Geomancer (Well of Echoes) (47 page)

He went still, baffled. ‘I don’t understand. What emotion are you feeling now? Why were you afraid? I was not going to eat you.’

‘You’re a male!’ she choked. ‘And … And …’ She could not say it.

The bony crest on Ryll’s head flashed from lizard-grey to brilliant reds and yellows. Without a word he stalked to the mouth of the cave, tossed back the skin and hurled himself through.

Tiaan watched him crash down the steep slope. She could not even think of escape. Her muscles felt so wasted she could not have walked a hundred steps. Shrugging off the bearskin, she examined herself. There were scratches and bruises all over her body. Making a drying line with the rope, she cracked ice off her clothes and hung them near the fire, stood her boots upside down beside it and unpacked the rest of her gear. Hacking strips off a chunk of bear meat, she put them on a hot stone to sizzle.

In a scrap of bearskin Tiaan found yellow fat – rendered bear tallow. Scooping some up in her fingers, she began to work it into her boots. Her precious tools had specks of rust. She rubbed them clean and coated them all with fat. The missing pair of pincers cried out to her.

The meat was giving off such appetising aromas that Tiaan’s mouth watered. Cleaning her hands with snow, she sat down to dinner. It was as delicious a meal as she had ever eaten – chewy and with a strong flavour. She ate the lot, put more on and packed snow into her pot to melt.

Her belly was full and Tiaan was sitting by the fire, combing the knots from her hair when Ryll reappeared. Nodding curtly, he squatted by the fire and began rubbing bear fat into a patch of torn skin on his arm.

She watched him in silence. His every movement simmered with barely controlled energy, whereas she felt as if she had been living off her own body.

‘If I have offended you, I’m sorry.’ It sounded the right thing to say. Did he have any concept of what ‘sorry’ meant? She hoped so. Her life depended on his whim.

Ryll glared at her from under those massive brow ridges. His eyes caught a ray of light coming in through the entrance.

‘I am not a man, little one. I am lyrinx,
unmated male
! You have insulted me deeply.’

She did not know what to say. ‘I can only judge you by my own kind.’

‘We do not, we
cannot
mate without invitation. It is unthinkable!’ he glared at her. ‘Can it be that human males would dare such a crime?’

‘Time was when it was almost unheard of,’ she said, remembering things her grandmother had told her. ‘Men and women were equal once, but our kind have changed since the war began. Men have to sacrifice their lives in battle, and women must breed new men. Their sacrifice is deemed greater than ours.’

Ryll’s enormous mouth flew open, showing the purple scar at the back of his throat. ‘Decadent species! We will overcome you sooner than I thought. Besides,’ he went on, ‘what would be the point of mating with another species?’

A number of points occurred to Tiaan though she did not raise them. ‘You do not mate for pleasure?’

‘Of course we do.
Once we are matched
.’

The conversation made her uncomfortable. She finished her hair, put the brush away and sat forward, soaking up the warmth of the fire. Something occurred to her.

‘What did you mean when you said you were an
unmated male
?’

Again his crest flushed, this time bright yellow. ‘I have not yet been chosen by a female as her mate.’

‘Are you not old enough?’

‘I am old enough!’ The words came out in a snarl.

‘Then why?’

‘I am incomplete!’

She looked him over, comparing him to the other lyrinx she’d seen. He might be smaller, though certainly no less fierce. What was different?

‘Have your wings not developed yet? Is that the reason?’

‘They will
never
develop! I am a wingless monstrosity, a degenerate creature. For the good of our kind there must be no more of me. Ah, but still I want to mate. It is the very purpose for which we exist.’

‘Do lyrinx use their wings much?’

‘Our ancestors flew everywhere in the void. We mated in the air. On this world we are too heavy. We can fly, those of us with wings,’ he said bitterly, ‘only by a monumental expenditure of what you call the Secret Art. Of course, many lyrinx are not adepts of the Art and cannot fly on Santhenar at all. Apart from the first mating flight, which requires at least one flier, lyrinx do not fly unless we have no choice. The after-effects of the Art are quite … Well, we suffer.’

