“All but one on the northern side,” says Mulaghesh.
“There’s a gate on the northern side of the fortress?”
“The loading dock for the thinadeskite mines,” says Mulaghesh. “I can almost guarantee no one’s bothered to put a body on that exit.”
She’s right: in all of the confusion and chaos, there are no guards stationed at the loading dock, though it is still penned in with a canyon of tall, forbidding wire fences held up with tall wooden posts.
“No wire cutters this time,” says Mulaghesh. “Shit!”
Sigrud grunts, takes off his coat, and wraps his hands in it. Then he walks to one of the posts, grabs three strands of the barbed wire, and heaves.
With the plunk sounds of snapping harp strings, the bolts holding the wire to the post pop out. He stomps on the handful of wires with a boot, then grabs another handful of wires, heaves it up, and opens a narrow hole in the fence. Mulaghesh dives through and Sigrud follows, though his hands are now bleeding and the wires manage to score him over his shoulders and back.
They run north and west along the walls of Fort Thinadeshi. These walls are dark and unmanned, as nearly all the fort’s focus is on the west and the south. Yet such is the power of the cannons that each time those on the western walls go off, even here on the opposite side of the fortress, it’s like a miniature sun has risen, the pale, burning light rippling across the harsh cliffs.
Mulaghesh can’t yet see what they’re firing at. She’s not close enough yet. But she knows. She saw them, after all, in the City of Blades.
Then a voice shouts from the walls: “You!”
Mulaghesh looks up and sees the furious face of Sergeant Major Pandey looking down on her. She’s not sure why he looks so angry, but she doesn’t want to wait to find out. “Damn,” she says. “Run.”
They move, sprinting over the cliffs with the boom and flare of the cannons just to the left over their shoulders. The western horizon is lit with a queer, unearthly light, and as they near the cliffs she can see the tips of something glowing out on the waters.
She grips the sword of Voortya in her hand. It’s sticky with Biswal’s blood, but it’s still dead, still dormant. She has no idea what to do with it, or even if there is anything to do with it—it might simply be too late.
There’s a crash from far behind them. She glances back and sees someone has driven one of the fortress autos through the wire fence and is speeding over the rocks at them in pursuit. The driver must not care for their own well-being or the auto’s, as they push the vehicle into terrain most drivers would never attempt. She can hear the tires crunching, the creak of the suspensions, a crack as its bumper dips and smashes into one of the stones. It’s obvious that, whoever it is, they’re pursuing Mulaghesh and Sigrud and will overtake them soon.
Mulaghesh points ahead at a small gully. “There!” she cries.
She can see the auto’s headlights now out of the corner of her eye. Another crunch as it plows over a stone…
She and Sigrud dive into the gully, their elbows banging and scraping on the rocks. The car’s engine roars once more and it surges over them.
There’s an enormous pop as the auto hits the gully, dipping forward enough for its wheels to catch the lip just at the wrong angle. Mulaghesh suspects that the axle has snapped upon impact. More concerning, though, is the spray of rocks and rubble from the impact. She can feel small, stinging stones dappling her body, and nearby Sigrud cries out in real pain.
The auto rumbles and rattles a few feet forward past the gully, awkwardly limping into the brush before coming to a grinding halt. Mulaghesh sits up, pulls out her pistol, and takes stock of herself: she’s got a few cuts and bruises, but nothing serious. Sigrud, however, has taken a sizeable stone to the left forearm and is cradling his hand in his lap, cursing prolifically. She can tell the second she sees it that his arm is broken.
She brings herself up into a kneel and draws a bead on the auto’s passenger door. Someone inside fumbles with the handle, then shoves it open and crawls out. There’s another blast from the coastal cannons, washing the cliffs with pale light, and she watches as a battered, furious Sergeant Major Pandey, his eyes red and his cheeks wet with tears, crawls out to stand on the cliffs.
He draws his sword and advances on her. “You!” he cries. “You!”
“Pandey?” Mulaghesh lowers the pistol. “What the hells are you doing?”
“You’re the reason she died!” he screams at her. “You’re the one who killed her!”
“What are you talking ab—”
Before she can finish speaking Pandey dives at her, thrusting his sword out in a quick, deadly jab. Mulaghesh rolls away, feeling the stones reverberate as the blade scours over them. She holsters her weapon, stands, and backs away, hands up to show she’s no threat. “Pandey! Pandey, what do you think I did?”
“I saw her!” he screams at her. “I saw her on the table! I saw her down there in the dark!” As he screams her nostrils catch the sour tang of alcohol on his breath, and she realizes he’s likely drunk. But if so it hasn’t dampened his sword work any, for he sweeps his blade at her in a lightning-quick strike that nearly guts her.
Mulaghesh dives away again, but she’s forced to use her false hand to help her land, so she falls badly. She can hear him coming at her, his footfalls light and quick, and she draws the sword she took from the guard just in time for its blade to meet his with a ringing snap.
“I didn’t kill Signe,” says Mulaghesh furiously. “I didn’t pull the trigger! I wasn’t even there!”
“You’re a liar!” He disengages, sweeps around, lunging at her exposed breast with a quick thrust. She bats his blade away, rolls backward, and stands, finally assuming a defensive stance.
“You got her mixed up in your conspiracy and then you killed her!” he screams.
“Pandey, damn you, there are more important things happening right now!”
“More important? More important?” He rushes at her, a furious blitz of brutally clever attacks that she only barely manages to defend. “She was the only important thing I ever had!”