The Empire of the Zon

by R. M. Burgess

  They poured ’grator fire on the attackers, who tried time and again to set up siege ladders to climb the walls and come to grips with the defenders. Each time, the ladder was destroyed before the attackers could scale the walls. Deirdre swept the field of battle with her long-vision. Suddenly, she stopped and tapped Alex on the shoulder.

  “Look at that officer over there, on the roof of that house,” she said. “Quick, before he ducks down.”

  Alex did as she was bid and saw what Deirdre was pointing at—the officer had a ’grator in a back harness. It was difficult to see what model it was, but they were both sure it was a medium ’grator, with quite enough power to punch a hole in the walls.

  “I must get ahold of that,” said Deirdre. “We need to know why they haven’t used it yet.”

  She advanced to the battlements, drew her laser pistol, and rested it on a crenel. She snapped a long-vision sight onto the pistol and adjusted the lens till she had a clear view of the officer. It was extreme range for the laser pistol, so she jacked it up to full power.

  “Get ready to go over the top with a squad, Alex,” called Deirdre over her shoulder.

  Then she counted slowly backward from three, leading the officer very carefully with her sights. She squeezed the trigger. It was a very difficult shot, and the result was not perfect. Instead of hitting the middle of his chest, she blew off his left arm. It was a grievous wound, however, and he went down screaming.

  Alex and her squad vaulted over the wall with their base chutes, hit the ground running, and rapidly gained their objective, covered by a curtain of ’grator and laser pistol fire laid down by their sisters from the top of the wall. At the building where the officer lay dying, Alex kicked in the door. She stormed in, followed by her squad, and with professional efficiency they killed the three soldiers who were in there. They clattered up the stairs to the roof. There were two more troopers here. They put their hands up, but the huntresses were taking no prisoners, and they were summarily shot. Alex shot the officer to put him out of his misery and picked up the ’grator they had come to retrieve. Another dash across the Outer Market under their sisters’ heavy covering fire, and the gates were briefly opened in perfect time for their arrival. They threw themselves inside, breathing hard. The whine of the machinery closing and sealing the gates was music to their ears.

  Alex and her squad climbed up to the top of the battlements where Deirdre was waiting, all smiles. Alex saluted, hand on heart, still panting. Deirdre fondly wiped some dirt and sweat from Alex’s face, then put her hands on her shoulders, and touched breasts.

  “Well done, Alex,” she said affectionately. “With you and your Guardians in the field, I have no doubt we will turn the tide.”

  Alex smiled tiredly and handed her the ’grator. Deirdre turned it over in her hands and frowned.

  “This is a very old model,” she said, meditatively. “Thirty years old at least. There were rumors that some weapons were lost in the battle for the Residency in the War of Brigon Succession. It would make sense that they fell into the hands of the Hilsons.”

  All of the electronic readouts on the body of the weapon were dark. She turned it over again and broke it open.

  “It has no charge,” she said with relief. “That’s why he couldn’t fire it. The barbarians must have more of these. It is imperative that they do not get access to any batteries. Alex, pass the word on the comm.”

  “I hear and obey, Princess,” said Alex immediately.

  As the barbarian attacks petered out, Deirdre and Alex flew with their Guardians to Aurora’s main administrative complex. The meetings with the mayora of Aurora and the cornelle-commandant of the citadel were formal and a bit stilted. Both were clearly very happy to pass the responsibility for the city and the citadel to Deirdre. Deirdre and Alex spent some more time with the cornelle-commandant to fully acquaint themselves with the disposition of forces in the citadel. They were just concluding this meeting when there was an urgent flash call on the comm, indicating dynamite blasts and breaches in the seaside walls near the Docks district.

  Deirdre and Alex immediately loaded up the century of Guardians in the airboats and flew to the docks. The defenders had set up a perimeter around the breach in the walls, using rocks from the wall debris and crates from the warehouses to create a makeshift defensive barricade. A harried Queen’s Household Legion centuria was directing these efforts, calling for a fire hose to extinguish a wooden crate that had been set alight by a fire arrow.

