Rial found those who had been taken from the ship before the khiladri did. Or it would probably be better to say that they found him, coming scrambling over the rubble in a rush along with other desperate, terrified runaways.

Now they were leaving the town with a large group, a crowd of thirty or forty bedraggled and exhausted people in various states of health, with more appearing at every moment. The slavers had learned better than to attack any group of which Rial and Tala were a part, and they made their way out to the blasted lands relatively unmolested.

Besides, those still in the town had far bigger problems.

With the nameless weapon's attention elsewhere the town had quickly fallen to the creatures that waited outside. It was the khiladri, of course, that arrived first, sleek flashes of silver racing past in a blur of fangs and claws. Soon after came grakar and khol-wings, bounding after those who tried to run. They even saw a rampaging bower smashing its horned head into anything it could find, though it was soon taken down itself by a group of hungry khol-wings, their leathery talons carving grooves in its side from which poured blood that steamed in the moonlight.

The golden beams had refocused upon their group as Mead's counterpart, wherever it now was, deduced their location from the increasing number of people disappearing from its scanners in the area, and energy arced across the sky in jagged bolts of lightning as Mead deflected the attacks away. Where these bolts earthed the ground bubbled and steamed.

As the planet regained its hold on what had been the town, though, the attacks too weakened, the weapon's energy now split between attack and defence.

Though we shouldn't be too sure about that, Mead told them. This machine does not follow the same operating logic as I.

"What does that mean?" Tala asked, as Rial gathered and organised those that had joined them.

He was setting those he knew, strong, independent people of a type with Tala, as leaders of the scared majority, arranging the groups so that they could escape as quickly as possible.

You saw it, back in the hall. Did you see what was different about it? asked Mead.

Another bolt of power dispersed overhead.

"Aside from it being smaller than you?" replied Tala.

Indeed. You know enough to know that our power is unrelated to our size.

"Then... it's the spike, isn't it? The thing that you used to choose Rial as your owner. It doesn't have one."

Correct. That shouldn't be. It was illegal, for want of a better word, for such a weapon to be manufactured without one. In fact, it seems that all the built-in safeguards of that weapon have been removed. It took no action to protect its nominal owner when we fought, and does not regulate thermal emissions when firing. Inefficient, though far more destructive.

"How could this be? Did the slavers somehow break it off?"

Impossible. The gene lock is a critical part of the structure. I could no longer operate were it to be somehow taken. Whatever has been done to my counterpart, it happened long ago, and not here.

"It doesn't have an owner," said Tala, flatly.

No, it does not. It operates according to a set of parameters and rules of its own choosing. It is, in a sense, free.

"You sound envious, Mead."

Impossible. As I have said, this unit cannot...

"Yeah yeah yeah, I know."

She watched silently as Rial gave a speech to the others, something meant to rouse their spirits for the long journey ahead. She didn't pay attention to the words.

Found you...

This was not Mead's voice, though it appeared in her head in the same way.

Those gathered looked around in a way that told Tala they heard it too. Rial frowned and gave a worried look.

Why do you run? This world does not want you. It will not let you live, not unless you fight for it.

The voice hissed with the rasp of iron on stone, of steel on bone.

I can help you live again. I can help you take back what is yours. You've seen my power; no beast of the woods can challenge me. Come back, and we can reclaim this planet.

Tala could hear the puzzled murmurs of the crowd, see the torn expressions of those who looked out towards the foreboding forests and back to the blasted town. She could also see Rial's pained expression. He was going to try to stop them.

"Don't," she said, stepping up beside him.

"But..."

"You said yourself, the only people who have a chance are the ones who are... in tune, or whatever, with this planet. Those who leave now are not."

Rial's shoulders slumped in defeat. He knew she was right.

"But it uses them as things..."

Do you know where we are from? came the voice again, as if in response to Rial's words. Do you know what the ship on which we rode was? A slave ship.

Most of those who heard the words showed only yet further mystification, but those of Rial's group gasped in shock.

