Part 48 (2/2)

Her head was throbbing from the effort of remembering them and their geomantic uses. Ironstone had virtues in healing and could also be transformed into lodestone, though Gilhaelith had not told her how. He bade her take particular note of the rosette form, which had a variety of geomantic uses, some belying its appearance.

'There's too much to learn,' she said wearily.

'Just use your memory. Understanding will come in time.'

But there was never enough time. Each morning began with a recognition test, using hundreds of samples, none of which she had seen before. Gilhaelith expected no less than perfection which, even for Tiaan's visual recall, proved impossible. Subsequently she had to list and describe, from memory, every mineral she had previously been shown. She made many mistakes, which did not please her master.

After only a week, he began her on rocks and ores of every conceivable sort, some identified by form, weight and colour, others because of the minerals they were made up of and the way they were arranged. And rocks, a week later, led to the forces that had formed them at the dawn of time, and all the ways that they had been shaped and changed ever since.

Gilhaelith's instruction now became abstract and harder for her to visualise, much less understand. It suited the contortions of his mind, but not her own. As he plunged deep into the patterns of numbers that crystals made, his deficiencies as a teacher became apparent. When she stumbled over a concept or a principle, he simply repeated what he had said before, more loudly. He could not put himself in the mind of a prentice, or see the right way to teach her what had been so easy for him. Incapable of putting technicalities in simple language, he talked in abstruse jargon. Finally, when he was using numbers to explain the forces that caused volcanoes to erupt, and sometimes explode violently, she snapped.

'I have no idea what you're talking about. I haven't understood a thing you've said all morning. Gilhaelith!' Gilhaelith!'

He was staring at her bosom, which had grown over the past month. She had put on weight and knew that it suited her. He did not, she now appreciated, look out of lechery, but simply amazement that she could be shaped so differently from him. She had given up reminding him how rude it was.

Gilhaelith looked away, abashed. 'I'm sorry. You are my first prentice and I'm an indifferent teacher. Would you care to come outside?'

'I'd love to, if it's safe.'

'I have guards around the rim. No spy can come up without being seen. I'll take you down into the crater it may be easier to show than to tell.'

Since Tiaan's controller was not yet ready, she was carried down on the back of a donkey. An uncomfortable journey, it made her back ache within minutes, but she soon forgot about that. Gilhaelith walked beside her, explaining how the lava formed deep in the earth, what force it had taken to blast the crater out, and why its walls had the shape they had. The trip taught her more than she had learned in the previous week.

The sheer cliff below the villa, made of layer upon layer of volcanic rock, looked as if it had been cut with a spade.

'Three hundred years ago, a mighty explosion blasted everything else away,' said Gilhaelith. 'It blocked out the sun for a fortnight and the noise was heard in Tyrkir, hundreds of leagues to the south.'

'And this could happen again?' Tiaan looked around nervously.

'Will happen again, and again.' happen again, and again.'

'Then why risk coming down here?'

'There should be signs for weeks beforehand earth tremblers, geysers. The lake might boil or drain away.'

So much to learn, so little time.

At the bottom they stopped by a hissing spring surrounded with yellow salts. 'The volcano is only sleeping,' Gilhaelith explained. 'The congealed lava is still liquid underneath, and the solid cap nearly as hot as a fire. The rainwater seeps down, boils and is forced up like water from the spout of a kettle.'

'And these coloured crystals?'

'Hot water dissolves minerals from the rocks. After it spurts out and dries up in the heat, crystals form '

'Like salt in a dried-up rockpool on the seash.o.r.e.' Tiaan remembered trips to the sea with her grandmother when she had been little.

'Precisely.'

Further down, the vents were thickly coated with layers of yellow-brown sulphur, the source of much of Gilhaelith's wealth. His workers were hacking it into lumps which they loaded into baskets, some carried on their heads, others on their backs.

