Part 77 (1/2)

The man was such a fool. 'Minis, Snizort is the most carefully guarded fortress in this land. There are twenty-five thousand lyrinx there. It can't be done.'

'I love Tiaan,' Minis said simply. 'I know that now. Foster-father has brought me dozens of partners, all of n.o.ble Aachim blood, but none mean anything to me. I look at them and I see Tiaan, only Tiaan. I must find a way, Nish.'

'Vithis has ordered you to take no risks. Would you defy his direct order?'

'To save her life I would do anything anything.' Savage eyes glared out of that young, blanched face. 'I'll hide her away; bargain with foster-father for her.' Minis tried to look implacable but did not succeed.

Nish sighed. Even if they could rescue her, Minis had not considered the most important part of the equation how Tiaan would react. Whether Minis found her, or Vithis did, he did not want to be there.

By dawn, half of the constructs were gone, and more moved out that morning. The battle was set to begin as soon as they were in position.

The camp was now just a skeleton of its former self. More than four thousand of Vithis's six thousand constructs had gone to Snizort, plus two thousand more from the other fleets. Vithis had accompanied them after many exhortations to his foster-son to take care of himself. The remaining five thousand constructs protected women, children and those too old to go to war. If necessary they would be evacuated to safety in the east.

The Aachim camp was a model of military organisation and no one could move without being checked off a dozen lists. Minis, the only other survivor of Clan Inthis, was not permitted to go near the battlefield. He had promised faithfully that he would not, but planned to break that promise as soon as he was able. The opportunity did not come for days.

On the third night of the siege, Minis and Nish slipped away under cover of a wild thunderstorm, heading for the human headquarters east of Snizort. Nish stood beside the tall Aachim as they floated across the undulating land the following morning. It was summer now and a dry one. The gra.s.s was bent and brown; most of the creeks carried no more than a trickle, even after last night's storm. The land was empty. The people who once dwelt here had fled long ago and their mud and thatch huts were crumbling.

Minis consulted a map. 'Your scrutator, and his command post, are here.' He indicated a flyspeck just east of Snizort.

They were moving quickly now and their pa.s.sage left a furrow in the dry gra.s.s. Nish was looking back at it when Minis said, 'I see smoke.'

Smudges of black were rising beyond the hill. 'That's burning tar, not gra.s.s. Perhaps they've set fire to Snizort.'

Minis looked around wildly. The construct veered towards a cl.u.s.ter of boulders fallen from a flat-topped hill.

'Look out!' Nish yelled.

Minis jerked the controller and the construct lurched the other way.

'I've heard there's nearly as much tar outside Snizort as in,' Nish said hastily. 'Maybe the enemy set fire to it to make the battle more difficult.'

They approached the battlefield, which formed a ring around Snizort. Minis took the construct to the top of another of those flat-topped hills. The belching black fumes rose from half a dozen places outside the walls. Vicious struggles were going on all over, though from here it was not possible to tell who had the upper hand. The ground shook from the pounding of mighty catapult b.a.l.l.s, many of them tar-coated and blazing.

Nish could imagine what it must be like down there the dust turning to b.l.o.o.d.y mud, the shrieks of the dying, and those who could not die quickly enough.

'What is your plan?' Nish asked.

'I was hoping you could advise me. You're so resourceful, Nish.'

'But Minis, I don't know anything about Snizort. This is the first time I've seen seen the place.' the place.'

'What are we going to do?' Minis said miserably.

Nish knew what he'd like to do. Run, as far and fast as he could. 'I haven't a clue.'

'I know you can think of a way. I'm relying on you.'

'Well, you shouldn't!' Nish snapped. 'Look how strong the walls are.'

'Please, Nish. You're all I have.'

Nish looked over the side. He did want to do something, if only because the son of the most powerful man on Santhenar was begging him. If he could remain in Minis's favour, one day that could be worth the world to him. 'Let's go and talk to the scrutator, if he's not too busy to see us. Which he surely is.'

Minis headed for the army headquarters, on a higher hill closer to Snizort. They pa.s.sed through five sets of guards but none hindered the son of Vithis. Unfortunately the scrutator was not at the command tent. He had left in the air-floater earlier that morning.

Nish, walking around the edge of the hill by himself, noticed a pair of officers staring there was a war on yet he wore no uniform. They began to move toward him. He hurried back to the construct, afraid of being conscripted.

'Come on,' Nish said. 'You'll do no good here.'

They spent the day circling Snizort, well out of catapult range, and at sunset a despairing Minis turned the construct back toward the Aachim camp.

'Let's try the scrutator again,' said Nish.

'You've just missed him,' said Fyn-Mah as the construct pulled up. The air-floater was whirring away to the south.

Minis began to gasp and tear at his hair. Falling to his knees, he reached out to the sky with both arms. His pupils dilated until only the whites of his eyes could be seen. 'I can see the future, Nish, and it's black and red. Blood-red! Blood-red!'

'What is it, Minis?' Was he seeing Nish's future, or his friend's death?

'A great bursting!' His staring eyes fixed on Nish.

'What do you mean?'

His eyes rolled up into his head, Minis went stiff and without a sound toppled backwards onto the dry gra.s.s, where he lay like a slab of petrified wood.

Fyn-Mah came running back with a bucket of water, which she flung in his face. 'Best cure for hysteria,' she said.

With a gurgling sound, a bubble formed in Minis's mouth. Forcing his jaws open, it squeezed out and drifted away. A rumbling belch followed, Minis's heels drummed on the ground and he opened his eyes. He shuddered, blinked and his eyes rolled down to their normal position. He gave Nish a wan smile. 'It has to do with them.'

'Them?'

The air-floater was now just a speck in the south. 'Your friends Flydd, the crafter and the seeker. And Snizort.'

'Is that where they've gone?' Nish asked Fyn-Mah.

The perquisitor seemed moved by the young man's distress. 'We believe that the lyrinx have a node-drainer there. Flydd is trying to destroy it.'

It looked as if Minis was going to have another fit. 'What about Tiaan?'

No one said anything.

'I'll go after her, by myself,' said Minis. 'if you don't have the courage to help me.'

'You'd better tell your father, Minis,' said Nish.

'Ha!' said Minis wildly. 'He would be pleased to see Tiaan dead. The only person I trust is Tirior, but ...'

'What?'

'She's always sneered at my foretellings.'