Karl Schroeder - Ashes of Candesce - Book Five of Virga

"What happened?"

Jacoby tilted his head, frowning at her. He was obviously considering how much truth to tell her--so Antaea said in exasperation, "I can hardly run out on you now. We're at the walls of the world."

He grunted, and looked down. "The Sartos were one of two great ruling families in Sacrus. The other was the Ferances, and they were in charge when Spyre broke up. My cousin, Inshiri Ferance, was the ruler of Sacrus--and never was born a more vicious, morally distorted human being."

Antaea raised an eyebrow. "Worse than Venera Fanning?"

"Venera's a good person." He shook his head. "Inshiri has ... hobbies. That you wouldn't want me to describe. Sacrus's product--what we traded to the world--was expertise in the art of manipulating people, and nobody's better at it than Inshiri. One of her proteges was her niece, Margit, who had a little run-in with Venera and came out the worse for it. Venera got the better of Margit--but Inshiri would eat Venera alive. Maybe literally."

He said this so matter-of-factly that Antaea couldn't doubt it was true. "You're afraid of her," she observed.

"That's because I know her. And, because I know her, I didn't try to fight when she demanded that I give back control of the network. I cut my losses and ran."

"I get it," she said, nodding. "This expedition we're on--you're doing this because it's the furthest thing from your cousin's interests you could find. You're staying out of her way."

Now Jacoby sighed heavily. "Oh, if only that were true. I'd be able to sleep a lot better if it were."

"What do you mean?"

"Before Spyre fell, Inshiri made a political pact with an outsider--and by outsider, I mean an ambassador from beyond Virga. The same people--if you can call them people--who killed your sister, and who've been trying to take down Virga's defenses ... they're supporting Inshiri now."

"Supporting--! Why didn't you tell me this before?"

He laughed. "You wouldn't have signed up if you thought I had any connection at all with Artificial Nature."

"Do you?"

He shrugged. "I met one of their ambassadors once. He made Inshiri look like an amateur, not because he enjoys torment and terror the way she does, but because he doesn't seem to consider human beings as, well, human at all. But I don't know how much involvement he and his kind have with Inshiri. All I know is that she has plans."

"To do what?"

"I don't know!" He glowered at her. "All I know is that this friend of yours, Leal Maspeth, has Inshiri and her friends running scared for some reason. They're so afraid of her that they're stretching the network to its breaking point, sending spies and diplomats and courtesans to all the great nations. They're proposing alliances ... making friends. Getting ready for something."

Antaea thought about this for a long while, and Jacoby watched her. The creak of the hull, the rumble of the Page 's jets, and the distant murmur of the crew were the only sounds.

"When were you going to tell me this?" she asked finally.

"When I had some idea of what they're up to," he said. "That may be once we've had a look at what the Guard is doing at the center of that ice-free area.

"Anyway," he added as he tossed off the last of the rum, "I didn't know how far I could trust you."

"Captain! City's in sight!" Jacoby and Antaea looked at one another, then both bolted for the door.

* * *

"I TOLD YOU,"Keir insisted. "That way is too dangerous."

"Did you see those missiles?" Piero Harper crossed his arms and glared at him. "We have to get home."

The Virgans had him surrounded--or thought they did. Actually it was Keir's second body they were looming over. He was able to watch the confrontation from thirty feet away, in his real one. Still, he felt the intensity of their desperation, and it struck a chord with him.

"Where does this other door actually go?" asked Leal. "You just said it went to Virga."

"It's a city on the Virgan side," he told them. "Beyond that, we don't know much."

"And the inhabitants of this city? They're hostile?"

"There are no inhabitants. It's like Brink, empty, except for guards that the virtuals put there. Those will tear you apart before you get ten meters."

"But not," said Piero, "if we were suitably armed?"

"Sure, but I--" He'd been about to say I'm not allowed to evolve weapons . And of course that was true; Keir had never had any means of equipping himself to fight the guardians of that gate.

Not four meters away from where his main body stood, two Edisonians were vomiting weapons onto the floor.

Piero Harper had seen this activity, and now he walked over to the members of the Renaissance who were outfitting themselves there. "Pardon, but this is our fault," he said. "There ain't no need for any of you to get hurt if they come down here."

Gallard shook his head. "We can send our second bodies in," he pointed out. "We don't die if they're destroyed. Can you say the same?"

"We're willing to take that risk. And this is our fault."

Gallard cocked his head and narrowed his eyes. He was consulting with the rest of the Renaissance. Keir tried to remain silent and small, willing them to trust the Virgans. Of course, the weapons could be remotely disabled at a command from the Renaissance; there was no danger these people could pull a coup.

Gallard gave a sharp nod. "All right. Equip yourselves. And good luck."

As the Virgans picked up the new guns, Keir broke out of the shadows and joined his second body. "Surely we can't just abandon these people?" one of the airmen was whispering.

"They'll be fine," he said. "They know the city. And now that they're forewarned, they can build weapons that can eliminate another attack from a hundred kilometers away."

Keir saw Maerta approaching from the far end of the hall. If she realized what they were planning ... But before she got within voice distance, a deep rumble shook the floor under them.

"It's a second attack!" Suddenly everybody was running again.

Maerta turned to talk to somebody.

"This way! Now!"

Keir ran with both his bodies, hoping that in the chaos, nobody would wonder where they were going until it was too late.

* * *

AS THE SHIP'Ssearchlight played over the ice-choked domes and spires of the lost city, Jacoby felt an unnerving sense of doubt. The frozen towers were clutched by the fingers of a glacier that encircled most of the world. Yet on one side of the city, they stopped. The wall of the world that underlay them was swept clear here. A black plain, it stretched away into obscurity, utterly empty of any feature the eye could use to judge its scale. Two hundred miles away across that flat blackness, a hundred Home Guard ships were building a base of some kind.

These lightless windows in empty facades, the grasping iceberg wall--even to Jacoby, this place looked like nothing so much as a gateway to the afterworld.

The city had never known gravity, so its buildings grew out of Virga's wall at all angles. Black glittering windows corkscrewed around the towers and swept in spirals and whorls across the vast gray domes. Girdered docking gantries stood into the air, faint whiskers in the distance. No ships were berthed on them.

The pastel airs of his home were far away, veiled behind more than two thousand miles of air. The influence of the sun of suns itself was barely felt here; nothing grew, and not even the poorest or most desperate souls would try to subsist in this place. What mad impulse would lead a people to colonize such empty desolation?

"Captain?" said Mauven from behind him.

Jacoby blinked away his distraction. "Yes, yes," he said, then cleared his throat. "Locate an area that's clear of ice and has a view of the blank area. Forget the docking gantries, we'll lash the ship directly to whatever building we choose to camp in. That'll make for a speedy exit if we have to."