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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:

‘For me, luckily, it was a temporary defeat. For my other sister, not so much. Nothing of her remains. Only I stand against our assassin.’

‘And now you are fighting her again,’ Ysbel said.

‘Wait. Wait a moment,’ the bot said, and was seized by a kind of fit, arms jangling loose as it shook and shuddered. For a moment, it straightened and was still. Static hissed, and then it said clearly, ‘She is here,’ and collapsed, completely unstrung, the back of its head striking the ramp with a hard hollow smack.

‘What have you done?’ Juniper said.

‘I think we should get back to the hopper,’ Ysbel said.

‘I think it might be too late,’ Goodwill said.

Thin white threads twisted across the sky. Contrails drawn by descending bots. Dozens of them fanning out in a cone, dropping fast. Ysbel saw something swift and bright snatch a balloon out of the air like a hawk taking a pigeon, and there was a rushing sound and three bots were suddenly hovering above the turfed mound of the balloon works. Sparks shone in front of Ysbel and Goodwill, in front of Juniper and her aides, and widened into windows. And in each window Iryn Moonsdaughter looked out and told them, in choral harmony, to stay exactly where they were.

26.

The little island was four kilometres offshore, a rough oval of scrub forest, white sand and coral rubble near the outer edge of the barrier reef. Landward, calm turquoise water stretched towards the haze of the coast; seaward, beyond whitewater waves breaking on ribbon reefs, the trackless ocean stretched to the horizon.

Ysbel and Goodwill, and Juniper Saltmire and her entourage and the hopper pilot, were set down there the day after Special Operations had taken them prisoner. Ysbel reckoned that it was not too far from the abandoned bear camp and the balloon manufactory. The hopper which delivered them to the island had been in the air for only a few minutes, a literal hop, and when she climbed one of the palm trees at the edge of the rocky beach where she’d made her camp, she glimpsed the mouth of a river, possibly the river to the north of the abandoned settlement, indenting the forest shore of the reef’s inner channel.