Karl Schroeder - Ashes of Candesce - Book Five of Virga

"That's the man from Brink--Keir's teacher, Gallard's his name."

They both looked down the path. Something very tall and very wide glowed brightly there, and something else, small and noticeable only as silvery flashes, was moving at its base. "Oh," said Leal. "But why--"

Antaea felt a terrible prickle of fear as she recognized the kind of light she was looking at. "It's them," she murmured, mouth dry. Memories of Telen, of her being forced to kidnap Chaison Fanning; of the moment when she saw her sister and realized she was dead--they stopped her just long enough that Leal ran on into the clearing before Antaea could stop her.

Antaea reached for her gun--but of course they hadn't let her carry it here. She hunched down, as if preparing for a blow. Her eyes were on Leal's leaf-cloaked shape, which slowed and moved toward the source of the light at a walk. Any second now she would be struck down. They all would be.

Footsteps pounded on the path behind her and Antaea snapped out of her paralysis. Fervently wishing she was armed, she crept to the end of the path and looked out. An involuntary moan escaped her lips.

Leal stood, feet planted wide, in front of a monstrous tree whose limbs shone with brilliant lines of white light. Some of the younger branches were wrapped in silvery pneumatic frameworks, like mechanical muscles, and those arms were now spreading wide as if to embrace the tiny woman below them.

Leal's own arms rose and spread wide. Antaea was astonished to hear her laughing --a long peal of unbridled joy, and what sounded strangely like relief.

Then something else moved. As armed men thundered up behind her, Antaea stood and instinctively put out her arm to keep them from passing. But she didn't take her eyes off of Leal and the four-legged thing now prowling in front of her.

It was beautiful, she had to give it that: a lithe, low-slung body with a long flicking tail behind it, and a diamond-shaped head with huge triangular ears and equally giant, glowing green eyes. It paced one way, cocking its head to look at Leal from the left, then fluidly turned and went to look at her from the right. Then it sat on its haunches in front of her, and curled its tail around its paws.

"How have you been?" Leal asked it.

Antaea remembered the name for this kind of creature: cat . Yet this was not a living being. Its body was made of metal, and its eyes were glass. Antaea should have expected what happened next, but she jerked back when it formed its mobile mouth into human speech: "A lot has happened," it said.

Its voice was as fluid as its body, startlingly mellow, in fact. It was a voice you'd be inclined to trust, but Antaea would do no such thing. She could hear the path behind her filling up with whispering people, but she still held her arm out to bar them.

The iron cat craned its neck to look at the galaxy of city lights above them. "You built a city outside Virga's walls? I think that was not wise."

"THAT IS NOT WHERE WE ARE."

The men around Antaea gave a collective shout and she herself went down on one knee. It was the tree that had spoken, but not from any single mouth. Rather, the sound poured from every part of it, trunk, branch, and leaf, an encompassing cloud.

Antaea remembered Leal's description of the being she'd called the emissary. It had manifested as a great voice speaking from the dark skies beyond the lights of the city of Sere. Leal had first heard the voice when returning to Sere from her hometown wheel. Later, that voice would become associated with disappearances, first of men and ships, then of entire villages. The whole Abyssal navy had gone in search of it and been destroyed. Yet Leal had sought it out, learned its intent--or so she claimed--and befriended it.

Antaea looked back to see Chaison moving up the path. Ashamed of her cowardly stance, she straightened and stepped out into the light. Leal glanced at her and smiled.

"Antaea. I'd like to introduce the emissaries. This one I've met before in other bodies," she indicated the cat, "and this is the seneschal of the oaks."

Antaea swallowed and stepped closer. "Do they have names?"

Leal shook her head. "They have addresses. I suppose we could name them ourselves, but it never seemed ... appropriate."

Antaea came to stand next to Leal, and the cat bobbed its head as it looked at her. Chaison appeared at her elbow, and since he was brave enough to, his men followed. Soon a great throng of whispering people had gathered, all keeping a respectful distance from the strange beings.

The emissaries had remained silent as the crowd gathered. Now the oak said, "HOW HAVE YOU DONE THIS?"

Leal blinked and glanced at Chaison, who looked puzzled. "Done what?" she asked.

"Awakened us here," said the cat. "You have lifted Candesce's influence from this spot."

"N-not us," Leal began, but Antaea kicked her in the shin. She sent Leal a glare that she hoped said Don't say anything .

"IF NOT YOU, THEN WHO?"

Chaison waved one of his men forward. "Where are Ferance and the Home Guard people?" he murmured.

"We can't find them," murmured the officer.

Yes, it might have been them, thought Antaea. Waking the emissaries would be a highly effective display of power, if you had discovered Candesce's secret. And yet, you would want to be there for the unveiling of that capability; and would you really choose to inaugurate it by giving your enemies a chance to speak?

"This is strange," Chaison said. "We have no explanation. I suggest we worry about the how later, and seize the opportunity while we have it."

"WHO ARE YOU?" thundered the oak. Chaison bowed.

"Admiral Chaison Fanning of the navy of Slipstream," he said. To his aide he added, "Where is Shambles? Aerie's got to be represented here."

"DO YOU SPEAK FOR VIRGA?"

"No one speaks for Virga." He walked up to stand under the broad branches of the oak. "We here speak for some of the human nations in Virga. We came here to discuss how to protect ourselves and all the rest who are not here."

"THEN YOU WILL DO."

Chaison looked around, a pained expression on his face. The nobles, ministers, and diplomats of the other nations ringed him and the tree; all appeared awestruck and, clearly, at a loss for words. Antaea knew politicians, however. That silence would not last.

Chaison turned his attention to the iron cat. "You're the being that came to Abyss with a message? The one that Leal Maspeth knows?"

"I am part of that," said the cat with a duck of its head. Antaea twitched at those words. Part of that . It was admitting that it wasn't a conscious soul like herself. "We came to you with news of your danger," it continued. "It is our danger, too; and so, we propose an alliance."

Now the crowd began talking animatedly. Antaea crossed her arms and shook her head.

Chaison held up his hand for silence. "What kind of alliance?"

"It should not be possible for us to speak here," said the cat. "Obviously you have learned the secret of how Candesce is able to keep Artificial Nature at bay, even if you will not admit it to us. We want that secret for our own protection. In return, we will give you military and technological assistance."

Antaea couldn't help herself. "But you're part of Artificial Nature," she blurted. "You were frozen until just now because you're part of it. How would Candesce's field protect you? It would just turn you off."

"We would use it as a weapon, not a shield. And as to us being a part of the Artificial Nature, you are part of biology," said the cat. "Do you therefore ally yourself with plagues and parasites? Your operating system is DNA. Do you therefore think of yourself only as that? It gives you life, but it also gives you cancer, and diseases, and decrees that you must die." The creature paced away a little, then spun around impatiently. "We do not wish to be at the mercy of consciousness. We simply wish to remain what we are."