Harbinger

by Philippa Ballantine

  Zofiya stared hard at him, and he cleared his throat somewhat nervously. “She has given me ideas on how to combat the machines—maybe even destroy them.”

  The regent closed her eyes for just a second. When she opened them, he and the idea were still there. “How close do we have to be?” she asked.

  Petav pressed his lips together in a white line. “Very,” he replied. His voice and his hand holding the weirstone were both very steady. Like her, this Deacon would do what needed to be done.

  “Send one of your Sensitives to the bridge then. Find me the Winter Kite in this cloud.” The regent turned her head and called, “Captain Revele!”

  The officer appeared immediately; in the gray fog she might have been waiting not that far off.

  Zofiya flicked her head in Petav’s direction. “We have a plan, but you are probably not going to like it.”

  When she had told the captain what it was, she turned a little pale, but she quickly left them to make the arrangements needed.

  After that, Revele took her place with the marines who were arranged at the aft deck. Zofiya knew there was little worse than waiting as a soldier—except of course for battle itself.

  When she stood before them, she explained her plan to them in slightly lesser detail, and then took her place beside the captain. Deacon Petav appeared again, but this time with a wedge of Deacons. He took up position to the rear of the marines. Then all of them waited in silence, while the airship creaked gently around them as if they were not about to be very foolhardy.

  The Summer Hawk lived up to her name, swooping and turning, the deck alternatively rising and falling under their feet as the Deacon on the bridge helped angle them just so. Zofiya did not like relying on Deacons so very much, but this seemed to be the way of things. Her brother had chosen eldritch machinery over sense, so she had no other choice.

  Captain Revele knew her vessel and said it was ready for the task, but nonetheless Zofiya had never heard of such a maneuver. The Imperial Fleet was still young, and had never fought against itself like this. As they began to dip again, the regent felt her heart thunder.

  “Remember,” she called above the flap and creak of the airship, “no one is to touch the Emperor but me!”

  The Summer Hawk dropped out of the sky from above like her namesake. The cloud’s mist made everything gray, and their descent was so rapid that when they did see the Winter Kite finally emerge from it, there was scarcely a second to process it. One moment it was a deep gray shape in the cloud, and then the next the Summer Hawk was on it.

  It was quite shocking how close the Sensitive had brought them—but then that was what they had asked her for. The Hawk’s forward cannon fired at the Kite’s propeller. The retort made Zofiya’s ears ring, but she was heartened to see the chain shot hit true. The propeller jerked and tangled just as it was meant to.

  “Brace yourselves!” Zofiya barked to those that waited with her.

  The rumble of the impact was loud enough to knock out all rational thought from a person’s brain. The bow of the descending airship struck her brother’s ship in the stern, just behind where that dire machine was mounted.

  This was the best place to board another airship without risking it plummeting to the ground, Captain Revele had claimed, and no one knew ships better than she. The Summer Hawk’s bow was the strongest piece of her, just like in a battleship of the ocean. Luckily they did not have to worry about water suddenly rushing in.

  Zofiya waved her saber. The marines followed her charge across the deck and onto the slightly tilted one of the Winter Kite. They had apparently done something unexpected. The first soldiers they encountered were still engaged in forming themselves into defensive lines. Skirmishes were soon breaking out all over.

  Zofiya threw herself into the battle, allowing the ebb and flow of battle to keep her mind off what lay ahead. She was able to put away her knowledge that she was fighting men she had trained. Instead, she concentrated on keeping herself moving forward, cutting down those that stood in her way with a bloody determination. She called out, “For Arkaym,” so that they might know this was not a coup she wanted. However, By the Bones, she would not stop.

  Then something curious began to happen. It started at the front, where the forces were clashing, and soon it was like a wave among the Imperial Guard. Several of her brother’s troops began to lay down their weapons. They held up their hands and surrendered to their brothers. The idea that Zofiya wasn’t going to have to kill any more of her fellows was an uplifting one. Still, not quite all of them were surrendering.

