When everyone else was up, Hunter climbed the rungs quickly. A few gave way, but Tebrey grabbed him and hauled him up. By then, the sergeant had oiled the hinges on the door. He did something to the lock and then set his shoulder against it. The door stuck at first, but then swung open to reveal a branching corridor.
Consulting his mental map, Tebrey led them toward what he hoped was the center of the palace. The level they found themselves on was the lowest of the palace, and there were many locked rooms along the corridors. From some rooms came the sounds of tortured souls, weeping, and the hopeless moans of those who had been cast into the dungeons of the palace with no hope of ever seeing daylight again. Tebrey made the mistake of shining his light into a few of those rooms at first.
It was like a glimpse into hell.
Not a single person he saw was easily recognizable as human anymore. All of them had been tortured to the brink of mindlessness, and beyond. They were rotting, shambling wrecks that once been people, and it broke his heart to see what had become of them. It was beyond anything he had ever seen or experienced, worse than what the Nurgg had done on Norlin. That had been clinical, cold, without malice. It was worse even than what he'd experienced on the Kirov, for whatever had tortured the crew of that doomed ship had not attempted to keep its victims alive. Here, deep in the bowels of the palace, people had been broken, and then broken again and again. It was quite simply the most unimaginably evil thing he had ever seen, and it he hardened his resolve.
No matter what happened or was said, none of those responsible for these atrocities could be allowed to live. Nothing could be done for the miserable creatures that inhabited the dungeon, except maybe a merciful death, but the ones who had done it to them could never be allowed to do it to anyone else.
Hunter helped him shield his mind, but he was still dizzy and gasping when he finally found the stairs up from that terrible darkness. Everyone was affected. The men who came with him were pale and shaking as they made their way out of that hellish place.
Tebrey paused at the top of the stairs. "Douse the torches," he whispered. He turned off his hand lamp. The hallway they were about to enter was lit with oil lamps hanging from brackets. He drew the long blade the marquess had given him. It gleamed dully in the light of the lamps.
He gestured for the men to follow him and began to explore the corridors. Somewhere, the man responsible for what he'd seen was waiting for him. He had a date with the executioner. Tebrey no longer had any doubts about the emperor's guilt. It was going to take all of his restraint not to kill the man as soon as he found him.
If man he was.
After the horrors he'd witnessed, he didn't know if he could even consider the emperor human anymore. What kind of animal could do things like that?
Watch it, Hunter replied. Not even animals act like that.
You're right. I guess the word I was looking for was monster.
That, I'd agree with.
It was almost half an hour before they found in anyone to interrogate.
Hunter heard them first and warned him that there were men around the corner. Tebrey took a quick glance and saw a small guard station with a table and three guards sitting and playing dice. A fourth guard was sleeping on a bunk against the wall. They were talking quietly as they played, oblivious to the fact that death was about to visit them.
Tebrey gestured for the others to stay close and walked boldly up to the guards. It took a minute or two for them to notice, absorbed by their game as they were. He was only a few meters from them when they leapt to their feet, knocking over chairs and drawing swords.
"You have been judged," he said quietly. "And you are found wanting."
The three men ran forward, but Tebrey cut them down in seconds. The longer reach of his blade combined with his greater strength made the end inevitable. The fourth man ran, but one of the men with Tebrey shot him in the leg with a crossbow bolt, and he fell sprawling.
"Bring him to me," Tebrey said.
He quickly looked around the guard station, but there was nothing of interest. The men brought the guard back into the room. He was struggling, but they'd gagged him with a torn piece of cloth. The man stared in wide-eyed terror at Hunter.
Tebrey grabbed him and slammed the man into his back on the table. Hunter came and put his front paws on either side of the man's head, his gleaming metal teeth centimeters from his eyes. The men held his arms down.
"I'd rather make your death as merciful as possible," Tebrey said to him. "I'm going to remove the gag. I suggest you don't scream or call for help. It wouldn't do you any good, and my companion may take it personally. Do you understand?"
The man nodded, his eyes wild.
Tebrey removed the gag. "I want to know where the coward who calls himself emperor is. Tell me the truth, and your death will be swift. Lie to me, and my companion will eat you slowly."
That's gross.
Shut up.
"I'm sure he's in his suite," the man's voice was high with terror. Tebrey could tell that he'd heard about what the Lawbringer had done to the last men that he faced.
"And where is his suite?"
"I'll take you to him if you spare my life."
"Your life is forfeit for your crimes. Surely you know the Lawbringer does not negotiate."
"Then I'll die a man. Do your worst."
Tebrey glanced at the sergeant. "Hold him tight."
The man began to struggle, and Tebrey grabbed his head with both hands. He burrowed into the man's mind with his, cutting savagely through his memories, and using all of the anger, terror, and despair he'd felt as he'd made his way through the dungeons against him. The man streamed and shrieked as Tebrey destroyed his mind.
Tebrey finally stepped back some indeterminate time later, wiping his brow. He'd been sweating with his effort to rip the information from the man's mind. The guard lay still on the table, breathing shallowly. Spittle ran from the corner of his mouth, and his eyes stared at horrors only he could see.
