Alchymist (67 page)

'What's
the matter now?' yelled Fyn-Mah from inside.

'Bloody
fool's knocked himself out.'

Inouye
levelled out. Irisis, ever so carefully, eased Nish out from under the rotor
and carried him into the cabin. Fyn-Mah was decanting the deadly quicksilver
into its flask. She stoppered it. The machine tilted up again.

Laying
Nish on the rear part of the floor where he'd be as protected as possible,
Irisis kissed him on the forehead, then went out and slid down the steeply
sloping deck to the pilot, who was choking and shuddering as she clung to the
controller arm. Abruptly Inouye doubled over, clutching her belly. Steam wisped
from her mouth. Irisis threw her arms around the little woman and tried to take
power through herself. Her entrails grew boiling hot. If she failed it would
anthracise them both.

Inouye
began to jerk as if she were having a fit. Droplets of sweat burst out all over
her, saturating her clothes in a few seconds. Irisis grew hot all over. Her
eyes clouded until she could see nothing but floating specks of blue light.

The
pilot slid from her grasp and power struck Irisis like a sledgehammer, knocking
her to her knees. She fought against it, catching Inouye's hand with her free
hand. If she let go the controller would fail, for it was tuned to Inouye
alone.

As
the air-floater turned, she saw the soldiers at the jave-lard halfway up the
hill. They had freed the bent spear and were inserting a good one. The lever
went back, the spear hur-tled towards them. She threw her weight against the
steering arm, having difficulty keeping her balance. The air-floater did not
move quickly enough. The heavy spear whistled over her head, smashing through
the back end of the cabin and out the front Nish! Nish was inside. 'Shoot
them!' Her voice cracked.

Flangers
was cranking a crossbow. 'No spears left. Not many bolts, either.'

The
pair of air-floaters were approaching. Both were armed with javelards and
soldiers bearing crossbows, though they were not yet in range.

Another
spear shot by, passing close to the top of the airbag. Where had that come
from? Her erratic movements had taken the air-floater offshore and it had come
within range of one of the ships' more powerful javelards. Irisis felt a flurry
of panic but bit down on it. She would get everyone to safety or kill them all
in the attempt.

'I
need some help here,' she gasped as Inouye's weight pulled her hand off the
controller.

The
air-floater kept turning. Irisis, realising that it would take them towards the
air-floaters, pulled the steering arm the other way with her boot. That brought
them past the soldiers on the hill and, as they drifted west, she saw the
soldiers from the third landing boat climbing the ridge ahead of them. There
was nowhere to go.

A
bony hand fell on her shoulder. 'Turn north-east towards the air-floaters,'
said Flydd, taking the steering arm. He fired Flangers's crossbow one-handed,
to no effect. 'We may be able to do something.'

'I
can't imagine what.' Irisis muttered, but did as she was told.

As
they passed over the water, she cast a glance over her shoulder. Flangers was
pouring the flask of quicksilver through a sieve while the perquisitor did
something under-neath with her hands. Irisis could feel the cold from here.
Pellets of frozen quicksilver, far heavier than lead, rattled into a bucket.
Fyn-Mah gave the scrutator such a look of hopeless longing that Irisis was
touched. Flydd did not notice.

With
a gloved hand, Flangers scooped a handful of pellets into a silk bag. He placed
the bag in the cup of the javelard binding it loosely with thread.

'Get
a move on,' roared Flydd.

Flangers
swung the javelard around, tracking the air-floater to their left. It was doing
the same, and fired first. The spear was aimed high, and looked as though it
was going to fall short, but a gust drifted the air-floater into its path and
out through the airbag just above its base, emerged a couple of spans away and
fell past them.

Irisis
gave the floater-gas generator as much power as she dared. Floater gas whistled
up the pipe, though it seemed to be coming out the rents in the airbag just as
quickly. Try as she might, she could not keep the machine level.

'Can
you patch it?' she called over her shoulder.

Fire,
dammit,' said Flydd.

