Elenya continued: ‘No one’s trying to say their deaths are now justified. Somehow, they’ve . . .’ She gave up, shrugged and sighed.

Va nodded miserably, and Benzamir asked Ariadne to land.

‘Where, Benzamir?’

‘Close to the city. There’s a blizzard blowing, it’s dark, and if we’re quick, we won’t be seen.’

Ariadne settled through the layers of low-lying cloud. The display showed a blinding swirl of snowflakes superimposed on the radar-mapped landscape.

‘I’ll go now.’ Elenya held up her hands. ‘I don’t want any of you to come with me. Promise me you’ll stay here, in this room.’ She glared at each of them in turn, waiting for them to acquiesce.

‘Good luck, Princess,’ said Alessandra. ‘I hope you . . . I don’t know – have a long and happy life? Is that too much to ask for?’

‘I don’t know. Any sort of life will be welcome.’

Benzamir raised his hand. ‘Princess Elenya,’ he said, and there was a catch in his throat.

‘Tell me again,’ she said.

‘All will be well.’

There was silence, punctuated only by Ariadne telling them they had landed.

‘Va? Have you nothing to say to me?’

‘God go with you, wherever you are. And I’m sorry.’

The corner of her mouth twitched in the memory of a smile. ‘I release you, Brother Va Angemaite. I won’t chase after you again.’

She strode from the flight deck, her machine-fabricated boots clicking on the floor. The door shushed and cut off the noise completely.

‘I’ve opened the cargo bay doors,’ said Ariadne. The display twisted: Elenya was standing at the doors, eyes half closed against the snow flying at her face. Then she jumped to the ground, and with her ankles swallowed by drifting snow, she ploughed towards the gates of Novy Rostov.

Benzamir realized he’d been holding his breath. He puffed, and patted Va on the back. The monk didn’t move. He seemed frozen in place.

They watched as the figure on the screen broke into a run, uphill, until she was dwarfed by the city’s wall.

‘It’s time to go, Ariadne. We’re almost done.’

CHAPTER 45

THERE WAS A smear of light left on the eastern horizon as Benzamir carried two more books outside and set them on the growing pile. Two light-bees buzzed behind him.

‘Thank you,’ said Va. He counted them up, like he’d done every time, then squared off the books to be neat.

‘Are you sure this is all right? We can’t get any closer to Moskva without the tsar riding out with his knights, but it’s still a long way.’

‘It won’t be a problem. In the morning a patrol will come down the road and they’ll find me here. I’ll send a message to the patriarch, and he’ll send a cart.’ Va rested his hand on top of the uppermost book. ‘I don’t know what he’s going to say about the one that is missing.’

‘Well,’ said Benzamir, ‘if he gives you any trouble, tell him he’ll have me to answer to.’

‘You’re being irreverent. The patriarch is a righteous man. If he wants to admonish me, it’s his privilege to do so and mine to accept whatever punishment he hands out.’

‘I don’t think any man alive could have done more. Eleven out of twelve’s not bad.’

‘I promised him I’d get them all.’

‘It’s fish food. No one will trouble it for a thousand years.’

‘Ariadne said we could go back and get it.’

‘It’s not Ariadne who’ll be diving in the dark looking for it. You have to appreciate that while it’s trivial to protect something at one atmosphere from vacuum, it’s a whole different engineering solution when you’re trying to hold back several tonnes of water. Even if I still had the battlesuit, I don’t know if I could have done it. And I’m not skinny-dipping in the Outer Ocean for anyone, not even you, Brother Va.’

Va tutted. ‘And what of Solomon Akisi?’

‘What of him? Worried about all the things he’s read? Don’t be. They’ll only serve to drive him mad. He’s seen the far future, and he knows he’ll be long gone before any of it comes to pass. Even if the emperor pardons him, his ingenuity will constantly crash into the barrier of what is possible.’ Benzamir laughed. ‘You knew him: what do you say to that?’

‘It sounds like justice.’ Va looked around, still surprised not to see Elenya.

‘How does it feel?’

‘Feel?’ He turned north, to where Novy Rostov lay far away. ‘Does it matter what I feel? What’s important is that she’s free.’ He turned his head and looked at the ground. Snow stuck in the ploughed furrows, leaving the ridges as iron-hard stripes. ‘I failed her. I was never what she wanted me to be, except for that one brief moment when she thought me everything and before I realized I was nothing.’

‘Everything that was said to have happened: did it?’ Benzamir idly opened a book; Va pushed it firmly closed again.

‘Yes,’ he said quietly. ‘That and more. Having Elenya became all-consuming. Idolatrous thoughts. Pride, envy, lust, anger. I was so deep in sin.’

Benzamir coughed. ‘She does have that effect on people.’

Va looked up. ‘I know. She hated the way men always looked at her. Though not you. She said as much. But you never asked her to go with you.’ He frowned. ‘Why not?’

Benzamir leaned forward and rested his elbow on the books to stop himself fiddling with them. ‘I’ll answer that if you will first.’

‘I have found something infinitely better: a life spent in simple service to God, the patriarch and my fellow men.’

‘Nothing about your life will ever be simple, Va. I suddenly realized I wasn’t the solution to any of her problems. I saw my future in that moment.’

‘God gives His wisdom to all, but only the wise take notice of it. You’re an ungodly heathen, Benzamir Mahmood, but apart from that it can’t be denied that you make a better Christian than most.’

‘High praise indeed, Brother.’

‘You became an agent of God’s will, whether you knew it or not, cared or not. I feel that there’s hope for the world when I think of your example. If God can use even you—’

‘What is this? From high praise to faint praise?’

‘I’m sorry,’ said Va. ‘I don’t presume to know the mind of the Almighty.’

‘I’ll get the rest of the books.’ Benzamir climbed up through the hatch, to be replaced by Alessandra.

She was still dressed as a Mahgrebi woman, but she had her own light-bees and a translator drone following her around.

She passed Va another book, and he stacked it with the others.

‘A fine night,’ she said. She was uncomfortable around him, he could tell, though she was trying.

‘Alessandra. What is it about me?’

She jumped down. ‘You do nothing in half-measures, Va.’

‘Isn’t that good?’

‘It’s frightening to normal people. Soldiers hire themselves out, march here, march there, wave their spears and go home. You stopped the Caliphate in its tracks, destroyed its armies and changed history. Monks pray and sing and look after the sick and the poor. You travelled across continents with no idea of where you were going and ended up saving the world from undying creatures with god-like powers.’

‘What else should I have done?’ said Va, genuinely perplexed.

‘You? You’re incapable of doing anything different. It was the only course of action you could possibly take. Robbers steal your books of forbidden knowledge. You, and only you, were ever going to get them back, no matter what obstacles stood in your way. And look.’ She pointed to the metal books. ‘You were right.’

‘Anyone else in my position would have done the same. It would be their duty.’

‘Anyone else in your position would have either curled up into a little ball of terror, or would still be wandering around foreign lands trying to work out which way was up. You’re an extraordinary man, Va. Everything about you is just about held in balance, like you’re standing on a needle. It’s agony for you there, but you know it’d be much worse if you fell. If you learned to calm down a little, perhaps mere mortals like myself wouldn’t be so terrified of you.’