Geomancer

T WENTY -E IGHT

The fumes were worse than ever. Tiaan rolled over and broke into a fit of coughing that sprayed the stone red. It felt as if she was bringing up specks of lung. She rested her forehead against the rock. Why did it take so long to die?

Thump! Something landed on top of the ice globe, knocking a cold cinder down on her head. She rolled onto her back. A shadow clung to the outside like a kitten to a ball. Vaguely outlined against the stars, it looked like a Hurn bear; a big one.

The creature scratched at the ice, the sound reverberating in her ears. Moving under the shelf, she pressed her nose to a crack in the stone and breathed deep, trying to suck fresh air out of it. The grinding grew louder. Wiping her streaming eyes, Tiaan sat with her crossbow loaded. It made her feel better.

The beast sprang in the air and came down reversed, clinging with its back feet, scraping with one forefoot. She closed her eyes. Though everything hurt, Tiaan could feel herself drifting off.

Another thump; the scratching resumed. She did not look up. Breathing was taking all her strength. The crossbow slipped from her hand. A louder thump. Again the bear had reversed position. Its legs drew back and kicked at the circular gouge.

The outer half of the sphere split off in a ragged circle and freezing air rushed in. Tiaan gulped it down. It tasted better than the fine wine her mother had occasionally offered on her visits to the breeding factory.

The creature's head came over the edge of the ice. It was not a Hurn bear at all, but a lyrinx. There was frozen blood down its front – one of its victims, no doubt. She felt for the crossbow. Her eyes were all blurry. Ryll slowly came into focus.

'Can you cling to my back?'

'No!' she gasped, backing against the rock. 'No!'

He took the crossbow away, pulled her out and tucked her under one muscular arm. She caught a whiff of his odour – strong, gamey, though not unpleasant. Tiaan did not struggle. There was no point.

'Where are you taking me?' she said hoarsely.

'Don't be afraid.' He began to climb up over the ice, seemingly unburdened by her weight. 'I am paying my debt.'

'Pack!' she croaked.

Ryll stopped. 'What is the matter?'

'I must have my pack!'

He resumed the climb. 'I will come back for it.'

Tiaan sagged. Whatever he planned to do with her, or to her, she was too weak to resist. The darkness was complete, not the least pinpoint of light anywhere as Tiaan came to. Rock pressed against her shoulder blades. She felt around. More rock. It felt strange, having no idea what space she was in. Tiaan wished she had the senses of a bat, to move carefree through the dark. She was not cold, but so weary that merely moving her arms exhausted her. She felt acutely aware of her body. Every part was tingling; she could feel every nerve strand. What damage had the amplimet done to her?

The air was still. Silence surrounded her, and smells – the odour of blood and meat, the bodies of the soldiers, and a different kind of odour that must be the dead lyrinx. She was in the cavern.

'Hello!' she said. The sound came back in dull-edged echoes. 'Hello?' she shouted. 'Ryll!'

Echoes but no reply. This was her chance to escape, and Tiaan felt a sudden pang of homesickness for the smell and the racket of the manufactory, and even her cold little sleeping cubicle. If only she could go home.

She was imagining that she could when she had a vision of Minis's reproachful face. But you gave your word, Tiaan.

She groaned aloud. She would not go home, but how could she go after Minis? Tirthrax was hundreds of leagues away, through some of the most inhospitable country in the world. It would take years, even if she had plenty of money and supplies. And everywhere she went, guards would question her, officials demand her papers, and throw her into the cells because she had no right to be there.

It was absurd to think that she could walk to Tirthrax. Quite impossible. Give him up, she told herself. You just can't do it, and no one could expect you to. But where could she go?

Minis, she thought. My poor, lost love. You picked the wrong person. I would save you if I could, but I can't. I'm just not strong enough. She lay on the floor and wept. Tiaan felt washed out. Why had Ryll saved her life then left her here? Had he fled with her amplimet? Was it what Ryll really wanted? Her outstretched hand touched the webbing of her pack and she felt inside. The helm was there, and the small crystal.

Emptying her pack, she scratched frantically through the contents. Her tools fell out of the toolkit, to tinkle on the rock floor. Clothes, food rations, sleeping pouch, soap, all were there. The amplimet was not.

Ryll had left her halfway up the sloping floor, well away from the bodies. She went down, looking for one of the torches. The bloody smell grew stronger. Her hand struck something rigid – a dead soldier.

Tiaan ran into three more bodies, then a tunnel. She must be near the second, third or fourth tunnels, for that was where the battle had been. After working that information into a mental picture of the chamber, she knew where to look. The bundle of tarred sticks must be to her left.

It was a surprisingly long time before she found them. She came up against the back of the dead lyrinx, slipped in a puddle of jellied blood and lost her mental map. Trying to get it back, arms out, she walked slap-bang into the torches.

One had a sticky patch of tar on it that had not burned. Striking sparks into a pinch of tinder, Tiaan used the small flare to light the torch. The flame dazzled her. Seeking out the tar pot she replenished the torch and in its smoky light searched the cavern from one side to the other, and the tunnel that led back to the outside. She did not find the amplimet.

