Geomancer

HELP!

Tiaan shuddered in her sleep, slipping into a dream in which a single point of light moved slowly across a field of darkness. It left behind a few glowing specks. The point started another line, making a few more specks. Another line.

It was not until the hundredth line that her dazed dream-consciousness began to see an image in the specks. A series of horizontal lines, some verticals and two diagonals radiating up from one of the verticals. They made the sparest image that could possibly be made, though Tiaan's sluggish mind could see nothing in it but geometry.

Suddenly he was there. It was the young man on the balcony, his arms thrown up in entreaty.

'I'm here,' Tiaan croaked. Her mouth felt frozen shut.

He could not have heard, for there was no change in the image.

Help!

She groped for the globe, hedron and helm, checked that the crystal was in its setting and put the helm on her head, glacier slow. The frigid wire burned her skin but that did not register.

Tiaan played with the beads and the orbiting wires, rotating them into position after position, tuning the globe to the hedron. Suddenly, with the smoothness of two streams of oil merging, they were as one. The image of glowing lines vanished and the young man was there.

Who are you? he said directly into her mind, articulating every letter in that archaic mode of speech, W-h-o a-r-e y-o-u?

She spoke aloud. 'I am Tiaan. We spoke once before. I am an artisan from Santhenar.'

Show yourself to me, Tiaan.

Shyly, for he was obviously wealthy and of good family, while she was neither, Tiaan put together an image of herself. It was the one she had seen in the mirror at the breeding factory, after the attendants had done her hair and made up her face. That was her, after all. Not the ordinary her, but Tiaan nevertheless. She felt guilty about the little deception.

Tiaan! he sighed. You're beautiful.

She felt warm all over. 'What is your name?' she asked tentatively.

I am Minis, foster-son of Vithis, of Clan Inthis. First Clan!

She feasted on the image of him, so like the hero of her grandmother's tales. But he was in mortal danger, and so was she. 'I wish I could help you, Minis, but I am trapped.'

How? he said abruptly. I cannot read your future.

Tiaan wondered about the emphasis. Did he mean that he could read others'? She explained her situation.

Minis vanished and with a terrible pang of loss she slipped from her dream into half-wakefulness. Her whole body was shuddering with the cold. Her little cave must be buried deep. Tiaan did as many squats as her legs would allow, but at the end still felt cold, and a little drowsy. Was the air being used up? She attempted to enlarge her cave by tunnelling along the rock. She dared not remove any blocks from her wall. If the snow collapsed, it would pour in until it filled her shelter.

Ti…

Just the faintest whisper inside her head. Minis was calling her! Tiaan found the helm under a pile of snow, put it on and winced as the freezing metal seared her forehead.

Her fingers danced along the wires but she could not tune him in; her conscious mind knew not how to do what dream intuition had done previously. Tiaan panicked.

In her terror the loss of Minis seemed worse than the prospect of dying. She flung the wires and beads back and forth. It did not help. They were clustered together now and she knew that was wrong, but had no idea what arrangement had worked previously.

Tiaan lifted the globe and hedron above her head, shaking it furiously. She wanted to jump up and down on it until it was smashed into a tangle of wire.

Tiaan!

Startled, she dropped the globe. Her helm fell off and the little crystal rolled into the snow. She searched frantically for it. Everything was the same colour – the rock, the snow, the grey ice between her boots, the crystal. Ah, there it was!

She popped it into the bracket. Now, if only she could get…

Tiaan, stop it!

She froze at the peremptory tone, so reminiscent of Matron, Gi-Had and all the other authority figures in her life.

You're panicking, child. I can't find you.

Even worse was the word child. She had been cursed by that title since the day she began as a miserable floor scrubber, six years old. For Minis to use it felt like a betrayal.

She tried to concentrate. She must.

'I'm here, Minis.'

That's better. Show me where you are.

Tiaan concentrated on a mental image of her cave, and then of the mountain slope outside. She knew it was fuzzy but could do no better.

I don't like it, came another voice, a woman's.

You're wasting your time, said a third, a flat, despairing male voice. She's going to die and so are we. It is written.

