One of the gilded thing’s gestures apparently included a command, because the guards were closing in. Mesmon’s purpling face hovered around the outskirts, as though he wouldn’t trust himself to stay his hand if within arm’s reach of them again. Then a grinding rumble came from the throne like the shifting of tectonic plates. Everyone froze, glancing at the golden Hiver for translation.
The major-domo took a half-step back. Six arms made an elaborate genuflection that indicated Olli, Aklu and the space between them.
‘Approach,’ it intoned, ‘O favoured one.’
Olli sent Kris a wild look, but all eyes were on her. She manoeuvred the walker frame, stepping cautiously out of the ring of thugs until she was level with the Hiver. Aklu’s eyes twitched and shifted position, examining her as its pipe-thin arms flicked and flurried.
‘You, we will save till last,’ the major-domo said softly, barely audible to Kris. ‘For we approve of those born bound who yet refuse to be.’
Olli swallowed and nodded, leaning back in her frame as she stared up at the Unspeakable. She was stared at in turn.
Then it was evidently time to go. And while the guards laid hands on everyone else, Olli got to walk unescorted. Kris wondered, in fact, what would have happened if she’d just stayed in the throne room. Had the whole thing been a veiled attempt at recruitment?
*
She’d been expecting to be dumped in the hold, but the Broken Harvest apparently took prisoners often enough to have dedicated facilities. These were spherical rooms budding off a central hub at different angles and heights – a bunch of grapes in negative. The captives were prodded into a cluster of adjoining cells sealed with energy barriers: Solace first, then Kris, Kit and Trine. Finally, Olli was allowed to choose her residence of the moment, still being treated with baffled respect by the guards. As soon as Aklu’s people had gone, she burst out, ‘I’m not a Hegemonic! Or a gangster! I’m not their plant!’
‘Nobody thinks you are,’ Kris said, although she’d had a moment’s unworthy suspicion.
‘I don’t know what they want from me,’ Olli went on, sounding almost frantic. ‘These fucking Essiel are crazy. And this one’s crazy even for an Essiel, right?’
‘Wait,’ Solace snapped. Olli glowered at her, though not without a touch of gratitude for having something comprehensible on which to focus her ire. ‘Trine,’ the Partheni went on. ‘Static.’
‘Ugh,’ the Hiver archaeologist said, a buzzing grunt from within their casing. ‘Really?’
‘Just do it.’
Trine’s face displayed a burlesque of petulance as they started putting out a sound like a dentist’s drill at the very edge of hearing. Kris’s teeth twinged at the sound – more the feel – of it.
Olli doubtless wanted to make some caustic comment about things being bad enough already, but she was a professional at heart. ‘Blocker?’ she asked cautiously.
‘My fellow incarcerates, electronic listening devices are now having a very bad day.’ Trine’s voice rose like clashing music from within that tooth-jarring sound. ‘Pass comment upon our captors all you wish.’
‘What do we say about Idris?’ Kris put in quickly. ‘Olli, you’re not with them, fine, we get that. But Idris . . . He’s still on the Vulture, unless they brought him out separately. What if they jettison the ship or something?’
‘On the other hand, if they don’t know he’s there, maybe that’ll work for us,’ Olli suggested.
‘Rescue mounted by Idris resurgent?’ Kit piped up. His screens were grey, fuzzing with vague patterns that seemed to echo Trine’s low buzz. ‘Unconvincing. Further priorities are suggested. Where are the coveted objects now, please?’
‘Ah, the . . . things, yes.’ Kris agreed. Despite Trine’s alleged cover, speaking of the Originator regalia openly still seemed difficult. ‘They’ll be searching the Vulture from top to bottom right now, I guess. They’ll find Idris anyway.’
‘Great consideration towards the potency of such objects removed from their resting place. Is that not the point?’ Kit pressed.
‘Fuck, he’s right,’ Olli agreed. ‘You can’t just pocket the damn things. So did they just . . . fall out of the crate or something? Who had them last?’
One by one they all ended up looking at Trine.
‘Analysis continues. Kindly remove such accusatory expressions from your features, my fellow stalwarts, old friends and new,’ the Hiver said.