Geomancer

S IXTEEN

Nish was interrogated by Jal-Nish and Fyn-Mah. It was like being whipped all over again, only worse. His father was coldly angry, Fyn-Mah reserved and efficient. Once, though, Nish noticed her staring out the window, clearly thinking about something else. She looked sad. What was it about her?

Later he was questioned together with Irisis, which he found even less comfortable. Twice she lied to his father with a completely straight face, then glared at Nish as if daring him to betray her. Irisis did not seem to care. It was as if she had a death wish.

She had admitted to harassing Tiaan, including planting the page from her journal and stealing her method of blocking the aura of controllers. Irisis flatly denied any of the other crimes with which she had been charged. Was she innocent, or would she, as before, only admit to a crime once it was proven against her? Nish rather suspected that she was guilty, and under interrogation he was forced to reveal that he doubted her. Irisis did not react to that either.

As the interrogation went on, Jal-Nish grew more and more frustrated. 'She must be the spy,' Nish overheard him whisper to Fyn-Mah during a break in the proceedings. 'I've a good mind to put her in the Irons, to be sure.'

He meant a form of torture so hideous that it was rarely used even on the most recalcitrant of prisoners. Nish was shocked. If it came to that, he could not stand by.

'I wouldn't advise it, unless you're certain she's guilty,' said Fyn-Mah. 'Her mother is an old friend of the scrutator.'

'No, no,' Jal-Nish said hurriedly. 'We won't go down that path.'

He kept Nish and Irisis up all night, then sent them to the mine to help with the search. Nish, staggering along behind Fyn in a lather of pain and claustrophobia, did not even think of escaping. One fate worse than the front-line, in this world where everyone had their place, was to become an outlaw with no hope of rehabilitation.

They went through the mine down to the eighth level, until Nish, who had not slept for days, was like the walking dead. Joeyn's body was found but not recovered, for the attempt brought down the rest of the roof, burying him, two miners and the fabulous vein of crystals under twenty wagonloads of rock.

Finding no trace of Tiaan, they began to question whether she had ever been in the mine. Two afternoons after Nish began it, the search was called off. The mine had to get back into production and every spare hand was needed to bolster the defences of the manufactory.

Nish humped stone until dark, when he had another blistering interview with his father.

'You've blackened me in the scrutator's eyes, boy!' Jal-Nish growled. 'I can't forgive that.'

'What are you going to tell my mother?' It was Nish's only trump.

The perquisitor, who had been pacing vigorously, stopped dead. The one thing he feared more than the scrutator's wrath was the fury of his spouse.

'Please give me another chance, father.'

'You've disgraced the family,' Jal-Nish said coldly. 'In ordinary times I might have been lenient but this time I can't, not even for your mother. You've turned Tiaan's triumph into a disaster. If I let you off, the scrutator will think I'm as big a knave as you are, and where will we be then? I know Ranii will agree with me on this.' He resumed his pacing, more anxiously than before.

Nish tried again but his father proved immovable. As soon as the weather cleared up enough to travel, Nish was to take ship to the front-lines, two hundred leagues north. There, in the unlikely event that he was not killed and eaten straight away, he would have an opportunity to rehabilitate himself.

Fortunately the weather showed no sign of abating its autumnal fury. Storms alternately lashed them with sleet, freezing rain, wet snow and frigid mist. For once Nish was grateful for it. He was lying awake on his pallet the following morning, listening to the wind rattle the roof slates as he waited for the gong to get up, when the whole wall shook. A second later there came a dull boom.

Earth tremblers were not uncommon here, and sometimes dangerous. Nish flew out of bed, scrambled into his boots and tore open the door. 'What was that?' he yelled to the guard standing outside.

'I don't -'

Another great smashing thud shook the manufactory. 'That's not an earth trembler,' Nish shouted. 'Something's attacking the front gate. Quickly, man, to your post!'

The guard, well drilled as was everyone in the manufactory, ran for the gate. Nish, whose station was up on the wall, took a shortcut through the women's dormitory, where scantily clad women (and occasional lovers) were falling over each other in their urgency to get dressed. The scene was much the same in the men's sleeping hall.

'Sleepers, wake!' he roared. 'The enemy is at the gates. Quick, quick!'

