Tetrarch

The power flowed, increased and kept flowing.

'Anything, Aarp?' panted the scrutator.

'No – I mean, there was the very faintest aura but it disappeared right away.'

'Keep it going, Oon-Mie.'

Oon-Mie said nothing but Irisis could feel her tension distorting the field. She did not like what she felt.

'More!' cried the scrutator. 'More, Oon-Mie, damn it!'

The power went up again. Now there was a definite tremor in it. Drops of sweat ran down Irisis's forehead. 'Surr,' she hissed, 'that's enough.'

'Keep it coming!'

Irisis's foreboding grew. The tremor became a shuddering vibration that would have torn a clanker apart.

Zoyl moaned. 'My head hurts. Stop it. Stop it!'

Irisis reached out to him. 'It's all right, Zoyl. The scrutator will look after us.'

Without warning that vibration swelled to gigantic proportions. Oon-Mie tried to clamp down but it was out of control, feeding back on itself and growing catastrophically stronger.

Oon-Mie gave a gurgling, clotted gasp. Zoyl Aarp fell down, wailing. The glow grew so bright that Irisis could feel it on her skin.

The scrutator was just to her left; she could see the distortion in the field. His breath crackled in his sinuses. Irisis caught a whiff of burning hair. 'Flydd?' He did not answer, nor could he. Power coiled around him like a serpent. Into him. If she did not do something, they were all going to die.

She thrashed around with her arms and one hand touched the reader, which was burning-hot. Wrenching it from his grasp, she slammed it against the wall of the cave, breaking the metal back of the dragonfly. Delicate silver wires tore. A crystal tinkled to the rocky floor.

The flow stopped at once, the glow faded and all she could hear was Zoyl's stifled moans.

'Oon-Mie?' she called.

'I'm all right,' the artisan rasped, coughing up gobs of phlegm the size of oysters.

'Scrutator?'

His tongue made a series of clicks as if he was having trouble moving it. 'I'll live,' he said thickly.

'Zoyl? Zoyl!'

Irisis crawled across to where the lad had been sitting. He lay on his side, knees drawn up.

'Looks like he's had a seizure,' said Oon-Mie.

'Just what we need,' muttered the scrutator, restored to waspish ill-humour.

'Well, you caused it,' Irisis flashed.

'We fail, we die,' said the scrutator savagely. 'We succeed, we may live. Those are the most selfish terms I can put it in. Good enough for you?'

'But you ordered him to risk his life; and Oon-Mie hers.'

'So? Boys his age risk their lives every day in the army.'

'But Zoyl is not in the army.'

'Only because he's got a skill we need. If we fail, everyone will be fighting for their lives, including people like you and Oon-Mie. And me!'

'He's recovering,' said Oon-Mie.

'About time! Sit up, boy, and tell us what you saw.'

'An aura, surr,' Zoyl croaked. 'It was not there long but I saw it clearly.'

'What did you see?'

'The field. And something else. Two planes lay at the centre, one passing through the other at right-angles.'

'Planes?'

'Yes, and they had wiggles all across them.'

'Is that so?' breathed the scrutator. 'What about the core of the aura?'

'It was strange, surr. Just for an instant I saw the shadow of a lyrinx, etched in lightning, and behind it the field seemed to flow into a pit. As though it was being sucked into a whirlpool.'

'The field?' cried the scrutator.

'Yes,' said Zoyl.

'Someone's coming,' called a guard.

'What is it?' asked Flydd.

'A lyrinx. No, more than one. Two, three. They're heading directly towards us.'

The scrutator cursed. 'To be expected, after the power we've used here. How long till dark?'

'The best part of an hour,' said the guard.

'We can't signal the air-floater till then. Can we defend this place?'

'Not against three, unless you've the power to do it by yourself.'

'At the moment I'd have trouble fighting off a butterfly,' said Flydd. 'We'll head for the top of this peak. They'll have to come at us from below.'

'Unless they've a flier among them,' said Irisis.

'It's the best we can do.'

They headed up, Irisis led by the hand by Oon-Mie.

'That was brave work,' Irisis said to the artisan.

'I thought my brains were going to boil out my ears.'

'But you held your nerve, and that's what made the difference.'

'Had it not been for you -'

'Let's not talk about that. What are the enemy doing?'

Oon-Mie stopped to look. 'Still heading for our cave.'

'Are you sure our work led them to us, scrutator?' Irisis called.

His voice came from just behind her. 'I am.'

'How could they do that?'

'They once had a way of detecting clankers by the aura from the controller. Tiaan fixed that, brilliantly.'

'Bloody Tiaan again,' muttered Irisis.

'But of course you would know that, Irisis,' Flydd said in frosty tones. 'After her crystal madness, you tried to take the credit for it.'

Irisis felt a flush creeping up her cheeks. What fit of stupidity had led her to do that?

Flydd went on. 'I'd say they have a watching device here somewhere, waiting in case we came to investigate.'

It was a considerable climb to the top of the pinnacle and the sun had gone down before they reached it. Irisis was hauled up the last few spans on a rope, dragging roughly across a gritty rock face before being stood on her feet on a mounded surface. A dank wind blew down the back of her neck.

'Don't move,' said Flydd. 'We're standing on top of the pinnacle, a stack of rock whose tip is not much bigger than a bedsheet. Take three steps in any direction and you're over the edge. Zoyl, what the blazes do you think you're doing? Put that rock down.'

Thud.

'Not on my foot, you bloody fool!'

'I was just trying to help, surr.'

'Leave it to those who know how.'

Irisis could feel the edge of the drop. Her teeth began to chatter.

One of the soldiers lit a signal lantern. The scrutator held it high, facing across the valley towards the range. He gave a series of flashes, shuttered it completely, then opened it and gave the same sequence again. Irisis could hear the click of the shutter.

'No reply,' he said after a long wait. 'What are the enemy doing?'

'Coming after us,' said Oon-Mie. 'They're nearly within crossbow range.'

'Get your weapons out.'

Swords scraped on scabbards. Someone wound the crank of a crossbow. She felt useless, especially when the enemy were so close that she could hear their claws scraping on the rock. If only she could see. With a crossbow in her hands she'd make them jump.

A crossbow twanged. 'Missed!' the soldier cursed.

'How near do you need to be?' the scrutator said derisively. 'Any closer and you could have picked his nose with it.'

'The light's deceptive, surr.'

'Then hold off until you can see up their nostrils.'

'I don't ever want to see up a lyrinx's nostrils,' said Irisis. 'Are any of them fliers, Xervish?'

'Doesn't look like it, but once it's fully dark they'll come up the sides without us ever seeing them. And then, my friends, it's dinnertime.' He chuckled grimly.

No one else joined in.

'Look out!' Oon-Mie cried. 'They're throwing rocks!'

Someone pulled Irisis down. There was another thud, a man's cry of pain, then someone went off the side. Irisis heard every pulpy impact until he finally came to rest a long way below.

'Who…?' she said fearfully.

'Jarle,' said Flydd. 'A good man. Don't look, Zoyl.'

The sound of rending and feeding began. Bones crunched; gobbets of flesh were swallowed noisily. 'Poor devil,' said Oon-Mie.

'At least he was dead first,' said Flydd heavily. 'Stay down. They'll try again.'

F ORTY-FIVE

It was nearly dark now. The lyrinx must charge soon. The soldiers were still shooting but did not seem to be doing any damage. The enemy's claws rasped on the stone, just a few spans below. Oon-Mie was dropping rocks on them. 'Take that, and that!' They weren't big enough to do a lot of damage but Irisis caught one or two cries of pain.