Flangers
fired. A scrap of silk drifted in the air, then the soldiers on the leading
air-floater screamed and threw their arms in the air. A scatter of holes
appeared in the airbag, tore into a huge gash and the airbag began to collapse.
The air-floater went nose-down. 'Again' said Flydd.

While
Flangers charged the javelard with another bag of quicksilver pellets, Muss
climbed to the roof of the cabin. He hauled up Flydd, who was carrying a repair
patch — a square of canvas coated in sticky tar.

'Keep
it steady,' said the scrutator, wincing as his weight went onto his twisted
ankle. He held the canvas in place while Muss pressed it against the lower tear
in the balloon and smoothed it down, taking care to eliminate any wrinkles.

Flangers
fired at the second air-floater, but this time the silk did not break and the
bag of pellets tore harmlessly through the wall of the cabin.

'I've
pellets left for one more attempt,' Flangers called. Flydd, struggling with the
other piece of tarred canvas, snapped 'Get on with it. The quicksilver won't
stay frozen forever.'

Irisis
turned north into the wind, trying to keep her distance from the air-floater.
That proved impossible for it had the wind on its starboard quarter. She also
had to keep the machine steady and hold Inouye up. Power kept flowing through
the controller, so something must be clinging on in the pilot's subconscious.

The
second tear proved harder to fix, for it was well above Flydd and Muss's reach.
They had to press the canvas patch on with poles. One side went on cleanly but
as they smoothed the patch across, the canvas wrinkled. There was no way to fix
it without setting down.

Flangers
fired. Several people at the front of the enemy craft, including the pilot,
went down. As it fell, the controller arm was jerked to one side and the
air-floater veered towards them. Irisis turned away as sharply as she dared,
prompting a flurry of oaths from the roof of the cabin, but still the enemy
shooter had a perfect, side-on shot.

The
spear whizzed by the cabin, clanging off the housing of the floater-gas
generator. Irisis held her breath. One spark and they would light up the sky
for ten leagues. Nothing happened, but the whistle of the generator died away.

The
pilotless air-floater fell in looping corkscrews towards the sea. The shooter
abandoned his weapon to stand at the rail, staring down fearfully. The first
craft had already hit the water and now lay on its side, its airbag deflated. The
nearest ship was moving towards it, and the dark-clad figures thrashing in the
water. The third air-floater signalled with flags but made no attempt to come
after them. Definitely scrutators on board, Irisis thought sourly.

'The
floater-gas generator's busted,' said Flydd, climbing down. He was now limping
badly. He looked around, marking the positions of the fleet, which was spread
out to the south and east of them.

Irisis
let Inouye slide to the deck, for she could no longer hold her up. The machine
slowed dramatically — Inouye's subconscious had finally given out. Flangers and
Fyn-Mah carried her inside, and Irisis ran in after them to check on Nish. He
was asleep and unharmed. She returned to her post, took out the controller's
crystal, put her pliance in its place and set it to channel to the rotor what
power she could. The air-floater limped on, slowly losing height as floater gas
trickled out from beneath the wrinkled patch.

'Which
way?' she said to Flydd. 'With the fleet between us and land, I don't dare head
south or west. If they've got other air-floaters, or we're forced to land,
they'll have us. We can't go back towards Snizort, either.'

The
afternoon sun angled across one cheek. If Flydd had been gaunt before, now he
was nothing more than bone and sinew over which the skin was stretched
drum-tight. As he clenched his jaw, knots formed under the skin.

'Go
north-west,' he decided at last.

Towards
Meldorin?' Irisis said incredulously. 'But the lyrinx control it.'

We're
outlaws. There's nowhere on Lauralin to hide; nowhere the scrutators won't
track us down. So we must go to the one place where they don't dare, and take
our chances with the lyrinx. Which reminds me — how did you get on in Snizort?'

That
adventure was so long ago Irisis could hardly recall what he was talking about.
'It began well, surr . . .' 'Oh?' he said sharply.

