We're on the same side, Tiaan,' said Irisis. 'We-' 'You betrayed me, both of you,' Tiaan hissed. 'Don't come near me.' She turned and headed back the way she had come, almost running.

'I suppose that was only to be expected,' said Irisis, not overly perturbed. 'A pity, though, since we'll have to work together.'

'Yes,' said Nish, staring after Tiaan. 'A great pity.'

Nish's unrequited passion for Tiaan had begun the whole affair, Irisis remembered as they continued down the hall. Surely he didn't still nurture some feeling for her? Even if he did, it couldn't come to anything. She was no more suited to him than Ullii had been. Irisis bit her tongue in case she spoke without thinking, as was her wont. Nish was hers and he would realise it sooner or later. In the meantime she would watch over him, enjoy his friendship and say nothing about her own feelings. She would be patience itself. She might have to be.

Fifty-nine.

Flydd was well enough to attend when they held their morning meeting two days later, though he had to be carried inside in his chair. The others present were Malien, Gilhaelith, Fyn-Mah, Tiaan, Irisis and Nish.

'I'm pleased to see you're better, Flydd,' said Yggur, 'though I didn't expect-'

'The council is sorely in need of my wisdom,' Flydd said with an ironical twitch of the mouth.

'I dare say,' Yggur answered, equally dryly. 'I salute your courage, Scrutator. I was wrong about you and I'm happy to admit it.'

'And I you, it seems. We'll best the enemy yet, Lord Yggur.'

Yggur quirked his lips but did not correct him. He turned to face the room. 'I begin without preamble. Faced with a resurgent enemy, and held back by a corrupt Council of Scrutators, humanity's situation is almost hopeless. But we've been debating, Flydd and I, what can be done. Would you care to set out our ideas, Scrutator.'

'I find I'm a little short of breath at the moment.'

Nish laughed. Irisis elbowed him in the ribs.

'We propose a simple plan,' said Yggur. 'We have neither the people, nor the resources, for anything else, and even this plan may be beyond us. But now that we have a thapter - or, should I say, since it belongs to Malien, the possibility of one -we may at least attempt it.'

'What is the plan?' growled Gilhaelith.

'To fly secretly to Nennifer, the scrutators' fortress that lies between the Great Mountains and the Desolation Sink. There to overthrow the Council of Scrutators and replace them with a body dedicated to winning the war, since it appears peace is not an option with the lyrinx.'

Gilhaelith began to laugh.

Yggur fixed him with a glare that would have stopped a volcanic eruption. 'If you don't share our objectives, you may leave this council. You will, of course, be kept in close confinement until the attack succeeds.'

He signalled with a finger to the back of the room, and Nish saw that, for the first time, a pair of armed guards waited inside the doors.

'Or fails,' scoffed Gilhaelith. 'Nennifer is the most closely guarded fortress in the world and you couldn't take it with an army of twenty thousand.'

'Rumour is the enemy of initiative,' said Yggur. 'Xervish Flydd spent years in Nennifer and knows every part of it including its defences.'

'All but those installed since my departure five years ago.' Flydd qualified, 'and they could be many and various. Even if there are no new defences, this would be the most desperate venture in the Great Tales.' A spasm wracked him and he broke off to cough into a kerchief. 'The impregnable walls are guarded by two thousand men, hundreds of mancers and any number of bloody devices. Against such forces, we can bring no more than a dozen people, and Nennifer lies in the most inhospitable environment in the world. There's no cover of any kind. No food, no water, no shelter. And even in summer it's freezing outside at night.'

'We know it will be difficult,' said Tiaan. 'What are you going to do about it, supposing, of course, that Malien allows you the use of her thapter? And since that would constitute an act of aggression against humanity . . .'

'Thank you, Tiaan,' said Malien. 'I can speak for myself. Yet the point is a valid one, Yggur. I'll need much convincing, though I do feel sympathy for your cause.'

'I don't,' snapped Gilhaelith. 'It's a folly that can't succeed.'

'In that case,' said Yggur, 'I must restrain you for the duration. Would you come with me, please?' Gilhaelith stood up slowly. 'You dare?' Tiaan caught her breath. A duel between two great mancers could lay waste the room, if not the entirety of Fiz Gorgo.

