by Ian Irvine
‘For the moment,’ said Muss. ‘Though it may not remain so. Once they tire, or if Fusshte decides that there’s no more to lose …’
‘Are the Council united in this?’ said Klarm shrewdly. ‘One would have thought that Fusshte …’
‘They weren’t,’ said Muss. ‘Had you chosen subterfuge over action I would have led you inside. You might have taken advantage of their intriguing to seize control. That’s not possible now – they’re united by their fear of the amplimet. Your rash stroke has made your task far more difficult.’
‘You forget yourself, Prober!’ snapped Flydd.
‘You taught me to speak plainly,’ said Muss.
‘There’s a difference between plain speaking and insolence. Does the Council know we’re here?’
‘They must do,’ said Klarm. ‘The guards fired on us.’
‘The guards fired on a shadowy movement,’ said Muss. ‘I explained it as a mountain goat wandering onto the parade ground.’
Flydd regarded him dubiously. ‘Really?’
‘False alarms aren’t uncommon. The guards are taught to shoot on sight, then go and see what they’ve shot.’
Flydd nodded. ‘So even in this supposedly impregnable fastness the Council feels insecure. How interesting. Can you get us inside without alerting the guards?’
The spy consulted his concealed instrument. ‘The sentinels have failed now and we can get in anywhere, if we’re quick. Once the guards recover from the dislocation they’ll renew their watch on the perimeter.’
‘Very well. Lead us in, Prober, without delay.’
‘Where do you wish to be taken, surr?’ said Muss.
‘To the chamber where the amplimet is held,’ said Malien from the ground. ‘Before anything, we must put it –’
‘Can you help us?’ said Flydd. ‘Are you fit, Malien?’
‘Alas,’ she said, ‘I can’t even stand.’
‘And Yggur is still unconscious,’ said Flydd. ‘Aftersickness won’t release him today, so we can’t take on the amplimet yet.’
‘The Council are close by the warding chamber,’ said Muss.
‘And they’ll be in disarray, so we’ll try to overpower them. Only then can we attempt to deal with the crystal.’
‘Once you bring them down,’ said Malien quietly, ‘their hold on the amplimet will fail and you may not be able to control it.’
‘I can see no other way,’ said Flydd. ‘We can’t delay any longer. Where can we safely leave our disabled, Prober?’
‘There, surr,’ said Muss, indicating a corner section of wall jutting out from the front of the building. ‘It’s solid and sheltered from the wind; as safe as anywhere.’
Which isn’t saying much, Nish thought. They left Malien and Yggur inside, along with the soldier with the broken leg, plus food, drink and cloaks to cover them, and Evee to do what she could for their hurts.
‘Splendid,’ said Flydd, visibly gathering his resolve. ‘Take us within, Muss.’
TWENTY-FIVE
The stream of fleeing people had dropped to a trickle, now following an ant trail of refugees that led around to the rear of Nennifer, where there would be shelter from the biting wind.
‘This way will be quicker,’ said Muss. ‘Try not to attract attention.’
‘What about a disguise?’ said Flydd.
‘Your own mother wouldn’t recognise you under all that dust, surr.’
Muss led them across the tilted, shattered stones of the parade ground, keeping to the low side of an upthrust bank of rubbly rock that curved towards the former entrance of the fortress. In the drifting dust and smoke it was hard to follow him. Though Muss was undisguised, he tended to blend into his surroundings.
‘He’s almost as weird as the rest of the place,’ Irisis said quietly to Nish. ‘I don’t trust him, despite his fine words.’
Nish didn’t have the energy to worry about anything else. ‘He knew we were here. He could have betrayed us any time in the past few days, had he wanted to.’
‘He’s up to something,’ she muttered.
Muss, ten or fifteen paces ahead, stopped and looked directly at her, before heading off again.
Irisis shivered. ‘And he’s fey.’
Nish put an arm around her but the sudden movement made his head spin again. He gagged and pulled away.
‘Are you all right?’ Irisis said sharply.
‘This place makes me dizzy.’
‘I feel it too.’ She touched her pliance with a fingertip. ‘Whatever the amplimet did to the dimensions, they haven’t quite gone back to normal.’
