"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.
She threw herself to the deck and almost went over again as the air-floater turned even more sharply. Another spear whistled through the air, just missing the airbag. Whatever else Inouye was, she was a brilliant pilot. Then, as she clutched the lowest rail, Irisis saw, as clear as anything, Nish stand up on the round rock. Her eyes misted over.
'It's Nish!' she screamed. 'Go down.'
'I don't dare,' said Inouye. The soldiers up the hill were within easy range. The pilot turned; turned again. Her cheeks were blotched, her eyes glassy.
She's taking too much power, Irisis thought. She's going to burn her mind out. Without thinking, or even knowing what she was doing, Irisis ran to Inouye's side and wrapped the chain of her pliance around the controller, putting crystal to crystal.
Laying an arm across the pilot's shoulder, she sought for the node. Inouye's whole body was shuddering with the strain. Irisis took some of the load through herself, into her pliance and thence into the controller. To her amazement, it seemed to be working. The colour came back into the pilot's cheeks. The rotor spun more quickly.
'Flangers!' Irisis screamed. 'See if you can do something about the soldiers with the javelard. Quick, they're nearly ready to fire.'
Flangers was already behind the loaded weapon, tracking the soldiers as the air-floater ducked and dived. He fired.
'Missed!' He cursed under his breath and reached down to reload.
Muss was on the other side, holding a crossbow inexpertly. Come on! Irisis thought, I could do better than that. He fired, though with no result.
Fyn-Mah pushed through behind Irisis, shaping the air with her fingers. Tossing them high, she clapped her hands together with a crack like a dry stick breaking. A series of puffs crystallised in the air between her and the enemy javelard, one after another. The last puff burst around the weapon and the soldier behind it. He went head-first over a smooth rock and came to rest with his legs waving in the air. The javelard fell over but another soldier wrestled it up onto its stand and began to aim it.
'Go down, now!' snapped the perquisitor, pale with the strain.
'He'll put a spear right through the airbag. He can't miss.'
'The spear is jammed in the javelard,' said Muss calmly, 'Hurry, before they free it.' Inouye threw the machine about so sharply that Irisis fell to her knees. It seemed to skip across the air, bounced and fell. The keel slammed into the rock. Struts creaked and groaned.
Irisis looked around frantically. 'Flydd, Nish?'
'Here,' came Nish's voice from the other side. 'You nearly took my bloody head off.'
Leaving her pliance wrapped around the controller, she leapt over the rail. Inouye shrieked but Irisis could not be in two places at once. 'Come on. Get in! Where's Flydd? Is he …? Is he …?'