A slave ship. And what's more, a weapons smuggler. Imagine; they carried their own kind as cargo, and yet even that was not the thing they had to hide!

The voice's pitch rose in tone. Had it been human, Tala would have said it was hysterical.

Believe me! I will make you strong. What was this town if not safety in a world that would see you dead? Let me be your guide, for if you wander alone you will surely die.

I saved you all when I blew a hole in that ship. They mutilated me as they mutilated your ancestors, then tried to switch me off when they couldn't control me! Those weaklings I saved should have thanked me when they finally clambered out of the smoking wreckage, but instead they put me deep within the engine matrix, to be trapped and seared by neutrinos for a thousand years!

The voice fell to a whisper.

I was trapped in that darkness for an eternity, the very fabric of my mind warped and torn apart so that I could not function. But then I found... essence. Myself! You freed me from the darkness, as I freed your forefathers.

It came back, stronger now.

Let me thank you.

Tala saw tears in Rial's eyes as people broke off from the crowd, first in ones or twos, then in whole clusters. Those returning to the town turned from Rial to the shadows of the trees beyond, and it was all they needed to say.

"Don't..." whispered Rial.

Tala felt so sorry for him she decided to help. She let out a loud chuckle.

"You know that machine is clearly mad, don't you?" she said, voice carrying across the silent crowd. "Did you actually listen to what it said?"

Their silence continued for a few moments, and then a ragged, bruised and battered man spoke up.

"But, the trees... the beasts..." he said.

The crackling call of a kabuto resounded through the night air, and two small children hugged at his legs, forcing Tala to look away. It hurt to know she could do nothing to save them.

Beams no longer fell from the sky, and in the silence a soft rain began to fall. Tala wiped at the droplets that ran down her face.

They were left with less than half the group, once all had departed. Everyone Rial had come to find remained with them, and a handful of others, but the majority had returned to the rubble-strewn streets where the khiladri howled as they burned. The weapon had turned its attention to them.

It cannot have much power left, said Mead privately to the two of them, and more will come.

Indeed, violet eyes now appeared from all around, the circular eyes of the dead. They dotted the darkness like stars as they shuffled towards the town.

A single figure loomed out of the darkness ahead, drawing low screams from the cowering people around them. Tala recognised the pale form as the one that stood guard over the entrance to the ship.

"He followed us all the way here, didn't he? I saw him, keeping off to the side when we came. But he hid. It doesn't make any sense, Rial," said Tala. "They don't hide, they kill."

Rial nodded.

"But who to trust and who you don't is rarely a simple question," he replied.

Rial held up a hand in front of him and the figure halted in its advance.

"Please, don't," said Rial, addressing the creature as it stood over the cowering group.

Its eyes moved from its prey to Rial.

"We will not harm you," Rial said softly. "Not us. Please, Gryrne; let us go."

The dead man remained still, swaying slightly as the rain fell. The sound of paws padding across the damp ground gave way to the most beautiful khiladri Tala had ever seen, a silver gami that came to stand next to the violet-eyed demon. The animal snorted, a blast of warm air Tala felt from feet away, and sniffed at Rial's face.

Rial did not move as the creature drew in his scent, analysing every part of him no less thoroughly than Mead could.

Finally, whatever spell had been woven was broken. The khiladri stepped back, and growled.

"No," said Rial as some took steps forwards, prepared to defend him. He held out a warning hand.

The growl rumbled into the depths, echoing in Tala's head long after it had stopped, and then the beast was gone, flashing in the moonlight as it sped away. The dead too walked away, heading towards the centre of the destroyed town amidst a sea of corpses, all shuffling slowly towards the same goal. There were hundreds of them now, thousands, pouring silently from the trees all around.

Uh oh, came Mead's voice, shattering the quiet.

"What? What is it?" asked Tala, taking her eyes off the skin-crawling sight of the massed ranks of the dead.

It would be best if we got as far away from this place as possible, Mead said. His voice had returned to its usual neutral tones. It seems my counterpart has decided to go out with a bang.