Where the rubble bank branched into two, Muss stopped for everyone to catch up. ‘Best if we go in here.’
The curving slice of building in front of them was shaped like a fingernail paring cut in half. The short straight end still had its outer wall, but the exposed side, which protruded several spans further than the neighbouring slice, revealed a section through all the above-ground floors of Nennifer. The lower floors were intact and contained their original contents, but the upper two levels were in disarray, their floors and ceilings partly crumbled.
Muss sprang lightly up onto the lowest floor, which stood two-thirds of a span above the ground, and disappeared.
‘What –?’ said Klarm.
The spy reappeared, his image wavering as if seen through the surface of a rippled pond. Nish felt an almost overwhelming urge to throw up.
Irisis steadied him until the nausea faded. ‘Perhaps if you close your eyes?’
‘Fat lot of use I’ll be then, when we’re attacked.’
‘You won’t be any use if you’re hurling your breakfast up all over yourself.’
‘We didn’t have any breakfast!’ he said miserably.
‘You’ll be fine then. Hold my hand while we go through.’
Klarm looked back, frowned, then flipped himself up onto the floor. This time Nish couldn’t control his stomach. Once he’d finished, Irisis took his hand and led him to the edge. ‘Close your eyes,’ she hissed as Flangers swung himself up.
Nish did so. ‘Ready?’ Without waiting for him to answer, Irisis took him under the arms and heaved him up, grunting with the effort.
His stomach tied itself in knots as he passed through a chilly, wetly-clinging barrier, but the nausea faded as he landed on the floor inside. He stood up, steadfastly looking the other way as Irisis came through.
The room appeared to have been the sleeping chamber of a senior mancer, or possibly a scrutator, for it was lavishly appointed with rugs, tapestries and furniture made of inlaid ebony and other rare timbers. An ivory wand lay in the middle of the rug, broken in half.
‘Which way?’ said Flydd, moving in behind Muss and taking him by the upper arm.
Muss went still. ‘I don’t like to be touched, surr,’ he said stiffly.
Flydd didn’t let go, and the pair stood frozen for a full minute before Muss gave a slight dip of the head and Flydd stepped back.
‘I still have to find the way,’ said Muss, looking around. He glanced down at the eidoscope in the folds of his cloak, then opened a door and slid through it. They waited. His head appeared around the door. ‘This way.’
Irisis muttered something rude. Flydd directed a fierce scowl at her. ‘If you are to lead, you must also learn when to trust.’
‘I’d trust Muss more if he had a personality,’ she retorted. ‘I’ve known him for years, yet I have no idea what he thinks or feels, about anything. He’s a machine.’
‘One who’s served me faithfully and well, and never let me down, which is all that matters. Now be quiet. This place could still be full of enemies.’
‘They’ve all run away save the scrutators and their pet mancers.’
‘Really?’ said Flydd, thrusting at her his seamed and puckered face, all bone and gristle. ‘A good seven thousand people dwelt in Nennifer and there could be many still inside.’
She pulled away, scarcely abashed, but drew her sword. Oddly, Flydd
had lost the bitter fury of the past days. The duress seemed to have driven him back to his normal irascible self, which she was used to dealing with. Nish moved closer to her. The dust made everyone else look grubby but it only heightened her beauty.
He’d expected to be fighting his way in, but the monumental corridor proved empty apart from blocks of stone, scatterings of plaster and overturned pieces of furniture. One or two wall globes still glowed further on, and moonlight streaming in through fissures provided irregular slashes of illumination. The walls and ceiling were webbed with cracks, while pieces of plaster were falling all the time.
‘One more shock and the rest of this will come down,’ Flydd said with unsettling good humour.
It was the first time Nish had seen a smile on the scrutator’s face since the rescue at Fiz Gorgo. ‘You look awfully cheerful about it.’ It was incomprehensible in such a situation.
‘I’ve been looking forward to this day since Snizort. I feel almost restored.’ A momentary spasm distorted his features, but he overcame it.
‘Do you think there are going to be aftershocks?’
‘Bound to be,’ said Flydd. ‘Muss?’
