'Then you shouldn't have told me about it in your cups,' she retorted.

'Well, Flydd?' said Yggur.

Flydd shook his head. 'I cannot speak of the secrets of the scrutators, surr, even to you. I am sworn and do not lightly break my oath.'

'I don't break sworn word for any reason,' Yggur said scornfully. 'I won't trouble your conscience further, for I can see it a fragile thing it is. Come down, Artisan. Have you given your sworn word to say nothing? Your sacred oath?'

'I said I wouldn't tell,' she said weakly.

'Oath or no oath?'

'No oath.'

'Then, since you boast about how well you know the Tale of the Mirror, and my part in it, you know that you will tell me.

Not even your scrutator can resist me, though I won't force him to break his oath to his corrupt masters.'

Flydd stood staring at her, gnarled hands by his sides. Just give the word, she thought, and I'll resist him with all the strength in my body. But Flydd said nothing. Perhaps he wanted her to reveal what he could not.

'The only thing I know,' said Irisis, 'and that was mentioned several times in .., extremis . . '.

'An excess of wine!' said Yggur. 'What price your oath now, Scrutator? Two cups? Three?'

'. . , it was a reference to the Numinator,' Irisis finished.

'The Numinator?' Yggur said, puzzled.

'The person who gives the scrutators their orders, surr. The one for whom they have shaped our world.'

'Ahh!' He let his breath out. 'I've often wondered how such a collection of fools and incompetents came to gain such power; and how they maintained it for so long. Who is this Numinator?'

'That's all I know, surr,' said Irisis.

'It's enough. You've bought your master a refuge.'

'No man is my master,' said Irisis.

'Whatever you say. Well, Flydd, you may stay for a few days. We'll speak more about these matters tonight. Are you happy, now that you've gained what you wanted?'

'Time will tell if it was worth the price,' said Flydd.

Forty-six.

Ghorr's air-floater carried Ullii back to the main camp. She did not say a word the whole way - she was overcome by a crawling horror of him and the scrutators, and her own folly. They'd trapped her with the bracelet and now controlled her utterly.

Ullii tried to retreat to her inner refuge by cutting off all her senses, as she'd often done in the past, but Ghorr just dragged her out again. She could find no comfort in her lattice, either, for it seemed to be fading. What had once been brilliantly clear was hardly there, and when she tried to make the lattice anew, her mind's eye was empty. It was one blow too many. She collapsed and lay on her sickbed for a week, raving with a brain fever.

As soon as she began to recover, Ghorr dragged her out of bed. Flydd and Nish had disappeared and she had to find them. Ullii looked for her lattice and it was back, though not as strong or clear as before. For days she sought in vain; Flydd was beyond its reach.

The search went on and, many troubled days later, high in the air-floater, she detected a faint trace of him at the battlefield of Gumby Marth. By the time Ghorr had assembled a force strong enough to brave that lyrinx-infested place, Flydd was gone again. Subsequently the news came that his ship had been lost and Flydd drowned. Ghorr refused to believe it and ordered a search of the entire Karama Malama, by ship and air-floater.

Three air-floaters, and a fleet of commandeered ships, criss-crossed the Sea of Mists for days until she found him again, but before Flydd could be taken he was rescued by a stolen air-floater in which Ullii recognised the knots of FynMah and Irisis. They flew out of range and, though Ullii lost the individuals, she was able to track the air-floater's crystals into Meldorin before they vanished yet again.

Ghorr held a furious conference with his fellow scrutators before heading to Lybing, the capital of wealthy Borgistry, in his remaining air-floater. There a number of the scrutators disembarked to continue prosecuting the western war. Ghorr's air-floater took to the air again, heading north across the Great Chain of Lakes, then east past the Ramparts of Tacnah, forbidding gateway to the Great Mountains. The country began to make distinctive patterns in Ullii's lattice, for they were reversing the route by which she'd come west with Flydd and Irisis last spring. Dread grew in her as she recognised their destination. They were heading for the scrutators' hidden bastion of Nennifer, between the Great Mountains and the arid depressions that lay to the north.

Nennifer, the most frightening place in all Lauralin, appeared before them. It lay on a narrow rim of plateau with the mountains rearing up, thousands of spans high, to the east, west and south. The northern side of Nennifer was truncated by a monumental cliff, a thousand spans high, at the base of which lay an oval of sunken land, the Desolation Sink, as desiccated and lifeless as the Dry Sea itself.

'Why are we going to Nennifer?' she whispered. The very stones it was built from were imbued with the odour of the scrutators, and it was full of wicked, cruel people.

Ghorr gave his vulpine, snaggle-toothed smile. 'I have plans.'

'Nish and Flydd are gone,' said Ullii. She no longer knew what to do about them.

