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the tall cinderbuds shook in the gale, and the noise of the wind formed a bass
background to the subdued conversations of the shuffling people still finding
their places in the great hall.
'Shouldn't they have put the shutters down?' Gurgeh asked the drone. He sat
in the stoolseat. Flere-Imsaho floated, buzzing and crackling, behind him.
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The
Adjudicator and his helpers were checking the positions of the pieces.
'Yes,' Flere-Imsaho said. 'The fire's less than two hours away. They can
drop the shutters in the last few minutes if they have to, but they don't
usually wait that long. I'd watch it, Gurgeh. Legally, the Emperor isn't
allowed to call on the physical option at this stage, but there's something
funny going on. I can sense it.'
Gurgeh wanted to say something cutting about the drone's senses, but his
stomach was churning, and he felt something was wrong, too. He looked over at
the bench where Hamin sat. The withered apex hadn't moved. His eyes were
still closed.
'Something else,' Flere-Imsaho said.
'What?'
'There's some sort of extra gear up there, on the ceiling.'
Gurgeh glanced up without making it too obvious. The jumble of ECM and
screening equipment looked much as it always had, but then he'd never
inspected it very closely. 'What sort of gear?' he asked.
'Gear that is worryingly opaque to my senses, which it shouldn't be. And that
Guards colonel's wired with an optic-remote mike.'
'The officer talking to Nicosar?'
'Yes. Isn't that against the rules?'
'Supposed to be.'
'Want to raise it with the Adjudicator?'
The Adjudicator was standing at the edge of the board, between two burly
guards. He looked frightened and grim. When his gaze fell on Gurgeh, it
seemed to go straight through him. 'I have a feeling,' Gurgeh whispered, 'it
wouldn't do any
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'Me too. Want me to get the ship to come in?'
'Can it get here before the fire?'
'Just.'
Gurgeh didn't have to think too long. 'Do it,' he said.
'Signal sent. You remember the drill with the implant?'
'Vividly.'
'Great,' Flere-Imsaho said sourly. 'A high-speed displace from a hostile
environment with some grey-area effector gear around. Just what I need.'
The hall was full, the doors were closed. The Adjudicator glanced resentfully
over at the Guards colonel standing near Nicosar. The officer gave the
briefest of nods. The Adjudicator announced the recommencement of the game.
Nicosar made a couple of inconsequential moves. Gurgeh couldn't see what the
Emperor was aiming at. He must be trying to do something, but what? It
didn't appear to have anything to do with winning the game. He tried to catch
Nicosar's eye, but the apex refused to look at him. Gurgeh rubbed his cut lip
and cheek.
I'm invisible
, he thought.
The cinderbuds swayed and shook in the storm outside; their leaves had spread
to their maximum extent, and - whipped by the gale - they looked indistinct
and merged, like one huge dull yellow organism quivering and poised beyond the
castle walls. Gurgeh could sense people in the hall moving restlessly,
muttering to each other, glancing at the still unshuttered windows. The
guards stayed at the hall's exits, guns ready.
Nicosar made certain moves, placing element-cards in particular positions.
Gurgeh still couldn't see what the point of all this was. The noise of the
storm beyond the shaking windows was enough to all but drown the voices of the
people in the hall. The smell of the cinderbuds' volatile saps and juices
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pervaded the air, and some dry shreds of their leaves had found their way in
to the hall somehow, to soar and float and curl on currents of air inside the
great hall.
High in the stone-dark sky beyond the windows, a burning orange glow lit up
the
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Gurgeh began to sweat; he walked over the board, made some replying moves,
attempting to draw Nicosar out. He heard somebody in the observers'
gallery crying out, and then being quieted. The guards stood silently,
watchfully, at the doors and around the board. The Guards colonel Nicosar had
been talking to earlier stood near the Emperor. As he went back to his
stoolseat, Gurgeh thought he saw tears on the officer's cheeks.
Nicosar had been sitting. Now he stood, and, taking four element-cards,
strode to the centre of the patterned terrain.
Gurgeh wanted to shout out or leap up; something; anything. But he felt
rooted, transfixed. The guards in the room had tensed, the Emperor's hands
were visibly shaking. The storm outside whipped the cinderbuds like something
conscious and spiteful; a spear of orange leapt ponderously above the tops of
the plants, writhed briefly against the wall of darkness behind it, then sank
slowly out of sight.
'Oh dear holy shit,' Flere-Imsaho whispered. 'That's only five minutes away.'
'What?' Gurgeh glanced at the machine.
'Five minutes,' the drone said, with a realistic gulp. 'It ought to be nearly
an hour off. It can't have got here this quick. They've started a new
fire-front.'
Gurgeh closed his eyes. He felt the tiny lump under his paper-dry tongue.
'The ship?' he said, opening his eyes again.
The drone was silent for seconds. '& No chance,' it said, voice flat,
resigned.
Nicosar stooped. He placed a fire-card on a water-symbol already on the [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]