Chimaera (29 page)

‘What a miserable place,’ said Irisis, shivering. ‘I’m not looking forward to my turn on sentry duty.’

‘I’d better make sure they’ve changed the watch,’ said Yggur, rising painfully and going up the ladder. ‘A man could freeze to death outside without realising it.’

‘He’s looking very weary,’ said Nish after Yggur had gone.

‘I feel the burden too,’ said Klarm.

Malien was sitting on the floor, cross-legged, peeling a warty green fruit the size of an orange. Inside, blood-red pyramidal segments were packed together in pairs, one up and one down, separated by yellow pith. She seemed far away as she arranged the segments neatly on an enamelled plate.

Shortly Yggur returned, clapping his gloves together. He took off outer and inner pairs and began to rub his hands over his face. ‘Malien,’ he said at last. ‘You’ve been quiet lately. What have you got to say?’

‘What makes you think I’ve anything to say?’ she said, selecting the smallest of the segments and popping it in her mouth.

‘I know you of old, remember. You have a plan in mind, don’t you?’

‘I wouldn’t call it a plan.’ She chose another segment.

‘An idea, then.’

‘A possibility occurred to me earlier but I dismissed it out of hand. It was too perilous to consider further.’

‘I don’t see how we can be in more danger than we’re already in,’ said Nish.

‘Do you not, Artificer?’ Malien looked at him, into him and through him with those ageless green eyes that had seen everything. ‘But of course, you’re barely out of childhood. You could not understand.’

Nish flushed and turned away. Irisis smiled inwardly. He never knew when to shut up. She noticed Yggur watching Malien with tense expectation.

‘More perilous than losing the war?’ he said at last.

‘I don’t know!’ she said forcefully, losing her calm for a moment. ‘That’s the problem.’

‘Then let’s hear your idea. Between all of us, we should be able to see the good and the bad in it.’

‘We don’t know what we’re doing, and we
can’t
know. I – no, it’s too perilous. Better we give up and go home, rather than attempt it.’

‘And leave the world to the scrutators?’ cried Nish.

Yggur waved him to silence. ‘What’s your idea, Malien?’

She arranged the remaining segments in a star shape, then moved the points in until they formed a circle, an unbroken barrier with a single segment in the middle. ‘Very well. There’s no way in from outside. But what about from
inside
?’

‘I don’t follow you,’ said Irisis.

Malien looked as though she regretted having it prised out of her. She glanced up the ladder as if to make sure that no one could overhear her, then lowered her voice. ‘I had in mind to try and wake Tiaan’s amplimet.’

‘I
don’t understand,’ said Irisis. ‘No crystal can be used until it’s been activated, which we artisans call waking, so surely the amplimet has to be awake already.’

‘We Aachim use the word in a different way,’ said Malien. She let out a heavy sigh and her years fell upon her. ‘Since the moment Tiaan revealed the amplimet to me in Tirthrax I’ve been afraid of it, and I’m not the only one. Vithis was against its use from the beginning, and had not his people stood in peril of extinction he would never have allowed it.’

‘Then why did you let Tiaan keep it?’

‘What would
I
have done with it? I could not have remained in Tirthrax once the amplimet began to communicate with the node, nor taken it to any other place with a powerful node. Tiaan had used it safely for half a year and I judged it was better off in her hands.’

‘Until someone took it from her,’ said Nish.

‘I cannot see the future,’ said Malien frostily, ‘and
I’m
not so arrogant as to think I know better than everyone else.’

But you
do
think that, Irisis thought. It’s one of the defining characteristics of the Aachim, even you.

‘Besides,’ Malien went on, ‘back then I was just serving out my days, bidding a prolonged farewell to Santhenar and all I’d loved in it, before going to the Well. If not for Tiaan I would have left this world by now.’

‘A path I’ve also thought about taking,’ said Yggur. ‘Lives can be
too
long. What’s the point, when you’ve seen everything and done everything?’ he ruminated. ‘What changed your mind, Malien?’

