Ghorr gave him an ambiguous glance. 'Indeed it will, Scrutator. All the difference in the world.'

Sixty-two

Exploding stone and seething, boiling metal shocked Irisis awake. She shot up in bed, thinking she was back in the manufactory, under attack by the lyrinx. 'Nish?' she cried, 'Where are you?'

He was gone and the nightmare was back, but this time Irisis knew it was real. That crash was a battering-ram on the front doors. Those shrieks — the death screams of the servants who had foolishly run to see what was going on. This was it. Her long-anticipated doom had come at last.

She pulled on her clothes, tied her boots, grabbed the sword and peered out the door, expecting to see lyrinx everywhere. Soldiers were advancing methodically along the corridor, checking every door. For a fleeting second she relaxed, until it penetrated her fuzzy mind that they were human soldiers, wearing the black and scarlet uniform of the chief scrutator's personal guard, the most elite troops of all. It was worse than lyrinx, far worse. Ghorr had found them. She could see at least a hundred soldiers and, from the racket in the other halls, many more were there. Doubtless there were mancers, too.

Against them, Yggur had merely twenty troops and Irisis was prepared to bet that the majority of them, stationed in the barracks outside, were dead. The battle was already lost, the only option to try to escape into the labyrinth of tunnels that honeycombed the rock underneath Fiz Gorgo. Unfortunately, though Irisis knew how to get into the labyrinth, she had never been down there. That was the problem with labyrinths, she thought wryly. They were so damned hard to get out of.

Ducking out the door, she ran towards the rear of the building. At the first corner, she stopped. Flydd's room was just to the left, Nish's a long way down the corridor to the right. There wasn't time to rouse both. After a second's hesitation, she turned left. Nish was a poor sleeper and was probably up already. If not, he'd be captured within seconds. It took a lot to rouse Flydd, so there was no choice. Ah, Nish love, I'm sorry.

Fleeting down the corridor in the dark, she pounded on Flydd's door. There was no answer so she kicked it open. Flydd was sitting up in bed, naked.

'What is it?' he said, only half-awake.

She dragged him out of bed. 'The scrutators are here, inside Fiz Gorgo, with hundreds of soldiers.'

He didn't move. "Then we're done for. Run to the labyrinth. Hide. It's me they want.'

She found his boots, a knife, his clothes. 'I don't leave my friends behind. Get these on. Besides, they've come for the lot of us and they won't leave until they've torn this place apart, stone by stone. There's no point hiding unless you know a way out.'

'I expect I can find one.' He threw on his boots, buckled a belt around his waist, into which he thrust the knife, and tossed his satchel over his shoulder.

Irisis stood at the door, peering out into the dark corridor. The soldiers weren't yet in sight. There might just be time to run down to Nish's room. No, she could hear them coming from his direction. They'd have him already.

'You could at least tie on a loincloth,' she snapped. 'For dignity's sake.'

He tore a sheet off the bed and wrapped it around himself. 'At a time like this, dignity is the least of my worries.'

'It was my dignity I was thinking about,' she said.

'Oh!' He smiled. 'Right. Let's go.'

She opened the door. The corridor was now illuminated by distant lantern light, and soldiers were advancing on them from both right and left. Past the junction of the corridors she saw people she recognised, struggling with their captors. Fyn-Mah went down under the weight of three men, who swiftly bound and gagged her. One soldier sufficed to subdue the tragic little pilot, Inouye, who just waited listlessly for her fate.

A great roar echoed along the hall, followed by a flash and a clap of thunder. Plaster rained down from the ceiling. It was Yggur, half-dressed and struggling furiously. A scarlet-robed mancer collapsed screaming and holding bloody ears. Another mancer reeled sideways, going face-first into the wall. Yggur let out another roar and, raising his arm, swung it like a scythe at his attackers. Black light streamed out in rippling beams and a group of soldiers fell. He swung it the other way, hurling aside another trio of armed men.

'He's going to do it,' she said, awed at Yggur's power.

The remaining soldiers broke and ran, abandoning their weapons.

'To me,' Yggur roared. 'Rally behind me. Flydd, make a—'

An unnoticed soldier behind Yggur brought the flat of his sword down on the mancer's head. The sword broke, but Yggur was driven to his knees. The soldier, gasping for breath, slammed the hilt into the side of Yggur's skull. He slid to the floor, stunned. The soldier pinioned his hands. The ones who had fled ran back, swarming over Yggur and binding him like a moth in a spider's web.

'That's it,' said Irisis.

'There's still a chance,' said Flydd. 'Gilhaelith and Malien each have the power to take on a brace of scrutators.'

'But not all of them together.' Irisis ducked back inside Flydd's room. 'And their mancers at the same time. There's no way out, Xervish.' The room had no window.

Flydd was fumbling in his satchel and did not answer.

'Forget it, Xervish,' she said. 'There's far too many of them. There's nothing you can do.'

'Bar the door and shut up.'

She flung it shut, dropped the heavy bar and pushed the bed up against the door. 'What do you have in mind?' She didn't imagine he could do much, not being fully recovered yet. 'Close your eyes. Turn your back.'

'But-' she began, then obediently closed them and turned away. She'd been down that road before.

'One, two, three …' he said under his breath, then something cracked against the floor.

Sound enveloped the room, a roaring, crashing and crumbling. A piece of stone thumped her in the side so hard that it knocked the breath out of her.

He took her hand. 'You can look now.' The room was full of whirling dust and there was a hole in the floor between them, large enough to have slid the bed down on its end. She could not see what lay below.

Flydd was already knotting the sheet and the blankets together and tying one end to a leg of the bed. 'Go down!' he said.

Something struck the door so hard that it shivered. Irisis grasped the blanket and slid through the hole to the first knot, then past it to the second, and the third. As she was dangling there her feet scraped the floor, though she still could not see anything. The room was in darkness.

Abandoning the makeshift rope, she sprang to one side. Flydd came sliding and bumping after her. He hit the floor hard, clutched at his middle and she steadied him. 'Are you all right?' Just a twinge.' 'Where to now?' said Irisis. 'I'm not sure. Feel around the walls for a door.' He found it first, opening it into darkness. 'This way,' he whispered- "Follow me.'

They eased through the door, tiptoed down a corridor and out into a wider hall that was also dark, though Irisis could feel a cold wind blowing along it. It was not far to the outside. They had a chance, though at the expense of leaving all their friends behind..

'Come on,' said Flydd. 'I think we're going to make it after all.' Irisis clutched her sword and followed, but they had not gone more than a dozen steps before brilliant lights came on before them, and behind.

'Xervish Flydd,' said a voice that was unpleasantly familiar. 'Irisis Stirm. I'm so pleased to see you both again.'

It was Chief Scrutator Ghorr, and he had at least a dozen soldiers with him. She looked the other way and recognised the malicious face of Scrutator Fusshte, with as many more troops, all armoured and heavily armed.