Ninefox Gambit (The Machineries of Empire, #1)

by Yoon Ha Lee

The wind grew colder, the sun dimmer. “Stupid war, isn’t it?” Sereset said. Cheris startled. Careless of her. She should have better control. “Don’t say that.” Sereset’s grin was ghastly. “Don’t be ridiculous. What can they do, kill me?” “You know just as well as I do what they do to dissidents. The best thing to do is obey.” “I expected better of you.” “You should never expect better of anyone.” Cheris remembered long hours in Shuos Khiaz’s office hunched over lists of numbers. Her imagination wasn’t large enough to encompass the deaths, the cities unmade and the books smothered into platitudes, but that wasn’t any reason not to try. After another pause, while strange luminous insects started to dance their fluttering dances, Cheris said, “It’s a stupid war.” The words tasted strange. She was unused to taking such risks. She wasn’t sure that Sereset had heard her, but then he said, “Not much to do about it, I suppose.” “That’s not true,” Cheris said, more vehemently than she had meant to. “If everyone united to defy their tyranny, even the heptarchs would fall back. We say ‘rebels’ as though they all share the same goals and leadership, but they don’t. They don’t coordinate with each other, so the heptarchate will defeat them in detail. It’s just a matter of time.” “Indeed,” Sereset said. Perhaps he was smiling. At this point it was hard to tell. “We shouldn’t be fighting this war,” Cheris said. She had been silent for so long. “The only way to get them to stop, though, i...