Tetrarch

T HREE

The woman stopped inside the door. She was taller than Tiaan, about the height of a human man. Her pale face was lined, though that took nothing away from an austere and ageless beauty. Large grey eyes held just a hint of green. The red eyebrows were fluffed with grey. Her small ears were perfectly circular.

'What are you doing here?' she said in the common speech. Her voice was soft, low and without accent.

No one spoke. Tiaan glanced sideways at Nish, who was staring at the woman, brow furrowed.

'Who are you?' he burst out.

The woman turned those ice-grey eyes on him. 'I am Matah. I am Tirthrax.'

'What are you doing in this lyrinx nest?'

The Matah laughed, which made her young again. Tiaan found a smile. Nish was not as clever as he thought.

'Tirthrax,' the Matah said, 'is the greatest city of the Aachim on Santhenar. It is more than three thousand years old. No lyrinx has ever come through its doors. Nor has any human, uninvited, until this day. I am Matah of Tirthrax. You will explain yourselves.'

Nish jerked Tiaan's lead rope so hard that she fell. 'What's going on?' Flecks of spittle spattered Tiaan's face. 'Who have you betrayed us to, artisan?'

'Release her,' said the Matah, in a tone cold as chips from the glacier.

'Keep out of it, old woman!'

Ullii let out a squawk as the Matah spread her arms then slowly brought her hands together in front of her. A tiny golden bubble drifted from one fingertip. Floating through the air, it struck Nish on the forehead, bursting with a spray of sparkles. He went rigid, arched his back and gasped. His teeth snapped closed on his protruding tongue. With a muffled grunt, he fell to his knees. A scarlet bead formed on his lower lip.

'I asked you to release her,' the Matah said mildly. 'Please do so.'

Ullii hooked her fingers into claws. Her breath simmered in her throat and she looked set to spring on the Matah. Despite her anger with Nish, Ullii would not tolerate any attack on him. How had he come to inspire such loyalty? Tiaan could not fathom it.

The Matah turned to Ullii, reached out with an open hand, and smiled. 'I will not harm him, little seeker.'

Ullii went still, confused. She looked from the Matah to Nish, to the Matah again.

'Ullii, help me,' he gasped.

'Give me your hand,' said the Matah.

Ullii was a mixture of emotions: delight and terror. She slowly extended her tiny hand. The Matah's fingers wrapped all the way around it, holding the grip for a long interval. Ullii let out an extended sigh and bowed her head, smiling enigmatically.

'Ullii!' Nish wailed, but she paid him no heed. He strained against bonds he could neither see nor feel.

The Matah flicked those long fingers and Nish was himself again. She inclined her head towards Tiaan. Moving as if he ached in every bone, he untied Tiaan's ropes. He looked frightened and she took fleeting pleasure from it.

'What is this talk of betrayal?' the Matah asked.

'Ask her!' Nish spat. 'She sold our world. Tiaan brought an army of constructs here through a gate.'

For an instant the Matah's self-possession left her. She clutched at the glass to support herself.

'Constructs? Through a gate? Is that why the mountain shook yesterday? Explain, humans! Who are you and where did you come from?'

Tiaan gave their names, then began on a halting explanation. 'I was an artisan at the manufactory near Tiksi -'

'You're a long way from home, artisan.'

Tiaan acknowledged that. 'I made controllers for battle clankers, which are armoured war carts driven by eight iron legs -'

'I know what clankers are. What about your controllers?'

'Mine were the best.' Tiaan said it without pride. 'I could see the field more clearly than anyone, and I was better at tuning the hedrons. I began to have strange crystal dreams. I dreamed that a young man cried out for help, because his world was exploding with volcanic fire. His name was Minis.'

'Minis!' the Matah said sharply. 'That is an Aachim name. An ancient one.'

'Aachan was dying,' Tiaan said, 'and Minis with it.'

'And so will we because of your folly,' said Nish. 'Why could you not do your duty like everyone else?'

'I was doing my duty,' she replied coldly, 'until you and your slut Irisis had me thrown out of the manufactory, and all because I refused to bed you.'

