‘Found it,’ she grunted. ‘Tired. Going to bed.’
‘What? Where is it?’ he and Irisis cried together.
‘Tar pits. When lyrinx appeared. Underground. Deep. Very strange.’
Flydd glanced at Irisis. ‘What do you mean, Ullii?’
The seeker trotted off without answering. Flydd ran and caught her arm as she was going through the front door. ‘Ullii?’
‘Goes on and off.’ She pulled free and scuttled down the hall.
‘Is that good or bad?’ Flydd said. ‘Either way, it’s not a moment too soon.’
‘What’s the matter now?’ said Irisis.
‘The Aachim are just over the horizon – the best part of a hundred thousand of them, and as many constructs as we have clankers. And doubtless the rest are on the way.’
‘Are they for us or against us?’
‘If only I knew. Now be quiet. I’ve got to think.’
They spent what remained of the night on the veranda with Fyn-Mah. ‘So the enemy have Tiaan,’ said Flydd. ‘How did that come about?’
‘I haven’t discovered,’ Fyn-Mah replied. ‘Muss is trying to find out.’
‘More importantly,’ said Irisis, ‘what does she have to do with their flesh-forming?’
‘They used her talents in Kalissin. Perhaps they’re doing it again.’
‘What are they doing down there?’
Fyn-Mah leaned forward in her chair. ‘I don’t know, though from what Muss has gleaned from their human slaves, they’re close to what they went there for.’
‘And that is?’ said Irisis.
‘A vital breakthrough for the war,’ said Flydd. ‘Our time has run out. We’ll have to attack Snizort, and soon.’
‘What are our chances?’
‘Of winning this battle? Without aid, rather low.’
Fyn-Mah sat up. ‘There is one thing …’
‘Yes?’
‘Vithis is still hunting Tiaan and the flying construct. He’s changed all his plans just to find her. So –’
Flydd let out his breath in a sigh that made the candles flicker. ‘Of course he is. And we know where she is. I see an opportunity.’
‘You wouldn’t,’ said Irisis.
‘What’s one life, any life, before the whole of humanity?’
Two days later the first and greatest fleet of constructs appeared, some six thousand of them, whining in to camp well south of Snizort, where the Westway crossed the River Zort over a stone bridge of seven arches. Irisis and Flydd watched them from the air-floater.
‘Not a comforting sight.’ Flydd put down his spyglass. ‘Their constructs are …’
‘Vastly superior to our clankers,’ Irisis finished.
‘In every respect. And a damn sight more comfortable.’
The soldiers called clankers ‘boneshakers’, for they were hideously uncomfortable, even on good roads, and prone to breaking down. Constructs, gliding hip-high above the ground, must have been like floating on silk.
‘Better go down and see what we can make of the fellow,’ said Flydd. ‘From what I’ve heard of Vithis, I can’t say I’m optimistic.’
In the next week, five sets of emissaries were turned back by the Aachim. So many spies had been sent out that Irisis wondered if the whole population of Gospett was on the scrutator’s payroll. Few returned. Vithis would see no one and no one knew what was going on. One day he was supposed to have allied with the lyrinx, the next planning war on them, with or without human aid. Other rumours held that he was awaiting a signal to strike at humanity all across Santhenar. Only one thing was certain: he was hunting Tiaan. Aachim roved across the land in small groups of constructs, gathering intelligence and seeking information about her.
‘Time I went to see Vithis,’ said Flydd.
‘What if he won’t see you?’
‘I don’t plan to give him the choice. And once there, I dare say he’ll be interested in Ullii’s discovery.’
‘About the node-drainer?’ said Irisis.
‘Don’t mention that! Tiaan is the key. Find her and we’ll find the flying construct. Then we can win the war on our own, or offer the flier to Vithis in return for his help. The same result either way.’
‘Could be unfortunate for Tiaan,’ said Irisis.
‘The same applies to all of us.’
The generals argued for making a show of strength and taking a squadron of clankers, but the scrutator vetoed that idea.
‘Their constructs are manifestly superior to our machines,’ he said. ‘It would only prove our unfitness to negotiate as equals. Above all we must not appear weak, nor rustic.’
‘Are we to go on horseback then?’ said General Tham. ‘Or on foot, to be turned away like beggars?’
‘We will drop down on them in the air-floater,’ said Flydd. ‘Equal but different. They may dominate the land but they have not mastered the skies. They want to, desperately.’
‘You would fly, unarmed and helpless, into the enemy camp?’ said Tham. ‘I cannot –’
‘They are not our enemy,’ said Flydd. ‘Yet! And the safest way to approach an Aachim army is unarmed.’
‘One ill-disciplined soldier, one frightened Aachim youth with a javelard, could destroy the air-floater, and you. And all our hopes.’
‘I’m sure no soldier of Vithis is ill-disciplined.’
‘Except the one who killed Tiaan’s ward, little Haani,’ Irisis said to herself. Why would Flydd not listen?
The air-floater was cleaned until it shone and everyone was fitted with freshly tailored uniforms. The embassy went aboard, including Irisis and Ullii, and they rotored gently over the Aachim camp, flying the flag of the Council of Scrutators.
The sight was awesome – thousands of constructs arrayed with military precision around a central heptagon of bare land. That space contained hundreds of tents, as yellow as sulphur and marked with swirling patterns in black. A large tent stood by itself.
The constructs had the same general form, though they were of all sizes up to monsters that might have carried fifty people. Each was armed with weapons, mounted on a platform at the rear, and every weapon was trained on their fragile craft. Irisis held her breath as the air-floater hovered over the tents.
‘Take it down next to the command tent there,’ Flydd said to Hila. ‘And whatever you do, don’t hit it.’
She pursed her lips, drifted in and settled the machine in the indicated space so lightly that it would not have cracked an egg. They climbed out, Irisis noting that the javelards still tracked them.
Three Aachim came to meet them, holding themselves erect and walking well apart.
Vithis gave the air-floater a measured sideways glance. ‘A remarkable vehicle.’ He offered his hand to the scrutator. ‘I am Vithis of Clan Inthis, First Clan, at your service. I lead my people, in peace and in war.’
The curly-haired woman to his right scowled. The other man’s face was carefully blank.
‘Xervish Flydd, Scrutator for Einunar, representing the Council of Scrutators in war. We have not had peace in one hundred and fifty years, and we are prepared to fight as long again, if we must.’
‘How does your machine stay in the air?’ Vithis asked casually. ‘Does it repel the field?’
‘It employs a simpler principle. The airbag is filled with a vapour, more buoyant than air, which we obtain from mines deep underground.’
‘Ah,’ said Vithis, and turned away.
Is he impressed by the simplicity, Irisis wondered, or contemptuous of it?
The subordinates on either side were introduced. These included General Tham and his adjutant, Irisis and Ullii. For the Aachim, Luxor, Tirior and Minis. They retired to a pavilion out of the sun and after refreshments were offered Vithis said, ‘Why have you come, Scrutator Flydd?’
‘To see if we might be of assistance to each other,’ Flydd said.
‘You want us to fight your war for you.’
‘We don’t, though I won’t pretend your aid would not be useful. We are both human species and our kinship is close. Should we not stand –?’
‘Old humans are legion!’ snapped Vithis. ‘We are few. Less than one hundred and fifty thousand, many of whom are children. We have much to lose and nothing to gain from an alliance with you.’