The Temporal Void (ARC)

by Peter F. Hamilton

  'The musicians can.'

  'Ah.' Edeard turned and faced the stage. The first musicians were starting to emerge from the staircase well in the centre, carrying their instruments with them. 'Spoilsports.' His third hand hauled his chair right up next to hers, and he sat down again. 'You feeling better?'

  She nodded. 'Yes.'

  He'd never seen Kristabel so furious as that afternoon when Bise had contemptuously ignored the parchment as it passed along the long table in the Upper Council chamber for the signature of each Master. His refusal to sign the Consent bill had even appalled Owain, but he was immune to all remonstration. The Pythia herself couldn't get him to change his mind. So for the first time in three hundred and nineteen years a Consent to Marry bill was not approved unanimously.

  It meant nothing to Edeard of course. But Kristabel was outraged. It was a slur on the entire Culverit family, not to mention her personally. After Owain had formally announced the Upper Council's majority approval, she'd stormed out of the Council chamber swearing revenge.

  'He's an idiot,' Edeard said as the musicians began to take their places. 'And he's on his way out.'

  'He's barely ninety,' Kristabel said. 'He'll be sitting in Council for another century at least. And I'll be sitting in there with him.'

  'No you won't. I'll have him sentenced to the Trampello mines, you'll see. I'm working on a way to prove his connection to the gangs.'

  'Edeard, I love you dearly, but please, you really have to read up on the city's traditions and laws. Bise is a District Master, he can never stand trial in the law courts.'

  'What? Why not?'

  'Only the Masters of the Upper Council can try one of their own, for any crime. The exemption accountability law was supposed to stop frivolous litigation brought by anyone with a grudge.'

  'Oh.' He tipped his head to one side and regarded her intently. 'How come you know that?' As soon as he said it, he knew it had come out wrong.

  'For your information,' she said icily. 'Between the ages of fourteen and nineteen I used to spend ten hours a week studying law under Master Ravail of the Lawyers Guild. I could pass your constables' probation exams in my sleep.'

  'Right.'

  'Did you think me unschooled and ignorant?'

  'No.'

  'I am to be Mistress of an entire District. Do you have any idea of the responsibilities involved?'

  He took her hand, squeezing for emphasis. 'Yes, Kristabel.'

  'Sorry.' She gave him a contrite smile.

  'It's normally me that's saying that.'

  'I know. I'm just so cross with him.'

  'This is a battle fought at many levels.'

  'But at least with your level you get to see some results.'

  'Not really,' he admitted, as the first discordant notes of the musicians warming up began to reverberate around the huge auditorium. He was surprised by how loud they were. It must be something to do with the spiky roof, he decided.

  'I thought you'd just about got your Hundred,' she said.

  'We have.' He started to tell her about Buate's strategy to fight back, to inflict so much damage on the city that the Councils would call for Edeard to end his campaign.

  'Clever,' she said when he finished. 'But inevitable. You've been very effective at curtailing his activities. This is what happens when you back people into a corner, they lash out.'

  'You think I shouldn't arrest the Hundred?'

  'The thing about elections is they're unpredictable. Your idea to crush the gang leadership beforehand is excellent. You show people what life would be like if Finitan gets to pass his banishment act. But if you don't arrest them, things stay as they are, or worse Buate starts a rumour that you're too afraid to act, and the vote could well go Owain's way.'

  'Owain will support me; he told me himself.'

  'Yes, but only as it applies through his One Nation manifesto. And for what it's worth, I think Finitan is right, we need to consolidate the city before we try to help the provinces.'

  'So what do I do?'

  'You can't allow a city-wide riot. That goes against everything you are as a constable. It has to be stopped.'

  'Easily said. How?'

  'Sometimes you have to do what's wrong in order to do what's right.'

  'I know that. I even considered snatching the top gang lords and holding them in isolation, but it always comes down to the same thing: there aren't enough of us, not for that kind of work. I could only ever get two or three of them before the word would get out, and that's the trigger for the riot. I just don't see how it can be stopped.'