Again the Matah turned those glacier eyes on Nish, who tried to stare her down, flushed and had to look away.

'It is the duty of every one of us to mate,' he recited, 'to replace those who give their lives in the war.'

'Not against her will, surely?' The Matah's voice was frosty.

'The population is falling,' said Nish. 'Will has nothing to do with it.'

'In the breeding factory they kept a bloodline register,' cried Tiaan. 'A stud book!'

'Is this what the world has come to?' said the Matah. 'What happened to the great romance?'

'Romance has nothing to do with mating,' Nish said loftily. 'Mating is duty, love mere unruly passion.'

'And you had a passion for Tiaan, or was your lust mere duty? Go on with your tale, Tiaan.'

Tiaan explained how Joeyn had found that strangely glowing crystal in the mine, one that had seemed to be drawing power from the field all by itself, without ever needing to be woken. And she told how she had fled with it.

'Minis called to me,' said Tiaan, 'when I was trapped in a blizzard, dying of cold. He taught me about geomancy, the greatest magic of all.'

'A most foolhardy young man,' said the Matah. 'A wonder it did not kill you.'

'He taught me just enough to draw power into the crystal and save my life. The Aachim called it an amplimet and -'

'An amplimet?' The Matah gripped the edge of the glass.

Tiaan nodded. 'In return for my own life, I promised to help the Aachim. They asked me to bring the amplimet here to Tirthrax. After many trials, including being captured by the lyrinx and forced to help them with…' Her voice cracked. She shuddered. 'I suffer dreadfully from withdrawal when the crystal is taken away. At least, I used to before the gate was made. Using that weakness, the enemy forced me to channel power for their flesh-forming.' She told that story, including the tale of the nylatl. 'Eventually I managed to escape, using the crystal, and brought it here.'

'Here?' the Matah asked hoarsely.

'Minis told me to give it to your people, but I found Tirthrax abandoned.'

'Not abandoned,' said the Matah. 'My people have gone, en masse, north to our other city, Stassor. The war comes ever closer and they are meeting to see what may be done about it. They won't be back until next year. It is a long and hazardous journey.'

'By the time I arrived,' Tiaan continued, 'the Aachim were too weak to do anything with the crystal.' She glanced at Nish, then away. 'I had to save them. They told me how to assemble a gate-making device, which I called a port-all. I put the amplimet into the core of it, followed their instructions and created a gate.'

'You made a gate, from here to Aachan?' cried the old woman. 'Alone?'

'Yes,' Tiaan said faintly.

'Where is the port-all now?'

Tiaan moved close and whispered in the Matah's ear, watching Nish all the while. 'It is in the hall by the great glass gong.'

'Ah!' said the Matah. 'Continue, if you please.'

'I did all the tests and called Minis. The gate opened but the Aachim began to come through, in constructs.' She described the sleek metal machines and the way they hovered above the ground.

'I know all about constructs,' the Matah interrupted. 'I saw the first one ever built. How many were there?'

'I don't know,' said Tiaan. 'Thousands, certainly, and each contained ten or fifteen people.'

'There were more than eleven thousand constructs,' said Nish. 'I counted the ranks as they passed. They have gone down to the lowlands to wage war against Santhenar. You have betrayed your world, Tiaan.'

The Matah looked wan. 'I must sit down.' She slumped on the floor with her head resting on her knees.

'As I was betrayed,' said Tiaan bitterly. 'They must have been planning this invasion for a long time, for such a fleet of constructs would have taken decades to build. They used me and killed little Haani, who never hurt anyone in her life.' Tears ran down her cheeks. 'Vithis offered money in exchange!' She glared at the old woman. 'That was the grossest insult of all.'

'Reparation must be paid,' the Matah replied. 'How did it happen? Did you threaten them?'

'How could I threaten eleven thousand constructs?' Tiaan raged. 'She died because they were afraid. The Aachim are liars and cheats, and as timid as rabbits.'

