Nish stood there for a moment in reflection. The plan had come a long way, and so had he. One step at a time. He smiled and followed.
Two days later, with twenty people sewing the silk, the air-floaters were complete. He’d reclaimed the silk from the dirigible, and Inouye had discovered part of an air-dreadnought airbag hanging in a tree ten leagues away, giving them just enough to complete the airbag of the third air-floater. There had even been a little time to use the thapter for training the pilots and artificers. Every pilot had made at least one flight under Malien’s stern guidance. No one had crashed it, though there had been sufficient incidents to make Nish fear for what would happen if they did recover any machines from the battlefield.
‘Everything’s ready,’ he said to Yggur, after having worked all night. ‘We can go as soon as you say the word.’
‘Excellent!’ beamed Flydd. He shook Nish’s hand. ‘And on time, too. It’s a pleasure to deal with a man who’s as good as his word. Well, Yggur, if you would just explain to Nish how he’s to move the thapters without access to the field, he can be on his way.’
Yggur looked as though he’d had no more sleep than Nish. ‘My devices aren’t ready yet.’
‘What?’ said Flydd, putting on a show of surprise. ‘But you said you were nearly finished a week ago.’
‘I am nearly finished, but I haven’t tested them to my satisfaction.’
‘Why not?’
‘There are a few wrinkles still to be ironed out.’
‘But everything depends on them.’ Flydd seemed to be taking a malicious pleasure in Yggur’s discomfiture. It was a weakness in his character that Nish could only appreciate, in the circumstances. The two mancers might be working together but they would be forever rivals.
‘I’m aware of that,’ Yggur said, stone-faced.
‘And the least delay to the schedule could be fatal to our chances of being ready for the spring offensive.’
‘Yes,’ said Yggur. ‘It could.’
‘Well, I won’t pretend that I’m not disappointed,’ said Flydd. ‘Bitterly disappointed, in fact. It’s a major setback.’ He gave Yggur a sly glance, then said cajolingly, ‘When do you think it will be ready?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘Tomorrow?’
‘Not tomorrow!’ Yggur snapped.
‘What about the day after?’
Flydd had such a strange, coquettish look on his craggy face that Nish wouldn’t have been surprised if he’d batted his eyelashes.
Yggur cracked. ‘I don’t know, damn you.’
‘Then I won’t keep you,’ said Flydd. ‘I’m sure you’re anxious to get back to your workshop and try to make up for lost time. Good day.’ He nodded and turned away, taking Nish’s arm and pulling him after him. ‘Wipe that grin off your face, Artificer,’ Flydd said sternly. ‘Show some respect for your betters.’ But as soon as Yggur was gone, Flydd clapped Nish on the back, taking the sting from his words. ‘Well done, lad. You can go to bed now.’ He went off, whistling a cheerful air.
The following day the thapter set off for the south-east, carrying the patterns for various devices that were to be made up by manufactories there, including Tiaan’s plans for master and slave farspeakers. It was to be a lightning trip, both Malien and Tiaan taking turns and going night and day, as Flydd hoped to be back in just over a week.
The trip proved uneventful, apart from their first brief call at Tiksi, where Tiaan hoped to see her mother. Unfortunately Marnie was not at the rebuilt breeding factory.
‘She lost everything in the fire,’ said Matron. ‘I haven’t seen her in nearly a year.’
‘Poor Marnie,’ Tiaan wept. ‘Cast out on the streets with nothing. Doesn’t anyone know what happened to her?’
She was unable to find out, for the city’s records had been lost in the fires.
Thence they turned west to her old manufactory. Tall, dark-skinned Tuniz was still overseer, and she reminded Flydd of his promise, that if she met all her targets for a year he would send her home to Crandor, to the children she had not seen in two years.
‘I remember,’ said Flydd. ‘And have you met all your targets, Overseer?’
‘Not all, but nearly,’ she said, anxiously baring her filed teeth.
‘Then the condition has not been met and I owe you nothing!’ She winced. ‘Nonetheless,’ Flydd went on, ‘I do want to send you home, and will if you complete this last task to my satisfaction. I have here a number of samples.’ He showed her Golias’s globe, several different slave farspeakers Tiaan had made, plus her detailed designs of each. ‘Can you make me, say, ten master farspeakers, and one hundred of the slave variety, in a month?’
‘The slave farspeakers will be no trouble,’ said Tuniz, after a careful study of both. ‘The master globes are another matter.’ She ran her fingers through her frizzy hair and asked Tiaan a number of technical questions. Once they’d been answered to her satisfaction Tuniz said, ‘If I divert all of my crafters and artisans to the task, I believe we can do it, surr, though I’ll need to talk to my chief crafter to make sure.’
‘Call her. I plan to return in a month, more or less. Have them ready and I’ll take you home to Crandor in this thapter.’
Her eyes shone. ‘It will be done, surr. You can count on it.’
They went to several other manufactories nearby, where Flydd left other commissions, and headed directly home.
‘I’ve done as much as I can, for the moment,’ Flydd told Yggur when they arrived back at Fiz Gorgo on schedule. ‘Though to make a difference in the spring I have to give our allies more than words.’
‘I hope we can give them much more. Nish left just an hour ago for Snizort.’
‘Was he prepared?’ said Flydd, meaningly.
‘As well as could be managed. Though of course –’
‘I meant, did he have some way of moving the thapters in the absence of a field?’
‘Of course,’ said Yggur airily, as though it had been the most trivial of tasks, hardly worth discussing. ‘He could not have gone, otherwise.’
‘How is it to be achieved, as a matter of interest?’
‘Oh, I made up some little devices that store power,’ Yggur said in an offhand manner. ‘Enough to drive a thapter for leagues. I charged them up from the field just before he left.’
‘I noticed it was drawn right down as we came in,’ said Flydd. ‘Malien had more than a little trouble getting the last couple of leagues, and at one stage we thought we were going to come down in the swamp. What kind of devices?’
‘Just something I put together with a little tinkering,’ said Yggur.
‘Sounds like they could transform the war,’ said Flydd. ‘With enough of them we could make our craft independent of the field. Let the lyrinx attack the nodes as they dare, then.’
‘Unfortunately, the core of my devices relies on a most rare crystal, the only one known capable of storing the amount of power required. I had the only three in existence and I used them all.’
‘Might I know the name of this crystal?’ said Flydd casually, though he knew Yggur wasn’t going to tell him anything useful. Noble and dignified he might be, as a rule, but Yggur couldn’t resist the urge to get his own back.
‘Inkspar.’
‘I’ve never heard of it.’
‘It’s rare, as I said.’
‘Only three devices? That’s going to limit the number of thapters we can recover.’
‘If they recover more than three, which I doubt, they’ll have to shuttle the devices back and forth in the air-floaters. It’s inconvenient, but not a fatal problem.’
‘It could be if they’re under attack.’
‘It was the best I could do.’
‘Oh well,’ said Flydd. ‘It’s out of our hands now. They’ll either come back or they won’t. No point worrying about it.’