Alchymist (86 page)

And
you're making me sadder.'

'I'm
doing you good. Anyway, I know what you're up to.'

Yggur
selected a freshly baked roll, bit into it and leaned back in his chair,
chewing reflectively. His black boots rested on the edge of the table. 'Go on.'
He smiled, as if knowing she was going to make a fool of herself.

Perhaps
she was. 'Until our last council of war, your door was always open and everyone
could see what you were working on — either your little flying beetle, or the
construct mechanism. You haven't touched them in weeks.'

'How
do you know?'

She
ran a fingertip over the iridescent surface of the beetle. 'Dust! The only
devices free of it are the sphere of Golias the Mad, and this controller
apparatus we took from the construct. And judging by the way you've rebuilt the
controller, I can tell what you're doing.'

'Really?'
he said mockingly.

'You're
trying to combine the two so you can seize control of a flying construct,
should one ever come this way.' It was just a hunch, but a good one.

The
chair fell forwards and his eyes met hers. 'Go to the door, check that there's
no one outside, and lock it.'

She
did so.

'Sit
down,' he said fiercely. 'Who else knows?'

'No
one.' Irisis took the chair at the end of the table, not entirely comfortable.
She knew his reputation of long ago. Yggur was a hard man, not averse to riding
over others to get what he wanted. If she was a threat to him, he might even
decide to be rid of her. She didn't think so — Irisis was a good judge of
character — but you could never tell with mancers. 'I worked it out just then.
It was a flash of insight, really.'

'Explain!'

'When
you first showed us Golias's sphere, your eyes were positively glowing with
yearning. I've not seen you that inspired about anything else, not even your
little flier. You want Golias's secret more than anything.'

'I've
wanted it from the moment I saw the device.' He took the glass sphere in his
big hands, turning it this way and that, staring through its outer layer at
her.

Irisis
had a momentary loss of confidence. Yggur had lived more than a thousand years,
had seen everything this world had to offer, yet he looked no older than a hale
and powerful fifty. All her life and experience were no more than the blink of
an eye to him. But she must go on. 'And then, when you told us about Tiaan
surveying the nodes the other day, I saw that look again.'

'Continue,'
he said softly.

'The
clincher is the way you've rebuilt this construct controller. Controllers are
my life, Yggur. My mother had me pulling them to pieces and putting them back
together before I could walk. See here and here and here,' she touched in turn the
flat coils of metal that whorled out from the cup holding the powering crystal,
and the reciprocating rods that extended in six directions, 'these are surely
to channel power from the crystal to the controlling levers, and these to
convey it to various parts of the construct—'

'You
can tell all that so quickly? I've spent weeks puzzling it out.'

'I've
been working with fields since I was an infant.' Even so . . .'

'A
construct controller is nothing like the controllers I'm used to, but it does
the same thing — it draws on the field and uses that force to power and control
the machine.' She indicated other parts, where the reciprocating rods were
surrounded by red concretions and a network of glass filaments. 'These
modifications of yours have no place in a normal construct. They can only be
for one purpose — to seize control of a flying construct from its operator.'

He
nodded. 'That's exactly what I'm trying to do. Do you think it will work?'

She
thought for a minute or two. 'No, because this array of crystals will cancel
out the effect of this one, here. But if you were to network these crystals in
this kind of arrangement, tightly coil these filaments around them thus . . .'

Irisis
began to sketch swiftly on a large piece of paper with a stick of charcoal,
covering it with lines, shapes and symbols. Yggur leaned forward, watching the
design grow. She smeared out a number of lines with a fingertip, cocking her
head as she redrew them. Finally satisfied, without a by-your-leave she took
tools from his bench and began to pull his controller apart.

Yggur
said nothing during the next hour, just watched the deft movement of her
fingers as she completely rebuilt it, adding in new sections from the boxes of
crystals and silver wires on his table. Finally she laid the controller down, brushed
her yellow hair out of her eyes and looked up. He studied the new arrangement
for a good while, then suddenly smiled; it lit up his stern and craggy face.
'You're right, of course. Why couldn't I see that? You were going to say?'

'It'll
work, assuming you've solved the other problem. How to communicate at a
distance.' She rolled Golias's onion globe into her hand. It was as
unfathomable as ever.

'I'm
no further advanced than I was two hundred years ago. Do you have any ideas?'

She
closed her hands over the globe. 'No. I can only think of one person who might,
but—'

'Would
that Tiaan were here,' he said shrewdly, 'rather than on the other side of the
continent.'

Irisis
pursed her lips, still feeling the rivalry after all this time. An idea
occurred to her. 'Fyn-Mah scried out the scrutator in the middle of the Karama
Malama, using only a crystal and a bowl of quicksilver—'

"To
be correct, she scried out a special kind of lodestone he was carrying.'

'We
might attune this controller to a flying construct's hedron in the same way.'

'I
doubt it.'

'Let's
ask Flydd.'

'What
does Flydd know, pray?' Yggur said coolly.

'He
knows more about the field, and devices to shape and use it, than anyone. For
seven years he was in charge of the scrutators' secret project to develop new
devices powered by the field.'

Yggur
sat back with his eyes closed and fingers pressed to his temples. 'I can't
bring myself to trust any scrutator, but in this emergency I suppose I must.'
He put the globe away. 'Very well. On your say-so I'll ask to him. Anyone
else?'

'Only
me.'

Irisis
was lying awake that night when she had another idea. She brought it up the following
morning, as the group sat staring glumly at the controller.

'There
are crystals,' she said thoughtfully, 'that can induce an aura around a hedron
from some distance.'

