. . .
Inside Silam's opulent house a small group of priests and noblemen convened in one of the interior rooms. Many had come up by way of the fortress, which had a secret way that connected to the grove in the High Quarter. From there they came to meet again with him. There was important news and it was dangerous business they were conducting.
"Is the family well, Tureth?" Asked the high priest pleasantly.
"They are well enough. As long as I keep my wife in jewels." Said Tureth. Silam grinned.
"Wives. They must be kept happy if we are to have any peace and get on with business, is this not true?"
"You speak right. I am only glad I have only one instead of four or five!"
"Ah five wives is nothing as long as they each have their own house!" Said Silam. He had a large property - as large as a man could build in Jhis which was already crowded with narrow streets. On his plot he built each wife her own house and his was the main house, the largest and in it resided his first wife who, having borne him five healthy sons, was the undisputed queen of the House of Tybbl-Awat and the High Quarter. But Silam was the unspoken king of Jhis, the unspoken king of the temple and intrigues, rivaling the Egian queen and now he was about to play a dangerous card to make sure that the temple survived any transfer of power, for it seemed that one was well on the way. A servant poured hot tea for them as they dutifully washed their hands and arms before sitting down. The water had been boiled and then cooled again with ice to ward off any evil essence from its poisons. Once the servant left, the meeting began. Silam locked the door and sat down.
"This meeting has taken longer than I expected to arrange because I discovered a spy in my house. I caught him before he could carry out his mission. I caught him trying to send a message to the queen. I had his falcon shot down and I had him taken to the catacombs where my guards did away with him. We must move quickly and have no more meetings unless I say so."
"If she has infiltrated your walls she may have done so with the rest of us." Said Tureth.
"You know Bakku is her pet and her spy." Said Mustapheh.
"And her lover and everything else she decides. He thinks himself lord of the land. We should never have trusted him." Said Ganu.
"We did not know how things would turn out, but as it stands, we have benefited. When the times change we change with them and now fortune turns another way. We are here for this very thing. My sources in Egi tell me that Lord Teraht is on the move. He is secretly gathering forces in Yilphaeus. Even some wild men from the west are joining the ranks. His sons have rallied to his ensign with their own men. They are planning an attack on Jhis."
"But when?" Asked Tureth.
"In a few weeks."
"I have long heard this rumor. Have I not said so, my son?" Said Lord Igun Tybbl-Awat. He wheezed slightly and took a sip of tea.
"You have. It is now as true as the sun. He is planning to lay siege to the city and oust his niece from the throne."
"And how can we benefit from this? Where does the priesthood fit in?"
"I am getting to that. I have been corresponding with the Lord Chieftain about the abysmal misrule in Hybron and I am constructing a deal that will keep us out of his fight with her. He will spare us and the Golden Temple if we agree to have a shrine to him built, his standard born in the temple and a yearly tribute to his god Nisrok."
"A little much." Said Tureth.
"I do not see why not." Said Shishak.
"There is another thing. He wants a sum of ladre from the temple treasury. Half, in fact. I have offered him a grand sum of gold, silver and electrum ingots for our safety and preservation. He has accepted this."
'How much?" asked Tureth.
"One hundred gold ingots, one thousand silver ingots and a chest full of star rock." There was a collective gasp around the room.
"What? Give up what is rightfully ours by God's own hand?" Tureth sputtered.
"Do not worry. How long has the Golden Temple remained here, Tureth? We shall be here for eternal time. God remains with us. So we give up some gold. We have always found a way to extract it back from anyone. Including kings." Said the high priest.
"Why should we trust Teraht? From what I have heard he hates outsiders."
"All Egians do. What is that to us? We will survive and live to collect it back and more. It is nothing." Said the high priest.
"Correct. Silam is speaking right. Besides, our lives are what is at stake here. Let him have the ladre and the gold and silver and his images and shrines to himself and to his god." Said Shishak.
"Well, I am glad. After that business at the banquet I despise the foul woman. And these hated schools she builds! What does she think they will accomplish? Women in schools. The very idea is a travesty and an affront to decency." Said Ganu in disgust.
"When have we known an Egian to be decent? Especially a woman from Egi?" Said Shishak.
"I suspect she is playing out a long-standing grudge with her uncle and her dead father. She builds them to mock and outrage her family. She builds them to rebel against them." Said Silam.
"Yes, well, we shall be rid of her soon enough."
"Hopefully. We really do not know what will happen in truth until it happens. All of this is very close to Gasperat. Too close. What if he fails to take the city?" Said Tureth.
"When she plans to ascend?" Asked Silam.
"We work to stop that, whatever she calls it. She is mad and far more dangerous than Khalit ever was. Ascending to the gods! What madness! Who has ever heard of such a thing?" Shishak said in disgust.
"She is changing into something. I hear things." Said Tureth.
"What things?" They were all listening intently.
"I hear things such as people being taken to the palace in the dead of night sometimes for her to feed upon their flesh and that she has taken to drinking blood. Especially children. Why do you think she has not aged?"
"Is it not enough that Hybron must feed her children to Nimnet and Elyshe and now her too? If she feasts like that now think of what we will have to deal with when she supposedly ascends!" Said Shishak.
