Flydd pointed to a purple coloured node on Tiaan’s map with the tip of the cane, and said, ‘Ifis 44, Nihim 5, Husp 220, Gyr 8.’
Hilluly moved her fingers inside the gloves. A green light spiralled along one of the twisted tubes; a red one slid down another like an icicle down a wire. Strange poppings came from inside the field controller. Sweat broke out on her forehead.
‘They’ve countered your move with the power patterner, surr,’ Hilluly gasped.
Flydd cursed. ‘Ifis 38, Nihim 11, Husp 187, Gyr 22.’ More lights and noises. Much more sweat.
‘Countered at once,’ panted Hilluly.
‘Oh, have they?’ cried the scrutator. ‘Then let them try this!’
A third list, different names again, but the numbers were all single digits.
Hilluly was rigid, apart from her dancing fingers. A line of flies, which were everywhere down here, gathered on her wet lips. Irisis went to shoo them away but Flydd said, ‘No!’
Hilluly gasped and fell forward. The flies rose and settled on the back of her gown, which was wet with perspiration.
‘Now you can help her,’ said Flydd.
Irisis gave the operator a cool drink. Hilluly sat up, rubbing her eyes with her gloved hands, then tore them off and examined her fingers. They were bright red. She rubbed them on her gown and said, ‘Not that time either, surr.’
He rose from his seat, his every rib showing. ‘Thank you, Hilluly.’ Flydd went across to the farspeaker operator. ‘Any movement yet?’
‘No, surr,’ said Daesmie. ‘The enemy seem to be waiting for something to happen.’
‘Keep listening. I’ll be back in a minute.’
Irisis walked out with him. ‘That looked like a game of Strategies.’
‘It’s exactly like it. I don’t have a perfect understanding of the fields here, and neither do they. I have to guess where their knowledge lies, and their ignorance, and they the same about me. It seems we’re evenly matched – whoever guesses or bluffs best will be the winner.’
‘Or whoever lasts the longest.’
‘True. They have greater endurance than we do.’
‘Do you know anything about their operator?’ said Irisis.
‘Gilhaelith said it would be Ryll, the wingless male who made the power patterner, probably assisted by Liett. She worked with him to develop the first nylatl at Kalissin.’
‘Is there any way we can target them?’
‘We might if Tiaan were here. She knows them both.’ Flydd glanced out at the empty sky.
‘I don’t think she’s coming back,’ Irisis said quietly.
‘Neither do I.’
‘It’s going to be a long day.’
‘I can’t last all day and neither can Hilluly. She’s already flagging.’
‘We have other operators.’
‘Aye, but to change from one to another in the middle of a contest rarely works. We’re a team, Hilluly and I, and this extraordinary device you built.’
‘Dozens of artisans worked on it, not just me.’
‘And you supervised them, Crafter.’
‘Let’s see the device prove itself before we praise it,’ Irisis said superstitiously. ‘And Xervish, even if you win the game, what then?’
‘We don’t die immediately. More than that I can’t say.’
‘But you have a plan.’
‘Yes. I just don’t have much hope that it’ll work.’
Flydd went across to Klarm. Irisis followed at a distance. She had to know what was going on.
‘The enemy haven’t moved,’ Flydd said.
Klarm stretched and rubbed his eyes. ‘How long will it be? I can’t keep everyone on alert all day.’
‘Tell them to put their heads down, if they want to. It’ll be a while before you can use the mind-shockers, assuming we get that far,’ said Flydd. ‘I’ll give you warning.’ He swilled down a gullet full of tepid water and turned back. ‘All right. Let’s see what we can do now.’
The struggle went on, Flydd calling the numbers, Hilluly operating the field controller, and the flies hovering as if waiting for the inhabitants of the tent to die.
‘There’s movement in the south-west segment, surr,’ called Operator Daesmie.
‘Which way?’
‘The enemy are moving away.’
‘Quickly? Fleeing?’ he said hopefully.
‘No; quite slowly.’
‘Oh well,’ said Flydd. ‘It’s a point to our side, I suppose.’
‘Unless it’s a feint,’ said Irisis.
‘We’ll soon know.’
It was not a feint. The enemy just seemed to be reorganising their forces. The game went on almost to dusk, by which time Hilluly was so exhausted that Irisis had to sit beside her and hold her up, and even subtly try to feed power to her, a dangerous thing to do at the best of times. Despite Flydd’s earlier words, his back was as straight as ever and he seemed to be calling the numbers more confidently than before.
‘Tell Klarm to get ready,’ Flydd said suddenly. ‘I think we’re wearing them out.’
‘Is that possible?’ said Irisis. ‘The lyrinx are tireless.’
‘Physically, maybe,’ he said. ‘But their device must take more out of them than yours does.’
‘We designed it that way.’
‘They’re moving,’ shouted Daesmie. ‘They’re moving, surr!’
‘Tell Klarm to do his work with the mind-shocker,’ snapped Flydd. ‘Yes, they’re cracking. One last effort, Hilluly. Now, now! All the way.’
The messenger ran off.
‘The enemy have broken in the southern segment,’ called the farspeaker operator ten minutes later. ‘You’ve won, surr. Well done.’
‘It’s just the first round,’ said Flydd, ‘but we’ll keep the pressure up. Can you last a bit longer, Hilluly?’
‘I think so,’ she croaked.
‘This will be easier. Holding them isn’t as big a trial as breaking them in the first place.’
The struggle raged for days as Flydd and Klarm tried to drive the enemy’s vastly superior forces south-west along the edge of the Dry Sea, towards the marshland and salt lakes below the Trihorn Falls, and the enemy tried to force them out into the waterless salt. After the first day, Flydd had to use a team of three operators, taking turns with them, for the work was so exhausting that none could keep it up for more than a few hours. Irisis called Tiaan over and again but heard no reply.
It was the strangest battle Irisis had ever experienced. Eighty thousand soldiers, and far more lyrinx, did little but march, sometimes towards each other and sometimes away. Flydd and his operators, and Klarm and his, sweated in their shelters, or tried to operate their devices in jouncing clankers.
‘I thought the lyrinx were supposed to hate heat and bright light?’ said Irisis on the second afternoon. She was practically fainting with heat exhaustion.
‘They’ve equipped themselves with slit goggles just like ours,’ said Flydd. ‘As for the heat, they have adapted better than we expected.’
On the fourth day, just when they thought they had the enemy on the run, the struggle took a dramatic turn for the worse. Hilluly collapsed without warning and had to be carried out, unconscious. Her replacement lasted only a few minutes before she too slid off her chair. Flydd called for the third.
The girl sat down, trembling. Irisis gave her a hug but could see this operator would not do. Irisis exchanged glances with Flydd. His eyes were staring and she saw naked fear there. She hadn’t seen that since he’d gone to meet the master flenser on the amphitheatre. As soon as Flydd caught her eye it vanished, and he was the same imperturbable scrutator she had always known, but the damage had been done. The enemy had struck back, and they were too strong.
The third operator lasted half an hour. By that time her movements were growing slower and slower. They had a little warning this time – just enough for Irisis to catch her as she fell. And not long after that, disaster struck. Klarm sat bolt upright, threw out his arms and legs and fell flat on his face. Blood poured out of his nose and mouth onto the salt. He wasn’t dead but he couldn’t move a finger.