Nor did she find her pincers, used to draw the bolt from Ryll's neck. The empty space in her toolkit was like a freshly pulled tooth. She found bloody evidence of the place Ryll had fallen, the muck he'd heaved up afterwards, and even a mark on the floor, in purple blood, that had the outline of the pincers. Both pincers and bolt were gone. Ryll appeared behind her. She let out a strangled cry. The light in his hands came from the amplimet, reflecting eerily off skin now coloured in washes of yellow.

'What are you doing with my crystal?' she said wildly. Withdrawal had made her reckless.

He gave a mild, toothy smile. Did that mean he was amused, or hungry? 'I can't see in pitch dark,' he rumbled.

Tiaan, regretting the tone of her voice, edged backwards.

The smile broadened. 'I'm not going to eat you, little human.'

Not very reassuring. 'Wh-where have you been?'

'Checking the tunnels to make sure no one came after me.'

'Was anyone coming?'

'Not that way!' With his injured hand, he indicated the passage back to the crystal mine. The regenerating fingers were now the size of a child's. 'The rocks have moved. The tunnel is blocked.'

'What did you do with my pincers?'

'What?'

'The tool I pulled the bolt from your neck with. It was lying just there.' She showed him the bloody outline.

'I did not touch it,' he said.

'It was with the bolt. You must have taken them.'

'I did not. Why would I?'

'Then someone has been here!'

'One man came back – the leader. I can smell him. But he went again.'

Fear pricked her. Gi-Had must have come looking for her and found the artisan's pincers. Helping the enemy was a capital offence and now he had evidence of it. Tiaan put her hands over her eyes, trying to think. She could not. She was too afraid. When she opened them, Ryll was staring at her.

'What do you want me for?'

'My debt of honour,' he replied.

'You saved my life. The debt is paid!'

'Not if you're going to die as soon as I go.'

'You have a stern moral code,' she said sarcastically.

'Indeed! Otherwise, why have a code at all? I will escort you home.'

If she went back, Gi-Had would probably have her executed for treason. 'I no longer have a home.'

He looked thoughtful. 'Where do you wish to go?'

Tiaan felt panicky. Where could she go? All destinations were equally hopeless. In that case she might as well attempt the impossible and head for Tirthrax. No doubt she would die on the way but at least she'd be keeping her promise to Minis. It made her feel better. 'I want to go south! Over the range to Tarralladell.'

'Have you family there?'

'No, but further west, in the mountains of Mirrilladell, I am going to find a man I have never met.'

'Ah! An arranged mating?'

Tiaan blushed. 'In a way; not yet, but I hope…' She did not go on. It was too unreal.

'To cross the mountains in this season…' he mused. 'Well, south of here they are smaller, and there are passes, but even so,' he gave her a sideways glance. 'It will not be easy.'

'I can't wait till spring. I might be too late.'

'To my mind, if he cannot wait that long to mate with you,' said Ryll, 'he is not a good choice.'

Again that disturbing use of the word 'mate'. She had to remind herself that lyrinx were alien, with an entirely different culture and way of life. Perhaps love was meaningless to them. 'I didn't ask your opinion,' she snapped.

'You could take ship around the Horns, then sail across the inland sea.'

Tiaan consulted her mental map of Lauralin. 'At this time of year? That would be as dangerous as going over the mountains, and the entrance to Tallallamel may be frozen over. Anyway, no ship would take me. I have no papers.' However she went, travel was expensive. Would she have enough to go so far? She had no idea. She had not opened Joeyn's money belt but surely there could not be much in it.

'You speak our language well, Ryll,' she said tentatively, using his name for the first time. Naming him seemed to change their relationship.

'I was brought up with captive humans, so as to learn. I am one of the most fluent.'

He regarded her steadily. She could not meet his gaze. Her world kept turning upside down.

'May I have back my crystal?' She had to work hard to keep the quaver out of her voice. He tossed it to her and as soon as she caught it Tiaan felt better.

'What do you know about the tetrarch?' He was looking at her intently.

'What is a tetrarch?'

'You don't know?'

'I've never heard the word before.'

Ryll held her gaze for a moment, said 'No matter,' and stalked across the cavern in that strange, sway-backed stride. She watched him all the way. What did he want from her? The secrets of power – hedrons and controllers? Was the tetrarch a similar kind of device?

Ryll bent down, put his foot against something on the floor, and wrenched. There came a gruesome butchering noise. He stripped the trouser leg off a haunch of soldier and began to feed noisily. Tiaan wanted to vomit. The creature really was a beast, for all that it could talk.

The lyrinx tore off a piece of meat that would have fed her for days, chewing and swallowing with a few head-back gulps.

Tiaan gagged. Once he had what he wanted he would eat her too.

Ryll strolled back, gnawing on a thigh bone.

Putting her arms across her face, she turned away.

'Are you sick?' he asked.

'You're eating my people!' she screeched.

'They were not your friends, surely?' Ryll seemed surprised.

'Eating human flesh is disgusting!'

'It tastes good to me.'

'There's nothing wrong with it! It's just wrong to eat it. It makes me want to vomit, seeing you…'

'Only human flesh?' he enquired, cracking the bone over his knee and hooking out a quivering length of marrow with one claw. It went down with a slurp.

