Free Geomancer (Well of Echoes) by Ian Irvine Page A

must have happened to you.’
    ‘I’ve made my quota. I didn’t feel like going to work today.’
    ‘But …’
    ‘I’m seventy-six, Tiaan. I only keep going because there would be nothing to do if I stopped. But some days I just don’t feel like working.’
    ‘Can I get you anything?’
    ‘I’m not an invalid,’ he said with a smile. ‘But I wouldn’t mind a cup of ghill, if you feel like waiting on me. It’s in the jar on the mantel.’
    Taking down the jar, she picked out several curling strips of ghi wood and moved the pot over the coals. ‘Strong or weak?’
    ‘Like tar. Put in about five strips and leave it a good while. Let’s sit on the porch.’
    He carried his chair out. Tiaan settled into the other. They watched the mist drifting between the pines. The wind sighed through the wattle fence. Finally Joeyn spoke. ‘It’s always nice to see you, Tiaan, though I’m sure you didn’t come to pass the time of day.’
    ‘What am I going to do about a partner, Joe?’
    Looking her over, he smiled to himself. ‘I don’t see any problem.’
    ‘I’m afraid …’
    ‘It’s not such an onerous duty, Tiaan.’
    ‘I didn’t mean
that
. I’ll get the ghill.’ She rose abruptly, coming back with two wooden mugs. The steam smelt like peppery cinnamon.
    While they sipped their ghill, she went over her problem with the crystal.
    Joeyn sat ruminating. ‘So, you need me to find you another.’
    ‘The most powerful one you can. The last wasn’t strong enough.’
    ‘And I suppose it’s urgent?’
    ‘Gi-Had threatened to send me to the breeding factory if I didn’t solve the problem by the end of the week.’
    ‘As if he would! You’re too valuable to him, Tiaan.’
    ‘Why would he say that if he didn’t mean it?’ Tiaan was not good at reading people and could not separate idle words from serious ones. ‘He’s in trouble because of the failed clankers, and Foreman Gryste is whispering in his ear about me. He doesn’t like me.’
    ‘Gryste doesn’t like anyone, Tiaan. Especially since …’
    ‘What?’
    Joeyn sniffed his drink. ‘He was passed over for overseer when Gi-Had came back from the war a hero. Then Gryste did his own service, was blamed for a defeat that wasn’t his fault and broken to a common soldier. He’s been at odds with the world ever since. And his habit doesn’t help.’
    ‘The nigah leaf?’
    ‘Yes. Makes a man angry. And it’s expensive.’
    ‘I’m afraid of him. The war is going really badly, Joe. Desperate people do stupid things.’
    ‘It’s been going badly since I was a boy. You stop believing everything you’re told after a while. I’m so old that I’ve seen the Histories rewritten.’
    ‘The Histories are truth!’ she cried. More than that, they were the foundation of the world. To challenge them bordered on blasphemy.
    ‘No doubt of it,’ he replied, ‘but whose?’
    ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’
    ‘Not many people do. Hardly anyone lives to my age any more. Have you ever heard of the
Tale of the Mirror
?’
    ‘Only as a monstrous lie.’
    ‘It wasn’t when I was a little boy. It was one of the Great Tales, and Llian of Chanthed one of the greatest chroniclers. Now he’s Llian the Liar, the man who debased the Histories. Why?’
    ‘I supposed someone proved –’
    ‘The greatest people of the age were there when he told the Great Tale – Nadiril the Librarian, Yggur, Shand, Malien the Aachim. No one said a word against the tale for a hundred and thirty years, then suddenly the Council of Scrutators had it rewritten. Why, Tiaan?’
    ‘I don’t know.’
    ‘This war has destroyed everything we once held sacred.’
    She squirmed on her chair. ‘I don’t like that kind of talk, Joe.’
    He went back to the previous topic. ‘I don’t imagine the breeding factory would suit you very well.’ He gave her a sly grin. ‘Though it is a life of luxury and pleasure …’
    ‘Don’t joke about it, Joe! I’m not going to