Gunpowder God (46 page)

“Maybe so, but the stories about his Investigation give me chills.”

Any man who can intimidate the Baron is worth meeting in the flesh
, he thought. “I need the archpriest’s backing if my plan is to work. I suspect seeing this much wealth outside the Temple’s grasp bothers him as much as it does me. He can be used.”

They dismounted and tied their horses to hitching posts outside the temple. He noted that most of them were free. At the door they were greeted by two of Styphon’s Own Guard and asked their business. He was irked by the fact that they treated him as an ordinary penitent.

“Prince Simias, here to visit Archpriest Roxthar.”

The guardsman stiffened, saying, “I will let the Archpriest know you are here, Your Highness. Please wait in the antechamber.”

The antechamber was dominated by a golden statue of Styphon over three rods tall and was almost empty except for three under-priests in black robes. There was a bejeweled mosaic showing Styphon’s descent from his Sky-Palace and lots of gold and silver ornamentation.

The Baron leaned over, whispering, “Is that statue plated or made of solid gold?”

He answered sotto voce, “It’s plated, like the temple roof.”

Baron Thalvar nodded with a gleam in his eye.

A man after my own heart. One day, when we’re strong enough and have milked the Temple for enough gold, I’ll teach these arrogant priests a lesson
—
if I have to ally myself with Kalvan himself. A brilliant general and statesman; the first thing Kalvan does upon conquering a new territory is pull down all of the Styphon’s House temples and melt their domes for the gold. Kalvan is said to have assayed each dome at more than fifty thousand gold ounces!

Simias all but rubbed his hands at the prospect of such easy gain.

After an exasperating wait of around a quarter-candle, a white-robed priest with bloodstains on his robe entered the chamber. “Your Highness, the Holy Investigator has finished his work. He will meet with you now. Please, follow me.”

The Baron started to rise.

“Please stay, Your Lordship. The Archpriest only agreed to see your Prince.”

The white-robed Investigator led him through a series of passageways, then down a stone stairway into the lower bowels of the temple. They could hear the distant echoes of high-pitched screaming; whether it be man or woman was impossible to ascertain.

“Please excuse the noise, Your Highness, but one becomes accustomed to it after a while.”

The priest led them around another corner and into a small cell. Inside was Archpriest Roxthar, wearing a white robe with Styphon’s device in black over the breast, sitting on a small stool. His hands and arms were covered with blood up to his elbows. Simias had heard many stories about the Archpriest but had never seen him before, even when they were both in Agrys City. He was a tall man with a narrow, almost wolf-like face.

Roxthar’s eyes were the most frightening, they were lit from behind like rubies in firelight. He did not look pleased to see Simias. “You’d better have a good reason for keeping me from Styphon’s Work.”

His voice gave Simias chills. He decided that the best way to
handle
the Archpriest was to be direct. “Your Holiness, I have come as the High Marshal of the Union of Styphon’s Friends. We have a traitor in our midst.”

Roxthar’s ears actually appeared to perk up. “Who is this vile creature? Do I know him?”

“Prince Varion, Your Holiness, overlord of this very city and the Princedom of Kryphlon. He is in cahoots with the League of Dralm.”

“What is your proof?”

“Look around you, it is everywhere. There are the temples and shrines to Dralm and Yirtta all over this city and throughout the princedom. I have asked him, even Highpriest Asmestros has asked him, to destroy them in the name of Styphon. Varion refuses, saying it’s up to his people as to which temple they worship at. It is even said that he visits the Temple of Dralm himself. Your Holiness, what more proof do you need?”

Roxthar all but sizzled.

Simias could feel the heat coming off his person, amplifying the stench raising off his robe.

Roxthar choked out his words: “At the moment, my hands are tied by Grand Master Soton. I have given him my sworn-word not to do any Investigating within the borders of any princedom allied with the Union of Styphon’s Friends. This Varion and his heretical ways have truly heated my blood.”

If you’re not doing any Investigating here, whose screams are echoing through these corridors?
Simias decided wisely to keep that question to himself. “There may be a better way, Your Holiness.”

Roxthar leaned forward on his stool, like a vulture about to gobble a choice piece of carrion. “And what would that be?”