‘Then surely wings are a handicap and you are better off without them.’

‘We are winged beings!’ His crest engorged until it was almost black. ‘Wings distinguish us from other intelligent creatures. It is as if …’ He stared at her, ‘… as if you were the only female on your world without breasts. How would you feel?’

‘I would feel incomplete,’ she murmured, rather shocked.

‘Without wings I am scarcely lyrinx at all, and no female will choose me for her mate. So what am I for?’

M
orning came, and Ullii lay in her tent, waiting for everything to be ready so she could slip into the clanker without meeting anyone. Now that her senses were mostly under control, people were her greatest problem. Life had taught her to be afraid of everyone.

Through the earmuffs she could hear shouted orders, the noise of tents being taken down, the hiss of heated oil being poured into the machines. Jal-Nish was stamping about in a foul mood, roaring at everyone. It must be time to go. Ullii tried to find courage for the dash from tent to clanker. It was an ordeal she had to force herself to face, every day.

Irisis’s head appeared inside the tent, startling her. ‘Ready?’ she said so loudly that it hurt.

Ullii could sense bitterness in her too. It had been there ever since Tiaan and the crystal went through the ice. Grabbing her little pack, Ullii scuttled out. Irisis scanned the tent, gathering the earplugs and coat the seeker had left behind. Ullii was halfway to the clanker when her path intersected Jal-Nish’s. She stopped dead, feeling panicky. He grimaced, went to go round, then recognised who it was.

‘If it isn’t the little seeker. How are you today,
girl
?’

She stared down at her boots, unable to think of an answer. Jal-Nish inspected her like a grub in his breakfast. ‘Idiot child! How I ever thought you’d be any use, I can’t imagine.’ He brushed past.

She was about to scuttle away when he spun around, staring at her. ‘What about Tiaan and her magical hedron? Do you see her now?’

‘I … haven’t looked,’ she said, almost inaudibly. She could not face him alone. His voice hurt her ears. His face was cruel.

‘Why not?’ he roared, giving her a buffet across the cheek with the back of his hand that knocked her off her feet.

Ullii screamed and tried to curl up into a ball. He lifted her, straightening her body with his strong hands. ‘Don’t!’ he said coldly. ‘Or I’ll tear off your goggles and earmuffs. So help me, I’ll strip you naked and cast you into the snow. Now answer …’

Nish and Irisis came running. ‘Father, stop!’ Nish yelled. ‘You’ll …’

‘Don’t tell me what to do, boy!’ growled Jal-Nish, ‘or you’ll find out what happens to people who fail. The scrutator is not a forgiving man. I’ve not let him down before and I’m not going to now. I don’t care who I have to break; I won’t give up. What do
you
want?’ he roared at Arple, who was running up from the other direction.

‘I would suggest, surr …’

‘This is perquisitor business. Interfere and I’ll see you quartered for treason!’ He spun back to Ullii, whom he’d let fall. She crouched on the ground with her arms up over her face. ‘Stand up, girl. Look at me.’

Ullii stood up, blank terror etched into her.

‘
Why
have you not looked, seeker?
Why
did you not try to see Tiaan and her hedron?’

‘No one asked me to,’ she whispered, reflecting his voice back at him.

The blow came out of nowhere, knocking her down. Ullii tasted blood, boiling-hot and metallic. The goggles and earmuffs came off; in broad daylight it was like being stabbed through the eyes with shards of glass. She overloaded, convulsed and screamed until she went into a fit.

Irisis walked calmly up to Jal-Nish and, as Nish gaped, struck the perquisitor in the face so hard that he crashed backwards into the snow. His proud nose was flattened against his face and blood poured out of it.

