She continued south into Gnulp Forest, on the winding route she’d taken last summer. It wasn’t hard to remember. At the top of a steep hill she stopped and closed her eyes, imagining every detail of that desperate flight, and remembering her state of mind – thinking that she’d killed Minis and blaming herself for it.
‘I was here,’ she said. ‘They came at me up the hill, dozens of constructs led by Vithis. I’ll never know how I escaped.’
‘Nor I,’ said Nish, ‘had I not seen you in action.’
The undergrowth was still battered down in a line along the path of her flight, though autumn growth had begun to cover it up. ‘That’s where I hit a tree.’ She was pointing to a gouge out of the bark, a couple of spans in height. ‘And there’s where Vithis crashed. I was hoping his machine might have been abandoned, but they’ve taken it. On to the next.’
Nish said nothing but his shoulders were beginning to sag again.
Tiaan flew west to the Sea of Thurkad and turned left, following the shoreline south. Some half an hour later she slowed.
‘Somewhere around here they tried to catch me in a net held by five constructs. I know there’s a construct underwater, not far from shore, though I think it’ll be in pieces.’
Gentle waves broke over black rocks and dark sand. Gulls shied away as they approached. It took a long time to find the place, for the shore looked much the same for a league or two. Tiaan had to go inland, locate the trail she’d smashed through the scrub and follow it to the beach.
She stopped at the shoreline. ‘It was just out there. The construct went underwater and blew apart.’ More deaths on her conscience. There had to be a better way of solving people’s problems.
‘Could be hard to find the pieces,’ said Irisis.
‘Go up a fraction,’ Flangers said. ‘The sun’s fairly high. We may able to see through the water.’ He climbed up to the back platform.
The sun wasn’t high enough for them to see much, though occasionally Nish caught glimpses of the bottom, between dark rocks.
‘There it is,’ Flangers called. ‘At least, part of it.’
Tiaan hovered. ‘Looks like it’s in two pieces,’ said Nish.
‘There’s the top section,’ said Irisis. ‘Now for the chilly part.’
Tiaan hovered over the water while Irisis demonstrated to Flangers, with the thapter’s controller, what they were looking for and how to remove it.
‘Is that clear?’ she said. ‘We don’t want to break the controller getting it out.’
Flangers nodded. They stripped off and jumped into the water. Irisis ducked under but soon came up again.
‘What’s it like?’ Nish called.
‘Bloody freezing!’ Her teeth chattered.
‘I meant the construct.’
‘Thanks for your concern, Nish. It’s down two and a half spans, which is fortunate – that’s about as far as I can dive. Couldn’t see if the controller was still there. Ready, Flangers?’
He raised a thumb and went down, legs rising out of the water. Irisis slid straight under.
Nish counted the seconds aloud. At thirty-eight Irisis reappeared. Flangers did not.
‘It’s there,’ she said, ‘and looks to be in one piece, but I can’t hold my breath long enough to get it out.’
Tiaan wasn’t surprised. Removing the controller was a complicated process and she knew she couldn’t have done it underwater.
On one hundred and five, Flangers reappeared. ‘Cold!’ He took three deep breaths and went down again.
‘S’pose I’d better help him,’ said Irisis, pretending nonchalance, and submerged.
After eight dives, Flangers surfaced and trod water. ‘I’ll have to get out. I’m frozen to the core.’
They let down a rope and hauled him up. His skin was blue. ‘Coming, Irisis?’ Nish called.
‘I’ll keep going as long as I can.’
She went under. This time Nish had counted down two minutes and few seconds more, and was about to dive in after her, fully clothed, when Irisis surfaced, blowing like a walrus.
‘Have a rest, Irisis,’ said Tiaan. ‘I’ve got hot soup here.’
‘I’ll have it afterwards. Once I get out I’m not going back in, even for a whole bag of controllers!’
After Flangers had been given a brisk towelling and drunk a mug of hot soup, he felt able to go down again.
‘I feel the cold more than I used to,’ he said, noticing Tiaan’s gaze on his scars. His right thigh was smaller than the left and the right leg noticeably shorter.
‘It’s coming,’ said Irisis as he dived in. ‘Won’t be long now.’
They went down together. The seconds passed. A minute; a minute and a half; two minutes.
‘Do you think I’d better –?’ Nish began.
The surface erupted, Irisis marginally before the soldier, and her arm was held high with something dangling from it.
‘We’ve got it!’ she roared. ‘Now get me out of here.’
Back at the battlefield they quickly fitted everything in place in the soundest construct they could find and the machine whined into life.
‘Four thapters!’ said Irisis, who was still blue and shivering two hours after coming out of the water. ‘And that’s all you’re going to get, Nish, so don’t get that mournful look in your eyes again.’
‘I won’t! I’m happy now.’
‘Actually there was one more,’ Tiaan said. ‘The one I escaped in. I just managed to get it to Tirthrax, though I suppose the Aachim have taken it long since.’
‘No doubt,’ said Irisis, whose teeth were still chattering. ‘I want to go home.’
‘I’m beginning to think you’ve left the whole of Lauralin littered with wrecked machines, Tiaan,’ said Nish.
Tiaan started, then gave an abashed grin. ‘I had forgotten about the one I brought here from Booreah Ngurle – the original thapter Malien and I made. I hid it among the rocks on a hilltop over that way.’ She pointed east. ‘I wonder if it’s still there?’
‘How could you have forgotten that?’ said Nish.
‘I took out the parts that allowed it to fly. It was just another construct then. The original machine might still be there,’ Tiaan ruminated. ‘It was well hidden among rocks and scrub, on a barren hill. There’s no reason why anyone would climb up it. And with one of your assemblies, Irisis, it could be made to fly. Let’s go and see.’
They took the best of the remaining pilots with them, just in case. The construct turned out to be exactly where Tiaan had left it, covered in dust and a layer of leaves, untouched. An hour later they were flying it back.
‘That’s five,’ said Nish. ‘I’m the happiest man in the world. Let’s go home.’
FORTY-SIX
After the air-floater returned with the initial bad news, Yggur and Flydd had been in despair, which redoubled when Tiaan failed to return from her own mission. They held an anxious meeting, and another the following day when there was still no sign of anyone. They were sitting gloomily by the fire when Fyn-Mah came running with the news that a thapter had been sighted, flying slowly and erratically.
Yggur ran all the way along the long hall to the front doors and threw them open. Flydd came scuttling after him. As they went down onto the steps, a thapter wobbled in, to thump onto the paving stones.
‘That’s definitely Tiaan’s,’ said Yggur. ‘What’s the matter with her?’
The hatch was pushed open and Kattiloe’s head appeared, beaming to split her face in two. ‘I did it!’ she cried, capering about dangerously on top of the machine.
‘Report, if you please,’ said Yggur sternly, though it was undermined by the delight he couldn’t suppress.
Before she could jump down they heard the scream of a second thapter travelling at high speed. It shot across the yard and, with reckless insouciance, carved an ascending spiral around one of the horned towers, a descending spiral around the next, then hurtled towards the front door. Yggur and Flydd ducked as it banked sharply just over their heads, spun in a circle and dropped neatly to the paving stones beside the first, so lightly that it would not have crushed a feather.