Immortal Architects
Page 40
The creature above them rumbled. Its metal skin trembled, shaking away rain.
“You aren’t a monster,” Istvan said.
Kyra put her good hand behind her head, looking up at the mockery’s smooth underside and folded landing gear. “I’ve been thinking. I’ll stay here with you guys, but only if I’m allowed to go to that glacier whenever I want. I don’t have to fly if that’s a problem – I can go with Shade. OK?”
“Shade?”
She pointed up.
“Ah.” Istvan doubted he could pry her away from the beast. “I imagine we can allow that, yes. So long as we know where you are.”
“And some other things,” she continued, gaining courage, “I don’t belong to nobody, so you can’t fight over me. You don’t yell at me for stupid reasons. I want to know what’s going on, and if you’re gonna keep talking in German, you teach me German. OK?”
He couldn’t hold back a smile, ruined though it was. “I can do that.”
Kyra nodded, closing her eyes. “Then we’re good.”
She still wasn’t at ease, or without questions, or free of pain – far from it – but it was a start. Certainly much improved from their first meeting.
A made Conduit. Imagine. No wonder she hadn’t wanted to say anything to Grace Wu.
“You’re gonna make this not a slave camp, right?” Kyra asked.
Istvan glanced back at the laborers on the shore. That. Oh, they had to figure out what to do about that. “Kyra, if it stays a slave camp, you’ve my permission to personally tear me into pieces again.”
“I will.”
“I’m sure. I’m counting on it.” He thought of Edmund, and Shokat Anoushak. Always best to have balances. He didn’t know if it were possible to build something fair on war and murder, but it would be worse not to try. Istvan stood. “Rest. We’ll see if we can get that arm fixed.”
“Maybe I could get a robot arm,” she mumbled.
“Don’t you have one already?”
Kyra flashed a smile. “Maybe. It would be cool, though.”
He couldn’t argue with that. Grace Wu undoubtedly would have ideas, as would Lucy. That was a frightening thought. “I’ll see what I can do, at any rate,” he said. “Edmund will be coming by with furniture. Don’t spend all night out here, hm?”
Kyra waved him off. “Sure.”
Istvan turned to go. Oh, there was so much to do. The weather wouldn’t stay fair all year, the factions in Toronto would all need contacting, Lord Kasimir would be on the march for revenge, more than likely, and they needed to secure a reliable food source before winter set in…
Could they repair the dams? Could they do it all in time without forced labor?
“Hey,” called Kyra, “you’re good guys now, right? We’re the good guys?”
Istvan paused.
“We better be the good guys,” said Kyra.
He wondered what to tell her. The world was complicated, and cruel, and didn’t play favorites. They had made mistakes. They would always make mistakes. The entire premise of Niagara, both coming here and staying here, was questionable.
But… Kyra already knew all of that.
Istvan nodded. “We had best be.”
About the Author
Paige Orwin was born in Utah, to her great surprise. At the age of nine she arranged to rectify the situation. She now lives in Washington state, next to a public ferry terminal and a great deal of road construction, and has never regretted the decision. She is the proud owner of a BA in English and Spanish from the University of Idaho, which thus far has not proven terrifically useful for job prospects but she knew the risks of a humanities degree going in. She also survived the 8.8 Chilean earthquake in 2010, which occurred two days after her arrival in the country (being stubborn, she stayed an entire year anyway). She began writing her first novel, The Interminables, when her favorite video game, City of Heroes, was shut down in late 2012. Her partner in crime wants a cat. This, thus far, has not happened.
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paigeorwin.com • twitter.com/paigeorwin
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Stormbringers
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An Angry Robot paperback original 2017
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Copyright © Paige Orwin 2017
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Paige Orwin asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
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UK ISBN 978 0 85766 593 5
US ISBN 978 0 85766 594 2
EBook ISBN 978 0 85766 595 9
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This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
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ISBN: 978-0-85766-595-9