Nish went to bed early but tossed, turned and woke half a dozen times, uneasy, though he had no idea why. Deciding that he was never going to get back to sleep, he went down to the privy, relieved himself and headed back through the frigid corridors. Worms of ice, frozen seepage, oozed through the dark walls. Fiz Gorgo always seemed cold, even if it didn't have quite the perpetual dank frigidity of the manufactory, and Nish didn't mind it. He had grown up in such climes and Fiz Gorgo was more to his liking than the hot, parched plains of western Lauralin, where he had spent much of the past year.

Still wide awake, he turned up the narrow stone stairs to Yggur's lookout. As he stepped out onto the crumbling stone balcony, he realised someone was standing there, leaning on the rail. Nish smelt an aroma like liquorice. Yggur!

'Worried about tomorrow, Nish?' said Yggur, not looking around.

'I've been through too much to bother about the future,' Nish said untruthfully. 'I can't sleep. My mind keeps going round and round, fretting in case I've forgotten something.'

'Mine too,' said Yggur. 'And no doubt you feel left out, and worried that we've planned this mission in haste and unjustifiable optimism.'

'We-e-e-ll. .'.' said Nish.

'You can admit it. I'm not an ogre.'

'Is such secrecy really necessary, surr?'

'Probably not, but I'd rather not chance it. What do you think of the night?'

What a strange question. 'It's very still.'

'Aye, it can be at this time of the year. That's one of the things I like best about Fiz Gorgo. When the wind's not blowing, and the forest creatures are curled up in their holes, there's a stillness here that I've not felt anywhere else. It's why I've always come back. I like it when nothing is happening.'

'So do I,' said Nish. 'I'll leave you to it, then.'

'Stay a moment,' said Yggur. 'I…I feel…No, tell me what you feel.'

'Is something wrong, surr?'

'I feel uneasy tonight, though I can't say why. What about you?'

'An awful lot rests on this attack on Nennifer,' said Nish.

'Yes. And so, despite the risk, there really isn't any choice.'

'I suppose not.' Nish came to the rail, staring out. The darkness was complete, save for occasional lights winking on and off in the invisible forest. 'What's that?' he hissed.

Yggur chuckled. 'Not lyrinx, you can be sure. It's just fireflies in the swamp.'

They leaned on the rail for some time, not speaking. Yggur offered Nish a piece of liquorice root. Nish chewed on it, reflectively. The night seemed to be brooding, even ominous, though the dark always encouraged such feelings in him.

Yggur spat over the rail. The aroma of liquorice filled the balcony. 'It was nothing. I'm a morbid fellow at the best of times, and sometimes my dark thoughts just go round and round. I'll bid you good night.'

'Goodnight,' said Nish. 'I'll stay a while. I can't sleep, anyway.'

Yggur's boots went down the steps. A cold breeze curled around the side of the wall and Nish pulled his coat tighter about his neck. The night lent itself to introspection. What would become of them? He wasn't just thinking of this suicidal mission. Every year of his life the losses of the war had been greater, until the lyrinx had seemed like a disease creeping across the world. The climax was rapidly approaching.

Even if they won at Nennifer, and replaced the Council, there was too little time to be ready. Once spring came, every-thing he knew and loved looked set to be swept away in a few weeks of violence. It was not a thought conducive to further sleep, but he had to be rested for the morrow, so Nish headed back to bed.

As he reached the lowest flight, feeling his way in pitch darkness, a great five-lobed shadow blotted out the stars to the north of Fiz Gorgo. Another moved in beside it, and a third, drifting down the wind, its rotors silent. More crept into posi-tion to the sides of Fiz Gorgo, and yet more. The night became so still that even the wind seemed to be holding its breath, waiting for the moment when all sixteen air-dreadnoughts were in place. Waiting for the order to attack.

Irisis rolled over in bed, trying to scrape the cobwebs from her brain. Something had disturbed her. Her heart was thudding as if she'd just run all the way to the top of Yggur's watch-tower. Her throat was dry, her hands sweaty. What was the matter?

She was reaching for the short sword that she kept on the chair beside her bed when she heard someone coming along the corridor. Irisis sat up, panic prickling the backs of her hands. Something was wrong. She slid her feet onto the frigid flagstones. Ah, it was so cold.

The footsteps came closer. She swung the sword back and forth, preparing to spring. The dark figure cleared its throat, she realised who it was and the panic seemed ridiculous.

'Nish!' she hissed, weak with relief. 'What the bloody hell are you doing? I was about to skewer you.'

Trisis? What's the matter?'

She sensed him peering this way and that, trying to pick her out of the dark. 'Come in here.' She pulled him through the doorway of her room. 'What are you doing?'

'I couldn't sleep so I went for a pee. Is something wrong?'

Her knees went weak and she had to sit down on the bed, which annoyed her. 'Sorry, Nish. I thought you were an intruder, coming to slice open our gullets while we're asleep.'

'In Fiz Gorgo?' said Nish. 'This has to be the safest place in Santhenar. Even the lyrinx stay clear of it. What's the matter with you tonight?'

'I had a feeling of doom. I suppose it was a bad dream.'

'You're always having feelings of doom, Irisis.'

'Which surely means it's on it's way.'

'I was just up on the balcony with Yggur and I didn't see-'

'What was he doing up there?'

'I suppose he likes the solitude.'

'Well, I don't,' she muttered.

He sat on the bed beside her. 'I've never seen you so jumpy. At least, not since we were back at the manufactory, when—'

'I don't want to talk about that,' Irisis cut in more sharply than she intended. 'I've been having bad dreams lately.'

'What kind of dreams?'

'The kind where I come to a nasty end. I'm scared, Nish. We're not going to survive Nennifer.'

'You're being ridiculous. I can see you as a great-grandmother, with fifty grandchildren and great-grandchildren around you.'

'I can't, Nish. Not even one child, though I do so long for it.' He put his arms around her. 'Hush. It's late, and dark, and you're just twitchy because things haven't been going well. It'll all be better tomorrow I'm going back to bed.' 'Stay with me, Nish. Just for a little while.' She was warm and his bed was cold. And she was his dearest friend. 'Just a few minutes. I've got a lot to do in the morning.'

Nish lay on the bed, holding her but fretting. Eventually realising that Irisis was asleep, he eased himself out from her embrace, folded the covers over her and headed to his own cold bed. He still could not sleep.

The attack began not long before dawn, when the night was at its blackest. The sixteen air-dreadnoughts had manoeuvred themselves perfectly into position beforehand, fifteen surrounding the walls of Fiz Gorgo, the sixteenth on station high above, keeping watch for flying lyrinx. They did not expect to see any, and Ullii had spotted none in her lattice, but Chief Scrutator Ghorr was not a man to take chances where his own life was concerned.

Crossbow snipers checked the walls with hedron-enhanced night glasses, another new development from the workshops of Nennifer. There were only four guards on duty in Fiz Gorgo, for Yggur's walls protected him against anything short of an army. No land force could come at him through the swamp forests of Orist, even had they been able to evade thelyrinx further east. The guards were identified before it was light enough for them to see the air-dreadnoughts, the snipers picking all four off in the same instant. Fiz Gorgo now lay unprotected save for certain defences Yggur had installed in the towers, but these were useless at such a distance. Besides, they were unmanned, for the protection had been broken without giving any warning.