‘Curious,’ said Flydd; then, after a moment, added: ‘We’ve seen enough. Head for home, Malien.’
The pangs eased once they were over the sea. Tiaan went below and lay on the floor with her eyes closed. She could not work the node out. Its field radiated away in a perfect oval centred on the Hornrace, but inside that it gained strength in a series of concentric ovals whose fields were reversed to each other.
Still thinking about it, she fell into sleep and didn’t wake until the following morning. She couldn’t map at all that day, and fell asleep before Malien stopped for a few hours’ rest in the afternoon. She’d spent so long puzzling over the eight layers of the globe and how they fitted together that, even in sleep, her mind would not turn off. It ran the mental model over and over, rotating each layer this way and that. In the early hours it began to fall into place. The first and the second layer clicked together. The third.
The thapter hit a bump and Tiaan threw out her arms in the darkness, as if for balance. Shortly she turned on her side, pillowed her head on her hands and the dream continued. The fourth and the fifth layer snapped to the others, just a few seconds apart, then there was a long pause to the sixth, but straight after that, the seventh.
The last layer eluded her as she drifted from restless sleep to dream, to deep sleep and back again several times. But finally, not long before they began to pass over the swamp forests of Orist, the eighth layer slid into position. She had it.
Tiaan smiled in her sleep and turned the other way, giving a little sigh. She woke just as the thapter settled to the yard at Fiz Gorgo.
Tiaan wavered across the yard, still half-asleep. The great space was practically full now. Sheds had been erected everywhere, there were piles of dressed timber and rolls of canvas, stacks of firewood and cauldrons with black runs of tar down their outsides. On the other side of the yard stood the timber frames for the cabins of three air-floaters. And there were people all over the place: hundreds of labourers, carpenters, sail-makers, artificers and every other kind of craft worker imaginable.
Everyone was staring. Hadn’t they seen a thapter before? She supposed most had not. As she headed toward the front door, Nish came out, looking harried and thinner than before. He went to go around her then started.
‘Hello, Tiaan,’ he said distractedly. ‘How was your trip?’
‘Very good, thank you,’ she said formally.
She dodged around him and went inside, longing for a bath and time to herself. As she passed through the doors, something made her look back. Nish stood on the step, looking at her. She tossed her head and continued on. Going by the kitchens, she cadged some chunks of brown bread and a couple of boiled eggs from the red-faced, perspiring cook, and went to her room.
There Tiaan took off her boots and sat at the little table, munching bread. She idly spun one of the eggs on its pointy end, spun it the other way, then laid it aside uneaten. Taking out Golias’s globe, she weighed it in her hands. There was one final puzzle to solve but it still wasn’t clear how to begin.
She scratched her head. She’d not had a bath since Taranta, itched all over and hated it. After Nennifer, she couldn’t bear to be dirty. But she had to solve the puzzle first. She got out a box of crystals and her artisan’s tools and began to work. Then she planned to bathe, lock the door and luxuriate in being completely alone for at least a day.
Tiaan didn’t get the solitude she craved. Her hair was still dripping when she was called down to Yggur’s meeting chamber. She sat right up the back, in the corner, hoping no one would notice her, for she had much to think through.
‘You’ve done well,’ Yggur said after the scrutator had summarised their trip.
‘It went better than I expected,’ said Flydd, toying with the goblet in front of him. ‘Everyone knew about Ghorr’s fall and the destruction of Nennifer. They have a great hunger for news in the east and took great pleasure in hearing how the downfall of the old Council came about, though they were anxious about the new one. I believe I allayed their fears and gave them something to hope for.’
‘Splendid,’ said Yggur, leaning back and folding his arms. ‘Please proceed.’
‘We’ve made some friends, learned much useful intelligence about the enemy and done wonders for morale in the east.’
‘That’s all very fine, but how many clankers have you come back with? How many soldiers?’
‘None apart from Clan Elienor’s one thousand,’ Flydd said grudgingly. ‘And that was Malien’s doing. But I never expected to. Even if the east had men and clankers to spare, we can’t march them across the continent.’
‘The war will be won or lost here in the west, Flydd, and we can’t do it without armies. Have you got anything we can fight with?’
‘I have agreement that we can use a number of manufactories in the south-east to make the devices we need. And there are a few matters we need to discuss later, Yggur. Privately.’
‘I’ll look forward to it.’
‘Where’s Klarm?’ said Flydd, looking around the room.
‘Away in Nihilnor, or perhaps Borgistry by now, spending gold by the bucket. Truly, the man is a profligate.’
‘But worth it.’
‘We can talk about that later, too. Thank you, Flydd. I’ll give you a report on our progress, which will advance the war effort. Nish?’ said Yggur.
Nish came out the front. ‘I’ve got two experienced clanker operators presently training to operate air-floaters, as well as thirty-seven prentices, four training for air-floaters, the remainder for thapters. Most of the prentices show promise though the real test won’t come until we put them in thapters. I also have eight experienced clanker artificers, and thirty prentices training to maintain thapters. Lacking a thapter, I’m doing my best with drawings and models.
‘You saw the air-floater vessels outside; they’ll be ready in a few days. Unfortunately I can’t get enough silk cloth for the airbags. We’ve made one with silk gleaned here and in Old Hripton, but we can’t finish the others without cloth and there’s none to be had, even in Borgistry. Silk comes from the east but Ghorr used the lot for his air-dreadnoughts.’
‘What about the ones that crashed in the swamp forest?’ said Flydd.
‘They either burned or their airbags floated away. We haven’t recovered enough silk to make a pocket handkerchief.’
‘Well, Thurkad was the centre of the western silk trade for a thousand years,’ said Flydd. ‘There’s bound to be silk cloth in its abandoned warehouses.’
‘If the lyrinx haven’t burned them,’ said Nish. ‘Or moths eaten the cloth.’
‘The lyrinx aren’t wanton destroyers, despite their reputation. And the warehouses would have been protected against the moth, for a while at least.’
‘We can discuss an expedition later,’ said Yggur. ‘Irisis, your report.’
She stood up tall and confident and beautiful, and Tiaan slipped down in the seat, avoiding her eye.
‘My people have been busy making the assemblies to turn construct controllers into controllers for thapters,’ said Irisis. ‘We’ve completed seventeen assemblies so far, apart from the special parts Malien was going to bring from Tirthrax.’ She glanced at Malien, who gave the slightest of nods. ‘As well, we’ve readied the controllers and floater-gas generators, brought from Nennifer, for two of the three new air-floaters, should we obtain the silk.’ She sat down again next to Nish and casually draped an arm across his shoulder.
‘I’ve not been idle either,’ said Yggur. ‘I’ve had artificers going over various battlefield devices we recovered from Nennifer, and they’re ready to hand over to the manufactories.’
‘What about your own project?’ said Flydd. ‘You were going to tell us how to move the thapters from Snizort. There’s no field there, remember? At least, only enough to power an air-floater.’