The robots of the plains weren’t used to these high passes; the days when the sun reflected so brightly from the snow that their eyes filled with flashing interference, the nights where the temperature dropped so low that metal became brittle and electro-muscle would tear if flexed too quickly. They were playful in the cold, scooping handfuls of snow from the banks as they passed by, kicking at the ice formed in the lee of the low walls. And then the temperature dropped further and they tapped at joints that seized up through contraction, they looked at canisters of diesel turned waxy by the cold.
Kavan walked with Ada.
‘What if we are attacked here?’ asked a Storm Trooper, its body emitting clanking, popping noises as it stamped along beside them. The cold was not kind to its large frame.
‘We fight,’ replied Kavan, simply.
Only the Scouts seemed happy. Or not so much happy as manic. They jumped and skidded down steep banks of snow, skiing on extended claws towards sheer drops, only flicking a foot at the last moment to veer clear of the edge. Sometimes they went over and Kavan and the rest listened for the distant clatter of metal hitting rock.
There was no sign of any other robots this high up.
‘Oh, they’re here,’ said Ada. ‘They’ll be watching you.’
‘Who will be?’
‘The Borners. This is their territory.’
‘Artemis territory.’
‘No. This isn’t the part we conquered. I’m talking about the real Borners. The robots of the mountains.’
‘You like to draw questions from me, don’t you Ada? Very well, there is time whilst we walk. Tell me about the robots of the mountains.
The Story of the Robots of the Mountains
‘Long ago, robots found the land of Born, a thin stretch of land squeezed between the sea and the mountains. Now, some say that the first inhabitants of that land descended to it from the peaks, and others say that the first inhabitants climbed from the sea, but all are agreed that the land of Born was a paradise for robots. The ground was rich in coal, buried so shallow that a robot did not have to mine, but could pull it straight from the earth. All they had to do was hold out their hands for iron ore to tumble onto them from a nearby mountain. Some days, it was said, even molten lead would rise from the earth around their feet, ready to be scooped up and used. A robot could stand in one place and wait for the materials of the forge to come to it.
‘And so robots flourished in the land of Born. It is said that the whales would come to the shore to speak, secure in the knowledge they would not be harmed, such was the abundance of metal in the land, and so a friendship grew up here between the two species.
‘Some even say that robots travelled from the Top of the World, riding in the bodies of the whales.
‘So the robots lived a life of ease. But such ease does not suit robotkind. For sloth and indolence took hold of those robots, until there came the day that that the best women of Born looked at the men, and they found them wanting.
‘There was much iron to be found in the mountains, so much so that the men took it for granted, making themselves bodies of iron, and never bothering to roam further afield in search of copper or chrome or nickel. Therefore the best of the women began to complain of the diminishing quality of the men’s wire, for the minds that they wove would be much improved by the presence of silver or a little gold, but the men just laughed and said the women were being too demanding, and wasn’t that the way of women?
‘Eventually the best women tired of this. So one night, when Zuse and Neel shared the sky and the snow of the mountains seemed to shine palely itself, the women took themselves along the paths into the high peaks. There they built themselves castles and towers out of rock, and they set traps and deadfalls and did all they could to make the passage to themselves as difficult as possible, that only the most worthy men could reach them-’
‘I’ve heard this story before,’ interrupted Kavan. ‘In the North Kingdom. And in Stark.’
‘This is not a story,’ said Ada. ‘Follow this path and you will see the places in the mountains that the women built. You will see the high balconies upon which they waited.’
‘Very well,’ said Kavan, ‘I believe you.’
Ada resumed her story.
‘The women waited. Eventually, the first men came climbing up to meet them. Those women looked down from their high towers that pierced the clear blue sky and saw the robots climbing the icy paths. But these robots were not the men they had left behind in the lowlands of Born. For the weak, iron-bound bodies those robots had worn would not have withstood the journey up into the high peaks. The men who approached the women in their towers had, of need, built themselves better bodies. They had been forced to travel in search of new metal and new ideas, and these they had incorporated into themselves. Furthermore, these robots were the few who had the bravery and the skill to climb the mountains to meet the women. And so the only men who showed the necessary skill and engineering to climb the mountains and make it past the traps and the deadfalls were judged worthy to make new minds with the women.
‘Time passed. And it came to be that the robots who dwelled in the highlands thought less and less of their brothers and sisters of the lowlands. For did not those robots who had remained behind still have the same iron bodies that they always had? Had they not remained in place whilst others had been tempered by the fire? And so those highlanders gradually separated themselves from the world below. They lived a harsh life in the mountains, and through this they became stronger and better engineered.’
Kavan listened to the story with interest.
‘Well, that would explain why the robots of Born were so easy to conquer,’ he said.
‘You never met the true Borners,’ said Ada. ‘You may see them yet.’
‘You said your mother was a Raman. You admire the Borners?’
‘I appreciate good engineering.’
Kavan nodded thoughtfully. He looked out to his right, down the sheer wall along which the road ran.
‘Was it really the Borners who built this road?’ he asked.
‘Possibly,’ said Ada. ‘That’s what they claim.’
Kavan nodded. He understood this much at least. ‘I’d do the same. It would help to inspire fear in my enemies.’
Night fell, and the army came to a halt.
Robots sat down, they pooled coal and charcoal, piled it against the low walls at the side of the road and made fires on which they could heat metal and make some repairs to themselves.
Kavan had spent only a short time in the polluted lands of Artemis; most of his adult life had seen him wandering the continent of Shull. Even so, he had never seen a sky as clear as this. The stars seemed to billow in great sheets of light above him, darkening the surrounding peaks still further by comparison. He gazed up into the sky, thinking.
‘You can see the planet Bohm over there,’ said Ada, still there at his side. ‘The bright light, just through the peaks.’
Kavan looked over to where she indicated.
‘They say the robots who travelled down the Northern Road liked to look at the stars,’ she continued. ‘They built an observatory up here in the mountains. The air is thinner, you get a better view.’
‘I saw an observatory on the northern coast,’ began Kavan, but his voice trailed away. All around him robots were pausing in their repairs and staring up into the night sky. Kavan followed their gaze and saw why.
Zuse, the night moon, was on fire.
Kavan was not a superstitious robot, but as he stared into the sky as rainbow light arced from the moon, he wondered what it signified.