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a low voice. 'I'm to assist you to the limit of my ability,'
he said, which was no help at all.
    Fyn-Mah
kept to the centre of the gully, where the cover was densest, and after ten
minutes they reached the foot of the hill. One of the air-floaters was tethered
only a stone's throw away. She headed for it.
    'Act
as if we own it; Fyn-Mah said over her shoulder. They emerged from the scrub
directly behind the machine. Fyn-Mah stood up and rapped on the side. The
vessel suspended from the airbag was about eight spans long and three wide,
shaped like a round-ended boat, but flimsy, being made from stretched rope,
canvas and light framing timbers. The deck was canvas, the sides just rope
netting that served to stop people from falling overboard, while a central
cabin about four spans by two provided shelter, sleeping space and a tiny
separate galley. It was also made of canvas framed with timber, with a light
timber door suspended on leather hinges.
    The
air-floater was a different design to the one Flydd had brought from the east.
A ten-bladed rotor, shielded at the front by a wire grid, was mounted on a
stanchion at the stern of the craft. The rotor could be swung on a steering
arm, making the big machine quite manoeuvrable. The controller was fixed to the
steering arm. Above the rotor, mounted on a bracket, sat a complex mechanism in
a metal housing, with a small water barrel on top. A pipe ran from the
mechanism up to the airbag, and another out to the rear. It appeared to be a
device to create floater gas, which, Irisis thought, was a considerable
improvement on having to fly all the way to a suitable mine to replenish it.
    A
soldier, lounging against the rail, let out a squawk. He leapt for his spear,
let it fall when he saw the perquisitor's badge, and snapped to attention.
    Fyn-Mah
climbed through the rope mesh and nodded to the captain of the guard. Irisis
and Flangers followed. There were ten soldiers on board, counting the captain
of the guard.
    'We're
going to take a look inside the wall of Snizort,' Fyn-Mah said. 'What's your
name, Pilot?'
    The
pilot was a young woman with hair the bright yellow of a daffodil, freckles all
over her thin face, and a charming gap between her front teeth. She was small
and slender; all pilots were, for the weight mattered.
    'Inouye,
surr' The pilot bowed her head, unwilling to look the perquisitor in the face,
but cast a pleading glance sideways at the captain of the guard. A young man
with sunburnt cheeks and a thin, pointed nose, he would not look at Fyn-Mah
either but inflated his cheeks and frowned. He did not want to deny a perquisitor,
but he answered to another master. 'We're ordered to wait here,' he said,
studying the canvas floor.
    'By
whom?'
    'Acting
Scrutator Jal-Nish Hlar. This is his air-floater.'
    'My
orders come from Scrutator Xervish Flydd, the com-mander-in-chief of all the forces
here.' Fyn-Mah showed him a parchment which contained the scrutator's seal.
    The
captain gulped, nodded and gave the word to the pilot. Inouye slipped an open
helm of crystals and wires over her head, took hold of the controller and
screwed up her face as she sought for a distant, usable field. The rotor began
to spin. The soldiers cast off the tethers and the air-floater rose out of the
grass.
    'Stay
low,' said Fyn-Mah, checking an instrument concealed in her hand. 'Head that
way, keeping just above the enemy's catapult height.' She held out her arm,
directing the pilot.
    The
air-floater rotored gently towards the northern wall of Snizort, crossing over
a number of smaller tar seeps where the hard resource had been mined down in
benched cones, then a valley that had once been full of the same material. Now
only black patches remained, some still smoking, for the lyrinx had fired the
tar runs at the beginning of the battle. They saw no sign of the enemy.
    'You're
taking a risk, aren't you?' Irisis said quietly to Fyn-Mah. They were standing
up the front by themselves.
    'The
scrutator has given