Alchymist (82 page)

'Stay
where you are until we're in the air,' said Malien.

Where
are we going now?'

'West.'

Across
the sea to Meldorin?' said Tiaan. 'Where the lyrinx are?'

'We came
at an opportune time. My people have just had vital news.'

'Oh?'
said Tiaan.

'With
Bilfis dead, only one person has the skills of geomancy and mathemancy to tell
us how bad the node danger is, and how to avert it — the tetrarch, Gilhaelith.
I now know where he's hiding.'

'Where
is he?'

'He's
north across the Sea of Thurkad, near a lyrinx city called Oellyll.'

Tiaan
did not recognise the name, though it sent a shiver up her spine nonetheless.
'Is he a prisoner?'

'I
don't think so. Word has it that he's made a deal with the enemy.'

'What's
the name of this place?' Tiaan asked as they were crossing the Sea of Thurkad.

Malien
was at the controller. The sea here, almost eighty leagues north of the place
where she had escaped from the Aachim nets, was more than twenty leagues
across. In the distance she saw a gap in the range that ran down the east coast
of Meldorin. The peaks were white, the flanks of the mountains dusted with an
early fall of snow, for it was late autumn now. To the left, a steep-sided
volcano fumed. There was no snow on its warm flanks, though similar dormant
peaks to its north and south had caps of white.

Malien
did not reply. She was frowning at the sullen water far below. 'Better go up;
we could be seen at this height.' She lifted the thapter into the bumpy air
inside the clouds.

'That's
the Zarqa Gap,' said Talis, pointing, 'one of the few passes across these
mountains, at least in the wintertime. See the ancient road?'

The
thapter lurched. Tiaan caught another brief glimpse of the pass, then they were
in opaque cloud again. Talis was silent until a second filmy gap appeared. 'It
used to run all the way to the west coast, though already the forest is taking
it back. The lyrinx eliminated the last people from these lands a generation
ago.'

'Down
south,' said Malien, 'further to our left, lie the ruins of Alcifer.'

There
was nothing to see but cloud. 'I've heard that name,' said Tiaan. It gave her a
shivery feeling.

'The
city was designed by the brilliant architect Pitlis, for Rulke, and Rulke's
seduction of him is the greatest betrayal in the Histories. Many people say
that Alcifer was the greatest creation of any of the human species, anywhere in
the Three worlds. It caused the downfall of my people, from which we have never
recovered.'

The
clouds broke and Tiaan pointed a spyglass where Malien had indicated. The
mountains ran close to the sea there, and a flank of the volcano had been
carved and sculpted to form the platform upon which Alcifer had been built.
Great boulevards curved through it, and buildings great and small, their
outlines just visible beneath aeons of growth, erosion and volcanic ash. From
this distance no more detail could be seen.

On
the slopes north of the city, the volcano had, long ago, formed a series of terraces
covered in glittering crystalline salts, mud pools, geysers, fumaroles and the
snaking lines of ancient lava tunnels whose tops had collapsed. Steam hung in
wisps over the surface.

'That's
chancy country,' said Talis, consulting an ancient gazetteer of the lands
around Alcifer. 'When it rains, flows of mud and ash are dammed up against the
edge of the terraces. They crust over in the dry season, though if you tried to
walk there you'd go straight through.'

And
slowly cook in hot mud,' said Forgre. 'Not how I'd choose to die.'

'In
really wet years,' said Talis, reading from the gazetteer, 'the terrace walls
burst and the hot slurry pours down the slope faster than a horse can gallop,
sweeping trees and boulders away.'

'Chancy
country indeed,' said Malien, rising into the clouds again.

'Is
Alcifer in the Histories?' Tiaan asked.

'It's
in the Tale of Tar Gaarn, which is in our Histories, but it's not much told
these days. Rulke scarcely had the time to enjoy his creation, for soon after
Alcifer was completed he was taken by the Council of Santhenar and cast into
the Nightland; where he languished for a thousand years. Once freed, as far as
is known, he never returned to Alcifer and it was never inhabited again. Who
would dare?'

