A Voyage Through Air

by Peter F. Hamilton

  The paxia rushed in. Grey light erupted around her. And she heard Katrabeth screaming: ‘Wait. You can’t leave me here. Cousin. Cousin, please. Nooo!’

  ROTHGARNAL ONCE MORE

  Lady Jessicara DiStantona woke the War Emperor two hours before dawn with the words: ‘The Grand Lord leads his army, sire.’

  Clearly, the Karrak Lord and Ladies had some excellent seers among their own kind, for three hours before dawn, a full hour before General Welch was due to issue his orders to muster, the Grand Lord’s troops began to form up along the front of their camp. So in the merge-light thrown by bonfires and lightstones, cooks prepared a meal as soldiers and mages alike were roused. Tea and slices of hot ham and bread were passed round as weapons and armour was prepared for battle.

  The War Emperor and the Kings and Queens of the Gathering met in the command tent an hour before dawn. Their breakfast was identical to those of the troops, on the orders of the War Emperor.

  ‘I must face the Grand Lord myself,’ the War Emperor said as he ate his bread and drank his tea.

  ‘That’s not wise,’ Nicola said from the end of the table where she sat next to the King in Exile. ‘We don’t know precisely what we’re confronting. The Karrak lore masters are destroying all the seespy birds our battlemages are sending over their camp.’

  ‘On the contrary, we know exactly what the enemy has,’ Queen Judith said, sitting next to the War Emperor. Her armour was the darkest purple, with every segment lined in gleaming athrodene. Black runes flowed like water across the breastplate and down the arms and legs. ‘Some Zanatuth and a significant number of rathwai. The olri-gi have already agreed to sting the Zanatuth, as they did in the first battle of Rothgarnal. And the Highlord will lead his people into the air against the rathwai, as always. I say if the Grand Lord is foolish enough to march at the head of his army, then meet him head on.’

  So it was that the War Emperor in his scarlet and gold armour found himself on his horse as everyone waited for dawn. Beside him, the other Kings and Queens had mounted up, all looking equally splendid in their armour. Nicola was the only exception, choosing instead her thick fur coat to protect her from the biting cold.

  The Light Guard formed up around the royals in a wide U-shape, their horses three deep. Pegasi from the Fourth Realm cavalry circled overhead to provide coverage from the air in case of a rathwai attack.

  ‘Brigades forward,’ came the cry as the tiniest sliver of grey started to outline the Bernavian Mountains. The Light Guard rode slowly forward, leading the enormous army on its march out of the camp. They lined up thirty deep along the ridge that overlooked the long rows of burial mounds and the enemy camp beyond. On the other side of the field, the Grand Lord’s army was already assembled in a huge triangular formation, with the elite khatu legion at the apex, their gold and blue pennants flying in the freezing wind. Right at the front of the legion, standing at the entrance to the valley between the burial mounds, the Grand Lord sat motionless astride a huge Zanatuth.

  The War Emperor stared at the opposing army, and waited. But the Grand Lord didn’t move.

  ‘It was always our intention to take the fight to him,’ the King of the Fifth Realm said.

  The War Emperor made his decision. ‘Advance,’ he ordered.

  Lady Jessicara DiStantona and her staff relayed the order along the massed regiments, and they began to walk down the slope. Five minutes later, flanked by his Light Guard, the War Emperor’s horse entered the grim valley formed by the steep-walled burial mounds. Hoofs clattered on the hard, frozen ground. Even now, oddments left from the last battle – broken shields, arrow tips, shattered swords, scraps of armour – could be glimpsed sticking out of the dead soil.

  The War Emperor’s army advanced cautiously, with the giants on their rinosaurs proudly riding level with the Light Guard. Nicola glanced up at the high mounds on either side, and nudged her horse over to General Welch. ‘A good place for an ambush if they could get up there unseen,’ she murmured.

  ‘Aye, ma’am,’ the general acknowledged. ‘That’s why I have scouts on top marking us. If anyone tries to creep up the other side, they’ll be in for a nasty surprise.’

  ‘My apologies, General.’

  ‘I took no offence, ma’am. I’m pleased you’re concerned for our position.’

  ‘Oh, I’m very aware of my position, General.’

