The Revolution Business

Sigfrid-lanky, tall, with a mustache that resembled a corpulent caterpillar asleep on his upper lip-unslung his shoulder bag and gri

"Well." Huw raised the bottle. "It's about time. Do you know if he was sending anyone else?"

"No." Sigfrid looked uncertain. "At least, he didn't tell me."

"Right." He turned to Elena: "Can you phone Yul? Tell him to pick up food for four this time." Back to Sigfrid. "So what have you been doing in the meantime?"

"Oh, you know." Sigfrid shrugged his jacket back from his shoulders and let it slide to the floor. "I was with his lordship of Markford's household when the pretender went on his rampage? So I had a busy couple of weeks. First a siege, then an evacuation through the backwoods, then lots of ru

"But you're here now." Huw nodded to himself. "Want to fetch some glasses?" Elena was on her mobile phone. "Top cupboard, to the left of the kitchen sink." Sig was never the scholarly sort, but he was bright enough to learn. "Let me fill you in on what we're trying to achieve here."

"Surely. The major said something about trying to find other worlds. Does that mean?…"

Huw nodded. "Yes. And tomorrow we're going to try to open up another one." He pulled the cork free with a pop. "We live in interesting times!"

On their first day in the enemy capital, the reco

"What's that?" asked Beatrice, pointing at the Washington Monument. She spoke hochsprache, the better to aid the disguise; a strawberry blonde with a two-year-old on her hip wasn't anybody's idea of an Al Qaida terrorist. She hadn't spent much time over in the Anglischprache world, beyond the minimum required for the corvée, and her emulation of an awestruck tourist was entirely genuine-because Niejwein, the largest city with which she was familiar, was less than a tenth the size of downtown Washington, D.C.

"It is a memorial to their founding king-emperor, the duke who led their armies during their rebellion against the rightful king over the water." Gu

"How very stupid of him," Beatrice agreed. "Was he mad?"

"I don't know." Gu

Beatrice fumbled obediently in her handbag, then produced a tissue and wiped little Anders's nose. Anders bubbled sleepily as his mother wadded up the tissue with mild distaste and stuffed it back in her bag, along with the GPS machine. "He will need cleaning soon," she told Gu

"It ca

"Of course, cousin. But we will need to stop the carriage to do so."

Gu

"Good." She glanced behind her. "These buildings. The people own them?"

"Only indirectly. Just as they rebelled against their king and replaced him with none, so they tried to abolish their aristocracy. It grew back, of course, but not in the same image-so there is a ruling class here, but its members are not named count this or lord that."

"How very confusing! How is one to recognize a superior?…"

"You don't." Gu

Beatrice shifted Anders across her lap. "It's huge," she said, her voice wavering slightly.

"Of course. This city, Washington, D.C., has nearly two-thirds the population of the entire Gruinmarkt. And it rules over everything from the outer kingdom in our west through the badlands and the mountains to the Sudtmarkt and the Nordmarktwell, part of the Nordtmarkt belongs to these Americans' northern neighbor, but that kingdom is also vast, by our lights. But it is still a kingdom and it is still run by a king-emperor of sorts, albeit one of their elite who is formally proclaimed by his peers to rule for four or eight years. And we know how to talk to power."

"Huh. My tutor told me their king-emperor is elected, that the people choose him. Is this not so?"

"It looks like that, yes, but it's not so simple. The little people are presented with two contenders, but the ruling elite would never tolerate the candidacy of an outsider. Sometimes a contender tries to look like an outsider, but it's purely a rabble-rousing pretense. This current king-emperor doesn't even go that far; his father was king-emperor before last."

"Huh. Again, how stupid! Sir Gu

Gu

The sky was clear and blue, the sun beating down on the sidewalk as Beatrice stepped off the bus with Anders, waiting while Gu

"In a moment." Gu

The museum had security guards and one of those a