‘By the time Tiaan returned to Tirthrax I’d seen just what a dangerous path the world was on. I had to act for the good of my own kind, and all humankind. That’s why I took Tiaan to Stassor, and why I subsequently disobeyed the edict of my people and carried her to safety.

‘But on our way west, I stopped to give succour to Clan Elienor, my distant kin, exiled for allowing Tiaan to escape from their custody. I sat down with the leaders of Elienor and they told me what they knew about amplimets.’ Her voice dropped. ‘And then I knew fear, as I’ve not known it since the time of the Mirror.’

‘What did they tell you?’ said Irisis in a whisper. It would have felt wrong to speak in a normal voice.

‘This isn’t the first amplimet to have been found. There was another, in the distant past of our own world, and it nearly brought my people undone.’

‘Really? What happened?’ said Yggur.

‘I don’t know, exactly. It was long before Clan Elienor’s time. Even their elders haven’t been able to uncover the details, though they discovered that the sacred Histories of Aachan were changed to hide the truth. There are bitter enmities behind the rivalries of the clans,’ Malien said. ‘Very bitter and longstanding ones. It’s no wonder Vithis’s plan to seize half of Santhenar has come to naught – the clans can’t even agree on the conquest of another world.’

‘Was it the crystal that was perilous,’ said Yggur, ‘or the bickering over it?’

‘Both, I think,’ said Malien. ‘But certainly the amplimet woke and began to draw power for itself, and no one could control it.’

‘Well, that was thousands of years ago,’ said Yggur. ‘The Art has moved on a long way since then. Maybe we
should
consider waking Tiaan’s amplimet, if it’s the only way we can get into Nennifer.’

‘We’ve always known that it needed a strong hand,’ said Flydd, a glint in his eye. ‘We’ve plenty of strong hands here, so let’s get on with it.’

‘Let’s not be hasty,’ said Yggur mildly. ‘I’d want to know what we’re letting ourselves in for, first. Explain what you mean about
waking
it, Malien.’

‘When Tiaan first saw the crystal,’ said Malien, ‘she said that it was
awake
, meaning that it was drawing power by itself. Not much power, only enough to make it glow, but some. Who knows how long it had been doing that? A thousand years? A million? And perhaps at some stage in that aeon, or later when Tiaan began to use it, it developed a kind of crystalline awareness. At Tirthrax it began to communicate with the node. I don’t know why, but it wouldn’t allow Tiaan to take it away in the thapter and later, when she tried to defy it near Nyriandiol, it caused the thapter to crash. It also communicated with the node at Snizort, though it hasn’t acted up since Tiaan fled. I dare say Vithis drove it back to its previous suspended state …’

‘From which you plan to rouse it,’ said Irisis, trying to understand. ‘What will happen if you succeed?’

‘I
hope
it will reach out to the node that sustains Nennifer,’ said Malien. ‘’

‘How is that going to help us?’

‘I think I can see what you’ve got in mind,’ said Klarm. ‘At the best of times, Nennifer uses most of the field. Now they’re using almost all of it; that’s why the node is under such strain –’

‘Once the amplimet reaches out to the node,’ said Flydd, ‘their devices will start to fail. They won’t know what’s going on and we’ll attack in the confusion.’

‘What if Fusshte realises it’s the amplimet?’ said Yggur. ‘He must have interrogated Tiaan by now.’

‘He won’t know what’s happened,’ said Flydd.

‘Wait on!’ Yggur was frowning. ‘What happens after the amplimet is roused?’

‘How do you mean?’ said Klarm.

‘Why does it communicate with the node? What’s it trying to do and how can it be stopped once we’re inside? How is it put to sleep again?’

‘That’s why I was reluctant to mention the idea in the first place,’ said Malien. ‘No one knows why it communicates with nodes, but it can be stopped by taking it out of range – twenty or thirty leagues in this case – or by putting it inside a sealed platinum box, which the field can’t penetrate.’

‘Have we such a box?’ said Yggur.

‘No, but we have the materials to make one,’ said Flydd. ‘It wouldn’t take long.’

‘And how do we wake it?’

‘I think I can do that,’ said Malien. Flydd’s eyes bored into her but she did not elaborate. Evidently she did not plan to share that secret.

