He sipped again, and now that he knew what to expect he found the drink very good indeed. “This is excellent, lady,” he said.

The Skyler threw him a distrustful glance, then grudgingly replied, in a tight, brittle voice, “Thank you."

Emboldened, Bredon groped for something else to say. Before he could devise anything suitable, the Skyland interrupted.

“Excuse me,” it said, “but I'm afraid I have bad news."

“What?” the Skyler demanded. Her voice broke, indicative of her extreme state of nervous tension.

“The High Castle has been breached,” the Skyland said. “The attackers have broken through a full seven levels of defense, counting the stone of the walls, and have entered the main structure at three separate points. Of the observers reporting to me, none can detect any further evidence of activity on the part of the defenders."

The four humans looked at one another.

“How long until we get there?” Imp asked, putting down her drink.

“We should arrive in the vicinity in about an hour,” the Skyland replied.

Bredon noticed that Geste had his head cocked strangely to one side, and guessed that he was listening to something the others could not hear.

“What do we do now?” the Skyler said, an edge of hysteria in her voice and her blue cordial still in her hand.

“We go on,” Imp said flatly. “Aulden's still in Fortress Holding, and the others may be holed up somewhere in the High Castle. I'd be surprised if Brenner didn't have a bolt-hole of some kind, one that he kept out of Mother's records."

“He did,” Geste replied, “but Thaddeus found it."

The two women turned to him, startled; Bredon had been watching him all along, and had expected some sort of dramatic announcement.

“What are you talking about?” the Skyler asked, annoyed and frightened.

“I've got scouts of my own working on this. You know that, of course. Brenner did have an escape tunnel, a bent-space one right through the mountain, heavily fortified and thoroughly hidden. Unfortunately, as Thaddeus and I both know, it's possible to locate and map any kind of bent-space construction, and that's exactly what Thaddeus did. He has a small army of creatures and machines waiting at the mouth of the tunnel, but so far no one has emerged. Brenner probably had some way of checking, and saw them there, so he didn't go out that way."

“Are you sure he just has the one tunnel?” Imp asked.

Geste shrugged. “It's the only one I've found. I had thought we might be able to go in that way, if we really needed to get inside."

“He might have had a normal-space one,” Imp said. “You wouldn't have found one like that, would you?"

“Not necessarily. I had my machines mapping all the bent-space work around the High Castle-there isn't much, I guess Brenner doesn't like it-and I know there aren't any other bent-space tunnels, but I can't say for sure about anything else. I had machines scouting normal space all around there, too, but they might have missed something. If he does have one, it's pretty well hidden."

The Skyler said, “There must be some way to find it."

“Sure, lots of ways. The easiest would be seismic mapping. I didn't try that because I don't have the right equipment, and it could be spotted if Thaddeus is watching closely. Which he probably is."

Imp asked, “Did you watch to see if Thaddeus did any seismic mapping?"

Astonished, Geste's smile vanished as he turned to the diminutive redhead. “I didn't think of that,” he said. “And I don't think any of my machines did, either."

“Is there any way to check?"

“Wait a minute.” Geste's eyes rolled back disconcertingly for a moment, then dropped down again.

“Damn!” he said. “Damn it!"

“What?” the Skyler demanded. “What is it?"

“Mother reports that somebody, identity unknown, set off a pulse charge near the High Castle about ten wakes ago, before Thaddeus began his attack. At that time Thaddeus had several machines scattered in the area. It's a safe bet that he set off the charge, and those machines were mapping the echoes. If Brenner does have a normal-space tunnel, Thaddeus knows it, and we don't."

“But Brenner would check, wouldn't he? He wouldn't rush out blindly.” Imp did not sound very certain of herself.

“You're right,” Geste reassured her. “He wouldn't. So if Thaddeus had a party waiting outside both tunnels-if there is a second tunnel-Brenner ought to know about it, and he wouldn't go out that way. Unless Thaddeus managed to fool him somehow."

“But then where would he go?” the Skyler wailed.

“Nowhere; he must still be in the castle,” Imp said.

“But Thaddeus broke in!"

“Skyler, we don't know what Brenner has in there. He and the others might be safe in a stasis field, or a time warp, or he might have split a bent-space section off into a pocket universe, or he might have whole layers of internal defense that we never even thought of."

The Skyler took little comfort from Geste's words. “Or they might all be dead,” she retorted.

“Yes, they might, or Thaddeus might have caught them-my observers say there have been ships leaving the High Castle, carrying loot, and they might have been aboard one."

“What would he do with them?"

“I don't know."

Bredon felt helpless and out of place listening to this conversation. He knew he was not one of these people, did not really belong here. He wanted to ask about Lady Sunlight, even while he knew that the others knew no more than he did and would not welcome the interruption. To distract himself, while the others spoke in an intent little knot he let his gaze wander the horizon.

The eastern sky was pink and gold, and the sun would appear in seconds. Bredon looked up past the glowing balls of gas to where the sky was still a deep dark blue, high overhead.

Light flashed, and his first thought was that the sun had passed the horizon, but then he realized that the light came from the northwest and was far too bright. “What…?” he began.

The others had all seen the flash as well, he realized. Imp flung her arms up in front of her face, and Geste dropped to the ground shouting a strange syllable, “Nuke!"

The Skyler simply stood, too astonished to move.

Chapter Eighteen

“'…Are you a warrior?’ the stranger demanded.

"Proud of his strength and skill, Walren foolishly answered, ‘Yes, I am!'

"'Then face me in conbat!’ the stranger called. And he flung a weapon like a long, thin knife, longer than a man's arm, to the ground before the lad. He drew a similar knife from a sheath on his belt, and waited.

"Walren began to be afraid, now. He thought the stranger was a madman. He stooped and picked up the strange knife. ‘What is it?’ he asked.

"'It's a soared, of course,’ the stranger replied. And then he leapt forward, his knife stabbing out at Walren.

"Walren jumped aside and swung his own long knife, but the stranger knocked it away easily and slashed Walren across the breast with his blade.

"Astonished, Walren looked down at the blood seeping from his chest, just in time to see the stranger's blade plunge into his heart.

"Everything went black, and he knew that he was dead.

"But then, to his surprise, he awoke, lying on a pile of leaves in the forest, with the stranger standing over him.

"'That was pitiful,’ the stranger said. ‘How can you call yourself a warrior if you can't do any better than that?'

"Walren raised his head and looked at his chest, and saw that although his blouse was still cut open, and blood still stained the fabric, the wounds had closed up and left not even a scar.

"'Who are you?’ he asked the stranger.

"'I'm called Lord Carlov,’ the stranger replied with a bow…"

– from the tales of Atheron the Storyteller