'Our workers are already designing the mighty craft that will take us back to Meldorin,' he went on, 'in a force so powerful that the lyrinx will flee in terror. Then you will find our enemies again, Ullii, wherever they've hidden. We'll take them with overwhelming force and destroy this burr in my side for good.
'In the meantime,' he continued, 'there's another way for you to help me.'
They were alone in his room. Ullii felt trapped in every possible way. Why had she listened to the voices? Why had she imagined she could use this monster to gain her revenge? She was not strong or clever, but weak and insignificant. All she'd done was put herself back in prison, and this time she had no friends to take care of her.
'Yes?' she whispered, for even had she the strongest will in the world, the bracelet on her wrist would not allow her to say no.
'Tell me how you magicked Irisis out of her cell last spring, without opening the lock or setting off my alarm. And how you translated Flydd's air-floater, in an instant, from a thousand spans above Nennifer to the end of the tunnel where you and Irisis were hiding.'
That had been her own precious little secret that not even Flydd had understood. Her lattice was her own creation, the world she retreated to when the physical world failed her. It was the one place no one else could go. Was even that to be taken from her?
Don't know!' she said mulishly, keeping her eyes firmly on the floor.
His hand went under her chin, jerking her upright. He looked like a mature, handsome man but up close his skin was shiny and pinkly smooth, like baby skin on top of scar tissue. The feel of it, the softness clinging to those underlying ropy ridges of flesh, made her shudder with disgust. He tried to appear in his prime but Ullii's lattice told her what lay beneath the surface. He was old and rotten inside.
'Don't play games, Ullii. Do you want me as a friend, or as an enemy? It would not be wise to incur my enmity.'
She had often had this nightmare, after the first visit to Nennifer, and still she'd given herself up to Ghorr. Why, why had she put on the bracelet? Why hadn't she tested it first? Because it had been so cunningly designed to trap her that it did not even show in her lattice. The scrutators were too clever for her, as they had been too clever for Mylii.
'I have cunning mancers here, Seeker,' he resumed when she did not reply. 'Men and women who know how the mind works, even a mind as special as yours. And they know how to break it! They can go deep into your mind, Ullii. They can learn everything about you. They can make lattices of their own – or take yours from you.'
'Make another one' she muttered, trying to look away. Though she tried to deny it, her greatest fear was losing her precious lattice and being unable to make another.
'They won't let you. So, Ullii, are you going to tell me how you managed it? How did you free Irisis?'
If she told him, surely he would leave her alone. 'I held the magicked lock in place and turned the lattice around it,' she said simply.
He stared at her. 'That's nonsense.' But, after chewing over it for a minute, he reconsidered. 'You turned the lattice? Did you translate the air-floater the same way?'
'No. I just moved its knot, and Xervish's, in my lattice.'
'Astounding! If I hadn't seen it happen I would not have believed it. You can't tell me any more, can you? You simply don't know what you did. But I'll have the secret out of you, and then there won't be anything I can't do.'
His eyes dissected her, then he swept out. And Ullii knew he would get the secret out of her, if he had to take her apart to do so. He was the most evil man in the world. Worse than Flydd, worse than Nish. And she was going to find them for him, so he could destroy them. She could not do otherwise -there was no way she could fight Ghorr.
And once she did find them, it would be her turn to suffer.
Forty-seven
Dirty, ragged and weary to the point of exhaustion, Tiaan approached the hidden city of Tirthrax. Three weeks had passed since her escape from the Aachim nets on the shore of the Sea of Thurkad. She had no idea why she'd come back, only that there had been nowhere else to go. But surely, after the crimes she'd committed, Malien would turn her over to the Aachim. Vithis could be here already.
She was so overcome by guilt that Tiaan gave only passing thought to her reason for fleeing Tirthrax previously – the amplimet's communication with the great node here, and the thawing of the perilous Well of Echoes, which had been frozen in place long ago. Despite her fears, the amplimet had given her no trouble on her long journey. It was hardly glowing now, and did not change as she neared Tirthrax. She wondered if it wanted to come back. Or if she'd exhausted it.
It was a hard climb up the slopes of the mountain, and many times Tiaan thought she would have to complete it on foot, for the construct was now a battered, limping thing. Each morning, when she unlocked the hatch and set off again, it was slower and more erratic. There was any amount of power this close to Tirthrax, far more than the amplimet could draw, but the construct could no longer use it.
Yet, despite everything, she'd made it. She crept up the ragged track, carved out by the great glacier, to the lip of the broken hole in the side of the mountain. It looked the same as when she'd left here at the beginning of spring. Tiaan stopped outside. Tirthrax was a place of bitter memories. Here, little Haani had died and her body had been sent to the Well. Here, Tiaan had made the fateful gate. Here. Minis had rejected her.
That's all in the past, she told herself. Go on. She inched the construct up and over the top. The vast cavern, just part of one level of the grand city, yawned before her. Tiaan stopped abruptly.
Malien stood in the middle of that open space, arms folded across her chest, watching her with those cool green eyes. Though an old woman, Malien was as strong as anyone Tiaan had ever met. She was kindly by nature, yet could be hard as Stone when she had to be. How would Malien treat her now?
'I've been expecting you,' Malien said evenly. 'Take the construct down to the very end of this level and leave it there.'
Tiaan did so. Whatever Malien ordered, she would do. Whatever punishment Malien imposed, she would suffer it without complaint, though it could not make up for the harm she'd done Minis, or Malien's own Clan Elienor.
She stopped near a spiralling staircase, withdrew the amplimet and climbed down. Her breath steamed in the frigid air and she felt a trifle light-headed. The city was high up and the air thin.
Malien indicated a small table to one side, set with a cloth, two plates, knives and forks. A round loaf, freshly baked, sat on a wooden carving board. A variety of meats, cheeses and preserved vegetables had been arranged on a platter. 'Sit down.'
Tiaan sat. Malien carved slices of bread, sprinkled them with golden oil from a glass jug, and handed the platter to Tiaan. She took two slices, Malien one. Tiaan selected a fragrant cheese. Malien poured wine into silver goblets, handing one to her. They ate.
'Why have you come back?' said Malien when Tiaan's plate was empty. Her voice was without expression. Tiaan could not tell if she was pleased, indifferent or enraged.
'I had nowhere else to go. And you said – you once said to call on you, if I needed help.' Tiaan's palms were sweaty.
Malien inclined her head in acknowledgment. She regarded Tiaan steadily. 'Your back is better, I see.'
'You heard about that?'
'Urien sent messengers here. They told me you'd broken it, though that doesn't seem to be the truth.'
She thinks I'm a liar. 'It was the truth. I broke my back when the amplimet made the thapter crash near Nyriandiol, but in Snizort the lyrinx flesh-formed it together' Tiaan shivered at that memory.