Alchymist

'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.

What was he to do? It was one thing to give orders to a few dozen soldiers, another entirely to command an army. But, if they expected him to lead them, he'd better get started.

'Lad,' Nish said to a young signaller, 'call all the sergeants to me. Does anyone know the land further down the valley?'

'I do,' a tattered youth said.

'If we can get past the enemy, what next?'

'It's easy marching downriver to the sea, and then only a couple of days south along the coast to Gnulp Landing.'

Nish climbed the side slope to get a better view down the valley. Lemuir followed.

'What do you think, Sergeant?'

Lemuir gnawed at a bloodstained fingernail. 'Looks to be nine thousand holding the neck. More than us.'

'And a good few behind, sheltering under the cliffs and trees,' said Nish. 'They can afford to wait till dusk, but we can't.'

'Never heard of an attack on a superior force of lyrinx succeeding.' Lemuir tore off an arc of fingernail, chewed pensively on it a moment, then spat it onto the grey rock.

'Nor I,' said Nish. 'We could wait. Troist might yet turn up.'

'We'd have seen him coming up the valley by now.'

Nish had the same fear. 'He'll come over the ridge further down, where he can cross with the clankers.'

'Not in time. The lyrinx aren't going to wait, surr. They're getting ready to attack.'

Down the slope, the gathered lyrinx were moving, and behind them others were coming out of the trees. 'It's always better to attack,' said Nish. The decision had come easily after all. 'And they're fighting uphill.'

It wasn't much of an advantage, the enemy being so much bigger and stronger, but it was all they had. Nish ran down to his assembled sergeants and explained his plan, and the way he'd been successful in attacking the sluggish lyrinx.