But Barrayar obviously didn’t know everything that I could do, or he would have pressed the button already. As soon as I’d detected the explosive, I’d started to work on it with the fateweaver, picking out the futures in which it failed. Behind us, the jann started to sidle into the room, staring at the security guards with hungry eyes.
“Verus,” Barrayar said coldly. “You’ve gone too far this time.”
“Hello, Barrayar,” I said. “So, that exchange that was supposed to happen today? I didn’t like the delegation you sent very much. Thought about sending a strongly worded letter, but figured I might as well tell you in person.”
“You know, Talisid had one job,” Barrayar said. “I should have known he’d fuck it up. Did he tip you off, or was he just that incompetent?”
“Do you care?”
“I suppose I don’t.”
“Hey,” Anne interrupted. “You two going to kiss, or shall we kick this off?”
Beneath our feet, the mine’s electronics failed. It was easier than the ones in Sal Sarque’s fortress had been: Levistus hadn’t kept this one well maintained. Probably he’d never seriously expected to need it. “You know, I really thought your boss would be here,” I told Barrayar. “What’s he doing, watching on camera?”
“Whatever you’re hoping to achieve, it won’t work,” Barrayar said. “I’ll give you and Miss Walker one chance. Turn around and leave.”
“Hey, Barrayar,” Anne called. “Just curious. Was it you who signed off on that order for Lightbringer and Zilean to torture me?”
Barrayar looked back at Anne with raised eyebrows. “Is that why you’re here?”
“No, I’m going to kill you anyway. It’ll just make it a bit more satisfying.”
Without changing expression, Barrayar pushed the button on the detonator. The faint click was loud in the silence. There was a moment’s expectant pause.
I spoke into the vacuum. “Now you can kick off.”
Black energy stabbed from Anne, meeting the force barrier with a crack of black lightning. The barrier flickered and died. The jann charged, flowing past and around Anne in a black wave as Levistus’s forces opened fire.
Light and sound hammered the entrance hall, a dozen battles and duels breaking out across the room. Fleeting images caught in my memory, fractions of a greater whole. An icecat and a jann hit each other in midair and tumbled to the floor in a whirl of claws and teeth. Fire stabbed down from the gallery on the left, grim men almost invisible behind their weapons, jann falling as they tried to close the distance. Cutting blades of air and force flew the length of the room to shatter against Anne’s shield. More jann poured down the stairs, throwing themselves into the meat grinder, drones dying for their queen.
I had only a second to take in the larger battle before I had to focus on myself. Two icecats charged me as fire tracked in, and I snatched futures from the rushing tide. One icecat was struck mid-leap by a jann; bullets whistled by on my left and right. The second icecat leapt for me, missed, and was pounced on before it could turn.
There were so many enemies that they were blocking each other. I broke into a swerving run, aiming for a doorway on the right side of the hall, firing a burst from my MP7 as I did. A burning red line streaked past my head, carrying the smell of ozone. More security men and one of the icecat handlers tried to bar my way; I wove through the attacks, death waiting in the futures and in the present, snapping off short bursts, only vaguely aware of the men falling away as their futures wisped out. It was a surprise, somehow, to reach the door and realise there were only bodies left to guard it.
A storm of air and force magic drove me to cover. I crouched inside the doorway, my back against the wall as bolts of electricity crackled off the stone. My MP7 was empty and I reloaded, taking a second as I did to scan. The icecats were all crippled or destroyed, along with a good number of the jann. Many of the security men were dead, but on the left side of the hall a tight group had held their ground and were killing any jann that tried to approach.
Anne was duelling the mages. Shadowy black wings seemed to stretch out from her shoulders; things that might have been limbs overlaid her arms. Her eyes were alight, and she fought with a fierce joy. Barrayar and the third mage were engaging her with force and air, but the translucent black threads of the jinn’s magic formed a shield that deflected all their attacks. It was the first time I’d had the chance to watch the new Anne going all out, and it was frightening to watch. She had all of her old speed and lethality, with the jinn’s power behind it. The jinn’s magic didn’t seem to follow the rules of most combat spells. What it reminded me of most was death magic, pure destruction and nothing else.
Pounding footsteps sounded from around the corner, and I stepped back as Caldera appeared in the doorway. She aimed a punch at me that would have broken my neck, and I backed into the room. Caldera stalked after me, heavy footfalls ringing on the stone.
The room I was in was a swimming pool. God knows why Levistus had one. The water, tinted blue-green from the pool tiles, stretched out down one side of the room, sculptures and houseplants standing around the other. I backed away into the side of the room where there was space to move, Caldera following.
A young man appeared in the doorway behind Caldera; one of the adepts. He was carrying a wand with a glow of red energy hovering at its tip; he levelled it at me but I’d already moved to place Caldera between us. “Keeper!” he called over the screams and gunfire behind. “Move!”
Caldera didn’t take her eyes off me. “Back off.”
“Give me a clear shot!”
I raised my MP7 and fired. Caldera moved instantly, trying to block the shots; the adept in the door activated a shield ring. I’d seen both events and compensated accordingly. The first and second shots of the three-round burst deflected off Caldera’s hand and the adept’s shield; the third blew his brains out.
Caldera whirled, saw the body, then turned on me with her face twisted in rage. She charged and I dropped left, leaving my leg extended. Caldera tripped, sliding on the polished tiles to crash into a display of plants. I turned and waited for her to rise.
Caldera came up, earth and leaves in her hair, breathing heavily. “You murderous piece of shit.”
“Pot and kettle, Caldera.”
Caldera thrust out her hand at the entrance hall behind, where shouts and gunfire mixed with the flash of battle-magic. “You did this! You set it all up!”
“How many times have you come after me?” I said harshly. “Did you expect me to just sit there and take it?”
Caldera lunged. Her arms and limbs were wreathed in earth magic, giving her the toughness of stone and the strength of a bear. I stepped away from her punches, blows like hammers whistling past my head. “I’m here for Levistus,” I told her. “Not you.”