‘The slave farspeakers will be no trouble,’ said Tuniz, after a careful study of both. ‘The master globes are another matter.’ She ran her fingers through her frizzy hair and asked Tiaan a number of technical questions. Once they’d been answered to her satisfaction Tuniz said, ‘If I divert all of my crafters and artisans to the task, I believe we can do it, surr, though I’ll need to talk to my chief crafter to make sure.’
‘Call her. I plan to return in a month, more or less. Have them ready and I’ll take you home to Crandor in this thapter.’
Her eyes shone. ‘It will be done, surr. You can count on it.’
They went to several other manufactories nearby, where Flydd left other commissions, and headed directly home.
‘I’ve done as much as I can, for the moment,’ Flydd told Yggur when they arrived back at Fiz Gorgo on schedule. ‘Though to make a difference in the spring I have to give our allies more than words.’
‘I hope we can give them much more. Nish left just an hour ago for Snizort.’
‘Was he prepared?’ said Flydd, meaningly.
‘As well as could be managed. Though of course –’
‘I meant, did he have some way of moving the thapters in the absence of a field?’
‘Of course,’ said Yggur airily, as though it had been the most trivial of tasks, hardly worth discussing. ‘He could not have gone, otherwise.’
‘How is it to be achieved, as a matter of interest?’
‘Oh, I made up some little devices that store power,’ Yggur said in an offhand manner. ‘Enough to drive a thapter for leagues. I charged them up from the field just before he left.’
‘I noticed it was drawn right down as we came in,’ said Flydd. ‘Malien had more than a little trouble getting the last couple of leagues, and at one stage we thought we were going to come down in the swamp. What kind of devices?’
‘Just something I put together with a little tinkering,’ said Yggur.
‘Sounds like they could transform the war,’ said Flydd. ‘With enough of them we could make our craft independent of the field. Let the lyrinx attack the nodes as they dare, then.’
‘Unfortunately, the core of my devices relies on a most rare crystal, the only one known capable of storing the amount of power required. I had the only three in existence and I used them all.’
‘Might I know the name of this crystal?’ said Flydd casually, though he knew Yggur wasn’t going to tell him anything useful. Noble and dignified he might be, as a rule, but Yggur couldn’t resist the urge to get his own back.
‘Inkspar.’
‘I’ve never heard of it.’
‘It’s rare, as I said.’
‘Only three devices? That’s going to limit the number of thapters we can recover.’
‘If they recover more than three, which I doubt, they’ll have to shuttle the devices back and forth in the air-floaters. It’s inconvenient, but not a fatal problem.’
‘It could be if they’re under attack.’
‘It was the best I could do.’
‘Oh well,’ said Flydd. ‘It’s out of our hands now. They’ll either come back or they won’t. No point worrying about it.’
‘Plenty of point, just no use,’ said Yggur. ‘Oh, and I’ve found Merryl.’
‘Merryl?’ The scrutator frowned. So many names in the past couple of months. So many faces. ‘Ah, the one-handed prisoner. The fellow who speaks the lyrinx tongue. How did you find him?’
‘One of my spies was asking around and someone knew him. Merryl was in a refugee camp south of Gnulp Forest.’
‘Was?’
‘Well, he’s here now.’
‘Why didn’t you say so?’
Hurrying down to the other end of the fortress, they ran into Tiaan, who was talking to Malien. ‘We’re going to talk to your friend Merryl,’ said Flydd. ‘Would you like to come along?’
Her face lit up. ‘Merryl is here?’
‘Yes,’ said Yggur. ‘He came in with one of my spies on the air-floater this morning.’
Tiaan had a lump in her throat. Merryl had cared for her in Snizort, asking nothing in return, and she would always think kindly of him for it.
He was lying on a straw-filled pallet, asleep. His left arm, the one lacking a hand, hung over the edge of the bed. Merryl stirred as they entered, and sat up. He was very thin.
‘I am Yggur,’ said Yggur, ‘the master of this place, which is known as Fiz Gorgo.’
‘I know who you are, surr.’ Merryl’s eyes turned to the smaller man.
‘This is the scrutator, Xervish Flydd, and … where has she got to?’
Tiaan stepped out from behind Yggur.
‘Tiaan!’ Merryl reached out to her. ‘I saw the Aachim take you. I was so afraid.’
‘That’s a long time ago now. What have you been doing these past months?’
‘Surviving. I became a slave for my own kind, hauling clankers out of the mud.’
‘Me too,’ said Flydd. ‘Not an occupation with much to recommend it.’
Merryl gave him a curious glance. ‘After it was over, most of us were abandoned to our own devices. Some of the slaves joined the army, but I did not.’
‘Not willing to do your duty, Merryl?’ said Yggur.
‘I never shirked my duty, surr,’ Merryl said mildly, as if nothing anyone said could touch him. ‘And I’ve spent the past twenty years paying for it. Not liking what I saw of the scrutators, I pretended to be one of the peasants pressed into hauling duties, and afterwards I disappeared into the countryside.’
‘You must have had a lean time of it,’ said Flydd. ‘The armies had scoured the land bare.’
‘I went hungry more times than I ate, but I wouldn’t have changed anything. I’ve been a prisoner of the lyrinx for half my life. They treated me well enough but I lived with the threat of being eaten if my usefulness expired. After that, even the freedom to starve was a precious gift. Why did you bring me here?’
‘We need to know about the lyrinx, Merryl,’ said Yggur. ‘Particularly any weaknesses we can use against them.’
‘I’ll write out a list for you.’
‘Just tell us!’ said Flydd.
‘The thoughts don’t flow, with mancers and the like staring at me,’ said Merryl, unperturbed. After surviving all the enemy had done, no mere human could bother him. ‘I work better in solitude.’
‘Whatever gets us the list the quickest,’ said Flydd, turning away.
‘Just a moment,’ said Yggur. ‘Why did they make a tunnel to the centre of the Great Seep, and what did they find there?’
‘The remains of a village of ancient times, under edict for sorcerous practices, I understand,’ said Merryl. ‘Apparently the village sank into the tar and the lyrinx wished to recover some relics that had been lost at that time.’
‘Why?’
‘I don’t know. Since I knew their language, they were always careful what they spoke about in my presence.’
‘And what did they find?’
‘Bodies, young and old, preserved in the tar, and other household items of that time. Some yellow crystals which, I heard, they were excited about. I didn’t see the relics, for the node exploded.’
‘Do they have any diseases or illnesses?’ asked Flydd.
‘Not many. They’re healthy, robust creatures, generally.’
‘But their children are sometimes born malformed, lacking the ability to develop wings. Sometimes they’re born without armour, skin pigment or claws.’
‘That’s so,’ said Merryl. ‘Such malformations are common, but not all survive to adulthood.’
‘I heard,’ said Yggur, leaning forward, ‘that one lyrinx working in the tar tunnel developed a dreadful skin inflammation that rendered him helpless.’