He continued up the other end, banging a stick on the doors of the workers important enough to have their own rooms. It amused him to see the condition of those who stumbled out, including his father.

Naked, still dazed from sleep, Jal-Nish was in no way the commanding figure he cut in his clothes. His belly quivered, and his lip. He kicked the door closed, though not before Nish saw Wickie, the young clerk from the bursar's office, standing mouth agape.

Nish was shocked, to say nothing of disgusted. His own father! But there was no time for that now. Throwing the door open again he shouted, 'The gates are attacked, perquisitor!' deliberately using the title rather than his father's name. A spasm warped Jal-Nish's face, then Nish ran on.

Fyn-Mah hurried by, shepherding a gaggle of little children to safety. For the first time, her reserve had broken – she looked to be in pain.

A fascinating character study, had Nish the time to dwell on it, the way people dealt with the shock. Overseer Gi-Had looked as if he'd had to force courage on himself, yet he came running. There was no sign of Foreman Gryste at all, and two artificers, big men well known for their pride and their boasting, had to be shamed from their rooms.

Not so Irisis. Her door flew open as he reached it. She had a long knife in her hand, almost the length of a short sword, but wore only a pair of knee-length trousers. 'The enemy, you say?'

'At the gates.'

'Where's my blasted shirt?' She looked around for it, then spat, 'Ah, damn it,' and ran out, her magnificent breasts bare.

Nish followed, suspecting she had done it deliberately. With her hair streaming out, and her scarred back, she looked just like the paintings of Myssu, a great revolutionary hero of old.

They ran up the steps onto the wall. Hastily lit torches guttered in the wind. It was still dark outside. The light showed only mist and shadows.

The wall shook again, then a missile smashed one side of the great gate. Nish looked down to see a boulder, hurled by some mighty catapult, crack the steps before rolling onto the road.

'What is it?' he shouted to the nearest guard. Before the fellow could answer a smaller missile struck him in the chest, carrying him backwards over the edge to his death.

Irisis came sprinting along the wall, hair flying. 'It's lyrinx!' she screamed, ducked past him and raced to the watch-tower above the left gate, snatching a torch on the way. Several rocks followed her path though none went near. Flying up the steps, she hurled the torch high and straight, through the opening of the watchlight.

Tar-soaked straw, placed there for the purpose, burst into flames, illuminating the area between the gate and the forest, though leaving the defenders on the wall in shadow. Nish knocked down the other torch and ran up to the watch-tower, where Irisis was sighting a crossbow toward the forest. She fired. There came a single, truncated cry.

Another boulder hurtled out of the darkness, tearing the broken gate off its hinges. Instantly it was charged by three lyrinx and a violent skirmish took place on the steps.

Irisis stood barefoot in a drift of snow, calmly reloading the crossbow. She seemed oblivious to the cold, though her skin was purple. 'Damn you!' she screamed. The crossbow had jammed.

Nish quickly freed it, his artificer's skills proving some use after all, and handed it back.

Irisis leaned over the wall, sighted straight down, held the position and fired. A pulpy thud made her grunt with satisfaction. 'Got you!' She ducked out of the line of fire, looking around for more bolts.

Nish was struck by the change in her. He had never seen Irisis look so alive. He glanced over the side. Her target lay still, a bloody smear on the top of its crested skull. How could she be a traitor? It made no sense.

The other two lyrinx were at the gate. Nish ran to a rock pile, grabbed one as big as he could lift, sighted and dropped it. It missed, shattering on the steps. He hurled another, which struck an attacker on its plated shoulder. The lyrinx lurched around, shaking an arm which looked to be dislocated, then crashed through the gate into the manufactory. Screams and roars marked its passage.

Nish aimed another missile, but as he let it fall the second lyrinx hurled something up at him with a whip-like underarm flick. There came a blinding pain in the throat; the blow punched him onto his back. He cracked his head on the rock pile and sank into a daze where all he could feel was the agony in his neck, a creeping cold and the blood running out of him.

Shortly he was picked up and carried down. Irisis was one of the bearers, her breasts swaying above his face. Whoever had his feet was lost in fog that rose with every step. He came to on a table in the refectory with a dozen people staring at him. One was his father, and his face bore a look of terror such as Nish had not seen before. Maybe Jal-Nish cared about him after all.

