Tim Lebbon - Echo city

"She rushed," the girl said. "But I'll be fine to do what needs doing." She had fine blond hair, and Gorham noticed a streak of white on one side. He was certain it had not been there before-he'd have noticed it when he carried her in here, surely? But his thoughts then had been in a mess, his senses distracted. She took some shortcuts. He wondered where else this new Baker lacked her creator's qualities.

"I think I know where the book is," the girl said. She pulled against Gorham's hand to help herself up, then closed books to clear a space around her. "Sit. I need to talk to you."

"Why?"

"Because the old Baker left you here with me for a reason. You're the book-her diary of the final days. You need to tell me everything you know and all the reasons why she chopped me while she was…" She smiled that knowing smile again. "I'm sure she cared for you."

"I'm not so sure," he said, but somehow the girl's words gave him comfort.

"The urgency is hot in me," she said. "I've no time to learn or research. You have to tell me what's happened, and try not to leave anything out."

"You're so new," he said. The deeper he thought about it, the more terrifying it became. "How can you talk? How do you know all those things?"

"No Baker is new," she said. "We're all continuations. I can tell you the color of the Baker's eyes from a thousand years ago. I can tell you what food the Baker from three thousand years ago favored."

"Then if you know everything, the name Vex will have meaning."

The girl paled, pressed her hand to her forehead, and grasped Gorham's hand to steady herself.

"The Vex is ancient history," she whispered.

"And all of Echo City's history is here."

"Then tell me. Quickly!"

"First tell me your name."

"I have none. Will you give me one?"

"Let me think."

"Think while you're talking," she said, and for the first time he heard a trace of Nadielle in the girl's voice, saw a glint of the old Baker's cool, detached humor in her eye.

So he talked, and some time into his story he named the girl.

"It's been too long," Peer said, hand pressed against her aching hip. Ever since the Unseen had left with Nophel, she'd been unable to sit still. She'd paced the two hidden rooms of the ruin where they hid, wearing a path back and forth across the gritty floor, and several times Malia had told her to fucking sit down. But Peer could not be still when everything else was in motion. So much depended on what happened here, and the responsibility she felt for Rufus Kyuss was almost crippling.

"There are six domes," Malia said, sighing because she'd said that a dozen times already.

"Still. It's been too long." Peer knelt close to one of the windows they were avoiding and looked at the incredible city outside. They'd seen very little activity since hiding themselves away. There were flitters of movement and now and then mysterious sounds that they could not identify-distant growls, an insistent clanging that had continued for hours, a long, low wail that rose and fell in random increments, and that thumping that seemed to rise from the ground. But there was no indication that they had been seen and no sign of the others.

Peer leaned back against the wall and stared across at Malia. The Watcher woman was sitting with her eyes closed, though Peer knew she was not asleep. She was meditating, perhaps, or simply thinking about what had happened and what was to come. The woman was Gorham's friend, and if put in this situation a few days before, Peer would have been quizzing her nonstop about her old lover. But that seemed so inconsequential now, compared to what was happening. Gorham had given Peer to the Marcellans for the good of the Watchers, and she had to accept what had failed between them for the good of the whole city.

Far too long, she thought.

"We should go," Peer said. "Make our own way in, look elsewhere. We can cover more ground than-"

"Than invisible people?" Malia asked without opening her eyes.

A distant wailing sound began-but this was different. The one they'd heard before had sounded like the cries of a wounded animal, but this was more regular. A continuous rise and fall.

Malia opened her eyes. "That's an alarm."

"They've been caught."

"Or they have him." Malia stood and approached the window beside Peer, sword in her hand. She was edgy, more animated than Peer had seen her in a while. Maybe she'd simply been preparing for this.

"We need to be ready to move as soon as they're here," Malia said. "We'll go on ahead, make sure the route out's clear."

"What about Rufus?"

"They'll be protecting him." She nodded at Peer, then clasped her arm. "He's more important to the city than to you, Peer."

"I know that," she said, but the truth hurt.

They watched the landscape outside, unable to see far because of the honeycomb structures filling the dome. And when the Unseen returned, it was not from the direction they expected.

"We need to move quickly," a voice said. Peer spun around and raised her short sword, and Alexia stood behind them.

"You have him?" Malia asked.

Alexia leaned against the wall and took several deep breaths, fighting off a faint. "Yes. I came on ahead."

"Is he…?" Peer began.

"He's fine. Unconscious. I had to knock him out. I'm not sure he really wants to come."

"What?"

"Doesn't matter now," Malia said. "So, you're the soldier. What's the best way to go from here?"

Alexia grinned. "Well, when I was a Blade, in situations such as this we'd usually resort to running like fuck." The others entered behind her through a gap left by a fallen wall: Nophel, the two other Unseen… and, slung between them, Rufus.

"Back the way we came," Alexia said. "But, to stay together, we all need to remain seen, unless you two-"

"You'll have more of a chance on your own," Peer said. "Fade out again, and go as fast as you can. Malia and I will remember the way on our own. And if we trail behind you…"

"Yes," Malia said. "It'll be us they catch first, and that will slow them down."

"A drop of blood is all it takes," Nophel said.

"No," Peer said, and Malia also shook her head. It was no longer simply fear of the condition that made them refuse. It was the realization that they could provide a distraction.

"Fine," Alexia said without argument, and the Unseen began to fade. She placed her hands on either side of the unconscious Rufus's face and concentrated, and he, too, began to fade.

"What?" Malia gasped, surprised, and before Nophel flittered from visibility, he pointed at his bleeding arm.

They slipped from the building. Peer had never felt so naked and exposed. The dome sloped away above them, and without staring up it could have been just another expanse of gray sky. A thousand windows stared down at them, dark openings in the faces of incredible structures, and behind any one there could have been a Dragarian waiting for this moment. Perhaps they've been playing us all along, Peer thought, and it was an unsettling idea because…

Because she'd been thinking the same about Rufus. He'd killed the Border Spite and the Watcher easily enough, and he'd fled the Baker's laboratory as soon as he heard the truth-almost as if he'd known the truth all along, and this was all just a ploy to get here.

But perhaps her imagination was running away with her. If there was any truth in that, he'd have forced them to let him stay. He might talk like a child, but she had a feeling he had a much wider understanding of things than any of them gave him credit for.

They approached the dome's edge, dropped into the dried canal, and headed back down into the tunnels from which they'd emerged an unknown time ago. Sunlight still streamed through the hidden windows in the dome's roof, but it had taken on a darker, deeper hue, and she suspected that dusk was approaching outside. She wondered how much things would have changed when dawn next touched the city.