a hoax by William of Flamewall.’
‘I only know what Hannah said, old steamer,’ wheezed the commodore, rotating his wounded arm now that it was out from under his air tank’s weight. ‘We just didn’t look deep enough. Who’s to say it’s not a fancy of young Hannah’s mind after all that we’ve been through, eh? Surviving the terrors of the wilds beyond the wall, the poor girl finding her mother’s bones and Nandi being added to the butcher’s bill. And for what? Just so the wet-snouts can call time on the last Jagonese clinging onto their terrible isle. Maybe the existence of this mortal fancy is only what she needs to make the world make sense? Poor mad Hannah, crying that she’s going to save us all from our troubles.’
‘We just didn’t look deep enough,’ said Jethro. He slapped his forehead in annoyance. ‘Of course! She saw it and I should have too. The painting doesn’t contain the third section of the god-formula, it’s a clue to the location of the missing piece. Here in the capital, all this time, hang my foolishness.’
‘Then I’m a fool along with you,’ said the commodore, ‘for I still don’t see it.’
‘Jethro softbody,’ said Boxiron. ‘If she is close to the third section of the god-formula and she intends to try to use it…’
‘She is in danger, greater even than she knows,’ said Jethro. ‘The third section of the god-formula will be encrypted in a steganographic cipher similar to that of the first two. We have as long as it takes her to find and decrypt the missing piece to stop this thing!’
Jethro touched Boxiron’s shoulder and pointed to the tank of air they had removed from the commodore’s back. ‘Lift that cylinder up if you please. I fear we will have use for it soon.’
‘I’m done diving, Mister Daunt,’ said the commodore.
‘We have the Circle’s work to do,’ said Jethro, ‘but it’s not at sea.’
Boxiron and the commodore followed the ex-parson of Hundred Locks as he sprinted off into the billowing smoke.
Coming along the corridor leading up to the stained senate, the militiaman saluted Colonel Knipe and held out a pouch of papers – the first two parts of the god-formula that had been locked up by Jethro Daunt in the safe of the Hotel Westerkerk. ‘It was where the damson said it would be, colonel.’
Colonel Knipe’s eyes narrowed. ‘So, it’s true after all. Damn the Inquisition’s eyes. All this time they knew, playing us for fools.’
‘The church was guarding the first two parts,’ said Hannah, feeling that she had to explain on behalf of her dead guardian. ‘And those only kept for a counter-weapon to be developed.’
‘Damn Circlist fools,’ said the colonel. ‘They are as bad as the city guilds with their plotting and scheming and secrets.’ He saw the hurt look in Hannah’s eyes and placed a hand on her shoulder. ‘I know the church was to be your calling and what I am asking you to do is not an easy thing. You may not have been born in our vaults, but your heart is Jagonese, and by your actions here you have declared yourself as much a patriot as any of us here fighting for our liberty.’
‘I just want to save us,’ said Hannah. ‘To bring back those that didn’t need to be hurt by this stupid war.’
‘We must trust that you can,’ said the colonel. ‘I lost my wife and children during the collapse of one of our cities. You, I, our people, we have all paid too much to stay on Jago to allow ourselves to become slaves of those bloody savages on the surface.’
As if underlining his words, the booming thunder of the invaders’ bombardment grew heavier. Pieces of cracked glass crashed down from the lintels that had been turned into fire steps for the riflemen. At the other end of the corridor the lifting room doors opened and three runners emerged, their militia uniforms torn and covered in dust and blood. They ran up to the colonel and delivered their reports. Hannah listened intently to the grim news. Almost all of the vaults were cut off from each other and overrun, the bulk of the Pericurian legions down inside Hermetica City now, the Seething Round itself being assaulted, the officer below advising that they needed to make a staged retreat to the mountain fastness of the Horn of Jago and seal the mountain levels off while they still could.
Soon the police militia would be fighting