"I heard that all Egian noblewomen do this. Some elixir of youth they buy from someone named Lady Sawda. Quite popular there. I have no idea what this supposed elixir is actually made of, though. Maybe it really is blood. Who knows?" Said Silam.
"Yes, but why?"
"It is strange and I have also heard that she is not herself lately. At night especially, and that she wears veils over her headdress and diadem because her face has changed into something monstrous. That at night she turns into something most hideous." Said Lord Igun.
"I'd heard that she has leprosy or caught the plague that is going around which has disfigured her and that is why she wears the veils now." Said Ganu.
"I do not know or hold with any of the more fanciful rumors. She is dangerous enough without us bringing up tales that may or not be true. I know one thing. We must break away from her as soon as it is safe to do so or our deaths and the deaths of our families will be hideous. She cannot be allowed to continue. She has gone mad. It was a mistake to align ourselves with her. Curse Bakku for putting us in this mess!" Said Silam. They all called down evil upon Bakku and continued to convene late into the night on how they would find a way to betray the queen to her uncle and save themselves from the coming siege.
. . .
Zarhaz and his tiny band met in his own home looking at the dire situation they now found themselves in.
"I wonder if it is too late for us sometimes, Zarhaz." Said Luriah.
"So do I, for all the sins I have committed, but perhaps we can at least do something right before we die and I do think we shall die in all this, Luriah." Said Zarhaz grimly. Cut off from the secret meetings of the high priest because of his sharp tongue and growing frustration with the priesthood's decisions he was no longer a welcome figure at these meetings. There were only three of them but after years of trying they had managed to find a chink in the armor of th
eir brethren - Shishak's servant Injol, whom they would help gain his freedom if he helped them. Freedom in a new order and a new kingdom. He consented to help them if only to stop the corruption of the current queen and the priesthood. He told them of the secret, slow spread of Black Alchemy, which was not the innocent exploration of the world and nature and its subjects therein.
Zarhaz decided to leave off with the washing. After all what good would it do when everything they did and touched made it worse? They began with their new oath and prayer. Zarhaz lead them in it. Injol, Luriah and a young priest named Kerul. A few other newly hired men were unable to attend. Their little group was growing.
"Oh God in the heavenly realm, long have we strayed from you and your ways."
"Ellah Kaifah."
"May you help us, please, to find our way back and to do all that we can to set right what is now wrong."
"Ellah."
"To bring about your Purposes only and not our own and may you not see our wrongs, scarlet as they are."
"Ellah."
"Guide us please back to the Red Path, Oh, Airend-Ur."
"Ellah Kaifah." For Zarhaz it seemed as if he was falling back to the elementary things and it felt good to him. He felt renewed in a way he had never felt before in his life. This was more momentous for him than the day he became a priest so many years ago. They all looked at each other, not sure what to say, then Zarhaz began. He glanced at Injol, the new proselyte in the group.
"You told me you have new information, Injol."
"Yes, master. On my journey with Shishak he managed to bring or rather, force a man into service under him. A man named Rhajit. You may have heard of the name some years ago. Rhajit the Ram." Zarhaz's mouth dropped open.
"Rhajit the Ram? I have not heard of him."
"That is because you were not even born yet, Kerul. I remember him. I was one of the unfortunate ones taken to be executed in the dungeons of the arena." Said Luriah. "If it were not for him we would all have been torn apart by wild animals. That event revealed to me how I had gone down the wrong path. I am surprised he found him. He'd disappeared for so long. How did he find him?"
"Quite by accident. We were riding through a street in Rhuctium and Shishak saw him, glimpsed him in a fight with a man and thought he'd recognized him. So he set about having the area watched for this man and finally he surfaced again in an old inn. The man would take up with the alewife there from time to time. We paid her to gain access to him and she told us when he might next show up at the place. That is how we found him. A good find for us, in fact. He hates the priesthood and seemed to want to help do anything to be at cross-purposes with them. Helping the prophet seemed to gain his interest." Said Injol.
"That is well. I have heard the rumors that Teraht is rising up against his sovereign queen." Said Zarhaz.
"You mean the usurper? Yes, I have heard them as well, whispered in the temple. And something else." Said Luriah.
"What?" They all asked.
"Silam is now plotting against the queen and is building a secret alliance with Teraht so that when he comes up against the city the Golden Temple and its priesthood will be spared."
"How did you come by this?" Asked Zarhaz.
"I am close with Mustapheh and his family. I hear things."
"Ah! The benefit of having a pleasant demeanor and a discreet tongue," said Zarhaz. "of which I have neither."
"So in all this, what will we do?" Asked Kerul. Zarhaz started mapping out the plan.
"I have a little one, a street child, who has found some secret ways near the palace in the unnamed city. The cistern closest to the palace. There is also a place beneath King's Lake, a footpath there, it is very dangerous, that leads into the palace. Kerul here knows a palace messenger who knows one of the queen's maidservants who has access to Ilim and knows where he is being held. So far, he is still alive. Her name is Yadua. She is a mute but she can write a little and gives short messages when she can. We have not heard from her in a long while. Ilim has not been moved, so far as I know. He is being held in the dungeon of Nimnet's temple. Right now there is no secret passageway into the actual temple but there is one into the palace. All have been walled up except one."
