Ian Irvine - Geomancer

‘How has this come about?’

An after-effect of the Forbidding being broken, we think. It began at that time.

‘How long do you have?’

We think a few months. At the very outside, a year. Lava advances on us from all directions. The seas grow too hot to sustain life. Soon we will have no place to stand.

Tiaan went limp. Something caught in her throat, as if she had taken in a whiff of burning air. Minis was going to die.

Tiaan?

Tears flooded down her cheeks, forming icicles.

‘Yes?’ She choked. ‘You’re going to die and so am I. We’re all doomed.’ She was shaking. Tiaan could not help herself. Despair was a black Hürn bear, eating her from the belly out.

There may be a way! Minis’s voice was a seductive whisper inside her head.

‘How?’

We may be able to save you, through your amplimet. In return, you can do something for us.

‘I will do anything!’ she said eagerly. ‘What would you ask of me?’

First we must save you. Listen carefully. Somehow you have stumbled on the ancient art of geomancy.

‘Geomancy? Reading patterns in sand?’ She could not conceal her scorn. It was the lowest fairground fakery of all.

Not that sad corruption , said Tirior. True geomancy is the most powerful of all the Secret Arts, for it draws upon the very power of the earth. Mancing is always limited by power. Most mages keep it within themselves, or store it in small devices, or channel tiny amounts of power from places they don’t understand. But geomancy offers unlimited power for those who have an amplimet and are able to use it. Imagine the power of an earthquake, the force that keeps your world in its orbit about the sun, the strength of the winds, the motion of the continents on their plates, the hot spots ascending from the very core of the planet. Those are the kinds of power a geomancer has at her disposal .

But it is a dangerous power , said Luxor. Geomancy is the most difficult of all the Secret Arts, and the most deadly. Your amplimet is the key, and all that has saved you is the clumsy nature of your tuning. You tapped the merest trickle of power, fortunately, or you would not have survived it. Nonetheless, you must have a strong talent for it.

‘Many artisans have died at their work,’ said Tiaan. ‘Burnt black inside. My headaches have been much worse since I made these devices. My arms feel hot and twitchy, and I have begun to see strange, impossible things.’

Oh? said Tirior sharply. What kinds of things ? She glanced at Luxor.

‘It’s … hard to explain,’ Tiaan said. ‘Coloured shapes in the air that swell and contract, disappear and reappear somewhere else, different shapes and sizes and patterns. They remind me of …’ She broke off with a strangled cry. ‘I’m going mad, aren’t I? I’ve got crystal fever.’

What do they remind you of ? Tirior asked with another glance at Luxor.

‘Pieces of things!’ Tiaan said through her hands. She let out a crazed laugh.

You’re not mad, Tiaan. You’re seeing beyond.

‘Beyond what? You mean into the void?’

Not exactly. You’re looking into the hyperplane.

‘I don’t understand.’

You and I live in a three-dimensional world, Tiaan , said Tirior. Every object has length, breadth and depth. But the universe has more dimensions than that – as many as ten, some philosophers say, though we are incapable of imagining the others .

‘I still don’t understand.’

You must have a most remarkable mind.

‘I think in pictures,’ said Tiaan. ‘I used to think everyone did, until people began to tell me how unusual that was.’

Indeed. The amplimet must have lifted your inner seeing onto the hyperplane. You’re beginning to see the fourth dimension.

It made no sense to Tiaan. ‘But what am I seeing?’

Fragments of the strong field permeating ethyric space.

‘It looks stronger than the field I’m used to.’

It is. That’s why it’s so useful. Since you can see it, you may be able to use it .

‘There’s power enough in the weak field for me, when it’s there.’ As she said that, Tiaan recalled the failure of the field at Minnien, which had caused the loss of fifty clankers. Had the lyrinx drained it like a well?

Again that exchange of glances. What weren’t they telling her?

It’s a … safer way , said Luxor.

Much safer , Tirior said smoothly. Power takes a more direct path into the amplimet. And you can use geomancy where you can’t see the weak field at all.

‘I don’t understand,’ Tiaan said. She felt utterly confused. ‘I’m sorry. I can’t help you. I don’t know what you’re talking about.’

There was a long silence. Tirior spoke low and urgently to Luxor, who grimaced. She put her lips to Minis’s ear. He shook his head. She took his arm, hissed something he did not catch. Minis shook her off, disappearing from Tiaan’s image. Shortly Minis reappeared, so close that he blocked her view of the others.

He looked into her eyes, smiled and her heart melted. Tiaan, dearest . Minis reached out as if to take her hand. Please help me. I don’t want to die. I – he caught his breath. Oh, Tiaan! he sighed, gazing lovingly at her.

Tiaan was smitten. Suddenly, no promise was too rash if it would bring them together. ‘Of course I will help you, Minis. If I can.’

Tirior edged into the image. No one can understand the hyperplane, Tiaan. It’s beyond our imagining. But we can still use it, just as you use the field without understanding it .

‘But what if I take too much power?’ That had happened occasionally, if a squadron of clankers drew heavily on a small node, inducing reverberating strangenesses in the field. Whole clankers had vanished into nowhere, so these days they travelled well apart and followed strict rules about how much power they could draw. ‘What if I tear open the wall between Santhenar and the hyperplane?’

Tirior staggered. Luxor’s mouth hung open.

‘What is it?’ Tiaan cried.

Tirior drew the others away, speaking urgently. After some minutes they returned.

Never you worry about that. Just do exactly as we say and you will come to no harm .

‘My head is burning,’ said Tiaan.

The channelled power is leaking through you , said Tirior. We must work fast. When you first saw Minis, am I not right, you just had a clumsy, shaped crystal? You only found the amplimet recently ?

‘Less than a week ago. I’ve not used it yet, save speaking to you.’ She began to feel faint.

Do not use it! This amplimet can channel so much power that it would burn you to a cinder. But if you employ it carefully, exactly as we say, it can save you .

‘How?’

You are in deadly peril, Tiaan, and not just from freezing to death. From the attenuation of your signal we believe there may be as much as ten spans of snow above you .

Tiaan shuddered. That was the height of a good-sized tree. She could feel the cold weight of it hanging over her.

You cannot move until the storm stops and the snow crusts over. Even then you will be in peril of collapse, or avalanche. So you must wait for days. Have you food?

‘Enough for a week. But I’ll freeze before that.’

Listen carefully. You may be able to channel power through the crystal to keep you warm .

Tiaan tried to concentrate as Tirior gave instructions. They were long, complicated and difficult to understand, dealing as they did with unknowable concepts like ‘topological morphometrics’ and ‘hyperdimensional wormholes’. Her arm began to twitch uncontrollably. She felt very cold.