Sixty-Two appeared to think over the offer. “I accept,” he said at last.
They recorded the terms solemnly, and when they were done Sixty-Two wasted no time. He took a sword into his gripper, and lifted it over Nina’s head.
Nina lifted her blade to parry. She knew he had the power to beat down her guard, but she could hope to deflect the first stroke. If she could then slash in, possibly low, she could take off one of his legs. If the rest of the mechs didn’t intervene, she might be able to finish the fight right then, and achieve her real goaclass="underline" avenging Leon’s death. They would probably kill her afterward in a fury, but it would at least be a death with purpose.
“Wait!” shouted a voice from the shifting fog around them. Every head turned, looking this way and that.
“Aldo?” Nina asked in shock. For she knew that voice, and when he swaggered out into visibility, she had to smile. He looked calm and cocky-as always.
Sixty-Two took one clanking step forward, warily approaching the small, confident female. He felt he should be able to brush her aside and easily win this duel. But he did not have a sense of complete confidence. He was not a warrior at heart. He suspected he had probably been a technician who’d failed his lord, or an accountant who’d embezzled funds, in his previous life. He’d become a war leader, but it was a role that had been thrust upon him.
Now, facing this half-mad woman with her sparkling blade held at a precise angle over her head, he felt uncertain. She did not hop forward to the attack. She just waited. He knew she was waiting for him to make a grievous error.
When the voice of a second, unseen human rang out, Sixty-Two paused. He was not sorry to see the duel delayed. He’d only accepted these terms for the benefit of his people, who hopefully would no longer be hunted whether he won or not.
“Who are you?” he asked the man.
“Aldo Moreno of Neu Schweitz,” the stranger said with a slight dip of the head.
“Neu Schweitz? Did you come on the great ship with the aliens?”
“No. I came on another sleeker ship to aid in the defense of this world.”
Sixty-Two blinked his orb-shields. “What are you doing here? What business is this conflict of yours?”
“I am here to defend Ignis Glace. I implore you both to do the same. There is grave news. The ship has now reached low orbit.”
Nina watched this interchange with a growing frown. “Aldo, you should stay out of this. I am about to achieve my vengeance.”
“I ask that you put aside such bickering for the sake of all life on this planet. The aliens are here. They will kill us all, man or machine-and those who are both.”
Nina shook her head. “I know they took out our fleet, but-”
“The situation has changed further. I have the evidence here on my computer scroll. The reports are flooding in from Lavender City. The aliens have destroyed the gun batteries. They have landed troops. Even now, they assault the city and slaughter the populace. Your army is here in the field, but it has been recalled. This struggle must be set aside, Baroness.”
Nina and Sixty-Two both lowered their swords. Aldo strode forward and showed them the net broadcasts that were coming over the net. A fourth figure, the tall, thin form of the skald, joined their huddle. He peered with burning eyes at the images on the scroll.
There was no sound, but there did not need to be. The skies burned with white light as ships roared down to land at either end of the valley. Trapped between two forces, the city garrison was quickly overwhelmed by bounding legions of killbeasts. Juggers charged into the mix of any organized resistance, and even when the great beasts fell, the enemy was shattered. Killbeasts rolled in to mop-up, sweeping heads from necks with precise kicks of their bladed feet.
“We must return,” Nina said. “We must save the city.”
She looked up at Sixty-Two. “I wish to set aside our duel, if you will agree.”
“I will do as you ask. You are free to go.”
Nina looked up at him, her face troubled. “I must ask for more. You are not truly a man, but there is more human in you than these beasts from the stars. Will you stand with us?”
“As equals, or as slaves?”
“As allies of necessity.”
Sixty-Two looked around the group. He realized that he wanted peace, but this was not to be. This threat from the skies was far greater than he’d understood. Most importantly, he saw this as an opportunity to raise the status of mechs everywhere on this world, forever. Finally, he nodded. “The mechs will march after your army, but apart from it. I will retain sole command over my people.”
“There must be a commander, or there will be no army.”
“I will not follow the lead of a woman who has killed five hundred innocents!”
Nina drew in a breath to shout back at him, but Aldo stepped forward, holding his hands high.
“Wait!” he said. “I have a solution to propose. I am not from here. I wish only to destroy the aliens. I’ve never enslaved a mech, nor have I been wronged by one. As a neutral party, I offer to command the joint armies.”
Both sides grumbled, but they did so with haste. Aldo left the vids running between them, so they could see what was happening to the city as they delayed and discussed command.
“Done,” Sixty-Two said at last.
At that point, Aldo looked around for the skald who’d been watching the discussion. He was nowhere to be seen. Then he noticed the large hatch on the metal island in the center of the roiling geothermal mists. It was open. Lizett stood there, and he approached her.
“Are you the one known as Lizett?” he asked.
“Yes,” she said, and an odd sound emitted from her speakers.
“Are you crying?”
“Yes. I opened the hatch, and he ran away! Why would he do that?”
“Who ran away?” Aldo asked, but he had an idea who she was talking about.
“The skald. My friend. I’ve cared for him for so long. I didn’t think he’d go down the hole and not come back.”
Aldo stepped to the open hatchway. It was pitch black inside. A series of grooves rippled the walls, perhaps meant to be a ladder of sorts. The crevices were thin, however, and did not seem properly scaled for human fingers. Going down there would be treacherous. One slip, and the fall looked infinite. He could make out nothing of the bottom. There were only smooth metal walls that formed a vertical shaft, and an inky blackness below.
Lizett called down the shaft for the man, who Aldo knew as the skald Garth.
“Can you get him back out of there for me?” she asked Aldo.
Aldo sighed and stood at the rim, staring down. “We’re leaving, skald! You’ll have no food or water. Every direction is a frozen wasteland. Come up now, or forfeit your life.”
There was no answer. Lizett stared at Aldo. “That was too harsh. You’ll scare him.”
Aldo grunted unhappily. “He’s a man, not a kitten! He’s made his choice, girl. Now, you must make yours. Come along, for it is time for us to depart.”
Making odd grieving sounds with her speakers, Lizett followed them into the mists. When they reached the rim of the crater, Aldo and Nina were the first to walk out into the open, signaling for the knights to lower their weapons. After them, thousands of mechs marched out of the roiling vapor. The knights of Twilight stared at the emerging mech army in shock.
Twenty-Three
Duchess Antoinette Embrak could trace her lineage back to the first colonists who stepped off the first ship to land on Ignis Glace. They’d been a hard-bitten people from the beginning, who’d worked as traders in the early years. Driving caravans of goods from one settlement to the next had proven very profitable, and they bought the canyon which now housed the fabled Lavender City only three decades after first setting foot on the planet’s surface. On Ignis Glace, ownership equated to nobility. Those that owned things were lords, and the value of their properties combined with their accomplishments achieved rank.