Ian Irvine - Alchymist

'Go north-west,' he decided at last.

Towards Meldorin?' Irisis said incredulously. 'But the lyrinx control it.'

We're outlaws. There's nowhere on Lauralin to hide; nowhere the scrutators won't track us down. So we must go to the one place where they don't dare, and take our chances with the lyrinx. Which reminds me — how did you get on in Snizort?'

That adventure was so long ago Irisis could hardly recall what he was talking about. 'It began well, surr …' 'Oh?' he said sharply.

This wasn't the way she'd imagined their reunion. They'd been friends for a long time now; she'd been so glad to see him and imagined he would feel the same. Evidently she'd invested too much in the moment — Flydd was scrutator first and human being second. 'We managed to take one of the flesh-formed creatures alive — a newborn infant.' 'But?' said Flydd.

'The lyrinx attacked us on the way out and it was killed.

They'd slain all the adults before they left. They nearly killed us too. We lost all six of our guards, and Fyn-Mah and Flangers were badly hurt. Only Muss was unharmed, but he was never around when the fighting was on.'

'I don't allow him to fight, except to save his life,' said Flydd. 'He's too valuable to me. And the other?' 'The other, surr?'

'The phynadr, dammit. I saw Muss before the battle of Gumby Marth and he said you had it.' 'I did …'

'What happened?'

'It didn't thrive, surr. We did everything we could.' She took him into a corner of the cabin and retrieved the bag from under a bench.

He opened it. The phynadr had collapsed into a slimy mess with a strong, meaty smell, like buffalo broth. 'What a waste,' said Flydd, tossing it over the side.

She just stared at him. Was that all? Didn't he even care? Suddenly she felt furiously angry. 'Thank you for trying so hard, Irisis,' she said sarcastically. 'Next time you get lost, you miserable old fleabag, you can rescue yourself.'

'Hey,' he said. 'I didn't mean —’

She had already stalked away.

Nish was still sleeping peacefully, his knees doubled up, one hand under his cheek. It made him look very young. Irisis stood looking down at him, reflecting. She knew now that she wanted this man, but would he want her? Either way, she was glad that her brief affair with Flydd had ended before they came west. She tucked a blanket around Nish and left him to recover.

The air-floater had caught a breeze and was moving more quickly now. In an hour they had left the enemy behind and were drifting across an empty, mist-covered sea.

'Can't we go any faster?' said Flydd, coming up beside her. 'If I stuck my head out the back and blew, we'd move quicker than this.'

'Off you go, then,' Irisis said coolly.

He did not reply. He looked terrible.

She felt contrite. How could she know what he had been through? 'What's the matter, Xervish?'

'I'm sorry,' he said. 'I didn't mean to sound ungrateful, earlier. This past week and a half …'

'You look as though you haven't eaten since I last saw you.'

'Close enough.' He stared up at the balloon. 'The bag's still losing floater gas. At this rate, we'll be lucky to make it to land.'

'How's Inouye?'

'Who?'

'The pilot.'

'I've never seen anyone go so close to anthracism and survive.'

'Can she come up and take over?'

'Only if you want to kill her' said Flydd.

'Then you'd better hang onto this.' She gave him the controller arm.

Hey!' he cried. 'I can't operate one of these.'

The alarm in his voice amused her. 'In that case you'd better start blowing.' She went down to the cabin.

Inouye lay on the canvas bench, her eyes as red as tomatoes. Her lips were like crumpled paper and her fingernails had gone black. Her skin was completely white, as if all the blood had withdrawn from beneath.

'I thought you were going to die,' Irisis said, taking the small woman's hand.

'I want to,' said Inouye in a whisper like the rustling of papers. 'The one thing I have left is to die.'

'You saved us all, and the scrutator. You've done more than your duty.'

'I couldn't save my family.' Inouye turned her face to the wall.

'I don't think the Council would harm them.'

'I'll never see my children again.'

How could Irisis answer that? She stroked Inouye's limp hair, then returned to the pilot's position and coaxed a little more speed from the rotor, at the cost of exhausting herself. Without training, or a controller tailored to her, piloting was a debilitating business. Fortunately the tailwind had picked up, though Meldorin was not in sight and from here must be a day's flight away — if the floater gas lasted that long. She leaned back against the cabin wall and closed her eyes, feeling as if she'd not slept in a week. There would be none tonight.

Flangers and Muss had rigged up a rope ladder between the bottom of the airbag and the rail, and run a line around the floater-gas generator, which had a huge dent in one side. Flangers was hammering out the crusted pins that held it to its mountings.

'Gently,' Irisis called. 'Don't make a spark —’

'There's no iron in it,' said Flangers.

'What about your hammer and punch?'

He looked down, grinning sheepishly. Morons! she thought.

'We're still losing altitude,' Irisis said to Fyn-Mah, who was standing in the doorway of the cabin with the map flapping in her hands. 'Better find a place to land. The gas won't keep us up much longer.'

'Turn due north. There are reefs and islets not far from here.'

'Doesn't sound very promising.' Irisis turned onto the new heading and an hour later, when she could barely stand up, saw surf breaking on submerged obstacles. 'I don't see any dry land.'

Fyn-Mah was now on the cabin roof with her spyglass. 'There, to the left.'

Irisis rotored that way, shortly encountering a platform of black rock fringed with olive-green seaweed. The surface was only half a span above the water, crisscrossed with water-filled gutters and rockpools, and none of it was dry.

'Is this the best we can do?' she said, dismayed. The wind was jerking the air-floater this way and that and she wasn't experienced enough to control it. She aimed for a flat slab of rock but overshot. The machine set down with a crash, right in one of the gutters. Water dribbled in through the canvas floor.

'Up!' yelled Flydd as a wave foamed towards them. 'The next wave —’

'I know, I know.'

The air-floater would not rise, of course, for the floater-gas generator was no longer connected. She spun the rotor hard, grinding the keel along the gutter and bouncing it up onto the next slab. Grapnels were flung out, pulled tight and the machine came to rest canted over on its side. Irisis let go the controller and lay down on the sloping deck. She simply could not stand up.

'What happens when the tide comes in?' asked Flangers.

'The Karama Malama isn't big enough to have tides,' said Eiryn Muss.

'Let's get the damn thing fixed and get out of here,' Flydd said tersely. 'I've spent enough time in this bloody sea.'

'You'll have to do it,' Irisis said. 'I'm utterly worn out.'

'It can't be that difficult,' said Flydd.

Flangers shot him an unreadable glance. He and Muss tightened the grapnel ropes to bring the deck horizontal, then brought the floater-gas generator down to the front deck and began to take it apart.

'Does anyone know how these things operate?' Irisis heard Flydd say.

'I imagine Irisis could work it out,' said Flangers.

'She's exhausted. Pull it apart, see what you can find. And don't break anything.'

'Which way does this screw?'

'It doesn't screw at all, you clot,' said Flydd cheerfully. 'You —’

Irisis was amazed to realise that they were enjoying themselves. Good-natured though the banter was, it irritated her. Men! She slipped over the side. Being a genius with her hands, she couldn't bear to listen as they squabbled about how to get the case open.