Ventus by Karl Schroeder

Karl Schroeder / Ventus / Page 696
that they surrender. Once they do that, we can scale my mecha
back, keep it dormant even."
"What if they don't surrender?"
"My lady," he said, "you never ask that question after
you've gone to war."
She nodded, but in her heart Galas was reconciling
herself to a grim possibility: once they reached the familiar
plateau of the Titans’ Gates, she would need to look for ways
to dispose of Armiger himself, should things get out of hand.
He might not believe in surrender--and she never had as
queen--but if the choice were between a world ruled by the
Winds, or no world at all, Galas knew how she would choose.
It seemed like years since Lavin had stood on solid
ground. He felt the vertigo recede a bit--enough for him to
walk unaided. There was no joy in the recession of this misery
though; it just made more room for misery of another kind to
infect him.
He stood as still as he could and watched men and horses
pour out the doors of the vagabond moon. Kilometers away,
close enough that their flanks nearly touched, another moon
disgorged its cargo. Together they and the several behind them
blotted out the sun over ten or twelve foothills and valleys.
Not everyone would be disembarking; he had convinced
the Winds to use the moons as their baggage camp. In
moments he would return there as well, ostensibly to give his
authority to orders coming from the Winds. In reality, he had
kept his most trusted men aboard the moons, and had also set
up a clandestine semaphore system. He would be relaying the
commands of the swans through the medium of the basts-giving
his official words to their directives--but he would also
be sending commands directly to his men through the