Tetrarch

Irisis felt a strange sensation, unlike anything she had experienced before. She seemed to be vibrating inside. The layers of flesh beneath her skin were shivering back and forth. Irisis put her hand on her arm and could feel movement through her skin. Her guts began to churn.

'The very rock is in motion,' said Jal-Nish in awe. 'It's creeping, and swirling, and bubbling, though it's not hot at all. Oh, this is uncanny. I've never heard of such a thing.'

'Nor the Council, either,' Flydd said. 'The scrutators will want to see what's causing it, Jal-Nish, though you're not man enough to take it back.'

'We'll see!' snapped Jal-Nish.

'What are you doing?' Irisis whispered to Flydd.

'Trying to save my old bag of bones, and yours,' he muttered.

'You have a charming turn of phrase.'

'You four, come with me,' said Jal-Nish to the soldiers. 'You two, keep watch on the prisoners, especially the walking corpse. If he tries anything, hit him over the head.'

'Jal-Nish is advancing,' said Flydd. 'The soldiers are just behind.'

'Can you see the node-drainer?'

'No.'

The vibration under her skin ceased, before beginning again in another direction. She could not get used to the feeling. Sparks flashed through her skull. Her eyes began to burn, her nasal passages to itch. Her intestines writhed in her belly, making an audible gurgle. Her stomach contracted sharply, pushing burning acid up into her throat. Was the unreality of the node-drainer slowly peeling her apart, as it had the rock?

'What's going to happen, Xervish?' Her voice sounded blobby.

'I have no idea,' he said, though she was sure that was a lie. 'Jal-Nish has gone up about thirty paces. It's… foggy up there, but the fog looks like granite. I can hardly see him.'

'I can see the node-drainer!' came Jal-Nish's cry. His words returned in shredded echoes.

'What's it like?' called Flydd.

Like an excited child, Jal-Nish had to tell someone who would understand, even his enemy. 'It's… like a luminous toadstool with a hole in the top, and currents boiling out of it, filled with whirling specks like sparks from a bonfire.'

'I'd keep well clear of it if I were you,' shouted Flydd.

'I'm sure you would!' Jal-Nish sneered. 'Soldiers -' His voice was cut off.

'What's happened?' said Irisis.

'I don't know.'

Jal-Nish's cry rang out. 'Just look at that!'

'What now?' Flydd called.

'It's – Aah! Help! Pull me out!'

'What's happened?' Irisis repeated.

'Jal-Nish has fallen through the floor; or into it.'

'Into solid rock?'

'You asked what it would be like where the node-drainer emptied to. Now we know. It's like nothing on this world.'

'Help, help!' It was a chorus of voices now.

'Better go and rescue them,' said Flydd to the other guards.

A guard screamed, truncated in the middle.

'Hurry!' Flydd snapped.

The soldiers ran off.

'Let's go,' said Flydd. 'Ullii, lead the way.'

They ran, Irisis stumbling along by her lead rope. It was a long hike in the dark and by the time they reached the roof fall she was bruised all over from running into the walls.

'Wait,' she called, her heart hammering wildly. 'I've got to stop for a second.'

'Hear that?' It was a distant wailing cry. 'He's behind us. Come on!'

They kept going. Irisis's knees felt like jelly, though at least the weird flesh-shivering had ceased. 'How far to the lift?'

'Too far.'

'Are they catching us, do you think?'

'Can't tell,' he gasped. 'Just keep going.'

Running and running, through the empty dark. Irisis was dragged around a corner and struck her knee on a projecting rock. She cried out.

'What's the matter?'

'Just a broken kneecap!' she said.

'I've climbed mountains with worse. Stop moaning and get on with it.'

'When we get out of here, you hateful man, I'm going to give you the biggest drubbing you've ever had in your life.'

'A drubbing?' He smiled. 'I'll look forward to it.'

'Lift's not far ahead now,' he said some time later.

'Where's Ullii?'

'Up ahead. She knows how to take care of herself.'

'But does she know how to take care of us?'

'What do you mean?' They rounded the last corner and Flydd began to laugh.

