‘Not as difficult as you think. She’s like antimatter: it would only be a question of handling her with the right tools. I told you something jogged my memory a few days ago. It was the girl’s name. Rashmika Els. She was mentioned in a general news bulletin originating from the Vigrid badlands. There was a photo. She’s eight or nine years older than when I last saw her, obviously, but it was her all right. I wouldn’t forget those eyes in a hurry. She’d gone missing. The constabulary were in a fuss about her.’
‘No use to us, then.’
Grelier smiled. ‘Except I found her. She’s on a caravan, heading towards the Way.’
‘You’ve met her?’
‘Not exactly. I visited the caravan, but didn’t reveal myself to Miss Els. Wouldn’t want to scare her off, not when she can be so useful to us. She’s very determined to find out what happened to her brother, but even she will be wary of getting too close to the Way.’
‘Mm.’ For a moment the beautiful conjunction of these events caused Quaiche to smile. ‘And what exactly
‘Died in clearance work,’ Grelier said. ‘Crushed under the Lady Morwenna.’
TWENTY-ONE
Skade lay half-cocooned in ice and the frozen black froth of Inhibitor machinery. She was still alive. This much was clear as they squeezed through the narrow, crimped opening of the crushed bulkhead. From the control couch in which she still lay, Skade’s head tilted slightly in their direction, the merest glaze of interest troubling the smooth composure of her face. The fingers of one white-gauntleted hand hovered above a portable holoclavier propped in her lap, the fingers becoming a blur of white in time with the gunlike salvos of music.
The music stopped as her hand moved away from the keyboard. ‘I was beginning to wonder what had kept you.’
‘I’ve come for my child, bitch,’ Khouri said.
Skade showed no sign of having heard her. ‘What happened, Clavain?’
‘A little mishap.’
‘The wolves took your hand. How unfortunate.’
Clavain showed her the knife. ‘I did what had to be done. Recognise this, Skade? Today wasn’t the first time it’s saved my life. I used it to cut the membrane around the comet, when you and I had that little disagreement over the future policy of the Mother Nest. You
‘There’s been a lot of water under the bridge since I last saw that knife. I still had my old body then.’
‘I’m sorry about what happened, but I only did what I had to do. Put me back there now, I’d do the same thing again.’
‘I don’t doubt it for a moment, Clavain. No matter what people say, you always were a man of conviction.’
‘We’ve come for the child,’ he said.
She acknowledged Khouri with the tiniest of nods. ‘I had gathered.’
‘Are you going to hand her over, or is this going to become tedious and messy?’
‘Which way would you prefer it, Clavain?’
‘Listen to me, Skade. It’s over. Whatever happened between you and me, whatever harm we did each other, whatever loyalties we believed in, none of that matters any more.’
‘That’s exactly what I told Remontoire.’
‘But you did negotiate,’ Clavain said. ‘We know that much. So let’s take it to the limit. Let’s join forces again. Give Aura back to us and we’ll share everything she tells us. It’ll be better for all of us in the long run.’
‘What do I care about the long run, Clavain? I’m never going to see the outside of this ship again.’
‘If you’re hurt, we can help you.’
‘I really don’t think so.’
‘Give me Aura,’ Khouri demanded.
Scorpio stepped closer, taking a better look at the injured Conjoiner. She wore armour of a very pale shade, perhaps even white. Chameleoflage armour, probably: the outer integument had tuned itself to match the colour of the ice that had condensed or ruptured through into the cabin before the lighting failed. The suit was styled in the manner of medieval armour, with bulbous sliding plates covering the limb joints and an exaggerated breastplate. There was a cinched, feminine waist above a skirtlike flaring. The rest of the body — below the waist — Scorpio could not see at all. It vanished into ice that pinned Skade neatly in place like a doll for sale.
All around her, in little aggregations of blackness, were warty clumps of Inhibitor machinery. But none were touching Skade, and none appeared active at the moment.
‘You can have Aura,’ she said. ‘At, of course, a price.’
‘We’re not paying for her,’ Clavain said. His voice was faint and hoarse, stripped of strength.
‘You’re the one who mentioned negotiation,’ Skade said. ‘Or were you thinking more along the lines of a threat?’
‘Where is she?’
Skade moved one of her arms. The armour creaked as it budged, dislodging curtains of frost. She tapped the hard plate covering her abdomen. ‘She’s here, in me. I’m keeping her alive.’
Clavain glanced back at Khouri, his eyes conveying the admission that, finally, everything she had told them had turned out to be true. ‘Good,’ he said, turning his attention back to Skade. ‘I’m grateful. But now her mother needs her back.’
‘As if you care about her mother,’ Skade said, mocking him with an adversarial smile. ‘As if you truly care about the fate of a child.’
‘I came all this way for that child.’
‘You came all this way for an asset,’ Skade corrected.
‘And I suppose the child means vastly more to you than that.’
‘Enough,’ Scorpio interrupted. ‘We haven’t got time for this. We came for Khouri’s child. Fuck the reasons. Just hand her over.’
‘Hand her over?’ Now Skade laughed at the pig. ‘Did you honestly think it was going to be that easy? The child is
‘
‘She isn’t human either,’ Skade said, ‘no matter what you might think.’ Her head tracked back towards Clavain. ‘Yes, I had Delmar culture me another body, just as he’d always intended. I’m all flesh from the neck down. Even the womb is more organ than machine. Face it,
‘You were always a machine, Skade. You just didn’t realise it.’
‘If you’re saying I only ever did my duty, then I accept that. Machines do have a certain dignity: they’re not capable of betrayal or disloyalty. They’re not capable of treason.’
‘I didn’t come here for a lesson in ethics.’
‘Aren’t you curious about what happened to my ship? Don’t you like my fabulous palace of ice?’ She gestured around her, as if inviting commentary on her choice of decor. ‘I made it especially for you.’
‘Actually, I think something went wrong with your cryo-arithmetic engines,’ Clavain said.
Skade pouted. ‘Go ahead, dismiss my efforts.’
‘What happened?’ Scorpio asked quietly.
She sighed. ‘Don’t expect to understand. The finest minds in the Mother Nest barely grasped the underlying principles. You don’t even have the intelligence of a baseline human. You’re just a pig.’
‘I’d really appreciate it if you didn’t call me that.’
‘Or you’ll do what? You can’t hurt me, not while I’m carrying Aura. I die, she dies. It’s that simple.’
‘Nice hostage setup,’ Clavain said.
‘I’m not saying it was easy. Our respective immune systems needed a great deal of tinkering before we