'And scavengers and carrion eaters,' she conceded, unable to look.

'Do humans see themselves as carrion eaters?' said Ryll with a puzzled frown. Waves of colour washed over his skin, like watercolours being mixed on wet paper.

'Certainly not! It's just that… human flesh is sacred to us.'

'Would it help if I ate where you could not see?'

'I'd prefer you didn't eat us at all.'

Shrugging, Ryll tossed the bones to one side. 'I will take you into the mountains.'

She did not believe him. The creature was toying with her. She had to escape. 'Now?'

'Later tonight. There was a thaw today. As soon as it sets hard we will go.' Tiaan slept badly, with unpleasant, fractured, crystal dreams. She woke to find Ryll standing over her. With the torch fluttering, he looked particularly menacing. She jumped up. 'What do you want?'

Ryll stepped back a pace. 'Time to go. You have food?'

'Enough for a few days. How long will the journey be?' It felt unreal. They might have been discussing a picnic, except that the feast would probably be her. She wished she was a quick-thinking hero who would instinctively know to escape.

'We are here.' With a long yellow claw he drew on the floor, a shape like the head of a fork with two tines, one rather longer than the other. It made an unpleasant scratching sound on the marble. 'Here is your city of Tiksi.' He marked a point just north of where the longer tine met the head of the fork, which represented the main mass of the Great Mountains. 'To cross the first range to the land you call Buh-rr… Bhur…'

'Burlahp!' she corrected.

'Buhrr-larp! That is about ninety slgurrk.' Ryll thought for a moment. 'Which would be about ten of your leagues, were we able to fly.' He grimaced.

A strange expression crossed his face, almost a shudder, and the vestigial wings stirred involuntarily. He snapped them down. 'Across Buhrr-larp is fifteen of your leagues, and ten more across the second range.' He indicated the second tine with his claw. 'This is the land you call Tarralladell. It is a long way from Mirrilladell, your destination.' His yellow eyes searched her.

'To walk to Buhrr-larp might take as little as six days, or as much as twelve, depending on the weather. That is, if I carried you. I will get food on the way.' Noting her horrified look he said, 'Mountain goat, fish, or maybe a small Hurn bear. Fill your pack, in case.'

Tarring up a torch, she rifled the dead soldiers' packs. There was more food than she could carry – dried meat and fruit, tiny onions, cheese and rice balls, some starting to go mouldy. Ryll was busy across the other side of the cavern, feeding again, judging by the nauseating rending and gulping noises. He did it in the darkness, thankfully.

By the time she had packed, he was on his way back, wiping his enormous mouth on a rag torn from the seat of a soldier's pants. Tiaan turned away, busying herself with her gear. She did not want to know.

'Ready?' he asked.

'Yes.'

'Bring one of those spears, in case of a bear.'

How little he feared her. 'I already have a crossbow.'

She took a few more bolts, just in case, and was surprised that he allowed her. A spear would not help her against a Hurn bear, for she felt so weak that a breeze might blow her away. However, Tiaan had a good eye and the crossbow had been her weapon of choice in defence training. She might, just possibly, bring down a lyrinx with it. That made her feel better, though the crossbow was an awkward weapon and took a long time to reload.

Now heavily laden, she followed Ryll down the passage. Outside he turned left, the direction she had taken after first leaving the tunnel. It was cold, but there was no wind and the moon was shining. They went along the ledge past the old tree, which somehow had survived the landslide. The stars were out.

A beautiful night for walking, were it not for the company. They continued until dawn, getting in a good five or six hours. It was hard going, up and down all the time, though at least the snow had a solid crust. Ryll seemed to know exactly where he was going. After half an hour he left the ledge and headed up through unmarked snow, sometimes across alpine meadows, sometimes along ledges which fell into chasms hundreds of spans deep. As it grew light his skin plates changed colour. In a few minutes he was as white as a Hurn bear, disappearing into the landscape.

Tiaan felt a mixture of emotions. Did he really have a code of honour, or had he some ghastly use for her? What twisted purposes, what warped desires, what strange lusts might he be planning to slake upon her?

Tiaan stopped abruptly, staring at the monster's back. One hand slipped down to the butt of the crossbow, though she did not draw it. She could not shoot Ryll from behind. Even had she been able to, the armour was thick there. To kill him she would have to hit him in the eye, the throat, or send a bolt between chest plates and ribs, into the heart. Assuming it was in the same place as hers, of course.

Ryll spun around, going into a crouch. The retractile claws extended. 'I have a sense for danger, small human.'

She hastily moved her hand from the weapon. What was she thinking? Even with a loaded crossbow she could not expect to beat an alert lyrinx.

He came back, took the bolts and packed them in a pouch at his waist. It was the first time he had used his regenerating hand.

'I need a rest!' she said in a croaky voice. 'And breakfast.'

'Strange creatures, you humans,' said Ryll. 'What a handicap, needing to eat three times a day.'

'I don't have to eat three times a day!' she snapped. 'But I do need to rest. I'm an artisan, not a mountain climber. At least, I was an artisan…'