  As they approached the end of the long burial mounds, the War Emperor had to struggle against the urge to goad his horse forward. He could see the Grand Lord with his own eyes now – and almost envied his opponent’s patience. The Zanatuth he sat on was as silent and immobile as him, whilst the fearsome cries of the wild Zanatuth echoed down the wide valley as their handlers struggled to restrain them.

  When he was barely two hundred metres from the Grand Lord, the War Emperor drew his sword, forged by the master battlemages of the Second Realm, its mirror-silver blade shone as if reflecting the noonday sun above Shatha’hal. ‘General,’ the War Emperor said. ‘Begin the charge.’

  ‘Sire!’ General Welch turned to his officers, ready to give the order. The giants on their rinosaurs would begin to quicken their pace, and the ordinary cavalry and mounted mages behind would follow. High above them the olri-gi would begin a fast dive to strike the Zanatuth. By the time the giants crashed against the khatu legion they would be thundering along with weight of the War Emperor’s entire army behind them. A truly irresistible force.

  On top of the Zanatuth, the Grand Lord stood up in his stirrups, and uttered a spell.

  Something moved on top of the burial mound on General Welch’s left. A chunk of frosty earth broke free and skittered down the steep slope, bouncing and rolling. It was the start of a small avalanche. All along the top, soil cracked open, then began to ripple and churn. Then the same thing started along the right-hand mound.

  ‘Scouts!’ General Welch shouted. ‘What’s happening up there?’

  The question became irrelevant even as he spoke it. He gasped in shock as soldier gols started to rise up out of the torn earth. ‘What?’ He turned to the Second Realm battlemages who were in charge of the soldier gol squads. ‘Who positioned them there?’

  ‘They’re not ours,’ the shaken battlemage commander said.

  Seespy birds swooped down for a better look. They showed the horrified watchers that these unknown soldier gols had some kind of metal weapon where their hand should be.

  The scouts on the mounds ran at the threat – rising out of their cunning concealment. But swords and arrows were useless against the big clay figures. Spells had no effect. The first machine gun opened up, and cut down the fleeing scouts in a moment.

  The War Emperor looked round in shock at the unfamiliar mechanical roar. ‘No!’ Somewhere from the back of his mind, a terrible memory was wrestling its way out of burial. A memory of his beloved wife, her face lined with worry, pleading with him. Even now his head hurt with the effort of trying to ignore the memory. But the soldier gols were lining up along the top of the mounds, bringing their awful Outer Realm weapons to bear on his army, the thousands upon thousands of soldiers trapped in this valley which had just become certain death. The place he had brought them to.

  ‘My daughter warned you,’ Nicola said in a voice that rang clear above the mounting shouts of dismay. ‘The Queen of Dreams warned you against this folly!’

  ‘Heavens forgive me,’ the War Emperor moaned. The pain in his head was so fierce he swayed about in his saddle. Riding beside him was Lady Jessicara DiStantona, whose armour had sprouted spikes as soon as the soldier gols appeared. She had to grab him to prevent him from falling.

  ‘What orders, sire?’ General Welch demanded.

  The War Emperor could only groan in distress.

  ‘Mages and sorceresses to shield what they can,’ Nicola snapped. ‘Now. Anyone with a weapon, aim for their guns, they’ll be the most vulnerable part.’

  General Welch didn’t even think to question. ‘Yes, ma’am.’

&
nbsp; A thunderclap erupted directly between the two armies.

  ‘What fresh horror is this?’ the War Emperor pleaded. When he turned he saw the Grand Lord’s massive Zanatuth reeling back, along with the front rank of the khatu legion. Some kind of magical apparition was swelling out of nowhere above the icy ground halfway between the two armies. A scintillating blue and green haze that was expanding at an extraordinary rate, and breaking out into a multitude of barbs which burst open to release . . .

  ‘What in the . . . ?’ a stunned General Welch demanded. He’d never seen anything like it. The creatures that were materializing in mid-air were like half-sized skyfolk, their skin a dour stone-grey, with perilous orange magic crackling around their hands. Their mouths, opened wide to emit a savage screech, were lined with gruesomely sharp fangs. There were dozens of them soaring out of the magical storm. Then hundreds. Then . . .

  ‘Paxia!’ the Highlord of Air cried in horror. He blew his alarm whistle. A note that was swiftly taken up by every soldier from the Realm of Air.

