“A new world begins tonight,” Telsin said. “Emerging from Elendel’s smoldering ruin. The Basin will be devoted to a new god, one who isn’t weak. Isn’t divided.
“All day you’ve hounded me. But now you’re the one who is caught, and the ship is free. The bomb is on its way. You can’t stop it. Go ahead. Throw yourself into the night, Wax! You’ll end up swimming in the bay.
“Or maybe you’ll hurry to Elendel, to join everyone who will die in the blast. The bomb is rigged to blow if the ship is stopped or struck by weapons fire. It’s too late. I’vewon.I—”
Hit her, Harmony,Wax thought.Cut her off. Now.
Telsin gasped. She stumbled, the red glow to her eyes fading, her lips parting, and fell motionless to the rooftop.
Her body is pushed past its limits,Harmony told him.Waxillium…she’s being sustained only by the power. Get Autonomy to withdraw. Stop that ship!
Wax met Wayne’s eyes, which were pleading with him, worried. The answer. What was the answer?
Wax looked down through the broken skylight, where mist was pouring in like water into a drain.
He could barely make out a corpse below.
67
Steris stood at the central station, where people piled onto a train—a cargo train, as those could carry more people. She checked items off her list. Another district evacuated.
Broadsheets were getting wind of Steris’s efforts. Entire octants being evacuated? Mysterious gas leaks used as an explanation? People were fleeing by car in larger and larger numbers, but she’dplanned for that. It was part of the evacuation projections.
She nodded to TenSoon, who came prowling up, still wearing the constable’s body. “Daal and the senators have fled the city. News that they are gone is spreading.”
“That’s troubling,” Steris said. “But inconsequential before our current need.”
His expression became distant. “Yes, but they took the Bands. I shouldn’t have brought them out, shouldn’t have let them go. I’ve been away from human politics for too long.” He looked at her. “I didn’t know, Steris. I didn’t know they had been drained. I feel we were played somehow. I don’t do… human very well anymore.”
“We will deal with the problem of the Bands,” she said, “if we have the luxury of surviving what is coming.”
He growled softly, but it seemed more like a sigh than a sign of disagreement. They both turned as Governor Varlance walked up, wiping his brow with his handkerchief. He’dbegun the meetings today wearingwhite face makeup, but little of that remained, just some patches on his cheeks.
His presence lent a great deal of authority to Steris’s orders. People were comforted to see him, the governor, directing efforts. Simply by standing near her, he had probably saved thousands of lives.
It had proved difficult to keep him from talking and spoiling the effect by being… well, himself. “How are you doing?” she asked him, making a notation as another train chugged away. “Perhaps some more coffee?”
“No,” he said. “Thank you.” He paused and spoke more softly. “How many do you think we can save?”
“It depends entirely on how much time we have.”
“Assume there’s not much,” he said, his voice growing even more hushed. “Lady Ladrian, we just received a report from intelligence operatives in Bilming. Something has happened.”
She felt a coldness deep inside. “Artillery launch?”
“No,” he said. “Bilming has launched one of itswarshipstoward Elendel. Full speed.”
A warship. She turned and waved toward Reddi, who was instructing his constables to keep lines organized as people were loaded onto the next trains.
He jogged over. “Bilming has launched a warship,” Steris said.
“A single warship?” Reddi said. “We can handle that, even without a navy of our own.”
“Indeed,” the governor said.
Only one ship? Going at full speed?
Oh no.