Geomancer

T HIRTY – F IVE

Following Ullii's directions the searchers went straight to the last of the caves. Irisis was at their head. A pair of soldiers approached the bearskin door, spears at the ready. Irisis, with recklessness born of despair, thrust past, tore down the skin and leapt inside. The cave was empty.

'She's gone!' Irisis said bitterly.

'And within hours.' Arple had uncovered red coals from the ashes.

'Now do you see the worth of your seeker,' said Nish from the entrance, 'and give her credit for what she's done?'

'Indeed,' replied the perquisitor. 'She's proven her worth. We'll find many uses for her in the war, I'll be bound.'

As Irisis came out, Ullii shivered and drew closer to her friends. With a harsh laugh Jal-Nish turned away, ordering a search of all the caves and signalling down to the clankers to recall the other squads.

Fresh prints led up the mountain. The climbers followed them, while far below the clankers headed up the valley. The forces rejoined late in the afternoon.

It began to snow that evening. They tried to follow the tracks with flares, but after dark lost them in the deepening snow. Making camp in the shelter of a bluff, they had a full night's sleep for the first time in many days. In the morning Ullii was again called upon. She pointed more south now, and was required to show the way many times in the next days, for they saw not a single track in that time.

The snow was heavy going and the clankers, with their broad footplates installed, could make no better time than a slow march. They were plagued with freezing oil and breakdowns, which Nish and Tuniz were called upon to fix. Nish discovered just how much he loathed his trade. He always ended up with bloody, frozen fingers and his father's curses ringing in his ears. Every operation was ten times as difficult as it had been in the workshop. Even unflappable Tuniz was heard to swear on occasion.

It was not windy, but intensely cold, especially in the clear nights. On the third afternoon a blizzard blasted down on them. They could not move at all the following day, and the fifth brought wind to whirl the fresh snow up into clouds. They struggled on, slower and slower, and finally the clankers shuddered to a stop.

'What is it?' screamed Jal-Nish. He had to scream to be heard over the wind. Everyone gathered behind the clankers.

'Field's too weak,' said Simmo from the second machine. 'We've been running on the flywheels for the last quarter-hour but they've run down.'

'Does that mean we're stuck here? Incompetent fools!'

'There's another node ahead, surr, and it's a strong one, but we're having trouble drawing from its field. It's strange, perquisitor, surr. I've never seen anything like it.'

'What do you mean?'

Simmo conferred with the other operators before answering. 'Seems to be a double node. We've never come across such a thing before. We can't work it out.'

'Then get the artisan to show you. That's what's she's here for. Artisan Irisis, get over here.'

Irisis froze, her guts churning. This was it. She was going to be exposed. She would never fool Jal-Nish. Looking despairingly around the circle of pinched faces, she caught Nish's eyes on her. He was stricken.

She assumed her famous arrogant expression. At least she would go down fighting, and when the worst did happen she would take the perquisitor with her. Clutching her pliance, Irisis strode forward.

'I expect I'll have to modify the controllers,' she said.

'How long will that take?'

'As long as it takes, surr. We can't take risks up here.'

'Get on with it.'

Climbing into the clanker, Irisis began to pull the controller apart. Ky-Ara crouched beside her, watching her every move as if she was operating on his own child. He whimpered as she removed each controller arm. It was hard to concentrate.

'Ky-Ara,' she said pleasantly, 'would you be so kind as to bring the other controllers here?'

He went reluctantly, with many a backward glance from those liquid eyes.

'Nish!' Irisis called. Nish came out of the huddle. 'Stand guard on the hatch and don't let anyone through.'

'What about Ky-Ara?'

'Especially not that whimpering fool. Or your father.'

Ullii came trailing up behind Nish, thrust her head under his arm and peered in through her goggles. Nish indicated her with an inclination of the head.

'Come in, Ullii!' snapped Irisis. 'But don't say anything, all right?'

Creeping in, Ullii sat down in her seat.

Irisis worked steadily for an hour or so, visualising the strange double node with her pliance and trying to tune Ky-Ara's controller to the field. In spite of the cold she began to sweat. The double node was the strangest she'd ever encountered, a large glowing globe and a smaller one, orbiting each other. Orange mist whirled around and between the two, flowing from one to the other and emitting occasional bright pulses. It disturbed her, and when she tried to visualise the associated field her brain hurt, the way her nose did when she caught a breath of pitch smoke. There was something noxious about this field. It fluctuated from weak to strong more quickly than her defences could cope.

Irisis pulled away, her heart pounding. Something was very wrong. Even if she could tune the controllers to the node, she was afraid what would happen when she did.

Someone rapped on the back hatch. 'What's going on?' came Jal-Nish's cry.

'Don't let him in, Nish.'

The hatch was jerked open. 'Well, artisan?'

'It's proving unexpectedly difficult.'

'Why?' There was a dangerous glint in Jal-Nish's eye.

'I've never worked with a double node before and I don't think anyone else has either. If I get it wrong it may burn out the hedron and the clanker will be stuck here for the winter.'