Beside him loomed the healer Tul-Kin, and Nish was not pleased to see him. Up close, the man's nose and cheeks were a mass of broken veins, while his breath reeked of the homemade rhubarb brandy that the miners distilled in the village. The manufactory was dry – only weak beer allowed – but the healer was permitted brandy for use in his surgery. An unfortunate exception.

'Come on, man!' cried Jal-Nish. 'Get the dart out and sew him up before he bleeds to death.'

Tul-Kin wrung his plump hands. 'I dursn't. It's lying between the arteries and bladed on three edges. One slip and he's dead.'

'Drunken fool,' roared Jal-Nish. 'Where the devil is Gi-Had?'

'Gone after the enemy, surr,' Nish heard someone say. 'One of the beasts has got into the offices.' Nish felt dizzy, though his mind was clear. He was going to die because the healer lacked the courage to try to save him.

'Is this wretch the only healer you have?' the perquisitor persisted.

'There's old Ruzia, surr,' said the unknown voice, 'but she's blind and has the shakes something severe. We also had Mul-Lym the apothek. He was a good hand with the bone saw, in emergencies, but…'

'But the damn fool is dead,' Jal-Nish grated. 'Killed himself, if someone else didn't do it for him.' He scowled down at his son. 'Could be a poetic kind of justice, I suppose.'

Nish could see the irony too, but he did not appreciate it.

A slap, a curse and Irisis's voice raged, 'Keep your hands to yourself or I'll spill your brains on the floor. Get out of my way.' The crowd parted before her. She had put on an undershirt, a clinging article that distracted the eye.

'What do you think you're doing?' screamed Jal-Nish.

'Saving your worthless son's life,' she replied softly. 'Or if not, putting him out of his suffering.' She had a piece of copper tubing in one hand, a small artisan's hammer in the other.

'Be damned! Tul-Kin, get back here!'

Tul-Kin was retrieved from the corner, gulping from a flask. When they took it away his arm twitched so hard he could not hold the knife they pressed upon him.

'Well?' said Irisis with magnificent arrogance.

Jal-Nish closed his eyes, opened them and wiped away a tear. 'He's going to die, isn't he?'

'At the rate he's losing blood,' said one of the nurses, 'I'd give him an hour.'

The perquisitor waved a hand. 'I don't suppose you can do any worse.'

Irisis pushed through, leaned over Nish and gauged the wound. 'The shard is a length of metal about as long as a small knife blade. It's triangular in cross-section and each edge is razor sharp. It's gone through the muscle of his neck. The point has come out the back, next to the spine. To pull it out, or push it through, risks cutting the vein, in which case he will die in a minute.'

She took the piece of copper tube, checked that the diameter was large enough, then wiggled it into the slit in Nish's neck. He screamed and fainted. 'Just as well,' Irisis muttered, and eased the tubing over the end of the shard. As she pushed, there came a gentle sucking sound. Blood began to drip from the tube.

Sweat was pouring down her face. There were a dozen people around the table but no one said a word. The entire room seemed to be holding its breath.

Irisis gently worked the tube back and forth, as if trying to get it over a snag in the metal. The least pressure and one of the blades would go through a vein. She eased the tube out, wiped the blood on her shirt, cleaned her fingers the same way, tilted the tube and slid it back in. This time it kept going.

'Lift his head!' she said harshly.

Jal-Nish did so. He looked stricken.

She moved his hand down to support Nish's neck. 'Hold him firmly.'

Taking a small cap from her pocket, she screwed it on the end of the tube. Irisis took up her hammer and, with a single sharp blow that drew a gasp from the watchers, drove the tube all the way in. Nish woke, screamed and convulsed.

'Hold him!' she roared, 'or we'll lose him.'

The watchers scurried to take hold of Nish. Irisis took a pair of pincers from her pocket, gripped the end of the tube protruding from the back of his neck and drew out tube and shard in a single clean movement. Nish shrieked.

Pent-up blood poured out, front and back. They waited for the telltale spurt from a severed artery.

'What's happening?' wailed Nish. 'I'm going to die, aren't I?'

Irisis stood back, panting. Her shirt and arms were coated with blood. Blood dribbled from the end of the tube. She was staring at his throat.

