House of Reeds

them down. The counter-battery guns on an APAC would do the trick as well, but she didn't have an armored personnel carrier on hand either.

No, answered the gunner. These look like prop-driven fixed-wing models.

'Antiques?' Kosho made a face. 'They're emptying the pantry…' She looked at the Resident questioningly. 'Have we sold the kujen any antique propeller-driven aircraft?'

Petrel shook his head. 'Not that I've heard of…'

Kosho tapped up the helmet feed from the gunners on the roof. Three heat-emission signatures appeared in the relayed feed, stark against a cold pre-dawn sky. They swung into a banking turn, heading straight for the Legation. She automatically reached for her comp, intending to call up a recog soft and then stifled a curse – Helsdon had borrowed her command comp to drive his communications relay.

Heicho Felix picked her way down a rubble-strewn ramp and hissed in alarm as a body appeared in the light of her hand-lamp. The chief machinist's mate was sprawled on the landing, one arm twisted beneath his body, scalp and face streaked with blood.

'Helsdon?' The Marine knelt down, shoving broken bricks out of her way. 'Can you hear me?' Gently, she turned the body, lips tight to see the older man's head fall limply to one side. Felix tugged back his uniform jacket sleeve, exposing his medband.

The silver band was a mixture of amber and crimson, but he was breathing.

'Not dead yet,' Felix breathed in relief. She wiped blood out of his eyes with the edge of her hand. 'You and the Sho-sa will make a fine pair in medical bay together. But at least Isoroku won't stripe my hide bloody for getting you killed.'

Grunting, the Marine heaved the engineer up onto her shoulders. Goddamn, she thought, straining to lift his body, bones like lead! He doesn't look this heavy…

A resounding boom! shook the tower, precipitating more rubble to cascade down the ramp and nearly knocked Felix from her feet. Swaying, she leaned against the wall, tapping her comm awake. 'What the hell was that?'

Got two more tanks coming through the breach! Carlyle bawled on the channel. We're out of here!

Whipsaw to anti-armor, Kosho's voice followed, cutting clear and cold through the Marine's panic. Ignore the aircraft for the moment. Kill that armor, in the breach if you can.

Felix swore, shrugged the engineer into a slightly less uncomfortable carry, and waddled down the ramp as fast as she could. The opening onto to the retaining wall was only meters away and she turned sideways in the narrow doorway. Outside, the night was alive with the crash of heavy guns, the rattling sound of small arms and the clanking rumble of armor treads chewing more brick to dust. Intermittent tracer fire jagged into the sky. Burning vegetation lit the stones of the wall with a ruddy, orange glow. Craning her neck, she stared down into the gardens.

Sure enough, two more of the flat-turreted tanks ground noisily through the ornamental trees. A fresh attack out of the breach had developed while she'd been inside – this time the slicks were sending the armor first, with the infantry holding back and scuttling from cover to cover.

Sure are a lot of them, she thought with a sinking feeling. A couple hundred this time…

A sharp basso droning sound overhead made her turn. 'What the -'

Her visor adjusted, scanning the pitch-black sky. The image changed tone and hue, and three cross-shaped aircraft roared over the Legation. Felix blanched, goggling at the antiques winging towards her, and took off at a run for the next tower on the wall.

The Whipsaw on the roof of the Residence shrieked. A hard white streak of light intersected the first of the prop-driven planes and the machine shattered in a violent burst of flame. Debris rained down, trailing smoke and flames. The other two planes broke away from their attack run, dumping their bomb loads.

Cease fire! Kosho barked on the channel. Kill the tanks first!

Four heavy black canisters plummeted out of the night sky and crashed through the canopy of leaves spreading over the garden. One bomb bounced up, skidded across a lawn of short-cropped grass and plowed through a clutch of scattering Jehanan soldiers. There was a bright spark in the darkness as a phosphorus igniter cooked off.

Felix flinched back, one arm thrown up by reflex to shield her eyes, even though her combat visor mirrored immediately. The bomb detonated with an ear-shattering roar, spewing liquefied flame in every direction. Three more napalm canisters exploded in succession, filling the air with a burning white-hot mist. The burning cloud rolled across the gardens, incinerating the Jehanan soldiers, consuming every scrap of vegetation and engulfing the tanks. A wave of terrific heat boiled up over the walls, shattering brick and splintering marble, granite and alabaster alike. The windows of the whole eastern side of the Residence shattered, cracked by the concussive effect of the blast and then coated with blazing jelly.

The crews of the Jehanan tanks survived a moment longer – protected from the flame and explosion by thick armor – but none of the three vehicles were secured for a zero-pressure environment and carbon monoxide flooded in through the gun aperture and air recirculators. The crewmen succumbed to paralysis and violent hallucinations within seconds, then strangled on their own blood.

Felix bolted forward, chased by a wall of fire, and hurled herself and the unconscious engineer into the secondary tower. Her combat visor sealed itself automatically as the monoxide level in the air spiked, fresh oxygen hissing into her nostrils.

On the comm, Kosho was bawling commands and Felix could hear Carlyle scream helplessly for a long drawn out second before his voice cut off. Then she was rolling down the ramp as the ceiling roared with billowing flame and everything turned red-orange from the furnace glare howling at her back.

The Courts of the Morning

On the Banks of the Phison,

Southeastern Parus

Flower petals, shriveled by the queer light in the sky, fluttered down from a roseate claw. Bhazuradeha was sitting beside an ornamental pool, her slim head bent over the waters, watching the sicane buds drift on the current, slowly fattening as they saturated. The pool was served by a hidden pump and the frail gray blossoms swirled away to disappear beneath mossy rocks.

'Phantom petals fall into moonlight,' she whispered. 'Autumn has come too soon…'

A crashing sound echoed through the tall pillars around the courtyard, followed by the tramp of heavy, booted feet. The Jehanan woman did not look up. The transparency and color of the water had caught her attention, curving over the rocks, capturing the morning light with a faint rainbow sheen. A multitude of tiny blue-green tendrils – a long-stemmed algae – waved on the surface of the stones, capturing invisible prey from the flow of water.

An image occluded the smooth surface of the water – a long-jawed Jehanan in a trailing cloak, jangling with iron and leather and smelling of oil, fire and bitter smoke. Bhazuradeha looked up, enormous green eyes taking in the crowd of barbarians who had invaded her apartments. A jeweled display box, she corrected herself, a stage for my skills, filled with soft, elegant things.

One of her 'guardians' was among the tribesmen, half-paralyzed by fear, a kalang knife against the rough pebbled skin of her throat. Bhazuradeha ignored the matron, attention hungrily fixed on the leader of the Arachosians arrayed before her. The common literature of the lowland cities was filled with lurid descriptions of the habit, mien, clothing and vicious temper of the highland raiders, but the poetess had never seen them before, not up close.

The Jehanan looming over her was tall, scales hard and bright, powerful chest draped with a leather harness holding knives, pistols, soft leather pouches bulging with bullets and powder, and thumb-sized cylinders of black metal thrust into fabric loops. Leather cords heavy with fore-teeth crowded his neck and upper arms. Oddly, to her eye, his broad shoulders were draped with a thick linen cloak in dull gray and brown, though the inner layer – only