retrieved her hand. Just as she was leaving, Wa-Ka-Mo-Do called to her.
‘One last thing, La-Ver-Di-Arussah. What do you know of the city of Ell?’
‘Ell, Honoured Commander? What do you mean?’
She was hiding something, Wa-Ka-Mo-Do knew it.
‘It is nothing,’ he said.
La-Ver-Di-Arussah left, pushing her way through the leather curtain.
Ka-Lo-Re-Harballah waited until she was out of earshot and then turned to his commander, eyes glowing in awe.
‘Honoured Commander. Such speed-’
‘Do you know who this is?’ interrupted Wa-Ka-Mo-Do, pointing to the dead soldier.
‘Zil-Wa-Tem. Originally from Ka.’
Ka. Wa-Ka-Mo-Do had a momentary thought of Jai-Lyn.
‘Ka,’ he repeated. ‘Look at this leather, look how carefully it has been stitched to make this skin. Who can have done this?’
‘There is a whole market full of people out there who could have done it,’ said Ka-Lo-Re-Harballah.
‘Yes. But some of them will know.’
Wa-Ka-Mo-Do stared at the dead robot. Zil-Wa-Tem’s coil was cut, his eyes dim. Someone had pushed an awl up into his mind, tangling and shorting the twisted metal there.
‘I really don’t understand!’ said Ka-Lo-Re-Harballah in despair. ‘Where is this dissent coming from? The robots of Sangrel province are woven to be loyal. For generations loyal parents have woven loyalty into their children.
‘But loyalty to whom?’ asked Wa-Ka-Mo-Do, thoughtfully. ‘Loyalty to their Emperor, or to Sangrel, or to themselves?’
He came to a decision.
‘Ka-Lo-Re-Harballah, fetch two trusted soldiers. Strip this robot and then disassemble his body, carry it from this place. Then I want you to return here and take the skin. Carry it, carefully concealed, around the market, looking for robots who stitch leather for a trade, and show it to them, and when you show it to them, watch their reaction.’
‘Understood, Honoured Commander.’
‘I will return to the Copper Master’s house to think.’
Wa-Ka-Mo-Do rose to his feet. As he made to leave Ka-Lo-Re-Harballah called out to him.
‘Honoured Commander?’
‘Yes Ka-Lo-Re-Harballah?’
‘Are we right not to tell the Emperor what has happened here?’
‘Would you prefer that we take arms against this market place, Ka-Lo-Re-Harballah?’
The young robot didn’t say anything.
‘Then there is your answer.’
The following day dawned tinged in silver. The strange light from the night before hung in the air, turning the rocks to the colour of metal. Kavan stood in a land of frozen mercury, solidified as it poured from the sky. The snow glinted oddly like quartz in neon.
Calor appeared before Kavan, her bright body covered in scratches. Melting snow dripped from her body.
‘There’s a trap ahead, Kavan,’ she said.
‘How far?’
‘Less than a mile. There’s a bridge, the biggest I’ve ever seen. It crosses between two mountains. Several Scouts have gone across it, none have come back.’
‘Can you see anything on the far side?’
‘Movement. I can’t tell what.’ Calor looked around and buzzed. ‘What’s happened to the moon, Kavan?’
‘I don’t know.’
He looked around for Ada. She was balancing on one leg, holding onto the wall of the road with one hand as she fiddled with her foot with the other.
‘Ada,’ he called. ‘What do you know about a bridge ahead?’
‘The Evening Bridge,’ she said. ‘It marks the border of Born.’
Kavan looked back to Calor.
‘They will guard their border. Whether they mean to attack us or allow us to pass remains to be seen. Come on, let’s go and see.’
Kavan stood near the start of the bridge, looking at the biggest bolt he had ever seen. It was screwed into a wide metal plate riveted into the black rock. Red paint covered the large mushroom rivets that held the construction against the mountainside. Turning around, Kavan saw a huge red pipe looping up into the air, arching out over the sheer drop of the chasm by which they stood, and then dropping down to the pier of stone that rose from the centre of the chasm, a stepping stone between the mountains. Another red pipe did the same in parallel, a hundred feet away. And suspended beneath these two pipes, a road.
It was a bridge, but a bridge like none that Kavan had ever seen before.
‘How come we never saw anything like this when we conquered these mountains?’
‘We never came this far west,’ answered Calor.
‘They have to keep it painted,’ said Ada, ‘or the iron would just flake away.’
‘How do they do it?’ wondered Kavan.
‘Magnetic feet,’ said Ada.
He gazed across the bridge, felt the wind whipping through his body.
‘It would be the easiest thing to defend the far side.’
‘Then what shall we do?’ asked Calor.
‘I’ll cross,’ said Kavan. ‘Perhaps they will speak to me.’
‘And if they don’t?’
‘The Uncertain Army will find its own way south. Ada can guide it out of the mountains, and after that Nyro’s will shall prevail.’
‘I’ll come with you, Kavan,’ said Calor. Kavan looked at the Scout, saw how she twitched and buzzed.
‘No, Calor. I need you to stay and organize the Scouts. Don’t let any more of them across.’
‘Okay, Kavan.’
Kavan stepped onto the bridge. So much metal, it was a wonder it hadn’t been taken and twisted into more minds and robots. Whoever guarded it must be strong indeed.
He began to walk, listening to the wind singing through the struts and cables, looking down at the peaks below him, wrapped in clouds and mist. This would be a clear blue morning, were it not for the fading silver light that filled the sky. Now Kavan reached the central pier: an island of stone on which an iron and brick support for the bridge had been built. He looked down. There were buildings there, clustered on this island in the sky, and on the roof of one, the silver body of a Scout lay, unmoving. Someone would retrieve the metal later, one way or another.
Now he moved on to the second span. He saw movement ahead. Figures on the other side of the bridge. More and more of them, crowding in. Robots, but oddly built. Too tall, too thin.
Kavan walked on. A robot detached itself from the group ahead and came forward onto the bridge to meet him. They met halfway across the second span, standing in the wind above the swirling mists below, the silver light fading from the sky above them.
‘You are Kavan, and behind you is your army.’
‘Sort of,’ said Kavan. ‘They may become my army. Will you join us or fight us?’
‘I haven’t yet decided.’
Kavan looked at the other robot. It was much taller and thinner than he was. Its limbs seemed to bend like springs when it moved, and Kavan wondered how it would look climbing from rock to rock up here in the mountains, how it would swing its body from ledge to ledge.