Have
you been there?'

Malien
shivered. 'No, and I'm not looking forward to it. I feel the threat, even from
here.'

Tiaan
opened her mouth but closed it again. Malien was the most level-headed person
she know. 'Where are we going now?'

'We'll
fly across the range, then swing back and come on the place at night, on foot.'

The
idea seemed absurd. How could they hope to find Gilhaelith in such a vast city,
with so many lyrinx below and nearby? And if they did, how could they hope to
free him?

They
crossed the range north of the Zarqa Gap, at a pass that bore just a dusting of
untracked snow. Keeping to what cloud they could find, they continued west over
grassland and forest. The sun was sinking over the impassable swamp forests of
Orist as they made a sweeping curve south and then east, approaching the range
at its widest point, well south of Zarqa. Malien worked a set of concealed
controls beneath the binnacle, then took the machine down as the sun set,
cruising in the light of the stars, just above the treetops. It was eerie;
everything was black and white and Tiaan found it difficult to measure
distance. Trees and rocky peaks rushed at them out of nowhere.

'Aren't
you worried about being spotted?' said Tiaan.

'I've
just put a concealment on the thapter,' Malien said cryptically. 'It's quite
effective from this distance, though I don't know how long I can keep it up.'

They
floated above the treetops for hours, Talis and Forgre staring at their maps
and conversing in whispers, before Talis said, 'Go down onto that bare spur,
just to the left.'

Malien
settled the thapter expertly on a shelf of some pale-coloured stone, shaped
like the bowl of a spoon. A tree with a split trunk, black against the white
bark, leaned out to overhang the end of the ridge.

'This
is as close as we dare go,' said Forgre, rubbing his i beardless cheek. 'We're
but two leagues from Alcifer and Oellyll, the lyrinx city beneath it. Tens of
thousands of lyrinx dwell there, and they hunt in these mountains.'

Are
we close to those terraces we saw yesterday?' said Tiaan. She could smell
brimstone.

'They're
that way,' said Talis, pointing towards the sea. They run east for leagues,
then north high above the coast.'

'If
you listen closely,' said Malien, 'you can hear the geysers going.'

No
one spoke for a while, and in the distance Tiaan heard a rushing sound that
built up to a muted roar before fading away.

'It
seems a little risky, going down to Alcifer on foot,' she ventured.

'You
mean insane and incomprehensible,' Malien observed dryly. 'I daren't take the
thapter any closer. No concealment is perfect.'

'How
are you going to find Gilhaelith in such a vast place?'

'We
have certain information about his whereabouts.'

'How
can you be sure it's reliable?'

'That's
Forgre's job,' said Malien. 'He's our most gifted spy. Apparently the lyrinx
shun Alcifer itself, so if Gilhaelith is there, using power, he won't be hard
to find. Once Forgre discovers where he is, we'll fly down and snatch him.'

'Just
like that?' said Tiaan.

'I
hope so.'

'If
Gilhaelith's in Alcifer, he must be trusted by the enemy.'

'He
may be assisting them,' Forgre said, 'but I doubt they trust him.'

'From
what I hear of Gilhaelith, he's always out for himself' said Malien. 'I'd say
they have some hold over him.'

Tiaan
walked to the edge of the rock and stood looking down. The deep valley was like
a pool of ink with a few pinpoints of light floating on it, starlight touching
the tips of the tallest trees. She was so afraid, her knees would barely hold
her up. Tiaan had sworn, after her captivity in Kalissin, that she would never
go near the lyrinx again. But she had, and they'd put her into the patterners
in Snizort. It was a horror she thought about every day.

Malien
moved the thapter into deeper shelter and strengthened the concealment. 'That
should be enough. It's a balance between doing enough to conceal the machine
but not so much as to alert the enemy.'