'My guards will shoot before you can raise your hand; said Yggur.

There was a taut instant of silence, then Gilhaelith held out his empty hands. Two guards bound him, while another two kept their crossbows aimed at his chest.

'I thought you'd be eager to help us,' Yggur resumed, 'since you're presently under a death sentence from the scrutators.' 'I was safe from them in Alcifer,' he said coldly as the guards took hold of him. 'I'm not about to commit suicide on your behalf. None of you will leave Nennifer alive.'

Yggur waved a hand and the guards led him away, unresisting.

'You were expecting that?' said Malien to Yggur. 'I spoke to Tiaan about him the other day. I wish he'd never come here. He's going to cause us trouble.'

'Yet we need him, for another purpose,' said Malien. 'The purpose for which I've come all the way from Stassor. Yggur, I must talk to you, alone.' 'Now?' said Yggur. 'I think so.'

'This meeting is adjourned,' Yggur said abruptly. 'Come to my quarters, Malien.' The others stared after them as they went out together. Yggur inclined his head. 'Would you care for some hot chard?'

'I prefer red wine, if you have it.'

'There are barrels of the stuff in my cellars, untapped these past fifty years.' He gave orders to his steward.

In his rooms, which were comfortable but austerely furnished, he lit the fire and drew two hard chairs up to it. A carafe of wine came, and a steaming pot of chard. He poured wine into a crystal goblet, orange chard into his bowl.

Malien held her goblet up to the flames. The wine was a deep purple, almost black. She warmed it in her hands, set it on a small side-table and turned to him. 'I never expected to see you again.'

'Nor I you. I came home to die, for there was nothing left in life that I wanted. Alas, life can be tenacious when you no longer value it, and here I am, two centuries older and hardly changed. I began to live again - not even my grief could outlast the centuries - but I don't know what to do with this endless existence. Oh, I'm active, and my mind is alert, but I've seen everything so many times before. Nothing surprises me and precious little entertains me.'

'To appreciate life again, you must put it at risk.' 'Wisely said, Malien. No doubt I will, in this hare-brained attack on Nennifer, which surely cannot succeed.' 'Yet you've committed to it.'

Yggur blew on his chard. He took a tentative sip, then blew on it again.

Malien tested the bouquet of the wine with a delicate sniff and smiled with pleasure. She sipped, rolling it back over her tongue. 'A truly great year, and a master winemaker.'

'Unobtainable now,' he said. 'The vineyards lie abandoned and covered in weeds.'

'Vines are long-lived,' Malien replied. 'Should the-war end, with judicious pruning they'll yield again. And the oldest vines give the best fruit. I could spend a pleasant day in your cellars, Yggur, if only we had the leisure. You were saying?'

'I've realised that the world is worth saving, and who else but we can do it. What's your tale, Malien?'

'It has elements in common with your own. My line doesn't come from the long-lived Aachim, so I expected my end a hundred years ago. It never came. Since the Forbidding I've been an exile, revered for my place in the Histories but rejected for the independence of spirit that made my name. It's a hard thing to suffer when your own people won't have you. I'd had enough and was preparing to go to the Well when Tiaan came and shook me out of it. I too have begun to live again.'

So here we are, two geriatrics - three if you count Flydd taking on the mighty. How the scrutators would roll about if they knew.'

She smiled. 'I dare say. Well, let's see if wisdom and ageless cunning are their match.'

He raised his bowl. 'To ageless cunning.'

They drank the toast, after which Yggur said curiously, 'Why do you need Gilhaelith?'

She explained her fears about the excessive drain on the world's nodes, the danger to the nodes themselves, and the wider threat that posed. 'Bilfis might have solved that problem, in time and with sufficiently good maps of the nodes. Now he's dead, I know of no one with the talents -geomancy plus the new Art of mathemancy - to do the same.'

'Except this miserable fellow I have in my dungeon,' said Yggur. 'I understand your concern. Profligacy is the curse of the modern age. Mancers no longer care for elegance, subtlety or economy in their Art. Nothing but raw power will do, and the more of it the better. Match power with greater power and simply blast your enemy away, no matter that it brings the whole world to ruin.'

