Flydd scuttled for the rose-crystal wards, dived over the fallen corpse of one of the carbonised mancers and lay still. The corpse exploded to fragments. Flydd rolled out of the way.
‘The amplimet isn’t fooled,’ said Nish. ‘It’s not attacking Flydd.’
‘He’s clever,’ said Muss. ‘He’s not defending himself.’
‘Why doesn’t the amplimet attack the turret?’ said Nish.
‘It’s shielded with platinum.’
Flydd appeared and disappeared like a dolphin swimming in the surf. Corpses, benches and other paraphernalia burst all around him. Fusshte had given up on the wards and was now directing the attack at Flydd.
‘He’ll soon have nowhere left to run,’ said Nish.
An enormous flash lit up the chamber and Fusshte began waving furiously. Several dozen apertures opened at once and rays stabbed across and across, like solid rods of light in the enveloping darkness.
The amplimet struck back. The rays of light bounced back and forth, then froze solid a couple of spans above the floor, forming a network through which the turret could barely be seen. Fusshte looked dismayed; he didn’t seem to be able to communicate with his people. His mancers and artificers died gruesomely behind their hatches. More red mush oozed out, and more brown fumes, then the attack faltered.
Flydd, crouching between two carbonised mancers, fell to his knees. His hands were moving though Nish couldn’t imagine what he was trying to do. Tiaan was lying on the dais, turning her head one way and then the other.
One carbonised mancer was blown apart at the shoulders, the other at the waist. Flydd was thrown backwards and something small, cubic and shiny flew from his hands – the platinum box. He felt around on the floor but couldn’t seem to find it in the gloom.
The attack entered a new phase. The few surviving hatches opened and their occupiers came forth. Flangers began duelling with an artificer mounted atop an articulated device like an iron caterpillar. Klarm was running through the obstacles in figure-eights with a giant of a man in close pursuit. One of the carbonised mancers fell on Flydd, its black chest shattering on his head. He rolled out from under, spitting out char.
The speaking horns boomed again, and this time there was a panicky note in the cry. ‘Guards, guards! To the warding chamber.’
‘They’re not coming,’ said Muss. ‘I’ve laid illusions all around to keep them out.’
The huge soldier darted, caught Klarm by the ankle and lifted him high, one hand around each leg as if to tear him in two. Flydd went after him and the giant backed out the door, swinging the dwarf in one hand and kicking the door shut in Flydd’s face. Flydd heaved at it with his shoulder. Flangers ran to his aid and they went after the giant. The artificer pursued them, crashing through the iron doors in his iron caterpillar.
The room was empty apart from Irisis and Tiaan, and the silent ward-mancers. Tiaan came to her feet, moving in slow-motion, her eyes fixed on something Nish couldn’t see. She extended her arms towards it and took a step forwards, whereupon a long shadow flashed between the wards and took her around the knees. It was Irisis. Nish’s heart seemed to be blocking his gullet. What was Irisis doing inside? She couldn’t pass safely through the wards.
Tiaan began to struggle furiously and one foot caught Irisis on the jaw. Her head cracked into the rose-quartz ward behind her. Irisis slumped to the floor and Nish lost sight of her in the shadows.
Tiaan stepped over her and rose to her feet, reaching out with both arms. A sullen red glow illuminated her face. She looked like a rapt sleepwalker moving slowly towards the amplimet and Nish knew that, once she got it and lifted it high, the crystal would be free.
And Irisis would be its first victim.
THIRTY-ONE
Nish acted instinctively. If he didn’t save Irisis, no one could. Bracing his back against the rail he kicked out with both feet, striking Muss so hard in the chest that he slammed into the wall.
Sliding his rope around the rail, he tore the knife from Muss’s belt and awkwardly hacked himself free. He had to get down to the warding chamber and there was only one way to reach it in time.
He snatched the coil of rope and fled down the ladder, then into the dome. Knotting the rope around his waist, he ran around the inner edge of the room, looking down into the dome chamber. A third of the way around the circle Nish skidded to a stop, whipped the free end of the rope around a bench and tied it tight. He gauged the distance to the dais, ran on for ten steps and hurled himself over, praying that he’d judged correctly. If the rope was too long, he’d hit the floor hard enough to snap his thigh bones, or worse.
Nish fell free for an awfully long time, passed through the network of frozen light then swung in an arc across the chamber. He curved down, his feet almost touching the floor, then up straight towards one of the remaining carbonised mancers, a broad, shapeless woman wearing a pointed leather hat, now mainly char.
There wasn’t time to try and sway out of the way. He smashed side-on into the corpse, shattering it into stinking fragments that clung all over him. The blackened head went flying across the floor.
The impact set Nish spinning on the rope as he shot up towards the far wall and through the beams again, trying to clear the char and muck out of his eyes. He got one eye open just before he reached the top of the wall. He saw Tiaan move, calculated the necessary swing and pushed off with one foot. Now on a different trajectory, he flashed between the rose-crystal wards just as Tiaan, arms outstretched, sprang for the amplimet. He cannoned into her chest and she went flying off to the left. Nish spun the other way and thudded into the base of another of the wards.
Low down, it was solid as rock. Something went crack and a brilliant pain shot up Nish’s right arm. He’d broken it. Momentum gone, he orbited around the inside of the wards, passed out through a gap then in again, and rotated on the end of the rope several times before grounding against the ward that had broken his forearm.
The amplimet sat in the middle of a small alabaster pedestal, its central spark throbbing balefully. Tiaan was nowhere to be seen. Nish wiped crumbly bits of black foam from his face and looked down. Irisis lay directly below him, staring up.
‘How are you?’ he said haltingly, supporting his arm.
Irisis sat up, rubbing the back of her head, and winced. She inspected her fingers, which bore a faint bloody smear. ‘Just a bump on the head. What’s the matter with your arm?’
‘Broken.’
‘That wasn’t very smart.’ She grinned and unfastened the rope from around his middle.
‘I didn’t do it deliberately.’ Nish could hardly think for the pain shooting up his arm.
Again the speaking horns trumpeted their plaintive cry for help, but it wasn’t answered. The turret could no longer be seen through the frozen light which, oddly, shed no illumination downwards.
‘What do we do now?’
‘We find the damn platinum box,’ Irisis said quietly. Tiaan wasn’t in sight, though she couldn’t be far away. ‘We get the crystal into it any way we can, wire the lid on tight and chuck the box into the hottest fire we can make.’
He glanced back at the amplimet. ‘Not so loud.’
‘It can’t hear, Nish. It isn’t alive.’
‘Heat will end it.’ Despite all the trouble it had caused them, Nish was uneasy about destroying such a precious thing.
‘It’s the only solution, but no one else is going to do it. They all want to make use of the wretched thing, though it’s too dangerous for anyone to use safely. Even Malien is afraid of it, Nish. Doesn’t that tell you all you need to know? Once it’s gone, there will be nothing anyone can do about it.’
‘Flydd will crucify you,’ said Nish. ‘And me.’
‘I’d do it anyway. Some objects are just too deadly to have around. I’d better look for the box.’