Alchymist

Ashamed of her fickleness, she reminded herself of little Haani's pointless death, the crushed chest, the thin arms and legs hanging lifeless. Tiaan rubbed the worn leather bracelet on her left wrist, the birthday present from Haani. Her twenty-first birthday felt a thousand years ago.

You were in on it from the beginning, Minis. Or, if not, you did not have the courage, when you realised what the clan leaders were doing, to refuse to be a part of it. Either way you failed me.

She was not sure how to go about her plan. Tiaan was, by nature, neither cold nor calculating, but now she had to be. She looked up. Minis's eyes were on her and it sent a shiver up her spine. She poured a dribble of wine into her cup, filled his and sipped, holding the cup in both hands. The wine was so beautiful it was hard not to keep drinking, but that would be fatal. Time passed. She filled his cup again, his third. Enough to loosen his inhibitions.

His big eyes were moist. 'Tiaan, I'm so sorry. I've been the biggest fool of all time.'

Yes, you have!'

I – you don't know what it's been like for me. Both my parents were killed when I was five.'

Was this an excuse? 'How did it happen?'

A volcano threatened our vineyards; they were studying it when it erupted and buried them in red-hot ash. They were burned alive.'

She shuddered. 'What a horrible way to die.'

'I lost everything that day,' he said bitterly. 'Vithis took me in, even though he hated my parents and their values. He's of the old Aachim: the arrogant, unloving kind. Whatever they liked, he hated; whatever they praised, he derided. Whatever they believed, he denounced as lies, charlatanism and folly.'

'What about your foretellings?'

'Especially my foretellings! Each time my talent showed itself, he mocked me and told me that I was unworthy, even unmanly. And that's the worst of it. Though he sneers at my foretellings, he's superstitious and takes them to heart. He wants to believe, but can't because he doesn't believe in me! It's tearing me apart, Tiaan.' He bent his head to the table, though not in time to conceal the tears on his long lashes.

'Is that why you feel you have to please him?' she said.

The question appeared to surprise him. 'He's my foster-father, Tiaan. He's my only relative, and I'm all he has. We're bound together.'

'So when he asked you to use your empathic talent to reach across the void, you agreed.' She was guessing about that.

'There was no hope for us on our own world. I was proud to be chosen for such an important task.'

'How did you come to contact me?' She stretched out her hand, hoping he had been drawn to her, out of all the people in the world. 'Were you looking for someone like me?'

'It could have been anyone.' He was still staring at the tabletop.

She snatched her hand back, hurt and insulted.

Not noticing, he went on, 'We called out across the void, to anyone, on any world, who had the ability to hear.'

'You were not the only one to call?'

'Many Aachim who had seeing talents, or empathic ones, were set to the task. I called for four of our years, more than two of yours. Others for much longer.' He looked up and met her eyes. But I was the only one who ever got an answer. I saw you.'

That pleased her, though it did not make up for the previous insult. 'How did you call? Did you use some kind of crystal, like my – the amplimet?'

Another way entirely.' His mouth set. 'I cannot tell you about that.'

And yet you harassed me to tell you everything about my work, and talents, and our use of crystals,' Tiaan said coldly. 'Not only did you use me, you demanded everything of me and gave nothing back.'

'I was trying to save my people.' He could not meet her eyes now. 'Would you not have done the same? Besides, I didn't know you then.'

'You did the same, after you protested your love for me!'

'We.., had to understand how your talent worked, and your amplimet, else how could we teach you what you needed to know?'

'From the result, you did not teach me very well.'

'Perhaps you didn't tell us all you should have.'

Again the blame was put on her. 'Why should I tell my enemies anything!' she snapped. Tiaan felt achingly weary and she was getting nowhere. She had to take charge. 'You claimed you loved me, but that was a lie. They told you what to say to me.'

'No!' he cried. 'That's not true.'

Tiaan quivered with fury. 'You can't lie to me, Minis. I've a perfect memory of our conversations. When I was trapped in that sphere of ice, near the manufactory, Tirior tried to get me to use geomancy. Even then I thought that she was keeping something from me. She took you aside and told you what to say. You protested, and Luxor looked shocked, but Tirior persisted. Finally you came back and told me that you loved me. That was your first betrayal, Minis.

'Once she saw that I cared for you, Tirior cynically used me. And, fool that I was, I believed you. I would have done anything to help the one I loved. But my feelings were incidental – once you gained my aid, I was as expendable as little Haani. You would have sacrificed a thousand of me to get what you wanted.'

'You are cruel, Tiaan.' Minis was grey about the lips. 'The child's death was an accident that I bitterly regret, but I can't bring her back. I did love you, and I still do.'

Tiaan looked into his eyes. 'You'll have the chance to prove it, tomorrow.'

'I'll prove it now. Do you still have the ring you made for me?'

The ring she'd crafted lovingly with her own hands, woven from the gold and silver old Joeyn had given her as he lay dying in the mine. 'The ring you rejected? Yes, I have it.' It hung on a leather thong around her neck. She drew it out.

'Give it to me.'

After a hesitation, she untied the knot and passed the ring to him. His eyes met hers. He held the ring between the fingers of both hands and took a deep breath. 'Tiaan, I swear by this ring, the most sacred object to me, that I will do all in my power to save you.'

'Tomorrow!'

'Tomorrow,' he said.

Was he trying to convince her, or himself? She held out her hand and he laid the ring on her palm. She put it back on the thong and unwrapped the amplimet. He sprang up in alarm but before he could stop her she had spoken.

'And I swear, by this amplimet, that if you fail me again you'll rue it all your remaining days.'

She looked up. He'd gone stiff and staring and she knew she'd done the wrong thing, but it could not be undone.

'Never, never swear upon an amplimet,' he whispered.

'It's too late. I've done it.'

'Yes, you've done it now.'

Thirty-three

Nish's shattered army was now below the junction of the two streams, which here formed a river some twelve spans across, too deep and fast flowing to cross. At the neck it narrowed in a rocky cleft, rushing over a chain of rapids down the steep part of the slope before forming a series of wide meanders below it, where Gumby Marth broadened.

'How deep is the river down below?' he asked the soldier at his side.

'We forded it on the way in,' said Sergeant Lemuir. 'It was hard going – chest deep for the most part. The danker operators weren't pleased.'

'I can imagine.' Clankers could move even when half full of water, as long as the operator's head was clear, but it must have been an alarming experience. there were troops on the other side of the river too, in scattered groups, and doubtless enemy as well, although the bulk of lyrinx seemed to be on this side.

'What are we going to do, Lieutenant?' said Lemuir.

A professional soldier was asking his advice? But as far as they were concerned, he was their lieutenant. A good five thousand troops were staring expectantly at him, with the rest forming up behind them, escorted by seven or eight hundred clankers and a scattering of men on horseback. He'd asked about Xabbier but no one knew what had become of him or any other officer. It was past noon and there was no sign of Troist, either. Privately, Nish no longer believed that any relief would arrive, but he wasn't going to say that aloud.