Alchymist (73 page)

'You
heard about that?'

'Urien
sent messengers here. They told me you'd broken it, though that doesn't seem to
be the truth.'

She
thinks I'm a liar. 'It was the truth. I broke my back when the amplimet made
the thapter crash near Nyriandiol, but in Snizort the lyrinx flesh-formed it
together' Tiaan shivered at that memory.

'Why
would they do that?' Malien asked.

'They
were using me in a patterner, to pattern a great torgnadr, or node-drainer. My
affliction hindered the patterning, so they fixed it.'

'I
see.'

'You
can look if you like,' Tiaan said hastily. 'The scars are still there.'

'I
can tell truth from lies, Tiaan. How is it now?'

'It
still troubles me, especially at the end of a long day.'

'But
better than the alternative, I dare say,' Malien said with a wintry smile.

Tiaan
did not need to reply. She would never forget those months of paralysed helplessness
in Nyriandiol and Snizort. 'You look different, Malien.'

'How
so?'

'Not
so — younger,' she corrected hastily. 'There seems a little more red in your
hair, and your face isn't as lined .. .'

Malien
picked up the metal platter, brushed away the crumbs and examined her face in
it. 'I was just serving out my time when you first came here, but I have a
purpose now. That can rejuvenate us, for a little while.'

'What
purpose?' Tiaan said curiously.

'Keeping
you out of trouble, for one thing.' Malien changed the subject. 'You escaped
from Vithis?'

'I
had no choice. When Urien's messengers returned from speaking to you, he would
have had me killed.'

Malien
laid down her slice of bread. 'Why do you think that?'

'To
prevent me telling anyone else about the secret of flight 'But he doesn't have
the secret. No one knows, save you and me.'

Tiaan's
mouth fell open, 'But surely . . .? You did not tell them?'

'Why
should I?' 'They are Aachim.'

'We
were sundered from them thousands of years ago, and no matter how we may yearn
to go back, Santhenar is our home now. We are our own people, Tiaan. We broke
the clans in ages past and will never return to that futile struggle for
supremacy. Besides, our Histories tell us to beware of Inthis First Clan, and
especially of men like Vithis. He sounds too much like Tensor, and Pitlis
before him, for my liking. Both were great men, but also great in folly that
brought ruin upon kind. I would never put such a treasure into his hands.' 'He
may be on his way here now. I... I hurt Minis during my escape — I may have
killed him. I dared not stop to find out. And others certainly died. And then .
. .' Tiaan felt so ashamed that she could not meet Malien's eye. She'd taken
the easy way out and regretted every moment since. 'Yes?' Malien said mildly.

'The
people of Clan Elienor were good to me while I was under their guard. And I
escaped, knowing they would be punished severely.'

'Was
your parole asked for, or given?' 'No.'

'Then
your conscience is clear. Indeed, after they get over their initial dismay,
Clan Elienor may feel a certain admiration for you, for outwitting them.' 'But
Minis . . .'

Malien
sighed. 'Disaster follows you everywhere you go, and that's something I must
think about. You'd better tell me about it. Start from the day you left here.'
That took all afternoon, several pots of tea, another meal and, late that
night, a tot or two of liqueur from Malien's private stock. At the end of it,
she said, 'For such a gentle young woman, you certainly have a talent for
mayhem.' 'If Vithis had not held me against my will ... If he hadn't been
planning to—'

You
don't need to explain.' Malien leaned back, pressing her fingers against her
lips.

'There's
one more thing.'

'Go
on.'

'I
did a foolish thing, Malien. Minis swore on the ring I made him — this ring — that
he would do everything in his power to save me. And . . .'

'What?'

'I
didn't believe him. He's so weak. I tried to reinforce his vow for him. I — I
swore by the amplimet—' Malien started. 'I swore by the amplimet that if he
failed me, he'd rue it all his remaining days.'

'That
was . . , not wise, Tiaan.'

Tiaan
could see that she was disturbed. 'And surely, if he's alive, he does rue it.'

"'He
may. So Vithis will track the amplimet and eventually discover that you came
here. I won't be able to hold him back.'

'I'd
better get going,' said Tiaan. 'I was expecting that. And, of course, the Well
of Echoes—'

'It's
stable now. I had a painful struggle after you left, before I tamed it, and
more than once I thought it was going to defeat me. But what the amplimet did
once, it may do again, and more quickly. It may have grown stronger too. Tell
me, did it communicate with any other nodes?'

'Yes,
at Nyriandiol and Snizort. But not since the Snizort node exploded.'

'I
heard about that,' said Malien, shaking her head. 'Was it a unique problem,
with that node, or might all nodes be at risk? I must take advice on the matter.’

'Is
it safe for me to stay till the morning?' Tiaan said wistfully. 'I so long to
sleep in a bed and not be afraid of what's out in the dark, hunting me. I've
not felt secure since I left here.'

'You
may sleep in perfect ease. In the morning we'll leave Tirthrax for somewhere
safer.'

'You're
coming with me?' Tiaan could not keep the joy out of her voice.

'Someone
has to look after you,' Malien said dryly. 'Go up.

Your
old room is ready and I've laid out clean clothes for you.'

How
did you know I was coming?'

Vithis
sent a skeet, ordering me to hold you if you came back. And indeed, where else
could you have gone?'

'Where
are we going?'

'To
my own people, though I'm uncertain of the welcome either you or I will get
there. Bathe and rest in security. I'll keep watch, if that comforts you. We're
going to Stassor in the morning.'

Tiaan
took out the amplimet, the other crystal, the helmet and the tesseract, and did
as she was bade.