  As if to make up for this change in fortune, out of the corner of one eye, Zofiya caught sight of activity around the machines. They looked as if they were attempting to maneuver them aft so as to get a good line of sight on the invaders.

  “Petav!” Zofiya screamed, while ducking a wild swing by a young guard. Her brother wouldn’t care if he cut down his own troops—that was absolutely certain.

  The Deacons, who until now had been keeping back from the fray, stepped forward, and threw back their cloaks. Zofiya wiped blood out of her eyes and watched them. She had to admit, they made an impressive sight. The carvings of the runes on their bodies crackled with silver light, giving them a rather terrifying appearance. More guardsmen, seeing this, dropped to their knees and surrendered then and there.

  The soldiers of Arkaym were used to trusting the Deacons of the Order. These ones had not seen one for many months, so their coming must have been extra impressive. Zofiya pushed the surrendered out of her way and strode boldly down the deck toward the huddle of remaining troops. The Deacons followed at her back, silent witnesses to what was coming. Except, they too had their part to play.

  The square, squat shape of the machine was indeed being turned in the invaders’ direction, and the muzzles of it were already alight with blue lightning. A man was bent over the controls, his fingers flying over its surface. Zofiya could feel all the hair on her body begin to rise the closer she got to it, and every instinct in her was screaming to run away as fast as possible. Yet, past the machine she could see her brother’s face. No emotion tarnished it, so she copied him.

  Just as the machine began to shake and get ready to spit forth its death, the Deacons spoke. Zofiya could not see what they did, but she felt it at her back. It began as a warmth—and then it became a blinding heat. It took all of her strength of will not to turn and look at it.

  The flames flowed over her head, not touching a single hair on her Imperial head. They struck the machine instead, and it seemed to absorb the power for a while. By the Bones, she thought in one terrible moment, were the Deacons feeding the terrible thing? Had they turned against her?

  She was committed now. The regent kept walking, though to her death or not, she could not have said. The flames went on, pouring against the machine and seeming to disappear within. Then, some sort of maximum containment was reached. The first sign was a slight creak from the machine. The mad Vashill—it felt good to have his name—was howling something at his creation, as if he could somehow urge it on.

  It did not want to work however, since the brass casing bulged slightly. That was the only warning the thing gave. Then it burst. Blue flames poured out of it for an instant, and the younger Vashill was set alight like some horrific offering to terrible gods. He screamed and flailed about . . . then running in blind panic, leapt from the airship.

  His machine, meanwhile, raged blue for a split second, and then a deeper part of it burst apart further. It made a very curious rumbling noise, as if something was passing from the world—or rather being sucked from it. The huddle of the Court screamed in unison and scattered from the Emperor. They were as loyal as field mice and just as useful.

  Only Kaleva and his bride remained. Ezefia did not have much choice in the matter. Now that the crowds had cleared, the regent saw what had been done to her sister-in-law.

  Her belly had been slit as well as her throat, and rivers of scarlet stained her whit
e dress and dripped from her fingertips. Now she stared at Zofiya through the blankness of death, slumped on the chair that she had been strapped to. Apparently being pregnant was no protection.

  It was this final action that made Zofiya finally see it; there was no coming back from this for her brother. The Kal she had grown up with and protected loyally for so many years would never have done such a thing. Never.

  The regent’s jaw tightened. She had wanted to believe she could save him. Zofiya had wanted to have some hope that she could get him back. Now she understood that she had been fooling herself, and people had died because she couldn’t see it.

  Her brother was standing behind his dead wife, and his fine white clothes were stained with her blood. A grin rested on his lips, which had once smiled far more beautifully and always seemed ready to laugh.

  The Emperor Kaleva was as much a victim of Derodak as the Order of the Eye and the Fist. The Kal she knew had died in the breaking of the Mother Abbey, along with all those Deacons, and the person standing before her wore his skin, but was not him.

