Alchymist (37 page)

Flydd
and Irisis, once her friends, were nearly as bad, hey'd lied to her, used her,
and when they didn't want her any longer, they'd simply abandoned her.

Her
body's will to live drove Ullii to the surface. She stood op in the shallow
water and breathed. The screaming had stopped but the pain was still there, and
it was unendurable. Reaching inside herself, Ullii flicked the switch that
severed her consciousness. Blessed oblivion.

An
hour later she was still standing there, seeing nothing, hearing nothing,
feeling nothing.

A
memory woke in her and Ullii realised that she was standing in waist-deep
water, tears streaming down her cheeks. Her beloved Mylii lay in his blood in
the clearing, alone and abandoned.

Ullii
had no idea where she was. In that fit of madness and grief she might have run
in any direction. She searched the lattice for her brother's knot, which had
appeared so miraculously last night, but it was not there. Mylii was dead; his
knot had vanished forever and she was lost.

The
sense of abandonment grew stronger. Mylii, Mylii, lying on the hard ground all
alone. Was there a way to find him? He'd left no trace in the lattice, nor had
the other dead at the air-floater. Not even the unfortunate little pilot made a
mark now, for death wiped all knots away.

But
the air-floater was powered by a controller, and it must still have a working
crystal. She sought for it but found nothing — Flydd had taken the crystal with
him and he was beyond range. Deeper, further, she sought; there had to be some
trace left. At last she picked up a tiny smudge of aura, a chip broken off the
controller crystal in the crash. It gave her the direction. Ullii turned that
way and started running.

It
was only an hour off dawn when she got there. The declining moon slanted across
the clearing to light up the canvas of the air-floater from behind. The
collapsed airbag was a crumpled rag outlined by black struts and wires. The
little pilot lay with her head over the side, her neck bent at an unnatural
angle.

Ullii
only had eyes for the slim shape lying in the moon-shadow: beloved Mylii. She
did not run. Ullii was afraid to approach him too quickly.

Stopping
on the far side of the clearing, she stared at her brother Unlike the pilot and
the soldiers, who all looked dead, he just appeared to be sleeping. She felt as
her sensitive eyes strained to pierce the blackness that she saw his chest rise
and fall She tried to make out his features but they blurred into the dark.

She
allowed herself to hope that it had just been a horrible nightmare. She did not
want to wake him in case it turned out to be real. How could he be dead? Nish
was a kind, gentle man who had done so much for her. He would not harm Mylii.
It had to be a dreadful mistake, a dream that she had woken from. Or was it?
She felt so confused.

Ullii
took a slow, fluid step, careful to make no sound. Any noise might wake her
brother and everything would turn out wrong. A warm breeze soughed through the
treetops, curling round the clearing and tickling the back of her neck, lifting
the hair of her nape just as it lifted the dry leaves on the floor of the
clearing, sending them whirling like fairy dancers in a circle. It made her
smile. Mylii would have loved to see it — he had always been fond of music and
dancing.

She
took another step, and her brother's prone form seemed to shift, as if moving to
a more comfortable position, before settling back into sleep with a little
sigh. The gesture was so familiar that it made her heart ache. Tears sprang to
Ullii's eyes and suddenly she had to take him in her arms.

Her
small feet made barely a sound as she ran. From halfway across the clearing,
Ullii called her brother's name Again he seemed to move, then suddenly went
still, and with every step she took Mylii grew more rigid. The silver bracelet
on his wrist was a manacle fixing him to the earth.

'Mylii!'
she cried, but he no longer seemed to be breathing.

She
crossed the short distance that separated them and threw herself at him. 'Mylii!'

He
did not move. Mylii was as unyielding as a log. Ullii pushed her arms under his
back. A bubble burst in his throat and the remaining air sighed out of his
lungs. The ground was damp beneath him. His whole back was wet, and when she
withdrew her hands and held them up, his congealed blood was black in the
moonlight.

