‘It’s rushing out of a fissure in the cliff and freezing as it falls.’
‘Funny we didn’t hear it before,’ said Nish. The ground gave the faintest tremor. ‘Did you feel that?’
‘Earth tremblers are common here,’ said Klarm.
Again they heard that brittle crunching, though this time it was like a clanker’s metal feet grinding across a field of crystals and crumbling them to shards. There came a drawn-out, subterranean rumbling and the ground shook hard enough to toss Irisis off her feet.
‘We’re not finished yet,’ said Flydd, standing up and lurching back and forth with a maniacal glint in his eye.
‘What have we done?’ gasped Malien. ‘Yggur …?’ She looked around wildly.
‘He’s unconscious,’ said Flydd dismissively. ‘Overcome by aftersickness. He’ll be no further use tonight.’
‘The amplimet’s broken free,’ said Malien, climbing to her feet and bracing her back against the shed as the vibrations grew stronger. ‘We’ve got to stop it before it gets out of control.’
‘How can we, Malien?’ Turning away, Flydd gave a series of low-voiced orders to the troops and they readied for action.
‘You don’t understand. It’s … It’s …’
‘What?’ At the expression on her face he spun around and caught her by the lapels of her coat. ‘What is it?’
‘I … think it’s come to the second stage of awakening,’ she said, then her eyes rolled back in her head.
Flydd cursed and let her fall. ‘Two down.’
Nish was shocked by his callousness, even in this desperate situation. The Flydd he’d once known so well had been replaced by a ruthless stranger.
‘Second stage of awakening?’ said Klarm. ‘What’s she talking about, Flydd?’
‘I don’t think I want to know.’
There came a tearing screech, like metal being torn apart, followed by a low shudder that shook more fragments of roof slate onto their heads and shoulders. They moved down to the corner where the structure was still sound, and Nish peered across the mooring ground. The shuddering grew stronger; then, with a deafening roar, a boiling shaft of light the width of a room burst up through the roof of Nennifer. Coloured particles whirled around and up until the column faded against the bright moon. And then the whole world moved.
‘What the hell was that?’ said Flydd, picking himself up. The ground beneath their feet was still quivering.
‘I don’t know,’ said Klarm. The whites of his eyes were showing. ‘But I suggest we run for our lives.’
‘We’ll be seen,’ said Flydd.
The rings around the brilliant moon had given way to a gigantic moonbow. The ground shook again and parts of the moonbow disappeared as if washed away. The parade ground wrenched sideways, hurling them against the wall. Nish’s hand went straight through a crack, to his bemusement. He wrenched it out just before the crack snapped closed, losing the skin along his right thumb. The soldier who’d been hit on the head got up, shakily.
‘Move!’ roared Flangers, hurling Nish out of the way. He picked up Malien and ran with her as the shed collapsed behind them.
Nish lay where he’d been thrown, unable to believe what he was seeing. A series of ground waves spiralled out from Nennifer, heaving solid paving stones in the air and shaking the tethered air-dreadnoughts like balloons in a storm. The first wave threw him up and backwards, and it was like being hit by a moving clanker. He’d just landed on his shoulder when the second wave tossed him head over heels. Falling head-down, he saw the ground coming up and threw out his arms to break his fall, but it dropped away again.
‘Run!’ Flydd heaved Nish to his feet. Irisis had taken Malien from Flangers, who was struggling to lift Yggur.
‘Which way?’ Nish gasped.
‘Towards Nennifer, you bloody fool. This is our chance.’
But they’ll see us! Nish thought. He watched them go, thinking they’d lost their minds, until another shock knocked him down and the outer edge of the parade ground began to tilt beneath his feet. And then he ran until his heart was bursting. Ahead, a knife-edged crack appeared, curving out from the centre of Nennifer. The inner side rose and the outer fell, leaving a cliff a third of a span high. Irisis pushed Malien up it, then went over in one great bound, her bright hair flying in the moonlight. Flydd scrambled over, followed by several of the soldiers. Nish made a last effort and smelt a whiff of brimstone as he sprang.
The crack opened visibly beneath him and clouds of misty dust boiled out. The groaning in the depths