Ian Irvine - Alchymist

The lyrinx shuddered and its chameleon skin flared red, then white, then purple. It tried to duck in under the upper canopy of a tree but Tiaan smashed through the small branches after it. Its eyes were staring, its mouth opening and closing.

One wing struck a branch. The lyrinx fell, saved itself with a great flapping of leathery wings and crashed into the lower branches. Everything disappeared in a whirling cloud of leaves. When that cleared, the lyrinx came out on the underside of the canopy but it was no longer holding Gilhaelith.

Tiaan panicked, whirling the thapter this way and that, thinking he'd fallen. She was about to dart down the cliff when she heard a thin cry and spotted him clinging to the fork of a denuded branch.

Tiaan brought the thapter around and underneath, feeling quite desperately weary. Her hand-shook on the controller; her spine throbbed mercilessly. Spans below, the lyrinx was struggling up through the foliage towards him.

She made the minute adjustments necessary to bring the hatch up beneath Gilhaelith, but he shook his head and began to crawl along the branch away from her. His trouser leg had been shredded, one boot was missing and he had blood down his side. And still he did not want to be rescued. What was the matter with him?

He raised his hands, out and up in the classic mancer's pose. He was drawing power against her! Without thinking, Tiaan rammed the branch from beneath. He lost his grip and fell through the hatch, landing so hard that it winded him. As the lyrinx beat its way towards her, Tiaan rotated the craft in the air and shot upwards.

Gilhaelith lay collapsed on the floor. The surviving lyrinx were converging on the untouched end of the ridge, where the remaining slaves huddled. Malien had survived, surrounded by a small protective bubble, though she was on her knees.

Tiaan raced the lyrinx there. As she settled the machine next to Malien, the slaves surged forward then stopped, staring at the thapter. They could never have seen anvthing like it. Tiaan's head boiled over. The lyrinx that had abducted Gilhaelith was now circling some distance away, signalling furiously down.

Her eye was drawn down, down, to Alcifer. From behind the central dome a winged creature rose into the air, followed by a second and a third. Others joined them, leaping into the sky with their massive thighs. Dozens. Hundreds. A whole wall of them.

'Quick, Malien!' she shouted. 'They're coming.'

An ashen Malien dragged herself up over the side. The slaves moved tentatively towards the thapter.

'Where's Talis?' cried Tiaan.

Malien shook her head. 'He's gone. Forgre too.' Her voice was tight with grief.

The fizzing exploded in Tiaan's mind. She lifted the yoke and the thapter rose jerkily, though its whine hardly changed. Something was wrong.

'I've hardly any power' she said. 'They must be using some kind of node-drainer.'

'Can't be,' slurred Malien. 'It's not stopping them from flying.'

The slaves began to run towards them, crying and holding out their arms. 'What about the slaves?' said Tiaan.

'Go, before it's too late.'

Tiaan looked into the desperate eyes of the slaves and wanted to weep. How could she leave them behind — she had been one herself. But there was no choice. Feeling like a murderer, she jerked up the yoke. The machine lifted sluggishly. Men and women with staring eyes clutched at the sides but there was nothing to hang on to. The thapter rose to half the height of the trees but would climb no higher, and it moved forward no faster than a running man. A wall of lyrinx were spiralling up from Alcifer, rolling into a flapping cylinder that was closing rapidly on her.

'What am I to do?' cried Tiaan. 'I can't get past them.'

There was no answer. Malien lay slumped on the floor on top of Gilhaelith. Tiaan fixed the field in her mind. There was plenty of power in it, but when she drew it, only a trickle came.

'I'll try to draw from another node,' she said to herself. She found one, more distant, latched onto it and the thapter shot up through the closing cylinder of lyrinx.

Gilhaelith shook Malien off and came to his feet, looking dazed. The thapter lurched and he fell through the hole to the lower level. He began to climb back up. Tiaan couldn't afford the distraction, for lyrinx were now rising out of Alcifer in their thousands. She dropped the hatch and kicked the bar across. Gilhaelith began to beat on the metal.

The lyrinx spread out to cut off her escape to the east, the south and the north. She had no alternative but to turn west. Within a minute the power began to fade, and shortly the thapter was back to its previous pace. The burst of speed had taken it west; snow-tipped peaks loomed ahead. She looked over her shoulder. The lyrinx were gaining rapidly.

There was still an hour to sunset, but that wouldn't save her. This close, the enemy could track her all night. She tried another node but the acceleration was less and did not last as long. They had anticipated her. She kept going, switching from one node to another as soon as the power began to fail, jerking and hopping across the sky but never getting far enough ahead to lose them.

The thapter passed over, or rather between, the mountains, for Tiaan dared not try for extra height. Beyond, a grass-covered plain extended into the distance. She continued west, now travelling swiftly with a strong tailwind. The lyrinx had spread out for leagues to north and south.

Malien stirred and rolled over onto her back, observing what Tiaan did without speaking.

'I can't get away,' Tiaan said. 'What if I were to turn back and fly straight at them?'

'They might take all your power,' said Malien hoarsely. She shook her head. 'It was a trap and I walked right into it. They lured us here. That's why Gilhaelith's whereabouts were common knowledge. I can't believe I didn't realise it.'

'You'd still have gone ahead,' said Tiaan.

'But more carefully. And Forgre and Talis might still be alive. Now I truly stand alone in the world.'

Tiaan did not have the words to comfort her. On they went, carving their staccato path, sometimes gaining, sometimes losing. They passed across the plain into swamp and forest. The thapter dipped sharply, as if it had lost power for a second, after which the hum resumed, though at a lower pitch.

'What was that?' said Malien, sitting up.

'It was as if, for a second, the controller wasn't working, though I could still see the field.'

Tiaan continued at a reduced pace. At sunset she looked back, but could not see the lyrinx at all. 'They've given up! They've turned back, Malien.'

Malien climbed onto the side, staring into the east. 'I believe you're right. I wonder why?'

'I suppose they realised that they'd never catch us.'

'Can you draw power now?'

'No more than before.'

'Curious,' said Malien to herself. 'Could they have attached a draining device to this machine?'

'Which way should I go, north or south?'

'Try south.'

Tiaan moved the lever in the required direction. Nothing happened. She tried again, then the other way.

'Malien!' she said in a panicky voice. 'It's not answering the controls.'

The song of the mechanism suddenly stopped and the thapter arced down towards the plains.

'Malien,' Tiaan screamed. 'I've got nothing. It must be the amplimet. It's trying to kill us.'

'But a crash would destroy it too.' Malien swayed on her feet, popped the crystal and took the controls. It made no difference; they kept plummeting earthwards.

'We're going to die,' said Tiaan. 'I never thought it would be like this.'

'I can see the field but I can't draw power from it either.'

'Why not?'

'I don't know. It just isn't working. Nothing's working.'

As abruptly, the song of the mechanism was back. The thapter lurched left, then jerked so hard to the right that Malien was thrown against the wall. The whole machine shuddered, before curving into level flight.