Directionless, inch by inch, withdrawing from the borderland, not knowing where it was, the ever-living angel turned inward from the forest margin into inexhaustible trees. There it would crawl on for ever and get nowhere at all. Of the heartwood, the inward forest, there is no end, and so there can be no ending of it.
12
Lom and Maroussia were together on the bank of the river. Fraiethe was there, and the Seer Witch of Bones, and the father also, though his presence was indistinct and Lom felt he had not really come there at all.
Eligiya Kamilova was standing apart. Alone again. A secondary role.
Fraiethe spoke to her.
‘You can remain here, Eligiya Kamilova, in the forest with us. Go further in and deeper. If that’s what you wish? You’ve done your part.’
‘Yes,’ said Kamilova. ‘That would be good. I would like that.’
‘In that case,’ said Lom, ‘perhaps we could borrow your boat?’
‘You’re not staying?’ said Kamilova.
‘No,’ said Maroussia. ‘No. We’re going home.’
13
The Political Bureau of the interim collective government met in the former Central Committee cabinet room. Lukasz Kistler took the chair. Unrest was continuing. Rizhinites had barricaded themselves in the administrative block of the university and a large crowd had gathered in Victory Square. Already it had been there three days, penned in by a cordon of gendarmes. The crowd was smashing flagstones and levering up cobbles. Bonfires had been lit.
‘It’s a stand-off,’ said Yulia Yashina.
‘Negotiations?’ said Kistler.
‘No,’ said Yashina. ‘At least not yet. They have no leader; they have no clear demands to make. They want to turn back the clock, that’s all.’
‘Give them time,’ said Kistler. ‘We can do that. Are more people joining them?’
‘Not for the moment,’ said Yashina. She paused. ‘We could end it now,’ she said. ‘The militia is standing by in the Armoury. There are tanks within two hundred yards.’
‘The commanders are loyal to us?’ said Kistler. ‘They would fire on their own people?’
‘Of course they would, if you give the word. Government rests on civil order. It’s the prerequisite.’
Kistler looked around the table, each face one by one. They all avoided his eye. The decision was to be left to him, then, and they would follow where he led.
‘We must not do it,’ he said. ‘And we will not. Give the order to withdraw the tanks and the militia to their barracks, and make sure the people of the city see them go.’
By Peter Higgins
Wolfhound Century
Truth and Fear
Radiant State
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Copyright
The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
Copyright © 2015 by Peter Higgins
Cover design by Lauren Panepinto
Cover images © Arcangel Images
Cover © 2015 Hachette Book Group, Inc.
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ISBN 978-0-316-21964-8
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