‘There’s no “might” about it,’ Sherzal sneered. ‘I have sleds that would take me to Reemarla, so far west that Durn is just a rumour. But why should I run? I have everything I want here.’

Out in the corridor Nona stopped, put Ara down awkwardly and produced the Noi-Guin shipheart from inside her habit.

‘Lano Tacsis is dead. The Noi-Guin Singular is dead, the Noi-Guin he took with him to Sweet Mercy Convent are dead. We have the shipheart.’ Nona said it with Ruli’s mouth, but the smile was all her own.

‘Those girls out there are barely able to walk. Clera is the only one of them who couldn’t be knocked over by a strong breeze.’ Sherzal returned the smile. ‘And she’s mine.’

‘Would you bet your life on it?’ Nona asked. ‘Because I would bet mine that she isn’t.’ With Ruli’s good arm bound and other arm trapped beneath Safira’s cooling body Nona had little to use now but bluff, and she had never been a good liar. The only advantage she had was that she believed what she was saying.

‘If I open the blast doors why would you let me go? If Clera’s on your side, what would stop her killing me?’

‘I swear by the Ancestor that we will make no move to stop you leaving.’

Sherzal snorted. ‘The Ancestor?’

‘You have your button. Let Clera and the two nuns past. Show Jula how to raise the blast doors again. If any of them come anywhere near you or try to stay on your side of the doors … make your explosion and have your grand end,’ Nona said.

‘And if the Scithrowl are already in the palace?’ Sherzal demanded.

‘Life is full of gambles,’ Nona said. ‘But my sisters are defending this place and they are not the kind to be overcome easily.’

‘It is important, when killing a nun, to ensure that you bring an army of sufficient size,’ Jula quoted, and offered a bloody grin from among Sherzal’s guards.

‘She’s right,’ said Nona. ‘And I’ve seen how many Adoma brought, and frankly I don’t think it’s enough.’ Without the shipheart Nona held Sherzal had nothing to bargain with when Adoma came. Nona and her friends could bottle her in the Ark and leave via the travel-ring as the battle-queen arrived.

The eyes Sherzal narrowed at Nona sparkled with fury. ‘This isn’t over. You know that? It won’t ever be over for any of you while I live.’ She took the short rod from her gown and wrapped a hand around it, thumb on the button. She folded her arms before her to shield the hand holding the rod. She raised her voice and started towards the exit. ‘Lower the blast doors.’ Turning back, she called to Joeli. ‘Come, girl.’ She waved to the guards with Jula. ‘Leave her.’

‘No.’ Nona said. ‘They all stay. Someone has to pay.’

‘Vindictive little novice, aren’t you?’ Sherzal allowed herself a smile. ‘At least we have that in common.’ She shrugged. ‘I’ve plenty of guards upstairs. And Joeli’s never really had the stomach for all this, have you, girl? A pity. I thought you might have more of your father in you, but once it got to be more than a few convent games you went to pieces.’

Joeli shook her head. ‘No! No! I can do it. Take me with you!’

Sherzal laughed and strode away. ‘Perhaps you can change my mind, thread-worker.’

Nona saw Joeli’s fingers twitching as she tried, but Sherzal had never seemed like someone who would be easily swayed … even if every article of her jewellery wasn’t worked with sigils to absorb destruction and to anchor her threads.

At the door Sherzal paused. ‘Abbess Glass really was a remarkable woman. I underestimated her too many times.’ She spoke loud enough for the room to hear but didn’t look up from her hand upon the door. ‘But if it’s the long game that impresses you then don‘t start to relax. This isn’t over.’

She looked at the strange window to check where Nona, Ara, and Clera were, then opened the door. The thick blast door outside had retracted into the floor. Sherzal walked out, arms crossed before her, thumb on the hidden button that would detonate the explosives she’d installed in the Ark.

Nona, under Ara’s control and carrying Ara, moved to one side of the corridor to allow Sherzal to pass by as far from the shipheart as she could get. Clera nodded to the emperor’s sister as she went but said nothing.

As the three of them crossed over the blast door Nona returned to her own body, Ara slid back into hers, and Ruli returned to her own flesh with a series of whimpering gasps.

‘Blast doors up!’ Nona called, and behind her ten tons of iron slid smoothly into place.

The special window continued to show the corridor as if inserting a two-foot-thick wall of iron made no difference to the view. Nona hobbled in and watched as Sherzal turned their way. She jabbed at the button experimentally, happy to blow them all to the Ancestor now the door had risen between them.

‘How frustrating for her.’ Nona narrowed her eyes at the woman. Even now her devils screamed for her to chase Sherzal down and hack her apart.

Beside Nona, Clera helped Ara to her feet. Ara, for her part, allowed Clera to aid her and didn’t punch her in the throat, which wouldn’t have been unreasonable given the fact that Clera had thrown a spear at her back less than an hour before.

‘This isn’t over,’ Ara said, joining Nona at the window.

‘No,’ said Nona, watching as Sherzal stopped at the blade-trap.

The emperor’s sister tossed a coin out to check that it hadn’t been reactivated. The coin hit the floor in four silver strips. She shot a foul look back at the blast door and pushed the button uselessly.

‘You should go out there and kill her.’ The guards had cut Jula free and she had crossed to help Ruli who was struggling to roll Safira’s corpse off her.

‘If we open the blast doors she can blow the explosives,’ Nona said, not looking away.

Sherzal tapped out the sequence to deactivate the blade-trap. Ever cautious, she tossed in a second coin. It hit the ground with a chime and rolled to a halt. Satisfied she hurried through, picking up speed, anxious to reach her guards and flee before the Scithrowl broke in.

She was clear of the blade-trap when suddenly she jolted, slowed, then carried on at a reduced pace. The jolt would have been the first wire breaking. Invisibly thin it would have cut to the bone before Sherzal’s momentum broke it. The slowing was the result of the multiple wires behind the first biting into her. By this point the pain would have registered. The blood appeared as thin red lines first, blotting the sliced edges of her gown. As she staggered large folds of flesh and muscle began to flay away from the bone. The top half of her face did something similar, the detail thankfully hidden behind a rising crimson mist. The emperor’s sister managed five more steps before falling in a gory ruin. The sound of her screaming didn’t reach into the Ark.

Beside Nona, Ara and Clera looked ready to vomit.

Nona nodded slowly. ‘Now it’s over.’

26

Holy Class

‘I’ll bring in the wires.’ Ara looked as if she would rather do anything else, even if she weren’t battling just to keep standing. But the first and last thing that Sister Apple had taught them about setting wires was that you cleared up afterwards.