'I don't know. I didn't expect it to go this way.'
'It's our chance.' Opening the shutter of the lantern, she pointed it upwards and began to blink it rapidly.
'They won't come,' he said. 'The lyrinx will have got them.'
'It's worth a try.'
Shortly Irisis heard the faint whirr of the rotor and, in the greatest miracle of all time, the air-floater appeared above them. Ullii sprang up. Irisis threw herself over the side, jerked Flydd in and they were away.
'Drop all the ballast,' Flydd shouted to Pilot Hila. 'Up fast and high, away from here. Go! Quick as you can.'
The sandbags went over and the air-floater shot up like a balloon released under water. 'Away!' roared Flydd, pointing south.
Irisis looked down into the collapsed dome chamber, which glowed white, red, and slowly faded. 'It's going out,' she said. 'It must have destroyed itself and plugged up the drainer.'
'It hasn't,' Flydd growled. 'Faster, pilot!'
'Oh, look!' Irisis was staring beyond the wall, where a glowing speck had appeared a few leagues north. 'Isn't that where the node is -'
'Cover your eyes, everyone,' Flydd roared, casting Ullii onto the floor of the cabin and tossing his coat over her. 'Don't look toward the node.'
'Why not?' Irisis said. 'I -'
His rough hand went over her eyes. 'Do what you're damn well told. Turn away!'
Too late. The node erupted in a brilliant purply-white flare that went straight up for a thousand spans. Irisis could see it through her closed eyes; even through the scrutator's fingers. More fire followed it, and more, until it was like a giant needle spanning ground and sky. The needle began to rotate faster and faster, white, blue-white, violet, white again; then it exploded, spinning threads of fire in all directions.
As Flydd threw her through the cabin door, the shockwave hit them with a roar that almost burst her eardrums. The rotor tore away from the air-floater and went spinning into the night. The air-floater turned upside down, dropping them onto the cabin ceiling, then to the floor as the weight righted it. Out of the corner of her eye Irisis saw someone go over the side – one of the soldiers, she thought. Ullii screamed once but the trauma was too much. She collapsed into her silence.
'Are we all right?' Flydd called. He shouted names. All but two answered, the soldier and Navigator Nivulee, who had been at the back when the shockwave hit. She must have been thrown straight out.
'Pull the emergency release, Hila,' said Flydd. 'We've got to go down.'
They drifted away from Snizort toward the rows of clankers on the plain, slowly descending.
'We're going to make it,' said Irisis, reaching out to Flydd. 'Oh, Xervish, we've survived despite everything.'
He pushed past like she was not there, stumbled and clung to the rail. He was panting as if he'd just run a race. She joined him.
They landed hard in the middle of the battlefield, lyrinx to one side, clankers and constructs on the other. The node was an incandescent mass. In the other direction the sun was just tipping the eastern horizon.
Ullii sat up. 'I'm thirsty.'
Irisis hugged her. 'Ullii, thank heavens you're all right.'
The seeker thrust her away so hard that Irisis fell down. 'Liar, liar!' she screamed.
As Irisis rolled over, her hand touched her pliance. 'What's happened to the field?' she said numbly. 'I can't see it.'
'Gone! All fields gone. Node gone.'
'What do you mean, all gone?' choked Irisis.
With a great cry, the lyrinx charged. The clankers did not move. Nor did the constructs. They lay flat on the ground, silent and still.
'What have we done?' said Irisis. 'The constructs are not moving either.'
'Nor will they, ever again. The node has been destroyed and all the fields with it. We've lost the war.' Flydd sank to his knees in the tarry mud. 'We've lost everything.'