'Nor I — he's the anchor of all our lives. And our only hope. Come on, let's get some breakfast. I'm starving.'

They were walking down the corridor side by side when Tiaan turned the corner, coming the other way. She stopped dead, looking from Nish to Irisis in dismay.

Irisis had last seen Tiaan at the manufactory almost a year ago, just before she'd been diagnosed with incurable crystal fever and sent to the breeding factory. That, Irisis was ashamed to recall, had been partly due to her own scheming 'What are you doing here?' Tiaan was trembling like a plucked wire.

'We came with Xervish Flydd, the scrutator' said Irisis. Tiaan relaxed a little. 'Where is he?' She looked ready to bolt.

'He's being treated by a healer. He's very ill.' 'Was that you flying the construct, Tiaan?' asked Nish. He took a step towards her and put out his hand, tentatively. 'Let me say how sorry—'

Tiaan backed away a step, her eyes darting from one to the other.

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.'