'You're right, of course. Our age is well over, and lamenting it makes no difference. But who else has the vision to see where the world is heading?'

'The bigger picture,' he said approvingly. 'To me it's all part of the same picture. In the past we had our differences, Malien, but I trust you and I hope you feel the same way about me. I'll help you with the nodes, and even pressure this miserable worm Gilhaelith for you, though I doubt you'll find him cooperative. I know his type.'

'What do you require in return?'

'I require nothing,' he said, surprising her.

'Nothing?' He'd certainly changed from the single-minded Yggur of old, who had measured his debts to the last copper grint, and expected those who owed him to be equally exacting.

'You know what I want - the use of your thapter - but given freely. I would not make things worse by coming between you and your own kind..' 'We are already sundered,' said Malien, quaffing her wine.

'Vithis has declared clan-vengeance against Tiaan, for injuries done to his son during her escape. Since I helped her get away from Stassor, it applies equally to me.' In response to his quizzical glance, she told that tale.

'Astounding,' said Yggur at the end of it. 'And Tiaan is just a slip of a woman. Who would have thought she could do such marvels?'

'Other slips have,' Malien said dryly, 'going all the way back to my distant ancestor, Elienor. Not all heroes are big, sword-waving louts. Or tall, dark, wand-waving mancers, for that matter.'

'I forget the very Histories I've lived through.' He stared into the fire, remembering ancient days, but some thought must have caused him pain for he put his hands over his face, breathing heavily.

'Since I am exiled,' said Malien, 'no act of mine can further reflect on the Aachim. Therefore I offer my thapter to you, freely and unencumbered. Better yet, I will come with you to Nennifer. There may be a need for my talents.'

He did not react at once. Yggur rocked on his chair, then shook off his malaise and stood up. Malien did too.

'Thank you,' he said, bowing from the waist. 'You give me new hope. Shall we go back and plan the attack?'

'Walls have ears, even those as solid as your own. Let's keep the details to those who need to know, at least until we've lifted away from here.'

'Very wise,' he said. 'Just you, me and Xervish Flydd, then. We'll be on our way with the utmost speed. Who knows but Gilhaelith may find a way to reveal our secret, in time.'

'It feels as though we've gone back to last year,' Nish said to Irisis the following evening. 'Tiaan turns up and suddenly we're not trusted any more.'

Yesterday's meeting had been cancelled and they had been set to packing supplies and weapons and stowing them in the thapter, along with ropes, climbing irons, armour, tents and alpine sleeping pouches, and the myriad other things on Flydd's lists that they would need for an assault on the most closely guarded fortress in the known world.

'You're just feeling guilty for the way you treated her before,' said Irisis.

'I own it. I behaved shabbily to her. And so did you.'

Irisis shrugged. 'I've never denied it, but guilt isn't one of my afflictions.' That wasn't entirely true, but she didn't suffer from it the way Nish did. He was still having trouble coming to terms with Tiaan being here and, not knowing what to say, avoided her whenever possible. 'I can see why they'd want to keep it secret.'

Despite her words, she felt aggrieved at being left out. She'd helped to carry the crated and sealed items from Yggur's storeroom. They had to do with the Art, and with controllers too, and therefore came within her province, but she could discover nothing about what was inside, or what they were to be used for.

The attack would consist of Yggur, Flydd, Malien, Fyn-Mah, Inouye, Flangers, Nish, Irisis and Tiaan, plus three of Yggur's most experienced soldiers. They were leaving tomorrow afternoon, but had been told nothing more.

'It'll have to be one hell of a clever plan,' Nish persisted. 'The twelve of us against two thousand soldiers, hundreds of mancers, and everyone else in Nennifer.'

'Or a suicidal one,' said Irisis. 'If we fail, as seems likely, it'll be the end of any effective resistance in Lauralin.'

'That'll no longer be our worry.'

'Or our friends' or relatives',' she reminded him. 'The scrutators will destroy them all, down to the fourth cousins.'

He contemplated that in silence. 'And if we win, we'll have the Numinator after us.'

'I wish you hadn't mentioned that.'

'I wish I hadn't thought of it.'

'I dare say they'll tell us the plan on the way,' said Irisis. 'It'll take quite a few days to fly to Nennifer, so there'll be plenty of time for detailed planning. Better get a good night's sleep. It'll be your last in a proper bed for a while.'

