Locklands by Robert Jackson Bennett

Author:Robert Jackson Bennett [Bennett, Robert Jackson]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Worlds
Published: 2022-06-28T00:00:00+00:00

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<…resistant to gravity,> Clef whispered in Berenice’s ear. <It’s Crasedes’s jailer.>

Berenice perched on a narrow bridge of stone above the chasm, watching as the giant rig resumed prowling through the forest below, still draped in darkness. <Interesting…> she said quietly.

<Interesting? More like scrumming awful!> said Clef. <We’ve got to break into the thing, while it’s stalking Sancia like a cat after a mouse in a barn, without triggering any of the wardings and giving those damned deadlamps a target!>

Berenice pinched her nose and blew. What felt like about ten tons of dust came spraying out of her nostrils to adhere to the inside face of her sheath suit—which she found disgusting, of course, but could do little about. <It’s basically a giant gravity rig,> she said. <Is that the gist of it?>

<That’s…incredibly reductive, but sure,> Clef said.

<And how is it defining those relationships with gravity?>

<Usual shit?> said Clef. <Commands about the surface of the earth, the current flow of gravity, orientation, stability…Stuff we do all the time, just way, way bigger and louder.>

She cocked her head, thinking. Orientation and stability—she was familiar with those, and how they were weak.

<So,> she said slowly, <it’s got to stay calibrated. Coordinated. But there’s no way for you to crack it through its scrivings via direct contact…>

<Right. This bastard is as uncrackable as it gets.>

But “uncrackable” often also meant “inflexible,” Berenice knew, which meant it could be a weakness.

She knit her brow. What was it Sancia sometimes said?

“A scrived lock,” she said quietly, “is only as strong as the door it’s set in…”

<Huh?> said Clef.

<What…What if we scrambled what it knew about up and down, and the surface of the earth?> she asked. <Not through scriving, but by physically moving it about? Like…what would happen if it got knocked over?>

He laughed desperately. <This thing beat Crasedes! How could any gravity tricks that we throw at it do any better?>

<Because,> she said, studying the floating prison, <I think it’s still fighting Crasedes. Still maintaining all the tasks that keep him subdued. We just need to overload those tasks, and the whole thing might fall apart.>

<Overload it? Ber—you’re not hearing me. Crasedes or no, we’d have to drop a goddamned mountain on this thing to manage that.>

She glanced to her left, where the cliffs were still steadily dissolving. <And if we did exactly that?>

<Uhh. What?>

She looked out at the skyline, studying each mountain. <We’d have to get it in the right location, of course…and give Tevanne the right bait…>

<Ber—what the hell are you talking about?> Clef asked.

Then Diela’s voice, quiet and small: <She’s talking about us.>

<Correct,> said Berenice. <Diela—path to me, look from my eyes, and I’ll show you where you need to be. And Clef—you’ll need to get into position yourself.>

<For…what now?> Clef asked, somewhat tremulously.

<Well, you’ve been rather excited to have a body, haven’t you?> she said. <Why don’t we find out what all it can do?>

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