Malien
woke Tiaan only minutes before dawn. To Tiaan's surprise, she was ushered into
a different construct, which Malien had repaired during Tiaan's absence. Tiaan
reached for the controls, discovered they were completely unfamiliar, and drew
back. Malien motioned Tiaan into the seat beside her, took hold of a padded
yoke and the machine lifted smoothly into the air.

'It
flies!' Tiaan exclaimed.

'What
we did together last winter rekindled my longstanding interest in the secret of
flight. I feel quite rejuvenated.'

'Where
did you find another amplimet?'

'I
didn't. I use the Art in an entirely different way, if you recall. I've done so
all my life. I found my own path to controlling a thapter.'

Tiaan
was stunned. 'How long have you had this one working?'

'Three
months, more or less, though I've tinkered with it nearly every day, improving
it in various ways. Learning how to make your thapter fly was the hard part.
Once we'd discovered that secret, making another was easy.'

'You
once said you only had a minor talent for such work.'

'I
dissembled. I've a very considerable talent, although for most of my life I've
avoided using it.'

'Why,
Malien?'

'You
don't know your Histories well, do you?'

'Not
of your time.'

'When
I was young . . , well, younger, at any rate, I was partner to Tensor, a
brilliant man but one whose obsession led the world to the abyss. The war, and
the invasion by the lyrinx that led to it, arose out of his folly. Because he
was obsessed with devices, I swore not to use my talent, and for more than two
hundred years I have not.'

'And
now?'

'Times
change, and so must we, to suit them. Not using my talent for the cause I
believe in would be just as great a folly.'

'Does
Urien know about your thapter?'

'No.
I had warning of her messengers, so I made sure it looked innocuous. Even had
they gone inside, they could not have flown it. It's designed to be controlled
by my mind, and mine alone.'

'What
if I were to put in my amplimet?' said Tiaan forlornly. She'd thought, after
coming to Tirthrax, that she might obtain another set of carbon whiskers and
diamond crystals, and make her construct fly.

'I
wouldn't want to risk my life that way. Should it become necessary, I'll make
changes so you can fly it.'

Passing
through the entrance, which was hung with blue icicles as long as Tiaan was
tall, Malien turned the thapter over the great Tirthrax glacier and followed
it, winding up into the high mountains, until the air grew so thin that Tiaan's
every breath was an effort. Malien did not seem to be troubled, but she had
lived in the mountains all her life. It grew bitterly cold, even with the hatch
closed.

'Go
below,' the Aachim said. 'Pull out the bunk at the rear. It's warmer there.'

Tiaan
did so. It lay directly above the mechanism that drove the thapter but, even
so, wrapped in blankets, Tiaan was cold. She lay down and closed her eyes,
fretting. All the Tirthrax Aachim had gone to Stassor the year before last, to
a great meeting about the war. Only Malien had remained in Tirthrax. Though she
was venerated as a hero from the Histories, her own people did not trust her.
She had not been welcome at their meet, so how could Tiaan be?

Stassor
lay within the great mountain chain that ran down the eastern side of Lauralin,
from beyond Tiksi in the south, all the way to the north-easternmost tip of the
continent at Taranta. In a straight line, Stassor was about two hundred and
forty leagues from Tirthrax, but they could not travel in a straight line.

First
they had to cross the Great Mountains, which were so high that not even Malien
could breathe at their summits. She had to travel a winding course along
glacier-filled valleys, with bare ridges as sharp as flakes of flint towering
above them on either side, and then across the high plateau, the most
inhospitable environment in the world. That rugged land was perpetually
sheathed in ice. Nothing grew there. Nothing could have lived there, unless it
had crept out of the void through some dark aperture when the Way between the Worlds
was open, and delved deep into the underlying rock to suck at the warmth, and
brood.

Malien
dawdled, as if no more anxious to reach Stassor than Tiaan was. She ventured up
every icy valley to its vantage point, sometimes only travelling for an hour or
two before stopping to spend the rest of the day at some spectacular lookout,
wrapped in her blankets and silently taking in the scene. It felt like a
farewell journey, a final visit to everything that was beautiful and unspoiled.
The trip took twenty-one days, though only after fifteen had passed did Tiaan
shake free from the helpless terror that had controlled her life since
Gilhaelith had been taken from ooreah Ngurle many months ago. For the first
time she felt safe. Who would not, with Malien looking after them? No one could
have tracked them across this wasteland. No construct could cross the Great
Mountains. They were impassable on foot, by any land conveyance and even by
air-floaters, since the lowest passes were higher than such machines could rise.

Malien
did not question Tiaan about the intervening months, though she did show an
unexpected interest in Gilhaelith. 'Where did he come from, do you think?'

'Somewhere
on Meldorin. He would not talk about his past, more than I've told you.'

'An
interesting man,' said Malien. 'And not entirely old human, surely. I wonder
what his lineage is?'

'What
do you mean?' said Tiaan.

"To
have lived so long, surely he must have blood of the longer-lived species in
him — Aachim or Faellem, or even Charon.'

Tiaan
had not thought about that. 'But mancers can lengthen their own lives.'

'More
lose their lives in the attempt than survive it, so it's attempted less often
than you might imagine. And even at its best it rarely returns them to their
youth. A hale middle age is the most that can be expected. For the unfortunate,
however, it means death, or worse.'

'What
could be worse?'

'Ending
up as a monstrosity with your body parts in the wrong places, begging for
release and being unable to find it.'

'Well,
Gilhaelith's dead, so it doesn't matter,' said Tiaan after a long silence. He
was another painful memory. It reminded her of the one man who hadn't let her
down: Merryl, last seen trudging around the side of the hill near Snizort. Had
he just exchanged one form of slavery for another?

'How
do you know?' said Malien.

Tiaan
came back to the present. 'I don't suppose I do . . .'