She chewed her lip and tried to stare him down. This is hardly the time
This is the time! he bellowed. You have started a war!
Sacrus started it, she said. They started it when they
But hed struck her full across the face, and she spun to the floor.
She tasted blood in her mouth. Where was Bryce? Why wasnt Moss rushing to her defense?
Why wasnt Chaison here?
Guinevera reared over her, his dense mass making her flinch back. Dont try to blame others for what youve done! You brought this catastrophe on us, imposter! I say we hang her over the battlement and let Sacrus use her for target practice. He reached down to take her arm as Venera scrambled to get her feet under her.
Light knifed through the tents entrance flap and then miraculously the whole tent lifted up as though tugged off the roof by a giant. The giants cough was still echoing in Veneras ears as the tent sailed into the permanent maelstrom at the edge of the world, and was snatched away like a torn kerchief.
Another bright explosion, and everyone ducked. Then everyone was running and shouting at once and soldiers were popping up to fire their blunderbusses, then squatting to refill them as trails of smoke and fire corkscrewed overhead. Veneras ears were still ringing, everything strangely aloof as she stood up and watched the big map on the table lift in the sudden breeze and slide horizontally into the night.
Who had it been? she wondered dimly. Had Moss turned on her? Or had Odess said something injudicious? Probably some soldier or servant of Liris had spoken out of turn But then, maybe Jacoby Sarto had become bored of his confinement and decided to liven things up a bit.
Venera was half aware that the squat cube of Liris was surrounded on three sides by an arcing constellation of torches. The red light served to illuminate the grim faces of the soldiers rushing past her. She raised her hand to stop one of them, then thought better of it. What if Guinevera had remembered to order her arrest?Or death? As she thought about her new situation, Venera began to be afraid.
Maybe she should go inside. Liris had stout walls, and she still had friends thereshe was almost sure of that. She could, whatgo chat with Jacoby Sarto in his cell?
And where was Bryce? Semaphore, that was it; hed gone to send a semaphore. She forced herself to think: the semaphore station was over there Where a big gap now yawned in the side of the battlement. Some soldiers were laying planks across it.
Oh no. No no no .
Deep inside Venera a quiet snide voice that had always been there was saying, Of course, of course. They all abandon you in the end. She shouldnt be surprised at this turn of events; she had even planned for it, in the days following her confirmation. It shouldnt come as a shock to her. So it seemed strange to watch herself, as if from outside, as she hunkered down next to the elevator mechanism at the center of the roof, and wrapped her arms around herself and cried.
I dont do this . She wiped at her face. I dont .
Maybe she did, though; she couldnt clearly remember those minutes in Candesce after she had killed Aubri Mahallan and she had been alone. Hayden Griffin had pulled Mahallans body out of sight, leaving a few bright drops of blood to twirl in the weightless air. Griffin was her only way out of Candesce, and Venera had just killed his lover. It hardly mattered that shed done it to save the world from Mahallan and her allies. No
one would ever know, and she was certain she would die there; she had only to wait for Candesce to open its fusion eyes and bring morning to the world.
Griffin had asked her to come with him. He had said he wouldnt kill her; Venera hadnt believed him. It was too big a risk. In the end she had snuck after him and ridden out of Candesce on the cargo net he was towing. Now the thought of running to the stairs and throwing herself on the mercy of her former compatriots filled her with a similar dread. Better to make herself very small here and risk being found by Guinevera or his men than to find out that even Liris now rejected her.
There they are! someone pointed excitedly. Staccato runs of gunfire sounded in the distancethey were oddly distant, in fact. If Venera had cared about anything at that moment she might have stood up to look.
Were gonna outflank them!
Something blew up on the outskirts of Liriss territory. The orange mushroom lit the whole world for a moment, a flicker of estates and ornamental ponds overhead. Her ground forces must have made it here just after Sacruss.
Well. Not her forces, she thought bitterly. Not anymore .
There she is! Venera jerked and tried to back up, but she was already pressed against the elevator platform. A squat silhouette reared up in front of her and something whipped toward her.
She cringed. Nothing happened; after a moment she looked up.
An open hand hovered a few inches above her. A distant flicker of red lit the extended hand and behind it, the toadish features of Samson Odess. His broad face wore an expression of concern. Venera, are you hurt?