Ian Irvine - Alchymist

'Anything can happen in battle,' said Muss. 'Though the official story is different.' 'Oh?'

'Xervish Flydd has been accused of murdering him.' 'Can that be possible?'

'No. He was with General Troist, leagues away, when the ambush took place, but the scrutators can make any lie into truth.'

And any truth into a lie,' said Irisis, thinking about the Histories. Do you have any idea where Flydd might be?' 'His ship sailed into the Karama Malama, was driven south by a gale, and there disappeared. He could be anywhere between Fleen Haven and Karints, and there's a hundred leagues of water in between.'

'Or he could be dead,' said Irisis. Nish too. Tears pricked at the corners of her eyes.

'He probably is. I learned yesterday that their ship was wrecked on a reef. A skeet brought the news. A lifeboat got away with the captain and a handful of sailors. Neither Flydd nor Nish was on it. The captain did not think anyone could have survived.' Muss still showed no emotion, though he'd served Flydd for many years.

This time the chill slid all the way down her backbone. Flydd dead? For all their sakes it must not be. And Nish? Yet they were mortal men — they could die, or be killed, as easily as anyone else.

Fyn-Mah shot up in her sleeping pouch, rubbing her eyes. 'Where did this happen?' Her voice went shrill.

'In the middle of the Karama Malama,' said Muss. 'The ship struck a reef 'There are a thousand islands in that part of the Sea of Mists,' said Fyn-Mah hopefully.

She'd served Flydd just as long, but it mattered to her. Irisis wondered if, secretly and hopelessly, she loved him.

'And Flydd is a strong swimmer' Fyn-Mah went on. 'There's a chance he's survived.'

A slim one,' said Muss. A man would soon die of cold in those waters, even at this time of year.’

'Nish isn't a strong swimmer' said Irisis.

'Then he's dead. And Ghorr has sent a fleet to make sure.'

'We must find them first' said Fyn-Mah.

'That's a task beyond our powers' said Muss.

Fyn-Mah began to say something, looked across to where Flangers and Inouye lay sleeping, and said, 'Come outside.'

Irisis followed her and Muss in her bare feet across the round pebbles. It felt as if she were walking on eggs.

The scrutator is a particularly thorough man' Fyn-Mah said obliquely. 'Since he first fled the manufactory after being suspended from the Council, he's tried to anticipate every kind of eventuality.'

I don't see how he could have anticipated this one' said Irisis.

'Of course not. But he took steps to ensure that, if lost in desperate circumstances, or held prisoner in a secret place, he might be found.'

Irisis's heart began to pound. 'What kind of steps?'

'We learned a lot from Ullii. About the traces that the Secret Art leaves in its surroundings. And we've learned about nodes, and flows of power, and crystals too.'

I'm surrounded by people who can never get to the point, thought Irisis. Clenching her toes around a pebble, she tried to be patient, though it was not in her nature.

'In short' Fyn-Mah went on, 'the scrutator had a lodestone implanted in his buttock in case he ended up where there was no field, or his other powers were stripped from him.'

'I wouldn't have thought his bum was big enough to hide one' Irisis muttered.

'You'd know!' Fyn-Mah said spitefully. 'But the stone was quite small.'

'How is that possible?' For all her work with such materials, Irisis couldn't imagine how it could work.

'In ancient times, a mancer called Golias the Mad made a device that had never been made before or since — a farspeaker — a way of speaking across the distances of the world. The secret of the device is long lost, but when Flydd was using Ullii to locate Tiaan and her amplimet, it gave him an idea for tracing the faint emanations emitted by certain objects. Xervish Flydd is cleverer than you know. He was, for some years, scrutator supervising all the mancers and artisans in Nennifer, and they've invented hundreds of devices powered by the Art.'

'I didn't know that' said Irisis. 'How will you look for it?'

I carry the complementary crystal, which is tuned to Flydd's lodestone. If he is still alive, we should be able to find it.'

'What if he's dead?'

The stone requires the warmth of the human body to operate. If he's dead, we'll find no trace of it.'

They went back to the cave and the firelight. From a lined wooden box no bigger than a needle case, Fyn-Mah took a grass-green translucent crystal, the length of a needle and not much thicker. After warming it in her fingers, she set it aside. Filling a beaten gold bowl with water until it reached the very top, she added more, drop by drop, until the surface rose minutely above the sides. With a pair of tweezers, she lowered the crystal to the surface and let it go. It floated.

'Don't move. Don't even breathe in this direction,' Fyn-Mah said softly. 'I must now give it power.'

She made a fist of one hand, wrapped the other around it and closed her eyes. Muss sat watching, motionless. Irisis felt her scalp prickle.

A tendril of steam rose from the water. Outside, the wind rushed by the entrance, shaking the bushes and making the firelight dance on the walls of the cave. The crystal sparked on one end then slowly moved, as if embedded in treacle. It rotated almost a half-turn, went back a little way, turned a quarter-turn, back again, then stopped.

'He's alive?' cried Irisis.

'Flydd lives,' said Fyn-Mah. 'Now all we have to do is find him.'

'It's pointing a little west of south, into the Karama Malama.'

'That would seem to cover a large area,' said Irisis.

Fyn-Mah stood looking down at the quivering needle and a tear formed in one dark eye.

'The scrutators have a fleet looking for him,' Muss reminded her. 'And air-floaters.'

Fyn-Mah pulled her coat around her. 'Then we'd better get moving.'

Before dawn broke, the air-floater was cruising low over the Karama Malama, which lived up to its name. It was a cold, windy day, the slaty sea reflecting a leaden sky. Patches of mist drifted over the surface. The air-floater bucked and rolled so much that Irisis felt seasick.

'You might as well get some rest,' said Fyn-Mah. 'The reefs and islands of the central sea lie well south of here. It'll take all day and part of the night to reach there.'

Irisis nodded but remained where she was, too hyped up to sleep. The day passed slowly. Long after dark they settled on a cobble beach on the lee side of a rocky island, to await the dawn.

Irisis shivered in her coat all night, and the following morning too. They had been going back and forth for hours and had passed over dozens of islands, though few were more than lichen-covered rocks in that dismal sea. There had been no sign of human life.

'Any luck?' she said to Fyn-Mah, who was crouched over her basin again.

The perquisitor scowled. 'It's too gusty. The crystal shakes as if it were sitting on a jelly.'

'What if we were to set down?'

'Wouldn't help much, in this wind. Water's troublesome at the best of times. The crystal is meant to be floated on quicksilver, but I don't have any.' They kept working, aware that time was ebbing. Not long before dusk, the pilot struck the alarm gong. They ran out.

'Boats!' said Inouye, pointing.

Fyn-Mah scanned the sea with her spyglass. 'A fleet, to the east. And flying the Council flag.'

Signal mirrors flashed. 'Looks like they've seen us,' said Irisis.

Fyn-Mah went back to her shivering bowl and crystal, but as dark fell she gave it away. 'It's shaking worse than ever now. We'll never find him.'

'It won't be easy for Ghorr, either' said Irisis.

'He's got a whole fleet, and Arts for seeking and finding.'