Ninefox Gambit (The Machineries of Empire, #1)

by Yoon Ha Lee

Their class had been injected with a general-purpose phobia of vermin.

A number of the moth servitors cultivated long-winded arguments on machining tolerances and pseudorandom number generators to regurgitate whenever the humans got bored enough to try.

She wasn’t just going into a Shuos game. She was also going into the hands of the Nirai hexarch and the Immolation Fox.

The Immolation Fox was a threat to the hexarchate, but not specifically to servitors, so he was less of a concern.

At least the servitor grapevine would keep it informed of further developments if Cheris managed to escape the hexarch’s grasp. And there would be servitors on whatever warmoth Cheris ended up on; the question was whether she would ever think to call on them for more than casual conversation. Servitor policy was never to offer, but they didn’t mind being asked by an ally, even one in such a precarious position, as long as the request was polite.

The first thing she saw when she opened her eyes was a dazzlement of glittering planes and angles. She was in a strange six-sided room like the heart of a mirror.

“Mostly. I have no substance, although you can target me with exotics through the shadow. I’m anchored to you, which means my welfare is linked to yours. I absorb most exotic damage before it gets through to you, so you might say I’m a glorified shield. It’s only after I die that you’re in trouble on that front. And the only people who can hear me right now are you and other revenants. That’s going to be both a help and a dreadful inconvenience, you’ll find. There’s only one other revenant, who won’t be accompanying us. You’ll be meeting him shortly.”

revenant /ˈrevəˌnäN, -nənt/ I. noun a person who has returned, especially supposedly from the dead. – origin early 19th cent.: French, literally ‘coming back,’ present participle (used as a noun) of revenir.

The man had no rank designation, but his silver voidmoth insignia meant he was a Nirai seconded to the Kel. The moth’s wings, too, were connected by a silver chain.

“I’ve behaved for four centuries,” Jedao said. “I’m not likely to change now.” “That’s what they thought when you were alive, too.”

the black cradle’s ghosts can only be revived by attaching them to someone living, which we call anchoring. This is not general knowledge. Jedao mentioned that most exotic weapons will harm him before they harm you. There are a few exceptions. I advise you to look them up when you get a chance.

he can see and hear, and in particular he sees farther than a human does, in all directions at once. It’s futile to tell a Kel this, but watch your body language around him or you’ll be giving him a window into the contents of your brain. You may occasionally experience moments of bleed-through from his presence, his reactions seeping into yours, but the big one is muscle memory, and that’s not all bad. His reflexes have saved previous anchors.”

it’s imperative that you kill Jedao if it looks like he’s going mad or he’s about to betray your mission.”

It’s a chrysalis gun, and it’ll prepare him to be shoved back into the black cradle for his next deployment.”

And calendrical rot is a matter of hearts.”

The Fortress was located in a stretch of empty space for calendrical reasons and was nearest the Footbreak system. The notation indicated that a lensmoth had already been stationed there, but all it could do was staunch the bleeding as long as the Fortress itself was afflicted.

We can either try to stabilize Footbreak and use it as a launching point for a larger assault later, or spear straight toward the Fortress from the beginning and hope that backwash from Footbreak doesn’t hit us at the wrong time.

Cheris knew about the Fortress. She knew, in outline, the most prestigious low languages and the distribution of wealth among their classes. She knew how many citizens the Fortress sent to the academies and the breakdowns by individual academy as well. And she knew about the fabled shields that ran on invariant ice, but everyone knew that.

“We’re going to have to confront the Fortress sooner or later,” Cheris said. “It might as well be sooner.

THE ROOM CHERIS was provided with was decorated with vases filled with the bones of small animals wired into the shapes of flowers.

The hexarchate dealt with low-level calendrical degradation on a daily basis. Outbreaks of full-scale rot were comparatively uncommon, but all the same the necessity of invariant weapons that didn’t rely on the high calendar had been realized a long time ago.

“I am a mirror in your hands, but I break at your kiss,”

“There’s a very short list of exotic weapons that will kill both of us.

There were only two weapons on it, the genial gun and the snakescratch dart.

A SCHEMATIC OF the Fortress of Scattered Needles spun slowly in the air. It resembled a swollen moon with six underground chambers, each holding 40,000 to 60,000 people, each differently structured. Defensive ribs held the Fortress together. “Invariant ice,” Jedao was saying. “I don’t suppose anyone’s figured out where to get more of the stuff.”

Invariant ice had the ability to generate shields in the surrounding space. The shields were impermeable to anything but a narrow band of communications frequencies.

Two percent of exam responses were classified heretical.

But it does tell us that they’re protecting something so important that its secrecy trumps the necessity of taking the Fortress back.”

She was especially glad to see the calendrical sword, although who knew if she’d have a chance to indulge in any dueling.

the grid reminded her that today was a remembrance: the Day of Serpent Fire. Someone had delivered the meditation focus while she slept, a green candle in the shape of a snake slit open, the elongated right lung pulled out and slit crosswise. In the hexarchate’s settlements, the Vidona ritually tortured criminals or heretics on remembrance days,

consensus mechanics meant the high calendar’s exotic technologies would only work if everyone observed the remembrances and adhered to the social order that the Rahal had designed.

After the required thirty-nine minutes of meditation, Cheris did her morning exercises.

Jedao said, but he sounded like he wished they would. “You’re wondering if I need nourishment. The answer is no, but I suppose they felt protocol demanded it.”

Your profile said high language wasn’t your native tongue, either?” “Yes,” Cheris said. Her parents had ensured that she knew Mwen-dal, her mother’s language, even though it was a low language spoken by a minority even in the City of Ravens Feasting.

The hexarchate regarded all the low languages with suspicion.

“Readings suggest the heretics are keying their regime to seven as their central integer.

Seven. Were they suggesting a revival of the Liozh heresy?

Starvation Hound was commanded by Vidona Diaiya, who had a reputation for finding loopholes in orders.

Like most citizens, Cheris had a healthy respect for the Vidona, who were responsible for disseminating Doctrine and reeducating dissidents, but she preferred to respect them from a distance.

Nothing kills respect faster than pity.”

In an emergency, there might not be time to send to Kel Command for new orders. She might end up retaining command.

“Have you given thought to your emblem?” Jedao asked out of nowhere. “My what?” She saw what he meant. As a brevet general she wasn’t entitled to one, but it would disappoint the swarm not to have one as an identifier.

Two cindermoth commanders, thirteen bannermoth commanders, an infantry colonel, an intelligence captain, and seven boxmoth commanders made for a crowd.

“We’ll be using the null emblem.”

Null emblem. A featureless black banner. It was used only by generals in disgrace. Even newly promoted generals were permitted to use the default sword-and-feather emblem until they had a chance to register something.

I’m worried about Four. I mean Vidona Diaiya. She paid close attention to me when Commander Nerevor was speaking. Commander Kel Agath was completely unreadable, which is bad. And I gave up trying to keep track of the boxmoth commanders. But the big problem is going to be Commander Nerevor.”

“I’ve fucked up your body language, so on top of issues with brevet rank, formation instinct isn’t telling her to recognize you as a Kel.”

Why would you let a conspiracy grow unchecked at a nexus fortress?”

a conspiracy in the Fortress of Scattered Needles implied a conspiracy in the hexarchate entire, microcosm reflecting macrocosm.

“Stellate formation. That should get us to the afflicted zone in 21.3 days, and then we’ll have to switch to invariant propulsion.”

The problem with authority is that if you leave it lying around, others will take it away from you.