'Bah! Fyn-Mah always said you were a fraud.' After some hours Irisis had worked out how to tune the controller to the field, though she had no idea if it would be able to cope with the dangerous fluctuations in intensity. She could not do the test herself, since she lacked the ability to draw power from the field. Irisis planned to have Ky-Ara do it. It was the only way she could think of to escape her fate. But if he refused…

Ky-Ara was eager to help. He would have agreed to anything to get her out of his seat. Irisis had been counting on that. It was the reason she had done his controller first. The other operators were tougher.

She was sitting beside Ky-Ara, explaining what to do, when Jal-Nish heaved Nish out of the way and pushed through to the front of the clanker.

'What do you think you're doing?' he snapped.

'I…' A shiver went up her spine. 'I'm showing Ky-Ara how to carry out the test.'

'Be damned! That's artisan's work. I wouldn't risk an operator on it if I had a dozen to spare.'

'But he's the one…' she began desperately.

'Never! I can lose you, if it goes wrong. I can't lose him.'

Irisis swallowed. 'Then I'll need him to help.'

'You'll do it on your own, artisan. What's the problem? You were acting crafter a few weeks ago. You must have done this a thousand times.'

'It's just… not this kind of node,' she said, almost inaudibly. Irisis glanced at Nish as if for help, but he was looking down, picking ice off his boots. Well, this is it, she thought. My nightmare has come at last. If I could do it, I'd pull so much power from the field that it would blow the clanker apart and anthracise everyone in it. The apocalypse had a violent appeal, but it was just a dream.

'Very well,' she went on. 'Everyone must stand well back, in case something goes wrong. I don't think this kind of node has ever been used before.'

'Just get it done,' said Jal-Nish. 'If you can.'

Was this a malicious game, she thought, to humiliate her in front of everyone? It was just the kind of revenge the perquisitor would go for.

Jal-Nish took her advice and moved a long way from the clanker. The querist remained where she was. Did she do that to mock Irisis?

'You'd better go too,' Irisis said to Ullii and Nish. Nish did not meet her eyes, as if trying to distance himself from the humiliation to come. She could not blame him.

He stayed, though, and Ullii did too, which was surprising. Or perhaps Ullii knew there was no danger at all. Irisis began, using the controller to sense out the fluctuating field. It was so much stronger than using her pliance. It had to be, to drive the massive weight of a clanker.

Allowing those baleful globes to orbit freely in her mind, but keeping well away, Irisis concentrated on the spirals of mist that whirled between them. She was searching for one that was strong but not too strong. Her missing talent might come back.

She passed by one, then a second, a third. The eyes of Nish and Ullii never left her face. Irisis imagined what was to come. Utter humiliation. Jal-Nish would not dispose of her here – her abilities could be needed on the way home – but once back at the manufactory he would make a public spectacle of her. Chroniclers and tellers would be imported from a hundred leagues to spread the tale of her downfall and to describe, in loving detail, her fitting punishment.

'Hurry up, artisan.' The perquisitor had his head in through the back hatch.

It was now or not at all. Irisis seized on one of those whorls and tried with all her strength to draw power. Nothing happened. Gritting her teeth, she wiped icy perspiration from her brow and tried again. Again nothing.

The perquisitor laughed. How Jal-Nish was enjoying this. 'You can't do it. You're a fraud, Irisis. You've always been a fraud. What a cautionary tale this is going to make. I can't wait to see the faces of the House of Stirm as the story is told.'

'I can do it!' she ground out. How dare he attack her family! Everyone knew his ancestors were upstarts who had whored and bribed and battered their way to the top. If she could have anthracised him she would have done it on the spot.

She tried again and again, until the sinews in her neck stood out like knotted cords. Irisis bared her teeth; a groan escaped, but not the least trickle of power came though into the controller.

Jal-Nish laughed aloud. Irisis wanted to smash his face in, but that had got her into trouble in the first place. She looked around wildly. The seeker had taken off her goggles and was staring at Irisis with frightening intensity. Strangely, it made the artisan think of scribbled marks on fans.

Closing her eyes, she prepared for one last try. Irisis plunged into a knot of that red mist, but now it was like a knot on a fan. As she hurled herself at it, the knot began to unravel, and then to open up like a rosebud, and a path unfolded inside that was unlike any path she had ever seen before.

Suddenly Irisis saw the way that had been closed to her and pulled so hard that she blacked out for an instant, cracking her head on the side of the clanker.

The clanker did not budge; the controller arms failed to flex in the slightest degree. She had failed. Irisis looked up for the cruel vindication on Jal-Nish's face.

The perquisitor had his head to one side. 'What's that?'

Her head was ringing; she could not tell.

'I don't know,' she heard the querist say.

'Flywheel spinning,' said Ullii.

The faintest ticking sound became a whirr, a hum, then a whine as the paired flywheels spun up to full speed. Somehow, incredibly, miraculously, the controller was drawing from the field.

'You did it!' cried Nish, hugging and kissing her on the brow. 'I knew you would.'

'It is her job,' Jal-Nish said sourly. 'I don't see why you're making such a fuss about it. Get the others fixed and let's get after the lyrinx.'

