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.They saw no lyrinx about, which surely meant that this city had also been abandoned.Tiaan landed the thapter so that Irisis and Nish could inspect the bodies, then took them up to one of the entrances, as they wanted to check inside.She did not.She sat at the very brink, looking down at the fuming corpses.Many of them were children and infants.Very many.How could peace ever be made between humans and lyrinx, after this?But there had to be a way.Tiaan could not bear to think of the war going on in ever-increasing violence and depravity until the world had been utterly laid waste.One side would be annihilated and the other ruined by the legacy of its own viciousness and moral corruption, as it tried to justify more and worse depravities in the cause of victory.How could humanity - should it prove the victor - ever recover from such bloody Histories? It would taint every child born in this world, for as long as the Histories endured.I can't be a party to it any longer, she thought.I must find a solution, whatever it costs me.Nish and Irisis came out, pale and silent.They did not speak about what they'd found inside, though Tiaan could only assume it had been more dead, twisted in their last agonies.Neither did she mention to them her resolve - let Flydd get word of it and she'd be deprived of thapter and amplimet, and probably locked up for the duration.Her quest would have to be silent and secret.She could not afford to trust even her new-found friends.'We'd better report to Flydd,' said Irisis.'You do it,' said Tiaan.'I'm not in the mood.'Irisis nodded.'I think I know how you feel.'I doubt that you do, thought Tiaan, handing her the slave farspeaker.'Let's go; I can't bear the smell any longer.''We can't tell how many there were,' Irisis said over the farspeaker once they were almost to Thurkad.It had taken ages to contact Flydd.'Though.' She squinted into the distance.'What is it?' said Flydd, his voice echoing.'I can see clouds of lyrinx in the distance, flying over the sea towards Meldorin.There must be ten thousand fliers; or more.''And I dare say there's more that you can't see,' he said heavily.'I dare say.And the harbour of Thurkad is full of boats, thousands of them.The enemy must have had them stored under cover.Some are already moving out.They'll all be across the sea in a few days.''I suppose we could pray for a storm.''I've never seen the sea calmer,' said Irisis.'What's happening on the east coast?''The same,' said Flydd.'Our estimates were low at each city.Their numbers are at least a third higher than we'd thought.''A third!' cried Nish, staring into the farspeaker.'But that means.''I'd hoped we'd infect most of them, and wipe them out as a threat, but a few thousand dead is nothing.'Tiaan was even more shocked than when she'd looked at the twisted corpses.'It seemed a lot to me,' she said quietly.'Tiaan, each of our armies is outnumbered by an enemy that doesn't need to outnumber us, and they've nowhere to go.They'll all go to war against us.We gambled and we've lost.''Can't you use the spores again?' said Nish.'They're all gone.''What do you want us to do?' said Irisis.'Do whatever you want,' Flydd said despairingly.'You have my permission to save yourselves any way you can.''What would be the point?' said Nish.He looked questioningly as Tiaan, who was staring straight ahead, her jaw clenched, and gave no response.Irisis nodded.'We're coming home to fight,' Nish added.F IFTY-SEVENGilhaelith had been working with Ryll for months before, in late summer, they made the breakthrough.The lyrinx watched him so carefully, and constrained his every movement so tightly, that he could not have lifted a finger without being noticed.On the first few occasions he was watched over by Great Anabyng himself, whom Gilhaelith knew to be a mancer of surpassing power.Gilhaelith was meekness personified, doing nothing without asking permission first.He would be patient.The lyrinx couldn't afford to waste Anabyng's talents on guard duties for long.Sure enough, after several sessions Anabyng came no more, being replaced by a pair of lesser but still powerful mancers who never took their eyes off him.Gilhaelith kept up the pretence of total acquiescence.In fact they constrained him so tightly, out of fear, that he was almost useless to Ryll.Gilhaelith was happy to go along with that.Sooner or later they would have to give him more freedom, and he would use it to get what he wanted.In the meantime he kept his head down and let his resentment burn.He, a master geomancer, had been reduced to begging for the right to use his geomantic globe, just to save his life.Gyrull had not deigned to reply to his pleas, which made him bitter indeed.Once he got hold of the globe, she would pay.He'd rehearsed his plan so many times that even his reluctant, damaged brain had it down perfectly.Eventually they had given him a little freedom - enough for Ryll to discover what he needed to complete the flisnadr, yet not enough for Gilhaelith to take control of his globe.And the instant Ryll had it, the guards had taken Gilhaelith straight back to his watermelon-shaped stone cell and locked him in.This time Gilhaelith knew he was doomed.The damage caused by the phantom crystals was close to irreparable now, and in a month or two it would be.A few months after that, if he was still alive, he would be little better than a vegetable.And he probably would live that long.They would keep him alive until the flisnadr had been tested and was ready for use, just in case.But as soon as it was ready, he would go to the slaughtering pens.Apart from any other considerations, he knew too much about the power patterner to be allowed to live
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