Part 76 (1/2)

'Their great project is not yet complete, and that they are determined to do. The defenders will fight to make time for it, to the last drop of their purple blood. The battle is going to be vicious.'

'Our people are already dying,' said Tiaan. 'And these torgnadrs will destroy many more. My My torgnadrs. I'm sick of being used, Merryl.' torgnadrs. I'm sick of being used, Merryl.'

'There's nothing you could have done.'

'If I ever get the chance,' she vowed, 'I'll smash the amplimet to pieces. I would destroy every node on Santhenar if it would only stop this endless war. I mean it, Merryl.' As she spoke, the amplimet flared, then faded, and the skin-creeping feeling reappeared.

'I know you do, but there are no simple answers.'

'I don't care.' If the field was gone, both clankers and torgnadrs would be useless, and no one would want to use her either. She just wanted to be ordinary; anonymous.

Ryll came hurtling through the door. 'Begone, Tutor!'

The patterning continued, now with breaks of just hours in between. Her skin chafed constantly, she could not sleep and Tiaan was struck by an old fear that she'd not thought about in her weeks here what the amplimet was up to. That sudden surge, and the earlier pulsing, suggested that it was watching her. It might not let her destroy it.

'There's not time!' Ryll said to Liett several days later. 'We can't fail now. Not so close.' He looked desperate.

The shocks became more frequent. They had been going on for three days, judging by her sleeps. The lyrinx panic grew. Ryll forced the patterning so hard and fast that Tiaan began to have a hallucination. For a few seconds the stone walls thinned to transparency and she saw lyrinx and humans struggling in a long black tunnel. Gilhaelith was among them.

Her viewpoint drifted outside her body. She could see right through the patterner, and her own flesh, to her bones. A hot yellow glow throbbed in the middle, where her back had been broken.

After another hallucination, Ryll realised that she could be driven no further that day. The torgnadr almost filled the bucket, but was still immature. He ended the session but left Tiaan in the patterner. She had been inside for more than a day now.

'Take me out,' she said exhaustedly. 'It feels like beetles are crawling over my skin.' Even with the mask gone, things still seemed strange.

Ryll looked equally worn and, for the first time, showed no skin colour at all. 'We must begin again in three hours.' He held a mug to her mouth.

She gulped it, eager for the oblivion of sleep, but in her dreams the faulty torgnadr was fountaining sparks like a firework. Tiaan was shaken awake. It was deadly wrong, but she could not tell why.

The room shook again, followed by a dull boom. Sand rained down on her hair and, as the shuddering continued, chunks of sandstone began to fall. One smashed a gla.s.s bucket further along the row. A line of tar filled a crack in the wall beside her.

A ma.s.sive blow shook the room, making the walls quiver like the muck she was suspended in. Lyrinx raced back and forth, yelling and skin-speaking all the colours of the spectrum. A gaggle of humans fled past the open door, including the man with the withered shoulder, urged on by a lyrinx carrying a prod. Ryll raced up the row to Tiaan, but before he reached her Old Hyull roared at him from the doorway. Ryll's eyes met hers. He flashed distress patterns, then pulled the jelly mask over her head.

'Ryll?' she screamed. 'What's going on?' Too late. The mask cut everything off and the patterning resumed, though it did not seem to be working properly. The flow of power kept fluctuating wildly. Was it failing?

Thump! She wanted to scream but couldn't the patterning had become one continuous hallucination. Battle scenes crashed through her mind: clankers firing blazing missiles over the walls of Snizort; a squad of human soldiers being beaten back by a single, blood-drenched lyrinx; a tar bog ablaze, flames reflecting on it like a black mirror. She wanted to scream but couldn't the patterning had become one continuous hallucination. Battle scenes crashed through her mind: clankers firing blazing missiles over the walls of Snizort; a squad of human soldiers being beaten back by a single, blood-drenched lyrinx; a tar bog ablaze, flames reflecting on it like a black mirror. Thump! Thump!

Abruptly the mask was ripped from her head and the hallucinations vanished. A strange lyrinx thrust his face at her, grunted and turned away, taking the immature torgnadr. Chunks of roof were falling all around. There was confusion everywhere. The women in the patterners were screaming. Tiaan wanted to scream too.

