Part 79 (2/2)

'It's gone,' said the seeker.

Now there were were drops of blood on the scrutator's forehead. 'Just as well,' he gasped. 'I could not have done drops of blood on the scrutator's forehead. 'Just as well,' he gasped. 'I could not have done that that again.' again.'

They went by a mushroom-shaped device that had split down the middle, unable to withstand his evocation that had instantly turned it to stone.

'Anything else, Ullii? he said hoa.r.s.ely.

'No,' she whispered back. 'But I see many lyrinx.'

'Coming after us?'

'Not yet.'

'Take us to the node-drainer.'

They turned the corner, pa.s.sed down a wide tunnel and entered a grotto like the inside of a stubby cross. All was black. The walls were studded with ebony crystals, the roof hung with bituminous stalact.i.tes. The floor was strewn with lipped pools, each perfectly circular, that seethed and bubbled like boiling mud ponds.

Flydd stared in wonderment. 'This is it, Irisis.'

In the luminosity of the node-drainer the cavern was eerily beautiful. The walls sparkled like black diamonds, the roof glowed like black pearls, the pools emitted ebony bubbles that drifted around the room, reflecting the light like mirror b.a.l.l.s. The node-drainer was, from the vision back at Minnien, just as Irisis expected it to be. It resembled a broad leathery mushroom, white as death, with a circular cap rising to a peak. A hole in the centre, above the stalk, gushed forth energies that flowed and tumbled and shone.

'It's not quite what I expected,' Flydd muttered. 'It's taking power from the node all right, and staggering amounts of it, but channelling most of it away. Where to?'

A hanging funnel made of the same leathery substances collected most of the flow. Irisis could not see where it led to. The leaking field created a foggy unreality at the back of the cavern that blurred everything into the walls.

'I expect they're using it for flesh-forming, and other Arts.'

'No doubt, and if Snizort should survive, we'll have to follow that up.'

Ullii gasped, doubled over and projectile vomited through her legs. Curling into a ball, she rolled forward until she struck the wall, toppled over and lay unmoving. Her eyes were wide open, her arms wrapped protectingly around her belly.

'Myllii?' she whispered. 'Help me, Myllii.'

'Ullii?' whispered Irisis. 'What's wrong?'

'Node-drainer is wrong. Wrong Wrong!'

'What do you mean, Ullii?'

'Tiaan!'

'What about her?'

Ullii would, or could, say no more.

The seeker did not seem to be harmed so Irisis carried her to the entrance, as far as she could get from the node-drainer. Laying her on the floor, she ran back to the centre.

'How are we supposed to destroy that that?' She clutched her roiling stomach.

'We discussed it privately at the Council of Scrutators,' said Flydd. 'They had something made up for me in Nennifer.'

From his chest pack he took a device, a sort of metal cap, mirrored on the inside. The rim was set with hedrons made from five perfectly matched blue tourmaline crystals.

'What does it do?' Irisis asked.

'It simply reflects, in a magical sense, the drained power back the way it came. As long as you can tune the crystals to what's left of the field, of course. It requires power to make it work, and a lot of it.'

'What if the power can't go go back the way it came? And surely it can't, since power will keep flowing the other way.' back the way it came? And surely it can't, since power will keep flowing the other way.'

'It won't flow back until the power built up within the hedrons is greater than what's coming from the node. Then it will simply burst through, back to the node, burning out the node-drainer.'

'Has such a device ever been tested?' She knew the answer to that.

'How could it be? It was made in Nennifer while we ... er, waited.'

'About which the least said the better!'

He went to the entrance, crouching beside the seeker and taking her hand. 'Thank you, Ullii. I won't forget what you've done to get us here.'

She s.n.a.t.c.hed it away. 'You are a wicked man. You broke your promise!'

'I do keep my promises, Ullii. You will see. Rest now. You still have to get us out.'

He went back to the centre. 'Irisis, you've got the easiest job of all. I have the hardest to fit the cap while the drainer is still flowing.'

'What's my job?' Irisis said suspiciously.

'You must tune the node-drainer to the field, draw power into it and make it work.'

It was as if he had raised his sword and cloven her head in two. Irisis fell to her knees in the tar and could not get up.

'Xervish scrutator surr.' She stared at him in horror.

'What's the problem, crafter?' As if he did not know.

One minute molten tin was flowing in her veins, the next they were clogged with ice crystals. Her heartbeat sounded like a galloping horse. She licked lips so dry that they crackled. Irisis looked up at the scrutator, standing as implacable as a statue.

'I can't do it, surr. I can't draw power from the field. You know I've lost the talent.'

Flydd, who was staring at the fountaining node-drainer, did not answer.

'Surr, you came here, knowing all the time ...?'

His head rotated like a sunflower on its stalk. The eyes were like pitch fires in a cauldron. 'You must!'

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