This
wasn't the way she'd imagined their reunion. They'd been friends for a long
time now; she'd been so glad to see him and imagined he would feel the same.
Evidently she'd invested too much in the moment — Flydd was scrutator first and
human being second. 'We managed to take one of the flesh-formed creatures alive
— a newborn infant.' 'But?' said Flydd.

'The
lyrinx attacked us on the way out and it was killed.

They'd
slain all the adults before they left. They nearly killed us too. We lost all
six of our guards, and Fyn-Mah and Flangers were badly hurt. Only Muss was
unharmed, but he was never around when the fighting was on.'

'I
don't allow him to fight, except to save his life,' said Flydd. 'He's too
valuable to me. And the other?' 'The other, surr?'

'The
phynadr, dammit. I saw Muss before the battle of Gumby Marth and he said you
had it.' 'I did . . .'

'What
happened?'

'It
didn't thrive, surr. We did everything we could.' She took him into a corner of
the cabin and retrieved the bag from under a bench.

He
opened it. The phynadr had collapsed into a slimy mess with a strong, meaty
smell, like buffalo broth. 'What a waste,' said Flydd, tossing it over the
side.

She
just stared at him. Was that all? Didn't he even care? Suddenly she felt
furiously angry. 'Thank you for trying so hard, Irisis,' she said
sarcastically. 'Next time you get lost, you miserable old fleabag, you can
rescue yourself.'

'Hey,'
he said. 'I didn't mean —’

She
had already stalked away.

Nish
was still sleeping peacefully, his knees doubled up, one hand under his cheek.
It made him look very young. Irisis stood looking down at him, reflecting. She
knew now that she wanted this man, but would he want her? Either way, she was
glad that her brief affair with Flydd had ended before they came west. She
tucked a blanket around Nish and left him to recover.

The
air-floater had caught a breeze and was moving more quickly now. In an hour
they had left the enemy behind and were drifting across an empty, mist-covered
sea.

'Can't
we go any faster?' said Flydd, coming up beside her. 'If I stuck my head out
the back and blew, we'd move quicker than this.'

'Off
you go, then,' Irisis said coolly.

He
did not reply. He looked terrible.

She
felt contrite. How could she know what he had been through? 'What's the matter,
Xervish?'

'I'm
sorry,' he said. 'I didn't mean to sound ungrateful, earlier. This past week
and a half . . .'

'You
look as though you haven't eaten since I last saw you.'

'Close
enough.' He stared up at the balloon. 'The bag's still losing floater gas. At
this rate, we'll be lucky to make it to land.'

'How's
Inouye?'

'Who?'

'The
pilot.'

'I've
never seen anyone go so close to anthracism and survive.'

'Can
she come up and take over?'

'Only
if you want to kill her' said Flydd.

'Then
you'd better hang onto this.' She gave him the controller arm.

Hey!'
he cried. 'I can't operate one of these.'

The
alarm in his voice amused her. 'In that case you'd better start blowing.' She
went down to the cabin.

Inouye
lay on the canvas bench, her eyes as red as tomatoes. Her lips were like
crumpled paper and her fingernails had gone black. Her skin was completely
white, as if all the blood had withdrawn from beneath.

'I
thought you were going to die,' Irisis said, taking the small woman's hand.

'I
want to,' said Inouye in a whisper like the rustling of papers. 'The one thing
I have left is to die.'

'You
saved us all, and the scrutator. You've done more than your duty.'

'I
couldn't save my family.' Inouye turned her face to the wall.

'I
don't think the Council would harm them.'

'I'll
never see my children again.'

How
could Irisis answer that? She stroked Inouye's limp hair, then returned to the
pilot's position and coaxed a little more speed from the rotor, at the cost of
exhausting herself. Without training, or a controller tailored to her, piloting
was a debilitating business. Fortunately the tailwind had picked up, though
Meldorin was not in sight and from here must be a day's flight away — if the
floater gas lasted that long. She leaned back against the cabin wall and closed
her eyes, feeling as if she'd not slept in a week. There would be none tonight.