The Matah tightened her lips. 'You may call them cowards if you dare, though it sounds like an accident to me. But know this, Tiaan: to impugn our honesty is a mortal insult that every Aachim will fight to avenge.'

'They callously and deliberately deceived me about their intentions, and about the gate. They said they were just a few thousand. A lie. They said -'

'I will leave it to them,' said the Matah hastily. 'But tell me – have they mastered all the secrets of Rulke's lost construct? Did the machines fly?'

'Not that I saw.' Tiaan dashed her tears away. 'They just hovered above the floor. Vithis called me an incompetent fool, after all I had done for him. Minis turned his cheek to me, and then they went away.'

'We can be arrogant,' said the Matah, 'but Aachim are rarely rude, unless unbearably provoked. Who were the leaders?'

'I met three,' said Tiaan. 'Tirior of Clan Nataz, Luxor of Clan Izmak, and Vithis. Are you related?'

'We Aachim of Santhenar broke the clan allegiances long ago. My house was Elienor, named for our most famous ancestor, though it was always the least of the clans. Many of Clan Elienor have red hair, as I did once.'

'I did see people with red hair,' said Tiaan.

'That is good. I would see my lost house again. What of Vithis? Did he name his clan?' The Matah looked as if she already knew.

'He named it Inthis – First Clan,' said Tiaan.

'Ah, Inthis!'

'But the gate went wrong and his entire clan was lost in the void, save for Minis. Vithis blamed me. He is a hard, cruel man.'

The Matah's eyes sparked. 'Inthis was ever the greatest clan – and in excess, too. We have been led by them more than by any other clan, sometimes to disaster. Tensor was such a man; a great leader driven to folly. Yet he strove for the good of all Aachim, not out of clan rivalry which ever held us back on Aachan. The gate went wrong, you say?'

'Vithis said I had built the port-all the wrong way around, left-handed instead of right, and that made the gate go awry. But I built it exactly as I was instructed. I still have the image in my mind. I will never be rid of it.'

'Left-handed?' said the Matah. 'I recall something about that, from our Histories. Yes, what is left-handed on Aachan is right-handed here, and that includes crystals that bend a beam of light one way or the other. Handedness cannot be discerned from afar, but the matter was known to the ancients. Vithis should have checked before he instructed you in the making of the gate. Even so, that should not have made it go wrong.'

Tiaan searched for a memory of that terrible day. She had a feeling there was something else, but it would not come. Had she blundered, condemning thousands to death in the void?

'I'll take a look at the port-all later,' said the Matah, shaking her head at some thought. 'The loss of First Clan is a cataclysm for Vithis and a blow to every clan, for all their rivalry. I fear what will come from it. Did he take the amplimet?'

'Vithis said it would have been corrupted by the gate, or by me. I think he was afraid of it.'

'He showed sense, in that at least,' said the Matah, her mouth down-curling. 'And then?'

'Vithis said, "We have a world to make our own," and they went out the side of the mountain.'

The Matah sat, thinking. 'Peril hangs over us and only I to stop it. I felt the ripples in the field, even before the mountain shook. I tried to ignore it. Ah, and I was so close. I was on my way.'

Eventually it was Nish who asked the question. 'Where were you going?'

'I was on my way to the Well.'

'The Well?' he echoed.

'The Well of life and rebirth. The Well of fate. I was going to The Well of Echoes.'

'You were going to kill yourself?' Nish said sneeringly. 'How pathetic!'

The Matah sprang up, looking, for all her age, rather sprightly. 'How dare you thrust your twisted values on me, old human! You are not even my species.'

Nish backed away.

Tiaan shivered, for it was freezing. The Matah placed a hand against the wall and the glass slid closed. 'Alas, I cannot go now. Neither can I be in three places at once.' She paced across the hemispherical chamber. 'How came you here?' She addressed the question to Tiaan.

'I walked from Itsipitsi,' Tiaan replied. 'Before that, I sailed by iceboat upriver from the sea.'

'And you, artificer?' said the Matah.

'By balloon,' he said proudly. 'All the way from the manufactory near Tiksi. And it was my idea.'

'Balloon?'

