The Reception Hall of the Imperial Palace was a place of beauty and serenity. It was a huge, empty space, shuttered and silent, draped in peaceful, pale grey shadows.
The ornate double doors at the far end of the room were sturdy, bolted from the inside. Anyone in the Reception Hall at that moment might have looked up at the suggestion of an approaching rumble from somewhere beyond those doors; might have wondered whether a storm was brewing on a distant horizon.
But the approaching rumble was no storm. And as it got closer to the doors, it began to break down into individual sounds: screams, pleas for help and mercy, panicked running footsteps.
Then there was a crash, which quickly became a clamor of shouts and banging fists, as something huge and weighty hit the double doors from the other side. The doors held at first—but then, as the pressure and the panic on the other side increased, they began to shake and bend inwards, the gap between them widening. Under immense strain, the bolts that secured them together first started to bend, and then to tear themselves from the wood. And then suddenly they flew off, and went clinking and clattering across the polished floor.
The doors crashed inwards, one of them with such force that it was almost ripped from its hinges. And a flood of people surged through, like a single, flowing entity made up of many parts. The people were screaming, running, falling then scrambling upright again, their faces stricken, their eyes wide. They raced through the Reception Hall as though they had demons at their back.
Which, to all intents and purposes, they did.
Lin Mae could barely believe it. The Tao Tei had won the race!
They were in the city now, spreading havoc, while she and what remained of her warriors were still drifting above it. What was most demoralizing was that, aside from the many casualties the Nameless Order had suffered en route, it had actually seemed for a short while as if the tide might be about to turn their way. Not only had the flotilla caught up to the wave of Tao Tei, but it had looked as though they might overhaul them, reach the city first. If they had they could have organized Bianliang’s defenses, battened down the hatches as much as possible, and hit the Tao Tei from behind the city walls with the full force of their black powder weapons. It still might not have been enough to stem the tide, but at least they would have been in with a chance.
The Imperial Guard, though… they had never had to deal with a threat of this magnitude, and as such they had been ill-equipped, ill-prepared and subsequently overwhelmed. Now all the Nameless Order could do was track the marauding Tao Tei through the city and try to minimize the damage they had caused. But they would have to do it with a severely depleted force. As far as Lin Mae could tell, there were only twenty-five balloons now left out of the entire flotilla. Which meant they had less than a hundred troops to fight thousands of Tao Tei.
It was a hopeless task, but one which she would not give up on; one which she would pursue to the end. She tried not to dwell on the many problems that had beset them on the final stage of their journey, but it was hard not to feel that the gods were against them.
First, the wind had dropped, causing many of the balloons to drift aimlessly, some of them going way off course. Of those that had been able to maintain their course, a large number had then started to run out of fuel, and had crashed one by one to the ground. Now those that were left were drifting in over the city, but losing altitude fast, Lin Mae’s among them. With Xiao Yu at the ropes, and Lin Mae and Li Qing guiding her as best they could, they were currently both tracking the Tao Tei and looking for somewhere to land.
Directly in front of them was the magnificent Imperial Palace complex, its glazed roof tiles, shimmering in the sun, stretching nearly a mile into the distance. Several of the flotilla were drifting over this now, the thoughts of their crews no doubt echoing her own: Can we land here? Do we dare?
In truth, though, they needed to get to the rear of the Imperial Palace if they could, because interestingly, and perhaps ominously, the Tao Tei had veered around the outskirts of the city to enter Bianliang via the North Gate, which just happened to be the one closest to the Palace itself. Could this be because they knew the Imperial Palace was the Emperor’s residence, and that to attack here first would be to strike at the very heart of the Kingdom?
Despite the fact that Wang had said the creatures were evolving, she couldn’t believe they were imbued with such intelligence. So what, then, had possessed them to enter the city here? Instinct? Or had it been a random choice?
Then she remembered the way the Tao Tei had all suddenly changed course, as though responding to a signal. And she recalled too the lone Tao Tei, placated by William’s magnet, that had been brought to Bianliang by Shen. Could it be that the placated Tao Tei had somehow summoned the others here from the Imperial Palace? If so, then Shen might have delayed the terrible fate awaiting the people who lived in Bianliang’s streets, but he had put the Emperor in deadly danger!
Their balloon was sinking rapidly now. In one of the balloons ahead of them, also sinking, she glimpsed Commander Chen. Leaning forward, she yelled, “To the rear! Steer to the rear of the Palace if you can! Stay together!”
She was aware, even as she gave her orders, that her words would probably be in vain. As they lost altitude the balloons would doubtless prove ever more difficult, if not impossible, to steer. She supposed that the best most of her crews could hope for was to reach solid ground—wherever that may be—in one piece. And even if they did manage to stay together and get to the rear of the Palace, what could they hope to achieve? Her plan, such as it was, was the same as Wang’s—any chance they got they should bombard the Queen with everything at their disposal. It sounded simple, but Lin Mae didn’t think for a moment that it would be. The Queen would no doubt be highly protected. Unless her Paladins could somehow be disabled, they would deflect anything the Nameless Order threw at her.
The balloon at the head of the flotilla drifting over the Imperial Palace was also the one that was sinking most rapidly out of the sky. It was barely managing to crest the tiled rooftop beneath it, though Lin Mae could see three Eagle Corps soldiers struggling tirelessly within the gondola to keep it airborne. She clenched her teeth, hoping they wouldn’t be reckless with the black powder—and then just when it seemed they might make it over the roof, after all, the tiles beneath them erupted outwards with a splintering crash, and a Tao Tei burst through, its jaws opening wide.
It leaped into the air like a breaching whale and grabbed the gondola in its teeth. The gondola tipped, all three of its occupants falling out. One fell straight through the hole the Tao Tei had burst from and the other two hit the roof. One of the men landed, bounced and then slithered right off the edge of the roof, disappearing from view. The other rolled over, then manage to scramble up onto his hands and knees.
As the Tao Tei dropped back into the hole from which it had emerged, still hanging on to the gondola, the balloon, yanked downwards, first tore and half-deflated, then erupted into flame. The fireball shot up and sideways, engulfing the surviving Eagle Corps soldier and scorching the roof.
By now Lin Mae was already diving for the ropes and yelling at Xiao Yu and Li Qeng to take evasive action. They steered around the already dwindling conflagration, clearing the edge of the tiled roof with inches to spare—but now they were descending far too quickly towards another rooftop, the one over the North Gate.