‘They’re the only two in all humanity!’ hissed Liett.
Ryll ignored her. ‘I will go through the gate, and if it leads me asunder, even to the most desperate recesses of the void, I will do all I can to lead us out again.’ His eyes shone in his fervour. ‘What about you, Liett?’
‘I will not follow any unmated male unless the vote is entirely against me.’
‘Since when do lyrinx vote?’ said Ryll mildly. ‘We do what our leaders, in their wisdom, have decided.’
‘You broke the custom,’ she snapped. ‘I demand a vote.’
Ryll’s gaze rested on each of the lyrinx, then he nodded. ‘And how do you vote?’
‘The past must not bind the future,’ said Great Anabyng. ‘I will not vote.’
The former matriarchs also declined. The other three lyrinx gave Ryll their vote. Liett did not.
‘Not just us,’ said Liett. ‘All the lyrinx must vote.’ She swept around the circle of lyrinx with one arm.
‘We are over half a million,’ Ryll said. ‘It would take days to count.’
‘So be it.’ Liett folded her arms across her breast.
‘Do you want the small children to die, and the old folk, because of this delay?’
‘In the absence of our matriarchs, I demand that convention be followed.’
‘Come with me. Look at the state of the children.’ Taking Liett’s arm, he led her away from the other lyrinx. He had to drag her for the first three steps, whereupon she cuffed him hard over the side of the head and, mollified by the display of aggression, went willingly.
As they reached the surrounding circle, Ryll’s truce-blue faded and they disappeared into the crowd. They were gone almost an hour. When they returned, Ryll said without preamble, ‘We will do it.’ He clasped Tiaan’s hand, then each of the others’. ‘But first you must break the mind-shock circle, if you can.’
‘I can,’ said Tiaan, ‘since I know how it was made. How long will it take you to get to Nithmak?’
‘We can run forty leagues in two days and nights,’ said Daodand. ‘Though, running with so little water …’
‘The children will die of thirst,’ said Tiaan.
‘Most will,’ said Liett. ‘Unless you allow us sufficient power to fly them there.’
‘We can’t, Tiaan,’ said Nish. ‘What if they break free and begin the war over?’
‘You expect us to trust you,’ cried Liett, ‘yet you do not trust us in return.’
‘That is the privilege of the victors,’ said Nish.
Malien shushed him and conferred with Tiaan for a moment, then called Irisis. ‘Is there a way to cut off the field controller on one side only?’
Irisis had to think for a minute. ‘You might do it this way, with the amplimet …’
After listening to the explanation Tiaan said, ‘It won’t work for long, but it should last long enough for them to break out. And once they’re going full speed in the dark, the mind-shockers won’t be able to encircle them again.’
‘What about us?’ said Irisis.
‘What do you mean?’
‘What if Orgestre orders the field controller directed against us?’
‘They’ll be far too busy trying to contain the enemy,’ said Malien. ‘They can’t do both.’
‘We wouldn’t see the children die,’ said Tiaan to Ryll. ‘We’ll allow you power for flight, but should anyone abuse this offer, I’ll withdraw that power while you’re flying. From all of you.’
Liett’s yellow eyes glowed. ‘I think that I like you after all, little human! You have my word.’
‘And mine. Let it be done,’ said Ryll.
‘And done swiftly,’ Irisis added. ‘While our opponents are sleeping.’
They went up in the thapter. It was well after midnight and the night still overcast. Shortly the agreed signal was flashed vertically from the lyrinx camp. Tiaan used the amplimet to break the mind-shock circle on the western side. The lyrinx burst out and the clankers retreated in terror. Soon the fliers among the lyrinx, perhaps a tenth of their number, took to the air carrying the children.
‘We’re taking an almighty risk,’ said Nish. ‘If they break their word and the war begins again, we’ll be the most reviled names in all the Histories. Our best choice will be to go straight to the Well, for there’ll be no hiding on Santhenar.’
‘They won’t break their word,’ said Tiaan, but her hand shook on the controller and the thapter dipped. She steadied it and flew west into the night.
‘Tiaan,’ said Gilhaelith from the base of the ladder, ‘did Tirior really take your field map?’
She flushed. ‘Of course not.’
‘May I see it?’
‘Why?’
‘My globe is in error in some small respects. I’d like it to be perfect before … you know.’
She smiled. ‘I’m a geomancer too – I understand perfectly.’ Withdrawing the folded map from the lining of her coat she passed it to him.
SEVENTY-FIVE
Nish was sitting miserably on the floor of the thapter, which was lurching and bouncing all over the sky. It had been harried by two thapters since dawn, and now a third machine had joined them.
‘Are you all right?’ he heard Malien say to Tiaan.
‘I think I can manage for a while yet.’
‘Use the amplimet to keep above them.’
‘I’m trying to.’
A crossbow bolt spanged off the side. Nish glanced at Irisis, who was sitting cross-legged, apparently unconcerned, making another of her pieces of jewellery. This one was a brooch in silver filigree, like two figure-eights joined at the centre. She didn’t look up.
‘How did we get ourselves into this mess?’ said Nish. ‘What if the lyrinx escape and attack our defenceless cities –?’
‘Will you shut up!’ she hissed. ‘We made our choice, so don’t start whining and wringing your hands like a third-rate Minis.’ She worked for a few more minutes, then exclaimed, ‘Now look what you’ve made me do,’ and slammed the brooch down on the floor.
‘I’m sorry,’ Nish said at once. ‘You seemed so calm.’
‘Of course I’m not calm! We may have made the biggest mistake of our lives, and we’re bound to pay for it. I’ve been regretting it since the moment I opened my mouth, but –’
‘But what else could we have done? Come here.’ She sat beside him, taking his hand. ‘You’re right,’ Nish said. ‘Let’s not waste the time we have left on useless regrets. We did what was right and we’ll face the consequences.’
It didn’t appear as though the other thapters were trying to destroy Malien’s machine, but only to force it down on the salt. Tiaan kept just ahead of them for hours as she followed a roundabout course south and west, trying to draw their fire away from the lyrinx. Thus far she’d always managed to get away, through the superior range of the amplimet.
Gilhaelith was sitting up the other end, Tiaan’s map spread out on the floor before him while he made minute alterations to the geomantic globe. It was like watching grass grow.
From the heights, after the sun came up, Nish had seen terrible sights. Early on, a fleet of Orgestre’s constructs had torn straight through a band of running lyrinx, trampling them under the iron feet, smashing flesh and bones to jelly. There had been children among them.
Not long after that, the field had been whipped away from a group of flying lyrinx. They had done everything they could to keep aloft: their limbs went like bellows, their great wings thrashed, but without the aid of the Secret Art no effort could keep them in the air. Males, females and children all plummeted to the bed of the Dry Sea, their impacts making little purple marks that were swallowed by the white immensity of the salt. Nish had gone below after that. It had seemed better not to know, or at least not to see it. But it confirmed that he’d made the right decision.
The sound of the mechanism cut off abruptly. Nish scrambled to his feet but it started again at once as Tiaan tapped into another field.