Tetrarch (Well of Echoes) by Ian Irvine Read Free Book Online

to identify with those girlish longings now.
    Picking it up, Tiaan drew back her arm to hurl it out onto the glacier, but stopped in mid-throw. ‘I will use it against him,’ she said aloud. ‘I will see him beg for it, then spurn him the way he did me.’
    Putting the ring on the chain about her neck, she gathered up the platinum. It might also be useful in her quest to bring the Aachim down. After some minutes she reached the place where the gate had opened. The stone floor was scorched and the three constructs that had locked together in the gate were nearby. One lay on its side, its skin of shining blue-black metal crushed. The second was upside down. The third sat on its base but the front was smashed in.
    A little thread of curiosity tugged at her. How did the constructs work? Were they like clankers, or completely different? Tiaan wondered if they might be repaired. She walked around the machines but kept going. The call of the amplimet was stronger.
    She continued to the room where she had assembled the port-all. Scattered mounds of rubble had been blasted out of the wall as the gate formed. Tiaan expected to find the port-all a slaggy heap of metal and glass but it looked exactly as she had built it.
    Memories of using the port-all, and opening the gate, stirred her hackles. Why, when she had built it exactly as shown, had it gone so wrong? She ran through the memories. Could it have been the wrong-handedness of it? She tried to reconstruct her recollections but again something eluded her.
    As she hurried forward, longing for the amplimet etched molten tracks across her heart. She ran around the side of the machine, trying to see through the network of glass, metal, wire, ceramic and shaped stone. She was looking for the soapstone basket that held the amplimet. There it was, inside that deformed doughnut of glass that Haani had called the twisticon.
    With trembling fingers Tiaan reached out to open the basket, already seeing the amplimet in her mind’s eye. It was a bipyramid of quartz, inside either end of which were radiating balls of needle crystals. Single, extended needles ran down the long axis of the crystal, separated by a little central bubble half-filled with liquid. Most unusual of all, the crystal had glowed, faintly when it was a long way from a node, strongly when close. Here in Tirthrax, radiance had positively flooded out of it.
    There was no resistance this time. Her fingers went straight to the catch. She flicked it and the soapstone basket sprang open.
    Tiaan let out a cry of anguish.
    The amplimet was gone.
    Malien!
Earlier, the Matah had not been able to control her desire for it. She must have come for it in the night. A pang of rage twisted Tiaan’s insides. Despite her vow, she could not bear anyone else to have it. Joeyn had died getting it for her.
    Malien was not in her chamber. Tiaan searched her rooms but the amplimet was not there. Sinking on the bed, she put her throbbing head in her hands. Malien might have hidden it anywhere.
    She became aware that Malien was standing in the doorway, staring at the mess. Tiaan felt an irrational surge of rage. Keep calm; don’t give yourself away. All in vain. She threw herself at the older woman, beating at her with her fists. ‘What have you done with it?’
    Malien held her easily. Aachim were strong, even old ones. ‘What is the matter, Tiaan?’
    ‘The amplimet is gone!’
    Malien turned and ran.
    ‘Where are you going?’ Tiaan ran after her. The old woman was moving faster than Tiaan’s weary legs could run. ‘Wait.’
    Malien allowed her to catch up. ‘
I
haven’t taken it, which can only mean one thing.’
    Nish, of course. Tiaan felt such a fool.
    ‘I should never have left it there,’ said Malien. ‘What if it falls into the wrong hands?’
    ‘What do you mean by the
wrong hands
?’ Tiaan panted.
    ‘Any hands but yours.’
    ‘Or
yours
?’
    ‘Even when I was young, I never wanted power. Besides