you?”
“I’ve said as much. I will wait here, in the lobby. If she is ready for my company, I shall accompany her wherever she desires.”
“I see,” the servant said again. His tongue darted in and out of his small, tight mouth and he appeared more flustered than ever. He was about to make another comment, but thought the better of it and retreated toward the elevators.
Aldo watched him scuttle off with amusement. He then located the softest settee in the lobby and settled himself down upon the red velvet.
A familiar voice caused his head to turn minutes later. “There you are, Aldo,” Duchess Embrak said. “I must say, this is a surprise.”
The servant was in her wake, his eyes all but popping from his head. Duchess Embrak was not the forgiving sort. Aldo estimated that the servant’s job was probably in his hands. At one suggestion from him, Aldo could probably break the man’s contract. But that wasn’t how refined people behaved in these situations. So, he rose and brushed his lips over the Duchess’ white hand, ignoring her stooge.
“Perhaps you can show me something of your hotel, or the town itself?” he suggested.
She eyed him. An amused smile played upon her lips. “You took my invitation quite literally.”
Aldo feigned surprise. “Should I have done otherwise? I’m sorry, I’m new to your world and your customs. On Neu Schweitz, invitations are always given in earnest.”
“Naturally. Please, come this way.”
The Duchess walked toward the entrance to an indoor garden area. She flicked her fingers at her frightened servant and he vanished with surprising speed. Aldo followed her and soon they walked abreast among lilacs and daffodils.
“How do such flowers stay alive in permanent shadow?” he asked.
The Duchess indicated the ceiling, which glowed with purplish light. “They consume energy from artificial sources, I’m afraid.”
“They are real flowers, though? Varieties from Old Earth? I see a rose bush here. Are those yellow tea roses? I’m shocked.”
“We aren’t as backward as you may have been led to believe. When the trade ships come, we give them raw metals, materials we have in abundance on Ignis Glace. In turn, they provide us with rare goods such as these plants.”
“I’m impressed with the wealth your planet must have to offer. I hadn’t thought a world so far from the major trade routes-well, never mind that.”
“Yes, let’s drop all pretenses. Why have come to meet with me, Aldo Moreno?”
Aldo smiled. Duchess Embrak stared back icily. Seeing her expression, Aldo shifted his planned coy response toward honesty, as he could see this woman was not going to be easily misled.
“Two reasons, Your Grace,” he said. “I wanted to talk to you of your world’s inadequate defenses.”
“And secondly?”
“I wished to enjoy your refined company again.”
The Duchess’ eyes flashed dangerously. Aldo knew he’d made an error, but he was uncertain what it might be.
“I was under the impression, sir, that you have occupied yourself with Baroness Droad.”
“Ah,” Aldo said, feeling a trifle hot in the face, “I have met with her as well, it’s true. I understood she was in charge of a large ground force in Twilight.”
The Duchess inclined her head. “That’s the only reason? Not because she is young, pretty and vivacious?”
“Is she? I’d not noticed.”
The Duchess snorted quietly. She paused for several long seconds, considering her options. “Very well,” she said at last. “I will allow you to pay your attentions to me now.”
She held out her elbow, which Aldo took in both of his hands. Together they walked slowly through the gardens and discussed flowers, space forces and alien capacities for destruction.
For once, Aldo was not certain of the intentions of his consort. For him, this was an unfamiliar situation. As a consummate schemer and general rogue, he’d not often met his female match, not even in high society. But the Duchess was something of a mystery to him. He did not understand why she had warmed up to him suddenly, even when she clearly knew he’d recently bedded Nina.
Hours later, in the depths of the night, they coupled repeatedly. Aldo was still unsure of exactly why she allowed the activity. He sensed in her manner a deep, resentful anger. What was she hiding below the surface?
He could not help but wonder what he had gotten himself into now.
Sixty-Two felt increasingly safe as his army marched on through the wilds of Twilight toward the frozen wastes of Nightside. Each clanking step took them farther from the warmth and light of the red star behind them. The sun was still visible, a crimson gleaming line on the distant horizon. The suntrees were gone now, no longer capable of surviving in this environment. They’d been replaced by sticky, cauliflower-shaped fungi that hugged the ground and caught on one’s foot as they were trampled down. The temperature of the air was dropping, and the wind speeds were increasing. Soon, there would be snowy patches on the ground and flakes swirling around every mech in his army. Sixty-Two felt like a thief in the night-but a happy thief that has escaped unscathed into the gathering dusk.
The mechs pressed onward. They found a small, frosty lake and saw crusts of ice accumulating on the farther, darker shore. Sixty-Two broadcast an immediate command: “Enter the waters of the lake. Walk across on the bottom and surface on the far side.”
Without a moment’s hesitation, his army plunged in, and he followed them. They walked the bottom for two full minutes before reaching the far shore. Sixty-Two led them up into the air again, watching steam pour off every one of his comrades as their hot bodies turned the dripping lake water into vapor.
On the icy shoreline, they were startled by a massive rush of bats-or the equivalent of bats here in deep Twilight. Called ‘leather-wings’ by locals, a flock of the creatures had been feeding along the shores of the inky- black lake. Due to their proximity to permanent darkness, this species used sonar to echo-locate objects around them. When alarmed, they made a high-pitched racket that few enjoyed. The flapping leather-wings screamed and squeaked, hurling themselves from the ground in a swirling storm. Sixty-Two led his mech army through the flock, and he noticed most mechs appeared oblivious to the creatures. A notable exception was Lizett, who flailed with her grippers and made keening noises of distress with her speakers.
Sixty-Two approached her. “Lizett, are you malfunctioning?”
“I hate these things!”
Sixty-Two snapped his orb-shields closed then open again in surprise. Then he laughed. “They can’t harm you, not even if you were still clothed in flesh. They only eat fungus and lake mosses.”
“I know,” she said, calming somewhat in his presence. “But they still upset me.”
For some reason, Sixty-Two found Lizett’s dislike of the leather-wings endearing. He marched with her, discussing the growing darkness around them, and what they would do when the sun was gone from the sky forever. Lizett didn’t like the idea of living in darkness, even if her orbs could see heat signatures and would allow her to navigate by starlight.
Sixty-Two suddenly recalled Lizett’s burden and became concerned. She carried the human pilgrim they’d found on the highway in a skin sack on her back. He had charged her with this responsibility because she was the only non-combatant in the group. “What of the man in your charge? Has he survived the trip through the lake?”
“I’m not sure. Let’s check.”
Together, they opened the skin sack. A skinny, wet, shivering man stared back out of the sack at them.
“He lives,” Lizett said.
Sixty-Two looked doubtfully at the wretch. “It will soon become too cold for him. And if we walk through any more freezing lakes, he will surely perish.”
Lizett looked up at Sixty-Two with quivering orbs. “I don’t want him to die. I want to keep him.”
