You will ensure this message goes out to the Copper Guard immediately.’
‘Ka-Lo-Re-Harballah can do that.’
Wa-Ka-Mo-Do’s voice remained level.
‘You question my orders? Do you wish to fight me now? Challenge me to a duel, if you believe you would make the better commander?’
He held her gaze. This was the true warrior’s duel, Wa-Ka-Mo-Do knew. Before the swords were drawn, before the bullets were fired: when two robots gazed into each others eyes to see who would falter first.
That robot was La-Ver-Di-Arussah.
‘Fight a duel, Honoured Commander?’ she smiled. ‘That may be the way in the High Spires, but certainly not in the Silent City. And not even here in Sangrel. Of course I will carry out your orders immediately.’
At that she turned and walked away.
Wa-Ka-Mo-Do looked at Ka-Lo-Re-Harballah, hot current humming within him.
‘Well, Ka-Lo-Re-Harballah?’ he said.
‘Honoured Commander?’
‘Release the prisoners.’
They turned to the four robots.
‘But Honoured Commander, they will have seen and heard everything!’
‘Good! Then the word will spread, that the new commander will not tolerate anything that will bring the name of Sangrel and the Emperor into dispute.’
‘As you wish, Honoured Commander.’
Whilst Ka-Lo-Re-Harballah gave the orders, Wa-Ka-Mo-Do turned and gazed around the square. There were so many people here, robot and animal. But it was the humans who drew his attention still, so alien, so unnatural in their strange panelling, their insubstantial bodies. They seemed so ineffectual, and yet look at the trouble they had already brought to Sangrel.
‘Tell me, Ka-Lo-Re-Harballah. Do you think that the animals have souls, as we do?’
‘Souls, Honoured Commander?’
‘I mean, they are obviously intelligent, I have seen evidence of their machinery as I travelled here. But do they have that capacity twisted into their wire that means they can appreciate beauty, as we can?’
‘I think so, Honoured Commander. Look over there.’
Wa-Ka-Mo-Do had already noticed the animals that leaned on the stone balustrade at the western edge of Smithy Square. Now he saw how they were looking out over the western lands of Sangrel province, over the rolling green hills, over the neat orange squares of the open cast mines and quarries, over the tall mine towers. They were gazing at the still blue waters of Lake Ochoa and the Mound of Eternity beyond. They were obviously enjoying the view.
‘I would fear a robot with a soul far more than a merely intelligent animal,’ quoted Wa-Ka-Mo-Do. ‘For only a robot with a soul would understand cruelty.’
He gazed again at the animals standing by the balustrade. They all wore grey and green panelling, and something about the way they moved put him in mind of soldiers. The other animals in the square wore different colours, striking colours, many of which Wa-Ka-Mo-Do had never seen before. Pale greens that seemed to fluoresce in the sunlight, strong reds like iron in the fire. Their panelling reminded him of the flowers of the forest.
‘Look around and one may believe that all is harmony,’ said Wa-Ka-Mo-Do.
‘Indeed,’ answered Ka-Lo-Re-Harballah.
‘I wonder just how aware the Emperor is of what is happening in Sangrel?’
Ka-Lo-Re-Harballah waited for two young women to walk past. Their panelling was of the thinnest aluminium, their golden electromuscle lovely to behold. They were carrying bundles of red cloth in their arms. Now Ka-Lo-Re- Harballah spoke in low tones.
‘I have heard that the Vestal Virgins walk abroad. There is talk that they once more inhabit the Eternal Mound.’
‘The Vestal Virgins?’ Wa-Ka-Mo-Do feigned innocence, but he remembered the Emperor’s words back in the Silent City. He knew the Vestal Virgins had been sent here to watch him. ‘But why would the Emperor send them here?’ he asked.
‘To ensure that Emperor’s wishes are followed.’
‘Am I to command them too?’
‘Honoured Commander, you joke. For you know, of course, that the Vestal Virgins answer to none save the Emperor.’
And perhaps not even him, Wa-Ka-Mo-Do added to himself.
‘There may be another reason for the Vestal Virgins’ presence, Honoured Commander. For it is known that where the Emperor wishes to forge peace and harmony and accord, there he sends his Imperial Army.’
‘Indeed.’
‘And where the seeds of discord are to be sewn, then the Vestal Virgins can be found, tending and watering and pruning.’ Ka-Lo-Re-Harballah lowered his voice further, and Wa-Ka-Mo-Do could feel the burning shame he felt has he gave his warning. ‘Watch the humans, Honoured Commander. Listen to their words. For I do not think they are telling all.’
Wa-Ka-Mo-Do looked around the square, felt the peace and the tranquility of hundreds of years of history.
‘It is difficult to think that such things can come to an end, Ka-Lo-Re-Harballah.’
‘I fear they have ended already,’ said Ka-Lo-Re-Harballah, gazing at the green-panelled humans by the balustrade. They had finished their contemplation of the view and were walking back to the Emperor’s Palace. They seemed to march almost in step.
‘Come, let us enter the Copper Master’s house, Ka-Lo-Re-Harballah. I’m sure that things will not be as bad as you describe.’
‘Perhaps not.’
Wa-Ka-Mo-Do placed his foot on the steps leading up to the white house, but Ka-Lo-Re-Harballah touched a hand to his elbow.
‘Before we do…’ Ka-Lo-Re-Harballah seemed to be struggling with his conscience. ‘I do not like to say this, Honoured Commander, but I would speak the truth. You are an outsider, one of the Eleven from the High Spires. Robots famed for their skill on the battlefield, robots who proved themselves in the past when Yukawa had enemies on its borders, but who are rarely required in these more, shall we say, settledtimes.’
‘That may be so, Ka-Lo-Re-Harballah.’
‘Indeed. I am sorry to say this, Honoured Commander, but do you not feel that you are a strange choice for such an important command as this?’
‘Explain yourself, Ka-Lo-Re-Harballah,’ said Wa-Ka-Mo-Do sternly, though the same suspicions walked his own mind.
‘I am sorry, Honoured Commander, but animals walk abroad in Sangrel, dissent is rife among the population. Surely this is a job for a commander of the Imperial Army, one versed in politics, one who knows the area? A robot such as La-Ver-Di-Arussah? Yet when the call came, no such robot was found to be suitable.’
Wa-Ka-Mo-Do said nothing. Emboldened, Ka-Lo-Re-Harballah spoke on.
‘I wonder why the Emperor has had you sent here, and I feel it is because it will not matter so much if you fail.’
The young robot gazed directly into Wa-Ka-Mo-Do’s eyes.
‘I fear that you are to be made a scapegoat, Honoured Commander.’
Susan knelt in the making room, twisting the metal of the Storm Trooper who sat before her.
She hated the Storm Troopers, hated the thick feel of their wire in her hands, hated the sharp feel of the potential current in there.
‘There we are ladies, you may put down the minds.’
Susan remembered the first time she had put down a half-completed mind, the horror she had felt at seeing
