'The same distance as before. It's not them we've got to worry about.'

A deadly chill settled over her. 'What do do we have to worry about?' we have to worry about?'

'Can't you hear?'

Irisis could hear nothing but their feet upon the stone and the hammering of her heart. No, there was something else a rhythmic thud-thud, thud-thud, and groaning rattles. A whole symphony of them.

'Jal-Nish's fleet of clankers is coming over the hill. They're heading straight for the air-floater and they're going to shoot it out of the sky.'

THIRTY-SIX.

Fear of Jal-Nish drove Irisis on. She could almost see under the mask; the scarred, unhealing flesh, the foaming yellow muck oozing out and down his chin. Whatever horrors he had endured, she felt no pity for him. Jal-Nish had always been a selfish, unpleasant man, though good looks and an engaging manner had once veneered over his innate viciousness. He was now a monster, inside and out.

'What's happening?' she yelled.

'Don't scream in my ear! I'm right beside you. The soldiers are gaining on us, though slowly. They're wary of me now.'

'What about the clankers?'

'They're closing the gap. The ridge drops away into a little rocky valley with a stream at the bottom. It's stony there, but shallow; they'll have no trouble getting through. Up the other side is a short steep pinch, but not too steep for skilled operators. Beyond that it flattens out and they can get into good firing position.'

'How far is it to where the air-floater is going to pick us up?'

'About a thousand paces.'

'Signal it to come.'

'There's a heck of a breeze out here in the middle of the valley. It'll be difficult for it to put down on the aqueduct.'

'It would be worth it, if it cuts down the time the clankers have to get into position.'

'You're right! I'll call it over.'

He began to wave. Irisis could feel it through his hand. He shook her hand free.

'What are you doing?' she cried, feeling abandoned. They could all run away and she would never know.

'I may have to work my magic again. The soldiers are coming on.'

'Can you do it again so soon?' you do it again so soon?'

'Probably not, though they don't know that. At least, I hope they don't.' He did not sound at all certain.

'Where are the clankers now?' Her panic was rising again. Irisis felt utterly helpless, not a feeling she was accustomed to.

Flydd did not respond, though after an interval Jym said, 'Almost down to the stream, marm. It runs directly below us but they're further downstream.'

'Call me Irisis,' she said. 'Has the air-floater lifted off yet?'

'No, mar Irisis. They're just unfastening the tethers.'

'They're slow,' she muttered.

No one answered. The seconds ticked by with awful slowness.

'Aaah!' Flydd cried.

'What's the matter?' said Irisis.

'Jal-Nish has sent up some kind of mancer.'

'With the clankers?'

'No, she's on the aqueduct. She's strong. I'm not sure I can best her in my condition.'

'What's she doing?'

Now she could hear his teeth chattering. 'A-A-A! Mfgg! Gahh!'

'Are you all right, scrutator?' she cried. Using his name did not seem to be right, in front of the others.

'I don't think he can speak, Irisis,' said Jym. 'He's being pushed backwards, ell by ell.'

'Maybe we should try and hold him,' said Yorme.

'No!' she snapped. 'Don't touch him. You'll just make things worse.'

Irisis began to see images in her inner eye, like parts of the field. Someone was drawing on it and it wasn't Flydd. It didn't look like the clankers, either. It had to be the mancer and she must be a mighty opponent to disable a scrutator so quickly. Jal-Nish must have brought her specially for the purpose.

Irisis fingered her pliance and the field appeared, swirling like a rotor spinning through brown sugar-streaked porridge.

'The soldiers are coming,' muttered Jym.

The field was clearer than she had ever seen it. Was that because she had lost her sight, or was it something to do with the scrutator's magic? She concentrated. Though Irisis could not draw power from the field, she had always been able to change it in subtle ways, nudging its billows and eddies into more suitable shapes. She did that now, folding one loop over on itself, again and again, until the resulting packet contained countless layers of its strange material, or rather, immaterial immaterial.

Flydd made no more sound, apart from the breath hissing through his clenched teeth, and that became ever softer. She felt like a mouse in a s...o...b..x, unable to get out and knowing that the cat was coming closer. If Flydd was disabled, it was up to her to save them. The soldiers were useless against a mancer.

'What are the clankers doing now?' she said softly.

'They've stopped in the centre of the valley. The nearest are trying to aim their javelards at the air-floater.' It was Jym speaking.

'Has it lifted?'

'Yes. It's coming towards us.'

'Do you think they'll hit it?'

'Could do, though they're at extreme range.'

'And the soldiers in the aqueduct?' asked Irisis.

'Still creeping forward.'

'I suppose they'll be within range soon.'

'A couple of minutes. At the most.'

'Send a few bolts at them, not that it'll make any difference.'