'What…?' said Nish.

'Shut up, Nish! You're not going to die, more's the damn pity.' Irisis looked around at the crowd. 'Can anyone sew?' The faces looked blank. 'Of course you can't, morons! Get me the healer's bag and bottle.'

Someone scurried off, returning with the items. Irisis found a needle and thread and calmly sewed up Nish's neck, then doused the wounds with brandy.

Finally she tossed needle, thread and flask onto the table, took up her tools and, without another glance, went back to her room. Nish's mouth was dry, his head throbbed and his neck was so unbearably painful that he could not move his head. He had vague memories of someone sitting by the bed, stroking his brow, but only Irisis was there now.

'You saved my life,' he said, reaching for her hand.

'Don't think for a minute it's because I care for you, Little Nish-Nash,' she said in a gritty voice.

'Then why?'

'For your father's favour, of course! It was that or the breeding factory.'

'Oh!' He missed the strange look in her eye, being unable to turn his head. 'But if you'd killed me…'

'It was worth the gamble. I like gambling, especially when things can't get any worse.'

'Then hadn't you better go for your reward?' He put as much sarcasm into it as his awful neck would let him. 'That's exactly what I expected of you, after all.'

She shrugged it off. 'I've some broth. Wouldn't want you to die and spoil everything.'

'Of course not!'

She dipped the spoon, put it to his lips. 'Open up!'

He did so and found the broth delicious, nothing like the dishwater he'd expected from the cookhouse. Smacking his lips he said, 'That's good!'

'Of course it is. I made it myself. Specially.'

She fed him the rest, then went out without further word. Nish lay back, feeling the blood pounding in his ears. The small exertion had exhausted him. Irisis was at her bench fitting together a controller when the door banged open and Jal-Nish came hurrying in. He hurried everywhere, though with his portly figure it made him look faintly ridiculous.

'Yes?' she said imperiously, afraid of what he could do to her. She had spent most of her life afraid, and concealing it. A word from the perquisitor and she could be any kind of drudge or slave he cared to name. Her pride would not allow that.

'I've come to thank you for saving my worthless son.'

'Worthless? I suppose so. He has certain talents.' She gave a mocking, pointed leer.

'I don't want to know,' he said hastily.

'I bet you do. I know all about your nocturnal activities.' She tossed back her yellow hair. 'Tell me my fate. Whatever it is, I would know it right away.'

He walked up and down, casting her sideways glances as if he did not know what to make of her.

'There's more to you than reports indicate.'

'What does Fyn-Mah say about me? Am I guilty of treachery, even murder, as my one-time lover believes?'

'There is now… room for doubt,' he said.

'Oh?'

'It's hard to imagine a traitor killing one of the enemy so brilliantly.'

'What did the lyrinx come for?'

'Just a wandering band.' Jal-Nish was a little too offhand. 'Who knows why they go where they do?'

'I heard that one beast fought its way into Gi-Had's office before it was killed. Sounds like they came with a purpose.'

He hesitated. 'It took a piece of evidence…'

'Are you saying Gi-Had is the traitor?'

'Don't be absurd. The lyrinx had Artisan Tiaan's broken pliance. We think it contains evidence of the traitor's identity, which seems to clear you of that particular charge.'

'But not the others?'

'You have admitted to serious crimes, and Fyn-Mah tells me -'

'Yes?' She clenched her fingers under the bench, out of sight.

'That you're vain, proud and have an overly high opinion of yourself. But it's a front you've been putting on all your life, to protect yourself from an abusive mother, an incompetent father and a family desperately trying to relive its past glory through you. That you're quite lacking in morals and would do anything to advance yourself and bring your rivals down. That you're bold, even foolhardy, yet dogged in pursuit of your ultimate goal. That you have a desperate craving for recognition…'

She could never argue, for that would lose face in her own eyes. 'All true!' She feigned boredom. 'I am what I am. Rather, what circumstances and my own wit have made me.'

'Indeed, and that is why I am here. I have a little job for you, one by which you may, just possibly, redeem yourself.'

'A job?'

'Of a sort.' He hesitated, then with swift strides went to the door, checked outside and closed it tight. Jal-Nish drew up a stool and sat down before her. 'Back in my own realm, certain, er… experimental procedures have been done in… how shall I call it in this tongue? Farsensing, or perhaps tracking.'

