the people here are angry. Rumour sweeps the city and the surrounding lands.’
‘The people here seem quite content, Ka-Lo-Re-Harballah.’
‘The people here haven’t lost their jobs in the mines and the fields. The people here still have goods to trade.’ For just a moment, the frustration sounded in Ka-Lo-Re-Harballah’s voice. ‘My apologies, Honoured Commander, I speak out of turn.’
‘No, not at all. It’s your duty to keep me informed. Now, lead on. What is it you wish me to see?’
A shadow passed over Ka-Lo-Re-Harballah’s face. ‘Not out here, Honoured Commander. For the moment, you are merely taking a walk in the market, inspecting the produce. Follow me, and I will show you.’
Puzzled, Wa-Ka-Mo-Do followed Ka-Lo-Re-Harballah out of the livestock market and through the tanner’s quarter, where he saw slowly turning drums filled with chromium sulphate and animal hide.
‘I knew a robot with a nose who walked through here,’ said Ka-Lo-Re-Harballah, in an attempt to appear nonchalant. ‘She said the smell was terrible!’
‘Really?’ said Wa-Ka-Mo-Do, looking at a rack of pale blue skins, drying in the sun.
They passed into the Copper Market proper, and Wa-Ka-Mo-Do halted for a moment, struck by the scene.
The stalls here were older, but more substantial. They were made of iron decorated with a fine filigree of copper. And set out on them, glowing pale pink, looking so pure it made Wa-Ka-Mo-Do ache to touch them, were ingots of copper. Beautiful, clean pink copper.
‘What couldn’t a robot make with such metal?’ he said in awe.
‘Oh, indeed,’ said Ka-Lo-Re-Harballah, ‘but not now. This way.’
They passed on, Wa-Ka-Mo-Do looking about him at the pure ingots of iron and aluminium and gold and feeling the pull of them throughout his electromuscles.
They came to the poorer part of the market, the northern end, built up against the walls and cliffs that rose up to the high city where Smithy Square and the Copper Master’s house were built. The light here was dimmer, the stalls crowded closer together. The wares on sale were of poorer quality, the robots that thronged the narrow ways were of poorer construction. Wa-Ka-Mo-Do watched a young woman searching through a selection of scraps of tin and poor alloys, hunting for the best-quality metal. Her body was cheaply made, dented and scratched. In that she resembled the other robots who walked here. Fires glowed pale red, lit by poor coal, and black smoke drifted by. Wa-Ka-Mo-Do was aware of how the robots here gazed at him. There was still fear, yes, but there was envy too. Envy of his strong body, envy of who he was. And underneath it all, resentment.
‘We’re here,’ said Ka-Lo-Re-Harballah, and Wa-Ka-Mo-Do saw he had been led to very edge of the market. The old stone walls of the city rose high up above him, partly rockface, partly bricks. Caves and rooms had been cut out of these walls, and robots had set up more stalls and forges and storerooms within them. Despite the bustle of the market, the area in front of one of the caves stood empty. There was a leather curtain draped across its entrance, and it was to this one that Ka-Lo-Re-Harballah was leading Wa-Ka-Mo-Do.
‘What is it?’ asked Wa-Ka-Mo-Do.
‘It is best that you see, Honoured Commander.’ He pulled aside the curtain, just a little, and Wa-Ka-Mo-Do stepped into the darkness beyond.
A silver robot moved towards him, drawing her blade. She let it fall when she saw who it was.
‘My apologies, Wa-Ka-Mo-Do. I did not immediately realize it was you.’
‘Peace, La-Ver-Di-Arussah.’ Wa-Ka-Mo-Do recognized her insult: she was implying that he dressed himself in the manner of a peasant.
‘At the back,’ said Ka-Lo-Re-Harballah. The cave was deeper than Wa-Ka-Mo-Do expected. An oil lamp didn’t quite illuminate its furthest reaches.
Wa-Ka-Mo-Do moved into the dimness, and he saw the body. He could not quite hide the shock in his voice.
