Alchymist Read Online Free Page B

me a valid instruction,' the perquisitor said stiffly,
then, thawing a little, 'Besides, I am incurably identified with Xervish Flydd.
If he falls, so must I.'
    'You
could change allegiances,' Irisis said slyly, to see how Fyn-Mah would respond.
    'Change
once and you are forever tainted, your word worthless. I have sworn to my
scrutator and will not break my oath, whatever it costs me.'
    'There
are many who would not be so noble.' She spoke without thinking.
    'I'll
watch my back.' Fyn-Mah said icily. Especially when you're behind me, was the
implication.
    Irisis
had not meant her words the way they were taken, but it was too late to
withdraw them.
    The
wall of Snizort was four spans high and equally thick, topped with thorn bushes
scarred here and there by fire, and torn and smashed by catapult balls. The
wall had been breached in five places and was unmanned.
    They
cruised along inside. The breaches, and the smashed gate, were piled with the
bodies of the dead, lyrinx and human. Other dead were scattered across the
enclosed space. Irisis saw no sign of live enemy, though from a high point she
could see columns of lyrinx streaming away to the south-west in the direction
of the Sea of Thurkad. Their withdrawal had been astonishingly swift.
    Smoke
issued from a tarry bog and several of the pits, which would make access to the
underground city difficult. The ground above the node-drainer, which had risen
up in a red-hot dome just before the node exploded, was now a fractured, fuming
hole. Further off, though still inside the walls, the Great Seep formed a
bottomless cauldron of tar about a league across. The source of the tar at
Snizort, it was steaming gently. The exploded node lay some leagues to the
north, and underground, but it was too smoky to see that far.
    The
sun touched the western horizon. Irisis looked the other way, back towards the
command hill. The scrutators must be inside the tent, with Flydd. She turned
towards Snizort again. 'There can't be any creature left alive underground,'
she muttered. 'The whole place is on fire.'
    'That's
where you're wrong.' Fyn-Mah replied. "Tar burns hot, but it burns slowly.
Most of the city will yet be untouched. Let's go.'
    'In
there? We'll choke before we've gone a dozen spans.'
    'The
fire draws air to it. Away from the burning core, the air should be fresh. Our
orders are to get inside, if we can, and recover any of the flesh-formed
creatures left alive.'
    'We
may get in,' said Irisis, 'though I doubt we'll ever get out again.' She said
it fatalistically. Having expected to die for so long now, in so many hideous
ways, she was no longer moved by the thought of danger. She indicated the
largest pit. 'That's where the scrutator and I entered last time. Though .., we
had the seeker to find the way for us.'
    Irisis
wished Ullii were here now. Objects powered by the Secret Art appeared in the
little seeker's mental lattice, which was how they'd located the node-drainer.
Ullii could also see people with a talent for the Art, and most lyrinx. If she
were here now, they would be able to avoid any enemy who remained inside, and
quickly find the flesh-formed creatures that were their target. But Ullii had
disappeared.
    'Go
down into that pit, Pilot Inouye,' said Fyn-Mah, pointing towards the largest,
which contained only a haze of smoke. 'Soldiers, ready your weapons.'
    Inouye's
green eyes widened, but she nodded stiffly. The air-floater drifted towards the
pit, just a spear-cast above the ground. The soldiers pointed their crossbows
over the side while Irisis scanned the black, lifeless terrain. Nothing moved;
with luck, all the lyrinx were gone.
    They
floated over the pit, a conical excavation in tar-saturated sandstone, with a
ledge path spiralling down. Inouye vented floater gas. The air-floater lurched,
steadied and began to descend through a rising trail of smoke.
    'Where
do we go from here?' asked Fyn-Mah, at her elbow.
    Irisis
did not answer at once. The black rock was featureless