  If she did nothing, then this would go on, until the whole world was torn apart around them, or until there were no more people in the Empire for him to kill. Everyone was an enemy to him now.

  Her hand tightened on her saber and fierce tears threatened to break loose in her eyes, but she understood. She had pledged herself to Arkaym, and that pledge ran deeper and further than even brotherly love. She had a duty.

  Behind her the Deacons and the marines waited. She could almost hear them holding their breath, as they waited for her to say or do something. It felt like she was poised on her own blade. Finally, she found the will to do what she had to.

  “Kaleva, Brother,” she began in a sad, but strong voice that carried easily across the deck of the Winter Kite, “I demand you surrender the throne to me, your royal sister, and allow yourself to be confined for your own well-being until your sanity is restored to you.”

  It was a lie. Even if somehow he could be recovered, the Kal she had loved and supported would never be able to bear the guilt of what he had done.

  So it was out there now; she was now and forever to be the sister who had taken the crown from her brother. Zofiya imagined the rage and fury her father would go through when he heard of it.

  At first she would be regent, then after a short amount of time to satisfy convention, she would be Empress of Arkaym.

  Her brother did not look outraged. Instead, he moved from behind the chair, waving his bloody knife idly at her as if lecturing a child. “I know what your plan is, Sister,” he said, his voice cracking now and then. “You’ll tuck me away nice and quietly in a dungeon somewhere, tell all the citizens of the Empire you are so solicitous of my health, and then later in the night you’ll have someone steal in to murder me.” His eyes darted across the troops behind her. “Maybe one of these fine soldiers will do you a favor so that your pretty hands don’t have to get dirty.”

  “Kal,” she replied, her gaze following his footsteps, in case he got close enough for her to grapple, “you are my brother, and you are not well. I would never do such a—”

  “Then”—the Emperor broke in—“you will put it about that I caught ill or some such and bury me in a hidden grave.” He jabbed his knife in the air for effect. “I know you’ve always wanted my throne.”

  At her back, Zofiya heard the crowd shift a little; their Emperor displaying his insanity so openly was unnerving many of them.

  Her brother, though, was now completely ignoring them, lost in his own imagined plots and schemes. “All the women in my life have always wanted to take from me.” He darted back behind his wife and laid his head on her shoulder. It was a macabre and disturbing sight. “Ezefia here, she was conspiring with Derodak, that treacherous Deacon, to steal my throne. He even put a child in her belly!” He placed a hand on the bleeding gash just under her breasts, covering his fingers in her still wet blood. “But obviously he did not care for her that much, since he never came back for her as I had hoped he would.”

  For just a second, Zofiya’s determination wavered. Kaleva had never been betrayed by anyone in Arkaym, but he could not appreciate that. Ezefia, if she had been unfaithful to him, had not done it willingly. From what Zofiya knew of the Empress’ past, her father had been a true Prince to his people, and though she had always seemed sad, the regent had never detected any falseness in her. Zofiya also knew firsthand that Derodak had ways of manipulating people and bending them to his will. She could only be grateful he had not demanded anything more intimate from her while he had her under his control.

  “Now you, Sister,” he said, straightening and fixing her with a slow grin that made her skin crawl, “you want to take what is mine directly. You have always been jealous of my rule. Tell me, how long have you been plotting to take it from me?”

  This could not go on. The more he talked, the more poison he was infecting the people around her with—people who she was going to have to rely on in the months to come. That was if there were more months to come.

  Zofiya drew her saber in one practiced motion. She knew her brother was no match for her; not in sanity or skill. It was almost certain she could drop him to the deck without having to kill him. Her gaze raked over the few people that stood behind him. All were members of the Court, and as far as she could tell, terrified by the Deacons and not capable of standing as seconds to their Emperor. Now all that remained was for her to make the move.

