Alchymist by Ian Irvine Read Free Book Online Page B

almost as if it had grown stronger since the node
exploded, or more wakeful and watchful. She did not like the feeling. Fighting
down panic, Tiaan sought for a field and, at the very limit of her senses,
detected a faint aura.
    So
far from the node that generated it, the field was tenuous, weak, fragile. She
drew power into the controller. One leg twitched feebly but the walker did not
move.
    Dismayed,
Tiaan made another attempt. That was better; she actually got one leg to take a
step, though a wobbly, lurching one. She took another. Better still — she was
remembering how to manage it.
    Ahead,
through cracks in the tunnel wall, the flames roared as if pumped by a distant
bellows. They died away for the count of nineteen before roaring forth again.
If she misjudged the timing, or went too slowly, she would be roasted alive.
    Creeping
as close as she could get, Tiaan waited for the next exhalation. It was
sweltering here. She put her hand over the amplimet to protect it. The cracks
flamed, then died to wisps. Now! She lurched the walker forwards and they
flamed again, right at the controller. The impulse to jerk her hand away was
overwhelming. She fought it, enduring the pain as she tried to make the machine
go backwards. It shuddered but did not move.
    The
flames stopped. She tried to move forwards but that did not work either.
Blisters were rising on the back of her hand. 'Move!' she screamed. The walker
gave only a spastic twitch. Its front feet were stuck in tar which had softened
in the heat.
    Hot
tar ribboned onto her shoulders. She bent the four legs as far as they would
go, then straightened them all at the same time. Three legs pulled free, the
other did not, and the machine began to topple. Tiaan threw her weight the
other way and managed to save it, though it left her directly in front of the
cracks. The next blast would burn her to a crisp. She could hear it coming, a
breathy roar.
    Flexing
the legs again, she gave a mighty heave. The stuck leg pulled free and the
walker shot forwards and up as the flames roared by. Tiaan felt the heat on her
backside.
    Further
on, she went down into a hollow where heavy black fumes had pooled on the
floor. As the walker crabbed through it lifted inky tendrils as high as her
head. Eyes stinging, she lurched down the corridor, having no idea where she was
going. Since the explosion, Tiaan could not remember Merryl's directions, and
most of the wall lamps had gone out. She just kept moving because she could not
remain where she was.
    Creeping
along, breathing through her sleeve, she thought she heard human voices coming
from one of the branching tunnels ahead. 'Hello!' she yelled.
    No
answer. She moved to the intersection. Definitely voices, from the middle
tunnel. She crept up through the gloom, turned a corner into a wider tunnel lit
by a single lantern on a pole, and stopped.
    Half
a dozen people had their backs to her, staring at something that she could not
make out. They looked like the human slaves the lynnx had kept here. The
walker's legs clacked and they turned, squinting into the dark. She moved forwards
and, with wild cries, they broke and ran. What was the matter? Tiaan realised,
belatedly, that she must have made a terrifying sight, half human and half
machine, and coated with droppings of tar.
    'Wait,'
someone yelled from around the corner. 'That's just Tiaan.'
    The
voice was familiar. 'Merryl?'
    He
appeared, carrying a lantern. She was so glad to see him. 'The tunnel's on
fire, Merryl. I couldn't get through.'
    'This
passage leads to an exit but there's a construct stuck in the tar and we can't
get past it.'
    'A
construct?' Tiaan edged forward curiously.
    He
caught her arm. 'Careful. The tar's sticky over there. I've sent people to pull
shelves out of a storeroom, to stand on. We may be able to climb over the top.'
    'Is
there anyone inside it?'
    'I
don't know.'
    The
construct, which was just like her own thapter, though only half the size, was
two-thirds buried in