Hush! whispered Minis. Tirior, Luxor, not so loud. I read our time lines, so there must be a way. Tiaan, show us the devices you used to contact me.

She mentally imaged the helm and globe.

Incredible, said the woman. Where has she come by such artefacts?

I don't know, Tirior. There was a mutter of talk in the background. Tiaan did not catch any of it.

Quickly, child! said the woman, Tirior. Where did you find these devices?

'I'm not a child!'' Tiaan tried to sound mature, dignified. 'I made them.'

You made them? came the third voice, Luxor. How? Who are you?

She said nothing. Tiaan was not going to be treated like a juvenile.

You're intimidating her, Luxor. It was Minis's voice. Please, let me talk to her. Tiaan, how came you to make such astonishing devices?

The praise set her heart soaring. 'I am an artisan at the clanker manufactory in the mountains above Tiksi. Minis…?'

What is a clanker? asked Tirior.

She described their construction, operation and purpose. 'I make the controllers that draw power from the field, to make them go.'

What are these clankers for?

'We are at war with the lyrinx.'

Lyrinx? cried Luxor. How did this come about?

'When the Forbidding was broken, and Maigraith crossed the Way between the Worlds…' She hesitated, afraid they would not know what she was talking about.

That is also part of our Histories. Go on.

'That was two hundred and six years ago…'

Three hundred and ninety of ours, said Tirior, but we have not forgotten.

'The lyrinx came to Santhenar at that time, as did other fierce creatures that lived in the void between the worlds.'

Some also came to Aachan,' said Tirior. Her voice sounded kindly. They did not last long. Tell us about yourself, Tiaan.

'I am skilled in the working of fine metals, in forming ceramics and shaping and polishing crystals. That is how I make clanker controllers.'

What are controllers? said Minis.

'Mind-linked mechanical systems which enable an ordinary person to power and control a clanker.' She sent an image of an eight-limbed clanker.

Amazing! The flat voice of Luxor showed a flicker of interest. His face appeared, so washed out that it was little more than outline. Ingenious. How do you make it go?

She explained how certain crystals could be tuned to tap into natural fields that existed around nodes, to draw a trickle of that power into the controller, and thence into the clanker itself.

You build such controllers? Where did the pattern come from?

Tiaan was becoming impatient. What did it matter how she made controllers? But, after all, she was not going anywhere. 'It's an old pattern I was taught in my prenticeship. I have made a number of improvements to it.'

Show us this pattern, said Luxor eagerly.

'You are not our kind. That would be treason.'

Then we cannot help you, he snapped.

Please, Luxor, said Minis. Tiaan, I don't understand. You say you built these devices. How did you know how?

'I needed something to amplify the signals from a faulty controller, so I simply made this globe and helm.'

That must have taken a long time. Months, surely?

'It took me a few days,' said Tiaan. 'That's what I do.'

Are there other artisans with your talent? She sensed awe.

'There are many artisans. I don't know how many have my talent. I have not travelled to other manufactories.' Then, with a trace of pride, 'But ours is said to be the best.'

What powers this device, Tiaan? Is there a crystal at the heart of it too?

Tiaan remembered that she had not shown Minis the hedron. 'A special hedron. I did not even have to shape it.' She held up the globe, visualising the perfect bipyramid of rutilated quartz at the heart of it, the twin balls of radiating needle crystals inside, the spark drifting across that cavity, the faint glow.

There was a long silence. A stunned silence, she realised.

What is it? said Minis. What's the matter?

The other two spoke among themselves. Tell me! cried Minis.

It's an amplimet! said Tirior in an awed whisper that clearly was not meant to carry to Tiaan. There has not been one found in four thousand years. Just look at it!

Does she even know what she has? Luxor's voice glowed with excitement. Could she be a budding geomancer?

Hush! Minis was back. Tiaan…

'Minis!' Tiaan interrupted. 'Why were you calling for help?'

Aachan is dying! he said harshly. Our beautiful world is finished.

