Alchymist (69 page)

'I
never thought I'd say it' Flydd said, 'but the age of scrutators is over.'

'But
who would order the world?' Despite everything she'd experienced, Irisis was no
revolutionary. She believed in the system they had, faulty though it was.

'I
don't know. The trouble with tyrants is that so few are benevolent. Power
corrupts, and most of those who seek it are already corrupt. That's the
insoluble problem — replacing the Council without making things worse.'

'What
about you, surr?'

'I
don't want it, Irisis.'

'I've
heard it said that the only man suitable for high office is the one who refuses
to accept it.'

'An
appropriate paradox . . .'

He
broke off and Irisis did not question him further. It was all too disturbing.

Around
the middle of the day they saw trees in the distance, and sunlight shining on
water. 'Orist,' said Eiryn Muss.

A
land of lakes, mires and swamp forests, it stretched northwest beyond sight.
'Where are we going, Muss?' asked Irisis.

'I
don't know,' said the perfect spy, which was also worrying.

Sometime
later, Irisis saw, away to her left in the west, a rugged coastline, and beyond
it, what she took to be the Western Ocean.

'I
presume we're not going across the ocean?' she said to Flydd. 'I hope not,
since the patches are leaking again.' They had been losing altitude steadily,
despite the floater-gas generator.

'We're
not.' Flydd folded his arms across his skinny chest.

'Hadn't
we better look for a refuge for the night?'

'I
already have a place in mind,' he said.

'I
didn't know you'd spent time on Meldorin before.'

'No
reason why you should.'

'I
wish you'd tell me what's going on!' For the past few weeks she had felt in
control of her life, but as soon as Flydd reappeared, that had all been
overturned. She didn't like it.

'I
will, when I know myself.'

He
turned away. She followed him down the back, where the pilot sagged in a canvas
chair, listlessly holding the controller. 'How are you feeling, Inouye?'

'Better,
though my fingers hurt.' Inouye inspected her blackened nails.

'You'll
probably lose your fingernails,' said Flydd, 'though they'll grow back.'

'It
doesn't matter' she said. 'I have no man to admire them.'

'If
it is in my power' said the scrutator, 'you will be reunited with your family.
You have my promise on that.'

'Oh!'
A flush crept up Inouye's cheeks. She clenched one fist around the controller
knob, concealing the other in her pocket. 'What may I do for you, surr?'

'I'd
like to get there before dark. Can you go a little faster?' He checked the map
against the country below. 'And somewhat to the left.'

The
rotor spun up and the air-floater edged onto its new heading. Irisis watched
the lakes and bogs go by. If Flydd did not want to tell her what he was up to,
no force could make him. She supposed he had his reasons.

Nish
came up beside her, rubbing his eyes.

She
wanted to throw her arms around him and squeeze him against her, but Irisis
restrained herself to an affectionate pat on the shoulder. She could wait-
How's your head?'

Better.
What happened? I don't remember going to sleep.

Have
I slept all day?'

She
laughed with relief. 'You fell down and smacked your head against the stern
post, just after we rescued you.’

He
glanced that way. 'How could that happen?' Nish went pale. 'The rotor —’

'The
air-floater was going up steeply. You slid backwards under it and whacked into
the post.'

'I
knocked myself out?'

'You've
been asleep for two and a half days.'

He
ran a hand through his thick hair and winced. 'That explains the hollow in my
belly.'

'Can
I get you something to eat? It's only stew, I'm afraid, and days old.'

'Stew!'
he exclaimed.

She
mistook his meaning. 'I'm sorry, but bloody old Flydd —’

'Where
is it? Quick!' He took her by the hand.

'Down
here. Look, we've a little galley.' She led the way out of the cabin to a tiny
room behind it, so small that she could touch all four walls with her
outstretched arms. 'And we can't cook anything here, of course, because of the
floater gas, so it's cold I'm afraid . . .'

Nish
pushed past her, snatched a ladle off its hook and took a scoop out of the pot.
Slurping down a mouthful, he gasped, 'That's goood!'

'You've
got soup all over your face' said Irisis, wiping his cheek with her hand.
They'd not spent time together since he'd left the manufactory in the balloon,
last winter. She'd missed him terribly.

'I'm
so hungry I could go into the pot head-first, and not come out until I'd licked
it shiny clean.'

'It's
not that good,' she said.

'Do
you know what our last meal on the island was?'

'Fish?
Mussels? Bird's eggs?'

'There
weren't any edible shellfish and I don't recommend barnacles. In nine days we
didn't catch a single fish. There's nothing to eat down there — no snakes, no
lizards, no eggs. Not even an earthworm.'

'How
did you survive?'

'Seaweed
and belt soup.'

'What's
belt soup?'

'We
cut my belt into strips and boiled it for about ten hours. It still tasted like
boiled leather. Next we were going to eat Flydd's stinking old boots, and if
you think I was looking forward to that —’

'I
get the picture,' she said hastily. And it explained why Flydd had been so
irritable, if he'd been close to starvation.

Irisis
watched Nish while he ate, thinking how changed he was from the young man she'd
seen off in the balloon, and even from the Nish she'd encountered briefly at
the Aachim camp, before the battle of Snizort.

'It's
so good to see you, Nish. So good.' Impulsively, she embraced him.

He
set down the ladle before it dribbled down her back, and wiped his mouth. And
you, Irisis. I feel as though I've lived an entire life since I left the
manufactory. And, from what the scrutator told me, you've been just as busy.'
Nish pulled away, inspecting her. 'You look . . .'

'What?'
she prompted after a long pause. 'Old? Haggard? Ugly?'

