‘We have to go,’ Nish said. ‘The soldiers are already out of sight.’

She could feel the clankers now. The other two flared in her lattice as they moved off with a thud-thud that shook the ground beneath her. The hatch was up in the plated back of the third clanker, Irisis gesturing furiously.

‘I have to know it,’ said Ullii.

Nish walked her around the clanker and Ullii touched the overlapping plates along each side, the thick metal legs, the firing platform on top. It felt like an armadillo, her favourite animal. Mancer Flammas had kept one in his workshop. She’d touched the creature, seen how it curled up, and modelled herself on it ever after. The memory made her smile and Ullii climbed willingly into the back of the machine.

Ky-Ara reached out with one long-fingered hand, making sure the controller was seated in its socket and that each of its twenty-four arms was correctly in place. He pulled down his ‘crown-of-thorns’, a metal headband set with eight pieces of crystal, equally spaced. Placing each hand into a wired glove, he reached forward and gripped two knobs. As he moved the right-hand knob, rainbows swirled in Ullii’s lattice. The whine of the flywheels went up a notch as he fixed the field in his mind and drew power smoothly from it.

Ky-Ara’s face went slack with bliss as the bond with the machine was established. His mouth fell open in a vacant grin – the flycatcher phase, Nish sneeringly called it. Ky-Ara would be as much machine as man until they stopped, and if parted too long afterwards would suffer the anguish of withdrawal.

Ullii was fascinated, though that changed as soon as the operator worked the starting lever and, with a squeal of plates and a rattling groan, the clanker moved. The sound went right through her earmuffs. The knot swelled until it filled her head. She tried to change the lattice but the racket ringing through her brain did not permit rational thought. She pressed her hands tightly over her earmuffs. It did not help. Ullii screamed, right in the operator’s ear.

Ky-Ara, wrenched out of his bond, stopped the machine instantly. His head whipped around, mouth agape, eyes staring. ‘What?’ he slurred, in as much pain as she was.

‘I’ve got her earplugs here somewhere,’ Nish said to Irisis, rummaging in his pack.

‘Take your hands away,’ Nish whispered to Ullii. ‘No one speak.’

Ullii slowly withdrew her hands. He handed her the plugs, which she pressed into her ears, then quickly put the muffs on. Nish signed to Ky-Ara.

With jerky movements he re-established the bond. The clanker lurched, stopped, lurched again. Ullii’s hands flew up to her ears but stopped halfway. She could hear nothing. She smiled fleetingly, then worked on remaking her lattice so as to keep the fierce glow of the controller manageable.

Irisis put her boots up on the heatbank, a long metal box filled with hot stones. ‘It’s lovely and warm in here.’

‘Enjoy it while it lasts,’ said Nish, who had spent more than enough time in freezing clankers.

They were only halfway to the mine when there came a low rumble and the clanker stalled as if it had struck a barrier. A distortion wave passed through the machine, warping everything like a reflection in a fairground mirror.

‘What’s going on?’ screamed Ky-Ara, waggling his knobs uselessly. He seemed on the verge of collapse. ‘I’ve lost the field.’

They had all heard the tale of the failed Minnien field, clankers lost, an army slain. Nish leapt through the back hatch, drawing his borrowed sword, as did Irisis. Streaks of light plated across her vision. The ground shook underfoot, the forest trees lashed back and forth. The soldiers were crouched down with their shields over their heads.

‘To your positions!’ roared Arple.

The troops formed a ragged oval around the clankers, shields up, spears out. Irisis scanned the forest. If this was an ambush, they were too spread out to defend themselves.

Nothing further happened. Arple called the soldiers into a tight circle around the first clanker. The world stopped shaking. Irisis clutched at her pliance, which felt uncomfortably warm. That had not happened before.

‘What was that?’ shouted Jal-Nish.

‘The enemy …’ Gi-Had trailed off, worrying about his family.

‘The artisan did it with her crystal,’ Ullii said. ‘It’s burning her up.’ She swooned, half out of the hatch.

‘’I can see the field again,’ called the second operator, Simmo, through the top hatch of his machine.

Fyn-Mah looked to the perquisitor, who drew her aside. ‘You also have some mancing talents,’ he said quietly. ‘What do you say that was?’

Irisis, whose hearing was keen, slipped into the forest and edged closer.

‘Power,’ said Fyn-Mah, ‘as I have never felt it used before. And not far away.’

‘I thought so too. But Tiaan is just an artisan. She has no mancer training.’

‘Look to her heritage …’ began the querist.

‘Hush! Don’t talk about that.’ He glanced over his shoulder but did not see Irisis, who had slid behind a tree. ‘She’s stumbled onto something new.’

‘How do you mean?’

‘That kind of power, enough to shake the mountain, could not have come from the weak field.’

‘Well, other people have made such discoveries. I don’t know that any survived to use them.’

‘The ancients did!’ he said vehemently. ‘The Histories are full of Rulke’s marvels, and what Yalkara did. Can’t you see? This could be the answer to that failure of the field at Minnien. A new, stronger force?’

‘Nunar did write about such things,’ she said slowly.

‘With such power at our disposal, impossible things become possible. We won’t just win the war, we can wipe the enemy off the face of the globe. There is a way, Fyn-Mah, and if we bring it to the scrutators we’re made for life. We’ve got to bring her back alive, whatever it takes. We must find out what she’s discovered.’

‘Indeed,’ said Fyn-Mah. ‘To say nothing of this “crystal”. It would be tragic if she died using it and the secret was lost.’

Jal-Nish gave her a curious look, as if there was sarcasm in her words, then signed for the column to move off. The other two operators helped an ashen Ky-Ara into his seat. ‘I thought the field was gone,’ he said over and over to his clanker. He rubbed the controller with his cheek. ‘I thought I’d lost you.’

Irisis got in beside Nish and Ullii and sat quietly, trying to digest what she had heard. Had Tiaan made a brilliant breakthrough, or was it just this new crystal she’d found? Whatever it was, it could be as much to her advantage as Jal-Nish’s. For the first time in years Irisis allowed herself to hope.

TWENTY-EIGHT

The fumes were worse than ever. Tiaan rolled over and broke into a fit of coughing that sprayed the stone red. It felt as if she was bringing up specks of lung. She rested her forehead against the rock. Why did it take so long to die?

Thump! Something landed on top of the ice globe, knocking a cold cinder down on her head. She rolled onto her back. A shadow clung to the outside like a kitten to a ball. Vaguely outlined against the stars, it looked like a Hürn bear; a big one.

The creature scratched at the ice, the sound reverberating in her ears. Moving under the shelf, she pressed her nose to a crack in the stone and breathed deep, trying to suck fresh air out of it. The grinding grew louder. Wiping her streaming eyes, Tiaan sat with her crossbow loaded. It made her feel better.

The beast sprang in the air and came down reversed, clinging with its back feet, scraping with one forefoot. She closed her eyes. Though everything hurt, Tiaan could feel herself drifting off.

Another thump; the scratching resumed. She did not look up. Breathing was taking all her strength. The crossbow slipped from her hand. A louder thump. Again the bear had reversed position. Its legs drew back and kicked at the circular gouge.