Karoth Barg barged into Chief Dalla Hadron’s office without a by-your-leave. “Chief, here’s an update on the Shimmer Spire disaster.”

Dalla winced. The Shimmer Spire, one of the largest apartment towers in Dhergabar and home to half a million citizens, had been A-bombed this morning. There was a recorded message on Tri-V from the PLF, Prole Liberation Front, claiming responsibility. Half of Dhergabar City had to be evacuated due to high radiation and the other half was on standby. Paratime Police HQ had been so bombarded with calls and messages that she’d ordered the entire system shut down except for Code Red transmissions.

“What’s the latest, Karoth?”

“A quarter of a million dead and less than a dozen survivors. Those being residents about to leave via one of the landing ports or the main landing stage. Everyone else is presumed dead, including over a million Proles. They don’t even care about their own kind, the bastards. The good news is that two-thirds of the citizens living there were out-time when the blast occurred.”

The small atomic bomb had gone off in the early morning hours. It had been detonated on the bottom floor of the Shimmer Spire; the spire’s collapsed-nickel exterior walls had acted like a chimney, sending the sun-hot blast of plasma upward through three thousand floors vaporizing everything and everyone in its path. No living being inside that inferno could have survived.

The explosion had reverberated throughout Dhergabar, as residents fled the City to escape the fallout and the possibility that other buildings had been sabotaged. Shelters across Home Time Line were filled to the bursting with evacuees from the capital city. Hospitals were overflowing from those with radiation sickness or heart attacks and other ailments related to the bombing. While there had been previous terror attacks by the PRL, this was the first nuclear one.

There were political reverberations as well; many of the cities and towns refused to accept any Proles from Dhergabar and there was a growing call to ship all the dissidents to Fifth Level Industrial or Service Sector. The Executive Council was in Emergency Session attempting to come up with a solution to the growing Prole unrest. Dalla was scheduled to give a report in less than an hour to the Executive Council, which meant she had lots to prepare.

“Plus, the PLF has released their demand,” Karoth said, pausing dramatically.

“What is it?” Karoth was a hold-over from Verkan’s administration and, if she ever got any time, Dalla planned to have him replaced with someone less in love with their own voice.

“The PLF demands Citizenship and longevity treatments for all Proles on Home Time Line and provisional Citizenship for all those on Fifth Level.”

“Ludicrous and unacceptable!” Dalla blurted.

Dalla was considered a liberal on the Prole Question since she’d gone so far as to adopt one, Zinganna, as a sister. However, even she realized there was no way that Home Time Line could make all Proles citizens, especially since they outnumbered citizens at better than ten to one on Home Time Line alone. The result would be political chaos as the former servants paid back real and imagined slights. To say nothing of the actual costs of giving tens of billions of new citizens a dole, housing, medical and longevity treatments. It would bankrupt the entire system, and that was just for starters….

Only an Opposition Party member would welcome such a potential catastrophe. Not for the first time, Dalla wondered if they were actively behind the PFL.

Maybe next time it’ll be the Paratime Building
, she thought. “Karoth, I want radiation detectors as well as metal detectors placed on all entrances and landing ports on the Paratime Building. No one is to be admitted to the Building who isn’t in the Department or with the Dhergabar Metropolitan Police.”

“Yes, Chief.”

“I’m expecting Metropolitan Police Chief Vothan Raldor; let me know when he arrives.”

Secretary Karoth handed her a view wafer and quickly exited her office. Dalla put the wafer into the slot and watched the explosion on her viewscreen. The five mile-high tower on the screen rocked from the force of the atomic fire inside, even as most of the force and radiation was contained by the building’s collapsed-nickel walls. From a distance, it looked like a fireworks display as the top of the Shimmer Spire blew off and a huge flare lanced into the sky. The flame was so bright that it briefly turned the screen completely white despite all the camera’s special filters.

As visibility returned, it was possible to see the other nearby towers and spires rocking back and forth as if caught in the throes of a major earthquake.
This is where most of the injuries occurred outside the stricken spire
, she thought.
People, furniture, robots and appliances were tossed around like toys as the great towers rocked back and forth.
The physical injuries were in the tens of millions, filling every hospital and medical facility on Home Time Line to the bursting.