‘You’re a fool and a fraud, Jal-Nish! No true perquisitor would ever act in such a brutal way. How much did you pay for your position?’ Spitting in his face, she walked to the sergeant, held her arms out for the manacles, and said, ‘Do your worst. I care not!’

Arple waved her away. ‘I have no orders concerning you, artisan.’

‘You have now!’ raged Jal-Nish, staggering across the packed snow. Blood formed lurid icicles in his beard. ‘Take her head off at the shoulder blades and hurl it into the fire.’

‘No valid orders,’ said Arple, folding scarred arms across his tree-trunk chest.

‘So that’s the way it is, is it?’ Jal-Nish’s voice grew soft with menace. ‘I’ll reserve
my
orders for you both. There are worse things in life than death. Before I’m finished you’ll be begging for it.
Cryl-Nish
!’

Nish was bent over Ullii, trying to calm her. ‘Yes, Perquisitor Hlar?’ He made a point of the formality. It was as far as he dared go.

‘I’ll be dealing with you as well. For incompetence! Get the seeker fixed up at once.’

Nodding curtly, Nish carried Ullii to the clanker. Irisis came behind with goggles and muffs. Nish put them on the seeker. As he was bathing her bruised face with a cloth steeped in warm water, Ky-Ara and Pur-Did staggered up, carrying the heatbank between them on its long handles, and slid it into the middle of the clanker. Having been standing in the fire, it was practically red-hot.

‘Why did you do that?’ Nish said to Irisis, who was staring blankly out the front porthole.

‘I’ve had enough of your father!’ she said fiercely.

‘But Irisis, when we get back, he’ll destroy you.’

‘I’m ruined anyway. The crystal was my last hope. I’ve disgraced the family and my shame will be in the Histories forever, so how can I make it worse?’ She gave a bitter chuckle. ‘I’ve never enjoyed anything so much as popping his proud nose. How he squealed! Just like a rat in a trap.’

Nish did not share her pleasure. He could not bear to think what Jal-Nish would do in revenge.

Irisis warmed her hands at the heatbox. Nish sat patiently, holding Ullii’s hand. She did not stir for an hour, and it was another hour before she would sit up. She was staring through the rear porthole when she stiffened and shrank away. Nish peered out. Jal-Nish was pacing back and forth, his face swollen beyond recognition. After he had gone by she sat up again.

‘What happened to the perquisitor?’

‘He hit you,’ Irisis said. ‘So I hit him harder, to teach him not to hurt people.’

Ullii then did the strangest thing. She pulled up the goggles and for the first time they saw her strange, almost colourless eyes clearly. They shone as if coated in glycerine.

‘You did that for me?’ she said. Seizing Irisis’s hand, she brought it up and buried her nose in it. ‘You are kind too.’

Irisis looked uncomfortable, which she tried to cover up by rolling her eyes at Nish. ‘I’m a mean bitch,’ she said under her breath. ‘Don’t read too much into a single rash act.’

‘Are you ready to look for Tiaan?’ Nish said shortly. ‘Can you …’

‘Of course!’ Ullii was transported, positively bubbling now as she put on the mask.

Jal-Nish rapped on the back hatch. ‘Well?’ he snapped.

Nish flipped the hatch open, forcing the perquisitor to leap out of the way. ‘She is looking.’

‘And?’ cried Jal-Nish. ‘Come out, seeker.’

Ullii climbed out, keeping well clear of him.

‘What can you see, seeker?’ said Jal-Nish.

She said nothing. ‘Tell us what you see, Ullii,’ Nish said, taking her right hand.

She flung out her left. ‘I can see her!’ She pointed to the south-west.

Clearly the perquisitor had expected nothing. ‘Are you sure?’ he said incredulously. ‘How far?’

‘Not far. Her crystal is shining like the morning star.’

Irisis let out a strangled cry. The sun broke through the overcast for a moment. Jal-Nish smiled. It was not a pretty sight. He gave a jerk of the head. ‘After her!’