Chimaera (69 page)

Spring passed into summer, and summer into autumn. The crops planted in the borderlands began to ripen. It had been a good season, and the settlers hoped that they might, after all, harvest enough to get them through the winter.

There had been no more battles like the one for Borgistry. The lyrinx had gone back to the guerrilla tactics they’d perfected in ages past, melting away at the first signs of resistance. But they did considerable damage and everyone knew that the terror campaign had a darker purpose – to keep humanity from taking back more of the lands they’d lost during the war. To keep them afraid until the lyrinx trained a new generation to replace those that had been lost, and perfected whatever new weapons they were working on in Alcifer.

As soon as that was done, the savagery would be unleashed.

The company had returned to Fiz Gorgo in mid-spring, where Yggur and Flydd began working on a secret project, aided by Flydd and, at times, Malien and Tiaan. Nish didn’t know what it was – no one would say a word about it.

Irisis was still in the east, now overseer of her former manufactory in place of Tuniz, who had gone home at last. Nish missed Irisis terribly. He’d tried speaking to her over Golias’s globe once or twice, relayed via several farspeakers on the way. Each time he spoke it took minutes for Irisis to reply, and her voice was so distorted by crackling sounds, whistles and gurgles that it was unrecognisable. Finally he gave up and wrote to her instead, sending his letter with the next thapter to go east. He received a brief, scribbled and unsatisfying reply when it returned. Irisis was not one for writing letters.

Nish had spent the past months making more air-floaters, now that the new season’s silk was becoming available, and training more air-floater pilots and artificers.

Tiaan spent her time refining her maps of nodes and fields, sometimes with Malien, more often with one or other of the thapter pilots. Each time she returned, Tiaan went directly to Yggur’s workroom, briefing him and Flydd on her latest discoveries and how they fitted into her overall picture of the fields and the nodes. By the end of summer she had surveyed all the known world save the Dry Sea, the reefs and islands of the equatorial north, and the frigid lands south of the Kara Agel, or Frozen Sea.

Flydd had made good his promise to Governor Zaeff of Roros, in Crandor, sending her a thapter and two pilots, as well as an artisan in case anything went wrong with the controller, and three artificers to keep the machine in good order. Tuniz, who came from Crandor, had been made overseer of the most troubled manufactory there and was busy restoring it to order, aided by Mechanician M’lainte, the genius who had built the very first air-floater. Flydd had also provided the Stassor Aachim with farspeakers, though they’d not offered any support in return. His embassies to Vithis at the Hornrace had been turned back at the borders.

Then in early autumn, after six months of running and hiding, an overwhelming force of lyrinx ambushed a column patrolling the Westway near Gospett, destroying thirty clankers and two hundred soldiers in twenty minutes of bloodshed. It was on again. ‘We’ve lost another node,’ said Klarm, who’d just been flown back from inspecting the scene of the massacre.

He was having dinner in a secluded corner of the refectory with Yggur, Flydd, Malien, Nish and Irisis, who had finally been recalled from the east after more than half a year, to Nish’s joy.

‘Whereabouts?’ said Malien sharply.

‘South-west of Gospett, in Gnulp Forest. Tiaan took me by it on the way back, and the node had disappeared.’

‘Exploded, like the Snizort one?’ asked Flydd.

‘No. It had just faded away. That’s three in that area now.’

‘Do you think it’s got anything to do with the massacre?’

‘No,’ said Klarm.

‘Is it some new kind of node-drainer?’

‘We couldn’t find any sign of one.’

‘Then why is it happening?’ Yggur said in frustration.

‘Everything is connected to everything else,’ said Malien cryptically.

The table fell silent. Yggur took a small goblet of wine, as was his wont. Flydd half-filled a large goblet, as was his. Klarm filled his goblet to the brim but did not drink at once. Malien, unusually, had nothing at all.

‘That’s it!’ cried Yggur, springing to his imposing height and spilling wine across the table.

People on the far side of the room looked up. Flydd mopped the droplets with a grubby sleeve. ‘I presume it’s no secret, since you see fit to tell everyone in Fiz Gorgo about it.’

‘Everything is connected to everything else,’ said Yggur. ‘If you draw on a node too heavily, it affects its neighbours.’

‘It doesn’t explain how the node near Gospett failed. No one’s drawing power down there.’

