The grand ruler of a continent should not look like a half eaten carcass forgotten by the crows.I smashed through the reinforced copper seal of the subterranean vault, the mechanical strength of my artificial core sending a violent shudder through the obsidian floor tiles. We had tracked the assassin's memories deep into the northern ash wastes, bypassing the outer patrols to find this hidden sanctuary. But there was no golden palace or mighty warlord waiting for us in the dark chamber. There was only a massive, vertical glass cylinder, surrounded by a tangled forest of pulsing pneumatic tubes and iron pipes that wheezed like a dying giant."Is that him?" Elder Gu whispered, his heavy slate colored hand tightening around his dark iron axe as he stepped into the green light of the vats. "Is that the tyrant who built the first selection pits?""He is more machine than meat now, Elder Gu," I said, my voice rattling flatly inside my iron visor as I approached the g

To inherit a crown of ash, you must first stop the pulse of the man who burned the forest.The copper life support tubes feeding the primary manifold at the base of the imperial vat were still pulsing with a sickening, rhythmic throb. The old Emperor was gone in spirit, his consciousness shattered, but his physical shell remained a functioning pump, keeping the network active through sheer mechanical habit. I stood before the cracked glass, the newly absorbed energy from the previous surge humming violently behind my ribs, threatening to tear my calcified shoulders apart if I did not find a way to anchor the flow."He is brain-dead, Lu Feng," Elder Gu said, his heavy boots splattering in the pool of green fluid that covered the obsidian floor. "But the tubes are still humming. If we do not sever the physical link, the imperial authority codes will remain locked in this dying meat.""The boy is right, Lu Feng," Elder Mo’s phantom voice vibrated through my j

If you build your paradise on a shelf of stolen glass, you should not be surprised when the hammer finally strikes the support beams.The screech of tearing sky iron was so loud it vibrated directly through the metal of my mask, setting off a low, sympathetic hum in my artificial core. I stood on the edge of the central landing platform, watching the massive eastern harbor city lose its battle with gravity. The magnetic overload we had channeled through the copper tethers had done its work too well, completely dissolving the localized wind currents that had held those millions of tons of white marble and reinforced brass suspended above the world for ten centuries. The sky was no longer a sanctuary; it was a descending graveyard."The main stabilizer columns are snapping, Lu Feng," Elder Gu shouted, his gravelly voice competing with the thunderous grinding of the collapsing foundations. "The entire eastern residential sector is shearing away from the central spire. T

A man who offers you a key to your own cage is usually planning to lock the gate behind you.The white ash of the outer plaza was still swirling around my boots when the heavy iron wheels of a massive western steam carriage ground to a halt before the ruined steps of the eastern gatehouse. The vehicle hissed violently, releasing a thick plume of black coal smoke that mingled with the permanent winter fog hanging over the sector. Two heavily armored steam guards, their brass suits vibrating with the high-pressure hum of internal boilers, stepped down from the cabin to flank a tall, narrow-shouldered diplomat wearing a heavy coat of oiled leather and iron trim."He does not look like he crawled out of a wet tunnel, Lu Feng," Elder Gu muttered, his slate colored fingers resting on the grip of his dark iron axe. "That leather coat has not seen a single drop of boiler grease.""The masters of the West do not work the coal shovels themselves, Elder Gu," I said, my voice rat

You can mend a broken bone with iron, but you can never wash the smell of boiling oil out of a soul.The western mountain pass opened up into a massive, iron reinforced valley where the vanguard of the Steam Legion stood waiting for us. Unlike the royal guards of the capital or the elegant sky fleet of Orien, these soldiers had completely abandoned the constraints of human flesh. Massive brass boilers were bolted directly into their shoulder blades, their legs were heavy hydraulic columns that hissed with every micro-adjustment, and their arms were giant, steam driven pile drivers capable of crushing a boulders into fine dust. They did not move like men; they moved like an interconnected assembly line that had been ordered to clear a path through our flesh."They look less like an army and more like a collection of walking furnaces, Lu Feng," Elder Gu said, his slatecolored fingers tightening around the handle of his dark iron axe as we halted at the mouth of the gorge. "T