Thump, thump, thump. She caught sight of Liett down the far end. 'Liett?'

She was running along the line of patterners, slamming her fist on the release levers. The top of each sprang open. She was about to do Tiaan's when a lyrinx yelled at her from the doorway. Liett lifted Tiaan halfway out but the other lyrinx roared an order. Liett let Tiaan go and ran.

Silence fell, broken by repeated shockwaves that rattled the tops of the patterners and shook down more of the roof. Along her row a woman began to push herself out. She emerged slowly, her big muscular body glistening with muck. After shaking herself, she sprang up on the next patterner and heaved the occupant out. Each then went to another machine. Within minutes, fifteen women and two men, everyone except Tiaan, had been released.

'Hey!' Tiaan yelled. 'What about me?'

The big woman tapped her legs and followed the others. They could not afford to carry anyone.

When Liett dropped her, Tiaan's arms had remained outside the patterner. Instinctively, she felt for the amplimet, and it was there! Ryll always put it around her neck before a patterning session and in the panic both Liett and the other lyrinx had forgotten to take it. As Tiaan touched it, she sensed the field swirling around Snizort like an exploding star. It was strangely deformed and bore a distinct signature that she recognised: the faulty torgnadr. Was the torgnadr deforming the field, or the amplimet deforming both? She did not want to find out.

Tiaan saw points of light in the field places where the lyrinx, and the human armies, were drawing on it. Another point was in this room, the drain from the patterners, though that was fading.

The field went whoomph whoomph, like a furnace pumped by a bellows, then dropped to nothing before flaring up again. Something was terribly wrong. Had too much been taken from the node? The draw from all those clankers outside must be monumental. If the node went dead ...

She tried to push herself out but the muck had too much suction. Tiaan kicked feebly. It made no difference. She was trapped in the patterner. Laying her head on its flat top, she tried to resign herself to her fate. She was wondering what the manner of her death would be when the realisation struck Tiaan like a physical blow. Had she moved moved her legs? It must have been a hallucination. She tried to clench her toes and definitely felt them move. her legs? It must have been a hallucination. She tried to clench her toes and definitely felt them move.

Tiaan did not allow the hope soldiers sometimes felt their limbs years after they had been cut off. She kicked herself in the ankle, and felt it, as well as a pain in her toe. It was true! She could move, and feel pain. She was not a cripple any more. She would walk again some day. Soon Soon, if she could just get out.

Tiaan slid back down, her mind awhirl. So that's what Old Hyull had been doing. He'd put her in that other device to pattern, or more likely flesh-form, her severed spine together.

Had she been flesh-formed flesh-formed? Tiaan felt sick. Had they used part of some other creature to join the severed ends of her spinal cord? That aching point in her back now seemed to be swelling as if something lay inside, feeding on her. But she had her legs back and, for the moment at least, it seemed worth it.

Tiaan kept trying to push herself out but her arms did not have enough strength to break the suction. She rested her head on the top of the patterner and eventually, in spite of the continuing shocks, exhaustion overwhelmed her.

'Tiaan?'

She roused. It sounded like Merryl's voice. Tiaan opened her eyes. The patterning chamber was full of mist and the air smelled stale, as if the ventilation bellows had stopped working a long time ago.

'Merryl?'

He raced up the line of patterners. 'Tiaan, thank heavens I came back.'

Climbing up, he pulled her out easily, despite his missing hand. Merryl found some rags and she wiped the muck off while he looked for her clothes. Her skin was red and blistered all over.

'What's happening, Merryl?'

'The lyrinx were called out to the battle. It's a desperate struggle out there, and now something has gone wrong down below. There's smoke in the lower tunnels. The remaining lyrinx are abandoning Snizort.'

She wrapped her arms around herself, wary of trusting anyone, even Merryl. 'They just left me behind to die.'

'I'm sure that wasn't meant to happen.'

'Ryll abandoned me!'

'He was sent into battle. I was sure they would have taken you, with the other important prisoners, but in the panic ...'

'Do you know the way out?'

'Of course ... if I can get to it.'

She managed to dress herself, but her legs would not support her. He had to carry her and her precious pack. After some minutes, when he began to show the strain, she said, 'Leave me, Merryl. You can't carry me all the way.'

'I'm not going to leave you.'

'You'll die too.'