‘It’s one of the Emperor’s army!’ he said. ‘One of the robots under my command!’ He looked closer. There was something strange about the body. The metal panelling didn’t look right, it didn’t look like steel and aluminium should…
‘It’s leather,’ he said softly, reaching out to touch the skin. ‘They took off the metal panelling and dressed him in animal skin.’
Wa-Ka-Mo-Do knew that he could not show his concern to his inferiors, yet it was a struggle to remain calm in the face of this obscenity. What minds would do this to a robot?
‘There was a note around his neck,’ said La-Ver-Di-Arussah.
She held out a thin sheet of foil with words inscribed upon it. A human next time…
Wa-Ka-Mo-Do felt as if there was a current running through the metal of the note. It seemed to surge through his body, burning him.
‘When did they find him?’
‘Last night. The brothers who owned this place have vanished. There are rumours that they were involved with the resistance.’ Ka-Lo-Re-Harballah’s voice was laced with static. ‘These were robots who did this. Robots will suffer because of this. Children will lose their parents. Husbands will lose wives.’
Something occurred to him. ‘Does the Emperor know of this?’ he asked Ka-Lo-Re-Harballah.
‘Not yet.’
Wa-Ka-Mo-Do looked at the dead guard again. ‘Then he shan’t,’ he decided.
‘That isn’t your choice to make,’ observed La-Ver-Di-Arussah.
Wa-Ka-Mo-Do spun to face her.
‘Would you question my orders?’
‘Not at all, Honoured Commander,’ she replied, and she rested her hand on her sword. ‘But I consider it my duty to advise you.’
‘But not in such a manner that I lose face,’ replied Wa-Ka-Mo-Do, and he drew his own sword so quickly that even La-Ver-Di-Arussah’s eyes flashed in surprise. ‘And so for the second time I wonder if you are challenging me to a duel. Or would you rather apologize for insulting me before an inferior?’
‘Honoured Commander, I-’
‘Silence, Ka-Lo-Re-Harballah. Before you answer, La-Ver-Di-Arussah, I should explain. Whoever did this is expecting an extreme response. They are hoping that arrests will be made, and that examples will be set. They are hoping to see coils being crushed in Smithy Square as they believe that will galvanize the people to more acts of defiance and subversion.’
La-Ver-Di-Arussah remained motionless, her hand still on her sword.
‘Would you force the Emperor’s hand, La-Ver-Di-Arussah? I suggest that there are some things the Emperor would prefer not to know! Would you have it said that the Emperor knew of this outrage, of one of his soldiers humiliated so, and yet he stayed his hand for fear of inflaming the uprising that would lead to the humans being harmed?’
‘The Emperor does not fear the humans!’
‘Of course he does not. Yet who would seek a fight where none is necessary? Let us second guess those who perpetrated this atrocity, let us choose the cultured way, let us listen in the silence, let us ask the quiet question, and then, when we find the answer, strike quickly and mercilessly, decapitating this monster, rather than feeding it.’
La-Ver-Di-Arussah held his gaze for some time, and then, slowly, she withdrew her hand from her sword. Wa-Ka-Mo-Do resheathed his own.
‘You are right, Honoured Commander.’ There was the faintest edge of sarcasm to her words. ‘And I thank you for your instruction. May I say, it was never my intention to challenge you to a duel, or to hurt you.’ And she drew her own sword, brought it flashing through the air to stop just before Wa-Ka-Mo-Do’s head. He looked at the blade, so sharp, poised just between his eyes, watched as it fell to the ground, La-Ver-Di-Arussah’s hand still gripping the hilt.
All three robots looked to Wa-Ka-Mo-Do’s sword, they marvelled at the way it had been drawn and cut through the wrist, all in one movement.
‘And it was not my intention to hurt you,’ replied Wa-Ka-Mo-Do. ‘The hand will be easily reattached.’
‘Of course, Honoured Commander.’
Using her other hand, La-Ver-Di-Arussah took the sword from the floor, resheathed it, bowed, and then