'Mylii.'
she wailed, picking him up in her arms, holding his body tightly as she rocked
hack and forth, back and forth . ..

A
faint ticker-tick-tick roused her this time. It was an air-floater, not far
away. Ullii sat up, not so much listening as watching its knot in her lattice.
It was roving back and forth across the country south of here, coming steadily
closer as if searching. It had come after the wrecked air-floater, and
something far more precious — Mylii the seeker.

The
machine turned, flying directly towards the clearing. They were coming to take Mylii
away. They must not get him. She tried to lift her brother, but he was heavier
than he appeared. Ullii had him halfway to her shoulder when a sharp pain in
her lower belly reminded her of the baby.

Taking
Mylii under the arms, she tried to drag him, but had only gone three steps when
the air-floater was overhead. It was bigger than the crashed one, and she could
tell that there were scrutators aboard, though in her distress Ullii could not
identify them.

'It's
down there!' roared a barbed voice. 'Stay well up, Pilot. Captain, your troops
must be ready for anything.'

If
the scrutators caught her, they would use her in place of Mylii. She had to let
her brother go. Gently laying the body down, she crouched beside him for a
moment, saying her farewell. Her eye caught a gleam from the bracelet and she
tried to unfasten it, as a token of him, but the clasp would not budge. No time
to work on it; they were coming. Ullii scuttled into the trees.

The
air-floater remained hovering above the clearing while soldiers came down on
ropes. They were big, heavily armed, and Ullii was repulsed by the smell of
their unwashed bodies. The first three assumed positions at the points of a
triangle, crossbows thrust out, while the remainder came to ground inside the
triangle. They formed more points and expanded outwards.

Lanterns
were unshuttered and directed at the forest. The troops, heavily armoured and
helmeted, looked like savage demons. Ullii could not bear to look at them — nor
away from them.

Search
it." said the captain, pointing to the wreckage of the air-floater. He
shouted orders.

Powerful
lanterns illuminated the wreckage. Two soldiers headed for it while others
moved towards the edges of the clearing. Ullii crept away and, climbing a
slender tree, little more than a sapling, took refuge in its canopy. It was so
small they would never look for an enemy there. She had to stay close; she
could not leave her brother.

The
soldiers had set up their lanterns on poles and some began to quarter the
clearing while others moved into the forest.

'Here's
one,' someone called, bending over the still form of her brother. 'Hey! It's
the black-haired seeker. He's dead.'

Dead!
As the word echoed through her skull, Ullii almost fell out of the tree. Mylii
was dead; she could no longer deny it. The leaves rustled and a man cried out,
'There's someone in the forest!'

The
grimly efficient soldiers searched everywhere. They found more bodies: one of
the soldiers from the first air-floater, then the dead in the wreckage. Ullii
clung desperately to the trunk, fighting down an impulse to scream.

Finally
the clearing was secured and the captain called up to the hovering air-floater,
'It's safe. There's no one about. It was just the wind.'

Someone
shouted back, 'They're coming down. Stand to attention.'

Ropes
whirred through pulleys and a big man in robes was lowered in a suspended
chair.

Ullii
choked, recognising him now. It was Chief Scrutator Ghorr, and he made a
barbed, tangled knot in her lattice. She remembered Ghorr from the visit to
Nennifer months ago. He had shown nothing but contempt for her. 'Scurry away,
little mouse,' he'd said sneeringly. But subsequently Ullii had done what had
never been done in the history of the world. She had used her lattice to get
Irisis out of her cell without breaking the spell on the lock or setting off
the alarm, and Ghorr's rage had shaken the foundations of Nennifer. Ullii was
more afraid of him now, for she knew he wanted that secret even if he had to
tear it out of her living body.

The
air-floater swung in a gust, causing the rope to sway back and forth like a
pendulum. The rotor roared as the terrified pilot tried to regain position but,
before she could, Ghorr was dragged through the spiny upper branches, tearing
his silken shirt to shreds. Bunches of hard leaves slapped him in the face,
releasing a pungent oil that brought tears to his eyes.

