‘It fell over there.’ He pointed.
Irisis began to crawl out between the wards. Nish tried to keep to her heels, but it wasn’t easy to crawl with a broken arm.
‘What if it’s watching us?’ he said, supporting himself on his left hand. His right clutched at his coat buttons in a vain attempt to take the weight off his forearm.
‘I don’t think it can do anything to you, since you have no talent for the Art whatsoever.’
‘So people keep telling me,’ he murmured. ‘Can you see the box?’
‘No.’
‘Do you think Flydd’s still alive?’
‘How would I know?’
‘What if everyone’s dead but us? It might be better if the scrutators do succeed.’
‘What?’ she hissed in outrage.
‘If we can’t replace the Council with honest leaders, because they’re all dead, what’s the point of bringing it down? That can only result in anarchy, and the lyrinx will defeat humanity all the sooner. You can’t seize power, Irisis, and neither can I.’
Irisis stared at her long and elegant fingers for a moment and Nish regretted airing his worries. What could be gained by putting his fears on her?
‘Since we don’t know that our friends are dead,’ said Irisis, ‘we must assume that they’re not. We hold true to our purpose, Nish.’
She began to worm her way through the debris. It seemed darker than before. Nish couldn’t keep up and was resting on his good arm when it occurred to him that they’d left Tiaan unwatched. She was the key, and always had been.
‘I’m going back to keep an eye on Tiaan,’ he said.
Irisis didn’t answer. He couldn’t see her and didn’t know if she’d heard. Not daring to shout his intentions, in case Fusshte could hear, he made his painful way back to the rose-crystal wards.
He couldn’t see her at first, for Tiaan lay on her belly at the base of the alabaster pedestal, looking like any other bit of debris littering the blasted room. It wasn’t until Nish eased his head between the wards, and her dark eyes moved, that he realised she was there.
Tiaan was taking a more cautious approach this time. She raised herself to her hands and knees, her eyes darting around the room, then up. The turret was becoming visible again as the frozen light faded. Her shoulders quivered. She looked like an animal ready to pounce. What would she do once she got the amplimet? Could she control it, or was it already controlling her? Judging by the feral look in her eyes, it could be, in which case it was just an arm’s length away from its goal.
As she stared raptly at the crystal on the pedestal, Nish slipped through the gap. He had to be ready. The instant she sprang, so must he, whatever it cost him.
Up in the turret, a movement caught his eye. Fusshte was leaning out, almost as rapt as Tiaan. Whatever she was up to, he was waiting for it. He had something in his hand – a net or a metal basket. Fusshte dared not touch the amplimet, and he’d failed to force it to attack Flydd, but once it was in Tiaan’s hands it would be different.
Tiaan quivered. She was going for it. Nish swayed forward and pain shot up his arm. He had to ignore it.
She sprang and so did he, but too late. Her upstretched hands closed around the amplimet and tore it from its mounting. She let out a cry of bliss but, even before Nish crashed into her, Tiaan went rigid and her eyes became blank.
He threw his good arm around her slender waist. Tiaan flopped like a doll, then her eyes focussed. ‘Get away!’ she cried, beating at his face with her free hand.
Nish bent his head and took the blows, since he had no way of defending himself. Tiaan had gone into a frenzy, clubbing him over the ears.
She hit him on his broken nose and the agony made him let go. Tiaan raised the amplimet above her head, took three small steps and light streamed out, illuminating the chamber so brightly that he had to shade his eyes. Nish felt, rather than heard, a brittle crackling that might have been interpreted as laughter.
Fusshte froze halfway out of the turret; even the ring of ward-mancers ceased their violent shuddering. Chills oscillated down Nish’s spine. The amplimet had what it wanted at last.
Tiaan’s black hair stood straight up, she went as rigid as the carbonised mancers and her eyes bulged from their sockets as if poked out from the inside. Her mouth fell open. Steam wisped out, followed by a liquid gurgle, an attempted cry for help.
A shining net of woven platinum mesh fell from an embrasure of the turret to envelop her and was jerked sideways, toppling her off her feet. As Tiaan hit the floor the light from the amplimet faded, before flaring even brighter and more ominously.
In an instant the warding chamber went wild. The faintly glowing globes on the walls exploded, flinging chips of stone in every direction. The rose-crystal wards flushed a brilliant pink. The ward-mancers fell to their knees, their faces contorted as they struggled for control. Their terror was absolute – they were going to die as hideously as the inner ring had and there was nothing they could do to prevent it.
In the turret, Fusshte and two other scrutators were desperately flailing the wires to the platinum net, trying to get its opening over Tiaan’s feet so they could pull it closed and cut the amplimet off from the field. Unfortunately the mesh had caught on Tiaan’s heels, they couldn’t free it and the amplimet was surging ever closer to complete control.
Flydd hadn’t come back and Nish couldn’t see Irisis, so what was he to do? If he did nothing, the amplimet would take control. Or he could pull the mesh over Tiaan’s feet, stopping the amplimet but giving Fusshte all he wanted. Which should it be?
Tiaan began to kick and struggle, tearing at the unyielding mesh and trying to pull it off her, though her movements were uncoordinated. Perhaps it was the crystal telling her what to do.
‘Nish!’ Irisis was hissing at him from the shadows.
He spun around, trying to make her out in the smoky gloom.
‘Nish, you bloody fool. They’re trying to lift her up. You’ve got to stop them.’
‘Have you found the box?’
‘Not yet.’
Tiaan’s feet were already half a span in the air. Fusshte had realised that if he lifted the mesh by the drawstring wires, there was a good chance Tiaan’s feet would slip in.
Nish stumbled across the rubble. Halie and another female scrutator were leaning out of the embrasure of the turret, struggling to lift Tiaan and the heavy platinum mesh by its wires while Fusshte tried to hold the opening closed. They were making hard work of it.
Nish threw himself onto the net and the sudden load proved too much for the two slight women. One, not Halie, cried out, thudded head-first to the floor and didn’t move again. The mouth of the net fell open.
The amplimet flared dark, then bright. Panicking, Nish pulled the mesh down over Tiaan’s feet and drew the drawstring tight, whereupon Fusshte let out a cry of triumph and hurled a blast of light that set fire to Nish’s coat. He let go of the drawstring. The hole eased open and Fusshte froze, arms outstretched. The flames were singeing the hair on the back of Nish’s neck as he shrugged out of the coat.
‘Irisis?’ he yelped. ‘What am I supposed to do?’
‘Hold her until I get there.’
That proved more difficult than it sounded, for Tiaan was thrashing in the net, and the amplimet letting out blinding rays. Nish ended up sitting on her, jerking the mouth of the net closed then open again, hoping to prevent the amplimet going all the way or Fusshte using his Art.
Irisis staggered up, bruised, bloody and covered in dust and char, but she had the platinum box open in her hand. ‘Pull it off her, quick.’
Nish slid off and began to heave at the platinum mesh. It was incredibly heavy and Tiaan’s furious thrashing kept tearing it out of his good hand. He took the other end, Irisis stumbled round to join him and together they got the net up past Tiaan’s ankles. Her calves emerged. The mesh came up over her thighs, and the further they lifted it the more overpowering the light from the amplimet became.