  The arrival of Deirdre, Alex, and the Guardians was greeted with a ragged cheer. Everyone had their night visions on and was looking intently for attackers coming through the breach.

  “We managed to beat back the first wave that came through the breach, Princess,” said the centuria, saluting with hand on heart. “But we expect another very soon. That was what they did when they took the outer town. They come with overwhelming numbers, and we just cannot lay down enough fire to stop them. We cannot run the ’grators continuously at full power, or we will run out of batteries.”

  “I see,” said Deirdre. “You know that we cannot allow any batteries to fall into barbarian hands. Make sure all batteries are moved further back from the lines. We can give up the docks, if necessary, but we must have a prepared and defensible position to retreat to, as we did in Sunward. Withdraw with your huntresses to the walls of the Eastshore district and set up a defensive position. I want those walls to be impregnable! The Guardians and I will take over this defensive perimeter. Call us when you are ready, and we will retreat to you. But leave one of your officers behind to show us the quickest line of retreat.”

  The centuria saluted, hand on heart, and marched away with her huntresses, leaving one of her seignoras behind. The Guardians took over the perimeter, peering anxiously into the night with their night visions. Deirdre took Alex aside.

  “Alex, when we fall back to the inner walls, we may have to rely on covering fire. I would like someone I can trust in command.”

  “Tell me what you have in mind, Princess,” said Alex steadily.

  “There are now two centuries of the Queen’s Household Legion back on the inner wall, and I am sure they will do a fine job. But I would be much calmer in my mind if you were to go back and take command of the inner wall defense.”

  “I hear and obey, ma’am,” said Alex.

  After Alex left, Deirdre walked around to check on the dispositions of her remaining Guardians. Then she suggested to the seignora from the Aurora garrison that they check the buildings behind the perimeter to show her their line of retreat to the inner walls. Most of the buildings in the Docks district were warehouses full of crates and quiet factories and workshops full of machinery.

  “The Trading Guild must have millions tied up here in the Docks district,” Deirdre remarked to her companion.

  “They are rich. They can afford the losses, Princess,” responded the seignora with feeling.

  As they continued walking, they came upon the next set of buildings housed within a perimeter of tall fences. Winking red lights indicated the presence of an alarm system.

  “Well, well, someone clearly has a lot to protect here,” Deirdre commented. “Which of the Guild Mistresses owns these buildings?”

  “That is the complex of Vivia Pragarina, Princess,” said the seignora. “She is the biggest employer in Aurora. However, when we were evacuating the Docks district this evening, we were surprised to find her enterprises were already closed, and there was only one caretaker at the gate.”

  “Seignora,” said Deirdre. “Can you shut down that alarm system?”

  “Yes, Princess, but it will take a few minutes.”

  “Do so immediately.”

  Ten minutes later, the two of them were in the complex. The warehouse and factory doors all hung open. In contrast to the others they had seen, these were all completely empty—not a single crate or machine remained.

  Her eyes stony, Deirdre opened a comm channel to Praefecta Kyra Merlina
in Atlantic City. It was answered immediately. Kyra was in her office at military headquarters, a mug of katsch in her hands.

  “Kyra, I am in Vivia Pragarina’s complex in Aurora. As you can see…” Here she moved her wrist bracer around in a circle, to send a 360-degree image on the comm. “It is completely empty. Arrest Vivia immediately on a charge of high treason.”

  EIGHTEEN

  DIANA LOOKED OVER at Brendel Nevisina as they went over the preflight checks, struck by how similar her profile was to her mother’s. I wonder how many flying hours I logged with Hebe, Diana thought. The young huntress was clearly intimidated by her famous pilot. And her mother being the airship captain and watching from the hangar deck only made things worse. But she had evaded ’grator fire at Ostracis and shown steady nerves in flying back an overloaded airboat of evacuees to the Thetis. All she needed was some encouragement.

  Diana leaned over and patted her thigh.

