Tiaan thought for a moment. ‘At the southern end of Warde Yallock.’
‘Perfect,’ said Flydd.
‘What is your idea?’ Tiaan asked when they were among scattered fluffy clouds.
‘Actually, it was yours,’ said Flydd. ‘I’m going to test your idea about speaking back and forth between connected nodes. Before we get to Warde Yallock I want you to try something. First, to make a map in your head of all the nodes in this area, plus all those you know to be connected in some way.’
‘I’ve been doing that for ages.’
‘I thought you might be. Do you know of any nodes connected to the one we’re heading for?’
She closed her eyes, mentally rotating her network of node symbols, field colours and interconnecting lines. It took some minutes before she was sure. ‘There should be one at the foot of the Ramparts of Tacnah.’
‘Where abouts?’
Tiaan showed Flydd on the map.
‘That’s eighty leagues from where we’re headed. Isn’t there anything nearer?’
‘Probably, but without studying every node I wouldn’t know.’
Flydd set up Golias’s globe and called Irisis. ‘Tell Chissmoul to fly to the Ramparts of Tacnah.’ He gave instructions. ‘Call on your farspeaker when you’re in place.’
Malien veered to the left to pass over a mass of lyrinx, assembled near a lake beyond the forest. Flydd counted the enemy numbers, then called Troist and gave their position.
Once they were in place at the southern end of Warde Yallock, late that afternoon, Flydd dragged the crate into the shelter of a tilted plate of rock, one of a group of ancient standing stones dating from the dawn of civilisation on Santhenar, and prised the smaller crate open. Tiaan yawned as she looked inside. It contained a complex device made of green crystals linked into an open sphere with thick wafers of beaten platinum, silver, gold and copper foil.
‘It’s my version of the node-drainer that we encountered in Snizort,’ said Flydd. ‘Yggur and I have been working on it, on and off, for months. Irisis and Yggur have another. They’ll call when they’re ready.’
He lay down under the tree, tipped his hat over his eyes to keep out the sinking sun, and began to snore.
‘You might have told me what I’m supposed to do,’ muttered Tiaan.
‘He likes to be mysterious,’ said Fyn-Mah. ‘Get some rest. You look exhausted.’
‘I haven’t slept well since we attacked Oellyll, but I won’t be able to sleep until I know what I’m meant to do.’
‘As I understand it, you’re to send messages, using Golias’s globe, to Irisis. She’ll send back while we watch how weak or strong the messages are, how much delayed, and so forth. Afterwards we’ll set the node-drainer to draw power from this node and send again. We’ll take ever more power, and do it over and over, while Irisis and Yggur will be doing the same at the linked node.’
‘To what purpose?’ said Tiaan.
‘We hope to discover how the fields, or the nodes, are linked. If we can solve that problem it might just give us a chance.’
Flydd woke Tiaan in the middle of the night and she sat with Golias’s globe on a flat rock, waiting, listening and sending, until dawn. The globe squelched periodically, conveying reports of lyrinx sightings all over the place, attacks in various spots, and details of the movements of the refugees and their escorts. Troist’s army had taken heavy casualties before beating off their ambushers, and the report was gruesomely graphic. Tiaan’s resolve to find a peaceful solution grew stronger.
They began again a few hours after dawn, though she could sense Flydd’s frustration now. He didn’t seem to be getting anywhere. Her head was aching from overuse of the amplimet and she was well aware of that danger.
‘I’ll have to stop,’ she said not long before sunset. ‘My head is killing me.’
‘If we can do just one more test,’ said Flydd, ‘it will complete this set and we’ll be finished for the day. Can you manage it?’
‘I suppose so,’ Tiaan sighed, knowing that Flydd would keep pushing until he got what he wanted.
‘Do you want me to increase the draining?’ asked Fyn-Mah, who was wearing an operator’s wire-and-crystal cap, with her hands inside Flydd’s node-drainer.
‘Leave it as it is,’ said Flydd. ‘We’ll send the message on another farspeaker setting.’
He told Tiaan what it was and she relayed that to Irisis.
‘Ready, Tiaan?’ said Flydd.
‘As long as it doesn’t take too long,’ she whispered. ‘I don’t feel very well.’
‘Why don’t I send the message?’ said Flydd. ‘Can you set the globe for me first? You’re a lot quicker at it than I am.’
‘All right.’ Tiaan slipped the amplimet down her front. It felt hot. She put her hands around the smooth surface of the farspeaker and mentally spun the globes to visualise what to do with her hands. Her head felt fuzzy and she couldn’t recall the setting she was supposed to use.
She did it again but a different setting flashed into her mind, one far removed from any she’d ever used before. She turned to Flydd but he’d gone across to Fyn-Mah and had his arms deep in the node-drainer.
She tried to concentrate but could only see the new setting, not the one Flydd had given her. But then, what did it matter as long as Irisis’s farspeaker was set the same? She didn’t relay the new setting to Irisis – it was easier to change Irisis’s farspeaker the way she’d reset Flydd’s from Bannador a while ago.
Then, without thinking that Golias’s globe was self-powered, Tiaan drew power through the amplimet, spun the spheres and stopped them one by one until they lined up correctly. As the innermost sphere slowed and stopped, the amplimet flared. Its light shone through her blouse and the crystal grew so bright that it burned her and she had to jerk it out.
The node-drainer let out a loud crackling squeal.
‘What’s that?’ cried Flydd, whipping his hands out as if they were on fire. ‘What’s happening?’
He ran to Tiaan, shielding his eyes. ‘Tiaan?’
She blinked, shook her head then closed her fist around the amplimet. She cut off power and the sound from the node-drainer stopped abruptly.
‘What are you doing?’ Irisis roared from the farspeaker.
Flydd went still, turned to Malien, eyes wide, then back to the farspeaker. ‘What just happened, Irisis?’
‘The node flared out of control. The field was twenty times as strong as before. I could see it with my eyes open.’
‘But that’s not possible,’ said Flydd. ‘It was stronger here too.’
‘What did you do?’ Tiaan heard Yggur say, hoarsely. He sounded uneasy.
‘Tiaan did something with Golias’s globe, and the amplimet.’ Flydd turned to her. ‘What did you do, Tiaan?’
She explained as best she could. ‘Is something the matter?’
‘I think,’ said Yggur over the farspeaker, ‘you’ve stumbled on a way to control the nodes themselves.’ The unease was gone; he let out an uncharacteristic whoop. ‘It’s a secret no mancer ever expected to find. Do you see the implications, Flydd?’
‘I’m beginning to see the perils,’ said Malien.
‘If we can control the nodes,’ said Flydd, ‘we can snatch power from the lyrinx while maintaining it for ourselves, despite their power patterner. We’d have as much power as we wanted, and they’d have none. Then we’d take the battle to them.’
‘As long as they don’t get it first,’ said Tiaan. ‘I’ve seen a pair of nodes acting that way before, now that I think of it. It was in Alcifer, not long before Oellyll was abandoned.’
‘So the enemy may also be closing in on the secret,’ said Yggur. ‘And it may not be such a large step for them, since they’ve had node-drainers for years.’
Flydd scowled. ‘Just when I thought we’d made a breakthrough.’
‘We may have, but it’s a race,’ said Yggur. ‘To the winner, ultimate power. To the losers, oblivion.’