'You
look the same, though . . . There seems to be more of you 'Well, thank you very
much,' she said in mock outrage. Actually —’

'I meant
as a person. You look more confident, even stronger than you were, and .., at
peace with yourself 'If you only knew!' she exclaimed. And yet, in a way, I
have found peace. Life has never been more insecure, I'm an outlaw under
sentence of death, the scrutators will probably execute me in some hideous way,
and yet — Oh, Nish!' She threw her arms around him again. 'I've got my
long-lost talent back. I'm not a fraud any more. I feel almost happy'.

You
never were a fraud to me, Irisis.'

'But
I was in my own eyes.' After a moment's reflection she said, 'So how are you?
You've changed. Nish. You're not the man who left us, last winter.'

'The
boy', he said scornfully. 'I was no man. Yes, I have changed. I've seen enough
adventure for a dozen lifetimes.'

'It's
done you good.' She looked him up and down. 'You're a handsome man now. I like
your beard.'

'It's
better than scraping the skin off my face every morning.' He eyed her. 'I do
believe you look more magnificent than ever. You seem to have bloomed.'

'I
had a new lover for a while, Nish, no less than the scrutator himself, though
it's over now.' She hadn't told Flydd yet. She hoped he'd take it well.

'I
thought there was something between you, back when Flydd came to negotiate with
Vithis. What else have you been up to?'

'Oh,
I've had a few adventures too. A couple of run-ins with your father. A spell
down in the tar pits of Snizort. You know the sort of thing.'

He
leaned on the wall, companionably. 'It's a wonder we didn't run into each
other. Why don't you tell me about it?'

'I'd
rather hear your story, Nish, if you don't mind.'

He
was happy to relate it, sitting on the port side, towards the stern, out of the
wind, with Irisis facing him. She listened in silence until he mentioned Ullii
being pregnant with his child.

'You
didn't know!' she said incredulously.

'No
one told me, and she was wearing a smock like a tent. How was I to tell?
Nonetheless, I let her down, and now I'm paying for it.'

He
went on with his story: the attack in the clearing, how his folly had brought
down the air-floater, the ghastly death of Mylii, Ullii fleeing and not being
seen again, and all the anguish that had caused him.

She
knew he was telling the whole truth. Irisis took his hand, glad she'd held off
from saying how she really felt — he was in no state to hear it. Her suit was
going to be longer than she'd expected, and she'd have to be more careful. Not
Ullii! she thought. No woman could be more wrong for him. Surely it could never
come to pass?

She
bit down on the jealousy. 'How you must have suffered.'

'It
cost me dear — not least the child I'll never know. That's the hardest thing of
all.'

'There's
been no word of Ullii?'

'It's
as if she vanished off the face of Lauralin. And she hates me, Irisis, though
it was just a terrible accident. It was dark; I thought he was attacking her.
He just reared back onto the knife and it went right into him.' He choked.

She
drew him to her, folding her long arms around his compact, muscled body. 'You
don't have to justify yourself to me,' she said softly.

'But
I do have to live with it. Ah, Irisis, how I've missed you.'

'Do
you want to tell me the rest of the story?'

'Maybe
later. Where are we, anyway?'

'Heading
up the western side of Meldorin Island.'

'Meldorin!'
he cried, looking over the side as if to see lyrinx everywhere. 'Where are we
going?'

'No
idea. Bloody Flydd is acting all mysterious, as usual.'

The
sun went down into the ocean to their left, and the evening light faded
swiftly, though before it grew completely dark they beheld the walls of a great
fortress in the distance. Black it was, even blacker than the shadowy forest
that surrounded it, a forbidding wall of stone encircling a yard, and an inner
fortress with horned towers.

'Is
that our destination?' Nish asked Flydd, who was walking by.

'It
is.' Flydd cast him an unreadable glance. 'Dragged yourself out of bed at last,
I see.'

Nish
didn't rise to the bait. He was used to Flydd's ways by now, and the tone had
been almost affectionate. 'It's not a lyrinx fortress?'

'It
belongs to an older power.' Flydd continued down to Inouye. 'Go over the outer
wall, Inouye, and come down in the yard by the horned tower. See it there?'

'I
see it.' Her voice was like a single page falling to the ground.

The
air-floater passed over the wall. No guards could be seen, so Inouye settled
the machine in the bleak yard. It came to rest without a bump. The rotor slowly
spun down, the floater-gas generator fell silent.

Again
that shiver up Irisis's spine.

'I
don't like this place. Where are we?'

'We're
in the one place in Meldorin that the scrutators will never find us. Not even
the lyrinx dare come here. This is the ancient Aachim fortress of Fiz Gorge.’

Somewhere
within the fortress an alarm clanged, like a broken bell.

'Fiz
Gorgo!' cried Nish. 'Wasn't that the fortress of the great mancer Yggur, back
in the time of the Tale of the Mirror?'

'It
was,' said Flydd, and Irisis could hear him cracking his knuckles anxiously.

'Who
controls it now?'

'We're
about to find out. Climb up on top of the cabin, Nish, and tear open that patch
on the airbag.'

'What?'
he cried.

'Just
do it, and be quick; Flydd hissed, 'or the enemy will breakfast on your
kidneys.'

Irisis
wondered if the scrutator had gone mad. So, evidently, did Nish, but he did
what he was told, then sprang down again. Floater gas sighed from the gash and
slowly the balloon sagged until, in a few minutes, the structure of its wire
ribs could be seen. Gravel crunched under the keel as the cabin tilted onto its
side.

Nish
began to climb over the rail. 'Stay where you are,' Flydd said quietly.

They
waited. All was silent. No bird sang, no cricket chirped. Not a single leaf
rustled.