Irisis eased her cloak away and the blades fell to the floor. The ball lay on its side, crushed, an ooze of green grease coming from inside. She turned a bench over in front of them and another behind, walling off the lane, then put the slashed cloak on.
‘Thanks.’ Nish poked a finger through the gash in his boot. The injury didn’t seem too serious. He got up.
Another of those eyeball objects arced across the room. A series of flashes – red and green, followed by an eye-searingly brilliant white – came from one side of the turret. Others burst from its rear.
‘At least they’re still alive,’ said Irisis. ‘Well, some of them.’
‘But for how much longer? And when the guards get here …’
‘I don’t hear anyone running,’ said Irisis. ‘Perhaps they can’t find a way through the dislocation.’
‘I wouldn’t bet my life on it.’
The bright lights faded, returning the chamber to its previous gloom. Along to Nish’s left something scraped against timber. ‘Did you hear that?’ he whispered. ‘They’re coming.’
‘I’ve been expecting it.’ She gave him her hand. ‘Ready?’
He clasped it, gulped and nodded stiffly. Drawing his sword, he swung it through the air a few times. A bolt whistled over his head and smacked into the wall, releasing a little cloud of plaster dust that drifted around the circumference of the chamber.
There came a rustle from the direction of the scrape; an odd, tentative sound. ‘That didn’t sound very scary,’ said Nish. ‘Shall we go at them?’
‘Can’t hurt.’
I’ll bet it can, Nish thought. ‘All right.’ He stepped over the bench, ducked low as he passed a gap, then crept forward, sword out. What was waiting for them? Soldiers in ambush? More of those scything balls? Or any of a myriad of uncanny devices of war the artificers of Nennifer had created in the past decade, some under the supervision of Xervish Flydd himself?
The suspended globes faded to a dull yellow; the gloom thickened. The scratching came from just ahead. A lump throbbed in the pit of Nish’s stomach and the sword slipped in his sweating fingers.
Courage! he told himself. Die like a man, if you must die. He took a step, hesitated, then another. It was just around the corner. Nish glanced over his shoulder at Irisis. She was crouched low, her sword flicking from side to side like a viper’s tongue.
The speaking tubes rumbled again. ‘Guards!’ came Fusshte’s voice. ‘To me, to me.’
Nish went another step. Something rustled in the darkness and he went up on his toes and sprang.
‘Stop!’ Irisis hissed.
A small pale face and huge dark eyes looked up at him and he stayed his stroke at the last instant. It was Pilot Inouye, crawling along the floor, a trail of blood coming from her left leg.
Nish sheathed the sword and dropped to his knees beside her. ‘What’s happened?’ he said.
‘Guards came from – behind. Two of Yggur’s men – dead. Flydd and Klarm – pinned down. Can’t get free.’
‘And they sent you for help?’ said Nish, drawing up the leg of her pants. Inouye’s slender calf had been cruelly gashed, probably by another of those scything balls. ‘They want us to come to their aid?’ He already knew it was hopeless.
‘No,’ she gasped. ‘You can’t do anything …’
Nish tore off the hem of his undershirt. It was none too clean but he had to stop the bleeding. He began to bind the wound. Inouye winced, and tears sprang to her eyes, but she made no sound.
‘What does Flydd want us to do?’ said Irisis.
Inouye was growing paler by the second. ‘Flydd can’t use power … nor scrutators against him. But … soldiers coming. Flydd says, find Tiaan and bring her … bring her … Must not let her …’ Her head flopped sideways to the floor. ‘Malien …’ Her eyes closed. She was breathing shallowly and her lips had no colour at all.
‘What’s she trying to say?’ said Nish.
‘I’m not sure,’ said Irisis.
‘Why does Flydd want Tiaan?’
‘No one else can hope to control the amplimet,’ Irisis conjectured. ‘If Tiaan can, it’ll break the stalemate and Flydd can attack.’
‘Doesn’t sound like much of a plan,’ said Nish. ‘Where the bloody hell is Tiaan anyway?’
‘Muss …’ whispered Inouye, opening her eyes momentarily.
‘We’ll have to find the sneaky little bastard first,’ spat Irisis. She jerked her head at Nish and moved away. He followed. ‘What are we supposed to do?’ Irisis went on. ‘We can’t carry Inouye and she can’t walk.’
‘She’s lost a lot of blood,’ said Nish, not understanding what she was getting at.
‘We’ll have to leave her here, Nish.’
He shook his head. ‘I can’t.’
‘What’s the matter?’
‘We’ve turned our backs on too many people already. I keep hearing their cries for help, just as I did at the battle of Gumby Marth. I had to leave them to die and I swore I’d never do that again.’
‘This means survival, Nish, for all of us, and all our hopes.’
‘But Inouye is one of us. She’s done all that’s been demanded of her and we’ve given her nothing in return.’
‘Do you think I don’t know that?’ she said between her teeth. ‘You’ve got to steel yourself, Nish. This is just like any other battle. It’s cruel, but the injured have to be left behind. If we stop to help them we’ll all die, in vain.’
Her words roused memories he wasn’t strong enough to face. Nish had left Gumby Marth a hero, though that had been diminished by the hundreds of soldiers he’d had to abandon because they’d been too badly injured to walk. He could still see the agony on their faces, but what he most remembered was their bewilderment – that their sacrifices had been repaid so cruelly.
‘Nish?’ she shook him.
‘What if it were me?’
She looked away. ‘It isn’t.’
‘All right!’ he said furiously. ‘But we can’t just leave her lying on the floor.’
Irisis hesitated, then nodded. ‘I’ll find a hide for her.’
Nish turned back. Inouye opened those tragic eyes and reached up to him with one hand. ‘Don’t leave me,’ she said in a cracked voice.
‘I’m sorry,’ he said, picking her up.
‘Don’t let me die,’ she whimpered. ‘My children –’
‘You’re not going to die, Inouye.’
‘In here, Nish.’ Irisis was pointing to the top shelf of an open cabinet. ‘It’s the best we can do.’
Nish carried Inouye across. ‘Don’t leave me,’ she whispered. ‘Don’t leave me, don’t leave me.’ She was shuddering with terror.
He tried to ignore it, sliding her onto the shelf and pushing her to the back. She reached out to him but Nish ducked out of the way. He couldn’t meet her eyes. ‘We’ll be back soon.’ They probably wouldn’t be back at all.
Inouye began to wail in a low scratchy tone.
‘Bloody little fool!’ hissed Irisis. ‘Do you want to attract them to you? Lie still and shut up and you may yet survive.’
Inouye kept on wailing until Irisis whacked her. The noise stopped immediately.
‘Come on,’ Irisis muttered, red in the face.
They hurried towards the entrance, keeping low. ‘Did you have to hit her so hard?’ said Nish. ‘The poor little …’
‘You can shut up as well, Cryl-Nish Hlar, unless you want the other hand,’ Irisis said savagely.
It heartened him to discover that she wasn’t as unfeeling as she made out. They slipped out through the mage-locked door, which plucked at them like a thousand rubber fishhooks. Irisis stopped on the landing, one hand to her ear.
‘Can you hear anything?’
‘Only people groaning in the yard, poor devils,’ said Nish.
‘No, the reinforcements are on their way. Let’s get out of their path.’
They moved off the stairs into a narrow space, a sliver of green-tiled floor between two moss-covered outer walls. ‘How are we supposed to find Muss?’ said Nish.