  The vast swarm of paxia fell upon their abundant new food, not caring which side the soldiers and their mounts were on. Around the tormented War Emperor, giants chopped with their huge axes. Second Realm soldier gols slung their spears with deadly accuracy. Mages and sorceresses unleashed their most lethal enchantments. Skyfolk let loose their arrows.

  While rallying to their Grand Lord, the Karrak Lords and Ladies threw their death spells. Rannalal knights swung their short swords with relentless skill. Ethanu released barrage after barrage of toxic spells.

  Grand Lord Amenamon let out an almighty bellow of fury and dismay as his indisputable victory was snatched from him in that one crazy instant. He let loose a death spell so potent it killed ten paxia simultaneously. It made no difference whatsoever. The vile creatures just kept coming from whatever magical portal had erupted before him. A living wall of grey wings and shrieking fangs swept towards him, blotting out everything else. He didn’t even know if the War Emperor and Queen Judith had survived the onslaught.

  When seven paxia fell upon his outraged Zanatuth and started to chew at its flanks it almost threw Amenamon to the ground before he smote them with death spells and mighty swipes from his sword. He dismounted hurriedly, ducking as yet more of the blood-crazed paxia flashed overhead, fangs snapping in a fever of gluttony. Warriors of his khatu legion closed protectively around him, but even they struggled to fend off the mass of paxia.

  His very survival was being threatened. There was nothing for it – he ordered the soldier gols to open fire and concentrate their machine guns on the airborne menace, strafing the sky again and again, heedless that some of the paxia they killed were attacking the War Emperor’s forces. That had become irrelevant now.

  For half an hour the two armies defended themselves from the paxia. Finally, when the last of the ferocious grey creatures was torn flaming from the sky, silence reclaimed the battlefield. Both armies stared at each other in complete disarray. Only then did the lead ranks on both sides notice the ragtag band of dishevelled people crouched between them, sheltering under a powerful dome of enchanted air with mounds of dead paxia piled up against it. And in the dome with them was a most unnerving circle of stone. Many of the Karrak Lords and Ladies recognized it from the last time they had stood on this very ground a thousand years ago. The image was also sharp in the War Emperor’s mind from the history scrolls he had studied in his youth.

  ‘No!’ he said in fury.

  ‘No!’ the Grand Lord echoed.

  Taggie ended the protective enchantment with a wearied sigh. As the dome above her vanished, Sophie raised her head and gave the two livid leaders a disgruntled look. ‘Oh, great! You know, just for once, it would be nice if someone was actually pleased to see us. I’m not saying it has to be the Highlord’s fledgling – anyone would do.’ She started loading bolts into her crossbow. ‘And if they’d care to add some appreciation . . .’

  ‘Now you’re really living in the realm of wishful thinking,’ Felix taunted her.

  ‘I can sight Mum!’ Jemima started waving frantically.

  ‘Aye, now this is what I call a dramatic entrance,’ Captain Rebecca announced in satisfaction. She glanced round. ‘Did we bring everyone with us?’

  ‘I think so,’ Maklepine said.

  ‘Ha! So now you can start writing your songs, bards. There’s a lot you can rhyme with Captain Rebecca.’

  ‘Not for the ears of young children there isn’t,’ Lantic muttered.

  Taggie was so exhausted she could barely stand. ‘Lantic, my lord, this is down to you two now.’

  Lantic gripped Lord Colgath’s hand, and looked unflinchingly into his eerie eyes. ‘No matter where we are . . .’

  ‘. . . no matter what we face,’ Lord Colgath finished.

  Then they were both striding away from Mirlyn’s Gate in opposite directions.

  TRUTHS REVEALED

  ‘Hold, brother,’ Lord Colgath said in a voice which flooded across the Grand Lord’s entire army.

  ‘Hold, father,’ Lantic said, his cry amplified to reach all along the burial mound valley.

  ‘This cannot be,’ the War Emperor whispered.

  ‘Now is the perfect time to attack,’ Queen Judith told him quietly, a hand resting on his arm. ‘Their ambush is broken. You can deal with the traitor Queen later.’ Enchantments like tiny phosphorescent roots began to worm their way out of her fingertips, seeping through the War Emperor’s armour.

  ‘So that’s what you used.’ Nicola stepped forward. ‘I think it’s time the War Emperor made up his own mind, sister.’ She clicked her fingers, and the enchantments shrivelled away.

