‘What’s monazite?’ said Irisis.
‘A stubby, hard yellow mineral Gilhaelith showed me once.’
‘It’s the first time I’ve heard of any mancer using monazite,’ said Flydd sceptically. ‘It doesn’t hold power at all.’
‘It doesn’t need to. Monazite has a particular and unique virtue,’ Tiaan said. ‘It generates power from within itself. Not much, but enough to power a farspeaker, and it lasts forever.’
‘Forever?’ said Malien.
‘Thousands of years, at any rate.’
‘But no one has ever been able to use the globe,’ said Flydd. ‘Some of the best mancers in the world have wasted their lives trying to.’
‘Including me,’ growled Yggur. ‘I can’t believe –’
‘I read some of their writings in Gilhaelith’s library,’ Tiaan replied. ‘In ancient times, mancers tried to recharge the globe, but the power was dispersed by the liquid metal. Besides, monazite can’t hold a charge.’
‘And recent mancers, such as my humble self?’ said Yggur. ‘Why did they not discover the answer?’
‘You know as well as I do, surr.’ The flush now covered her face up to the roots of her hair. Tiaan just wanted to get away.
‘Indulge me, artisan.’
‘Since fields were discovered a century ago, mancers seldom think of any other kinds of power. Malien and yourself are the only ones who still use the old ways. But the globe employs an entirely different force, forgotten aeons ago.’
‘Then why doesn’t it work?’ cried Yggur in frustration.
‘It’s a puzzle.’
‘A puzzle?’ he echoed.
‘No one else knew how to solve it because no one else could see all the layers at once, or understand how they worked together to create a farspeaker.’ She squeezed the top and bottom of Golias’s globe, then flicked her hand. The eight layers revolved. Tiaan stood with her eyes closed, visualising the moving layers, squeezed again, and all froze into place. ‘There.’ She held the globe out to Yggur but he did not take it, so she went on.
‘I work out the required alignment in my mind, spin the globe and, when the layers come to the right alignment, I stop them in place. The globe is ready to be used.’
‘So you say,’ said Malien. ‘But how can you prove it?’
From her other pocket, Tiaan took a small piece of crystal wrapped around with fine wires in intricate patterns. She carried it to the back of the room, sat it on a chair and returned to the front. Holding Golias’s globe close to her mouth, she said, ‘How can I prove it?’
A hollow, scratchy voice came from the crystal at the back of the room, fractionally delayed, ‘How can I prove it?’
Yggur’s eyes shone. ‘Oh, this is glorious! How far can you separate them, Tiaan?’
‘I don’t know. This is the first test.’
‘How did you know it would work?’ he exclaimed.
‘I didn’t. I almost didn’t mention it, I was so afraid of looking a fool.’
‘Let’s try it now, at once. This is marvellous, marvellous.’ Yggur leapt up and began striding back and forth in his excitement. ‘Tiaan, write something on a piece of paper and give it to Nish. Don’t tell us what it says.’ Yggur took up the wire-wrapped crystal. ‘Come on, everyone. We’ll go right to the other end of the fortress.’
Tiaan scribbled something on a piece of paper and handed it to Nish. Everyone else trooped out after Yggur. Nish remained in his chair.
Tiaan wished he had gone too, but he didn’t budge. She gave them ten minutes to get to the other end of the building, then said, slowly and carefully, ‘I just want to go to bed.’
Five minutes later Yggur reappeared, panting. He’d run all the way. ‘ “I just want to go to bed”,’ he quoted.
‘That’s correct,’ said Nish, showing him the paper.
‘And as strongly as if you had spoken in my ear.’ Yggur came across and shook her hand. ‘This is it – the missing piece of our plan. You may just have won the war for us, Tiaan. Let’s sit down in the morning and work out a design for more farspeakers. Skilled artisans at one of Flydd’s manufactories can make them for us. It won’t be easy but it’s within their skills, Irisis tells me. And monazite isn’t a rare mineral. Tell me, can we use those to communicate with each other?’ Yggur held up the little wire-wrapped crystal.
‘It’s not that simple,’ said Tiaan. ‘Golias’s globe is the master farspeaker, while the other is just a slave, if you like.’
‘Go on,’ said Yggur.
‘The master drives the message out, but can only be used once the key has been set. The slave farspeaker only responds to that setting. It can call the master farspeaker, if the master is set to it, but it can’t call another slave. If someone with a slave farspeaker wants to talk to someone else with another slave, the message must go through the master.’
‘An excellent idea,’ said Flydd. ‘We must maintain control over what people say to each other. Free speech is a wicked thing.’
Tiaan, who had been imagining all the good things one could do with a farspeaker, such as talking to her mother, was so shocked that she couldn’t speak.
‘Spoken like a true scrutator.’ Yggur clapped him jovially on the shoulder. ‘Klarm will be tickled pink when he gets one. It’ll save him months of travel and give him so much more time for drinking and wenching.’
‘Presumably a message from the master farspeaker can be heard by all the slaves,’ said Flydd, frowning.
Tiaan didn’t want to answer, though the question was an interesting one. She thought for some time before replying. ‘It could, if all slave farspeakers were the same. But an artisan could tailor them so they only respond to one particular setting. Then you simply lock Golias’s globe at the correct setting and speak, and only the person you’re talking to will hear your message.’
‘Oh, very good,’ said the scrutator.
‘The message isn’t instantaneous,’ said Yggur. ‘I wonder why?’
‘Who knows what tortuous route it takes, via the ultra-dimensional ethyr,’ said Flydd. ‘Who cares if it takes hours to get from one side of Lauralin to the other, or even a day? Not even a skeet can beat it, and it can’t be intercepted.’
‘Nor will it tear your throat out, like a skeet will if you step too close to its cage,’ said Flangers.
They all gathered around, excitedly discussing the device and how it might alter the balance of the war. No one noticed Tiaan slip away quietly.
Malien realised that Tiaan was missing and went to her room.
‘I wasn’t joking,’ said Tiaan. ‘I just want to go to bed.’
‘I know. But tell me, you didn’t seem quite as pleased as everyone else, at the end.’
‘It was the way Flydd was talking about it,’ she said. ‘Wanting to control what people say. Farspeakers could be wonderful things. If only we all had them I could talk to Marnie now.’
‘You miss her terribly, don’t you?’
‘She’s the most annoying woman in the world, and we fight constantly when we’re together. She says the most awful things to me. But I do miss her – she’s the only family I’ve got. And I’m worried. She’s too old for the breeding factory now. What will become of her? She has no idea how to look after herself.’
‘She can afford a house and servants.’
‘If they’ll put up with her.’
‘I’m sure she’s all right. And Xervish is a good man.’
‘The way he talks frightens me. The powerful wouldn’t use farspeakers to help people, but to control them.’
‘But when the war is over, the whole world will be transformed.’
‘But how?’ said Tiaan. ‘For good or for ill?’
Later that evening, Malien, Flydd and Yggur met secretly, and Flydd told Yggur about what they’d seen at the Hornrace.