‘Nodes
need not
be linked to their neighbours. Maybe they can be linked to distant ones.’

‘There are thousands of nodes, Yggur,’ said Flydd. ‘If they can be linked to any others, anywhere, we could never hope to work out the connections.’

‘But we can observe them. At least, Tiaan can.’

Tiaan spent a week going through her records before talking to Yggur and Flydd. ‘I’ve found something strange,’ she said. ‘When Vithis draws heavily on the massive node at the Hornrace, a field near Morgadis dies down, as does another on the southern end of Lake Parnggi, and a third at Hardlar, on the coast of the Karama Malama. They must be linked in some way. And these nodes between Gnulp Landing and Gospett have completely failed.’

‘Will they regenerate?’ asked Yggur.

‘I have no idea.’

‘Anything else?’

‘A group of four nodes in the Tacnah Marches, here, seem to be affected by power you’re drawing in Fiz Gorgo.’

‘Is that so?’ said Yggur. ‘What about the lyrinx?’

‘Doubtless they’re affecting other nodes,’ said Tiaan, ‘but I don’t know enough to tell. Wait! I remember a node way down south that was fluctuating wildly.’

‘Where was that?’ said Flydd, who had a large leather satchel slung about his neck and was fiddling with the fastenings.

‘Near the Island of Noom, in the Kara Agel, in late spring. I could take another look at it, if you like,’ said Tiaan.

‘There isn’t time to go so far,’ said Flydd. ‘Klarm tells me that the enemy have made a great breakthrough.’

‘When did this intelligence come in?’ said Yggur. ‘And how does he know?’

‘He reported just a few minutes ago. I don’t know how he’s done it but Klarm even has spies within their cities. He believes they’re planning a massive strike in early spring, to overwhelm all our defences.’

‘What kind of breakthrough?’ said Yggur.

‘Klarm didn’t know, but they’ve made great strides in flesh-forming lately,’ said Flydd. ‘The nylatl they let loose last spring were just a trial, since perfected.’

‘Where did you hear that?’ said Yggur.

Opening the satchel, Flydd slid something onto the table. Tiaan screamed and leapt halfway across the room.

‘It’s dead!’ said Flydd. ‘Klarm sent it back from the city west of Thurkad.’

‘Sorry,’ she said, feeling shaky. ‘I still have nightmares about the nylatl.’ Tiaan peered at it from a distance. Nothing could have induced her to go up close. ‘It looks … different.’

‘They call it an uggnatl, I believe. The skull is flatter, the armour thinner, while the legs aren’t armoured at all. It’s leaner, longer, and much faster.’

‘It looks like a spiny, short-tailed rat,’ said Tiaan. ‘A rat the size of a small dog.’ The teeth were large, sharp and angled back. ‘Once it gets hold of you, it won’t let go. You’d have to cut it off.’

‘The nylatl were designed to take a lot of punishment, but it made them slower and less agile,’ said Flydd. ‘These little beasts have been formed for one purpose only: to inflict as much damage as they can. The venom is stronger and they’re as agile as a rabbit.’

‘Easy to kill,’ said Yggur.

‘But hard to hit,’ Flydd retorted. ‘Ten thousand of them would turn any battlefield into a slaughterhouse, and they’ll have a lot more than that by spring. Klarm believes they’re breeding them in all six cities.’

‘What can we do about them?’ said Yggur.

‘Nothing. Absolutely nothing.’

‘We don’t have any choice. We’ll have to attack first,’ said Flydd that night, when they were all gathered in Yggur’s workroom. ‘Soon; well before winter.’

‘How ready are your forces, Troist?’ called Yggur.

‘Borgistry’s army, and my own, have replaced most of our casualties. We number fifty-six thousand, more or less.’ Troist’s voice came from the farspeaker globe on the centre of the long table. ‘Plus a thousand from Clan Elienor, and the levees and volunteers from north, south and east. We didn’t get all we were promised but they’ve sent another twenty thousand. Though few have combat experience.’

‘That’s considerably less than the enemy can field in the west,’ muttered Flydd, ‘if they send all their fighters out at once. And they’re not wasted from hibernation now. They’re well-fed and fit.’

‘How do we stand on the east coast?’ asked Yggur.