She heard the tw.a.n.g of the crossbows, followed by the sound of the cranks as they were wound back. 'And the scrutator?'

Yorme answered this time. 'He's still on his feet but he seems to be having some kind of a fit. His eyes are bulging out of his head.'

With a fluttering sound, something pa.s.sed in front of the sun. 'Is that the air-floater?'

'It's above us, high up.'

'Are the clankers firing?' Her greatest fear was of the air-floater being hit and exploding directly above them.

'No.'

'Why not?'

Jym laughed. 'Because the javelards aren't designed to shoot up at such an angle.'

Relief washed over her. 'Then they can't do anything?'

After a pause, he said, 'The shooters are pulling the pins out of the mechanisms. Looks like they're going to point them by hand.'

'That can't be very accurate,' said Irisis.

'It's a big target,' said Jym.

'See if you can shoot them.'

The weapon tw.a.n.ged. 'Not even close. It's too far for a crossbow.'

'So they can't shoot the balloon with their bows?'

'Not unless they come closer.'

'Soldiers are nearly within range,' Yorme called.

'Have another shot at them.'

The weapons fired and Irisis made out a scream. 'That wasn't the mancer, I suppose?'

'She's well back.'

'I've got to help the scrutator, any way I can,' Irisis said.

'What are you going to do?' asked Jym.

'I have no idea.'

She sensed out the field again and, searching through it, picked out two distortions, one so close that it had to be Flydd, the other a little further away.

She pushed that folded-over package of the field in Flydd's direction but he did not seem to be able to use it. Perhaps he hadn't noticed. 'Xervish?'

'I don't think he can hear anything, Irisis.'

The enemy mancer was using another part of the field. Irisis searched frantically for a way to attack her, but it had to be a hidden way. She could not withstand a mancer's attack for a single minute. What if she changed the field so as to starve the mancer of the power she needed? The woman was drawing fiendish quant.i.ties as she hurled everything into her attack on Flydd.

Irisis created a map of the local field in her mind, coloured in the shades of the spectrum, the higher energies being a.s.sociated with indigo and violet. Now to identify exactly where the other mancer was drawing power from. Ah, there: a little hidden sump that glowed deep violet, tending towards black.

Another mancer, or even an artisan, might have drawn on that source so as to deprive her enemy of power. Irisis lacked that ability but she had become skilled at shaping the field in order that others could better use it.

She subtly thinned the field around the sump, but the mancer simply changed the way she was drawing from it and took more power, endeavouring to immobilise the scrutator. Hopeless to think that Irisis, a mere crafter, could outwit a mancer whose whole life had been spent in mastering the Secret Art.

What if she were to nudge that folded package of energy towards the sump? From outside it just appeared as a dark blob. Inside, the lines of force were so concentrated that a normal mind might not be able to withstand it. Of course, mancers did not have ordinary minds. And that could do the scrutator more harm than it did the mancer, Flydd being so weak.

'What's happening now?' she cried.

'The soldiers have stopped,' came Jym's steady voice. 'The air-floater is trying to settle down but the wind keeps pushing it up the valley. Two clankers are getting ready to fire. Yorme, I can see the perquisitor! Jal-Nish is standing up on the shooter's platform.'

'He wants to see us taken. Or dead.' She had to act now. If it killed the scrutator that would be a merciful release, compared to what Jal-Nish had waiting.

Irisis found her little folded packet, disguised it in a billow of the field and nudged that toward the violet sump, which was now pulsing black and white as the mancer sucked more and more power from it.

Irisis was nearly there when the sump glowed a violent purple. Had she been discovered? No, there it went again, black, white, black black, white, black. She gave her packet one last nudge. It drifted over the edge, hung on the lip and then slid into the sump. Irisis wrenched herself out of the field, just in case.

Nothing happened, though Irisis could feel the tension. The scrutator began to moan in his throat, a hideous shrill wailing that was like barbs being thrust through her tongue. Irisis moaned too her trick must have backfired on Flydd. His sounds rose in pitch until they were like spines through her eardrums. Something awful was going to happen. She reached out for him.

Thud-splat! Flydd screamed and fell on his back, thrashing. She could hear his boots sc.r.a.ping against the stone. Then there was silence but for the whistling of the wind and the whirr of the air-floater's rotor.

'What's happened?' she shouted. 'Jym?'

'Something seems to have burst down among the soldiers. They're all running around. It's all red, and red stuff is flying all through the air. It's ... Oh, that's ' Irisis could hear him retching.

'A horrible way to die,' groaned the scrutator. 'But better her than me.' He took Irisis's hand. 'I'll thank you properly one day.'

'One night would be better,' she said automatically, not understanding what she'd done.