"They killed your brother and must be punished. You'll find them, Ullii, and we'll do the rest. Nennifer is where we design the weapons of tomorrow. Two hundred and twenty-three mancers work night and day, utterly devoted to inventing new devices of terror. Four hundred and seventy artisans make controllers for these weapons, and find ways to draw on the fields ever more efficiently. A thousand artificers, and three thousand smiths and other workers, build and test these devices. Five hundred and thirty-five draughters create the plans and patterns that will be used by our manufactories, across the breadth of Santhenar, to make innumerable copies. We have made many breakthroughs since you left us so .., precipitously.' Ghorr chuckled at his meagre wit. Ullii and Irisis had escaped through a tunnel that discharged over the precipice into the Desolation Sink.

'Our workers are already designing the mighty craft that will take us back to Meldorin,' he went on, 'in a force so powerful that the lyrinx will flee in terror. Then you will find our enemies again, Ullii, wherever they've hidden. We'll take them with overwhelming force and destroy this burr in my side for good.

'In the meantime,' he continued, 'there's another way for you to help me.'

They were alone in his room. Ullii felt trapped in every possible way. Why had she listened to the voices? Why had she imagined she could use this monster to gain her revenge? She was not strong or clever, but weak and insignificant. All she'd done was put herself back in prison, and this time she had no friends to take care of her.

'Yes?' she whispered, for even had she the strongest will in the world, the bracelet on her wrist would not allow her to say no.

'Tell me how you magicked Irisis out of her cell last spring, without opening the lock or setting off my alarm. And how you translated Flydd's air-floater, in an instant, from a thousand spans above Nennifer to the end of the tunnel where you and Irisis were hiding.'

That had been her own precious little secret that not even Flydd had understood. Her lattice was her own creation, the world she retreated to when the physical world failed her. It was the one place no one else could go. Was even that to be taken from her?

Don't know!' she said mulishly, keeping her eyes firmly on the floor.

His hand went under her chin, jerking her upright. He looked like a mature, handsome man but up close his skin was shiny and pinkly smooth, like baby skin on top of scar tissue. The feel of it, the softness clinging to those underlying ropy ridges of flesh, made her shudder with disgust. He tried to appear in his prime but Ullii's lattice told her what lay beneath the surface. He was old and rotten inside.

'Don't play games, Ullii. Do you want me as a friend, or as an enemy? It would not be wise to incur my enmity.'

She had often had this nightmare, after the first visit to Nennifer, and still she'd given herself up to Ghorr. Why, why had she put on the bracelet? Why hadn't she tested it first? Because it had been so cunningly designed to trap her that it did not even show in her lattice. The scrutators were too clever for her, as they had been too clever for Mylii.

'I have cunning mancers here, Seeker,' he resumed when she did not reply. 'Men and women who know how the mind works, even a mind as special as yours. And they know how to break it! They can go deep into your mind, Ullii. They can learn everything about you. They can make lattices of their own - or take yours from you.'

'Make another one' she muttered, trying to look away. Though she tried to deny it, her greatest fear was losing her precious lattice and being unable to make another.

'They won't let you. So, Ullii, are you going to tell me how you managed it? How did you free Irisis?'

If she told him, surely he would leave her alone. 'I held the magicked lock in place and turned the lattice around it,' she said simply.

He stared at her. 'That's nonsense.' But, after chewing over it for a minute, he reconsidered. 'You turned the lattice? Did you translate the air-floater the same way?'

'No. I just moved its knot, and Xervish's, in my lattice.'

'Astounding! If I hadn't seen it happen I would not have believed it. You can't tell me any more, can you? You simply don't know what you did. But I'll have the secret out of you, and then there won't be anything I can't do.'

His eyes dissected her, then he swept out. And Ullii knew he would get the secret out of her, if he had to take her apart to do so. He was the most evil man in the world. Worse than Flydd, worse than Nish. And she was going to find them for him, so he could destroy them. She could not do otherwise -there was no way she could fight Ghorr.

And once she did find them, it would be her turn to suffer.

Forty-seven.

Dirty, ragged and weary to the point of exhaustion, Tiaan approached the hidden city of Tirthrax. Three weeks had passed since her escape from the Aachim nets on the shore of the Sea of Thurkad. She had no idea why she'd come back, only that there had been nowhere else to go. But surely, after the crimes she'd committed, Malien would turn her over to the Aachim. Vithis could be here already.

She was so overcome by guilt that Tiaan gave only passing thought to her reason for fleeing Tirthrax previously - the amplimet's communication with the great node here, and the thawing of the perilous Well of Echoes, which had been frozen in place long ago. Despite her fears, the amplimet had given her no trouble on her long journey. It was hardly glowing now, and did not change as she neared Tirthrax. She wondered if it wanted to come back. Or if she'd exhausted it.

It was a hard climb up the slopes of the mountain, and many times Tiaan thought she would have to complete it on foot, for the construct was now a battered, limping thing. Each morning, when she unlocked the hatch and set off again, it was slower and more erratic. There was any amount of power this close to Tirthrax, far more than the amplimet could draw, but the construct could no longer use it.

Yet, despite everything, she'd made it. She crept up the ragged track, carved out by the great glacier, to the lip of the broken hole in the side of the mountain. It looked the same as when she'd left here at the beginning of spring. Tiaan stopped outside. Tirthrax was a place of bitter memories. Here, little Haani had died and her body had been sent to the Well. Here, Tiaan had made the fateful gate. Here. Minis had rejected her.

