Tiaan’s day journal reveals the development of an artisan of rare talent, unlike any in the sixty-seven manufactories in the south-east. Fortunately I have competent people reporting directly to me from your manufactory, though it took them a while to find out what had happened. This was no fit of crystal madness, idiot son of mine! It was brought on by tincture of calluna, a herb that causes hallucinations. Her bedclothes stank of it. Some traitor gave it to her, you thrice-cursed fool! Someone who cares only to see the enemy ruin us.

Clearly there is a conspiracy in this manufactory and I am coming personally to root it out. Everyone is under suspicion, particularly you and your friend Irisis. I have been told of threats you made against the artisan. Why, Cryl-Nish, why? As of this instant you are relieved of your position as prober and your whole future is at stake. I have instructed Gi-Had to punish you.

Immediately afterwards you will go to Tiksi, as assistant to Probationary Overseer Gi-Had. You will bring Tiaan back and ensure she is restored to health and to her position. I have ordered Querist Fyn-Mah to the manufactory. She will take charge of the investigation until I arrive. Make sure no evidence is tampered with or your head will swiftly leave your shoulders.

Do a good job and, if Tiaan recovers fully, you may in time be restored as prober. Fail, and you will be in the front-line as fast as you can be carried there. The scrutator has been informed and he is as displeased as I am.

Jal-Nish

Perquisitor

Nish’s shaking hand dropped the letter. As he bent to pick it up he caught Gi-Had’s eye. The overseer’s dark face had gone as pale as paper. Casting Nish a look of purest fury, he screamed, ‘Why did you do this, artificer? Guard!’ He threw himself out the door, bellowing so loudly that it shook the flimsy wall of his office.

A brace of guards came running, and more behind them. ‘Take this man to the whipping posts and strip him naked, ready for the lash. Bring everyone outside. The entire manufactory will watch!’

The guards dragged Nish away. The bellowing continued behind him. Gi-Had was a most frightened man. What had been in his letter?

Outside Nish was stripped and tied to the middle whipping post. Shortly he heard screams, scuffles, and a naked Irisis was bound to the post next to his. He cast her a furious glare. She stared him down. Her pale skin was covered in purple blotches, for it was well below freezing.

‘I curse the day I met you!’ he hissed.

She looked him up and down. ‘I can’t say that you were worth it either, little Nish!’

They stood there for an hour while the thousand people in the manufactory were assembled. Nish felt sure he had frostbite in his toes, which had lost all feeling. How could he have been such a fool? Irisis had been behind it the whole time. But why would she betray everything her life had stood for? It made no sense.

Finally Gi-Had appeared. ‘When my father hears of this …’ Nish blustered.

‘He ordered it!’ Gi-Had said savagely. Standing before the assembled workers, he read from the letter:

I, Perquisitor Jal-Nish Hlar, order Probationary Overseer Gi-Had to personally give twenty lashes to my incompetent son, Cryl-Nish, and to Artisan Irisis, for suspected complicity in the drugging of Artisan Tiaan and her banishment to the breeding factory, and for other crimes that I do not specify.

Tiaan will be restored to her position immediately. Once the investigation is completed, if their guilt is established, Cryl-Nish will go to the front-lines, Irisis to the breeding factory and …

He choked on the words.

Gi-Had will clean out the drainage pipes for what remains of his miserable life.

While waiting for the lash, Nish looked across at Irisis, who was still staring straight ahead. ‘My father is coming,’ he said out of the corner of his mouth. ‘What evidence is there against us?’

‘The word of one man,’ she said grimly.

‘Who, Irisis?’

Her lovely lips set in a hard line. ‘Even if I knew I wouldn’t tell you.’

‘Can he be blamed?’

‘Only if he’s dead!’ She bared those carnivore’s teeth.

The first lash fell on her creamy back. Irisis writhed, tossed back her head and opened her mouth, but let forth no scream. After that, as the knotted leather tore into his own back, Nish was in too much agony to notice. And agony it was, the humiliation even worse than the pain.

Gi-Had wielded the whip as if he was trying to flay them alive. Nish broke on stroke sixteen. He screamed, and again for each of the remainder, not to mention afterwards when a tar-boy painted the wounds with a bristle brush.

Only then did he realise what a strong woman Irisis was. She had bitten through her lip, her back was a bloody ruin that would be scarred for life, but she had not let out a whimper.

Nish watched, with a thrill of horror, the mixture of tar and blood dribbling down her backside. His own must be the same.

‘I can’t do anything!’ he gritted. ‘I’m bidden to Tiksi with Gi-Had.’

‘Just as well!’ she hissed back. Irisis stood up straight, thrusting out her chest, and at that moment he desired her more than he ever had.

Nish and Gi-Had left for Tiksi immediately, but after an hour were forced back by a blizzard so strong they were in danger of being blown off the path. By the time they struggled through the gates, four hours later, it was growing dark.

The manufactory was abuzz. Apothek Mul-Lym was dead, having committed suicide with an extract of tar. It had been a horrible death that left his lips and mouth blistered, and his corpse with a pungent phenolic reek. There were no witnesses. It was assumed that he was Tiaan’s poisoner, though many wondered why he had taken his life in such a painful way. His drug ledger was open at the next but last page. It showed a tiny vial of calluna to have been used, though no patient’s name had been entered.

A rumour spread that he’d been spurned by Tiaan, had poisoned her in revenge, and then, knowing the deed would be traced to him, had taken his own life. Gi-Had questioned Irisis and Nish closely but of course Nish knew nothing about it. If Irisis did, she gave not a hint of it under a six-hour interrogation, and no witness could place her anywhere near the scene of the crime. Finally Gi-Had dismissed her. The apothek’s death was the best solution for them all.

Nish ran into Irisis in the corridor in the middle of the night and asked her what had happened. ‘I know nothing about it,’ she said, and walked away.

Nish was more worried than ever. She must have murdered the man. Nish was in way over his head and sinking fast.

Querist Fyn-Mah had still not appeared when Gi-Had and Nish set out at dawn. Presumably she had also been delayed by the weather. The snow had stopped but the wind was scouring snow off the path as they hurried down the mountain.

They arrived in Tiksi with red, wind-blasted faces, reaching the breeding factory at midday. The door guard sneered when he caught sight of Nish, who trembled lest the man reveal the details of his previous visit. In Matron’s office they received a most unpleasant surprise. Tiaan had escaped in the night.

Gi-Had let out a monumental groan and gripped his head in gnarled hands, as if trying to squeeze the pain out of it. ‘Where has she gone?’

‘How in the blazes should I know?’ Matron replied. ‘I wish I’d never set eyes on the wretch. The damage she’s done to our reputation won’t be undone in a hurry. I’ve a good mind to ask for the indenture money back, after the damaged goods you’ve sold me.’

‘You knew what you were buying!’ he cried, unwilling to let her get the better of him.

‘You said she was incurably mad!’

‘That was the advice my healers gave me,’ Gi-Had said stiffly.