Tetrarch

Tiaan fingered the crystal rod, knowing it probably would not work, since Gilhaelith had not taught her how to recharge it from the field. Another gleam, then the shadow moved off. She edged back into the scrub. The lyrinx sense of smell was not particularly keen, but it might pick up her scent.

Though Tiaan watched for a long time, she saw no sign of life. Close to midnight, judging by the moon, she turned back. Before she had gone far, the moon fell behind the thornbush wall and it became too dark to see. Tiaan cursed herself for not thinking of that.

Taking a rough bearing from the stars, she headed east, feeling her way forward, and found what seemed to be a track through the scrub. Shortly it came out near the wall again. Continuing along the edge of the cleared zone, she encountered a broad path. To her right, the setting moon streamed through the barred gate of Snizort. Apprehension growing, she headed the other way and collided with a broad figure standing quietly in the darkness. It moved into the light. The moon shone on rows of teeth, glittered in its eyes, revealed its lack of wings.

'I knew you'd bring your crystal back one day, Tiaan,' said Ryll.

She hurled the walker sideways but Ryll thrust out a limb, one metal leg caught and the walker crashed to the ground. Her head struck the frame so hard that she saw stars. She lay still. There was nothing she could do.

'Why are you in this machine?' he asked, crouching beside her.

'I broke my back. I can never walk again.'

Ryll's crest glowed pink as he lifted the walker. 'I feel your pain.' His clawed hand closed about her wrist and he thrust his big jaw at her.

'What are you going to do with me?' she said hoarsely.

'I don't know yet.'

'Is Gilhaelith here?'

'Ah,' he said. 'The man you travelled across the world to mate with.'

He could still embarrass her. 'No, that was somebody else.'

Ryll looked taken aback. 'The other man did not want to mate with you?'

Perception, or a lucky guess? 'He betrayed me,' said Tiaan bitterly.

'I am sorry,' said Ryll, and Tiaan knew he spoke truly. She had not known Ryll to lie, yet he was not, when the situation required it, averse to making misleading statements.

'Gilhaelith?' she repeated.

'The tetrarch is here.'

'What do you mean tetrarch?'

'Isn't that what you call him?'

'I call him Gilhaelith. Is he all right?'

'He has been treated well, though he does not appreciate it as he might. You won't try to escape, will you?'

'I've come a long way to find him.'

'As you did for your mate, and he betrayed you. Your loyalty is stronger than your judgment.'

That was certainly true, much as she hated to be reminded of it. They went through the gates, which were guarded by dozens of lyrinx, bearing weapons she could not make out in the gloom. The passage through the wall was an arched tunnel. Inside, the area was dimly lit by flaming bowls the size of cartwheels, set on stone pedestals. Fumes from burning tar drifted across the ground in black wisps and strands. The air reeked.

'This way,' said Ryll.

She followed him along a path, trodden to black tar, that wound through thorny shrubbery. Tar bogs shone ominously in the light of the flickering lamps.

'What are you doing here, Ryll? Are you still flesh-forming?'

'It is not my place to tell you such things, Tiaan.'

'You never caught the nylatl, did you?'

'We never did. It disappeared.'

'It killed some good people. I only knew them for a day, but they had become friends.'

'I bitterly regret that I created the beast.' He was much more subdued than before. He seemed, in some strange way, cowed.

'Liett begged you to kill it.'

'I should have listened. I have much to answer for.'

They walked in silence until they came to the edge of a cliff. At least, that was her first thought, though after they turned onto the sticky steps Tiaan understood that it was one of the pits excavated into the tar-saturated sandstone. In the failing moonlight it looked like a pool of ink.

'I can't walk down steps,' she said.

He picked her up, walker and all, and headed down. Tiaan closed its legs so they would not catch on anything. The steps went halfway around the huge excavation but she could not see them. It was eerily dark. The air reeked of tar; the fumes were making her sick.

'How can you live down here?' she said. 'It would kill me.'

'You'll see.'

Ryll turned left, stooped and bore her into a tunnel through the black sandstone. They went along for ages, his feet making tearing sounds on the sticky floor, and through a series of doors. The tar smell faded. Finally they passed through a metal door where Tiaan felt a flow of fresh air, and began to go up again. The rock here was orange sandstone, so soft that it could be excavated with a mattock. There were lights at intervals, lanterns hung on hooks in the wall.

'Not back there,' he said as if reading her thought. 'The risk of fire is too great.'

They passed small open chambers on either side, looking rather the way she imagined an ants' nest to be. Many contained young lyrinx, playing at games rather like human children. Beyond, Ryll led her into an oval sandstone chamber, carved out by hand.

There were many lyrinx in it, standing around, sitting at benches, or bent over plans or documents. Tiaan recognised none of them. She saw humans too, pale-skinned creatures who appeared to have never seen the sun. Though not manacled or restrained in any way, they had the listless look of slaves. Most were young, none older than middle age. Down the far end of the room stood a tall, dark-skinned woman with frizzy hair and filed teeth – a native of the forests of Crandor. She stood by a large piece of slate, making marks on it while three half-grown lyrinx attempted to reproduce them on smaller slates.

'We teach our brightest children to read and write your common tongues,' said Ryll, noting her interest. He urged her forward.

On the other side of the room, a man was reciting while a group of young lyrinx attempted to speak the words back to him. He waved his arms in the air and they fell silent. His left hand was missing.

'My tutor,' Ryll said. 'He has served and taught us all my life. He is the best teacher I know. We are almost friends.' He waved and the man raised his stump.

They continued into another room with a green-crested guard on the door. She allowed them through into a large space crowded with lyrinx. Ryll made a piping whistle and they turned as one. He spoke in his incomprehensible tongue, of which all Tiaan recognised was her name. Everyone stared at her, their skin flashing in lurid, chameleon colours. Tiaan had never learned to read their skin-speech, but it was evident that they were excited. A massive female embraced Ryll, then one by one the others touched him on the shoulder.

Tiaan's skin prickled. She had an overpowering urge to run. Run anywhere, as fast as her legs…

Ryll bowed to his fellows and led Tiaan out.

'What are you doing here, Ryll? Snizort is a long way from where we first met.'

'We are great travellers, Tiaan, but as it happens, this is my home. I lived here until I became a man. Snizort is now our most important city on Lauralin.'

'Until two days ago I had not heard of it. Is this where you learned to speak our language?'

'Yes, from infancy. Some prisoners have been here since before I was born.'

'When were you born, Ryll?'

He named the year.

'But that means you're only fourteen,' she cried.

'That is correct.'

'I thought you were an adult.'

The skin of his feet and hands went a pale yellow. 'We are adults at the age of ten. Most lyrinx my age have been mated long ago. Those who are whole and have wings. Unlike me.'

Just before Tiaan had fled Kalissin, it had seemed that Ryll and Liett might be mated, despite their respective disabilities. 'Is Liett here too?'