‘We know of three, though they’re not easy to see. Two are concealed within partly ruined buildings in the centre of Alcifer. The third is at the base of a cliff, under the trees over there somewhere.’ Tiaan pointed to her left, where a series of grey cliffs fell into the forest that had grown over the rim of the city. ‘There may be others.’
‘What do they look like?’
‘They’re shafts bored through rock, about a span across. One has a giant bellows outside, to pump in fresh air. It would be the best place to dump the spores but it’s the hardest to get to, so I won’t risk it.’
As they curved around the edge of the city, the wheeling lyrinx began to climb towards them. ‘Which shaft are you going for?’ asked Irisis.
‘The two within Alcifer will be easiest to find. I’m going for the one beneath the dome – see the sun shining on it? The dome is open underneath, so I’ll go down to the left, come in between the columns and see if I can get close enough.’
‘I thought we’d just fly over and drop it in,’ said Nish.
‘I may not be able to get that close. One of you will probably have to jump out and heave it in. Keep an eye on the fliers. And you might want to get your crossbows ready.’
The lyrinx closed the gap.
‘Ready?’ said Tiaan.
‘We’re ready,’ said Irisis.
‘Hang on!’ Tiaan turned sharply left and dived steeply.
Nish let out a muffled cry as the thapter hurtled towards the dome. The lyrinx folded their wings, diving after them.
Tiaan felt the Secret Art fizzing in her brain. ‘They know we’re up to something,’ she shouted over the shrieking of the mechanism and the roaring of the wind. ‘They’ll be everywhere in a minute.’
‘How are you going to get to it?’ said Irisis.
Tiaan pointed to the right as she curved around the dome and its many extravagantly carved columns. ‘In there.’
The dome was about two hundred spans across and supported on many slender columns. She couldn’t see far inside, though the tiled floor was scattered with rubble and rectangular piles of stone blocks.
Tiaan turned sharply, slowed and darted in between the columns. It was much darker inside and her eyes were slow to adjust. She clipped a cairn of blocks, sending loose stone tumbling across the floor, jolting the thapter sideways.
‘Can you see the shaft?’ she yelled. ‘Irisis?’
Irisis was standing up on the side. ‘No, I can’t. Are you sure this is the place?’
‘I’m sure it’s the one Klarm told me about.’ Tiaan turned in a figure-eight inside the dome. ‘But I’m beginning to think he got it wrong, or his spy did.’ She turned again, her stomach already knotted up. The lyrinx would be here in seconds. ‘He said the air shaft was in the middle but we’ve been across twice and there’s nothing here. We’ll have to go to the next.’
She shot out the other side, but as they passed between the columns Irisis cried, ‘It’s just there.’
Tiaan saw it out of the corner of her eye as well, though too late to stop. The vent was right on the edge, hidden between two walls of stone. The thapter shot into the sunlight and there were lyrinx everywhere. Several landed just outside; others flew in under the dome, and dozens more were approaching. What to do?
‘I don’t dare go back,’ she said. ‘They’d be onto us before we could get the barrel to the opening. We’ll have to try the one with the bellows.’
She shot across the abandoned city, carving a curved trail to the other side, hoping thereby to confuse the enemy about her destination. There were flying lyrinx everywhere now, hundreds of them, and more appearing all the time.
She turned down a broad boulevard where ruined, half-ruined and intact buildings towered on either side, screamed left into a smaller road and turned right into an alley. From there she flew up, soaring over the thoroughfare ahead, turned left again and headed towards a pentagonal pavilion with steepled roofs, set on a stone platform reached by broad steps on all five sides.
‘How do you do it?’ Irisis said.
‘What?’
‘Know exactly where you are, despite all the twists and turns. It’s as if you have the whole map in your head.’
‘I do,’ said Tiaan. ‘The second air shaft is in the building with the steeples. We’ve got to do it this time or they’ll close off all the shafts.’ The sky was dark with lyrinx now.
She roared straight up over the steps, across the forecourt and inside.
‘To the right!’ Irisis yelled in her ear. ‘I can see the bellows.’
Tiaan turned sharply, swept around in a circle and came to a stop directly before the enormous bellows, which consisted of a concertina-like timber and canvas structure, three times the size of the thapter, that was squeezing and expanding, powered by a series of phynadrs. The multiple intakes opened and closed as the bellows worked, directing a roaring blast into a long canvas funnel that ran down into the vent. ‘Nish,’ said Tiaan, ’see where it sucks the air in? I can’t take the thapter in under there – you’ll have to carry the barrel. Hurry!’
He threw himself over the side of the thapter, not bothering with the ladder. Irisis lowered the barrel. Nish heaved it onto his shoulder and ran, staggering under its weight. Irisis fitted a bolt to her crossbow.
Tiaan darted a look over her shoulder. The first lyrinx was already sweeping in. She edged the thapter closer to the bellows.
Irisis fired, so close that the snap of the bow hurt Tiaan’s ear.
‘I hope you got him,’ Tiaan said irritably. Even at close range it wasn’t easy to kill a lyrinx with a crossbow.
‘I got him.’ Irisis was already reloading.
‘Get a move on, Nish!’ Tiaan screamed over the hiss and whoosh of the bellows. ‘They’re here.’
He had reached one of the intakes but was struggling to get the lid off the barrel. The suction of the bellows was so strong that with every blast it pulled him across the floor.
‘I can’t get the lid off,’ he yelled. ‘It’s too tight.’
‘Hold it out to the side,’ said Irisis.
He did so. Irisis took careful aim, fired and the bolt stove the lid in with a puff of spores that was whipped into the bellows intake.
Nish slipped, caught hold of the side then tossed the barrel into the intake. The movement sent him off-balance and he began to slide towards the aperture. Tiaan squeezed her controller so hard that it hurt. The suction was going to pull him in too, and she was surprised at how much she cared.
Irisis cursed, leapt over the side in a single fluid movement and ran. Tiaan edged the thapter a fraction closer. Another lyrinx flew in, followed by a third and then two more.
The bellows sucked so hard that Nish’s legs went from under him. He landed on his side and was jerked towards the intake, fingernails scratching against the glassy floor. Before he could get to his feet the bellows sucked again, pulling him halfway in. He threw his arms out, managing to jam himself in the opening. The bellows sucked and Nish’s arms shuddered with the effort of holding himself in place. The next pump would suck him through and send him plummeting fifty or a hundred spans down the shaft.
Without even thinking, Tiaan spun the thapter, jerked it forward and thumped the front into the tapering canvas funnel of the bellows, pushing it almost flat. With a gruesome farting noise air rushed back the other way, ejecting Nish straight at Irisis. They both went down, Nish landing on his forehead.
Tiaan looked over her shoulder. The lyrinx were approaching rapidly, two in the air, two on the floor. Was there time to pick up Nish and Irisis? She didn’t think so.
Whirling the thapter on its axis, Tiaan scooted straight at the lyrinx in the air. As soon as she did, she knew it was a mistake. This pair were moving slowly, while the ones on the floor were racing towards Irisis and Nish.
Thinking swiftly, she shot by so close that the thapter’s wake collapsed their wings and the lyrinx fell out of the air. Tiaan spun the other way, knowing she wasn’t going to make it. The running pair of lyrinx were practically on Irisis, who was in the lead, waving her sword. Nish was staggering, clearly dazed, and appeared to have dropped his weapon.