‘What if they already keep it in a platinum box and we can’t wake it?’ said Yggur.

‘Then we’re beaten and will have to think of another plan,’ said Flydd. ‘But remember who we’re dealing with, Yggur. The Council is greedy and they’ve always seen sheer power as the way to win the war. Having finally got their hands on this wondrous amplimet, they’ll be working night and day to find out how they can use it.’

‘Cautiously, perhaps.’

‘When it comes to the Art, their mastery of devices has made them arrogant. They’re the most powerful group of mancers ever assembled for a common purpose, and they have hundreds of skilled mancers to do the dirty work and take the risks. So,’ Flydd said, ‘when the amplimet does wake, they’ll have no reason to assume that the interference has come from outside.’

‘How is waking it going to advantage us?’ said Yggur. ‘We can’t know
what
the amplimet will do, so how can we know
where
to attack Nennifer?’

‘We’ll have to be ready to take advantage of whatever opportunity comes our way,’ said Flydd.

‘That’s not good enough,’ said Yggur. ‘Even if the amplimet were to disable every sentinel and device in Nennifer, there will still be seven hundred guards to deal with. We can’t fight our way in.’

‘We’ve got to have a clear and specific plan.’ Klarm scratched his belly. ‘Would it be possible to
direct
the amplimet, so it creates an opportunity we can use?’

‘I’m reluctant to do that,’ said Malien.

‘Why?’

‘It … I’m afraid it might try to take control of me.’

There was a long silence. Xervish Flydd finally broke it. ‘Is there something you aren’t telling us?’

Malien looked anywhere but at him. It was the first time Irisis had seen her at a disadvantage.

‘Malien?’ said Yggur.

‘The one found on Aachan got out of control,’ she said with evident reluctance. ‘Whole clans were wiped out in a great cataclysm, though whether it was caused by the amplimet, or the clans fighting over it, no one will say.’

‘But you’re afraid it was the amplimet?’

‘I’m very afraid. That a crystal – an inanimate lump of rock – should communicate with a node is an abomination. This one has already woken once, so
what does it want
?’

‘A serious question,’ said Flydd, ‘though not one we can answer. We must rely on our own judgment, and I say we use the amplimet. What’s our alternative? Only to run away and hide until the Council’s incompetence finally brings our world to an end.’

‘How can an inanimate piece of crystal want anything?’ said Nish. ‘It’s absurd.’

‘How can it communicate with a node?’ said Malien. ‘I agree, the notion is preposterous. Nonetheless, the amplimet has done so, and that surely isn’t the end of it. It’s deadly and it can turn on you in an instant, as Ghaenis, son of Tirior, found to his cost.’

‘I’m going to destroy the Council and I’m prepared to take my chances on the amplimet,’ said Flydd. ‘If it takes control of me my troubles will be over. But I sense there’s more, Malien.’

The thapter creaked as the wind, which was increasing as nightfall approached, battered at its left flank.

‘There’s more,’ she said.

‘So if we follow Flydd’s plan,’ said Yggur, ‘we not only have to overcome the scrutators and all their forces; we’ve got to find the amplimet and shut it up in your platinum box with the utmost dispatch.’

‘Yes,’ Malien said faintly. ‘Why don’t we continue after dinner? I’m more fatigued than I thought.’

Flydd put on his coat and gloves, lurched up the ladder and went out into the dark.

After dinner Irisis had restless legs from being cooped up too long, so she went outside, pacing across the gritty ground. The night was overcast though not completely dark, and shortly the outline of one of the guards loomed up. ‘Flangers?’ she said softly.

‘Yes. What brings you out here?’

‘A need to stretch my legs. And too much company.’

‘I know what you mean,’ he said. ‘In truth, I’d sooner spend the whole night on watch than crammed into the bowels of the thapter.’

‘Quite. Which way did Flydd go?’

He pointed to the left. Irisis went right. She’d had enough of the scrutator for the moment. She climbed the slope for a few hundred paces but soon felt short of breath and sat down on a rock shaped like a toadstool. The thapter was out of sight, the world reduced to a few dark outlines.