Muss had stopped in a corner of the wall, again scrying under his cloak. ‘That way.’ He pointed to the right, across a mess of rubble and timber that marked the junction with the next building slice.
The rubble contained three partly crushed bodies; none had died pleasantly. ‘It doesn’t look too safe to me,’ said Nish, averting his eyes. ‘There could be a crevasse below that, or anything.’
‘Or nothing,’ Muss said cryptically.
‘What if we crossed up there,’ said Irisis, pointing to the next floor. ‘See the beam that’s fallen across?’
They went out and along to a stair that led to the next floor, then walked the beam in single file, a miniature nightmare to add to the rest of Nish’s horrors. It was precariously balanced on shifting chunks of stone and every movement made it wobble.
They passed diagonally across part of a prentice artisan’s training room, or so Irisis judged from the boxes and displays of crystals and other artefacts, each with its crudely lettered instruction cards. The front right and rear left corners of the room had been shorn off, replaced by a masonry wall on the one hand and a triangular section of room containing only a pair of butcher’s blocks on the other. The second block, illuminated by a puddle of moonlight, held a partly carved ham and a neatly severed hand and arm, still holding the carving knife. The arm had hardly bled at all, though the fingertips were as white as the ivory wand Nish had seen earlier.
At the door, Muss checked his instrument. This time Irisis, who had been watching for it, caught a quick glimpse of brass rods and mottled lenses. Muss pointed to the right, down a narrow hall.
They were just gathering behind him when Klarm said, ‘We’re being watched.’
‘What do you mean?’ Flydd asked in a low voice.
‘I don’t know, precisely, but I can feel it.’
‘It?’ whispered Flydd.
‘I believe so.’ Klarm cast a quick glance across the displays of crystals on the far side of the room.
Irisis followed his gaze. The reflection off one particular crystal, a deep green tourmaline, gave it a predatory look. ‘I think we should get out of here right away.’
No one argued. On the other side of the door, Flydd said, ‘I can feel the amplimet now. It may be contained but it’s not controlled. It’s extending a web of filaments throughout Nennifer. And it’ll use any crystal or device capable of drawing power. We’d better hurry.’
They hastened along the hall, but had just turned the corner when they heard a distant screaming that sounded as if it came from dozens of throats. Muss stopped so suddenly that they ran into him. He sniffed the air. ‘Phantoms and spectres from the dungeons. Nothing to worry about.’
Irisis shivered and moved closer to Nish. ‘I saw more than enough of them in Ghorr’s cells. Such torments the scrutators’ prisoners have suffered here.’
He took her arm. And we’ll be joining them before long.
‘The amplimet’s blocking us,’ said Flydd as they stumbled down another dark, shattered hall only to be confronted by yet another dead end.
‘How can it?’ Klarm replied. ‘We’re just following him.’ He directed another suspicious glare at Muss’s back.
‘Perhaps it’s blocking his eidoscope,’ said Irisis. She still hadn’t seen the device clearly, for Muss only used it in the shadows.
Eiryn Muss turned to face them. ‘Not even an amplimet can influence my eidoscope. Its Art is designed to see true, no matter what.’
‘How can you possibly know what an amplimet is capable of, and you a mere prober?’ Klarm said coldly.
The derogatory emphasis made Nish flinch.
‘I chose to remain a prober because that was how I could best serve my scrutator,’ said Muss without emotion. ‘Had I wished otherwise, I could have attained the highest position any spy can aspire to.’
‘More words,’ said Klarm.
‘But in this case, true words,’ Flydd interjected. ‘Muss could have been a master spy a decade ago. I recommended him many times.’
‘Does your eidoscope see the webs and meshes the amplimet has drawn throughout this place to spy on us?’ said Klarm. ‘How else could you know that it’s not controlling what you see?’
‘It’s not,’ Muss said stolidly.
‘Lead on, Muss,’ said Flydd.
‘It’s not far now, surr,’ said the prober.
‘Let’s plan our attack,’ said Flydd. ‘How many soldiers are guarding the warding chamber?’
‘None, surr. No one would dare enter that place without authority, and the entrance is closed with scrutator magic.’
‘Ah, but can we break it?’
‘Between you and me, I think so,’ said Klarm.