  'You're probably right, so you have to try and contain it; and I know just the place.'

  'Where?'

  'Sampalok.'

  'Oh, Lady.'

  'No. He's the one who champions the gangs. He provides them with sanctuary, he even excluded you from the district. Well, it's about time he realized there's a price to pay for collaboration.'

  'How in the Lady's name do I confine the riot to Sampalok?'

  'If that's where the rioters are, that's where the riot will be. Push them in there, Edeard. Use their own tactics to defeat them.'

  'But…'

  'That's wrong?' she asked archly. 'Edeard, if you want to win you have to play to win. You're the Waterwalker. There's no one else going to do this.'

  'Yes,' he said meekly as the conductor appeared on stage. Applause began to ripple round the auditorium. 'I know.'

  * * * *

  'The pistols were easy to obtain. A key was provided, the guards that night were ones who knew not to ask questions.'

  'A key? You mean for the vault?'

  'Yes. Actually, you need five keys to get through three doors, and the combination numbers. The locks are impossible to pick with telekinesis, there are too many parts to manipulate simultaneously.'

  'Who gave you the keys?'

  'Warpal told me where a set would be left. The combinations were with them.'

  'So Warpal is your leader?'

  'There is no leader. We are simply people who agree on what must be done to maintain a basic level of order in the city.'

  'Sons of Grand Families?'

  'People who share a background of good family and breeding, who have the same understanding of life. It is nothing like as formal as you think.'

  'But somebody must organize it.'

  'Not really. We support each other and the final rule of law.'

  'You protect the families from the gangs?'

  'Precisely. And any other threats.'

  'So why haven't you got rid of the gangs?'

  'A criminal underclass is somewhat inevitable. As you're finding out, they're well organized. To defeat them we would first have to match them, and that's not what we do. We look after our own. If the lower classes want something done to stop the gangs, then that's up to them to do something.'

  'And yet when I came along and started to do exactly that, you tried to eliminate me. Why?'

  'You are more than a constable, a lot more. You have some power in this city which no one understands. And you have your own vision of law and order, a very rigid intolerant one. If you were to enforce that you would do untold harm to the families.'

  'I don't want to destroy anything.'

  'The road to Honious is paved with good intentions. Makkathran works perfectly well as it is.'

  'For the nobility perhaps. The gangs have grown too big and powerful under your lax rule. You let that happen. Makkathran doesn't work for everyone, and it must.'

  'We do what we can.'

  'Were you one of those who pushed me off the tower?'

  'Yes.'

  'Who else was there?'

  'Warpal, Merid, and Pitier.'

  'Who organized it?'

  'Warpal.'

  'And who told him to do that?'

  'That's not how we work.'

  'Nobody suddenly decides to do such a thing. There has to be someone in charge of you.'

  'Our older members offer guidan
ce, that's all. They smooth the way into Guilds, provide us with additional funds, that kind of thing. They have ties to the family councils, so they're aware of problems emerging before the rest of city. That way we can be informed of such instances and deal with them discreetly. Our work is quiet and infrequent. Some of us are never called upon.'

  'So these older members control you?

  'They guide and advise. We each have a mentor, they are the ones who initiate us in the Families' confidential arts.'

  'Like concealment?'

  'That is one of them, yes.'

  'Who is Warpal's mentor?'

  'Motluk is mentor to both Warpal and myself.'

  'Motluk?'

  'He's a junior Master in the Leatherworkers Guild.'

  'And which family does he come from?'

  'He is Altai's son. The fourth, I think.'

  'Altai?'

  'Altai is the third son of Carallo, who is a Diroal, the fifth son of the previous Master. Carallo is married to Karalee, third sister of Tannarl.'

  'A Diroal? Lady! You mean Diroal as in the District Masters of Sampalok?'

  'Yes.'

  * * * *

  The barrels were stored in a large Gilmorn warehouse on the edge of the Port District. Edeard enjoyed the irony in that as he got the city to change the floor they were stacked on. One by one the barrels fell into the tunnel beneath Tail Canal. Edeard's third hand scooped up eight of them, and they bobbed along through the air behind him as he walked the short distance along the curving tunnels under Myco's streets to stand beneath the House of Blue Petals.

