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Back Beyond the Burn Line Save as PDF
Chapters (66)
  1. Copyright
  2. Contents
  3. Epigraph
  4. Part One
  5. 1.
  6. 2.
  7. 3.
  8. 4.
  9. 5.
  10. 6.
  11. 7.
  12. 8.
  13. 9.
  14. 10.
  15. 11.
  16. 12.
  17. 13.
  18. 14.
  19. 15.
  20. 16.
  21. 17.
  22. 18.
  23. 19.
  24. 20.
  25. 21.
  26. 22.
  27. 23.
  28. 24.
  29. 25.
  30. 26.
  31. 27.
  32. 28.
  33. 29.
  34. 30.
  35. 31.
  36. 32.
  37. Part Two
  38. 1.
  39. 2.
  40. 3.
  41. 4.
  42. 5.
  43. 6.
  44. 7.
  45. 8.
  46. 9.
  47. 10.
  48. 11.
  49. 12.
  50. 13.
  51. 14.
  52. 15.
  53. 16.
  54. 17.
  55. 18.
  56. 19.
  57. 20.
  58. 21.
  59. 22.
  60. 23.
  61. 24.
  62. 25.
  63. 26.
  64. 27.
  65. 28.
  66. By Paul McAuley:

Gentle gathered his chain in both hands and asked Pilgrim to help him loosen the stake, but although they heaved and tugged for several minutes it did not budge.

Pilgrim sat on the cold ground, sweat chilling in the small of his back. ‘I’m sorry I got us into this mess,’ he said.

‘I was already facing hard labour,’ Gentle said. ‘I put it off for a while, is all. Come to think of it, I might be better off here. It’s unlikely they keep prisoners as secure as they do in a Union camp. We might have a good chance of getting away once they put us to work.’

‘But for now there is nothing we can do,’ Pilgrim said. Defeat welled up in him again, deep and dark and bitter.

Gentle curled up and appeared to fall asleep again, seemingly immune to the cold. The fireworks reached a brief crescendo and died away and drumming started up, racing and slowing, racing and slowing. Pilgrim sat with his arms wrapped around his knees and fell into an erratic doze, starting awake when light flared outside, sketching the edges of the door. Gentle had woken too, a vague shadow sitting up as the door was wrenched back. Pilgrim squinted into the glare, saw two figures behind it. Two women. The one holding an electric candle, a young woman dressed in black, raised it high and stepped forward.

Pilgrim drew himself up and said, as calmly as he could, ‘The Invisible College, I presume.’

‘It’s good to meet you at last,’ the young woman said. ‘We’re huge admirers of your master’s work.’

25.

The guards were old, but not immune to the urgings of the Season, the young woman, Poppy Greenleaf, told Pilgrim, as she unlocked Gentle’s shackle. It had been easy to charm them, and ply them with vinewater, and oilcakes spiked with powdered snakehead fungus from Teal Leadwood’s pharmakon store; combined with the vinewater, the powder had rendered them as helpless as newborns.

‘They thought we were making ready for some bawdy sport when we tied them up,’ the other woman, Fragrant Plainsrunner, said. ‘By the time they’re found and freed, we’ll be over the horizon and out of sight of land.’