'What
the devil are you doing, Pilot?' he bellowed. 'Put me down, quick smart, or
you'll go to the breeding factory!'

Soldiers
ran back and forth, anxiously holding up their lanterns. Ghorr cleared the
trees, though his shirt remained hanging from the spines. The pulley-man
lowered him precipitously, whereupon two burly men ran to catch him as he swung
across the clearing, cursing in a voice as much alarmed as furious.

Ghorr
shook them off and wiped away the mortifying tears. His chest proved
unexpectedly flabby, while the great belly was held in by a tightly-laced
corset. One of the soldiers sniggered. Ghorr spun around furiously but could
not identify the miscreant.

'My
cloak!' he snapped.

It
was tossed down at once. Pulling it around him he stalked off, wounded in
dignity, to examine the crashed air-floater.

Two
other scrutators came down in the hanging chair, the black-bearded, snake-eyed
Fusshte and a cold, dumpy old woman whose name Ullii could not recall, though
she remembered her knot in the lattice. She was just as hard and corrupt as the
men.

The
three scrutators gathered around the air-floater, inspected the dead then came
to stand by Mylii. Lanterns flared brightly. One of the soldiers turned the
body over.

Stabbed
in the back' Ullii heard. See the knife wound here — it went straight into his
heart."

Ghorr
gestured for silence while he held his hands out, parallel to the ground muttering
under his breath as he strained to perform some mancery. Fusshtes black eyes
glittered in the lantern light.

'Flydd
was here,' said Ghorr after a long interval.

'And
he murdered the seeker so they could get away,' murmured Fusshte.

'He
may have ordered it,' said the woman, 'but he did not do it. And since Ullii
would not have killed her brother, it can only have been that black-hearted
villain, Cryl-Nish Hlar.'

Ullii
wept silently. It was as if the knife had been twisted in her own heart. Nish
must really hate her. But why? She'd done everything he'd asked of her.

After
so much trauma, Ullii would have fled,' said Ghorr.

'The
body's growing stiff,' said Fusshte. "They're long gone, and without our
seeker we'll never find them. We should have killed Flydd while we had him.'

'We'll
wait for daylight,' said Ghorr. 'It won't be long now. Then we'll look for
tracks. Since we've lost our seeker, we must find Ullii. I'll use her to hunt
down Flydd and Cryl-Nish Hlar, and this time they must be executed on the
spot.'

'What
about the air-floater?' asked Fusshte.

'The
artificers say it can be repaired, though it'll need a new rotor and controller
crystal. We'll send a team back to fix the damage.'

And
the dead?'

'Burn
them.'

Ullii
clung desperately to her tree as the bodies were dragged into the centre of the
clearing like worthless pieces of rubbish. Ghorr crouched by Mylii for a
moment, though Ullii could not see what he was doing. He stood up, gestured,
and the soldiers piled faggots, branches and logs on top. It was all happening
too quickly. She couldn't cope. She hadn't said goodbye to Mylii, taken care of
his body, washed him or brushed his hair It was agony to watch, but neither
could she cover her eyes.

A
burning brand was thrust into the centre. The dry wood blazed up and within
minutes the pyre was a mass of flame from one end to the other. The stench of
burning flesh made her insides shudder.

The
sun rose through the smoke. When the light was strong enough, the soldiers and
the two scrutators crisscrossed the forest before picking up Flydd and Nish's
tracks, heading north. The vile Fusshte was following another trail, which
meandered like an ant walking across a piece of paper. It was the path Ullii
had taken in her initial flight, though she did not recognise it. She had no
memory of that time, nor ever would have.

The
air-floater went after the two scrutators and disappeared from sight. Ullii
dared not move, though she was now faint with thirst and hunger. The baby
kicked feebly. Some hours later, Fusshte reappeared, tracking back. He began
going through the forest in a series of parallel lines, methodically inspecting
the ground and the trees. She felt sure he was going to discover her.