The men milled about, uncomfortable with, and uncertain about, what had happened.
"Kill him," Tebrey said. His own voice sounded savage to him. "Be quick and merciful."
"Did you find the emperor?" the sergeant asked. He couldn't conceal the awe from his voice.
"I did, and that bastard is going to pay for his crimes."
Chapter Sixty-Three
There were not many guards within the palace itself. The emperor was too paranoid to allow any but the most trusted of men to be armed in his presence. The guards they did see either died quickly or ran from the apparition of the Lawbringer and his beastly companion.
Tebrey let them run.
Hunter was irritated that he wasn't able to kill any of them. Tebrey was too tired of the pain and despair that emanated from the very walls of the palace to want to see more bloodshed. He just wanted to find the emperor and bring his reign of terror to an end.
The servants they found were too pitiful to kill, scarred and scared wretches. Tebrey ordered them left alone unless they threatened the men. None of them did, though. They just knelt on the floor and shook as the soldiers went by. He wondered if they knew why he was there, or if they had just been conditioned to fear people with weapons.
The doors to the imperial suite were curiously unguarded, and when Tebrey and the men burst in they were almost overwhelmed by the noise and stench of the room. Like the rest of the palace, it was lit with oil lamps. The heavy smell of too much perfume, vomit, blood, feces, and unwashed bodies swept over them. The floor was roiling carpet of writhing bodies engaged in every imaginable act of debauchery possible. Some were rutting with animal abandon; others were feeding on meals that screamed with human voices. Some were doing both at the same time. In the center of that unholy orgy sat the bloated, grotesque form of the emperor. He was naked and crusted with filth and blood.
His eyes held depths of evil that Tebrey had never seen before. He screamed a wordless, mindless cacophony of anger and
despair as they burst in. It didn't stop any of the people in the room from what they were doing, but seemingly spurred them to even wilder acts of monstrous savagery.
Tebrey was dizzy and nauseous from what he saw and felt around him. He wasn't the only one; he could hear several of the men with him retching. Even Hunter was affected, shaking with rage.
"Kill them," Tebrey said coldly. "Kill them all."
Even the smoke-filled air of the city felt clean after having been in the palace.
They had killed everyone in the suite except for the emperor. Many of the people had been so far gone that they hadn't even resisted as Tebrey, Hunter, and the marquess' men had cut them down. The emperor was trussed up like a boar, and the men had dragged him along with them as they quickly found their way from the palace.
The first rays of light from the sun were clearing the mountains to the east. The city was still burning, but it felt cleaner somehow, as if the death of those mindless creatures in the imperial suite had lifted a burden from the city.
Tebrey was sure the public execution of the emperor would do even more to clear the city of its taint of madness. Whether or not he'd ever be able to be clean again, he didn't know. He felt soiled to his core by what he'd experienced. He was looking forward to the chateau that Jeroen had described to him. He needed time in the clean air and sunshine, by a cool mountain lake, to heal his soul.
You and me both, brother, Hunter thought to him. You'd told me that people sometimes did horrible things to one another, but I didn't really understand.
Neither did I, Tebrey thought. I've never experienced anything like that. Nor do I wish to ever experience it again.
"Trouble, sir," the marquess' sergeant said quietly.
Tebrey pulled his attention back to the large parade ground in front of the palace. An entire regiment of the Praetorian Guard blocked their path to outside. There were shouts as they saw him. The rolling thunder of his caseless pistol echoed back from the walls. The five men he could see with crossbows died in blasts of gore, bloods and bits of flesh spattering everyone near them. Behind him, the marquess' men held their ground, although he could tell that they were shaken by the explosive death of the guards. The sergeant held a knife to the emperor's throat.
The praetorians looked like they didn't know what to do. They were tough and hardened troops, the best of the best, but the tall, blood-covered man with the beast under his command left them frightened.
"It's over," Tebrey shouted, his voice carried across the field. "Surrender or die. Your choice. Either is fine with me, but killing you all would serve no purpose and be a waste of good men."
The praetorian captain stepped forward cautiously, his empty hands held wide. "Who are you to issue commands?"
"You know who I am." Tebrey gestured with the sword at Hunter, who roared. "Do you surrender?
"And if we were to surrender, what then? What of the emperor?"
"Cowards!" the emperor screamed. Tebrey backhanded him into whimpering silence, and the sergeant gagged the man with a piece of torn cloth. A few of the guards started forward at that, but stopped at another roar from Hunter.
"Your emperor's life is forfeit for his crimes. Your lives need not be."
The captain nodded. "We are sworn to the Empire and to the crown." He then smirked. "I see no crown here, only a fat and vile beast. Who is to be the next emperor, then? You?"
"No," Tebrey replied. "Marquess Nanak has the support of the senate, the military, and the people. He is to be emperor. He will be a worthy emperor, unlike this creature."
The captain's eyes flicked over the emperor with contempt. Tebrey couldn't sense any betrayal or evil in the man, which surprised him. He realized that the praetorian may never even have seen the emperor he served. He was a good soldier.