Irisis tuned the other three controllers to the field and instructed their operators on how to get them going. When that was done she went back to her clanker and touched Ullii on the cheek with her fingertips, silent thanks. She had no idea what Ullii had done, or how she had shown her the way, but that did not matter. It was done and she had a temporary reprieve. Nothing else had changed. Irisis knew she could no more do it by herself than before. Her need for the crystal was as urgent as ever. On the afternoon of the fifth day they caught a glimpse, when the weather cleared briefly, of a cliff-bound plateau not far away. From Ullii's latest directions, the lyrinx had gone straight toward it. They went carefully thereafter, not moving until dark and travelling though the night. Jal-Nish was working on a plan to take the enemy by surprise. He spent a lot of time with Rustina, the red-haired sergeant of the troop which had joined them at the river. The two squatted by themselves, he talking, she drawing with her knife on the snow. Whatever was decided Jal-Nish kept to himself.

'No doubt father is planning to spring another triumph on us,' Nish said sourly to Irisis.

'He has to keep proving his cleverness…' She broke off as Jal-Nish approached.

'What if they have a town there?' Nish said to his father.

'Up there? At most it will be a small clan grouping.'

They reached the cliffs some hours before dawn, having veered away from the lyrinx's path in case a lookout was kept. There was no danger at the moment, for the air was full of blown snow and the top of the plateau could not be seen. They camped in a fold behind a hill, a hiding place if the weather cleared suddenly. Conference was held at the base of the cliff. Everyone was called to it, even Ullii, though she was allowed to watch from the open hatch of the clanker.

'What do you know of this place?' the querist asked Arple.

'I've heard of it,' the sergeant replied, his hand upon the yellow riven rock. Wind had fretted it into little clusters of box shapes, outlined a deeper yellow-brown. 'People dwelt up there once, shepherds of mountain sheep and goats, but the weather turned cold forty years back and one year there was no summer at all. The flocks starved; the people died or left. Nothing can survive there now.'

'Except lyrinx!' Jal-Nish said sourly. 'And surely they do not eat the rocks. Who among you has been atop? Speak up and you will be rewarded.'

'I believe Wulley is acquainted with the place, surr,' said Arple after a long hesitation. 'Wulley…'

A hard-bitten veteran spoke from the shadows. His voice was as soft as butter and never rose above a whisper. Irisis's eyes sought him out in the darkness. A heavily muscled man, though with the legs of a dwarf, his face was scored with scars, clan marks. Another went across his throat, which explained the voice. She wondered how he had survived such a wound.

'I know it from when I were a kiddie, surr. Were a robber band there for a while. Brought terror and ruin to Yellow Nodey, Consummine, Tungstate and a dozen other villages nearby.'

'I did not know there were any villages up here,' said Jal-Nish.

'Aren't any more. Famine and plague got what the robbers did not, more'n thirty year ago.'

'What do you know of this plateau, soldier?'

'Garrihan it's called, surr, which means tabletop mountain in our dialect. Least, it used to. I'm the only one to speak it now, and when I'm gone…' He trailed off.

'What's on top of Garrihan, Wulley?' asked Arple.

'Top is shaped like an egg, surr. The pointy end faces us. It'd be a solid day's march across, in the snow.'

'It's about three leagues long,' said the querist, who was holding a map up to the light. 'And two wide. It would take a good force to watch all that edge. It's flat you say, Wulley?'

'Pretty much. There's gentle hills and gullies down the other end. No high places where they could keep watch, though.'

'Where would they camp if they were up there?' Jal-Nish asked.

'Down the round end. In the gullies you can get away from the wind, and there's water, when it's not frozen.'

'Sounds like this end is the best place to go up,' said Jal-Nish, 'if the weather stays bad. Show us on the map, soldier.'

Wulley came out, walking like a bear on its hind legs. Irisis pressed closer. Pointing to the eastern side of the round end with a battered, nailless finger, the soldier said, 'Was a stair here, when the robbers held it. That'll be guarded, if the beasts haven't destroyed it. Lyrinx don't need stairs. Village was here. Winds are perishing anywhere else.'

'Where would you go up in secret?' Arple asked.

Without hesitation, Wulley replied, 'Just here, across the tabletop from the stair, surr. The edge is all broken and there are rocks and boulders. Easy to hide but hard to guard. You can't see far. Bugger of a climb, though.'

'We're ready for that,' Jal-Nish said smugly. 'The troop that came with the fourth clanker are all climbers. I'm prepared for every contingency.'

Except my fist in your face, Irisis thought, taking some satisfaction from the damage she'd done. His handsome nose was ruined and every breath wheezed in his sinuses.

Jal-Nish's news was a surprise, even to Arple, for the new squad had kept to themselves.

'We'll move the camp down there, out of sight,' Jal-Nish continued, 'and my climbers will come to the base of the cliffs while it's still dark. Unless the weather clears they'll go up at first light, make reconnaissance and prepare the way for the rest of the force. By this time tomorrow the lyrinx will be history.'