And
some are natural,' Flydd added. 'Certain ore deposits caused problems with clanker
controllers, back when they were first invented, until we discovered a way to
shield them.'

'We're
not getting anywhere with Golias's globe,' said Irisis. 'We might be better off
trying to discover how such auras are generated, and how they can affect
hedrons, and at what distance.'

'Let
me see if I'm following your train of thought,' said Yggur. 'You're thinking
that we should try to deliberately create such auras, even magnify them.'

'Yes.
If we can find ones that work at a distance, perhaps we can imprint your
controller aura onto them. I may be able to change your controller to do that.'

'Hmn,'
Yggur said doubtfully. 'If by some chance we did manage to send such a signal,
how would we take command of the controller of the flying construct? How would
we control it? And how stop its operator from taking it back? The most likely
result would be no effect at all. If it did work, the construct would doubtless
fall out of the air, and all in it be destroyed.'

'We'll
never know unless we try.'

The
next couple of weeks were spent in the most tedious of labour, investigating
hedrons of various types, and other kinds of crystals, to determine the nature
of auras that could be induced from them. Irisis did most of this work,
assisted somewhat uncomfortably by Fyn-Mah. And every time Flydd entered the
room, she turned her dark eyes on him, gazing at him with that deferential
longing that Irisis found so irritating. If you want him, she thought, go after
him!

None
of the rock crystals proved good enough, but one day Irisis discovered, in
forgotten vats of brine in Yggur's cellars, crystals of various coloured salts
that had grown slowly over a hundred years. One particular crystal had the most
powerful aura of all. Using similar crystals grown painstakingly from special
salt solutions, with layers of a second and third crystal grown over the top,
she built a controller which, through a kind of ethyric transfer no one
understood, would cause an ordinary controller in the next room to mimic it.
Even Xervish Flydd was impressed.

But
will it work in the real world?' asked Yggur. 'That's the question.'

'We
won't know until we try,' said Flydd. 'I'll have the air-floater loaded with
supplies. We'll fly direct to Stassor, find Tiaan or the other flying
construct, and test it.'

'What
if the transfer controller fails?' said Yggur. 'The construct will fall out of
the sky, destroying itself and everyone in it. We must test it here first, and
know it will work perfectly every time.'

Several
days later, Yggur came striding down the hall, his stern face alive. 'Come into
my workroom,' he said to Flydd, Nish and Irisis, who were warming their hands
on mugs of tea beside an inadequate fire. 'I've something to show you.'

'What's
the matter?' snapped the scrutator, whose own work was going badly. 'Surely
you're not asking us for help?'

The
chilly dignity took over again. 'Come inside.' Yggur caught Flydd by the arm,
gesturing to Nish and Irisis with his other hand.

They
followed him into his workroom. 'Flydd, would you operate this for me?' Yggur
handed him the little beetle flier. It's much improved from the one I had when
you came to Fiz Gorgo.'

The
scrutator touched the device, which hummed to life and rose unsteadily in the
air.

'Fly
it around the room, any way you choose.' Yggur put the transfer controller in
his pocket and went into the adjoining room. 'When I try to take over, fight
hard against it.'

'It'll
be a pleasure,' Flydd said with a wicked gleam in his eye. He moved his hands.
The flier shot just over Nish's head, ruffling his hair. Flydd made a hasty
gesture; it turned the other way. 'Stupid thing!' the scrutator said.

'Gentle
movements,' said Irisis, who had spent long hours watching Yggur master the art
of controlling the flier. 'You've got to have a calm mind.'

Remarkably,
in a few minutes Flydd had gained enough control to keep it circling around the
centre of the room, using just the movement of one hand. It was a strain,
though; he had to sit down and his fingers had stiffened into hooked claws.

'Ready?'
Yggur called.

Flydd
massaged his fingers until they would straighten.

'Yes.’

The
beetle flier kept circling, its pattern unchanged. Minutes passed.

'Knew
it couldn't be done,' Flydd muttered. His gnarly hand was shaking. 'How much
longer do I have to keep it up?'

Yggur
put his head around the door. 'What's happening?'

'Absolutely
nothing,' Flydd said with great cheer.

Yggur
scowled. 'All right, bring it back to the table.'

'Can't
you do that yourself?'

'It's
keyed to you and your Art, until you release it or I break your hold.'

Flydd
brought the flier down to the table. It landed on its side and thumped over
onto its iridescent back. He touched it and the hum died.

'No
luck?' said Flydd, not displeased that the great Yggur had failed in front of
witnesses.

'You
can leave now,' said Yggur evenly.

They
hurried to the door. Irisis lingered, looking back at him. 'You too!' he said
in a forbidding voice. 'I've not had a second's peace since you arrived.'

That
afternoon Yggur called them back. There was no sign of his earlier euphoria. He
sat with both elbows on the table, chin cupped in his hands, staring at the
transfer controller.

'All
right, let's try it again.' He went into the other room.

Flydd
sent the flier up and circled it over their heads. There was silence from
beyond the door. After a few minutes, the scrutator felt confident enough to
try more complicated patterns: a series of vertical figure-eights, followed by
a flat spiral down to the floor, another back up to the ceiling.

Yggur
cursed and banged something on the wall. It sounded like his head,
thud-thud-thud. The flier dipped sharply, flipped end for end and slammed into
a stack of books on the table. It spun around on its curved back, making a
whistling hum, struck a pile of papers and sent them whirling into the air. The
hum died away. Yggur burst through the doorway. 'What about that?' 'Fabulous!'
said Irisis, running towards him. She stopped abruptly. 'What have you done to
the scrutator?'