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.
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
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.’
‘Can we do that?’ she asked.
He shook his head. ‘I don’t know until we try. Have you been here before?’
‘I know my way around the palace grounds a little,’ she said. ‘You think the artefact’s somewhere around here?’
‘It’s just up ahead,’ he told her, moving forward at a slow jog. He hadn’t seen anyone – neither men, nor machines. ‘Do we know what’s happening in the rest of the Tian Di?’
‘Last I heard, things aren’t much better on Temur.’ She followed him down the cobbled street. ‘There were reports of fighting inside the White Palace with the Sandoz guarding the Hall of Gates.’
The buildings within the palace walls were closely packed together. He glanced up, seeing mechants flying high above the cobbled street.
They made for the shadows cast by the overhanging roof of a pagoda-like building to their right, pressing themselves up against the wall. The mechants appeared not to have spotted them, and soon disappeared from sight.
They kept moving along the side of the building until they came to the next corner. Luc saw the building they were headed for and sensed the artefact’s presence on the other side of a door, straight ahead.
‘It’s in there somewhere,’ he said, pointing.
Something struck the cobblestones immediately before them and rolled closer.
It felt as if a giant hand had reached down, picking Luc up and throwing him several feet into the air. He landed hard next to the entrance to an alleyway, his entire body wracked with pain. For a few moments, the world was suffused with an eerie silence. Something in his shoulder and arm didn’t feel quite right.
His hearing came back only slowly, but all he could hear at first was his own ragged breathing. He saw Zelia struggling to push herself upright against a nearby wall, one of her legs twisted at an odd angle. She had her hand to her chest, the fingers stained red.
A shadow passed overhead. Luc looked up to see another Sandoz heavy-lifter dropping to a landing a few streets away. As it descended, a shape swooped down from the heavy-lifter – a mechant, making straight for him.
‘Stop,’ he muttered.