That's all in the past, she told herself. Go on. She inched the construct up and over the top. The vast cavern, just part of one level of the grand city, yawned before her. Tiaan stopped abruptly.

Malien stood in the middle of that open space, arms folded across her chest, watching her with those cool green eyes. Though an old woman, Malien was as strong as anyone Tiaan had ever met. She was kindly by nature, yet could be hard as Stone when she had to be. How would Malien treat her now?

'I've been expecting you,' Malien said evenly. 'Take the construct down to the very end of this level and leave it there.'

Tiaan did so. Whatever Malien ordered, she would do. Whatever punishment Malien imposed, she would suffer it without complaint, though it could not make up for the harm she'd done Minis, or Malien's own Clan Elienor.

She stopped near a spiralling staircase, withdrew the amplimet and climbed down. Her breath steamed in the frigid air and she felt a trifle light-headed. The city was high up and the air thin.

Malien indicated a small table to one side, set with a cloth, two plates, knives and forks. A round loaf, freshly baked, sat on a wooden carving board. A variety of meats, cheeses and preserved vegetables had been arranged on a platter. 'Sit down.'

Tiaan sat. Malien carved slices of bread, sprinkled them with golden oil from a glass jug, and handed the platter to Tiaan. She took two slices, Malien one. Tiaan selected a fragrant cheese. Malien poured wine into silver goblets, handing one to her. They ate.

'Why have you come back?' said Malien when Tiaan's plate was empty. Her voice was without expression. Tiaan could not tell if she was pleased, indifferent or enraged.

'I had nowhere else to go. And you said - you once said to call on you, if I needed help.' Tiaan's palms were sweaty.

Malien inclined her head in acknowledgment. She regarded Tiaan steadily. 'Your back is better, I see.'

'You heard about that?'

'Urien sent messengers here. They told me you'd broken it, though that doesn't seem to be the truth.'

She thinks I'm a liar. 'It was the truth. I broke my back when the amplimet made the thapter crash near Nyriandiol, but in Snizort the lyrinx flesh-formed it together' Tiaan shivered at that memory.

'Why would they do that?' Malien asked.

'They were using me in a patterner, to pattern a great torgnadr, or node-drainer. My affliction hindered the patterning, so they fixed it.'

'I see.'

'You can look if you like,' Tiaan said hastily. 'The scars are still there.'

'I can tell truth from lies, Tiaan. How is it now?'

'It still troubles me, especially at the end of a long day.'

'But better than the alternative, I dare say,' Malien said with a wintry smile.

Tiaan did not need to reply. She would never forget those months of paralysed helplessness in Nyriandiol and Snizort. 'You look different, Malien.'

'How so?'

'Not so - younger,' she corrected hastily. 'There seems a little more red in your hair, and your face isn't as lined .. .'

Malien picked up the metal platter, brushed away the crumbs and examined her face in it. 'I was just serving out my time when you first came here, but I have a purpose now. That can rejuvenate us, for a little while.'

'What purpose?' Tiaan said curiously.

'Keeping you out of trouble, for one thing.' Malien changed the subject. 'You escaped from Vithis?'

'I had no choice. When Urien's messengers returned from speaking to you, he would have had me killed.'

Malien laid down her slice of bread. 'Why do you think that?'

'To prevent me telling anyone else about the secret of flight 'But he doesn't have the secret. No one knows, save you and me.'

Tiaan's mouth fell open, 'But surely . . .? You did not tell them?'

'Why should I?' 'They are Aachim.'

'We were sundered from them thousands of years ago, and no matter how we may yearn to go back, Santhenar is our home now. We are our own people, Tiaan. We broke the clans in ages past and will never return to that futile struggle for supremacy. Besides, our Histories tell us to beware of Inthis First Clan, and especially of men like Vithis. He sounds too much like Tensor, and Pitlis before him, for my liking. Both were great men, but also great in folly that brought ruin upon kind. I would never put such a treasure into his hands.' 'He may be on his way here now. I... I hurt Minis during my escape - I may have killed him. I dared not stop to find out. And others certainly died. And then . . .' Tiaan felt so ashamed that she could not meet Malien's eye. She'd taken the easy way out and regretted every moment since. 'Yes?' Malien said mildly.

'The people of Clan Elienor were good to me while I was under their guard. And I escaped, knowing they would be punished severely.'

'Was your parole asked for, or given?' 'No.'

'Then your conscience is clear. Indeed, after they get over their initial dismay, Clan Elienor may feel a certain admiration for you, for outwitting them.' 'But Minis . . .'

Malien sighed. 'Disaster follows you everywhere you go, and that's something I must think about. You'd better tell me about it. Start from the day you left here.' That took all afternoon, several pots of tea, another meal and, late that night, a tot or two of liqueur from Malien's private stock. At the end of it, she said, 'For such a gentle young woman, you certainly have a talent for mayhem.' 'If Vithis had not held me against my will ... If he hadn't been planning to-'

You don't need to explain.' Malien leaned back, pressing her fingers against her lips.