Ian Irvine - Tetrarch

That black container in the bowels of the machine was another mystery. Putting her head through the lower hatch, she peered around, holding out one of Malien’s glowing spheres. The box was up in the darkness at the front.

She was trying to sense its purpose when she felt an odd prickle and the image of wires and crystals froze in her mind. It was so quiet that Tiaan could hear her heart thumping. Going up, she traced the aura on the green glass, but the glass lit up and a spiralling red line began to rotate.

Tiaan jumped. Other markings appeared on the surface: blue circles that shrank and expanded again, yellow lines arcing from one side of a rectangle to another, rows of characters that were undoubtedly some kind of writing.

The shapes and colours changed, the writing flowed endlessly, but nothing else happened. As she crouched beneath the binnacle, probing with her inner sight, an alarm shrieked in her ear; then something clamped around her forehead and began to squeeze.

It was a trap and she had fallen into it. Metal fingers gripped her skull. Tiaan tried to tear them off but received a shock that singed her fingers. Her arms flopped uselessly by her sides. She began to shake uncontrollably as echoes of the shock raced up and down her limbs.

Tiaan felt disconnected from her body. Her tongue expanded to fill her mouth, her eyes rolled down as far as they would go, and stuck. She could see her hands hanging like floppy spiders, but she could not move.

It was hours before a grinning Malien appeared and freed her – hours of helpless terror that she would never move again. And hours of crystal dreams that she remembered all too clearly, for she was dreaming awake. She dreamed that she was trapped inside the amplimet, paralysed or frozen, and it was feeding upon her essence as a wasp feeds on a spider. And the whole time, she could see the amplimet in her mind’s eye, the central light flashing on and off like a signal lamp.

Her head felt fuzzy; it hurt to think. ‘What’s so funny?’ she said curtly.

‘The look on your face,’ Malien chuckled. ‘Next time, have the good sense to ask me for help. Did I not tell you that there could be traps?’

‘I was worried that the enemy would get here first.’

‘Better they kill you than you do it yourself. How are you feeling?’

Tiaan sat up. ‘A bit shaky.’

Malien gave her a hand. ‘We’d better get to work.’

‘Yesterday you were lecturing me about working too hard.’

‘The lyrinx weren’t out there yesterday.’

‘ What ?’

‘I saw one this morning, circling high in the eastern sky. I wouldn’t want them to get hold of a construct.’

By the evening, Tiaan felt that she understood most of the controls, though she had not discovered how to make the construct operate. ‘There’s still something missing,’ she said.

‘Like a key for a lock? I wonder …’

‘What?’

Malien touched an isolated button at the base of the binnacle. A curved tube with hexagonal sides slid out from beneath. ‘This leads to a cavity above that black box, low down. Can you sense what used to be in there?’

‘I was trying to when it trapped me.’

‘I think it’s safe now.’

Tiaan sensed out the lingering aura. ‘It held some kind of woken crystal.’

‘What kind?’

‘I can’t tell. Do Aachim use crystals the way we do?’

‘Not exactly, but I expect I can find a hedron or two, if that’s what you’re getting at.’

They spent half the night searching the storerooms, and found a number of woken crystals that would fit, though none had any effect on the construct.

‘I can’t do any more,’ Tiaan said, when it was well after midnight.

‘Wait a minute,’ said Malien. ‘Have you got the amplimet here?’

Tiaan took it from its pouch. Light streamed forth; steady light. ‘What do you have in mind?’

‘Putting it into that cavity.’

‘But yesterday you said it would be too powerful to use.’

‘I’ll try to moderate it.’

Tiaan moved the amplimet from hand to hand, wondering if they might not be doing its will.

‘Put it into the tube, Tiaan. No, the other way round.’

Tiaan did so.

‘Now, push the tube down, very carefully. I’ll stand ready, just in case.’

When it had gone all the way, she heard a gentle click as the crystal settled into the cavity. They waited, holding their breath. The colours on the glass plate brightened.

‘Close the cap,’ said Malien.

Tiaan pushed it down. There came a metallic screech from below and the whole construct shuddered. Orange rays streamed from the open hatch. Something began to thump against the floor. Malien hit the button; the amplimet shot out of the tube. Tiaan caught it and stuffed it into its pouch. The racket stopped. They looked at one another.

‘It’s too powerful.’ Malien looked drawn. ‘Let’s go. I can’t do any more tonight.’

‘I’ll stay for a while. I need to think.’

‘Don’t do anything foolish.’

‘I won’t,’ Tiaan said absently, her mind on the problem.

With a hedron, power did not flow at all without the artisan drawing it from the field. In the hands of an experienced artisan, power could be controlled delicately. However, the amplimet drew power all the time and, here, even a little was too much.

It seemed to be drawing more than ever now – a flashing glow was visible through the leather pouch. A worm inched down Tiaan’s backbone. She opened the flap but the crystal just shone steadily. She closed it. The flashing resumed. She lifted the flap, fractionally. The amplimet was flashing at a furious rate, just as in her dream.

Closing her fist around it, she ran up to Malien’s chambers. ‘It’s blinking!’ she cried, bursting through the door.

Malien rolled over, touching a globe to the faintest light. ‘What on earth is the matter?’

Tiaan thrust the pouch at her. ‘The amplimet was blinking furiously but as soon as I opened the pouch it stopped. Now it’s doing it again.’

Malien shot up in bed and touched out the light. The flickering glow could be seen through the pouch, and when she lifted the flap, again it stopped.

She slid her legs out of bed, pulled on her boots and shrugged a cloak around her. ‘Come with me. Leave it here.’

Tiaan sat the pouch on the table beside the bed. ‘What is it, Malien?’

‘I don’t know. I’ve never seen anything like it before. I think –’

‘What?’ Tiaan had to trot to keep up.

‘Let’s just see, without prejudice. How does the field look to you?’

‘I can’t see it. I left my hedron down in the construct.’

Malien shook her head and walked faster. Tiaan ran after her. The tunnel to the Well was now distinctly warm. At a sweep of Malien’s fist, the cubic barrier smashed into shards that vaporised in the air. The mist in the conical chamber whirled higher and faster, and the light from the shaft now had an oily green tinge. Moonlight, or an exhalation from the Well?

Malien was standing at the brink, her toes over the edge. She was breathing hard.

‘It looks the same to me,’ Tiaan panted.

‘It’s not!’

‘Is it –?’ Tiaan peered down fearfully.

Malien laid a hand on her shoulder. ‘It’s not as bad as I thought. It’s still bound – just! And …’

‘What, Malien?’

‘I think the amplimet is communicating with it.’

‘What’s it saying?’

Malien looked her up and down, wordlessly.

Stupid question. Communication between a woken crystal and a frozen whirlpool of force might take any form. And might have any purpose.

‘You’d better get back to work,’ Malien said abruptly. ‘ And hurry .’