Free The Air War (Shadows of the Apt 8) by Adrian Tchaikovsky

convenience.’
    ‘Eujen, quiet,’ the Antspider hissed in his ear, but he was getting into his stride now.
    ‘But I ask you this,’ Eujen went on with a grand gesture. ‘Is the Empire truly as vast and powerful as the Makerists say? Is it truly as warlike? Yes, of course it is. We have
seen ample evidence in these last few years. What, then, do you think the wages of Makerism will be? If we daily speak of war waged by the Empire, of the threat of the Empire, of the unending
hostility of the Empire, then what possible alternative do we give the Wasps, but to become the monsters we cast them as? If the only hand we show to them has a blade in it, what response will we
receive? And, when that war comes, where will our moral high ground be when we have so long invited it? We are Collegium, and we have stood for ethical enlightenment for five centuries. We cannot
govern our state on principles of convenience.’
    ‘Eujen, shut up now,’ the Antspider urged again; everyone else was quite silent. Hallend, sensing something was up, glanced over his shoulder and then squeaked in alarm and scrambled
out of the way, exposing Eujen to the full glowering regard of the man standing there.
    Eujen was not tall for a Beetle, and this man had a good few inches on him, and a good few decades too, and he was broader at the shoulder than the young student, but he had the fierce, brooding
presence of a much larger man, even so. His reputation towered above him, and threatened to crush Eujen Leadswell flat.
    A current of whispers danced about the Forum, speaking the name, Stenwold Maker.
    Eujen swallowed, seeming smaller and smaller, but never quite backing down, weathering the fire of the old statesman’s scorn, as though staring into the sun.
    The older man said one word: ‘ Makerist ?’
    Eujen was going to keep standing there, Straessa realized. He’s going to argue with Stenwold Maker! She did not know if Maker, like the theoretical Wasp, would have his enemies
killed in dark alleyways, but she was certain that making a scene just now would do no favours for Eujen’s academic career, and so she kicked him sharply behind the knee, so Eujen found
himself sitting down abruptly with the breath knocked out of him.
    ‘Mouth shut,’ she snapped.
    It was as though Eujen no longer existed, but then she realized that Maker had not really been staring at him at all. It was just that Eujen had been standing between him and the Wasp,
Averic.
    She saw Averic’s fingers twitch, the Art in his hands being kept on a tight leash. One of Maker’s own hands was at his belt, she saw, and with a swooping lurch she spotted the butt
of a weapon there. Only Stenwold Maker could bring a snapbow into the Prowess Forum , and on the back of that thought her prediction changed from Stenwold Maker is going to beat Eujen to
death with his bare hands , to Stenwold Maker is going to shoot Averic dead right in front of us.
    But Averic was holding very still, giving no excuse, making no trouble, and at last Stenwold Maker turned away and stomped heavily out of the Forum, sheer murder evident in every step.
    ‘Since when did we have Wasp-kinden students at the College?’ Stenwold demanded as his opening salvo as soon as he was through the door of Jodry’s office.
    Jodry Drillen, Speaker for the Assembly of Collegium, cast a tolerant eye over him. ‘Since start of autumn, I think. Averic, his name is. He turned up with money and sat the entrance exams
and came with a commendation from the Imperial cartel thing, the Consortium.’ He had obviously been in the middle of some papers, but he leant back in his overstuffed chair, gesturing for
Stenwold to sit down.
    Stenwold remained standing. ‘And you let him in?’
    ‘I? I haven’t been a Master of the College for more than a decade, and the right of the College to do just about whatever it pleases without interference from the Assembly is the
first thing both of us learned when we were studying