Ian Irvine - Alchymist

'Yes?' he said coolly. Maybe he was made of stone after all. After living more than a thousand years, perhaps such passions were quite extinct in him.

She stopped at the far edge of the landing, three paces from him. Her chest was still heaving. Irisis caught her breath. 'Xervish Flydd is a good man, surr. An honest man.'

'He's a scrutator and the very name means stinking corruption. I should have burned him out of the sky.'

'The scrutators cast him out,' she said desperately. 'They condemned him to slavery.'

'He must have been too rotten even for them.'

'He's always treated me —’

'He's your lover, isn't he? Stinking old hypocrite.'

'Not for months,' she said softly. And Flydd isn't old; barely sixty.'

'And you're what? Twenty? Twenty-one? He's a filthy old pervert.'

Irisis might have mentioned Yggur's own liaison with a much younger Maigraith, but that would not have been helpful. She changed tack. 'I've read the Histories, surr.'

Everyone has read the Histories. The world is obsessed with them, much to its detriment.'

I know the Tale of the Mirror, surr. The true tale; my uncle had a private copy hidden away.' Oh?'

And I know your story. How you were betrayed by the Council of Santhenar a thousand years ago.' She reached up and put a hand on his arm. He looked down sharply but did not shake it off. 'In times long past, you were tormented by Rulke the Charon and driven into madness. You wandered the world for hundreds of years, neither ageing nor using your powers, before making the ancient Aachim fortress of Fiz Gorgo your own, and plotting your revenge. You found Maigraith, the love of your thousand-year life. And I know you're a noble man, surr. You destroyed Rulke's deadly construct, which threatened the Three Worlds, even though in doing so it left Maigraith trapped in Aachan. You did that because you loved our world more than anything.'

'I did it because it was the only way to save her,' he said, staring into nothingness.

She went on as if he had never spoken. And then, after she miraculously returned, you abandoned all claim on her and on your empire, rather than plunge the world into war.'

'Not so,' he murmured, still trapped in the past. 'She would not have me. She'd had the best, Rulke himself, and after him I came a distant second. I abandoned my empire because without her it meant nothing. I came home to Fiz Gorgo to die, but I endure, scarcely changed, while she is but a memory. A dream.' 'Then surely it's time to move on.'

He scanned her from her feet to her face. 'You're a beautiful woman, Irisis, but you don't move me. Make your point, whatever it is, then go.'

She lowered her voice, so Flydd would not hear. 'Did you see how scarred and battered Flydd is, how the very flesh was gouged from his broken bones? The scrutators did that to him thirty years ago, because he dared inquire too deeply into the doings of their master.'

That caught his attention. 'What master?' he said sharply. She left that question hanging and continued. 'And recently they cast him out and condemned him to a cruel death as a slave on the clanker-hauling teams.' 'Which I'm sure he deserved.'

'They ordered him to destroy the lyrinx node-drainer at Snizort, gave him a flawed device to do the job, then blamed him for its failure. It destroyed the node and all its fields with it, and a good part of Snizort.'

'What?' he cried. 'I've heard none of this.' 'The clankers and constructs stalled on the battlefield and the lyrinx overran them. Flydd was blamed for the disaster, though he did everything possible to avoid the battle.'

'A node was destroyed?' Yggur said incredulously, pushing past her down the steps and stalking towards the scrutator. 'Is this true, Flydd?'

'It made the most colossal explosion you can imagine,' said Flydd, his eyes alight. 'We were in an air-floater, five hundred spans above the ground, and the blast went up past us as high as a small thunderhead.'

Yggur stared down at him. 'And afterwards? Did anyone go to the node and look in, to see what had come of it?'

'I did, and Nish, and Ullii the seeker, who is no longer with us.'

'What did you see?' cried Yggur.

'Two metal tears, each larger than a grapefruit, and as shiny as quicksilver. I could not get to them —’

Yggur let out a sigh. 'So it can happen! What became of the tears?'

'Scrutator Jal-Nish Hlar took them, though we did not discover it was him for many weeks. He left the bodies of his guards in the pit, so that no one would ever know. He had the tears with him before the battle of Gumby Marth, near Gnulp Landing, for he forced Nish to touch them, and Nish was changed by it. It gave him a special sight afterwards, for half a day, though Nish has never had a talent for the Art.'

'Is that so?' said Yggur. Go on.'

'Jal-Nish used the tears to enhance his alchymical Art, but a mancer-lyrinx broke the spell. Jal-Nish was slain and eaten, and the tears disappeared. It is believed that the lyrinx took them.'

'I see,' said Yggur. 'Tell me, what were your doings thirty years ago, scrutator, that the Council did such mischief to you?'

'Surely your spies have told you?'

'I no longer have spies. The only news I hear from across the water comes from traders and wandering vagabonds as disreputable as yourselves, and it's usually months old.'

'I pried into forbidden secrets,' said Flydd. 'That's why they punished me.'

'For uncovering the scrutators' master?'

'Where did you hear that?' cried Flydd. 'It puts the lie to —’

'I told him, surr,' said Irisis.

'That secret was not yours to reveal,' Flydd said furiously.

'Then you shouldn't have told me about it in your cups,' she retorted.

'Well, Flydd?' said Yggur.

Flydd shook his head. 'I cannot speak of the secrets of the scrutators, surr, even to you. I am sworn and do not lightly break my oath.'

'I don't break sworn word for any reason,' Yggur said scornfully. 'I won't trouble your conscience further, for I can see it a fragile thing it is. Come down, Artisan. Have you given your sworn word to say nothing? Your sacred oath?'

'I said I wouldn't tell,' she said weakly.

'Oath or no oath?'

'No oath.'

'Then, since you boast about how well you know the Tale of the Mirror, and my part in it, you know that you will tell me.

Not even your scrutator can resist me, though I won't force him to break his oath to his corrupt masters.'

Flydd stood staring at her, gnarled hands by his sides. Just give the word, she thought, and I'll resist him with all the strength in my body. But Flydd said nothing. Perhaps he wanted her to reveal what he could not.

'The only thing I know,' said Irisis, 'and that was mentioned several times in .., extremis . . '.

'An excess of wine!' said Yggur. 'What price your oath now, Scrutator? Two cups? Three?'

'. . , it was a reference to the Numinator,' Irisis finished.

'The Numinator?' Yggur said, puzzled.

'The person who gives the scrutators their orders, surr. The one for whom they have shaped our world.'

'Ahh!' He let his breath out. 'I've often wondered how such a collection of fools and incompetents came to gain such power; and how they maintained it for so long. Who is this Numinator?'

'That's all I know, surr,' said Irisis.

'It's enough. You've bought your master a refuge.'

'No man is my master,' said Irisis.

'Whatever you say. Well, Flydd, you may stay for a few days. We'll speak more about these matters tonight. Are you happy, now that you've gained what you wanted?'

'Time will tell if it was worth the price,' said Flydd.

Ghorr's air-floater carried Ullii back to the main camp. She did not say a word the whole way — she was overcome by a crawling horror of him and the scrutators, and her own folly. They'd trapped her with the bracelet and now controlled her utterly.