They continued to the peculiarly blue waters of the lake. Gilhaelith lifted her off the donkey and to her surprise it felt pleasant in his arms. Setting her down where she could rest against a boulder, he began unpacking a picnic basket. She studied him surrept.i.tiously as he laid food and drink on the cloth, a thick weave patterned with concentric squares in earthy reds, browns and yellows. He still looked awkward but it fitted him better now.

Gilhaelith set down plates, sawed grainy bread into perfect slices and placed two on her plate. He added a handful of a pickled vegetable rather like an olive, white lengths of cheese and slices of cooked gourd, and pa.s.sed it to her. Looking up, he caught her watching him and grinned self-consciously. Tiaan, for the first time, smiled back. In contradiction of his statement about being indifferent to humanity, he seemed to like her. She discovered that she liked him too, in spite of his failings. She could almost almost, almost trust him, though she warned herself not to.

It was a pleasant lunch, as long as she did not look too closely at what he was eating. They just talked about whatever came to mind, and Tiaan was sorry when it was over. It was sweltering, without a trace of breeze. There was not a cloud in the sky and the dark rocks radiated heat.

Gilhaelith packed the basket, then said, 'I'll have a swim before we go up.' Stripping off s.h.i.+rt, boots and socks, he waded into the water and began to flap about on his back, sending gouts of water up from hands and feet and blowing like a whale.

As Tiaan watched, her smile faded. It seemed to grow hotter by the second. Sweat ran down her back. Beneath the straps of the brace her skin itched unbearably. A tear stung her eye. She clenched her hands in her lap and waited.

He came out, still blowing and grinning like a loon, water pouring from his skinny chest. 'That's good. Not too warm, not too cool ' He stooped. 'What's the matter, Tiaan?' and slapped his thigh. A few drops landed on her face. 'I'm a d.a.m.ned fool.'

'I enjoyed watching you swim. It's just that it's so hot ...' She rubbed her eyes and gave him a wan smile. 'It's all right. I was just feeling sorry for myself.'

'I'd carry you out,' he said, 'but '

'I don't mind getting my gown wet,' she said eagerly. 'It'd keep me cool on the way up.'

He took off her boots and carried her into the water. It was the perfect temperature cool enough to be comfortable but not so cool that she could not have stayed in it for hours. The sea near Tiksi, on the few times she had swum in it, had been bone-achingly cold.

Gilhaelith laid her in the water, one hand behind her knees, the other under her back. She floated, weightless and perfectly content. Tiaan splashed water on her face, wiped it off and stared up at the blue sky. It quite took her away from all her troubles.

A droplet on her forehead roused her. 'We'd better go.'

She smacked her cupped hand into the water, splas.h.i.+ng him, and laughed. The most extraordinary look crossed his face, like a man trying to climb out through a mask. It tore but re-formed one hundred and fifty years of self-control could not be broken that easily. He looked so stern that Tiaan quailed. No, she thought, there is a human being inside. She swung her arm again and the jet of water caught him right on the bridge of the nose.

Water dripped from his nostrils, hair and chin. He looked so ridiculous that she snorted. He cracked a little, tossing a scoop of water which only dewed her hair. Tiaan attacked him with both hands. Water went everywhere. He splashed her face and this time the mask cracked in two. He whooped. She laughed aloud, going two to his one, until a particularly energetic blow slid her off his arm and she went under. Tiaan did not have time to panic, for he caught her straight away, lifting her out and holding her as if she were a fragile toy.

'Are you all right?'

'Of course,' she said gaily.

'It's late. We'd better go.'

The moment was broken and she was sorry about that, for something had changed between them. They were halfway up the winding track when Tiaan noticed a circling speck, high above. It could have been an eagle but she did not think so. 'Gilhaelith! What do you think that is?'

He stared upwards, shading his eyes with long, knuckly fingers. 'I'd say,' he said slowly, 'that it is a lyrinx.'

'Is it watching us?'

'I think so.'

'Why would a lyrinx be watching Nyriandiol?'

'Sulphur is needed for the war. It would inconvenience humanity if they had to obtain impure stuff from further away.'

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