"We will not lay down our arms," the captain said. "We still need to defend the palace from the mob, but we will not interfere with your mission, Lawbringer. I had heard that you had returned to Bellejor, but hadn't believed it, to my discredit. Do what you feel you must to restore order. We will be here awaiting the will of whoever is chosen as emperor."
The sand of the arena was not where Tebrey wanted to be, but the execution of the old emperor had to be public, and the arena was the only place large enough to hold a major portion of the population. The noise was deafening, and the waves of hatred directed at the lone figure chained in the center were overwhelming.
The former marquess, now emperor, had spent the last week engaged in a clever propaganda campaign designed to uncover the dark secrets of the previous emperor and direct the animosity of the people toward the man. The people had responded with enthusiasm to idea of François taking the throne. Others in the city, the Lady Varakana among them, had not been so pleased, but visits from the Lawbringer had shut them up. One way or the other.
Lady Varakana was on her way to a permanent vacation on the western frontier. She wouldn't be causing any more trouble. Others… had not been so fortunate. Tebrey wasn't happy about being used to clean up the political situation for the new emperor, but he did what he had to ensure the continued safety of his friends.
"LAWBRINGER!" The roar of crowd almost knocked his from his feet. They'd seen him and were chanting his title now. He held up his arm, sword flashing in the sun. It was symbolic, but wouldn't be the method of execution. Hunter roared back.
Emperor François rose from the imperial booth and raised his hands. The crowd amazingly quieted in moments. Even from a hundred meters away, Tebrey could see the flushed smile on his face. The people loved him, and he knew it.
"My people! This man before you has been judged. The Lawbringer, returned from our legends, has brought him before the senate to account for his crimes. He could not. It is our judgment that he should die this day. What say you, my people? How should he pay for his crimes?"
"DEATH!" the crowd roared back.
"What say you, the condemned? Do you have any last words?" François asked.
The crowd arena was completely silent.
Tebrey drew his positron pistol. It was armed and ready. They had decided that having the former emperor blasted by lightnings was a symbolic and clean way of dispatching of him. Tebrey had tried to explain that it was dangerous to use, but the mar– Tebrey needed to start thinking of him as the emperor – the emperor had been adamant that he wanted the former emperor killed with the same weapon Tebrey had used against the Lady Varakana's men. Tebrey had bowed to the inevitable. At least the emperor had agreed to time the execution to a day when storms loomed over the city.
The former emperor rolled in his head, and spittle ran from his mouth. Tebrey was firmly of the belief that the man was completely insane and had been for some time. Not that insanity was any excuse for the horrors he had visited upon his people, but Tebrey liked to understand what motivated people. The former emperor was psychopathic and beyond redemption. The mob didn't care why he'd done what he did, only that he paid the price for those crimes.
A shift in the mood of the crowd drew Tebrey's eyes back to the condemned man.
His eyes were focused on Tebrey with a hatred that was perceptible even across the sands. He almost seemed a different man. Then he spoke loudly and clearly, although only Tebrey and Hunter could have understood the words because they were spoken in Normarish.
"Your precious Ripper died for nothing. Nothing! We will have you in the end."
Tebrey blasted the thing in the center of the arena until nothing remained.
Chapter Sixty-Four
In the days since the messenger from Jeroen had told them of what happened with the army, the scientists had kept themselves busy by studying the books they'd brought with them. They waited for news of what was happening in capitol, news of Tebrey, but none came.
Mason was worried again but trying not to let it get to her. Ana sat by the window looking out at the road; it was all anyone could do get her to eat and sleep. Christopher had been talking about taking a horse and riding to the
capitol for news, whether the men assigned to guard them liked it or not.
"Doctors," Jane said excitedly, "look at this!"
"What have you found?" Seshadri asked.
Mason had been discussing the syntax of the old Earth Hindi language with him. It kept her busy. They walked over to the table where Jane was working.
"I was browsing through the older texts, the ones we had set aside at first because they were too difficult," Jane explained. "Anyway, I found a sheaf of loose pages tucked into one of the books." She gestured to the yellowed sheets spread out before her. "These seem to be translated copies of a record of an archeological survey that was undertaken at near the time of the original colonization."
"Have you had time to translate any of it?" Seshadri asked.
"I have part of it translated," she said. "I wanted to be sure. It threw me off a little at first. The original writer must have written it in Old French. I had to guess at some of the meanings."
"Jane," Mason said, "stop teasing us and tell us what it says." Most of the other students had gathered around the table.
"Right, sorry," she said. "Most of these early pages just deal with getting permission for the expedition, and who the various team members were. It appears that there was some sort of urgency, although I could be translating that wrong. I'm not sure if there was some sort of power outage, or maybe they're talking about winter coming on, but they keep talking about something being dark inside and that's why they have to make the journey."
"Dark inside?" Seshadri said. "Dark inside what? What could that mean?"
"Could it be a power outage, as Jane suggested? Why would they need an expedition for that?" asked Douglas.
"What exactly does it say?" Seshadri asked.
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