Geomancer

T HIRTY -E IGHT

Nish wrested his sword free. If the beast got away with Tiaan, he was dead, and it would be his own stupid fault. He raced after them, the masked seeker stumbling and wailing behind. He should have left her in the clanker but could not abandon her to the dead man and the mad one. Her screams had gone right through him.

He ploughed around another bend and ahead was nothing but open sky – the precipice. Tiaan and the lyrinx were just ahead. Further off, on a cantilevered platform built out over nothing, stood a larger lyrinx.

'Stay here, Ullii,' he said, letting go of her hand. 'The edge of the precipice is just over there.'

'I can see it.'

Nish ran and knew he would be too late. The large lyrinx, a green-crested female, opened her mighty wings to carry Tiaan away. He shouted and waved his sword uselessly.

Tiaan had just put her foot on the walkway when it exploded into splinters. Simmo's clanker was rattling down the slope with several people hanging onto the outside. Nish could have wept with relief.

The big lyrinx dived off the platform and Ullii screamed so loudly that he ran back. 'What's the matter?'

She rolled into a protective ball, hugging her head with her arms. As she seemed safe enough, and well away from the cliff, Nish left her there.

Rahnd, Simmo's shooter, fired the javelard and missed. Tiaan and the wingless lyrinx ran along the cliff. Rahnd fired the catapult. The ball went so close that it rippled one wing of the flying lyrinx.

'Fire at the wingless one!' Nish screamed.

Rahnd, a dark, burly man with no front teeth and one leg noticeably shorter than the other, held up empty hands. He'd spent all his missiles. The clanker groaned to a stop some hundred paces up the slope, where boulders and outcrops prevented further movement.

The passengers jumped off. Jal-Nish was among them, along with Fyn-Mah, Tuniz and red-headed Rustina, whose shoulder and side were covered in blood. Seeing no sign of Irisis, Nish caught his breath. Rahnd sprang off, attacking a rock with hammer and chisel.

'Ky-Ara's clanker is wrecked back in the gully,' Nish shouted, pointing. 'It still has spears.'

Rahnd set off with a lopsided, lurching stride. Nish went to meet the others. 'Where's Irisis?' he gasped. 'Is she…?'

Rustina pointed over her shoulder. Irisis, just levering herself through the back hatch, had a bandage wrapped around her thigh. Her garments were rent down the side, the left sleeve of her coat hanging by a few threads. Jal-Nish was grim of face but unharmed.

'We've got them!' Nish exulted, pointing to the lyrinx hobbling along the cliff, still holding Tiaan.

'We'll crow when we have them in our hands,' said Jal-Nish wearily. 'And considering there's two lyrinx, and we… Ah, I'm mortally weary. Let's get it over.'

Irisis limped down. 'Where's the crystal?'

'I presume Tiaan has it,' said Nish.

'She hasn't! I searched her pack at the ice house.' Irisis was very pale.

Jal-Nish's head whipped around. He gave Irisis a smouldering stare.

Nish asked no questions, though he wanted to. 'Then the flying one must have it. Look! She's got a little pack on her chest.'

The flying lyrinx swooped down toward the pair on the cliff, trailing the wing. 'What's she up to?' Jal-Nish muttered.

'I've no idea,' Fyn-Mah replied. Her lips were blue; her eyes had gone a murky yellow.

'Aim for the flying one!' Irisis roared at the clanker. 'It's got the crystal!'

'How do you know?' snapped Jal-Nish, his mood deteriorating by the second.

'I'm an artisan, remember?'

The shooter had not returned but Simmo was staggering up the slope carrying a lump of rock. Turning the catapult around, he aimed at the flying lyrinx and fired. The missile sang through the sky but did no damage.

'I'm surrounded by incompetents!' Jal-Nish spat.

'Even Rahnd would be lucky to do better,' the querist said quietly. 'Precise shooting requires round shot.'

'Get up there, Tuniz,' Jal-Nish ordered. 'Round rocks for the shooter! The rest of you, after the wingless beast. Kill it or put it over the cliff. Keep Tiaan alive at all costs. We'll attack together.'

'Do you think we should try to use power against it?' Fyn-Mah said quietly to the perquisitor.

'After what happened last time?'

'It might make the difference.'

'All right. We'll take the wingless one. See if you can bring the flier down.'

The wingless lyrinx was limping along the edge of the cliff, holding Tiaan by the wrist. It was a difficult position to attack. They could not run at it without risking going over themselves. Nish fell in beside Irisis as they moved to cut it off.

'How's your leg?'

'Very painful.'

The flying lyrinx, now soaring high, came swooping down with the delta-shape gliding along below. Irisis was the first to realise what it was for. 'Shoot!' she screamed at Simmo. 'They'll get away on the wing.'

Jal-Nish and Rustina converged on the wingless lyrinx. The perquisitor, out in front, moved with deliberation. Rustina was all over the place, hacking wildly. The sight of the creature, holding Tiaan as hostage, had driven her into a frenzy.

'Calm down, sergeant. Try to hamstring it!' roared Jal-Nish. 'I'll go for the throat.'

The lyrinx, now holding Tiaan against its chest, slashed at Jal-Nish but missed. Rustina got through the creature's guard to prick it on the hip, though not to any noticeable effect. It clouted her in the belly with a backhand, slamming her head-first into a boulder. Jal-Nish, finding himself without support, scrambled backwards but could not get out of reach of the mighty arm. The creature's claws raked him across the face, the shoulder, then the chest. Jal-Nish screamed. The lyrinx backhanded him across the head, like swatting a fly, and the perquisitor went down, blood pouring out of him.

Only Nish and Irisis were still armed and able. Their eyes met. 'It's over,' Irisis said calmly.

'We tried our best.'