'You are from Aachan?' she said incredulously. Tiaan knew of Aachan, the second of the Three Worlds. It was at the very core of the Histories and every child of Santhenar learned about it. It had been the world of the Aachim, until the Charon fled out of the void, took Aachan and enslaved its people. But at the time the Forbidding was broken, the Charon had gone to extinction and the Aachim became masters of their world again.

To think she was actually speaking to someone across the void – it seemed impossible. Subconsciously she must have known that Minis was from another world, but had not taken it in. Her dreams evaporated like a flake of snow in a frying pan. She could not help him. They could never meet. 'What is happening to Aachan?' she asked miserably.

The whole world is erupting. The very crust has cracked open in rifts five hundreds of leagues long. Aachan will survive it, but we won't! Our world may not be habitable for ten thousand years. Or ten million.

'How has this come about?'

An after-effect of the Forbidding being broken, we think. It began at that time.

'How long do you have?'

We think a few months. At the very outside, a year. Lava advances on us from all directions. The seas grow too hot to sustain life. Soon we will have no place to stand.

Tiaan went limp. Something caught in her throat, as if she had taken in a whiff of burning air. Minis was going to die.

Tiaan?

Tears flooded down her cheeks, forming icicles.

'Yes?' She choked. 'You're going to die and so am I. We're all doomed.' She was shaking. Tiaan could not help herself. Despair was a black Hurn bear, eating her from the belly out.

There may be a way! Minis's voice was a seductive whisper inside her head.

'How?'

We may be able to save you, through your amplimet. In return, you can do something for us.

'I will do anything!' she said eagerly. 'What would you ask of me?'

First we must save you. Listen carefully. Somehow you have stumbled on the ancient art of geomancy.

'Geomancy? Reading patterns in sand?' She could not conceal her scorn. It was the lowest fairground fakery of all.

Not that sad corruption, said Tirior. True geomancy is the most powerful of all the Secret Arts, for it draws upon the very power of the earth. Mancing is always limited by power. Most mages keep it within themselves, or store it in small devices, or channel tiny amounts of power from places they don't understand. But geomancy offers unlimited power for those who have an amplimet and are able to use it. Imagine the power of an earthquake, the force that keeps your world in its orbit about the sun, the strength of the winds, the motion of the continents on their plates, the hot spots ascending from the very core of the planet. Those are the kinds of power a geomancer has at her disposal.

But it is a dangerous power, said Luxor. Geomancy is the most difficult of all the Secret Arts, and the most deadly. Your amplimet is the key, and all that has saved you is the clumsy nature of your tuning. You tapped the merest trickle of power, fortunately, or you would not have survived it. Nonetheless, you must have a strong talent for it.

'Many artisans have died at their work,' said Tiaan. 'Burnt black inside. My headaches have been much worse since I made these devices. My arms feel hot and twitchy, and I have begun to see strange, impossible things.'

Oh? said Tirior sharply. What kinds of things? She glanced at Luxor.

'It's… hard to explain,' Tiaan said. 'Coloured shapes in the air that swell and contract, disappear and reappear somewhere else, different shapes and sizes and patterns. They remind me of…' She broke off with a strangled cry. 'I'm going mad, aren't I? I've got crystal fever.'

What do they remind you of? Tirior asked with another glance at Luxor.

'Pieces of things!' Tiaan said through her hands. She let out a crazed laugh.

You're not mad, Tiaan. You're seeing beyond.

'Beyond what? You mean into the void?'

Not exactly. You're looking into the hyperplane.

'I don't understand.'

You and I live in a three-dimensional world, Tiaan, said Tirior. Every object has length, breadth and depth. But the universe has more dimensions than that – as many as ten, some philosophers say, though we are incapable of imagining the others.

'I still don't understand.'

You must have a most remarkable mind.

'I think in pictures,' said Tiaan. 'I used to think everyone did, until people began to tell me how unusual that was.'

Indeed. The amplimet must have lifted your inner seeing onto the hyperplane. You're beginning to see the fourth dimension.

It made no sense to Tiaan. 'But what am I seeing?'

Fragments of the strong field permeating ethyric space.

'It looks stronger than the field I'm used to.'

It is. That's why it's so useful. Since you can see it, you may be able to use it.

