Smaller armies, protecting human settlements all the way up and down the east coast, had suffered similar fates. Many towns had been overwhelmed, their people killed or forced to flee into the countryside where they would be easy targets. The walls of the principal cities, greatly reinforced over the past six months, now sheltered huge numbers of refugees but would soon be besieged. Of all the nations of the east only populous Crandor had managed to stay the lyrinx tide. Its armies had fought the attacking hordes to a standstill but Governor Zaeff held little hope. Roros and the other cities of Crandor would soon be islands in a sea of the enemy. With no possibility of outside aid, in the end even proud Roros, the greatest city in the world since Thurkad had been overrun, must fall.
The west had seen little action thus far, but regular flights over Almadin showed that the lyrinx hordes had crossed the Sea of Thurkad and were advancing ever closer. Battle was only days away, but this battle could not be won. The enemy were simply too many.
Tiaan’s thapter landed on the lawn of the White Palace after dark and they went straight to conclave. It was an open meeting and the extravagantly over-decorated audience chamber was packed with people, standing in little groups waiting for the proceedings to begin. Few were talking. Everyone seemed too stunned.
Irisis had never seen such luxury as was displayed in the hall, though she paid little attention to it. It seemed like a sad folly that would soon be gone. She threaded her way through the groups, looking for Flydd. He was not up on the dais with Governor Nisbeth and the other dignitaries.
Painfully standing on tiptoe, she saw Yggur over in the far corner and headed for him. Flydd was standing beside him, talking to Klarm. They made the oddest of trios: tall, broad-shouldered Yggur, his ageless features as though frozen in ice; withered, scrawny little Flydd who barely came up to his chin; and handsome, unflappable Klarm, not even chest-high to the scrutator.
Flydd didn’t look as though he’d eaten since they’d left Fiz Gorgo weeks ago. Bone and gristle were all there was left of him. He nodded as Irisis approached, with Nish and Tiaan close behind, but kept speaking.
‘I promised our people in the east that if we all worked together we had a chance,’ Flydd said bitterly. ‘Then I took this ruinous gamble, and lost.’
‘Not you alone,’ said Klarm, twisting strands of his beard together. ‘Our Council voted on the attack, as did the eastern governors, and to take the blame on yourself devalues everyone else.’
‘I did my best to talk you into it,’ said Flydd.
‘You’re an overly proud man, Flydd, for such a meagre one,’ Yggur said waspishly. ‘You know we didn’t have a choice. We had to destroy the threat of the uggnatl and I believe we’ve done that.’
‘We can’t resist this tide,’ said Flydd in anguish. ‘All my life I’ve fought to save humanity. Now I’ve brought about its destruction.’
Irisis stopped a few steps away. She’d rarely seen Flydd in such a state. Nish and Tiaan pulled up behind her.
‘Better we left the east to their own devices,’ said Flydd, ‘than raise hopes so savagely dashed. Not only is the east defeated, it feels betrayed.’
‘It’s not defeated until Crandor falls,’ said Klarm, ‘and that may take longer and cost more than the enemy are prepared to pay. There’s steel in the hearts of the dark folk from Roros, and their fingers wield a blade cunningly.’
‘I don’t doubt it,’ said Flydd more steadily, ‘but it would take whole forests of steel to make up for the new –’
‘Not here!’ hissed Yggur, looking over his shoulder.
‘What is it?’ Irisis asked, lowering her voice. ‘Have the enemy succeeded in making more node-drainers?’
‘Later,’ said Flydd.
Why was he holding back? What had the lyrinx come up with now?
‘Have you asked the Stassor Aachim for help?’ Irisis asked.
‘We gave them farspeakers but they’re not answering,’ said Malien. ‘How can my people have come to such a state?’
‘They’ve been heading that way for a long time,’ said Yggur. ‘Withdrawing further and further from the world.’
‘Then why take all the thapters from Snizort,’ said Irisis, ‘if they didn’t intend to use them?’
‘So no one could attack Stassor with them,’ said Malien.
‘What about Vithis and his great beam weapon?’ Nish said. ‘We could beg him for aid.’
‘We’ve already begged,’ said Klarm. ‘Our embassy was fired on at the border.’
Yggur, who was looking up at the dais, said, ‘We’re called.’ He turned to the three travellers and put out his hand. ‘Let’s not have this crisis overshadow your truly mammoth deeds. Well done, Tiaan, Nish and Irisis.’
‘Too well done,’ said Irisis. ‘It would have been better if we’d died in the first attempt.’ She fell in beside Nish, who was more silent than usual. They headed up to take their places. The silent crowd were already sitting down.
Tiaan did not follow them. ‘I’ll wait for you outside,’ she said to Irisis. ‘I don’t think I can bear to hear what they’re going to say.’
‘We can’t do anything to help the east,’ said General Troist after the situation had been summed up to the silent gathering. ‘Let’s concentrate on what we can do for ourselves.’
‘Not much,’ said Yggur. ‘The enemy’s numbers are far greater than we had estimated, and in the east they’ve used their flesh-formed creatures to devastating effect. They released thousands of uggnatl, and other creatures like it, onto the battlefields. They had a lot more of them than we’d thought.’ Yggur signed to an aide standing to the side, who held up the stuffed body of Flydd’s uggnatl. Irisis could smell it from where she sat, a breath-catching odour of decay. ‘The little beasts are so fast and agile that they’re difficult to hit. They brought down our soldiers by attacking their legs, and once on the ground they had no chance.’
‘We still have no defence against them,’ Troist said heavily. ‘Apart from leather leg armour, yet another burden for our overburdened troops.’
‘Leg armour was tried in the east,’ said the scrutator. ‘The uggnatl simply went for the groin, the one thing most men fear more than death. So would I have, in my day.’
That drew a smile or two around the room, for Flydd was such an ugly, withered old coot that no one could imagine him at the business of procreation. Those who knew what had happened to him at the hands of Ghorr’s torturers did not smile, however.
‘What about mail or plate armour?’ called a uniformed officer from the front row.
‘It’s too heavy,’ said Troist. ‘It slows our soldiers too much against the lyrinx. Thankfully the ones bred in Oellyll succumbed to the fungus, so we won’t be facing them.’
‘My council has long feared it would come to this,’ said Governor Nisbeth, after a quiet word to her councillors. ‘We made a plan for the end last spring. Now we must put it into effect. We won’t send your brave men to certain death, General Troist. Our soldiers have been dying for more than a hundred years, and it has availed us naught. Our beautiful land must be abandoned, since it is undefendable. We will evacuate Borgistry to the last peasant and go east into the Borgis Woods. There are vast cave systems in the Peaks of Borg, as well as along Lake Parnggi and in the southern arm of the Great Mountains, beyond the lake. It’s rugged, inhospitable country, but we know it well. Let the enemy pursue us there if they dare. In the caves, we’ll maintain what’s left of our civilisation for as long as we can endure.’