  “There, we are done with the checks,” she said cheerfully. “I want you to know that I think your actions at Ostracis were exemplary. I have confidence in you—you are obviously a gifted pilot. We just need to get to the High Terrace of Nordberg Castle. There is plenty of room to land there, but we need to keep a sharp lookout for ’grators. The Utreans would not have sent them all to Ostracis. We don’t want to end up like your seignora by the Ice Bridge.”

  “I hear and obey, Cornelle,” Brendel said, nodding, her adrenalin pumping.

  “Just follow my movements—you’ll soon get into the flow of how I fly. I’m giving you control of the armament. If we need to return fire, we’ll have to work as a team. I’ll set you up, and you hit the targets. With my flying and your gunnery, the Utreans had better beware!”

  Brendel glowed.

  “We’ll show them, Cornelle!” she said.

  Diana twisted in her seat so that Ling Mae and her squad on the deck behind could hear her next remarks.

  “I’m going to take us off the flight deck in a death dive,” she announced. “And there will be a few corkscrews. So belt up tight and hang on. We don’t have any airsickness bags aboard!”

  This brought forth a chuckle. Nonetheless all the huntresses checked that their five-point harnesses were clinched tight. Diana continued.

  “You fought your way out of Ostracis against overwhelming odds. I want you to know that I am proud to lead you into battle!”

  This was high praise coming from the commander of the best unit in the Legions. Ling Mae met Diana’s eyes and pumped her fist.

  Diana tapped her wrist bracer and cued up some music from her personal store onto the airboat’s internal comm. Soon all aboard had the driving beat of “Valkyrie”, the battle anthem of the Palace Guardians, pounding in their ears. It quickened everyone’s pulse, conjuring up images of those mythical beings riding into battle. Diana clicked her helmet’s dark visor down and opened up the engines.

  “Here we go!” she called over the internal comm.

  The airboat taxied to the hangar deck elevator. As the elevator began to rise with a hiss, Hebe quickly made her way back to the bridge. She had all the airship’s cameras vectored on to the airboat’s transponder, and immediately multiple screens were filled with views of the small vessel from different angles. As they watched, the airboat powered up on the flight deck, but to Hebe’s ears, the engine’s sound was almost low enough to suggest a takeoff in quiet mode. Diana eased the airboat forward, and it picked up some speed. Then, before the horrified eyes of hundreds of huntresses, it left the flight deck and fell into a vertical dive, heading straight down. The Thetis’s bridge speakers picked up the whistling sound as it fell. It sounded like a falling bomb, with almost no engine note.

  Hebe’s hand went to her mouth, and her eyes went wildly from viewscreen to viewscreen. As the airboat fell, it was clear that it was not without power, for Diana was working the rudders, and it made a few tight spirals.

  Then, barely thirty meters above the icy waters of the Lofgren, there was a huge roar as Diana opened up the engines to full power and pulled the airboat out of her dive to level off at a very high speed, flying barely fifty meters above the river. The maneuver brought them into the range of Nordberg castle, but they were so low and flying so fast that no one there could get a good line of sight on them.

  Diana juked hard to port and starboard as she flew for the castle. They were almost over the drawbridge when she pulled back hard on the wheel and worked the fins to put the airboat into a vertical climb, mirroring her dive off the airship. However, now her engines were screaming at full power, shattering windows in the castle as they climbed.

  “As soon as we come over the edge of the High Terrace, watch for fire from the High Tower,” Diana called over the internal comm. “I’ve been watching it on my long-vision; I think I saw a ’grator there.”

  Brendel’s heavy ’grator was powered up, the safety was off, and her trigger finger was itchy. They came over the lip of the High Terrace, and Diana hit the rudders hard, banking sharply to starboard. They all saw the white contrails of the ’grator blast that passed in front of their nose. The bank set up Brendel with a perfect shot at the High Tower, and she fired immediately. There was a huge explosion as the entire structure blew apart, spraying debris and molten rock down the side of the castle into the Lofgren far below. Just to be sure, Brendel jacked the slide and fired again, turning almost one hundred meters of battlements into blackened, smoking ruins.

