Flydd woke Tiaan in the middle of the night and she sat with Golias’s globe on a flat rock, waiting, listening and sending, until dawn. The globe squelched periodically, conveying reports of lyrinx sightings all over the place, attacks in various spots, and details of the movements of the refugees and their escorts. Troist’s army had taken heavy casualties before beating off their ambushers, and the report was gruesomely graphic. Tiaan’s resolve to find a peaceful solution grew stronger.
They began again a few hours after dawn, though she could sense Flydd’s frustration now. He didn’t seem to be getting anywhere. Her head was aching from overuse of the amplimet and she was well aware of that danger.
‘I’ll have to stop,’ she said not long before sunset. ‘My head is killing me.’
‘If we can do just one more test,’ said Flydd, ‘it will complete this set and we’ll be finished for the day. Can you manage it?’
‘I suppose so,’ Tiaan sighed, knowing that Flydd would keep pushing until he got what he wanted.
‘Do you want me to increase the draining?’ asked Fyn-Mah, who was wearing an operator’s wire-and-crystal cap, with her hands inside Flydd’s node-drainer.
‘Leave it as it is,’ said Flydd. ‘We’ll send the message on another farspeaker setting.’
He told Tiaan what it was and she relayed that to Irisis.
‘Ready, Tiaan?’ said Flydd.
‘As long as it doesn’t take too long,’ she whispered. ‘I don’t feel very well.’
‘Why don’t I send the message?’ said Flydd. ‘Can you set the globe for me first? You’re a lot quicker at it than I am.’
‘All right.’ Tiaan slipped the amplimet down her front. It felt hot. She put her hands around the smooth surface of the farspeaker and mentally spun the globes to visualise what to do with her hands. Her head felt fuzzy and she couldn’t recall the setting she was supposed to use.
She did it again but a different setting flashed into her mind, one far removed from any she’d ever used before. She turned to Flydd but he’d gone across to Fyn-Mah and had his arms deep in the node-drainer.
She tried to concentrate but could only see the new setting, not the one Flydd had given her. But then, what did it matter as long as Irisis’s farspeaker was set the same? She didn’t relay the new setting to Irisis – it was easier to change Irisis’s farspeaker the way she’d reset Flydd’s from Bannador a while ago.
Then, without thinking that Golias’s globe was self-powered, Tiaan drew power through the amplimet, spun the spheres and stopped them one by one until they lined up correctly. As the innermost sphere slowed and stopped, the amplimet flared. Its light shone through her blouse and the crystal grew so bright that it burned her and she had to jerk it out.
The node-drainer let out a loud crackling squeal.
‘What’s that?’ cried Flydd, whipping his hands out as if they were on fire. ‘What’s happening?’
He ran to Tiaan, shielding his eyes. ‘Tiaan?’
She blinked, shook her head then closed her fist around the amplimet. She cut off power and the sound from the node-drainer stopped abruptly.
‘What are you doing?’ Irisis roared from the farspeaker.
Flydd went still, turned to Malien, eyes wide, then back to the farspeaker. ‘What just happened, Irisis?’
‘The node flared out of control. The field was twenty times as strong as before. I could see it with my eyes open.’
‘But that’s not possible,’ said Flydd. ‘It was stronger here too.’
‘What did you do?’ Tiaan heard Yggur say, hoarsely. He sounded uneasy.
‘Tiaan did something with Golias’s globe, and the amplimet.’ Flydd turned to her. ‘What did you do, Tiaan?’
She explained as best she could. ‘Is something the matter?’
‘I think,’ said Yggur over the farspeaker, ‘you’ve stumbled on a way to control the nodes themselves.’ The unease was gone; he let out an uncharacteristic whoop. ‘It’s a secret no mancer ever expected to find. Do you see the implications, Flydd?’
‘I’m beginning to see the perils,’ said Malien.
‘If we can control the nodes,’ said Flydd, ‘we can snatch power from the lyrinx while maintaining it for ourselves, despite their power patterner. We’d have as much power as we wanted, and they’d have none. Then we’d take the battle to them.’
‘As long as they don’t get it first,’ said Tiaan. ‘I’ve seen a pair of nodes acting that way before, now that I think of it. It was in Alcifer, not long before Oellyll was abandoned.’
‘So the enemy may also be closing in on the secret,’ said Yggur. ‘And it may not be such a large step for them, since they’ve had node-drainers for years.’
Flydd scowled. ‘Just when I thought we’d made a breakthrough.’
‘We may have, but it’s a race,’ said Yggur. ‘To the winner, ultimate power. To the losers, oblivion.’
That’s all you mancers ever think of, Tiaan thought despairingly. She wanted to run away with the secret and deny it to all of them. But of course she could not – that would be playing into the hands of the enemy. Surely there had to be another way.
‘Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,’ said Flydd. ‘How are you feeling, Tiaan?’
‘A little better.’ She wasn’t, but she might as well get it over with.
‘Are you up to showing us exactly what you did?’
‘I think so.’
Tiaan did it a second time. The node-drainer and the amplimet reacted exactly as before, and the effects were felt, as before, at Irisis’s end.
‘What else do we need, to control nodes?’ said Yggur through the farspeaker, once all was quiet again.
‘Two things,’ said Flydd. ‘Firstly, a completed map of the fields, including the Dry Sea, which Tiaan hasn’t even looked at. Tiaan, I think you and Malien had better get that done right away.’
‘I’d prefer to be asked,’ Malien said frostily. ‘I’m an ally, not a lackey, as I believe I’ve pointed out to you before.’
‘I’m sorry,’ said Flydd. ‘I forgot myself. Malien –’
‘Certainly I’ll do it,’ she said. ‘Tiaan, what about you?’
Tiaan had to be asked twice, for her mind had wandered a long way as she worked through the possibilities of this unexpected discovery. ‘Yes,’ she said absently. ‘I’d be glad to survey the Dry Sea.’
‘Irisis, Yggur,’ Flydd called on the farspeaker. ‘Pack up and meet us at the southern end of Warde Yallock.’ He gave directions. ‘Tiaan, go to bed before you collapse. We’ll talk in the morning.’
‘What’s the second thing we need?’ said Yggur.
‘A field controller. It’s a device I’ve been thinking about ever since Klarm and I went through the Council’s secret workrooms in Nennifer. Ghorr’s best mancers and artisans began working on a field controller as soon as they finished making the node-breaker we took to Snizort. They built a rude prototype, though they could never get it to work. Klarm brought it back in the dirigible and I’ve also fiddled with it over the summer. It’s in the other crate.’
‘But you couldn’t get it to work either,’ said Yggur.
‘No, but Gilhaelith, unwittingly, gave me some fresh ideas when he was telling me about the power patterner. Tiaan’s discovery might be the missing piece of the puzzle. As soon as you get here, we’ll go over everything. Are you there, Irisis?’
‘Where else would I be?’ she said.
‘I want you and Tiaan to pull apart the failed field controller and work out how to rebuild it to make use of Tiaan’s discovery. Just throw it together anyhow, for the time being. Tiaan can help with the initial tests, then be on her way to the Dry Sea.’
‘And me?’ said Irisis.
‘If the tests work, I’ll give you as many artisans as you need. You’ve got to produce a reliable field controller and you haven’t got long. It’ll be the challenge of your life.’
‘It’s for all our lives,’ said Yggur.