Sixty.

The months had gone by slowly in the bastion of Nennifer, set in a highland where summer was short and cold, winter long and bitter and, in the shadow of towering mountains on all sides, it had not rained in twenty years. The ground was a barren grit less than the depth of Ullii's thumb, covered in black stones so smooth and shiny they appeared to have been melted in a furnace. Nothing grew there, save in the valleys where moisture from summer snowmelt supported the pastures, gardens and fish ponds that supplied Nennifer. Even the tallest mountains bore little snow, for higher ranges lay in every direction. The utter, uncompromising aridity suited the bleak souls of the scrutators.

Ullii hated Nennifer with all her angry little heart. There was nothing of beauty in the whole vast building, and little kindness either. The people who laboured there, whether mancers, artisans, artificers or common servants, were all of a type - cold, mechanical and closed off from their fellows. In all her time in the scrutators' citadel, Ullii saw no love, little passion save for their grim work, and precious little generosity or selflessness, just a desperate efficiency driven by terror. Everyone lived in fear of their superiors, and they of theirs, all the way up to the scrutators. And even the Council members, those who had not remained in Lybing to direct the war, kept one eye out for their dark and deadly chieftain.

Of all the people in Nennifer, Ullii was the only one who had any kind of freedom. Ghorr had tried to study and school her lattice-twisting talent, to understand how she had done such marvels in her previous escape with Irisis. Despite much labour and cunningly conceived punishments, it had proved an abject failure. Ullii could neither explain nor duplicate what she had previously done in extremis. Finally Ghorr passed the problem to his cleverest mancers and let her be. He had another use for Ullii and could not afford to damage her. Not yet.

He barely spoke to her for months afterwards, for she was too far beneath him to be worthy of his time. Ghorr was busy forging a mighty battle fleet, not to attack the enemy but to hunt Flydd to his refuge, whether in Meldorin or elsewhere, and to expunge him from the earth.

Though she was allowed outside, Ullii seldom went into the barrens. She loved nature in a romantic, idealised way, but there was no nature here, just cold desert. And as the seasons turned towards winter the land grew ever colder, windier and bleaker.

Once, Ullii's life of the mind had been all she'd needed, but the events of the past year had broken that mould. Other realities kept butting in, and other memories. Of Nish making love to her that day in the balloon basket, after she had driven off the nylatl. Of the nylatl attacking him again, after Scrutator Flydd had appeared in the air-floater. And her terror as Nish had blown the creature to bits with the flask of tar spirits, then been carried out of her life on what had been left of the balloon.

Something had died in her then - she'd seen it as an abandonment. For months Ullii had been sure that Nish was dead. When she finally found him again, at Snizort, he seemed to have forgotten her.

No matter how much she dwelt upon his previous kindnesses, Ullii kept coming back to that, and to the deaths of Mylii and Yllii. She blamed Nish for both and it constantly recharged her rage. She might be little and weak, but there was one thing she could do - take just retribution for her lost brother and son. It was all that kept her going.

Finally, in late autumn, the great battle fleet was ready. Ullii knew Ghorr was building one, but had no idea what form it would take. She had seen, in her lattice, the slow creation of all sorts of unpleasant machines and devices of war, but the testing had taken place in a vast walled yard. Only those who had business there were admitted through its guarded gates. Everything had been planned to perfection. An army of clerks had checked the lists and made sure nothing that could possibly be required was left behind. Another small group of mancers and officers had been appointed to take every plan apart, to look at all the ways it could fail, and develop contingency plans for when it did.

Ullii was asleep when Ghorr came to her door. He flung it open so it crashed back against the wall, shocking her awake. She cowered under the covers, blocking her ears. He tore the blankets off.

'It's time for you to earn your keep, Seeker! Gather your gear.'

She had been provided with new clothes in Nennifer - half a dozen undersuits of the neck-to-knee spider-silk that protected her sensitive skin, as well as outer garments, coats, boots, scarves and hats. His artisans had made her several pairs of goggles and earmuffs, and all were to hand. Ullii stored all her possessions in two small packs beside her bed. It provided her with the only security she had.