Ian Irvine - Chimaera

It was the strangest battle Irisis had ever experienced. Eighty thousand soldiers, and far more lyrinx, did little but march, sometimes towards each other and sometimes away. Flydd and his operators, and Klarm and his, sweated in their shelters, or tried to operate their devices in jouncing clankers.

‘I thought the lyrinx were supposed to hate heat and bright light?’ said Irisis on the second afternoon. She was practically fainting with heat exhaustion.

‘They’ve equipped themselves with slit goggles just like ours,’ said Flydd. ‘As for the heat, they have adapted better than we expected.’

On the fourth day, just when they thought they had the enemy on the run, the struggle took a dramatic turn for the worse. Hilluly collapsed without warning and had to be carried out, unconscious. Her replacement lasted only a few minutes before she too slid off her chair. Flydd called for the third.

The girl sat down, trembling. Irisis gave her a hug but could see this operator would not do. Irisis exchanged glances with Flydd. His eyes were staring and she saw naked fear there. She hadn’t seen that since he’d gone to meet the master flenser on the amphitheatre. As soon as Flydd caught her eye it vanished, and he was the same imperturbable scrutator she had always known, but the damage had been done. The enemy had struck back, and they were too strong.

The third operator lasted half an hour. By that time her movements were growing slower and slower. They had a little warning this time – just enough for Irisis to catch her as she fell. And not long after that, disaster struck. Klarm sat bolt upright, threw out his arms and legs and fell flat on his face. Blood poured out of his nose and mouth onto the salt. He wasn’t dead but he couldn’t move a finger.

Flydd looked at Irisis. He had regained control. ‘Well, old friend,’ he said casually, ‘We’re lost. I can’t do any more.’

‘What happens now?’ She could repress her feelings too. ‘Perhaps they’ll make an exception and eat us.’

‘The enemy are advancing,’ Operator Daesmie said just after Irisis came back. Her face had gone white, which made the rings around her eyes stand out as purple as bruises. ‘Every segment reports the same. They’re coming right for us.’

‘How could they attack Klarm?’ said Flydd. ‘I don’t understand it.’

‘What are you going to do?’

‘Fight on, hopeless though it is without him.’

‘I’ve sent for more field-controller operators,’ said Irisis.

‘It won’t do any good. Hilluly and her cousins were the best. Besides, I’m being undermined and I don’t know how to stop it.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘The power is still in the fields but now I can’t get it out. It’s as if someone else is attacking me from the other side.’

‘Could the lyrinx have more than one power patterner?’

‘I don’t think so. This new attack is different. It’s strong but ragged, as if whoever is using it is very powerful but not used to fighting this way.’

‘Who can it be?’

Flydd made a face. ‘Anabyng, their master mancer, I’d say. He’d have the power to bring Klarm down.’

‘I’ve called for an operator to replace him too,’ said Irisis.

‘Whoever it is, he won’t be strong enough.’

‘It’s Yggur.’

‘He won’t come,’ said Flydd.

‘He will,’ said Irisis.

‘How do you know?’

‘Really, surr,’ she grinned. ‘Surely you don’t expect me to reveal my wiles, even at such a time as this.’

He managed a smile, as she’d hoped. It heartened Irisis, for without Flydd the battle, the war and the world were lost. ‘Not that. And what price must I pay?’

‘I told him you’d save the lyrinx if we won. Somehow.’

The smile faded. ‘You’re assuming a lot, Crafter.’

‘I’m expecting you to lose the battle, surr, so you won’t have to find a solution.’

‘A challenge,’ said Flydd. He chuckled. ‘What would I do without you, Irisis? I’ll just have to prove you wrong.’

Shortly Yggur came across the salt, clad all in grey, his face carved out of granite. ‘Flydd,’ he said, nodding. ‘You will hold to your word.’

Flydd stood there for a moment, in thought, then held out his hand. ‘I will do everything in my power,’ he said softly.

‘Then let’s fight the final battle,’ said Yggur, and turned to Klarm’s vacant seat, with the bloodstains on the salt beside it.

The runner came back with two more operators for Flydd. Irisis recognised both, though she did not know their names. Flydd sat the first girl beside him and explained what had to be done. She looked afraid. Moreover, even after three explanations she used the controller awkwardly and, as soon as power was drawn, began to cry. ‘It hurts, surr. I can’t do it.’

‘No, you can’t,’ said Flydd gently. He glanced at the other, a thin, plain, stringy-haired young woman with a defiant set to her jaw. ‘How about you, girl?’

‘I’ll do my best, surr,’ she said stoutly.

‘That’s all I ask. What’s your name?’

‘Kirrily, surr.’

Kirrily did do her best, which turned out to be surprisingly good. She learned quickly and managed to last for over an hour, but after that succumbed quickly. Irisis drew off the gloves and laid her out on the ground to recover.

‘The same,’ said Flydd to her unspoken question. ‘I was doing all right until my nemesis began to attack me at the same time. If the node map was better, or the operator stronger, I might be able to fight this new attacker as well as the lyrinx. But I can’t.’

‘There’s fighting, surr,’ called the farspeaker operator. ‘The lyrinx have fallen on us in the west and the south. It’s bloody.’ She gave details.

‘Now they’re driving us ,’ said the scrutator. ‘And they’ll run through us in an afternoon.’

A soldier hurried in. ‘The enemy is advancing this way, surr. General Troist says to pack up and get to your thapter.’

‘How long do we have?’

‘At the rate they’re coming, they’ll be here in an hour.’

‘We’ll keep going for a little while longer, tell him. You never know …’ Flydd bit his lip.

The soldier saluted and ran out.

‘There doesn’t seem much point,’ said Irisis.

‘Once I pack up,’ said Flydd, ‘it’s an admission of defeat and it’ll be twice as hard to start again. Confidence is everything. I don’t suppose you could operate a field controller, Irisis?’

‘No.’

‘I’ll work without an operator for the moment. Run and see if Hilluly is any better yet. She was the best.’

After some time, Hilluly was brought back on a stretcher. She could barely sit up, but she didn’t flinch from the job when Flydd asked her if she could take the gloves.

They worked for a while, whereupon Flydd turned to Irisis and shook his head. ‘How long do we have?’

‘Quarter of an hour, at most.’

‘Then only a miracle can save us now. Tell Yggur he’d better get ready to run.’

Irisis loped across to him. Yggur was sitting at the master farspeaker, his big hands stretched over it. ‘We’ve only got fifteen minutes, surr.’

‘I’ll be here until the end.’

Irisis ran back. Already she could hear the shouts of battle, the squeal of racing clankers, the cries of the dying.

‘What’s that?’ said Irisis, cocking her head.

‘I can’t hear anything.’

‘It sounds like a thapter.’

Flydd’s face didn’t change. He’d been disappointed too many times. ‘Whose?’