And before Nish could turn and run, Mira stepped out of the crowd, right beside him.
‘M-Mira!’ he stammered. ‘I – I –’
She took his hand. ‘Nish, why didn’t you come to see me?’
‘I was too scared; too mortified …’
‘But why? You did nothing wrong. We were just two lonely, unhappy people, taking comfort where we could, until I had too much to drink and my nightmares overturned everything.’
‘But … the guards …’
‘It was all a terrible misunderstanding. I’d called them back and explained before you even reached the river.’
‘They weren’t hunting me at all?’ said Nish.
‘Of course not. I was terrified you’d drown. They were trying to bring you back, as an honoured guest who’d saved my nieces from degradation and murder.’
‘And all this time, I’ve been living in fear of you,’ said Nish. ‘And not just from that night. Whenever I did the … business of war, I imagined how disgusted you’d be.’
She sighed and took his hand. ‘You met me at my lowest point, Nish. War is a horror, but do you think I don’t honour my man, and my sons, for the way they fought and died? Of course I do. I hated the old warmongering Council with all my heart, but I respect the brave men and women who fight and die for us. And I honour you, too.’ She kissed him on the forehead. ‘Go now, they’re calling for you. And go with good heart. We’ll all be thinking of you.’
Nish turned away, turned back and waved, then strode to the thapter feeling better than he had in a long time.
Klarm, who had just returned from a surveillance flight in one of the thapters, came waddling up. ‘The enemy are two days away to the west, streaming through the forest. And another lyrinx army, almost as large, draws near to The Elbow from the south, heading up the Westway.’
‘Then we’d better get moving,’ said Troist. After making sure the refugees were well away, he was planning to retreat up the Great North Road through Worm Wood, then east, since the Borgis Woods were too rugged for his clankers. ‘If they send a sizeable force across Worm Wood by Booreah Ngurle, as they did last spring, we’ll be cut off.’
Nish embraced Tiaan, then Irisis, who thumped him on the shoulder and turned away abruptly. She practically ran to the thapter and got in without looking back. Tiaan didn’t even say goodbye – she seemed in another world altogether.
It wasn’t until the thapter had lifted off that Nish realised what he wanted to say to them, but by then it was too late.
FIFTY-NINE
Hysse was a small, pretty but incredibly overcrowded town at the top of a green valley surrounded by knife-edged ridges. All of its homes and buildings were built from silver weathered timber, with steep, pointed shingle roofs and green painted doors and window sashes. There were flower gardens everywhere, though many had been trampled by the deluge of refugees from Borgistry.
Tiaan set the thapter down in the market square, opened the hatch and was assailed by the overpowering perfume of night hyssamin, for which the town had been named. She was breathing deep when Flydd came running up, with Yggur not far behind. The sun was just rising.
‘Don’t get out, Tiaan,’ panted Flydd. ‘We’re going north right away.’
‘Where?’ said Tiaan, who had one leg over the side. She rubbed her eyes. They’d stopped in the middle of the night for a few hours’ sleep but she was still tired.
‘I’ll tell you after we’ve gone. I’ve had an idea.’
She couldn’t resist saying, ‘I hope it’s better than the last one.’
A pair of soldiers laboured up, carrying something heavy in a small wooden crate. A second pair followed with a larger crate, while a third were directed to another thapter, standing across the square next to a stall proclaiming the merits of yellow quinces, hard green pears and other mid-autumn fruit. Tiaan’s mouth watered, but none of the stalls were open yet.
‘Come on, Fyn-Mah!’ Flydd roared over the side. ‘Yggur, Irisis, go with Chissmoul in her thapter.’
‘Where?’ said Irisis, getting out gingerly. Her ankle and leg still troubled her.
‘East. I’ll call you on the farspeaker. Just go.’
Yggur and Irisis clambered into Chissmoul’s thapter, which shot into the air as if booted by a giant, to disappear eastward towards the Great Mountains.
‘That pilot has a distinctly reckless streak,’ Flydd observed. ‘Malien, would you take the controller, please? I need Tiaan to do something on the way.’
‘But …’ said Tiaan.
‘Come on!’ snapped Flydd. ‘We don’t have any time to waste.’
‘Where to?’ said Malien, as Fyn-Mah climbed in, carrying a heavy bag, and went below.
‘We need to find a powerful node that isn’t being used by anyone. Tiaan, where’s the nearest one that fits?’
Tiaan thought for a moment. ‘At the southern end of Warde Yallock.’
‘Perfect,’ said Flydd.
‘What is your idea?’ Tiaan asked when they were among scattered fluffy clouds.
‘Actually, it was yours,’ said Flydd. ‘I’m going to test your idea about speaking back and forth between connected nodes. Before we get to Warde Yallock I want you to try something. First, to make a map in your head of all the nodes in this area, plus all those you know to be connected in some way.’
‘I’ve been doing that for ages.’
‘I thought you might be. Do you know of any nodes connected to the one we’re heading for?’
She closed her eyes, mentally rotating her network of node symbols, field colours and interconnecting lines. It took some minutes before she was sure. ‘There should be one at the foot of the Ramparts of Tacnah.’
‘Where abouts?’
Tiaan showed Flydd on the map.
‘That’s eighty leagues from where we’re headed. Isn’t there anything nearer?’
‘Probably, but without studying every node I wouldn’t know.’
Flydd set up Golias’s globe and called Irisis. ‘Tell Chissmoul to fly to the Ramparts of Tacnah.’ He gave instructions. ‘Call on your farspeaker when you’re in place.’
Malien veered to the left to pass over a mass of lyrinx, assembled near a lake beyond the forest. Flydd counted the enemy numbers, then called Troist and gave their position.
Once they were in place at the southern end of Warde Yallock, late that afternoon, Flydd dragged the crate into the shelter of a tilted plate of rock, one of a group of ancient standing stones dating from the dawn of civilisation on Santhenar, and prised the smaller crate open. Tiaan yawned as she looked inside. It contained a complex device made of green crystals linked into an open sphere with thick wafers of beaten platinum, silver, gold and copper foil.
‘It’s my version of the node-drainer that we encountered in Snizort,’ said Flydd. ‘Yggur and I have been working on it, on and off, for months. Irisis and Yggur have another. They’ll call when they’re ready.’
He lay down under the tree, tipped his hat over his eyes to keep out the sinking sun, and began to snore.
‘You might have told me what I’m supposed to do,’ muttered Tiaan.
‘He likes to be mysterious,’ said Fyn-Mah. ‘Get some rest. You look exhausted.’
‘I haven’t slept well since we attacked Oellyll, but I won’t be able to sleep until I know what I’m meant to do.’
‘As I understand it, you’re to send messages, using Golias’s globe, to Irisis. She’ll send back while we watch how weak or strong the messages are, how much delayed, and so forth. Afterwards we’ll set the node-drainer to draw power from this node and send again. We’ll take ever more power, and do it over and over, while Irisis and Yggur will be doing the same at the linked node.’
‘To what purpose?’ said Tiaan.
‘We hope to discover how the fields, or the nodes, are linked. If we can solve that problem it might just give us a chance.’