'There's power enough in the weak field for me, when it's there.' As she said that, Tiaan recalled the failure of the field at Minnien, which had caused the loss of fifty clankers. Had the lyrinx drained it like a well?

Again that exchange of glances. What weren't they telling her?

It's a… safer way, said Luxor.

Much safer, Tirior said smoothly. Power takes a more direct path into the amplimet. And you can use geomancy where you can't see the weak field at all.

'I don't understand,' Tiaan said. She felt utterly confused. 'I'm sorry. I can't help you. I don't know what you're talking about.'

There was a long silence. Tirior spoke low and urgently to Luxor, who grimaced. She put her lips to Minis's ear. He shook his head. She took his arm, hissed something he did not catch. Minis shook her off, disappearing from Tiaan's image. Shortly Minis reappeared, so close that he blocked her view of the others.

He looked into her eyes, smiled and her heart melted. Tiaan, dearest. Minis reached out as if to take her hand. Please help me. I don't want to die. I – he caught his breath. Oh, Tiaan! he sighed, gazing lovingly at her.

Tiaan was smitten. Suddenly, no promise was too rash if it would bring them together. 'Of course I will help you, Minis. If I can.'

Tirior edged into the image. No one can understand the hyperplane, Tiaan. It's beyond our imagining. But we can still use it, just as you use the field without understanding it.

'But what if I take too much power?' That had happened occasionally, if a squadron of clankers drew heavily on a small node, inducing reverberating strangenesses in the field. Whole clankers had vanished into nowhere, so these days they travelled well apart and followed strict rules about how much power they could draw. 'What if I tear open the wall between Santhenar and the hyperplane?'

Tirior staggered. Luxor's mouth hung open.

'What is it?' Tiaan cried.

Tirior drew the others away, speaking urgently. After some minutes they returned.

Never you worry about that. Just do exactly as we say and you will come to no harm.

'My head is burning,' said Tiaan.

The channelled power is leaking through you, said Tirior. We must work fast. When you first saw Minis, am I not right, you just had a clumsy, shaped crystal? You only found the amplimet recently?

'Less than a week ago. I've not used it yet, save speaking to you.' She began to feel faint.

Do not use it! This amplimet can channel so much power that it would burn you to a cinder. But if you employ it carefully, exactly as we say, it can save you.

'How?'

You are in deadly peril, Tiaan, and not just from freezing to death. From the attenuation of your signal we believe there may be as much as ten spans of snow above you.

Tiaan shuddered. That was the height of a good-sized tree. She could feel the cold weight of it hanging over her.

You cannot move until the storm stops and the snow crusts over. Even then you will be in peril of collapse, or avalanche. So you must wait for days. Have you food?

'Enough for a week. But I'll freeze before that.'

Listen carefully. You may be able to channel power through the crystal to keep you warm.

Tiaan tried to concentrate as Tirior gave instructions. They were long, complicated and difficult to understand, dealing as they did with unknowable concepts like 'topological morphometrics' and 'hyperdimensional wormholes'. Her arm began to twitch uncontrollably. She felt very cold.

'I can't hold the link,' she gasped.

Just one more…

Tirior faded away and Tiaan lacked the strength to get her back. Her toes were numb. Taking off boots and socks, she rubbed her feet. They were icy and her fingers had no warmth in them either. Frostbite could not be far off.

She could not think straight. How was she supposed to use the amplimet? She tried to work through Tirior's procedure but knew she was missing a couple of steps.

First, identify a nearby source of power. That was not hard; there was energy all around. The mass of snow on the slope contained enough potential to boil rock, though it would be the height of folly to tap such an unstable source, even had she been an adept.

Putting on the helm, Tiaan swept out in all directions, searching the way she used to map the field. She was looking for power she could use, such as from a hot spring. She found none. All possible sources were too small, too great, too hazardous or too incomprehensible.

Pain shrieked through her chest. Tiaan screamed aloud, fell sideways and struck her ear on rock. The globe rolled across the floor, hit the snow wall and spun like a top. She could not reach it. Tiaan laid her head on the ground. It felt no colder than she did. It was too late.