Gillian wiped a hand across her brow.
‘We’re evacuating this city. There’s a shuttle dropping towards us right now, we need to get all the humans up to this square so they can board it!’
Wa-Ka-Mo-Do was watching the human cannon, leaping and spinning all around him.
‘Your guns seem to be holding off the enemy,’ he observed.
‘They will,’ said Gillian. ‘It’s the radiation that’s the problem,’ her voice was still crackling. So was his own, he realized. ‘And they may try another mini-nuke: go for an airburst, though if they do that they will irradiate the land. There’ll be no crops here for-’
‘Damaging the land? This is the Emperor’s land.’
‘Not any more, Wa-Ka-Mo-Do, not any more.’ There was a sadness and finality in her words that the headset managed to translate.
‘Honoured Commander?’
Wa-Ka-Mo-Do realized he was still staring, lost in the motion of the guns.
‘Yes, Ka-Lo-Re-Harballah?’
‘Shall I help escort the humans up here to the terrace?’
‘Yes,’ said Wa-Ka-Mo-Do. ‘Yes, quickly.’
He heard, above the odd purring of the human guns, a new sound. One that was gaining in volume.
Wa-Ka-Mo-Do looked at Ka-Lo-Re-Harballah.
‘What is it, Honoured Commander?’
Wa-Ka-Mo-Do knew what the sound was.
‘Gunfire. Those are robot weapons. It’s finally happened. The rebellion has begun.’
‘We’re going out of our way,’ said Simrock. ‘The Northern Road will lead us into Raman.’
‘So?’ said Karel. ‘It’s easy to walk. Better to take our time leaving the mountains than to rush and fall to our deaths.’
‘No,’ said Simrock. ‘There is a better path. An older one. One from before the time that robots walked these mountains.’
‘How do you know?’ demanded Melt. ‘How do you know?’
‘He just does,’ said Karel. ‘The Spontaneous just do. He was right before, wasn’t he?’
‘Come on. Over this way.’
The Spontaneous robot stepped over the wall at the side of the road. He began to walk up a narrow ledge.
‘Hold on!’ called Karel. ‘What do you mean, before the time that robots walked these mountains. Who could have made the path?’
‘Robots, of course.’
He carried on, creeping along the ledge.
‘Do we follow him?’ Karel asked Melt.
‘For the moment.’
‘Are you sure? I thought you didn’t trust him.’
‘I don’t. But we said we would follow him.’
And at that Melt heaved himself onto the ledge and began to follow Simrock along it. Despite the weight of his body, he moved with surprising grace through the mountains. He seemed at home here, up amongst the sheer slopes that tilted their faces to the sky.
Karel was not so comfortable as he brought up the rear, edging along the narrow path. It turned a corner, and he took a last look back at the Northern Road before it was lost from view.
The trail they followed was ancient and strangely constructed. Karel wondered at the mindset of the robots who would build a path that sometimes climbed near vertical cliff faces, cutting grooves with which to pull themselves forwards. More than once Karel and Melt found themselves lying on their fronts, fumbling in the darkness for the grooves that had been carved into the rock so they could pull themselves forwards. Karel’s body was badly scratched and so full of grit: it constantly irritated his electro-muscle. As for Melt, he didn’t even have the comfort of looking forward to a chance to strip down and clean his body. Or was that such a comfort? It was all that Karel thought about now, and it made the irritation worse.
Still, they walked and climbed and crawled on, heading south all the while.
‘What was that?’ called Melt.
‘What was what?’
Karel was too busy keeping both hands on the rocks. Despite his heavy body, Melt leaned back, one hand and one foot wedged into a wall.
‘It’s Simrock. He’s speaking to himself. Is that what the Spontaneous do?’
‘Ruth?’ said Simrock. ‘That’s an unusual name. Where do you want to meet? The village? It’s not that far.’
‘What village?’ asked Melt.
‘It’s just around here!’
‘Who were you speaking to?’
‘I don’t know.’ Simrock didn’t seem concerned. ‘I can’t see anybody.’
Karel hurried to catch up.
‘What’s going on, Simrock?’
Simrock pointed. ‘There is a village just around this corner. I know it’s there!’
‘Who is Ruth?’ asked Melt.
But Simrock had already gone on ahead.