'How many children do you have?' Irisis said.
'Two!' Inouye whispered.
'How old are they?'
'Sann is three and a half. Mya will be two.., next week.' She looked away, gripping the steering arm so hard that her hand shook.
Irisis did not know what to say.
The sails appeared on the horizon, two ships close together. 'Do thev have him?' said Irisis.
No one answered. It was impossible to tell.
'Go up a trifle, Inouye,' Irisis went on. 'Flangers, run back to Fyn-Mah.'
The first island grew swiftly. It was shaped like a bean with a bite out of it. Beyond it lay another, like a grey dishrag crumpled on a floor; then the third, an oval plate piled high in the middle. The two ships were passing the third island.
'They're gone past without stopping,' said Muss. 'Curve round towards the second island and the crystal will tell us which one it is.'
'It'll be the middle one, of course,' said Irisis.
So it proved to be. By the time they approached the island, which was at best a third of a league across, the vessels had dropped anchor outside the reefs and were launching boats through a gap for the shore. Other sails converged on them, though Irisis judged they would be too late to play any part in this drama.
'We've still got the advantage,' said Fyn-Mah, abandoning the scrying bowl. 'We can search the island from the air before they get to shore.'
'I doubt if we can do it before they reach us!' Irisis pointed.
A pair of air-floaters had appeared in the north-east quarter, rising from a group of islands a few leagues away. Signal mirrors flashed between ships and air-floaters, which turned in their direction.
Fyn-Mah snatched her spyglass out of Flangers's hand and began to sweep it back and forth across the second island. 'I can't see anyone. But Flydd's got to be there.'
'Perhaps the crystal is picking up some other kind of signal, or even a node,' Irisis speculated.
'Don't!' the perquisitor said savagely.
They soared over the dishrag hump in the middle of the island, a ragged hill some hundred spans high. The exposed rock was bare of anything taller than moss, though the sheltered gullies on the leeward side contained scrub.
'That's where they'll be,' said Flangers. 'Somewhere in that gully. Look out for smoke.'
They went over the top and drifted down the valley. The scrub was grey and wind-twisted. There was nothing so grand as a tree, the tallest plants being bushy and only a couple of spans high.
Two boats have landed,' Muss called. 'The third is coming pound the point. If Flydd and Nish are here, they'd better show themselves quickly.'
They could be hiding from us,' Flangers observed, 'thinking that we're part of Ghorr's force. Irisis, why don't you stand at the front – he'll recognise you.'
She did so, letting her yellow hair stream out in the wind. They went all the way down the gully to the shore. Nothing. Irisis had to climb down, for her nose and cheeks had gone numb. She warmed them with her palms.
"Turn around,' cried Fyn-Mah. 'Go back up.'
'Have you seen something?' Irisis called.
'No,' she said in a strangled voice.
They returned to the summit, drifting just a few spans above the ground. 'Where else could they be?' Fyn-Mah had bitten through her lower lip.
'Why don't you check the bloody crystal!' Irisis snapped.
Fyn-Mah ran back to the cabin. Irisis followed, but even from the door she could see that the needle was jerking back and forth. 'Perhaps we're directly above them.'
The perquisitor hadn't thought of that. 'I'll see what I can do. Keep a lookout.'
Irisis gazed down at the pair of boats, which were empty. Soldiers were already storming up the ridge. A third of the way up, a pair of big men were staggering under the weight of a javelard. Behind and below the air-floater, the third boat was riding the surf to shore. The two enemy air-floaters were closing rapidly and a third now appeared, well back. Signals were exchanged between them with flags.
Irisis had the feeling that they were looking in the wrong place. A couple of smaller gullies ran down from the summit on this side, and others back in the direction of the ships. 'Check the other gullies,' she rapped to Inouye.
'The pilot was trembling like a rush in a gale. Irisis pitied Inouye. For herself, she had been in so many desperate situations that this one had no impact at all. She just felt empty.
The third boat had landed on the south-western side of the island and the troops were unloading another javelard, fitting a spear and winding back the cranks. Inouye ran the air-floater down the second gully and up the third, but they saw no sign of any living thing. 'Where can they be?' said Fyn-Mah, dashing from stern to bow, then back along the other side. Most of the island was bare rock.
'Run north around the shoreline, a few spans high,' said Flangers. 'There may be a cave.'
Inouye turned away from the boat. Its javelard fired but the spear fell short.
'Quick!' cried Flangers. 'It'll have the range next time.'
They sped down the coast, which was rocky as far as Irisis could see. There was no sign of a cave, or even a large crevice beneath the rocks.
They rounded the northern curve of the island. The two ships were anchored offshore on the eastern side, half a league away, and the soldiers two-thirds of the way up the hill. The air-floaters were coming fast, with the advantage of the wind. Inouye brought the machine up a few spans and turned, giving them a view all the way around the island. The third boat, having disgorged its troops, was rowing furiously towards them, parallel to the shore. A soldier stood at the bow, ready with a crossbow.
'They're not here,' said Irisis dully.
'They've got to be. Keep going.' Fyn-Mah had gained control of herself. Her arms were folded across her chest and she wore her customary impassive expression.
'We've got to turn away,' wailed Inouye. 'We're practically within range.'
'Flydd's our only hope, Pilot; said Fyn-Mah. 'If we can't find him, the whole world is dead.'
Inouye wiped a tear from her eye, though it might have been the wind in her face. Gripping the controller hard, she clenched her jaw. The rotor screamed, the air-floater shud-dered as if it had been struck from behind, then leapt forwards. The pilot's pale hair streamed out behind her. Irisis hoped she was not drawing more power than her body could handle.
They shot down the eastern shoreline, between the off-shore ships and the soldiers on the ridge. A javelard was fired from the leading ship, the missile arcing towards their position of just a few moments ago. The other ship readied its weapons. As they reached the rocky point, where a wave-carved platform extended a hundred spans offshore, Muss cried, 'I saw something. Go round, Pilot.'
Inouye threw the steering arm out at right-angles, flinging the machine into such a tight turn that Irisis's stomach lurched. They hurtled back the other way. To their left, some way inland, an oval outcrop rose above the surrounding landscape. Its surface was mottled with red and yellow lichens and patches of green moss. In the crevices behind it, scrubby bushes stuck up like bristles on a brush.
'Up there,' yelled Muss. 'I saw something behind that rocky dome. Go lower.'
The spy certainly had keen eyes. Irisis was clear-sighted compared to most people, but had seen nothing.
The machine curved towards the dome. Seized by a sudden panic that Flydd would think they were the enemy, she climbed onto the railing at the front, hanging onto the airbag's guy ropes, and roared, 'Flydd! Nish! Where the blazes are you?
Come out or we'll leave you behind.'
The machine was hurled the other way, so hard that Irisis was left hanging by one hand. She yelped and snatched at the rail. Crash. It sounded as though a javelard spear had come through the wooden keel up into the cabin. Looking back, she saw that it had. The point stuck out through the cabin door. Flangers broke it off and kicked it over the side.