‘I’ve never been there,’ said Flydd. ‘I was relying on you.’
‘You blinded me, remember?’
‘It’s your eyes that have gone, not your brain. Just tell me the sequence of turns.’
That was harder than it sounded. Irisis was not used to working that way and when she tried to recall the path it vanished from her mind. She panicked and he had to calm her before they could continue. Precious minutes were lost.
She did not like it down here. Being blind in the tunnels was somehow worse than being lost in the dark. But they eventually found the shaft that the miners had sunk down to the massive crystal. The pumps were working sluggishly, powered by the diminished field. Thud-thud-THUD; THUD-thud-THUD.
‘Look at that!’ The scrutator whistled.
‘Don’t!’ she said irritably. ‘You’ve got to tell me things.’
‘The crystal is gigantic – a perfect prism of quartz as tall as you are.’
‘Doesn’t necessarily mean it’s any good,’ she said peevishly. ‘Most crystals are useless.’
‘This one’s different. Even I can tell that. Let’s get to work. Find the field, quickly.’
With her pliance, Irisis saw it at once. ‘It’s weak.’ It was fluttery and hard to monitor. She was trying to get a good image of it, which proved unexpectedly difficult, when she had the strange sense of being watched from afar. How could that be, through solid rock? She rested her head on the stone, struggling to work out what was going on.
‘What’s that?’ she hissed, facing the other way.
‘What?’
‘I thought I heard something.’
‘I didn’t hear anything.’
She paced, trying to extract sense from what her ears were telling her. No, it hadn’t been a sound, rather the absence of one. ‘The pumps have stopped working.’
‘Water’s flooding into the bottom of the pit,’ said Flydd. ‘Check the field.’
She tried. ‘There is no field now, Xervish.’
‘There’s got to be something, this close to the crystal, if it is actually the node.’
‘There’s not a trace.’
‘It was there a minute ago.’
‘Well, it’s not there now –’ Thud-thud-THUD. The pumps were working again. ‘I don’t understand. How can it be there one minute and gone the next? And … it felt as if someone was watching, but from a long way away.’
‘Maybe the enemy is watching. Maybe they sensed you and turned up their node-drainer.’
‘Is there any way to find it?’
‘They’d hide it somewhere inconspicuous. It doesn’t have to be close to the node, of course, though the closer the better.’
The pumps stopped and a whistling sound arose from low in the pit – threads of water forced through the joins of the metal sleeve. The sound became shrill, then ping, ping, ping.
‘What’s that?’ she whispered.
‘The bolts shearing,’ said Flydd. ‘The whole thing is failing.’
They tried to induce an aura with the reader but the node was now so dead that they could not draw the required power.
‘Now what?’ said Irisis.
‘We can’t do it when there’s no field at all. We’ll have to wait. If it comes back, even for a minute, we’ll try again. Let’s scout around and see what we can find in the meantime.’
They went up and down the tunnel, Irisis trying to visualise any kind of power seep, the scrutator searching in his own, mancer’s way. Some distance along, the tunnel was blocked by a rockfall. They turned back to the shaft.
‘This hasn’t been any use either,’ said Irisis.
‘Oh, I don’t know,’ replied Jal-Nish, stepping out from behind a pillar. Golden lamplight reflected from the platinum mask. The ragged hole made in the cheekpiece by the crossbow bolt was still there. ‘Hard work pays off, if you’re patient enough.’
FORTY-SIX
Irisis wanted to die. Just as well, she thought, since I’m about to do just that.
Flydd gave a mirthless laugh. ‘Good to see you again, acting scrutator. You’re looking well.’
‘I’ve never felt better,’ said Jal-Nish. ‘Why have you come back?’
‘To make certain of why the nodes are failing.’
Jal-Nish’s single eye narrowed. ‘And why are they?’
Don’t tell him! Irisis prayed. It’s your only bargaining chip.
‘Because the enemy is draining the field from them.’
Jal-Nish’s laugh raised hairs on the back of her neck. ‘I believe we’ve already disproved that one, Xervish! It’s too late; I’ve had you dismissed. You’re not scrutator any more, you’re not even a citizen. You’re nothing! No one will listen to a thing you say. Don’t you find that galling? You’re an invisible man, Xervish.’
‘Considering what the scrutators did to me when I was young, I have no wish to grow old among them.’
‘You could have fooled me.’
‘I did. It wasn’t hard. You’re a brilliant man, Jal-Nish, no question about it, but you see only what’s on the track straight in front of you.’
Jal-Nish yawned. ‘The same old flaccid wit and pointless jibes, Xervish. It’s so tiresome.’
There was a long silence, in which Irisis felt sure she could hear something ticking. Could it be the crystal? She tried to sense the field but her pliance showed her nothing.
‘But you, Irisis, I am prepared to give another chance. It was only during the previous escape that I understood what a talented woman you are. We need people like you.’
What was he talking about? The way she had used the field against that mancer on the aqueduct?
‘Take it, Irisis,’ Flydd said in a stage whisper. ‘It’s your only chance.’
‘I know what kind of a man you are, Jal-Nish,’ she said. ‘Do you think I’d give myself into your hands?’
‘You’re already in them,’ said Jal-Nish. ‘I’m not alone. How did you think I found you so quickly?’
‘No doubt you’re about to tell me,’ said Flydd. ‘You never miss a chance to demonstrate your own cleverness.’
‘And you’re any different?’ Jal-Nish snarled. ‘You don’t have a choice, Irisis. You’re coming with me anyway. But things will be easier if you come willingly.’
‘I don’t think I’ll bother,’ she said as casually as she could, taking her cue from Flydd. ‘Thanks all the same.’
Jal-Nish must have been expecting that. He snapped his fingers and she heard marching feet. ‘A squad of six soldiers, armed with crossbows,’ Flydd said in her ear. ‘And Ullii behind them.’
Of course. Ullii could see forms of power in her lattice, and people who had it. Jal-Nish would have ordered her to keep watch for them, and as soon as Xervish, or Irisis, appeared in the lattice Ullii knew where to find them. They had walked into a trap. Why hadn’t Flydd realised? Why hadn’t she?
‘This is a mistake,’ said Flydd, and now there was a note of desperation in his voice Irisis had never heard before. She hoped he was putting it on. Surely he had not come down here without a plan of escape. He’d better have, because she could think of nothing. ‘Jal-Nish –’
‘I must say I’m surprised,’ said Jal-Nish. ‘The great scrutator allowing himself into a situation where there was no way out. It’s not like you, Xervish.’
‘Only my friends call me Xervish,’ said Flydd, seeming to recover his composure.
‘And I was never your friend, was I, Flydd? You did your best to thwart me from the moment I became perquisitor.’
‘That’s part of the test, and those who would be scrutator must pass it on their own. You cannot buy the favour of the Council. I knew you’d rise to your level of incompetence without my assistance.’
Jal-Nish showed no sign of being nettled. ‘I expected more of you, Flydd. But then, some rise and stay up; others fail as quickly as a salmon after spawning.’