‘They’re as prepared as they can be,’ said Troist. ‘Between them they can field one hundred and twenty thousand troops, and twenty-five thousand clankers. Formidable forces, but they’re a continent away and have their own enemies to fight.’

‘Roros has the thapter I sent to Crandor,’ said Flydd, ‘and the eastern manufactories have built dozens of air-floaters. And they have many farspeakers now, though the enemy numbers are vast.’

‘Wasn’t your overseer working on making more thapters?’ said Yggur.

‘Tuniz has had a manufactory given to her for that purpose,’ Flydd said. ‘But even with Mechanician M’lainte’s help, it’ll be at least six months before they can produce the first thapter. There’s too much to learn.’

‘What do you think about attacking their cities, Troist?’ said Yggur.

‘To attack a well-defended city we’d need
at least
a four-to-one advantage,’ said Troist. ‘Even if we could gather together all our armies in Lauralin we wouldn’t have enough men to attack Oellyll, and even if we won we’d lose most of them. And that’s not even considering these uggnatl creatures, against which we have no defence.’

‘They’re what I’m really worried about,’ said Flydd. ‘We can’t allow the enemy another six months to breed them. We simply have to act before winter …’

‘Are you absolutely sure?’ said Yggur. ‘If we implement the plan, there’ll be no going back.’

Nish looked from one to the other. ‘I hadn’t realised it had come to this.’

‘It’s come,’ said Flydd. ‘What if they were to release uggnatl into our cities? Can you imagine the horror if they were let loose among our children, our unarmed mothers?’ Flydd didn’t go on. He didn’t need to.

‘Then we’ll have to go with the plan,’ said Yggur.

‘What plan?’ said Nish and Irisis together.

‘An aerial strike, simultaneously, on each of their cities.’

‘With what?’ said Irisis, puzzled.

Flydd took a deep breath, let it out, then motioned to Yggur.

‘We plan to drop a barrel of fungus spores down the airshafts of each of their underground cities,’ said Yggur.

‘Is
that
all? It wasn’t all that successful when we used it last spring,’ said Nish. ‘Except on their morale.’

‘That was out on an open battlefield,’ said Yggur. ‘Underground, the conditions are perfect for the fungus to grow and with luck we’ll infect most of them – enough to destroy the lyrinx threat and force them to capitulate.’

‘Is there any danger to us?’ said Nish.

‘We’ve been working with it since mid-winter and it hasn’t infected anyone yet.’

‘I don’t think it’s right to use that kind of a weapon,’ said Malien.

‘Nor I,’ said Tiaan uncomfortably. And after they capitulate, then what? Are you going to kill all the survivors?’

Flydd and Yggur exchanged glances. ‘They’ll have to go into camps,’ said Flydd at last.

‘Prisons?’ said Tiaan.

‘Well, yes.’

‘For how long?’

‘Forever. Either that or …’

‘So you’re planning to pen them up, and then wipe them out?’ said Tiaan, her fists clenched on the table.

‘We’re not planning anything that far ahead,’ said Flydd. ‘Look, Tiaan and Malien, what else are we to do with the lyrinx? Uggnatl aren’t just another battlefield weapon – they’re living,
breeding
creatures born for one purpose only – to slaughter. They can wipe us out, and if we give the enemy time to breed up their numbers, they
will
wipe us out. Once they’re released, the lyrinx won’t have to fight. These uggnatl will hide and breed until they sweep like a plague across the land, consuming everything in their path.’

‘It’s not right,’ Tiaan repeated.

‘It’s not right to use uggnatl against mothers and children either, but the enemy will. We’ve got no choice, Tiaan. We’ve got to attack their cities first.
Now
, before the creatures can be bred in numbers. What do you say?’

‘I’ve fought nylatl twice,’ said Nish. ‘The first time was the most terrifying of my life. If these uggnatl are faster and more agile, I couldn’t possibly beat one. Who could?’ He shuddered at the thought.

‘Well, Tiaan?’ said Flydd. ‘You assisted in the making of the first nylatl.’

Shadows crossed her face. ‘I saw what it did to three defenceless women. I – I can imagine the horror of an uggnatl in my mother’s nursery. If there’s no other choice, I suppose we must attack their cities.’

‘There’s no other choice,’ said Flydd. ‘Believe me, we’ve tried to think of one.’

‘Let it be done,’ said Yggur, and one by one everyone agreed.