'What's so funny?'

'We're at the edge of the lift shaft. Don't go forward. The lift's gone. Ullii has wound it up without us.'

'Call her down again.'

'Ullii?' he bawled. The sound echoed and re-echoed in the shaft. 'Bring that lift down again, right away!'

Silence, over which she could hear the sound of running feet.

'Ullii?'

She did not reply but the lift rope began to move down. Irisis could hear it swishing through the water, which lay just below the lip of the entrance to their level.

'Hurry up!'

Ullii whimpered. The footsteps came closer. Irisis recognised the wheezing breath of Jal-Nish. She cursed. He'd got out after all.

'Basket's here,' said Flydd, who had freed his hands. He helped Irisis over the side into the basket, cut her bonds and put her hands on the crank. 'As soon as I give the word, wind like fury.'

'Stop!' panted Jal-Nish. 'Stop or we'll shoot.'

The basket swayed as Flydd sprang in. 'Wind the damn thing! There's only two, Jal-Nish and one soldier.'

Irisis heaved at the crank. The basket jerked up.

'Shoot them!' roared Jal-Nish. 'Shoo – Where's your damned crossbow, soldier?'

'It went under the floor, surr, when I was pulling you out. Sorry, surr…'

'Useless fool,' Jal-Nish screamed. 'They're getting away and we can't do anything about it.'

Xervish Flydd laughed fit to burst. 'Goodbye, Jal-Nish. Don't forget to put this in your next despatch to the Council. I'll certainly mention it in mine.' As they neared the top, Flydd called up to the lift guards, 'Jal-Nish is in trouble at the bottom. Better get down after him.'

The guards whispered to one another. Wasn't Flydd an outlaw now?

'Hurry up!' roared Flydd, helping Irisis over the side. Used to obeying without question, the guards did as they were told.

Once their basket reached the bottom, Flydd cut the lift rope. 'A good evening's work,' he said, whistling jauntily, and headed up the tunnel.

They reached the upper entrance without incident. He flashed the signal lantern and the air-floater came drifting down to the top of the hill.

'What happens now?' said Irisis, snuggling into a canvas seat. Ullii was already hidden in a corner, under the bench.

'We let out all Jal-Nish's skeets, to give us a few extra days, drop Oon-Mie and Zoyl at a safe manufactory, then go to a rendezvous,' said Flydd. 'I don't know what we'll find there. How are your eyes?'

'How do you think they are?' she snapped.

'Have you tried them lately?'

'No. Why would I?'

He untied the bandage and pulled off the pads, which had stuck to her eyelids.

'Ouch!' she said.

'Can you see anything?'

'I can't open my eyes.'

They were gummed shut with yellow secretions. Calling for a bowl of water, he bathed her eyelids until they came un-gummed.

'Now try.'

She rubbed her eyes, opened them and stared at where she thought he was. 'I still can't see anything.'

'Of course not. You're looking out into the dark. Turn around.' He turned her. 'There.'

She gazed at him and slowly her eyes began to water. Tears flooded her cheeks.

'I can't be that ugly,' he said gruffly.

'I can see!' she cried. 'I can see!' Throwing her arms around him, she sobbed her heart out.

F ORTY-SEVEN

Gilhaelith heard Tiaan's cry as the walker went over the edge, and the crash and rattle of sliding rock, then the four lyrinx took him up so quickly that the noise of their wings drowned out all other sound. He struggled uselessly against his bonds, imagining Tiaan lying bloody and helpless halfway down the crater. With the hood over his head, he could see nothing.

They flew in cloud for a long time – he felt it billowing about them. It was cold. Gilhaelith's clothes hung dankly on him and moisture dripped from the hood down the back of his neck. The great wings went whoop, whoop. One lyrinx called to another in their strange tongue. A second snapped back. There seemed to be an argument, at the end of which the lyrinx began to spiral down. They broke out of cloud, the wind lifted his hood and Gilhaelith spied a circular mesa of black rock rising from forest. The lyrinx glided down towards it, resting on the thermals, then landed hard near the edge.