'A gasbag ten spans high, filled with hot air from a stove.'

'Do you still have it?'

'It lies on the slope of the mountain, directly below us.'

'Take it back to warn your people.'

'I sent a skeet the day before yesterday.'

'It may not get there. Hurry! This is urgent, artificer.'

'I can't find the way out.'

Taking a piece of paper from her pocket, the Matah sketched swiftly. 'This point, here, is the stair behind you.'

'First I have to gather fuel,' said Nish. 'There are no trees where the balloon is hidden, only bushes. And the winds -'

'I'm sure you'll find a way. After all, it was your idea. Go at once!'

He did not move. He was still looking for a way to get Tiaan away. 'But -'

'Begone!' roared the Matah, 'or you shall feel real power.' She swept her hands together and more of those golden bubbles quivered there.

Nish held his ground. He was brave enough, Tiaan thought grudgingly.

'Take food from the lower storerooms, should you require it,' said the Matah.

'I -'

'Now!' She hurled the bubbles at him.

One struck his cheek and a yellow blister swelled there. Nish cried out, dashed the bubble away and bolted down the stairs.

'And you?' the Matah said to Ullii. 'What will you do, little seeker?'

Ullii came to her. The Matah put her fingers around the small woman's head. A golden nimbus shimmered like a halo, lifting her colourless hair into drifting tendrils.

'Go, child,' said the Matah. 'Follow your mate, and beware.'

'Nish will never hurt me,' Ullii said serenely.

The Matah searched her face, then touched her on the shoulder. 'I pray that you are right, though I fear otherwise.'

Ullii went after Nish. The Matah turned back to Tiaan. 'What will you do with your life?'

'I ought to end it, to make up for all the evil I have done.'

'You know nothing about evil, Tiaan. I pray you never will.' The Matah held her gaze until Tiaan looked down.

Pressing her palm to the wall, the Matah went outside to stand at the edge of the platform. Tiaan followed, shuddering in the cold. Her bare toes began to ache. The mountain towered above them, for they were barely a third of the way up it. Ahead and to either side stood peaks and glaciers as far as the eye could see, and that was very far in the crystalline air. Below lay a vast ice sheet, breaking away into glaciers all along one side.

'It's lovely,' she sighed.

The Matah glanced at her. 'I never tire of it. I come here every day that the weather permits. But you are cold.' Taking the coat from her shoulders, she wrapped Tiaan in it.

Tiaan took it gratefully and shuffled to the edge, looking down on a sheer drop of at least a thousand spans. The great horn of Tirthrax hung directly above her. She had never been this high before, and her lungs strained at the thin air. 'It would be so easy,' she said aloud.

Tiaan expected the Matah to talk her out of it, but she sat on the stone seat, saying nothing. The eyes were penetrating, though Tiaan could read nothing in them.

'Do you not care if I live or die?' Tiaan asked, trying to provoke a reaction. Why had the Matah saved her from Nish, only to ignore her now?

'I care,' said the Matah, 'for I see you have much to offer. But if you really did plan to take your life, and I convinced you not to, you would do it as soon as my back was turned.' She stared at the ice cap. The wind whistled around the edge of the platform.

Tiaan regarded her blue, throbbing toes. Better get inside before she got frostbite. She was not going to end it after all.

'I have a great deal to put right.' Tiaan turned away from the edge.

'I hoped you would think that way,' said the Matah, 'since I foresee that you have a part to play in the coming war. Come in out of the cold.'

Tiaan made no reply, but as the glass closed and they headed down the stair, she was thinking: I will have my revenge on Minis and all his kind. I will bring them down if it takes the rest of my life. Her gaze settled on the grey head below her. The Matah was also Aachim. Must she destroy her as well?

The Matah waited for her at the bottom. 'Anything else you'd like to tell me, Tiaan?'

Tiaan flushed. 'No,' she said softly. 'I don't know what's going on. Why do folk do the things they do?'

'Because they must.'

'I've never been able to understand people. Machines are so much easier, and more reliable.'

'That would appear to be your problem.'