by Nathan Long
The Aldhanan glared at the guy like he was gonna kill him, then waved him away. “Have him wait. I will receive him in my bed chamber.”
The servant bowed himself out and the Aldhanan turned to us. “It seems the battle is joined already.”
Lhan stepped forward, his hand on his sword. “And we are ready, my Aldhanan.”
The Aldhanan chuckled. “It will not come to blows yet. The first skirmish will be one of words, and I believe I have a way to win it.” He grinned. “If you wish to listen, there is a screen in my room, behind which you will not be seen. Wen-Jhai knows the way.”
He headed out one door with Captain Anan and his guards and Wen-Jhai led the rest of us out another, and brought us to a little room like a walk-in closet, except it had some benches in it and one wall was a fancy wooden lattice with black fabric tacked to the back of it. With the lamps lit in the room beyond we could see everything that went on, and with the no lights on our side, nobody could see us—at least I hoped not. There was a tiny door in the left-hand wall of the closet, but I didn’t know what it was for. Maybe it was an actual closet.
Wen-Jhai motioned us all to sit down on the benches and be quiet while on the other side of the screen, the Aldhanan entered and his maids helped him into his bed clothes, then tucked him into the bed. The old fox lay back and did his best to look more wounded than he was, then motioned for them to go.
“Just like wide screen TV.”
“Shhh!”
“Sorry.”
After a second, a door opened and the servant bowed in a guard and a young, bookish-looking poindexter who woulda been kinda pretty except for his lack of chin. I looked behind him, expecting to see an older, scarier looking priest come in after him, but he was it. I was surprised. He looked too young to run the choir, let alone the whole temple.
But any doubts I had about whether he was the guy behind everything disappeared when I saw him look at the Aldhanan. He was truly surprised to see him, and blinked like he thought the bed would be empty if he looked again. After that, an angry look flashed across his face, but he managed to turn it into a look of concern as he approached the bed.
“Aldhanan. I grieve to see you so hurt. May the Seven grant that you recover quickly.”
“My thanks, Duru-Vau. And I thank you for seeking me out so promptly. You are no doubt anxious to hear what occurred in Durgallah.”
Duru-Vau bowed, but didn’t cross his wrists. “Most anxious indeed, my Aldhanan. I… I feared when you left that the, the danger was too much, and am greatly relieved to see you safely returned.”
The Aldhanan smiled. “No doubt. No doubt.” He sighed like he was in pain and sank back into his pillows, holding his bandaged shoulder. “Well, your Reverence, it was precisely as you said. The outcast Dhan and his outland giantess were holding my daughter and her consort in the heathen temple, lying in wait for us with an army of black-robed heretics at their backs.”
Duru-Vau pretended to be surprised. “It must have been terrifying. Er, did… did all survive?”
The Aldhanan grinned. “The outcast and his giantess did not, that is for certain, nor did their followers. Despite the ambush, we killed them to a man.”
Duru-Vau was starting to look a little sick. “And your daughter? Her consort? You rescued them?”
“Indeed. They had been starved and grievously abused, and were about to be sacrificed by the heretics in some unholy ceremony, but through luck and swiftness, we saved them from the heathen blade.” He put on a sad face, though I could see him struggling to hold it. “We did lose some, however. Many good men fell in that battle, and your brother, his reverence Ru-Manan, as well. One of the heretics kicked him into the pit and he broke his neck. I beg your forgiveness that I was not able to protect him.”
Duru-Vau’s cheek twitched. He bowed his head to hide it. “I am certain you did your best, but am most grieved to hear it. He will be missed.” Well, maybe, but his sadness disappeared a split second later, and he looked around the room as if he was hunting for somebody. “I am more pleased than I can say, however, that your daughter and her consort have survived their terrible ordeal. It would be an honor if you allowed me to pay my respects to them in person.”
I bared my teeth. “And cut their throats, I bet, you weasel.”
Lhan elbowed me in the ribs.
The Aldhanan gave Duru-Vau a fake smile. “I’m afraid they have retired. Their experiences were very wearying, and they have not yet been able to speak coherently of what had happened to them. When they recover, I will pass along your good wishes.”
