‘What?’

‘Sorry. I’m trying to put you at ease. Foolish, given the circumstances, really. But put it this way; Coulan and I are effectively brothers.’

‘Coulan’s dead.’

‘I know.’

‘Slvasta’s dead,’ she said wretchedly. ‘I’m next.’

‘That doesn’t have to be. None of this does.’

Bethaneve started laughing, then trailed away into sobs. ‘We’ll be together. I’ll find him in the Heart.’

‘That’s not going to happen.’

‘He’ll be there. I know he will be.’

‘No, I’m afraid not. In a couple of days there won’t be any Heart, because there won’t be any Void.’

‘Who are you?’

‘We’re from the universe outside. The one your ancestors came from. And we’re going to take you back there.’

‘But . . .’ She glanced up into the darkening sky where a slender thread of smoke was fluorescing a delicate pink-gold in the rays of the sinking sun. ‘Did the flying machine take the quantumbusters up there into the sky? Captain Philious said they’d destroy the whole world.’

‘He’s wrong. That Forest up there, it’s doing something to damage the Void at a fundamental level, but only across a small section. Nigel is rebuilding the quantumbuster to replicate that effect; but when it detonates, its version of the Forest’s effect will be orders of magnitude stronger. Think of the Void as a rock with a single tiny crack in it; to break it you need to put a chisel tip into that crack and give it an almighty whack with a sledgehammer. That’s what the quantumbuster will do. It’ll tear the Void apart. We think.’

‘No more Void?’ Bethaneve asked numbly.

‘No. You’ll be free.’

‘Liberated,’ she said in a tiny voice. ‘That’s what Coulan said. We’ll be liberated.’

‘Yes. So, you see, no more Heart.’

‘But Slvasta’s soul!’ she gasped.

‘Yes, I know. But while the Void exists, there’s a very small window to rescue him.’

‘How?’

‘Hold my hand. I’ll take you to a place where he’s still alive.’

Her thoughts were in turmoil from the grief, from the pain. Nothing made sense. Everything that had happened, everything she’d just been told – it was all just too much to comprehend right now. But this was Coulan’s brother. And he said there was a chance . . . She clung to that single notion. There was nothing else left.

Bethaneve gripped his hand as if it was the only solid thing remaining in the universe.

‘This is going to feel funny,’ he said, ‘but hang on in there. It’s not for long.’

‘How long?’

‘Oh, about five minutes should do it.’

Somehow the world was fading from sight. She thought she was falling away from it, but inwards. Her perception altered weirdly so she could see shapes behind everything solid, but they were the same shapes. Then they shifted, multiplying, flashing past. And she was one of those elusive silhouettes herself. Kneeling on the ground saying something to Demitri. Curling up into a ball. On her knees staring in horror at Slvasta’s murder. Horse racing backwards towards her – Everything stopped, then swept back in at her from all directions.

She hit the ground hard as her horse charged away. More horses galloped past. Hooves flashing frighteningly close to her head.

Bethaneve groaned in shock and refreshed pain. Somewhere in the sky above, a dazzling flame was streaking upwards once more. On the ground, the neat farm compound buildings had been reduced to a wasteland of smashed, smouldering wood. ‘What happened?’ she yelled.

Demitri crouched down beside her; his stern ’paths and firm teekay guiding the stampeding horses clear of them. ‘We went back in time.’

All she could do was give him a vacant look. ‘What?’

‘Look,’ he said, and pointed. The last of the horses cantered off across the fields, scattering regiment troops onto the soil behind them. And there, on the road down below, a battered and bloody Slvasta was lying motionless, but alive. Her gaze swept up the road. Captain Philious was clambering to his feet. He staggered about, regaining his senses, then his teekay lifted a carbine from a stunned regiment trooper. His ex-sight probed round, and found Slvasta. He started off along the road.

‘Destiny is a strange thing,’ Demitri said. ‘Normally there is no avoiding it. But here and now you have a chance to alter what you know is about to happen.’

‘Why are you doing this?’ she asked the machine man.

‘We used you and I’m sorry for that. This is our way of saying thank you. But the decision must be yours.’

‘Yes! Oh, great Giu, yes.’

‘Of course. But understand this: the future you face after today will no longer be variable. From now on, destiny cannot be circumvented. You must live with what you have done, no matter the consequences.’

Bethaneve stared at Captain Philious with supreme hatred. ‘I accept my future, whatever it is.’

‘Very well.’ Demitri levelled the sniper rifle, took careful aim, and blew Captain Philious’s brains out.

*

Pain meant Slvasta was alive. He hadn’t known pain this extreme since the day Quanda had captured him. A pitiful whimper escaped his mouth as he tried to move. Even the slightest motion amplified the pain. His ex-sight probed round weakly, discerning a woman looming over him.

‘Bethaneve?’

‘Yes, my love. It’s me. Don’t worry, you’re alive, and everything is going to be fine. Now.’

Slvasta forced his eyes open. A thin grey mist swirled energetically across the valley, the remnants of the flying machine’s mercurial steam cloud. Standing proud amid the whirling vapours, Bethaneve smiled down at him.

‘What happened?’ Slvasta asked.

‘We won, my love. We won life. We won the future. We crudding won everything.’

‘The Fallers?’ he demanded.

‘No more.’

‘What?’ He tried to lift himself up, and snivelled at the pain. It was the strangest sight. In every field he could see, the farm’s mod-apes and mod-dwarfs were wrestling with the regiment troopers, hundreds of them, squirming round in the mud, holding them in headlocks and arm-twists, pinning them down. ‘Are we in Uracus?’ he asked. ‘It looks like I imagine Uracus to be.’

‘No, this is no Uracus. Javier survived, like we did. Yannrith, Tovakar and Andricea are on their way. They’re fetching a cart for you to ride on. We can get away from here before the regiment escapes from the mods, then we’ll go back to Varlan. The people there need us. They need you.’

‘A cart? Not one pulled by mod-horses. No mod-horses, Bethaneve. You know that.’

‘We’ll see, my love. We’ll see.’

*

Laura Brandt unwound her arm from the strap and pushed herself through the cabin’s hatch. The Forest whirled round her. Shuttle Fourteen was performing a lazy nose-over-tail flip every two hundred seconds, with some yaw thrown in just to make the sight even more disorientating.

Stkpads on her wrists and soles adhered to the fuselage, allowing her to crawl along. With the nerve blocks effectively paralysing the lower half of her right leg, she could only use her left foot.

She made her way down the side of the forward cabin until she was clinging to the belly, then began the long haul to the tail.

Peel a wrist stkpad off with a roll – ignore the fact that you’re now only attached by two stkpads and if they fail the shuttle’s tumble will fling you off into Voidspace – and extend the free arm as far as you comfortably can, then press down again. Apply a slight vertical pressure to make sure the stkpad is bonding correctly, then twist the sole’s stkpad free. Bring the leg up as if you’re going into a crouch, press down. Check.

Repeat, and repeat, and repeat –

Her u-shadow reported a link opening from an unknown net. ‘Hello, Laura.’

‘Who the fuck is this?’

‘Don’t worry. I’m not a Faller.’

‘A what?’

‘One of the alien-duplicated Ibu and Rojas entities.’

‘Who are you?’ she asked in trepidation.