  However, before she could get herself to the point of action, something curious happened. It was not on the deck, and it took only a second. Between one heartbeat and the next, something opened in the mind of the Grand Duchess Zofiya. A crack of understanding that had been levered open by the geistlord Hatipai, who had occupied her brain. It was the same curious something that had alerted her that all was not as it seemed with the new aristocrat in her brother’s Court months before. The same person who, it had turned out, was Derodak. Merrick had seen that glimpse of potential in her, and now, under pressure, it sprang open again.

  She was, in that instant, terribly aware of Deacon Petav standing beside her, his Center wide open. She was aware of it, because she was suddenly seeing what he was seeing. The world flared a whole range of colors that she’d never known existed. Everything around her was now not only beautiful, but also packed with meaning that none could see. Emotions, Bonds and intentions were all swirling around her, and the regent had no way of interpreting what any of them meant. It made her feel sick and exhilarated all at the same time.

  Deacon Petav, the Sensitive was seeing something, something that was about to happen but had not yet come to pass. A sickly green light danced around her brother’s form, rendering him into an eerie figure that she barely recognized. However, Petav saw what was coming.

  The Emperor Kaleva was going to shoot his sister in the head, and then himself. He would end this line of Emperors before it was even really begun. Cut out the contamination before it spread.

  Zofiya snapped back to reality and felt all the cool air rush abruptly back into her body. She had been holding her breath for that long moment. Before she could think on what she had experienced, she moved.

  Sheathing her saber, she tucked and rolled across the deck. Kal had only time to pull out the pistol concealed in his jacket, before she was on him. The Imperial siblings crashed into each other, sliding across the tilted deck and colliding with the gunwales on the other side. Zofiya had her brother pinned with one knee and grappled with him for the pistol. He might not have the skill she did, but he was much stronger.

  Everyone else on the deck ceased to matter, as for a time, Kaleva and Zofiya were pressed against each other, as close as if they were twins in their mother’s belly. Face-to-face, the Grand Duchess wrapped her fingers around the weapon and pulled mightily. “No, no, Kal!” she screamed at him, hoping to get him to loosen his grip.

  “Yes,” he hissed back, even as his greater strength began to win out. “We were
never meant to be in Arkaym, Sister. The geists are coming and neither of us should be here to see them.” His eyes were wide as they stared into hers.

  Suddenly she realized that he was not struggling to aim the pistol at her.

  The Grand Duchess Zofiya flicked her gaze away only a moment before her brother put the barrel under his chin. All she had time for was a strangled “Kal!” and then the pistol went off. Blood and gore sprayed all over the deck and Zofiya. The bullet exploded through the top of his skull and took away any chance of his recovery.

  Dimly, she heard the screaming of the Court and the shouts of her troops, but they were a very long way off. Zofiya knew if she turned back she would see Kal’s mutilated face. She wouldn’t do that.

  Before anyone could reach her, she stood up, drenched in her brother’s scarlet blood. The Imperial color. Silence swallowed up the chaos, and those on the Winter Kite formed a circle around her. Carefully, she took off her jacket, and without looking down draped it over her brother’s body. Then Zofiya pushed aside her hair, mopping scarlet drips from her face as best she could.

  She had rolled across the deck of the airship a regent, but she arose as an Empress. Zofiya could only hope that her reign would not continue as it had begun—in blood and death.

  She stood there, locking gazes with all of those around her: people who had only a short while ago been enemies. It was Deacon Petav who broke the silence when he called out, “The Emperor is dead. Long live Empress Zofiya!”

  Soon the cry was taken up and echoed down the airship. As she looked around, the new Empress noticed that even on the faces of the Court, who had been her brother’s only moments before, were definite looks of relief. She would bury Kal in the vault under Vermillion, and make sure he was remembered, not as the mad Emperor, but as another victim of Derodak and the Circle of Stars.

  It had not been meant to be like this when she and Kal had set off from Delmaire. She thought of the moment that they’d first set foot on Arkaym soil, a bright blessed time that seemed in memory to be surrounded by golden light. As she walked forward and became Empress, she would hold on to that. It was something even these events could not tarnish.