'The damn thing's not here. And if it were, do you value the life of a scrutator less than some damned machine?'

'I wouldn't swap the flying construct for a hundred scrutators,' said Yggur.

'If I were a mancer, I'd blast you clear across the Sea of Thurkad,' she said furiously.

'Your loyalty outweighs your common sense, Artisan. A flying construct means the difference between certain defeat and possible victory. We're going nowhere until I'm satisfied that it's here, or gone.'

It was an unpleasant lunch. As they were finishing, the scrutator's groans gave way to a laboured panting.

'He's really ill,' Irisis wept as they circled towards the mud terraces again. 'Can't you do anything, Yggur?'

'I'm not a healer,' he replied.

'There's a good one in Old Hripton.'

'How did you know that?'

'I've been down there several times. Women's troubles.' 'Oh!' He wasn't going to ask about that. 'If we get back in time you may take him there.'

'Unless we go right away we won't be in time.'

He folded his arms across his chest. 'No man is worth more than humanity, as I'm sure Flydd would agree.'

Irisis had heard the scrutator say such things more than once. It made no difference — her friend and one-time lover was really ill. If she could have wrested control from Yggur, she would have. But that, of course, was impossible. She vented her fury at him as only she could. He ignored her.

They slid into a veil of high cloud that covered most of the sky. Nish took up a spyglass, though his mind was no longer on the search. Looking through the cloud was like peering through a silk scarf. Far below, mist clung to the ridges, and only the tips of the spires and domes of Alcifer rose above it.

'There's a lot of activity this afternoon,' he said after a while. There were at least a dozen lyrinx in the air.

Irisis cast a bitter glance towards the rotor, where Yggur stood with Inouye, and went inside to check on the scrutator. Nish followed her, blanched at the sight of Flydd and did not stay long.

'Something's going on,' Nish muttered a little later, peering through his spyglass.

The air-floater continued to circle within the base of the cloud. Irisis stalked from the watch to the cabin, and back to the watch, a dozen times. The mist thinned over Alcifer but still clung to the ridges. Scudding rain-showers obscured their view most of the time.

Irisis appeared in the doorway, breathing heavily. 'He's failing, Yggur. We've got to go now'.'

'I've seen it!' snapped Yggur, staring through his spyglass.

Nish swung his own glass in the direction Yggur was looking, sweeping it back and forth as he tried to penetrate the mist. He could not see a flying construct, but its metal skin would not be easy to pick out against the mist-hung forest.

There were more lyrinx in the air than before, and yet more rising out of Alcifer.

'Where is it, Yggur?' he called. 'You mightn't see it — it's under some kind of concealment and I don't dare try breaking it from here.'

'He's failing, Yggur,' Irisis repeated. He didn't seem to hear her.. She ran down and began beating him around the shoul-ders and head. He laid down the spyglass and caught her wrists, holding her easily. She tried to kick him.

'Stop it!' Yggur roared. He dragged her into the cabin, where Flydd lay panting on his bench.

Putting his hands to Flydd's belly, Yggur muttered a few words. The lines faded from the scrutator's face and his breathing eased. Yggur shook him, gently.

'Scrutator? Wake!'

Flydd's eyes opened. 'Yes?' he said in a scratchy voice.

'I've found the construct, but the lyrinx are rising and if we don't act now they must take it. And yet, Scrutator Flydd, you're very ill. Your resistance to the transfer controller must have burst something internally. I can ease the pain, as I just did, but I can't save you. Only a healer can.'

'Get on with it,' Flydd muttered, irascible to the last.

'But if we turn back now we must lose the construct, and all our plans fail with it. I give you the choice, Scrutator. What do you say?'

'You bastard!' said Irisis.

Flydd stared up at the ceiling.

'Do you understand what I'm saying, Scrutator?' said Yggur.

'I do,' he rasped.

'Well?'

'Of course you must take the flying construct. Why do you have to ask?' Flydd's head fell sideways and the laboured breathing renewed.

Yggur ran outside and focussed his spyglass. Not finding what he was looking for, he cursed and ran back, to lug out a wooden box.

'Hundreds of lyrinx are rising out of Alcifer,' he rapped.

'But where are they going? Flangers, you've got the best eyes, can you see the construct?' Handing him the spyglass, he began to unpack the transfer controller.

The rotor missed a beat. Inouye let out a frightened squawk.

'What the hell's going on?' said Yggur.

The mud terrace above the ridge erupted as a geyser roared thirty spans in the air. A roiling cloud of dirty steam burst out in all directions and they lost sight of the ridge, as well as the drama unfolding below.

'That can't have been an accident,' Fyn-Mah said quietly.

'Let's see what the result is,' said Yggur.

'The lyrinx are heading that way,' said Nish.

'I can see the construct!' Flangers hissed. 'There — at the end of that ridge. There are people around it, though I can't tell if it's on the ground or above it. No, it's flying. It's just gone out over the edge. There's a flying lyrinx there. Looks like it's carrying something. It's gone down into the trees. I think the construct's crashing. No, it's all right.'

Nish found it now, a shadow creeping in and out of the mist. Flangers was silent for a minute.

'It's coming up again,' said Flangers. 'It's landing on the ridge. Someone's getting in. Now it's lifting; it's moving very slowly. The enemy are coming fast, forming a circular wall around it.'

'Should I go down?' Inouye asked softly.

'Yes. No! Wait.' Yggur was uncharacteristically irresolute. 'No. They'll tear us to pieces. How is your power, Inouye?'

'Steady,' she said.

'Stay at this height.'

'Aren't you going to use your wonderful transfer controller?' Irisis ground the words out.

'When the time is right,' said Yggur. 'What do you see now, Flangers?'

'It's turned west, moving very slowly. They're going to catch it.' A long pause. Flangers adjusted the spyglass. 'No, it's shot up through the circle. It's leaving them behind.'

Yggur cursed. After it, Inouye! Stay in the clouds. We don't want them to see us.' 'Why not?' said Nish.

'It'll make it harder to seize control. Flangers?' The air-floater turned, the rotor whirring, and soon a vig-orous tailwind drove them swiftly west.

'It's slowing again,' said Flangers. 'The lyrinx are catching it.'

'They must be controlling its field,' said Yggur after they'd watched the construct's stop-start progress for some consider-able time. 'I wonder how they're doing that? I don't dare try to take control while it's having trouble drawing power. All that's keeping it ahead of them is the skill of the pilot. I can't duplicate that from here.'

'If at all,' Irisis said under her breath, and turned back to the cabin.

'It's going the way we want,' she heard Yggur say as she went through the door. 'Keep shadowing it, Inouye.'

Flydd's knees were drawn up into his chest, his face wracked. His breathing was barely detectable. She took his hand. He was going to die, uselessly. Even if, by some miracle, Yggur did succeed in seizing control of the construct, he'd never fly it. He'd barely controlled his little flier from the next room. The construct would fall out of the sky, destroying itself and everyone inside, and the lyrinx would feast on their remains.

She went out again. Far below, the situation was unchanged, though the construct seemed to have drawn a little further ahead. 'They're getting away,' Irisis said.