that could be used to resist them.’
Another bright flare of light erupted from just over the horizon and the flier began to drop, losing altitude fast. The light grew in intensity, the flier responding by darkening the transparent sections of the hull until they were entirely opaque.
Screens and virtual panels flashed red all around them. One screen showed a swathe of green jungle rushing up towards them at a furious rate, and Luc swore under his breath when the flier suddenly levelled out, flying low over the treetops. The flier’s AI announced critical damage to its hull.
‘That was bad,’ said Zelia, her voice high and tight. ‘We got broadsided by an A-M missile. It was six kilometres from us when it detonated. Any closer, and neither of us would be here.’
Luc checked the view to their rear and saw a column of smoke rising up into a mushroom high above the landscape. He pulled his eyes away from the screen, heart palpitating.
The jungle gave way to level grasslands, and the flier dropped lower until it was barely skimming above the ground, rushing over shimmering oxbow lakes and gaining height only when it encountered patches of forest.
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
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
