Ullii scurried upstairs and down, along one corridor after another. She checked the lattice. Those other knots had stopped moving, which was nearly as worrying as having them coming in her direction.
She still could not see Irisis, no matter how hard she looked. Then, it was as if something slipped and she caught a faint glimpse of the black ball. She felt more afraid. Were they hiding Irisis from her? Was Ghorr watching, in some mancerly way, everything she did?
Though Ullii could see most forms of magic, and the people who used it, she did not understand the Secret Art. As far as she was concerned, everything she’d heard about mancers was true. They could do anything.
She began to go down another set of stairs but the terror overcame her and she collapsed halfway. Pulling herself into a ball, Ullii squatted there, rocking. She had an urge to take her clothes off and scream herself into a fit, as she had often done when younger. She could not go on. How she wished Myllii were here. Ullii could not remember his smell, but it must have been much like her own. Myllii, where are you? She did not think she could go on, even for Myllii. Ullii just wanted to run and hide.
The mouse was scratching around in her pocket. She slipped her fingers in and it sniffed at them. Its tongue touched a fingertip. It felt nice; tickly; friendly. For some strange reason the mouse reminded her of Nish, and that brought to mind the attack by the nylatl, where she had saved Nish’s life. Though she was little and terrified and weak, she had saved brave, bold Nish, her hero.
The mouse sniffed its way into her hand. She brought it out, cupped in her palms. It had no fear of her. She must have none either. With a swift movement she slipped it back and stood up. She must try to save Irisis.
Ullii searched for that blot in her lattice that seemed to be hiding the crafter. It was hard to locate; it seemed to change shape all the time. She turned her lattice around in her head and saw Irisis’s mark at once. The chief scrutator was trying to be too clever, but he did not understand her talent at all.
Her wanderings had carried Ullii down into the lower levels of Nennifer, well below the surface of the ground. These were not dungeons but airy corridors with rooms off them, where people worked during the daytime. Now they were dark.
Irisis’s level was lit by lamps at intervals. A guard sat at the far end of the hall. She crept along the wall, in the shadows. He scanned the corridor every so often but did not see her.
She found the room. Ullii could sense Irisis inside. The door was held closed by the Art; she could feel the strength of it without even looking in her lattice. She slid by and kept going. How could she get Irisis out when even the scrutator had failed?
Ullii found an empty room further down, sat in the dark and ate some bread, sharing it with the friend in her pocket. Surprising how comforting she found him. Ullii knew that it was a him.
She considered the spell on the door. For all that she could see the Art in its myriad forms, Ullii was unable to break the simplest spell and this one, she could tell from the convolutions of its knot in her lattice, was not simple. She rotated the lattice, examining the knot from one side and another. Knots could sometimes be undone, but that was dangerous; she might be attacked by what lay hidden inside.
This knot was beyond her, for its tightly woven structure gave no clue to how it was tied underneath. She left it, looking for the dark ball that was Irisis. She was obscured again. The knot now seemed to surround the space where the crafter was held.
Ullii rotated her lattice again, and from the other side saw an opening, and the crafter within it. It was frustrating to be so close and not be able to get to her. Putting the leftover bread away, she went back to Irisis’s door, hoping she might be able to see better from outside. The guard was pacing down the other end of the hall. Ullii could not see Irisis at all. In frustration, she did something she had never attempted before. She took hold of the lock’s knot in the lattice and tried to move it out of the way.
She felt the strangest sucking sensation, like – a memory from her childhood – trying to pull an octopus off a rock. The door creaked.
Footsteps inside the room. ‘Who’s there?’ came Irisis’s voice, flat with hopelessness. ‘If that’s you again, Ghorr –’
‘It’s me. Ullii,’ she whispered.
‘Ullii? What are you doing?’
‘They’re going to kill you as soon as the scrutator is gone.’
‘I thought so.’
‘When does he go?’
‘Dawn.’
‘Four hours left, then.’
Ullii could not think about the death of her friend – finding Myllii occupied her whole mind. ‘I need you to help me, Irisis.’
Irisis laughed hollowly. ‘I’d be glad to, little seeker. Just name your favour and I will do it. Fly you to the moon? I’m happy to oblige.’
‘I want you to find my brother.’
‘I didn’t know you had one.’
‘Myllii is my twin. He was taken away when I was four. He’s just like me.’
‘Is he now?’ said Irisis. ‘I wonder if anyone else knows that?’
‘Irisis!’ Ullii hissed. ‘Promise you’ll help me find him.’
‘Ullii, they’re coming for me today. I can’t help anyone, even myself.’
‘I can open the door,’ said Ullii.
The silence from the other side was profound. ‘Ullii, if you can get me out of here, I promise I will help find your brother.’
Ullii felt the mouse moving in her pocket. Down the end, the guard pushed back his chair and paced along the hall.
‘Guard’s coming!’ Ullii whispered, scuttling back to the empty room.
He went by, shining his lantern here and there, trying the locked doors. She waited for him to go back the other way. It took a long time.
‘Irisis,’ she whispered, when the guard had settled back in his chair.
‘I’m ready.’ Irisis sounded sceptical.
Ullii took hold of the knot. Again that sucking sensation and the lattice blurred in her mind, fragments of the knot waving around her like a handful of worms. The door creaked and groaned. The octopus tightened its grip. She pulled harder but could not budge it.
Ullii sank to the floor. It was not going to work after all. How could she have thought it would?
FIFTY-FIVE
‘Ullii?’
She did not answer. Ullii felt too disheartened. The whole world was against her, even her lattice.
Even her lattice? No, that was her own creation: she could change it however she wanted. Not even this spell that wicked Scrutator Ghorr had made could stop her. How dare he invade her personal spaces? She seized hold of the knot and, instead of trying to move it, Ullii held it in place while she shifted the rest of the lattice around it.
The octopus made an agonised squeal as one by one its tentacles tore free. The remaining ones clung more tightly but she controlled the lattice, and with an audible snap the last tentacle let go.
Ullii held her breath. The latch clicked. Irisis slid through the door and was standing beside her. Ullii let go of the knot, which sprang back to where it had been before. The latch clicked again and the door was once more immovably ensorcelled.
‘I don’t know how you did it,’ said Irisis, hugging her gently. ‘I’m not sure I want to know. But, thank you.’
Ullii wriggled out of her grip, afraid for the mouse in her pocket.
‘Do you know how to get to the air-floater?’ Irisis went on.
‘No,’ Ullii said softly, taking her friend by the hand. ‘I have no idea.’
They dared not go up. There were people in the upper halls of Nennifer day and night, and while little Ullii might creep about unseen, Irisis could not. Had Ullii’s incomprehensible interference with the door set off Ghorr’s alarm? There was no sign of it.