Angel Stations by Gary Gibson Page B

a little of a place I once knew.
    Roke looked down to where the hills descended below the tower, all the way down to the distant streets. He could hardly imagine what world such a phantom might call home. ‘I find it peaceful here,’ said Roke.
    – Ah. Peace. All intelligent beings seek peace. Even I.
    Roke forced himself to turn around and look. ‘The Emperor’s men have sought out the god from the city at the edge of the world, and are preparing an assault. There is no sign as yet that the god has been removed from the city without our knowledge.’ Roke cleared his throat. ‘But then, you have foreseen that this will happen, haven’t you?’
    – I have, yes. It’s why I’m here, Master Roke.
    The Shai’s voice was not unlike the voice of a god, that same spill of images or suggestions of faded memories half-remembered that somehow translated into comprehensible words. His lips moved, speaking the language, Roke presumed, of the Shai, though he could hear no actual sound pass from the Shai’s lips.
    But not a god. Roke had to remember that. Something else, altogether, that had come here to Tibe, travelling over some unimaginable distance that Roke suspected he could not possibly comprehend. Roke and the Shai had spoken several times now – here, in this tower, where he knew they would not be disturbed.
    It had taken some time for Roke to reach the point where he could believe the monstrous Shai when it claimed it stood against the other Shai he had witnessed appearing before the Emperor Xan and his court. The monster could genuinely see into the future, and nothing it had predicted had failed to take place.
    ‘Then tell me,’ said Roke.
    – Your Emperor is going to send you northwest of the Teive mountains, said the Shai.
    ‘North of Nubala.’ Roke’s throat was suddenly dry.
    – He wants you to look for something. You will find it, but it will be too late for Xan.
    Roke nodded, staring out across the roofs of Tibe for long seconds.
    ‘Remind me why I should trust you more than the other Shai.’
    – Because that one does not have your best interests at heart, soothed the creature.
    ‘The other Shai has brought technology and science to our Empire. It . . . it says it wants to help us.’
    The creature bared its teeth. They were black and broken, a nightmare vision which Roke found unnerving. – Come, Master Roke. You’ve already described to me your misgivings about the company the Emperor has been keeping.
    ‘But you don’t tell me why you wish to destroy this Shai, or any of the others you have told me about. Why would you war against your own kind?’
    – Perhaps because they did this to me, Master Roke. Because I discern the lie in what they say. And I tell you that if you do not do as I describe, your people are quite genuinely doomed. The Shai have anything but your best interests at heart. You already know this, even if Xan is not prepared to accept it.
    ‘So.’ Roke paused, trying to collect his thoughts. He would walk into the council meeting tonight filled with lies. He only hoped Xan and Feren, the Emperor’s spy-master, would not be able to read them through his skin. ‘I am to go north, you say?’
    – Yes. And when you get there, there is something you must do.
    ‘Which is?’
    And then the Shai told him more than he ever wanted to know. It was a dispiriting and terrible thing to find out the true nature of your world. That truth wasn’t an easy burden to carry, but Roke was made of stern stuff. He’d fought in battle side by side with Xan, first as an opponent and then later as an ally, once Xan had won him over and they had become friends. He, Roke, would prevail. As Xan would prevail. As perhaps the Empire would prevail, despite its recent losses. And he came to understand that the Shai was, indeed, correct when it said Roke would know what had to be done.
    And when this meeting was over, when the twisted form of the Shai, with its bent and broken teeth, faded gradually