  With only a couple of hours left until dawn, it was still very dark inside the lounge as he and the barrels rose through the floor. His farsight found several people sleeping upstairs, including Buate who was sharing his bed with two of the house's girls. A more detailed scan couldn't find anyone using concealment lurking within the building.

  Edeard sent three of the barrels drifting through the doorways leading off the wooden gallery. His third hand broke open their tops, and the thick jamolar oil inside spilled out along the corridors. Two more barrels were hoisted up to the top floor, drenching carpets and furniture in Buate's big study. Oil ran out under the door, washing down the corridors and stairs.

  His longtalk prodded the minds of the slumbering ge-chimps in their little pen behind the kitchen. 'Go outside,' he ordered them as he walked upstairs. They obediently shuffled silently out into the street.

  His third hand broke open two of the barrels downstairs, leaving an intact one standing on top of the bar. Jamolar oil sluiced across the floor.

  'Nostalgia,' he muttered as he started up the stairs to the upper floor. He stood in front of the door to Buate's bedroom. His third hand plucked an ember from one of the stoves in the lounge, and dropped it.

  Flame whooshed across the room. The furniture caught alight immediately, long flames licking round the bar. Within seconds, oil dripping down the stairs had ignited, sending flames ripping across the first floor. The fire followed the damp trail up the next flight of stairs, and blazed into the study.

  Edeard smashed the bedroom door down, and strode into the room as flames leapt and danced behind him. Buate's sleep-befuddled head came up from the pillows. The girls cried out as they saw the black figure silhouetted in the doorway, his cloak rippling in the air like some living appendage. They clung to each other in fear.

  'What the Ladyfuck—' Buate gasped. His farsight was probing the building, finding fire everywhere.

  'This establishment appears very accident prone,' Edeard observed.

  The barrel on the bar exploded. Doors shattered, letting in a huge squall of fresh air. Flames roared up to the roof of tin-lounge.

  'If I was you I wouldn't come back here, not ever,' Edeard said. 'In fact I doubt there's anywhere in this city where you'll be safe.'

  Flames trickled into the bedroom, flowing round Edeard's feet as they consumed the carpeting. His cloak flapped in agitation. Both girls whimpered, pressing themselves to tin-headrest. Smoke began to layer the air.

  'You're dead, Waterwalker,' Buate shouted.

  'Warpal tried and failed. What chance have you got?'

  Buate stiffened at the mention of that name, causing Edeard to grin in amusement.

  'Now get out of my city, take your people with you; and if you ever try to start your riot you will join your brother in the manner I mentioned during my previous visit. Final warning.' He nodded politely to the girls. 'Ladies.'

  They screamed as his third hand lifted them into the air. Then the bedroom windows disintegrated, and they found themselves floating through the gap to descend gently on to the street below, where the house's ge-chimps were scampering about in considerable apprehension.

  Buate watched their flight in astonishment. 'What about me?' he yelled. But when he looked round, Edeard had gone. Flames licked hungrily at the base of the bed.

  * * * *

  Edeard chose the middle of Golden Park at midnight. The huge plaza was empty, with nebula-light flickering off the tips of the white metal pillars that surrounded it. Only the faintest of shadows fell across the glossy cobbles as two dark figures appeared from nowhere.

  'You are free to go,' Edeard said with an expansive gesture.

  'Go where, exactly? I am a wanted man. How long do you think I would last out there?'

  'Nobody will know you in the provinces.'

  'You believe I should join Nanitte?' Argian asked with a show of bitter amusement. 'You are crueller than I thought, Waterwalker.'

  'I am more desperate than you know.'

  'Excuse me if I don't offer my undying sympathy.'

  'I need your help.'

  'I have given you everything I can. There is nothing left of me.'

  'I ask only that you do what you were trained to do. I ask that you keep your loyalty to this city.'

  'My time here is over. I have you to thank for that.'

  'Keep watch for me, see what your people are doing.'

