldier returned, skis whispering on the snow. The others followed. They gathered around in their ranks, were briefed and hauled up in a rope chair.
Arple went with them to inspect the defences. Shortly the first of the clankers came clunking along, followed by the others. Heavier ropes were taken up, then Artificer Tuniz, anxiously showing her pointed teeth.
Nish wandered across. ‘What’s going on?’
‘Most of the troops are atop,’ Irisis said. ‘They’re setting up a structure to lift the clankers.’
‘They’re mad!’
‘Well, you’d know, being an artificer.’
‘Tuniz is a better one, fortunately.’
Tuniz reappeared, lowered in the chair, and began issuing orders. The first clanker was moved into position and tied fore and aft. She signalled with the original rope.
The haul ropes went taut and without any apparent effort the clanker lifted off the snow and began to rise upwards, to disappear in the thickening snow.
‘How?’ began Nish.
‘I’ve no idea.’
It turned out to be brilliantly simple. The rope at the top passed over a series of pulleys held up by a frame made from the rods, and down over another frame and pulley. The other end of the rope was tied to a boulder which acted as a counterweight. Another structure of ropes and pulleys enabled soldiers to brake the boulder’s descent.
The boulder struck the ground. Tuniz waited for the signal that the clanker was on solid earth, checked and had it confirmed, then untied the rope. The end went up, the other ropes came down and were tied around the second clanker, which was lifted with another boulder. And so it went on.
‘There you are,’ crowed Jal-Nish as the last clanker, with Ullii still inside, rose smoothly into the air. ‘It’s all gone perfectly. That’s what happens when you do things yourself.’
Irisis held her breath and stepped well back. If anything would call the wrath of fortune down on them it was statements like that. However, the signal soon came that everything was all right.
‘Perfect,’ said Jal-Nish. It was only mid-afternoon. ‘We’ll camp up top, send out our scouts and prepare to move in the night. As soon as we find them, we’ll strike with everything we’ve got. I want to see waterfalls of lyrinx blood. No one will get away this time.’
‘What about Tiaan?’ said Irisis.
‘I’m working on a plan,’ he said smugly, wanting them to ask so he could have the pleasure of refusing to answer.
Irisis said nothing, nor did Nish. They went up in the chair. The wind was blowing off the plateau, reducing visibility to a few paces. They ate their fill of cold food and tried to sleep.
Irisis was woken in the night by a hard hand on her shoulder, a soldier she did not recognise. ‘We’ve found them. We’re going in twenty minutes, artisan.’
Irisis had slept in her clothes, so it only took a minute to pull on her icy boots and she was ready. She chewed on a strip of smoked fish. The others were gathered in a space between large boulders, where they dared a little light.
‘They’re here,’ said Arple, drawing a chart in the snow with the tip of his knife. ‘A collection of linked snilau.’
‘What’s a snilau?’ Irisis asked.
‘An ice house – igloo! There aren’t many; the scouts guess at around ten lyrinx.’
‘Still a formidable force, even with our clankers,’ said Rustina, gnawing on a raw potato.
‘But some may be children. We’ll attack at dawn, bombarding the snilau with rocks from our catapults. With luck we may kill half of them in their sleep.’
‘And maybe Tiaan too,’ said Nish.
‘I’ve a plan for her,’ Jal-Nish said. ‘Move out!’
The soldiers went ahead on skis. The passengers withdrew into the clankers, which moved off slowly, to make as little noise as possible. That was not such a risk, with the wind positively howling in their faces, but a lyrinx patrol could be anywhere.
They sat in silence for most of the journey. The clanker was frigid, since they’d had no fire to warm the heatboxes. Sometimes a furious gust would rock it on its sturdy legs. Ullii had been consulted several times, to ensure Tiaan was at the snilau. Her directions always confirmed the scouts’ advice.
Ullii became increasingly edgy as they approached. Unable to sit still for a minute, she moved forward, then back, swayed from side to side, twitched her legs, rapped her knees with her knuckles, flexed her fingers and toes. The closer they got the more anxious she appeared. Peering through the porthole into the darkness, she turned to Nish and her eyes were wide.
‘It’s horrible!’ she whispered.
‘What?’ Nish stroked her hand. Irisis shot him a dirty look.
‘It’s horrible!’ Ullii shuddered.
It was dark in the clanker and the seeker was not wearing her mask. Occasionally Irisis caught a gleam from her owl eyes.
‘After tonight, nothing will ever be the same again,’ Nish said soberly.
Irisis wished he had not spoken. What would happen when they got Tiaan back? Whatever it was, Irisis knew she would not be returning to her safe artisan’s position at the manufactory. Her stupid assault on Jal-Nish had ended those hopes forever. Why had she done it? Could it be that she cared for the little seeker? Or had it just been black despair, a kind of death wish?
The clanker stopped and someone opened the hatch from outside. ‘We’re in position,’ Arple’s voice issued from the darkness. ‘It’s just coming dawn. Ready?’
Irisis jumped out, easing her sword in its scabbard. At the telltale scrape Arple said, ‘I’d advise you to keep well back, artisan. Leave the fighting to them as knows how.’
‘I’ve done my training,’ she said. ‘I’ll not stand by when there’s work to be done. Besides …’
‘Yes?’ He turned back.
‘I have no future, sergeant, after the other day. Unless we get back the crystal. And maybe not even then …’
‘Aye,’ he said. ‘Nor I. Still, we do what we must.’
Dawn broke. It was still blowing but the snow had stopped during the night. ‘There!’ said Arple, standing at Irisis’s shoulder.
By straining her eyes where he pointed she could just make out the curving shapes of the ice houses, white against white. One of the scouts came running. ‘We ran into one of their sentries, over east. It must have been coming back from watch. We hurt it bad, but it killed Marti.’
‘Where is the beast now?’
‘Back there about a league. We toppled it down into a gully, but lost it in the snow. It’s got a great gash in the leg.’
‘Can it walk?’
‘Only stagger, surr.’
‘Keep watch. We’ll leave it for the moment. I want everyone for the assault on the ice houses. We’d better attack right away, in case it has some way of sending a signal.’