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

it must lie above the tree line. It can’t be more than a few hours down the slope, and a gasbag ten spans high will be visible from a long way. We’ll find him.’
    They rested every half-hour. The downhill walking was unexpectedly tiring. On their second stop, as Tiaan was sipping from her flask, there came a monumental crash that shook the rock beneath her. She dropped the flask and scrambled for it as the water gurgled out.
    ‘What was that?’ The start of an avalanche, she imagined.
    ‘Icefall,’ said Malien. ‘The glacier runs over a precipice. See, just there. Every so often, the overhanging ice breaks off and falls a thousand spans to the plain.’
    They continued, more warily now, though the jumbled rocks here provided plenty of cover. Shortly Malien stopped. ‘Ah, this is hard on my old knees. Creep up onto that rock, Tiaan, and see if you can see anything.’
    As Tiaan put her head over the top she saw a black, swelling mushroom, not a third of a league below. ‘It’s just down there,’ she hissed.
    Malien climbed up beside her. ‘Ingenious design.’ She shaded her eyes as she stared at the balloon. ‘It looks nearly inflated. We’d better hurry.’
    They had not gone far when Tiaan felt a pang in her right temple, a stabbing pain that disappeared as quickly as it had come. She let out a gasp.
    Malien stopped at once. ‘What’s the matter?’
    ‘Just a headache. It’s gone now.’
    ‘Take some more water,’ Malien advised.
    Tiaan took another few sips, though she knew dehydration was not the problem. The pang reminded her of something she had put out of mind a long time ago and did not want to think of now.
    A little further on, Malien crouched down between the boulders. ‘I don’t like this,’ she muttered.
    ‘What is it?’
    ‘We’re being watched.’
    Tiaan scanned the sky. ‘I can’t see a thing.’
    ‘I can. Come, quickly! There are three of them, and since they’re flying …’ Malien pointed high in the western sky, where Tiaan now discerned a speck, and then two more.
    ‘Lyrinx!’

F IVE

    N ish slammed his way down the stairs, so angry that he dared not speak, lest he take out his frustrations on Ullii. One minute he had succeeded against all the odds and made up for his previous follies. The next he had lost and was good for nothing but to be sent to the front-lines in the hopeless war against the lyrinx. Nish was a proud and ambitious young man who took failure hard.
    At the bottom he waited for Ullii. The little seeker moved confidently, despite the mask. Nish never ceased to marvel at her agility. It would be easy to fall off, which would be fatal, but she made not a single misstep.
    ‘You are sad, Nish,’ she said as she reached the floor, not even out of breath.
    Another wonder: how someone who took no exercise could be fitter than he. Nish’s heart was still pounding. ‘What am I going to say to the scrutator, Ullii? He’ll have my head for this.’
    ‘No one could fight the Matah, Nish.’
    Ullii could see the Secret Art in all its forms, as knots in a lattice she created in her mind. It was her special talent, one that made her worth a thousand of him. ‘You were very friendly to her,’ he said harshly, and immediately regretted it. He moderated his tone. ‘What did you see, Ullii?’
    ‘Matah is old. She is wise and kind, but sad too. She has lost a whole world.’
    That was food for thought, though not what he was looking for. ‘What kind of knot does she have, Ullii? Is she a powerful mancer?’
    ‘Matah is very strong, but she did not use her strength against you. Be careful, Nish.’
    ‘Ha!’ He headed down the next set of stairs, which were made of alabaster. Nish was no coward, but he knew which battles to fight and which to keep away from.
    At the bottom of the next set of stairs, as Nish was consulting his map, Ullii said, ‘I can see Tiaan’s crystal.’
    He dropped the map, just managing to catch it before it fluttered through the hole to