'What, people?'

'Indirectly. Really, it's tracking the use of power – the Secret Art.'

'I have no talent for the Secret Art.'

'I've brought with me a natural adept who can sense when power is used; and where! I hope she can help with a particular problem.'

'The failure of the field at Minnien,' Irisis guessed.

'Indeed. We don't know why it happened, or how. Is the field gone forever or will it suddenly come back?'

'Did we drain it dry,' said Irisis, 'or did the enemy learn to cut it off?'

'Precisely. You have a quick wit, artisan.'

She yawned, deliberately.

'We've had scores of crafters and mancers working on the problem but thus far they have failed,' said Jal-Nish.

'We need to see inside the node,' said Irisis.

He looked startled but recovered quickly. 'My thoughts exactly. And that's what I hope to do with my adept – the seeker.'

'Why are you telling me this?'

'The seeker's talent is not enough, for it is bound up with fatal weaknesses.'

'I have no idea what you're talking about.'

'I've not put it clearly. Come with me.'

She followed him through the manufactory, which was full of idling workers. So soon after the attack, no one could concentrate on their work. They passed by the overseer's door, which had been smashed to pieces, walked around the corner and down a long corridor where Jal-Nish stopped at a closed door. He took up a lantern, lit it, shuttered it nearly all the way and went in. She followed him. He pulled the door closed. The light fell on a small figure hunched up in the corner. It put its hands over its face, making a mewling noise.

'Ullii,' Jal-Nish said softly, 'this is Artisan Irisis. Please say hello.'

The figure writhed and then slowly unfolded. At first Irisis thought the seeker was a child, but when Ullii stood up, she turned out to be a young woman, well formed but small, with little hands and tiny, slender feet. She was naked, her clothes scattered across the floor as if she'd hurled them away. Everything about her was pale to the point of colourlessness. Her hair was so transparent that it could have been drawn from strands of water. Her eyelashes and brows were the same. Her skin had no colour at all, so that, even in this light, every blood vessel showed, and between them the pinkness of her flesh.

Ullii turned away from the light, dim though it was. Irisis wondered if she had some terrible deformity, but Jal-Nish faced the lantern into the corner and Ullii looked back. She appeared perfectly normal except for enormous eyes with no colour or visible structure. Was she a moron-savant?

'It hurts,' said Ullii in a voice as colourless as her hair. The light had hurt her though, for tears were dripping from her lower lashes.

'Say hello, Ullii,' said Jal-Nish.

'Hello, Irisis,' Ullii said in a voice that now reflected Jal-Nish's accent. She stared straight through Irisis as if she was not there at all. Or as if she herself was blind.

'What do you see, Ullii?' Jal-Nish spoke more sharply than he had intended.

She jerked as though his voice had hurt her, then began to curl up. 'Sorry,' he whispered soothingly. 'Don't be afraid, Ullii. No one's going to hurt you ever again. Tell Irisis what you see.'

It was no use. The young woman curled into a ball with her head tucked right under. Jal-Nish shrugged, indicated the door and took up the lantern.

'What's the matter with her?' Irisis said.

Closing the door, Jal-Nish led Irisis down the corridor. 'She's a strange little thing. All her senses are so acute that she can't exist in our world. She's practically blind in light, though she can see well enough in the dark. Noise is like physical pain to her – a shout or a cry, everyday sounds to us, are to her like being trapped inside a tank with a banshee. Touch is just as bad – she cannot bear to wear clothes. Even silk she finds irritating. She is frightened of everything and everyone.'

'I wonder she was not put out of her misery long ago,' said Irisis. 'I would have, were she mine. She doesn't seem all there.'

'What a cold woman you are!' said Jal-Nish. 'She's not an idiot; just overwhelmed.'

Irisis suppressed her impatience, waiting for him to get to the point.

'Ullii sees things. In her mind,' he said at last.

'So do I.'

'You don't see the kinds of things she does. Let's try again. And keep your voice down.'

It was you who upset her last time, Irisis thought.

They went back in. 'Ullii, this is Artisan Irisis. Please say hello.'

