The Thousand Emperors

He ducked back inside the hall and slammed the door shut, then glanced to one side and saw a heavy-looking table nearby. Grabbing hold of one edge of the table, he tried to drag it across the door but it proved too heavy, so he went around its far end and managed, not without considerable effort, to finally push it into place.

For a moment he reeled, sweat burning his forehead, and listened to the muffled bursts of static from the other side of the door as Zelia’s minions tried to force their way through. They’d manage it soon enough, but not, he hoped, before he had himself a good head-start.

Looking around, he spotted another way out of the hall, and a few seconds later found himself back outside, in another narrow alleyway running between two buildings. He headed left until he came to a low wall running along the top of the cliff, below which lay the beach.

Following the wall back around to where Zelia’s heavy-lifter was still parked on a slope, he found she had left only one of her monstrosities behind to guard it. It grunted static as it saw him, and came shuffling forward.

Luc made for the steps leading back down to the beach, the rifle still slung over his shoulder, and sprinted for the waiting flier. The hatch hissed shut behind him as he boarded, and he took off immediately, driving hard towards the clouds lying low over the water.

EIGHTEEN

Jacob had seen such wonders in the past few days. Following his theft of the Founder artefact, he had hidden his flier in a kind of space-borne favela, populated by creatures that constituted a strange hybrid of the organic and inorganic. He had seen swarms of insectlike mechants moving at will through this orbital slum, engaged in what might have been warfare, or some intricate mating ritual.

Despite the traumatic damage Jacob had done to Darwin’s world-wheel, it remained intact. His intent, after all, had not been to destroy the world-wheel, but to create a sufficient distraction that he could make his escape undetected. Even so, the aftermath of his actions had proved to be spectacular; Jacob had seen vast chunks of machinery and the shattered ruins of living-spaces burning as they tumbled down from orbit, sending up great clouds of dust and rock when they impacted on Darwin’s surface, thereby generating a second crisis for the Coalition authorities.

He did not have long to wait before a Special Envoy from the Tian Di, only recently arrived from Temur, made his way up to orbit via a prearranged signal and allowed Jacob to board his flier. There, Jacob took from the Envoy a case designed to be entirely opaque to deep scans, and placed the stolen artefact inside it.

The Envoy did not struggle as Jacob cut his throat. He held the man as he died, then dumped his body into the vacuum.

After that, it was a simple matter of piloting the flier down to one of Darwin’s largest conurbations, a rippling tide of silver and grey spreading out from one of the world-wheel’s spokes. He touched down next to a residential building neighbouring a Gate Array serving half a dozen Coalition worlds. By the time he rendezvoused with the other Special Envoys waiting there, his face had undergone a series of subtle alterations that included changes in his skin tone and eye colour, in order to more closely resemble the man whom he had replaced.

A few of the Tian Di Envoys greeted him with uncomfortable or even hostile glances. All of them were aware in advance that their new companion would be required to make a necessary sacrifice, even if they were not permitted to know the exact details of that sacrifice. It was clear to Jacob, however, that a few of them did not approve of his presence. He made a mental note of which ones appeared particularly disturbed by the circumstances of his arrival for future reference. It might prove necessary to terminate some or all of the Envoys at some later date, to reduce the risk of his mission being compromised.

A few hours passed before they all departed for the nearby Gate Array, now equipped with a new transfer gate connecting to a station in orbit around Temur. On their way there Jacob saw squidlike creatures swarming down a tunnel apparently formed from the air, broad wing-like fronds wafting around their massive bodies. Their enormous dark eyes swept across the huddled crowd of Envoys, and as they passed out of sight and into the Array, Jacob found himself wondering how easy it might be for some truly alien species to hide undetected amongst the Coalition’s citizens. The thought was enough to make him shudder with horror.

Jacob understood then that the pale, drawn faces of the Envoys accompanying him were not entirely due to his sudden appearance amongst them. Their time here in the Coalition had been enough to reduce the majority of them to a state of numb shock.

They boarded a train that would carry them through the transfer gate and back to Temur, a journey of light- years in less than a moment. After that would come a short trip down from orbit, and then Jacob would journey to Vanaheim, in order to present his prize to Father Cheng in person.

And after that, a new age would dawn for the Tian Di. Jacob knew only a very few would ever know the nature of his mission or even his name, but he bore the burden of anonymity gladly. He would happily die unknown and unloved, so long as it was in the service of his beloved Father Cheng.

NINETEEN

The flier juddered as it accelerated upwards, soon rising above a sea of clouds that dwindled beneath it. Luc closed his eyes and let his head sink back against his seat before letting out a rush of shaky breath.

I should have realized Zelia might turn on me.

But then again, Zelia had been right about one thing: he would never have got past Vasili’s house mechants without her help, even if the only reason she had done so was in order to betray him.

Pulling Vasili’s book out of the netting where he had secured it, he weighed it in his hands before opening it,