Gary Gibson - The Thousand Emperors

Luc saw they were headed for a series of rounded hills to the north, stretching across the horizon. The upper parts of several pale and shimmering towers could be seen rising from beyond the hills: Liebenau.

Zelia half-mumbled a series of commands, the fingers of her right hand twitching as she focused on a screen immediately to one side of her. The hull began to de-opaque, making it easier to see their surroundings.

The flier banked hard, following the course of a river. Incandescent beams of light split the sky a moment before a ball of light, as bright as the midday sun, bloomed far overhead. The flier’s skin opaqued immediately in response.

‘That was a strike in near-orbit,’ Zelia announced tersely. ‘Doesn’t matter. We’re here.’

The flier rose again, barely skimming over the crest of a hill before suddenly dipping down again as it entered a valley on the far side. Luc saw Liebenau, via the flier’s external sensors, stretched out before them in all its glistening diversity. A forest fire raged in woodlands lying east of the settlement, sending up a colossal column of smoke that curled in on itself as it rose.

The majority of the settlement appeared to have escaped the fighting unscathed, although a few buildings on the outskirts of the settlement appeared to be burning. A long section of the wall surrounding the Red Palace looked like it had been partly demolished, judging by what he could see, and the thick haze of dust in the air around it.

A haze of fast-moving dots swarmed around the rooftops within the Palace’s walls, like bees around a hive. Mechants, apparently still locked in battle. Clearly the fight wasn’t quite over yet.

The external feeds cut off, blocking their view of the settlement for several seconds before they returned. Luc felt his gorge rise as the flier span, like a ballerina performing a pirouette.

‘That was a direct hit,’ shouted Zelia. ‘I’m putting us down before we get shot down. So whatever it is you’ve got in mind, now would be a really fucking good time to tell me!’

‘First, we need to find the artefact,’ Luc replied, pulling up an aerial map of the Red Palace and displaying it where Zelia could also see it. ‘There,’ he said, pointing to an L-shaped building not far from a gate set into the west-facing outer wall.

She glanced at him. ‘You’re sure that’s where it is?’

‘I could find my way to it blindfolded, believe me. It’s right there. Is there any way someone can target that building, and take it out from a distance?’

‘If I can figure out just who’s leading the assault on Liebenau,’ she replied, ‘maybe I can get them to—’

A sledgehammer came crashing into Luc’s skull.

He blinked, seeing a sky stained with smoke trails. Somehow, he was outside.

He realized Zelia was hauling on his arm, swearing and shouting at him. Smelling something burning, he took a breath, and choked on something clogging his throat.

Pulling free of her grasp, he rolled onto all fours as he hacked and coughed. His lungs felt like they were filled with burning embers.

‘Come on ,’ Zelia screamed at him, reaching down and grabbing hold of his shoulder.

Luc stared up at her through watery eyes, seeing smudges of dirt streaking her face.

He looked around. She had dragged him into the shelter of a seating area overhung by tall, mossy ferns that partially hid them from sight. The nearest wall of the Palace was only about fifty metres away. Stone bridges arched over a wide moat surrounding the palace, leading towards tall archways piercing stone walls that had to be close on nine metres tall.

Looking back the other way, he saw the remains of their flier not too distant. The craft had ploughed a hole into the carefully maintained lawns surrounding the palace. It was clearly a write-off, a smoking ruin hard up against the trunk of an enormously ancient-looking gnarled tree, its branches dotted with autumn leaves.

‘I tried to get hold of Ben,’ said Zelia, her voice ragged, ‘but I think he might be dead. He was the one coordinating the strike on the Red Palace. No one else is responding either.’ She shook her head and laughed weakly. ‘We’re so fucking screwed, it’s actually funny.’

Luc coughed again, the world swaying gently around him. He let Zelia lower him onto a seat, and squeezed his eyes shut until the worst of the dizziness had passed.

‘The artefact,’ he said, when he looked back up at her. ‘We’re close to it, Zelia. Very close.’

She sank to her knees on the grass before him. ‘Luc, listen to me,’ she said, looking more scared in that moment than he recalled ever seeing her before. ‘I really think we might be the only ones left alive. Maybe we should try and get away from here, make a run for it while we still can—’

‘No.’ Luc shook his head irritably and forced himself to think. ‘Not after everything I’ve been through.’

It was like the nightmare he’d suffered for so many years had finally come true, except he wasn’t a child any more. Instead of Razorback Mountain looming in the distance, he saw the broad wall of Cheng’s Red Palace – and instead of a ball of incandescent light and heat evaporating everyone and everything he had ever known and loved, he saw only smoke rising from a burning forest, and the flashing silver of mechants engaged in high-speed battles.

‘Listen to me, Zelia,’ he said, leaning forward and taking hold of her by the shoulders. ‘What Cheng did to Benares made me into an orphan. I lost everything. Everything. I dedicated my life to hunting Antonov, except now I discover it should have been Cheng. I’ll be damned if I’m going to stand by and let him deliver the final coup de grâce to Benares.’ He shook his head violently. ‘Not if I have any chance of doing something about it.’

Zelia stared at him like he was crazy. ‘He has an army of mechants, Luc, and God knows how many Sandoz either already here or on their way through the Hall of Gates. We’ve lost , can’t you see that? But if we can find another flier, we can—’

He got up and walked away from her without another word, heading for the nearest of the stone bridges passing over the moat around the Red Palace. He passed cultivated lawns and artfully arranged groves and, although there were several more flashes of light and the sound of distant detonations, he had a sense the battle was winding down. More than likely, Cheng was consolidating his victory.

Even so, the artefact was like a magnet, drawing Luc towards it. He felt like he could almost reach out and grasp it.

Hearing feet running down the gravel path behind him, he turned to see Zelia catch up with him.

‘Are you sure?’ he asked her.

She shrugged, dirty and exhausted. ‘Fuck it,’ she said, ‘even if I get killed, I have a backup. Right?’

Luc knew Cheng would never allow her re-instantiation after everything that had happened, but also knew better than to say. He nodded and continued across the bridge without another word, surprised to find he was glad she had chosen to stay by his side.

They passed over the bridge and came to a tall arched gate giving access to the interior of the Red Palace. He saw that the wall tapered slightly as it rose towards grey stone battlements.

Thin trails of smoke rose from different points within the palace walls. Before them lay a cobbled street, and brick buildings with a carefully crafted appearance of great age.

He heard Zelia come up behind his shoulder. ‘If we can’t find a way to get hold of the artefact,’ he said, ‘our next option is to find some way to destroy it.’