She had unfolded. Turning toward Irisis, Ullii said, 'Hello, Irisis,' again mimicking the perquisitor's voice. 'I remember you from before.'

'Hello, Ullii,' Irisis said as quietly as she could. 'Tell me what you see.'

She stood up, staring at the air above Irisis's head. 'I see shapes not far away. They're all dark but they have crystals at their heart. Very weak crystals!' she said dismissively, now imitating Irisis's rather strident tones. Irisis wondered at the mimicry. Was it an attempt to deflect the words away from herself?

'Your controllers!' Jal-Nish said.

'I'd already worked that out!' Irisis hissed, though she had not.

Ullii started, began to curl up, then slowly unfolded again, like a ballet dancer imitating a flower. There was grace in her movements such as Irisis had never seen before. Her curiosity was aroused.

'I see other shapes, further away,' said Ullii. 'Some strong. No one is using them.'

The crystals in the mine? Irisis wondered.

'Go on,' said Jal-Nish 'Do you see anything else?'

She turned around, stiffened, and her owl eyes went wide. 'I see clawers, many of them. Hunting, hunting! Searching. Aaah!' She began to whimper. 'They're coming to eat me up! They're coming! They're coming!'

Irisis, uncharacteristically moved, would have thrown her arms about the young woman. Jal-Nish caught her sleeve, shook his head, and indicated the door. 'Leave her! She can't bear to be touched.'

Ullii was already curling up. They withdrew, this time for longer than before, and when they went back she took much coaxing before they could communicate with her at all.

The 'clawers', lyrinx presumably, were not far away. Ullii would say no more about them. She did not see them clearly, not in the way that she seemed to see the crystals.

'I don't like this,' said Jal-Nish under his breath. 'We can't withstand a major attack. What are so many doing, so near?'

Ullii's hearing must have been incredibly acute for she said, 'Hunting her!' now mimicking his voice.

'Hunting whom, Ullii?'

'The girl.'

'Which girl?'

'The girl with the bright crystal.'

'Who is she?' breathed Jal-Nish.

'Her crystal is as bright as the moon,' said Ullii.

'Tiaan!' Irisis cried, then quickly lowered her voice. 'Is that who they're hunting? Can she still be alive?'

'I don't know her name,' replied Ullii, staring through the ceiling. 'I can't see her clearly, only the crystal. But when she touches it, it blazes like a shooting star.'

'Where is she?' hissed Jal-Nish. 'Quick, girl. Which way?'

'This way.' Ullii pointed towards the door. 'Or maybe that way.' Down through the floor. 'All ways are the same.' Her eyes closed; she began to rock back and forth. 'Same, same, same, same, same, same, same, same, same, same, same, same, same, same…'

Jal-Nish led Irisis out and closed the door. 'Once she goes into that state it can be hours before she's any good. We'll come back later. I'll send out more search parties, in case it is Tiaan.'

'There's another possibility,' said Irisis.

'Oh?'

'That Ullii did not see her at all. She may just be parroting what she thinks we want to hear.'

'I was careful not to talk about it in front of her.'

'The whole manufactory has been talking about Tiaan. With Ullii's hearing she might have picked up what was said at the other end of the corridor.'

'Perhaps, but she's all we have.'

'I still don't see why you showed me,' Irisis remarked as they headed back to her workshop.

'Don't you? She can see forms of power, whether they be natural ones like nodes and crystals, or people who are working the Secret Art. No one has ever been able to do what she does. Think how she might help us on the battlefield, where the enemy uses the Art. To fly on our heavy world, lyrinx must use power to stay aloft. With her there, they won't be able to surprise us any more. But we need an artisan, like yourself, to give sight to her seeings. I didn't select you because you're so brilliant, if that's what you're thinking. I chose you because you're the best here, and because you've twice shown courage and initiative today. You will design and build a controller, specially to work with Ullii, so we can track down anyone using the Secret Art; either lyrinx or human! And when you've done that, you will find Tiaan.'

'Why is she so important?' asked Irisis. 'There are thousands of artisans…'

'Because the scrutator says so!' Jal-Nish snapped. 'It was your stupidity that drew her to his attention and now I'm ordered to get her back. As far as I'm concerned, what the scrutator wants, he gets! Succeed and this will be your reprieve! Fail and you're dead! So get to work.'