'What say you, Nish, old lover? To the death?'

Her words warmed him. 'To the death!' he echoed, sure that his father was dying and he was going to.

Nish and Irisis flung themselves at the lyrinx, their swords weaving a net of steel in front of them. It was retreating slowly, more intent on what was happening in the sky than overcoming them. Kicking a clot of icy gravel in their faces, the lyrinx ran a few steps then stopped.

The flier came sweeping in. The wingless lyrinx let out a howl of frustration as again the wing bucked in the updraft. Nish and Irisis attacked from behind. Nish landed a blow on the thigh that went between the plates and drew dark blood. Irisis followed it up with a stab to the back, directly into a plate.

Tossing Tiaan to one side, the lyrinx whirled and kicked Irisis's legs from under her. Nish heard something break and she fell near the edge of the cliff. He launched a furious attack, which the lyrinx fended off absently, one eye on the scene in the air.

Fyn-Mah was standing on top of an outcrop, holding her arms out as if carrying a basin of water. Whipping them apart, up and down and up, across and back, she carved an extended infinity sign in the air. Powdery crystals followed her fingers. With a flick of her hands, the shape tumbled through the air, to vanish in an explosion of ice just below the flying lyrinx's left wing.

The wing dipped sharply as if the air had collapsed below it. The lyrinx tumbled, recovered, there came a whistle-crack and the rock erupted upwards beneath Fyn-Mah's feet, sending her head-over-heels. Fragments of stone sang through the air, trailing mist. The shattered top of the rock steamed. A trickle of water ran down the side, froze and all was still again. Fyn-Mah could not be seen.

The wing swept down. Nish roared 'Fire!'

A ragged ball of rock tore between him and the wingless lyrinx, so near that the wind ruffled his hair. 'Not at me, you cretin!'

Nish attacked again. The lyrinx lunged, swinging wildly. Nish tripped, landed flat on his back, and the sword jarred out of his hand. He stared up at the beast, knowing it was going to tear him apart. Tiaan lay on the ground, watching the struggle. Whether Ryll won or lost made little difference now. Besant would get away with the amplimet and her dreams would end.

But Ryll's attackers fell, one by one. The violence made her feel sick. Irisis screamed and crashed down by the cliff. Tiaan caught her breath in case she went over. She was beyond any ill-feelings for Irisis now.

Nish attacked boldly, looking ten times the man who had pestered her a few weeks ago. He looked as if he had suffered. He too went down.

Her eyes met his. 'I'm sorry,' Tiaan said.

'So am I!' he said stiffly.

Ryll raised one foot. 'No, Ryll!' she cried. He was about to bring it down when there came a wild, shuddering shriek and Ryll turned aside. She was glad Nish would survive.

As Ryll dragged her away, Jal-Nish, a blood-drenched caricature of a man, staggered to his feet. 'Don't let it have her!' he gasped. 'If she can't be taken, kill her!'

Tiaan's uncertainty vanished. She screwed up her courage for the leap. Again, wind caught the wing before it got to her, kicking it up and out, though not so far out this time. She could almost get there. She tensed, knowing that it was just too far away.

A blow in the back, a crushing grip around her waist, then she was flying through the air under Ryll's injured arm. Their trajectories converged. The wind lifted the harness dangling below the gliding wing. She could never have reached it but Ryll's upstretched fingers closed around a loop of leather. Tiaan caught a trailing rope and wrapped it around her wrist.

The wing stalled under their weight and began spiralling like a leaf on the tow ropes. Tiaan was torn from Ryll's grip. She fell, was brought up by the rope and felt a gruesome pain in her shoulder, as if it had been pulled from its socket.

The shock almost folded Besant's wings up. She flapped harder and the fizzing boiled over in Tiaan's head as the lyrinx expended more and more of the Art in her effort to stay in the air. Below, Tiaan heard those terrible screams again.

Ryll hauled her up. 'What's the matter?' He held her tightly as they carved a figure-eight through the air.

'My arm…' She fought tears which the wind froze on her cheeks.

He muttered something in his own tongue, pulled himself into the crutch loops of the harness and let go of his rope. Buckling himself in one-handed, he lashed her to his chest then made frantic hand-signals to Besant, who was barely in control. The wing was still whirling, dragging her down. They swung around in an arc on the end of the ropes, drifting directly towards the clanker. Rahnd was back in his seat, tracking them with the javelard. From this distance he could not miss.

Suddenly another lyrinx stood up on the rocks, one leg drenched in blood. It was the sentry that had been wounded before the attack began. It sprang but fell short. Simmo lurched the machine forward, trying to run the beast down. The lyrinx caught the side plates and flipped itself up on top. The machine bucked and hopped as Simmo tried to shake the attacker off. The lyrinx slipped in its own blood but managed to catch hold of the spear in the javelard. As it dangled there, Rahnd fired. The spear carried the lyrinx down among the boulders.

The clanker clumped around and Tiaan saw Rahnd wrench the loaded catapult onto their path as they swept inland. She held her breath. Ryll, holding her against his chest, made a helpless choking sound.

The injured lyrinx came out of the rocks, hurling the bent javelin. Rahnd ducked. Springing up on the front of the clanker, the lyrinx threw itself directly at the catapult. The ball went straight through the creature and its remains spun into the snow.

Ryll gave a muffled cry of grief. Tiaan let out her breath and gasped another. They shot straight over the clanker as Rahnd frantically tried to reload the javelard. It was too late. They were away.

Ryll took the control ropes and brought the front of the wing down slightly. The wing lifted – it was flying! It seemed miraculous to Tiaan. The strain went off the tow ropes; the fizzing in Tiaan's brain died away. Besant did two great circles and turned towards the south-west, to Kalissin, wherever or whatever that was.