The political repercussions would be just as bad.

She herself had been awakened in her apartment, at the Space Spire where she was thrown off her bed at 0244 in the morning. Her first thought had been “earthquake,” even though they were rare in this section of the Major Landmass, or what was called Europe on Fourth Level Europo-American. She had, however, experienced quakes while outtime.

Karoth came bursting into her office again.

“What is it now?” she asked, biting her tongue.

“It’s Yadd’s
The Day in Dhergabar
show; you need to watch it!”

She hit the button that turned on the wallscreen at the front of her office. Yandar Yadd’s supercilious face filled the screen. “What we should be asking ourselves is: How were the PLF able to smuggle an atomic weapon onto First Level? As we all know, it’s the Paratime Police who are responsible for protecting us from smuggling and outtime contraband, especially weapons. Obviously, the Paracops haven’t been doing their job.

“This has been true for a number of years, ever since Verkan Vall took over from former Chief Tortha Karf. Things have gotten even worse under Verkan’s wife and replacement, Chief Dalla Tharn. I think it’s time the citizens of Dhergabar demanded some answers.” He paused to point his finger straight into Dalla’s face. “Chief Tharn, you owe it to the people of Dhergabar to tell the truth about what’s
really
going on.”

Then he turned back to his audience. “Keep sending those messages and electronic letters to the Executive Council and
maybe
we will get some answers!”

C
aptain-General Hestophes walked quickly up the stone steps leading to the Great Hall of Tarr-Eubros. This was the fourth council of war meeting called in the last moon.
What new crisis has come to bite us on the arse?
he asked himself.
It was bad enough that he’d lost his artillery commander and two hundred good troopers a moon ago
.

Councils had been called to discuss princes not mustering all the men they promised, another was called regarding the death of Great King Sopharar and the last one had been an update on the Host of Styphon’s Deliverance—the first news on the size of Soton’s army had almost pulled the castle down. Some princes had wanted to leave to protect their princedoms, others wanted to leave immediately to fight Soton. They were still waiting for two princes, Prince Aesklos and Prince Kyphanes, and having problems obtaining enough victuals to feed the army and livestock for more than a quarter moon.

Prince Thykarses was seated at the head of the long table with his son, Duke Mnestros to his right; Hestophes’ seat was to the Prince’s left. Primate Xentos, representing the Temple of Dralm, was seated at the foot. In between were five of the seven princes who comprised the Agrysi League of Dralm.

After Xentos gave a short benediction, Prince Thykarses, whose beard had turned completely white over the winter, stood up. “One of our scouts just arrived with this dispatch. It appears the Union of Styphon’s Friends, who were wintering in Kryphlon, have crossed the border into Varthon and are now besieging Tarr-Kendreth.”

“Styphon’s swine!” Prince Tyromanes jumped up. “I must leave now with my Army before all is lost.”

“Hold it,” Xentos bellowed, rising his arms so that they were outstretched as if he were about to call down Dralm the Allfather himself. The hall was as quiet as a temple; it was disconcerting to hear such a loud bellow out of the white-robed old man. “Prince Tyromanes, if you leave the League with your army we will lose too many men and we will be unable to stop Soton and Styphon’s Host of Styphon’s Deliverance. We have two choices: We can either all move into Varthon and battle the army of the Union of Styphon’s Friends, which is what the Styphoni desire, or we can stay together united in our strength and face Soton’s Host together.”

“It’s not your princedom that the Union is invading,” Tyromanes returned. “It is my land!”

“You are not alone. My homes, Hostigos Town and Agrys City, were both overrun by Styphon’s House.” Xentos pointed to Hestophes. “Let your commander-in-chief speak.”

Captain-General Hestophes rose up. “If we allow the army to fight each small action, we may win many minor battles, but we will lose the war.” He remembered Kalvan’s maxim of ‘wars waged in detail, are lost in the main.’ Still, in this case, if they defeated the Union’s army, they might be able to threaten to cut Soton off from his supply base in Agrys City. He knew they would have to do something before each prince went his own way and the League’s army shrank to next to nothing.