Ian Irvine - Alchymist

Laying Nish on the rear part of the floor where he'd be as protected as possible, Irisis kissed him on the forehead, then went out and slid down the steeply sloping deck to the pilot, who was choking and shuddering as she clung to the controller arm. Abruptly Inouye doubled over, clutching her belly. Steam wisped from her mouth. Irisis threw her arms around the little woman and tried to take power through herself. Her entrails grew boiling hot. If she failed it would anthracise them both.

Inouye began to jerk as if she were having a fit. Droplets of sweat burst out all over her, saturating her clothes in a few seconds. Irisis grew hot all over. Her eyes clouded until she could see nothing but floating specks of blue light.

The pilot slid from her grasp and power struck Irisis like a sledgehammer, knocking her to her knees. She fought against it, catching Inouye's hand with her free hand. If she let go the controller would fail, for it was tuned to Inouye alone.

As the air-floater turned, she saw the soldiers at the jave-lard halfway up the hill. They had freed the bent spear and were inserting a good one. The lever went back, the spear hur-tled towards them. She threw her weight against the steering arm, having difficulty keeping her balance. The air-floater did not move quickly enough. The heavy spear whistled over her head, smashing through the back end of the cabin and out the front Nish! Nish was inside. 'Shoot them!' Her voice cracked.

Flangers was cranking a crossbow. 'No spears left. Not many bolts, either.'

The pair of air-floaters were approaching. Both were armed with javelards and soldiers bearing crossbows, though they were not yet in range.

Another spear shot by, passing close to the top of the airbag. Where had that come from? Her erratic movements had taken the air-floater offshore and it had come within range of one of the ships' more powerful javelards. Irisis felt a flurry of panic but bit down on it. She would get everyone to safety or kill them all in the attempt.

'I need some help here,' she gasped as Inouye's weight pulled her hand off the controller.

The air-floater kept turning. Irisis, realising that it would take them towards the air-floaters, pulled the steering arm the other way with her boot. That brought them past the soldiers on the hill and, as they drifted west, she saw the soldiers from the third landing boat climbing the ridge ahead of them. There was nowhere to go.

A bony hand fell on her shoulder. 'Turn north-east towards the air-floaters,' said Flydd, taking the steering arm. He fired Flangers's crossbow one-handed, to no effect. 'We may be able to do something.'

'I can't imagine what.' Irisis muttered, but did as she was told.

As they passed over the water, she cast a glance over her shoulder. Flangers was pouring the flask of quicksilver through a sieve while the perquisitor did something under-neath with her hands. Irisis could feel the cold from here. Pellets of frozen quicksilver, far heavier than lead, rattled into a bucket. Fyn-Mah gave the scrutator such a look of hopeless longing that Irisis was touched. Flydd did not notice.

With a gloved hand, Flangers scooped a handful of pellets into a silk bag. He placed the bag in the cup of the javelard binding it loosely with thread.

'Get a move on,' roared Flydd.

Flangers swung the javelard around, tracking the air-floater to their left. It was doing the same, and fired first. The spear was aimed high, and looked as though it was going to fall short, but a gust drifted the air-floater into its path and out through the airbag just above its base, emerged a couple of spans away and fell past them.

Irisis gave the floater-gas generator as much power as she dared. Floater gas whistled up the pipe, though it seemed to be coming out the rents in the airbag just as quickly. Try as she might, she could not keep the machine level.

'Can you patch it?' she called over her shoulder.

Fire, dammit,' said Flydd.

Flangers fired. A scrap of silk drifted in the air, then the soldiers on the leading air-floater screamed and threw their arms in the air. A scatter of holes appeared in the airbag, tore into a huge gash and the airbag began to collapse. The air-floater went nose-down. 'Again' said Flydd.

While Flangers charged the javelard with another bag of quicksilver pellets, Muss climbed to the roof of the cabin. He hauled up Flydd, who was carrying a repair patch — a square of canvas coated in sticky tar.

'Keep it steady,' said the scrutator, wincing as his weight went onto his twisted ankle. He held the canvas in place while Muss pressed it against the lower tear in the balloon and smoothed it down, taking care to eliminate any wrinkles.

Flangers fired at the second air-floater, but this time the silk did not break and the bag of pellets tore harmlessly through the wall of the cabin.

'I've pellets left for one more attempt,' Flangers called. Flydd, struggling with the other piece of tarred canvas, snapped 'Get on with it. The quicksilver won't stay frozen forever.'

Irisis turned north into the wind, trying to keep her distance from the air-floater. That proved impossible for it had the wind on its starboard quarter. She also had to keep the machine steady and hold Inouye up. Power kept flowing through the controller, so something must be clinging on in the pilot's subconscious.

The second tear proved harder to fix, for it was well above Flydd and Muss's reach. They had to press the canvas patch on with poles. One side went on cleanly but as they smoothed the patch across, the canvas wrinkled. There was no way to fix it without setting down.

Flangers fired. Several people at the front of the enemy craft, including the pilot, went down. As it fell, the controller arm was jerked to one side and the air-floater veered towards them. Irisis turned away as sharply as she dared, prompting a flurry of oaths from the roof of the cabin, but still the enemy shooter had a perfect, side-on shot.

The spear whizzed by the cabin, clanging off the housing of the floater-gas generator. Irisis held her breath. One spark and they would light up the sky for ten leagues. Nothing happened, but the whistle of the generator died away.

The pilotless air-floater fell in looping corkscrews towards the sea. The shooter abandoned his weapon to stand at the rail, staring down fearfully. The first craft had already hit the water and now lay on its side, its airbag deflated. The nearest ship was moving towards it, and the dark-clad figures thrashing in the water. The third air-floater signalled with flags but made no attempt to come after them. Definitely scrutators on board, Irisis thought sourly.

'The floater-gas generator's busted,' said Flydd, climbing down. He was now limping badly. He looked around, marking the positions of the fleet, which was spread out to the south and east of them.

Irisis let Inouye slide to the deck, for she could no longer hold her up. The machine slowed dramatically — Inouye's subconscious had finally given out. Flangers and Fyn-Mah carried her inside, and Irisis ran in after them to check on Nish. He was asleep and unharmed. She returned to her post, took out the controller's crystal, put her pliance in its place and set it to channel to the rotor what power she could. The air-floater limped on, slowly losing height as floater gas trickled out from beneath the wrinkled patch.

'Which way?' she said to Flydd. 'With the fleet between us and land, I don't dare head south or west. If they've got other air-floaters, or we're forced to land, they'll have us. We can't go back towards Snizort, either.'

The afternoon sun angled across one cheek. If Flydd had been gaunt before, now he was nothing more than bone and sinew over which the skin was stretched drum-tight. As he clenched his jaw, knots formed under the skin.