  The War Emperor dropped to his knees as he felt thoughts and memories burst free inside his head. There was the memory of his wife warning him of the bullets and guns. Clear and pure now. And the memory of Queen Judith’s face in front of him, the suggestions, the insidious whispers being forced into his skull by her cunning enchantments. ‘Sorceress of the Hell Realm,’ he choked as the pressure threatened to burst his skull apart. ‘What have you done?’

  ‘How dare you interfere?’ Queen Judith told her sister. Her escort of sorceresses backed away nervously as the dark runes on her purple armour started to glow emerald. She walked resolutely towards Nicola who stood perfectly still, wrapped in her fur coat.

  ‘The truth is not interference, sister,’ Nicola said coolly. She pushed her coat’s hood back, and gave her sister a gently pitying smile.

  Queen Judith’s visor snapped shut. ‘My truth is all that matters,’ she said vehemently. ‘My reign will last for eternity when this battle is over.’

  ‘You’re deluded. Nobody lives forever.’

  ‘I can. That is my prize for victory. And you have sabotaged my rightful rule for the last time.’ Queen Judith extended her arm and clicked her fingers, snarling.

  An awesome bolt of magic flashed towards Nicola, who regarded the belligerent armoured form of her sister with quiet bemusement as it flared impotently around her.

  Queen Judith gave a start as her sister stood there completely unaffected while the vigorous magic streamed through the air. She concentrated, pouring even more power into the death spell. Then determination changed to surprise before becoming alarm. The magic continued to stream out of her. ‘No,’ she exclaimed. Her fingers clicked. ‘No. Stop. No.’ The magic grew dimmer, and Queen Judith staggered back. Finally the spell ended, and she pushed her visor back to reveal her tragic face. She held her trembling hand up to her eyes, staring at it, stricken. She clicked her fingers. Nothing happened. ‘What have you done?’ she yelled as she sank to her knees in horror. ‘I have no magic. You have stolen it. I am become ordinary! Ordinary!’

  ‘Sister, dear,’ Nicola said calmly. ‘You’ve always been that.’

  Prince Lantic charged into the group, and ran to his father. ‘You have to stop,’ he said. ‘Father, the war must not happen. Please, listen to me. Please. So many will die.’

  Th
e War Emperor looked at him as if he was a stranger. His son in the armoured tunic of the Blue Feather regiment. Smeared in filth and paxia blood. One hand holding a firestar ready to throw. His eyes wild. ‘My son,’ he said simply, and embraced him. ‘Oh my son, you’re alive!’

  ‘Father, we have brought you Mirlyn’s Gate. The Karrak peoples can go home to the Dark Universe again. There is no need for war. Please, this is never what Rogreth would have wanted. You know that. Don’t you? Do you understand?’

  The War Emperor slowly nodded. ‘Yes. Yes, you are right. I see now. I see so many things.’

  Amenamon pushed past the lords of the khatu legion to confront his younger brother. His flame teeth had turned almost sapphire they were burning so bright.

  ‘Brother.’ Lord Colgath bowed, the sparkles of colour in his smoke cloak shrinking to tiny specks.

  Amenamon let out a wordless cry, and sent a burst of magic into his brother, knocking him down to sprawl on the frozen dirt. ‘One minute,’ he shouted down at his brother. ‘That is all. One single minute more and the War Emperor’s entire army would be dead. I would have been ruler of every realm in this Universe. And you! You appear from nowhere to snatch victory from me. Why? What have I ever done to deserve a brother like you?’

  Lord Colgath made no move to get up. ‘This Universe is not for us, brother, and in your heart you know this. It hates us. It punishes us for every moment we are here. This false war would have been nothing but a hollow victory. I brought you what I believe is a greater victory. You can be the one who takes us home.’

  Amenamon turned to face Mirlyn’s Gate with its agitated serpent bonds. Sophie, Felix and the Angelhawk’s exhausted crew stood round it, looking defiantly at both armies as they held up their meagre weapons.

  ‘Father died to take that monstrosity from us, away from temptation,’ the Grand Lord said. ‘Its very existence is a threat to our Universe.’

  ‘He took it away to make us safe. He knew the time was not right back then, that we had to learn how to live with those whose Universe this truly is.’