‘Just as soon,’ Fleming added, ‘as you tell me the truth.’

A tsunami of pain burst open.

NO!

Max yelled for oblivion to take him.

They sat behind a table like a panel of examiners, while Roger faced them like a doctoral candidate preparing to defend his dissertation – except that he had Jed beside him. Among the panel of questioners was a familiar face, the man who had introduced himself as Dak Stilwell, a counsellor.

‘We can use real names,’ said the thin man in the centre. ‘I’m Pavel Karelin, this’ –indicating ‘Stilwell’ – ‘is Zeke Clayton, and that’s Clara James.’

The woman looked like a competitive runner, poised for the start.

‘Are they really real names?’ asked Jed.

‘For all official purposes, yes,’ said the woman. ‘Call me Clara. First names are appropriate, don’t you think?’

‘On the basis that Roger has done nothing wrong?’ said Jed. ‘I’ll agree with that.’

Roger swallowed.

‘Ask me anything,’ he said. ‘Er, except …’

Pavel said, ‘What is it?’

‘I don’t understand security clearance or any of those things. Including your clearance.’

‘We can assume, I think, that they’ve authorization.’ Jed touched a fist against Roger’s shoulder. ‘We’re in the centre of the Admiralty.’

Clara’s mouth twitched. ‘If there’s anything you’re not authorized to hear, Pilot Goran, we’ll let you know.’

Jed looked about to blush; then he grinned.

‘Good point,’ he said.

‘My father was an agent-in-place on Fulgor,’ said Roger, ‘for over twenty years.’

The trio nodded.

‘Look, I came into this,’ said Jed, ‘because I was at Sanctuary in Lucis City. Carl Blackstone’s ship appeared overhead, and he identified himself as an intelligence officer breaking cover, then warned us about the Anomaly. Not the word he used, of course.’

‘What did he say?’ asked Pavel.

‘We were already tracking the gestalt-mind’s growth in Skein,’ said Jed. ‘Al Morgan and Angus Cho were with me. What Carl Blackstone told us was the gestalt would be able to absorb everyone, not just Luculenti linked to the virtual environment they called deep Skein.’

‘And what else?’

‘Then he said he was going to fly here. It was pretty clear what he meant by that.’

‘Hellflight?’

‘Exactly.’ Jed looked at Roger. ‘I never saw him face to face, but he was a good man.’

Dad had killed himself to raise the warning, to get an evacuation fleet under way. But that was after Mum had died. Roger had no way of knowing how Dad had felt in the hours before death.

There was something missing from Jed’s story: the secret legacy from Dad, safe in her Ascension Annexe hangar, growing by the day.

=It’s all right.=

Roger tightened his abdomen, then relaxed. In hiding his own reaction, he almost missed it: near-subliminal twitches from both Clara James and Zeke Clayton. Sensing that Labyrinth had spoken?

Pavel said: ‘Clayton, you have a question?’

So much for first-name informality.

‘For Roger, yes.’ In that roundish, bearish face, the eyes were hard. ‘How did your father know what the Anomaly was capable of? That it would be able to absorb minds without the medium of Skein?’

‘I … There was the Zajinet Research Institute. That was my fault.’

‘Did your father often share operational details with you or your mother?’

‘Never. I mean—’ Roger had to think about this. ‘They tried to raise me as a Pilot without taking me here, away from Fulgor. Occasionally they talked about Zajinets. Not much, only that they’re the other realspace species to function in mu-space.’

‘And the Institute?’

‘Mentioned by chance,’ said Roger, ‘and I didn’t know it was part of Dad’s work. I knew it existed. It just didn’t advertise itself. You wouldn’t find it unless you knew of it.’

Unsure whether the answer made sense, he was relieved in any case to tell the truth.

‘You’re implying’ – this was Clara – ‘that the Anomaly reached through realspace hyperdimensions to link with human nervous systems. How do you know that?’

‘I don’t,’ said Roger. ‘I know Zajinets teleport along the hyperdimensions. As for the Anomaly, I thought that’s what people have agreed it must use. The only sensible explanation.’

Jed said: ‘Reports of blue glows, especially the eyes, suggest Witten radiation from transitions of—’

‘We know the rumours.’ Pavel nodded to Roger. ‘I’m still curious as to why you raised the subject of Zajinets.’

‘That’s …’ Roger took time to exhale, then breathe in. ‘I’ll have to backtrack for context, but the immediate reason is that I told my … friend … Alisha about the Institute, and we went there. I think we were under surveillance by Rafaella Stargonier, the Luculenta who started the whole thing. The seed that became the Anomaly.’

Neither Pavel, Clara nor Clayton altered posture; no micro-expressions delineated their thoughts; yet the atmosphere had shifted. Call it pheromones.

Call it fear.

‘What was the relationship between you and the Stargonier woman?’ said Clayton.

‘I only ever saw her from a distance.’ Roger felt as if he had drunk too much daistral. ‘I saw some odd things, but it was Alisha who met her directly. And that was because of our tutor, Petra Helsen. She was the one behind everything.’

All eyes, including Jed’s, focused on him.

Pavel said, ‘Behind everything? Behind the Anomaly?’

‘She manoeuvred people. She …’

Roger was out of his depth, here in a city-world where he could barely open a door; but when it came to Fulgor, he was talking about his home. He knew it in a way no other Pilot could.

Right now, I’m the expert.

Once more exhaling to regain control, he felt his throat relax.

‘She, Helsen … manifested darkness. I can’t tell you what the phenomenon was, but it was real, even if I was the only one who could—’

Pavel raised both hands, palms forward. ‘Let’s stop there for now.’ And to Jed: ‘Pilot Goran, we appreciate your help, but this would be a good time to talk to Roger alone.’

‘Excuse me?’ Jed did not look about to budge. ‘According to regulations, Roger has a right to—’

‘This is no longer a public hearing. I’m invoking security protocols.’

‘You can’t—’

But a fastpath rotation came out of nowhere, descended upon Jed, and whirled him away to leave an empty flowmetal chair. Roger stared at the chair until it liquefied, flowing back into the floor.

‘We’re assuming you want to help us,’ said Clara.

‘I do.’

Put it this way: without the Anomaly, his parents would be alive.

‘The more we understand, the more effective we’ll be.’

‘I’ll tell you everything.’

So with the exception of his secret in Ascension Annexe, that was what he did.

FOUR

EARTH, 777 AD

Ulfr woke with Heithrún’s naked body against him, their legs entwined, her breathing soft and satisfied, his bladder fist-tight with the need to piss. He tried to shift and slip free, but her eyes came open and her hand went down, and then he was spear-hard and thrusting inside her – ‘Pierce me, warrior,’ her whisper – and they rode to white explosion and the shuddering, conjoined aftermath.

Then he really had to piss.

‘Sorry.’

‘Ow.’

‘Sorry.’

He clambered out butt-first from beneath the heavy cloak.

‘I’ll see you shortly.’

‘Mm.’ Heithrún turned onto her side, eyes closing. ‘Mm.’

Norns help me.

But those three sisters – Fate, Being and Necessity – were implacable now and in the past, and always would be. He had killed Eira’s brother out of mercy, not considering how his spear – his real spear – might sever the love that Eira had held for him, or seemed to. And now this, with Heithrún: unplanned but natural after the violence: lust as the giver of life.