  'That is not loyalty, that is betrayal.'

  'Not to the city. You are an honourable man at heart. You know something has to be done to rid us of the gangs, and pull back the excesses of the families. Things cannot carry on as they are, that will doom us all. Help me. If nothing else, be a moderating voice. If you truly fear I am too uncompromising, then stay and exert what influence you can on me.'

  'Me, influence you?'

  'You understand the true way things work. I would listen to your advice if it were to be given in good faith. Tell me how to achieve justice without alienating and ruining the best of that which is. Smooth the way. Do not let this city become divided by my blundering. Isn't that your calling?'

  'You seem to have missed your vocation.'

  'Was that a yes?'

  Argian sighed as if in great pain. 'After all you have done to me, you expect me to help you?'

  'I left you alone. That's all. If there were any demons in there with you, I didn't send them.'

  'It will take me a while to gather my things together. If I see anything detrimental before I leave, I may tell you.'

  'Thank you.'

  * * * *

  Felax raced into the small hall at the back of Jeavons constable station, very flustered and out of breath. 'Waterwalker, Master Gachet from the Guild of Lawyers is here! He's talking to the captain. He says he has a warrant for your arrest.'

  'Really?' Edeard asked with interest.

  'Honestly,' the young constable assured him. 'I'm not joking.'

  'I'm sure you're not.' His farsight caught a thoroughly disgusted Boyd handing over coinage to a smug Macsen. 'I'll he right there.'

  The squad stood up to leave.

  'Everyone keep going,' Edeard urged the other constable working at the benches. 'We're really close to a hundred now. I don't expect this nonsense to take more than a day.'

  He left the small hall with his friends. 'Ready?'

  Macsen grinned as the hall door closed behind them. 'Oh Lady, y
es.'

  Edeard hurriedly pulled off his distinctive jacket. Macsen was already wearing Edeard's glossy boots, even though his feet were too large.

  'Remember,' Dinlay said pleadingly. 'Just don't say anything.'

  'Who me?' Macsen asked as he buttoned up the jacket.

  'Let's see it,' Boyd said.

  Macsen nodded, his mind betraying a brief flutter of nerves, then he concentrated. Shadows thickened around his face, turning him a malaised grey. Then they stretched and blurred.

  Edeard held his breath while Dinlay grimaced in anticipation. The squad had practised this for a day, helping each other with ideas and techniques as they slowly developed the notion, refining and improving the original blanket concealment method. Surprisingly, it was Macsen who was the most capable. Edeard had assumed it would be Dinlay, who was always the studious one.

  The shadows faded away from Macsen's face. Kanseen let out a little gasp of appreciation. Edeard shook his head in disbelief; he was staring at himself. His own face gave him an evil smile. 'How do I look? Actually, how do you look?'

  Dinlay let out a hiss of exasperation. 'Stop talking! It ruins it.'

  'Go!' Boyd urged. 'We'll take it from here.'

  'Good luck,' Edeard told them. The floor changed beneath him, and he sank into the tunnel below. His farsight tracked Macsen, Dinlay and Kanseen as they carried on to Captain Ronark's office.

  Master Gachet was waiting there, along with two court officials.

  'Waterwalker,' Master Gachet said. 'I convey the compliments of my colleague Master Cherix, who says he will enjoy seeing you at the Courts of Justice where he will prosecute this case. He would be here himself, but there is the matter of an exclusion warrant against him.'

  'What's going on?' Kanseen demanded.

  'Master Gachet has a civil warrant,' Captain Ronark said in disgust. 'It is genuine.'

  'Say nothing,' Dinlay instructed. Macsen shrugged, keeping his counterfeit face perfectly composed.

  'I'd like to see it, please.' Dinlay held his hand out.

  'You?' Gachet asked in surprise.

  'I am considering a career in law,' Dinlay said. 'I will serve as Corporal Edeard's adviser until a registered lawyer can be appointed.'

  A hugely amused Gachet handed the warrant over.

  'You've been named by Buate as an assailant,' Dinlay read. 'You are also accused of arson against the House of Blue Petals.'