The Best of World SF by Lavie Tidhar (children's ebooks free online .txt) 📕

‘And the Harvest. It was the largest, the most incredible… So many ships were grown.’ He shook his head with a sigh. ‘But that was when my estate’s Vineyard began to die. I had neglected it too long. Our ranking in the Great Game suffered and my wife, as my Queen, brought charges of neglect of my Sept and the Vineyards against me and my King.

‘Alexandar had no choice but to bring me to trial for capital crimes. I begged him to save Lucochin, to absorb its people into Sept Valencia. In return I would save Valencia from what I had done in ignorance, prevent whatever corruption I had started from spreading, and agree to exile.

‘To save my Vineyard, I gave it more than puzzles and stratagems. I gave it what I felt for Alexandar and for my Sept. And then I severed its annex from the Greatwood.’

His words echoed around them and he looked from mask to mask, willing them to understand.

‘Valencia had only had a taste of human emotion, so I hoped it would forget and no further damage would be done. But it had taught me a new way, and I couldn’t forget.

‘Now I know Valencia didn’t either. And while your ever-growing demands exhausted the ecosystem around it, the Coretrees crave a different kind of stimulation and waste away without it.’

As he spoke, he saw it. The exact moment they understood what his solution had been. Behind him the Valencia let anger seep into her voice.

‘Grandmaster Lucochin, what have you done?’

He turned to face her, glad to be nearing the end of this farce. ‘I fixed the Coretrees the one way I knew.’

‘You gave it your bond with your wife,’ the Grandmaster Yuta said in a resigned voice.

‘Oh no,’ he said softly. ‘I gave it much more than that. I gave it the first moment I saw her. The first time I laughed. The first time I held Alexandar. I gave it every good emotion I’ve ever had. I gave it joy and hope… and love. I now suspect it has lost any taste for what Grandmasters provide.’

Anger buffeted him, even as some Grandmasters stepped back, gesturing to allies and members of their Septholds.

‘For too long we’ve existed by making demands of an ecosystem we don’t fully understand and cannot live without. We’ve made a slave of a unique evolutionary miracle that exists across vast reaches of time and space, and in return we’ve given it death and cold space. The Greatwood can feel, and we’ve fed it logic and greed and forced separation. If we continue this way, we’ll destroy every part of it, no matter how far it’s spread. And we’ll doom ourselves.’

‘You’ve taken away our only means of controlling the Greatwood,’ someone whispered. ‘You’ve killed us.’

‘Not at all. Dig deep and you’ll find what you need, though I caution you against negative emotions that might harm the Harvest. And if you truly cannot feed the Coretrees, I suggest you turn to the un-Septed. You’ll need every person you can find. Valencia is vast. Communing with it will require every open mind and warm heart.’

The Valencia stood, hands clenched, and for the first time, he saw Knights turn to look at each other. Heard voices speaking simultaneously behind his back.

It’s done, he thought. And there was no triumph in him. Only disgust for so many tempi of needlessly wasted lives. Only guilt for his part in Valencia’s treacherous, bloody past. Only sadness for those who had lost so much before, and those who would be called to sacrifice while Valencia transitioned to something else. Something new.

‘You’ll die here,’ the Valencia spat, ‘knowing your wife is in the hands of the Consortium.’

He faced her, the merest frisson of sympathy curling within him for what awaited her. ‘You have far more important things to worry about. Like how you’re going to handle the revolution that’s marching to your doorstep at this very moment.’

‘What are you talking about?’ the Queen said, eyes narrowed.

He shrugged. ‘You’ve been broadcasting this gathering to Valencia the entire time. Every citizen has heard what’s been said here tonight.’

The cries of horror rose to the rafters like a murder of crows.

The Queen clenched and released a glove, holding his palm flat and face up. An image of the Audience Chamber shimmered to life, confirming the open feed.

‘Alexandar often recorded meetings without his Queen. There’s a surveillance drone in this fountain. I activated it and its link to the broadcast system the moment I entered.

‘Thousands of souls and countless denizens of the Greatwood and this planet have paid for our ambitions. It’s time everyone knows the perversion that sits at the head of this Game so they understand all Games must end.’

‘Queen,’ the Valencia said in an arctic voice. ‘Seize the Grandmaster Lucochin and seal him in a chamber until his execution.’

He cast his gaze over the room. ‘You should secure your estates. There are far more un-Septed than you. You’ll want to be prepared to negotiate come morning.’

‘Queen! I gave an order!’

He swung his gaze back to the hesitating Queen. ‘Do the Grandmasters know you hold a Primarch of the Kairi here? Do they know you risk the Sibling Army arriving on their doorstep searching for her? If you let us leave peacefully, together, this ends here. If it doesn’t, you will have killed two citizens of the Kairi Protectorate. You know what happens to governments that do that.’

Around him, Grandmasters were leaving. Knights pushed past, weapons at the ready as they escorted their charges.

But some Knights, Bishops and Rooks – some didn’t move at all.

He waited, his last card played, his last game ended.

The Valencian Knights turned to their motionless Queen for instructions.

‘Queen.’

The Valencian Queen met his Grandmaster’s gaze.

‘Is this rebellion?’ she asked in a gentle voice.

A hand gripped the last Lucochin’s arm. He turned to face the Grandmaster Yuta. ‘Come,’ the old man said. ‘At the Valencia’s command, I kept your wife at my Sept. I