'What
if a lyrinx chances to walk past?'

'Any
ordinary lyrinx could walk right into the thapter and just think it was rock.
It hurts me to maintain it, though, so I hope it's not necessary for long.'

Malien
turned into the forest. They followed silently, after an hour coming onto a
narrow ridge that terminated in a cliff.

Malien
peered over with her spyglass. 'Alcifer, look!' The hairs stood up on her nape.

Domes
and spires rose out of woolly fog that hung in the hollows of the abandoned
city like a bathtub full of kapok. How could a place abandoned so long ago
still seem to hold such menace?

Forgre
had been out several times. Tiaan had wondered how he could pass through the
lyrinx guards into Alcifer, until she saw him in action. A master of the spying
Art, he could blend into the background as well as any lyrinx, and when he
moved it baffled the eye. It took a lot out of him, though; Forgre was always
exhausted when he came back.

On
their third day of watching, an air-floater appeared through a gap in the
clouds and circled above Alcifer several times, before disappearing into the
clouds again.

'What's
that doing here?' hissed Malien.

'Oellyll
is the greatest enemy city,' said Forgre. 'The scrutators often spy on it, now
that they can fly above lyrinx height.'

'I
can't imagine they'd see much from such an altitude.'

'It
must be good for old-human morale.'

'Unfortunately
for us, it'll make the lyrinx more watchful than ever,' said Malien.

'It
may draw them away from us, at least.'

Their
fliers will be looking down as well as up.'

Then
we'll just have to be even more careful,' Forgre said arily.

'Ah,
I'm done in,' he said on his return from another mission. It was around midday
on their fifth day of watching, and they were still camped by the lookout. The
weather was cold and gloomy, with driven rain-showers, a chilly wind and
occa-signal breaks of a watery sun that silvered the metal domes of Alcifer,
far below.

Tiaan
took up the spyglass and, as she had done a hundred times in the past days,
swept it around and over the city. When the scudding showers passed, she could
see slaves toiling in the lower gardens.

'Did
you find him?' said Malien.

'No,
though I know he's there.' Forgre looked down at his wiry hands, which were
shaking. 'I'll have to rest awhile — my aftersickness is bad here.'

Tiaan
looked through the spyglass again. 'He's there.' 'Forgre just said that,'
Malien reminded her. There! Look!' Tiaan rose to her feet, pointing to a ridge
east of theirs, which was rather lower. Its point, bare of trees, was
momentarily exposed through the drifting mist.

Malien
snatched the glass. 'I see six slaves, no, eight. They appear to be making
readings of the field, at the direction of a very tall man. There could be more
slaves in the shade of the trees.'

'It's
Gilhaelith!' Tiaan whispered. 'Are you sure?' 'Positive.'

'How
long have they been there?' 'I don't know. The mist has only just cleared.'
'They'll probably be taking readings for a while,' said Malien. 'This is the
best chance we'll ever get. But how to do it?'

'Why
not just fly there and grab him?' said Tiaan.

'The
guards will hear the thapter long before we get there.

I
can't conceal that. Once they do, the illusion will break and they'll vanish
into the forest with him. We'll have to get to Gilhaelith on foot. Tiaan, slip
back to the thapter and take it across, but hang further up the ridge, in the
mist. My concealment will hold as long as you don't get too close.'

'What
are you going to do?'

'We'll
go across, also under concealment, and hide near the wall of the lowest
terrace. I'll know when you're coming and take Gilhaelith. The instant I
signal, race down and pick us up.'

'Are
you sure you can do it?'

'Yes.
You'd better get going.'

It
all seemed suspiciously easy, but it would be presumptuous of her to challenge
Malien's plan. As the Aachim disappeared beneath her concealment it occurred to
Tiaan that Forgre's aftersickness had seemed really bad. She hoped he was up to
it, because he certainly didn't look it.