Venera tamped down on her anger. Sarto was used to dealing in cold political equations; so was she, for that matter. What he was proposing shouldnt shock her. But if Im disgraced, I cant betray my people.
Your usefulness plummets, he said with a nod. So, no, I didnt tattle on you. Youre hardly of any value now, are you? All youve got is the key. If your own sides turned against you, your only remaining option is to throw yourself on the mercy of Sacrus. Which might win me some points if Im the one who brings you in, but not as much, and
And I have no reason to expect good treatment from them, she finished. So
why should I do it?
He stood upslowly, mindful of her gunand walked a little distance away. He gazed up at the rooms little windows. What other option do you have? he asked.
She thought at first that hed said this rhetorically, but something about his tone It had sounded like a genuine question.
Venera sat there for a while, thinking. She went over the incident with the council members on the roof; who could have outted her? Everything depended on thatand on when it had happened. Sarto said nothing, merely waited patiently with his arms crossed, staring idly up at the little window.
Finally she nodded and stood up. All right, she said. Jacoby, I think we can still come to an accommodation. Heres what Im thinking
19
She unscrewed her helmet and looked up into a couple of dozen gun barrels. They were all different, like a museum display taken down and offered to her; in her dazed state she almost reached to grab one. But there were hands holding them tightly and grim men behind the hands.
When she and Sarto had reached the rooftop of Liris, they found a theatrical jumble of bodies, torn tenting, and brazier fires surrounded by huddling men in outlandish armor. At the center of it all, the thick metal cable that rose up and out of sight into the turbulent mists; that cable glowed gold now as distant Candesce awoke.
She had spotted Moss and headed over, keeping her head down in case there were snipers. He looked up, lines of exhaustion apparent around his eyes. Glancing past her, he spotted Sarto. Whats this?
We need to break this siege. Im going over the wall, and Sarto is coming with me.
Moss blinked, but his permanently shocked expression revealed none of his thoughts. What for?
I dont know whether the commanders of our encircling force have been told that Im an imposter and traitor. I need to bring Jacoby Sarto in case I need a ticket, I suppose you could call it into their good graces.
He nodded reluctantly. And how do you p-propose to reach our force? S-Sacrus is between us and them.
Now she grinned. Well, you couldnt do this with all of us, but I propose that we jump.
Of course theyd had help from an ancient catapult that Liris had once used to fire mail and parcels over an enemy nation to an ally some three miles away. Venera had seen it on her second day here; with a little effort, it had been refitted to seat two people. But nobody, least of all her, knew whether it would still work. Her only consolation had been the low gravity in Spyre.
Now Venera had two possible scripts she could follow, one if these were soldiers of the Council Alliance, one if they owed their allegiance to Sacrus. But which were they? The fall had been so disorienting that she couldnt tell where theyd ended up. So she merely put up her hands and smiled and said, Hello.
Beside her Jacoby Sarto groaned and rolled over. Instantly another dozen guns aimed at him. I think were not that much of a threat, Venera said mildly. She received a kick in the back (which she barely felt through the metal) for her humor.
A throb of pain shot through her jawand an odd thing happened. Such spasms of pain had plagued her for years, ever since the day she woke up in Rushs military infirmary, her head bandaged like a delicate vase about to be shipped via the postal system. Each stab of pain had come with its own little thought, whose content varied somewhat but always translated roughly to either Im all alone or Im going to kill them . Fear and fury, they stabbed her repeatedly throughout each day. The fierce headaches that often built over the hours just added to her meanness.
But shed taken the bullet that struck her jaw and blown it back out the very same gun that had shot her. So, when her jaw cramped this time, instead of her usual misery, Venera had a flash of memory: the morning gun going off with a tremendous explosion in her hands, bucking and kicking and sending her flying backward into the Lirisians. She had no idea what the feeling accompanying that had been, but she liked it.
So she grinned crookedly and stood
up. Dusting herself off, she said with dignity, I am Amandera Thrace-Guiles, and this is Jacoby Sarto of the Spyre Council. We need to talk to your commanders.
It turned out that theyd nearly overshot both Sacrus and Council Alliance positions. Luckily, several hundred pairs of eyes had tracked their progress across the rolled-up sky of Spyre and it was her army that had gotten to Venera and Jacoby first. Sarto didnt seem too upset about the outcome, which was telling. What was even more significant was that everyone was calling her Lady Thrace-Guiles, which meant that word of her deceptions hadnt made it out of Liris. Here, Venera was still a respected leader.