‘Fusshte will have his guard on call,’ said Flydd.
‘Many died in the dislocation,’ said Muss, ‘and others have been ordered to their posts, but certainly some will be nearby.’
‘Can you get us past them, Muss?’
‘I believe so, but you’ll have to be ready to fight.’
They went on, though after about ten minutes Muss stopped and stood to one side with his arm pointing down the corridor. ‘Go down there.’ He gave a series of directions. ‘Then follow your nose as far as it takes you, and go straight up.’
‘Muss?’ said Flydd.
‘You’re close, surr. You’ll smell the place before you go much further.’
‘Lead on, Prober,’ said Flydd.
‘I can’t go on,’ said Muss with a distracted look.
‘Why not?’ Klarm said.
‘I only spy. I don’t go into dangerous places.’
‘The hell you don’t –’ cried Klarm.
In a second, Muss morphed from his normal self into a shaggy, ape-like creature. As Klarm leapt at him, Muss skin-changed to the appearance of the wall behind him and vanished.
‘Grab him!’ Klarm yelled, but Muss was gone. Klarm stood there with clenched fists, breathing heavily.
‘You shouldn’t have pushed him,’ said Flydd.
‘He’s run, Xervish, which proves that my doubts were well founded. He brought us here for a purpose and the more I think about it, the more it worries me. What if he’s told Fusshte we’re here?’
‘I don’t think so,’ said Flydd. ‘I believe what Muss said.’
‘And what he left unsaid?’ said Irisis. ‘He hasn’t brought us here to serve you. He wants something and he can’t get it from the scrutators.’
‘That’s what I’m worried about,’ said Flydd.
TWENTY-SIX
Flydd hurried them across a series of dark rooms that had been chopped in half, stumbling over bodies on the floor. They did not stop to look at them. They climbed down into the next segment of the building, a dining hall that had been turned upside down and fitted neatly back into place, though what had been the ceili
ng was now strewn with upside-down trestles, benches, trenchers and cutlery. Oddly, the globes on the walls were still working. The place smelled of boiled turnip, the vegetable Nish hated most. It had been a staple back in the manufactory.
Something squelched underfoot. He had trodden in a bowl of yellow gruel, as sticky as glue. He kicked it aside and it skidded across the floor to shatter against a bench.
‘Quiet!’ hissed Flydd, appearing to look every way at once. ‘What was that?’
‘I didn’t hear anything unusual,’ said Klarm in a low voice.
To Nish’s mind, every sound was unusual and some were uncanny. The groan of timbers deformed under weights they were never intended to bear; the sporadic crash and crumble of plaster or masonry; the trickling rivulets of dust and grit; the alternate soughing, whining and whistling of the wind across the severed edges of stone and tile; the cascades of water from twisted pipes and the surging ooze and plop of waste from shattered drains. And then there were the wails and groans of those trapped in the wreckage and the shrieking of the spectres forced from their dungeon homes. The cries seemed to come from every direction.
They went on, Nish’s boot sticking to the floor with every step, through the far door into a frigid stone canyon. The roof was gone, as well as the floors above, while the walls to either side stretched up, bare and unclimbable, for a good twelve spans. The opposite wall was crusted with frozen runs of brown muck that had a sewer stink. Moonbeams angled along it, touching silver gleams here and there.
‘Help!’ came a distant cry. ‘Please … help me. Oh please, please.’ It sounded like a child.
Flangers turned that way, searching the darkness.
‘No, Sergeant,’ said Flydd, laying a hand on his arm. ‘If we stop to render aid to one, all may fail.’
‘But it’s a kid, surr,’ Flangers said in a choked voice.
‘I know,’ Flydd said gently, ‘but we must go on.’ He looked left, then right. Then left again. ‘Bloody Muss! I don’t know which way.’
‘Left,’ Klarm said without hesitation.
No one asked how he knew. At the far end they clambered up a pile of rubble two storeys tall, over a precariously founded stone arch and onto a bridge formed by a crumbling stretch of lath and plaster ceiling that had fallen from somewhere above. It spanned a chasm at least three storeys deep. Something flickered redly in the depths, though there was no smoke.