  “Nice shooting, Officia!” cried Diana, bringing the airboat about and landing on the High Terrace with a gentle touch that was in stark contrast to their wild ride. As soon as they landed, Ling Mae hit the hatch release, and she and her huntresses quickly filed out, ’grators powered up and ready. Brendel stayed in the right seat, her heavy ’grator powered and ready again.

  “The boat is yours. Cover us,” said Diana to Brendel, unsnapping her harness.

  She joined Ling Mae’s squad, drawing her laser pistol. She walked toward the High Hall, her swinging, athletic gait emphasized by her high cavalry boot heels. Ling Mae and her huntresses fanned out over the High Terrace on either side of her, tense and ready. As they approached, two troopers emerged, both bearing white flags.

  “Watch out for a trick,” said Diana over the comm. “I will go forward and see what this is about. Cover me.”

  Diana recognized the troopers’ livery as that of Baron Karstein Tenus of Grigholm. The attacker of the Residency, she thought. She thumbed off the safety on her laser pistol as she strode forward. One of the two troopers had obviously been designated the spokesman, and he took a step in front of his mate.

  “Lady Death, I bring you the greetings of Baron Karstein Tenus of Grigholm,” he said, unable to keep the nervousness out of his voice. “He awaits you in the High Hall with refreshment. He wishes to discuss the terms of surrendering Nordberg Castle to you.”

  This threw Diana off balance. They had been greeted with ’grator fire, and now this! It had to be a trick.

  “We will not be lured into the castle,” she replied finally. “However, I am delighted to discuss terms with Baron Tenus out here on the High Terrace, covered by my ’grators.”

  “Lady Death, I will take your decision to the Baron…” began the trooper. Before he could complete his sentence, Baron Tenus stepped out from the High Hall onto the High Terrace.

  “Go in and get the stewards to bring the refreshment out here,” he barked. He turned to Diana and continued in a much milder tone. “Lady Death, it has been many years since I have had the privilege of meeting you. If memory serves, our last meeting was at my castle in Grigholm. I believe I had the honor of hosting a dinner where you expressed a liking for the stew made from the rare fossil mushrooms from the Plateau of Rocs. My cooks have prepared this again especially for you, to be washed down with some of our excellent blue-berg wine.”

  As he spoke, a dozen stewards appeared, carrying out long tables and laying out the fine repast. It all looked surreal to Diana, with her huntresses ready
for battle and the devastated High Tower and ravaged battlements in the background. She put her hand up.

  “Baron Tenus, we are not here to negotiate. We are here to arrest King Shobar and his court for rebellion against the just and peaceful rule of the Queen Empress. As you are one of the barons supporting his uprising, we will have to take you into custody.”

  “We are at war, Cornelle,” said Baron Tenus, surprisingly affable. “And as you know better than most, the fortunes of war shift friendships and alliances. We men of Grigholm began this war as allies of King Shobar. In return, he made us cannon fodder for the ’grators of the Residency. Nearly two thousand of my men lie dead on the approaches to its white walls. Now he has abandoned us to our fate, leaving a small band of Skull Watchmen to provoke a final battle to ensure that you liquidate the rest of us Grigholmers.”

  “You expect me to buy this ridiculous story?” asked Diana suspiciously. “If you are truly switching sides, give me these Skull Watchmen, shackled hand and foot.”

  “Would that I could, Lady Death,” said the baron earnestly. “But King Shobar gave them a couple of your weapons, a ’grator and a couple of laser pistols. They had the ’grator in the High Tower and commanded every aspect of the castle, so I was at the mercy of their captain. We turned on them the moment you destroyed the High Tower. They are retreating and we will soon have them bottled up in the Overhang Galleries on the far side of the castle, but with their laser pistols, they could kill dozens of us before we get them.”

  “You want us to finish them off,” said Diana, completing his train of thought.

  “Yes, Lady Death. We will give you every assistance.”

  “We face the laser pistols of the Skull Watch with your swords at our backs,” said Diana, derisively. “I don’t like those odds.”

  “What can I do to earn your trust?” asked Baron Tenus wearily.