"Gah! What we need to get in there is an alchemist, one of the powerful ones. A thaumaturgist!" Said Injol in exasperation.
"Speak not of such things, Injol. We must be patient. We will get in. But we must wait until the time is right."
"But for how long? The day is approaching and she will kill the prophet and many children on that day! A day of the worst bloodshed since the ocean of blood games in the arena many years ago!"
"God will not allow his prophet to die in such a way. We have to believe that and in doing so, a way will open up for us to rescue him. We have to believe it. Otherwise, we will lose our nerve. I have a few spies and they are scouting, as we speak, for a way in. If that doesn't work, that is where perhaps Rhajit comes in." Said Zarhaz.
"How?" Asked Kerul.
"As a priestly guard of the first order he may be able to gain access to the palace without subterfuge. Some of them secretly now work for the queen. Ochorus is one of them. Shishak is among those who now secretly work against the queen but he, like Silam, is close to the queen, as close as anyone can get, anyway. We have two ways to get into the palace if the underground tunnel does not work out. First, Shishak is often invited there to dine with the queen along with the other important priests. They usually bring a small retinue along with them to the palace. He and Injol may get in that way. Second, if I am right, Shishak will encourage the new man to secretly offer himself to work for the queen. She seems eager to snap up Hatchet Men these days. In this way the queen will think she has a way to spy on the priesthood and Shishak will actually have his own spy in the palace. But this spy will actually be ours. If he can get on the list as a queen's man, perhaps as an under-huntsman we will have a source that may be able to gain access to Ilim. I know it is a mad idea, but for a man who is not very adept at trickery and deceit nor knows his way through this political maze and is without sources, it is the best plan we have." Said Zarhaz. He sat back, apprehensive, looking from face to face.
"We will go with it. And hope that God in his mercy on us will bless it, if not for us then at least for His own prophet." Said Luriah. They all took the oath and left their way.
Zarhaz went and sat on his balcony and remained there long into the night, when the second moon rose the second time for the night. He stared into the dark and watched the shadows on his balcony and on the street below change form in the moons' light. After many hours he closed his eyes and prostrated himself on the floor. It was the first time in long years since he had done so. There was nothing left. He could feel darkness rising, ready to engulf the world as he knew it and he was sorrowful and powerless. Prayer. The last resort of the fool! he thought. He was an old fool but what else was there? He saw now that the cheating and all manner of corruption he had taken part in with the others did not lead to good things but to an even greater, looming disaster. He prayed so hard that he did not notice the tears streaming down his face until he was finished. He struggled to get up from the floor, his old bones, tired and aching, and he fell into his bed and into dream.
He was at the West Gate on the city wall watching and waiting. The evening was in gloom, the sun set in its soft blue halo and a line of lurid red cut through the deep gloom and purple of coming night, feathering off in tiny veins of red high up into the night sky. The stars were obscured except for the star of the seaman, Elitaph, the star of hope and guidance. But even Elitaph at times hid behind the gloom of clouds. The clouds, the clouds in the desert! It was a portent that something great was coming - something terrible or good, he did not know. From afar there was a long train of people coming on camels and pack donkeys and look! A star that had seemingly fallen from the sky to the ground of Chialis was before them. As this caravan came closer he could see they approached the wall of the city of Jhis and behind t
hem came the smoke and the fires, spreading, the eternal fires behind them and the fallen star was ahead. As they came closer he saw that it was a woman who wore the simple dress of wool of a desert prophetess and her hair was wrapped in a headdress of simple wool and she had a wooden staff tied to her waist. She sat atop a camel. The people behind her were a great train of tribal men and in her right hand she held a great and wondrous thing; a scepter and the tip of it shined like a star of white and bluish light, like Elitaph. It shined so brightly as she came close that Zarhaz's eyes hurt and he looked away and fell down upon his face.
"He who looks away from what is right and true will not stand in the destruction of Jhis, my lord. Do not look away. Do not look away. I am come to you by instruction from our God to give you this scepter, for you have turned back from your wickedness and God has heard you."
"You are the prophetess of Shima."
"Yes. I am Anet and I bring you the star scepter of the Red King, the Holy scepter of his rulership. It must be protected and you have been chosen to care for it. God has listened and He now gives you a sign that He does now approve of you for your turning back from the priesthood. He shall clean out is own house in the end. Be on the side of those who will come back and return to the old ways of the First One and He shall bless you, Zarhaz.
"I will! I shall do just as He commands, my lady."
"This is a dream but the scepter shall come to you in secret and you must protect it with your very life. I shall come to you with a great train of people. Do not worry any longer. God has heard you and he now listens to your prayers. Keep on following down this Red Path and you will be blessed in the days ahead after the dark days are gone."
Zarhaz bowed low to the ground again and he took the star scepter. Its light became so bright that his eyes burned, a beauty so sublime it blinded him and the pain was indescribable. And, when the pain finally subsided he saw the glory of what the ancient city of Assenna was and what it would become again.
Red World Trilogy Page 53