“You are most kind, but I am disturbed to hear that they have not recovered themselves enough to speak sense. Can—can you tell me anything of what they said?”
The Aldhanan frowned, like he was trying to decide how much to tell, then he shrugged. “It was very strange, your Reverence. Both claimed that it was not heretics that kidnapped them, but priests of Ormolu, and that it was the church who were their tormentors, and not the giantess and the degenerate.” He shook his head. “I dismissed this as confusion, of course, but it was still most disturbing.”
Duru-Vau was clenching his fists so hard his knuckles were turning white. “My Aldhanan, I’m afraid it may be more dangerous than it is disturbing.”
The Aldhanan looked at him. “How so?”
Duru-Vau bowed, and this time crossed his wrists. “Forgive me for what I am about to say, Aldhanan, and I mean no disrespect to the valor of yourself or your guards, but I fear that you were allowed to take back your daughter and son-in-law. That it was all part of the heretics’ insidious master plan.”
Down the bench to my right, Wen-Jhai was starting to breathe through her nose. Sai put a hand on her arm.
Out in the bedroom, the Aldhanan laughed. “Indeed? You say the heretics allowed themselves to be slaughtered to a man? What sort of plan is that?”
“Their leaders put no value on the lives of their followers. So that their goal was achieved, they—”
“You led me to understand that the degenerate and the giantess were the leaders. Was it part of their plan to die as well?”
Duru-Vau covered like a pro. “Obviously not, but there must then be some even more sinister figure who pulled their strings.”
“Yeah,” I muttered. “You.”
Duru-Vau looked at the Aldhanan like a doctor giving the bad news. “Forgive me, my Aldhanan, but I fear your daughter and her consort have been brainwashed by these fiends, made into automatons designed to betray you when you are most vulnerable. The gift of their return may in truth a poison dagger, that will turn in your hand and cut—”
“Liar!”
Everybody in the little room whipped around. Wen-Jhai was on her feet, glaring at the screen, while out in the room, Duru-Vau and his guard were looking right at the screen and reaching for weapons.
Sai put a hand on Wen-Jhai’s arm. “Beloved. Quiet yourself. We mustn’t—”
She shook him off and stepped to the tiny door, then stormed through it with Sai stumbling after her. A second later she was in the bedroom stabbing a finger at Duru-Vau and spattering him with spit as she shouted at him.
“You know very well Lhan-Lar and Mistress Jae-En did not kidnap us, for it was your own minions who brought us to Durgallah as a ruse to trick my father to his doom. And by the Seven, you would have succeeded were it not for—”
“Wen-Jhai!” The Aldhanan looked like he was going to jump out of bed and clap a hand over her mouth. “How dare you attack our guest in this fashion! You say far too much!”
Wen-Jhai went white as she realized she’d almost spilled the beans on me and Lhan—and Dad too. She stammered for a second, then turned up her nose and sniffed. “Then I will only say, Father, that I pray you never again fall for the underhanded tricks of priests.”
Duru-Vau gave her a sad smile, then turned to the Aldhanan. “You see? She believes all they told her. The monsters have made themselves out the heroes and we the villains.”
“Indeed.” Duru-Vau let out a breath. “Now. As you understand that, then you will understand also that it is imperative I take the poor things to the temple now, so that my brothers and I can use the gifts of the Seven to cleanse their minds of this vile poison and return them to you the innocent, untroubled children they were before they were kidnapped.”
“No!” Sai and Wen-Jhai shouted it in stereo and backed away from the priest like he’d just turned into a vampire.
The Aldhanan pushed himself up in his bed. “That—that will not be necessary, Duru-Vau. Armed with your warning, I will keep a cautious eye on Wen-Jhai and Sai-Far. But I would see what a father’s love and the comfort of familiar surroundings can do before I give them into your tender care.”
Duru-Vau stood. “I am afraid I must insist, Aldhanan. The safety of your person, and that of the nation—”
“And I must insist, High Priest, that the welfare of my family is my affair, and if the church wishes to contest this, they should send more than a single guard and a single priest.”
I hadn’t seen any signals passed, or heard any alarms rung, but just then Captain Anan and his men entered the room and took up positions around the walls. They kept their swords sheathed and their hands behind their backs, but the threat couldn’t have been more obvious if ol’ Captain Eye-Patch had put his dagger to Duru-Vau’s throat.
