‘This is Iagador,’ she said without consulting her map. ‘That great river is the Garrflood and the city covering the island between its branches would be Sith. The hilly country ahead to the left, bordering the mountains, is Bannador.’
‘Where’s Thurkad?’ asked Nish, who hadn’t been this way before. On the silk-stealing mission to Thurkad they’d travelled up and back on the western side of the mountains.
‘About sixty leagues up the coast, before the mountains curve back towards the sea. The lyrinx city is almost due west of Thurkad. Hours yet.’
‘Are we going straight there?’
‘We can’t get there before dark. Besides, none of us are up to it today. We’ll have to work out a plan to attack the place tomorrow. I’m going to set down at Sith.’
Shortly the thapter settled on one of the many jetties that ringed that once great trading city. ‘I don’t think there’ll be any enemy here,’ Tiaan said. ‘I’ve flown over Sith quite a few times and never seen them. Still, from here we’ll get a good view if they are coming.’
Nish roused Irisis, who was lying on the floor, and they carried her down onto the wooden deck. There they laid her in the shade of a ramshackle building, once a customs booth, stripped her off and bathed and rebandaged her wounds. Five deep claw marks ran down her thigh, one extending to her shin. She’d lost a lot of blood.
‘They’ll scar,’ said Tiaan. ‘We can’t do anything about that.’
‘I’ve so many scars now that a few more won’t make any difference,’ Irisis said wanly. She tried to perk up. ‘And mostly because of you, Tiaan.’
‘Me?’
Irisis rolled over and pulled her shirt up. Her creamy back was crisscrossed with scars, once purple but now faded to pale red and blue.
Tiaan put her hand over her open mouth. ‘You were whipped?’
‘Overseer Gi-Had did it, on the orders of Nish’s father. He flogged us naked, out in the snow, in front of everyone.’ Irisis managed to grin, though Tiaan couldn’t understand why. ‘Show Tiaan your scars, Nish.’
‘I’d rather not,’ said Nish. He looked deeply ashamed.
‘Because of me?’ said Tiaan.
‘Because of the way we undermined you. And for what Jal-Nish thought we’d done, though it was actually due to Eiryn Muss’s treachery.’
‘I’m sorry you were whipped,’ said Tiaan. ‘I hated you both but I wouldn’t have had you suffer that.’
‘It doesn’t matter,’ lied Irisis, deliberately offhand. ‘I can hardly remember it.’
‘I remember every stroke,’ said Nish. ‘Not to mention the humiliation of being punished in front of the entire manufactory. It scarred me deeper than the whip.’
‘We earned it,’ said Irisis. ‘It’s not important.’
Nish’s face told a different story, but thankfully it wasn’t directed at Tiaan.
It was a sweltering autumn afternoon and so humid above the water that it was hard to breathe. Nish lay in the shade beside Irisis and went to sleep. Irisis closed her eyes but every so often gave a convulsive shudder of pain. Tiaan didn’t have anything she could give her for it, and she couldn’t bear to watch.
She wandered to the far side of the wharf, out of sight, and climbed down a decaying wooden ladder to the water. It was deliciously cool and inviting so she took off her boots and went in wearing her clothes. The river was low at this time of year and she could see pebbles on the bottom a couple of spans below. She scrubbed the lyrinx blood from her clothes, wishing she could wash the experience away as easily.
‘How are we going to attack the next shaft?’ said Irisis the following day, long before they were in sight of the northern city. ‘They’ll be waiting for us, and if they get the chance they’ll close it off or form a living wall over it.’
‘I was wondering about that,’ said Tiaan, who was already feeling anxious. ‘I think we’d better go in as fast as the thapter can fly, and hope to reach it before they can react.’
‘After their success in killing the pilot of the other thapter they’ll be waiting for us. Can you fly in with the hatch closed?’
‘Not in such a tight space, I’ve got to be able to see all around.’
‘How can we drop the spores and protect you at the same time?’ said Nish.
‘I’ll just have to take the risk. You two will be in more danger than I am.’
‘Nonsense,’ said Nish. ‘If they kill one of us, the others can still go ahead. If they kill you they kill us all – and deprive humanity of another priceless thapter.’
‘What’s the site like?’ said Irisis. ‘Have you seen it before?’
Tiaan recalled the maps to mind before answering. ‘The entry tunnels run horizontally off a series of sandstone cliffs. The air vents lie above the tunnels, disguised as caves, and they won’t be easy to get to. They’re sheltered behind a series of pinnacles rising up in front of the cliffs.’
‘How are we going to reach them?’
Tiaan had to think about that too, for she still hadn’t worked out the best means of attack. ‘I think – I think the best approach would be to fly along the face of the cliff at high speed, really close to the rock so we’ll be hard to detect from on high, and come hurtling around the end of the ridge just south of the city. We’ll appear without warning, hopefully, heading directly for the openings. That’ll give them the minimum time to react.’
‘Won’t it be dangerous, flying so close to the cliff?’ said Nish.
‘Very, but I don’t see any other choice.’
‘What if I took one of the curved side panels off and fixed it halfway over the hatch?’ said Nish.
‘What good would that do?’
‘If I angled it up from the back, it’d protect you from crossbow shots from behind and above, and even a bit from the sides, but you could still see. Except directly behind, of course.’
‘You’d have to fix it pretty solidly or the wind would tear it off,’ Tiaan said dubiously.
‘I’ll see what tools are below,’ said Nish. ‘Why don’t you set down?’
Tiaan settled under the trees and Nish went to work. It didn’t take long to remove a piece of metal from the side, shaped like a shield bent into a shallow curve along its long axis. However, it proved impossible to fix tightly in place, and eventually he had to tie it down.
‘Better than nothing, I suppose,’ Nish said gloomily as he surveyed his work.
‘If it stays there,’ said Tiaan. ‘When we’re going quickly the wind might tear it away.’
‘We won’t be any worse off,’ said Nish.
‘We will if the wind drives it into the person who’s dumping the spores from the rear platform,’ said Irisis. ‘That’ll be –’
‘Me, of course,’ Nish said hastily.
‘It’ll be me!’ Irisis said. ‘You hit your head, twice.’
‘And you pumped a couple of flagons of blood out of your leg.’
‘It was no more than an eggcup and I’m going up the back.’
‘You’re not!’
Nish and Irisis were glaring at each other.
‘I can’t believe you’re fighting over who’s most likely to be killed,’ said Tiaan. ‘You’re like a pair of children.’
‘We are not!’ they said together, and burst out laughing.
Tiaan found them incomprehensible. How could anyone joke at a time like this? ‘It’s my thapter and I say who does what. Nish, you’ll dump the spores from the back, and you’ll also be under a metal hood. Irisis, you’ve lost too much blood. You might faint at the critical time.’
‘I’ve never fainted in my life!’ Irisis exclaimed.
‘Anyway, I need you in with me. You’ll probably have to hang onto the hood to stop it flying off, and you can do that easier than Nish could, since you’re taller. No, don’t argue. It’s settled.’