Alchymist

'Why don't we go up in the air-floater?' said Irisis. 'I've seen this place enough times from the air to be able to find you a construct.'

'It'll tell everyone within five leagues that we're here,' said Yggur, 'but I suppose we've got no choice.'

They floated over the walls of Snizort. 'The Aachim constructs were concentrated to the west and north-west,' said Irisis. 'Over there.' She pointed west. 'I can see hundreds of them, close together.'

The humps were clearly visible, and in the middle they saw a magnificent pavilion of golden sandstone, its carven dome standing on seven columns. In the distance a creek, dry save for a few small pools, meandered between the hills.

'That structure wasn't there before,' said Irisis.

'It'll be a memorial to the Aachim dead,' said Yggur. 'So much death! On a dark night the ghosts will be thick as mist.'

Nish snorted. 'I don't believe in ghosts.'

Nor did I, until I took pilgrimage to places where I'd sent armies to their deaths. My Second Army in Bannador; the thousand of my finest who fell in Elludore Forest. I wept for their lost souls, Nish. As will you, should you ever revisit Gumby Marth, or any other place where men's lives were in your keeping.' He went down the back to speak to Inouye.

'Cheerful company, isn't he,' said Irisis, though she couldn't help thinking of the mancer she'd obliterated on the aqueduct at the manufactory. What hopes had she had? What dreams? What fears all too brutally realised? 'Bloody mancers!' They strolled after him. 'Down there, I think, Inouye' said Yggur. The pilot moved the steering arm and released a little floater gas. The machine had just begun to sink when she turned around. 'Something's there, Lord Yggur.'

He did not correct her. Yggur seemed to be sniffing the air, his head questing this way and that. 'I sense it, too. It's.., a kind of defence, or protection! 'Against what?' said Nish.

'I can't say, but it's likely to cause us some trouble.' 'Can't you break it?'

'Only a fool would break a magical defence without understanding what it was for, or who put it there.' 'What's that?' hissed Irisis. 'Where?'

'Way over to the west, by that loop of the creek. See the smoke?' She reached out blindly for the spyglass. Nish put it in her hand. 'Can you see what it is?' 'A camp fire. A big one, and wagons pulled by clankers, though they're the oddest clankers I've ever seen.' 'What's odd about them?' asked Yggur sharply. 'They're clankers below, but above they look like shacks.' 'Nothing to do with the scrutators, then,' said Nish. Appearances are everything to them.'

'And rightly so,' Yggur observed, taking the spyglass. 'The outside is a mirror to what lies within.'

My father was the most fastidious of men,' Nish countered, yet inside he festered.'

The air-floater was closer now and he could see the contraptions unaided. There were three, each with a six-wheeled wagon connected behind. A host of people had emerged, staring up at them. Some were loading crossbows, others manning javelards.

'Scavengers,' said Yggur.

'Where'd they get the clankers from?' said Nish.

'There are wrecked ones everywhere, and not just on this battlefield. The human maggots are always the first to get there.'

'How can they use them without trained operators?'

A question Irisis would do well to ponder,' said Yggur. 'But there are many with talents who remain outside the law.'

'I meant, how do they get away with it?' said Nish.

'The scrutators' writ no longer holds in this land, so the scavengers can do what they like. It's marvellous what human ingenuity can achieve when survival is at stake.'

'Is that where the protection spell comes from?' asked Irisis.

'I doubt it,' said Yggur. 'It's too strong, and doesn't have the right flavour, but we'll keep well away from their camp, just in case. Go down to the other side of the battlefield, Inouye. Stay low so they can't see where we're heading.'

They descended to within a few spans of the ground, Yggur staring over the side, gripping the rope rail with both hands.

'I'm losing the field,' Inouye sang out. She was drawing from a distant one, of course, since the Snizort node was completely dead. The rotor slowed until it was barely ticking over.

'Try another.'

She did so. 'Nothing.' Inouye looked anxious but-determined. A threat to her controller was a threat to her and she would fight to protect it.

'What's the matter?' said Yggur.

'The field's still there but I can't draw from it.'

'Can it be the protection?' Irisis wondered.

'It must be' said Yggur. Let it drift, Inouye, and I'll make sure.'

A breeze carried them further west. Shortly the rotor began to tick again and soon spun up to full speed.

'Set down,' said Yggur. 'There, on that little mound. And keep a sharp lookout. If anyone comes, go up fast.'

'What if it's lyrinx?' said Flangers, checking that the crank of his crossbow turned smoothly.

'Use your initiative. Irisis, Nish, come with me.'

They slipped through the ropes, dropping to the ground before the keel touched, and turned towards a group of damaged constructs that lay close together. Before they'd gone a hundred paces, Yggur, who was a little way ahead, stopped abruptly. He put his hands up, feeling the air in front of him.

'Is it the protection?' said Irisis.

'Yes. It's a defensive shell designed to keep out living things.'

'What for?' said Nish.

'The Aachim greatly revere their dead. It would distress them to leave the bodies here, in alien ground. Some day, as soon as they can manage it, they'll come back and remove the remains. Until that time they've protected them from scavengers and looters, and those who simply want to pry into what's none of their business. And also, I think, they'd want to keep people from studying their abandoned constructs. The ones outside the protection, you'll recall, were all ruined.'

'How is the protection made, and maintained without the field?' said Irisis.

'The Aachim have used sentinel devices, self-powered, for thousands of years. They may have linked dozens together to create this. Or it may be a more potent spell. It's a mighty work, however they've managed it.' Yggur was walking sideways, hands still in the air. They followed in silence. He seemed to be feeling, or sensing, for something.

After a good while he stopped, moving his hands slowly in circles. His lips moved. Ah!' he said softly, pulling outwards as if peeling open the flap of a tent. 'Come through. Be quick. It's a strain to do this.'

It looked odd, for the barrier, whatever it was, was completely invisible. It felt odder going through, a tingling of the skin that extended into Nish's ears and up his nose, only to disappear once he was through, though the soles of his feet itched for a long time afterwards. Inside looked exactly the same as outside. The sun was just as bright. He could hear birds calling, and the gentle tick of the rotor, and the same breeze ruffled his hair. Yet it was totally different. Nish felt enclosed. And also, that he was in a sacred place.

Yggur strode past, not awed at all, heading for a pair of constructs, seemingly undamaged, some way further in. 'Come on. Those scavengers might come to investigate and I don't want to be trapped in here.'

There were no bodies inside either machine. Yggur wasted no time. 'Nish, pull the base of this one apart and see if you can get the driving mechanism out in one piece. Irisis, we'll work in the cabin, to discover whatever we can about how it's controlled. We'll have to be quick.'

The metal was cold but Nish had experienced far worse. And having spent so much time with Minis and the Aachim, he was quite familiar with constructs, even if he'd never taken one apart by himself.

By the time the sun was halfway up the sky, he had removed the base plate and was struggling with the mechanism inside, a complicated structure of reciprocating metal parts set in a black metal casing the size of a small barrel. As he sat back, trying to work out how to remove it, he heard the hum of the rotor. The air-floater shot up and turned away.