be disassembled.”
Captain Bellevue was silent for a moment. “I doubt I would be as generous if the roles had been reversed. You’ve given this more thought than I’d believed possible.”
“Thank you.”
“Unfortunately, I must disagree.”
“Next-” Sixty-Two began, but broke off. “Excuse me? What was that?”
Captain Bellevue threw open the tent flaps and waved with his grippers. Four perrupters marched in to face Sixty-Two. As one, the perrupters raised their cannon-arms. Lizett followed them, gasping in concern.
“I’m afraid I see a different future,” Captain Bellevue said. “There shall be mech lords, as you envisioned. But most mechs will remain like these fellows: mute warriors. As for the Twilighters, they are insufferable and will be put to the slaughter.”
“You’re going to kill all the humans?” gasped Lizett.
Captain Bellevue turned to her as if noticing her presence for the first time. “No, but the herd clearly needs to be culled down to a manageable size. I require a solid population for breeding stock, of course, to produce fresh brains for new mechs. Possibly, reproduction can be automated in time and we can rid ourselves of them permanently.”
“How awful,” Lizett said.
Bellevue returned his attention back to Sixty-Two, who stood tall and quiet before him. “And now, as there is no formal process for advancement in our community, I will introduce an informal one. You are to be executed. I do this out of necessity, not malice, I want you to understand. You are a great mech among us, and you will always be remembered fondly. Possibly, I’ll build a statue in the courtyard of my personal castle in your honor.”
“How nice,” Lizett said.
Bellevue and Sixty-Two both slid their orbs to look at her for a moment, then returned their attention to one another again, without making any comment.
“Do you have any last words before the sentence is carried out?” Bellevue asked politely.
“Just two,” Sixty-Two said. “Override shutdown.”
“An odd choice, I-” Bellevue stopped speaking. He looked in sudden concern at his perrupters. All of them had stopped functioning. One that stood to his right and behind him fell forward, having been slightly off-balance. He struck the back of the one in front of him as he toppled. They both pitched onto the floor. The two on his left stood solidly, if motionless. Their glowing LEDs were quiet dead, however.
“A built-in failsafe?” Bellevue asked. “Impressive. I didn’t know about this.”
“I apologize,” Sixty-Two said, “I have kept certain details even from my closest officers.”
Bellevue drew his power-sword then, and thumbed it to its highest setting. Sixty-Two did the same.
“This puts a different light on things,” Bellevue said. “Shall we duel for the honor of leading our people?”
“I’m afraid I’ve already broadcast for help. Every mech in the compound should be here shortly to arrest you.”
Bellevue chuckled. “Do you honestly think I wasn’t prepared for that? Shouldn’t they have already arrived?”
Sixty-Two had suspected as much. “Very well. If you will not accept my commands, you give me no choice. But Lizett, perhaps you should step outside to prevent injury.”
Bellevue’s blade flicked out to interpose itself between Lizett and the exit. It sizzled with maximum plasma power. “I don’t think so. I will slay her the moment she moves to get help.”
“I’d rather stay in any case,” Lizett said quietly.
“Very well,” Sixty-Two said, stepping forward and raising his blade in salute.
The two mechs touched tips and there was a flash of brilliance that filled the enclosed space with light.
The battle began immediately, and it was intense from the start. Neither mech was highborn, but every Twilighter had some familiarity with the only honorable weapon in their culture. They slashed and cut with powerful, inaccurate blows. Sixty-Two’s metal desk was chopped twice, cutting a huge V-shaped section out of the middle of it, which clanged to the floor. One of the three big central poles holding up the tent was cut down, causing that part of the roof to sag down. When their blades reached high, they slashed holes in the fabric, which allowed intense beams of sunlight to penetrate the relative gloom of the tent.
The first casualty of the fight was Captain Bellevue’s left gripper. It was shorn half off. This caused no pain and did no damage that couldn’t be repaired with a trip to the machine shop, but it did mean he was down to one effective appendage. Sixty-Two focused on his opponent’s right gripper next, the one holding the power-sword. If he could damage both, Bellevue would be helpless.
As the battle went on, Lizett stepped away continuously, removing herself as far as possible from the action. She watched intently, but said nothing.
Captain Bellevue made a sudden lunge for her the next time the battle brought him near. Growling through his speakers, Sixty-Two beat his blade down, but had to stumble and put himself off-balance to do so.
“Ha!” shouted Bellevue triumphantly. He reversed course and swept his blade low. There was a flash of contact, and Sixty-Two’s right leg was a ruin of sparking metal.
Crippled, Sixty-Two could not withstand the onslaught that came now. He realized Bellevue’s attack on Lizett had been a feint, and he’d been duped. He fell backward, unable to retreat.
Triumphant, Bellevue stood over him and hacked down with his sword, making an odd, warbling howl of victory as he did so. Sixty-Two caught the blows, but he was in an impossible position. Knowing he was in his final moments, he told himself he’d done his best.
Suddenly, however, the situation changed. Bellevue stiffened and stopped moving. Fluids ran down his back and his legs, splattering upon Sixty-Two’s prone chassis. Something large and pinkish-gray fell down to sizzle on Sixty-Two’s hot chest plate a moment later.
“What is this?” Sixty-Two asked.
Lizett stepped around from behind the Captain, who’d gone into emergency shutdown and stood frozen in place. She pointed with a gripper to the fleshy material on Sixty-Two’s chest.
“I think that’s his brain,” she said. “I pulled it out. The rear access panel wasn’t locked, fortunately.”
“I see,” he said. “Thank you, Lizett.”
Lizett walked around Captain Bellevue’s metal corpse, looking at it appreciatively. “You know, I think he’d make a fine statue as he is. We could mount him in our courtyard.”
“Uh, I suppose we could,” Sixty-Two said. He looked up at Lizett thoughtfully. She seemed fascinated by Bellevue’s corpse, and even reached out with her grippers to make adjustments to his frozen pose. To Sixty-Two, it seemed a grotesque practice.
What crime had brought her to be convicted and sent to Sunside as a mech? He could not help but wonder about it, and he also could not help thinking he didn’t want to know the truth.
Later on, as his obedient mech troops carried him to the workshop and repaired his chassis, he planned out his march toward Nightside. They must move soon, before the Twilighters came to strike them again.
Sixteen
When Nina got the news that a ship was landing in Lavender City, she gathered company of her finest knights and rode out immediately. They could have reached the spaceport faster by taking a skimmer, but where was the grandeur in that? Instead, she rode her mount at the head of a column of exquisitely dressed and armored knights. Every banner fluttered, every power-sword and power-lance was set to zero-a setting that caused the weapons to run with plasma but which would do no injury if accidentally touched. It was a power level reserved for parades and the like, which was exactly what this was.
Lavender City was built within a natural canyon. Long and gently curving, the deep cut in the stony crust of Ignis Glace was one of the most thickly inhabited regions on the planet. The canyon was built in a two-third’s sunlit region. By virtue of being surrounded by higher land, the city in the shadowy depths of the canyon was given light