Duru-Vau stiffened. “I see. So, you believe the lies your daughter has been taught.”
The Aldhanan’s face looked like a storm cloud about to spit lightning. “No I do not. I saw the bodies of those killed, and their identity was beyond question. Nevertheless, my daughter and her consort remain with me. Now, leave me, please. I find I am growing tired.”
Duru-Vau bowed. “As the Aldhanan commands. I will return when you are recovered.”
Man, these Waarians and their saying-shit-without-saying-shit. Back home, the Aldhanan woulda said, “Get outta my face, asshole. You’re making me sick.” And Duru-Vau woulda said, “Yeah, I’m leaving. But when I’ve got some back-up, I’m comin’ back to kick your ass.” Here it was all snarky jabs and double talk. I preferred the up-front method myself, which is why I was glad I was in the little closet and not out with the Aldhanan. That little weasel in the orange robe would have been spitting teeth—and that would have spoiled the whole thing.
Because I saw the Aldhanan’s game the way Wen-Jhai almost hadn’t. He’d had to admit that Sai and Wen-Jhai thought it was priests who’d kidnapped them. If he hadn’t, Duru-Vau might have guessed he was lying, but if the Aldhanan had admitted we were still alive, and that he knew the heretics had been priests in disguise, it would have been war with the church right then and there, and no time to get his shit together.
I’m not sure he coulda kept from punching Duru-Vau’s lights out for another five minutes though. By the time the door had closed on the high priest’s ass and Lhan and I filed out of the closet into the room, he was out of his bed and pacing around like a tweaker, his face as purple as a bruise. Then he stopped and looked around at us all, his eyes hot and cold at the same time.
“He wishes to take my daughter again? He tries to turn me against my own blood? Friends, my past hesitations have been burned to nothing in the fire of my rage. We will go to war, and we will win!”
Sai went whiter than I thought a purple man could.
Wen-Jhai clasped her hands together like something out of a bad melodrama. “Father! At last!”
Lhan squared his shoulders. “Right and brave, my Aldhanan. I commend you for making such a bold move.”
The Aldhanan waved that aside. “It will not yet be so very bold. Not for a while. I will need the support of my Dhanans and their armies before I can reveal my hand, and that of the people as well, and I must win it in secret.”
Sai looked like he was going to pee himself. “How is that possible? The church has spies everywhere.”
“Not everywhere.” He started to pace again. “I gave this much thought as we sailed, wondering, if I were to do it, how it might be done, and I believe I have a way, but there is much to be done first, and many people to speak with, the first of which I go to now, while you two….” He turned to me and Lhan as he grabbed a robe and started pulling it on. “…will go and speak to some others.”
Lhan and I looked at each other.
“Uh, us? But aren’t we supposed to be dead?”
The Aldhanan grinned. “That will only add to your glamour.”
Lhan coughed. “My Aldhanan, we will of course do anything you require, but I know not who we could talk to who would help—”
“You are a heretic, are you not, Lhan-Lar? An unbeliever? You believe the Seven are less than gods?” The Aldhanan’s eyes were blazing like blow torches.
Lhan swallowed and stepped back. “My Aldhanan, I…”
“Do not bother to deny it. Do you think I did not look deeply into the past of my daughter’s future husband—and that of his greatest friends—before I allowed her to marry him? I know all.”
Lhan opened and closed his mouth like a muppet, but nothing came out. I was afraid I was gonna have to give him the Heimlich Manuever.
The Aldhanan laughed. “Fear not, Dhan. Had I believed you a threat, you would have been dead long ago. Put it aside and listen. You were once a member of a group known as the Flames of Truth, or some such. Dedicated to the overthrow of the church and all its works, yes?”
“O-only for a short while. A passing phase while I was at university. I—”
“And I know from recent reports that they still exist—still meet and plot in secret, and are still highly regarded among the underground of malcontents.”
“I really could not say. I have not spoken with them in—”
“Well, you will speak to them again now. This very night! And you will tell them that the time of reckoning they have worked so long to bring about is finally at hand! The firebrands must be lit. The word must be spread. It is time for them to rise and the church to fall!”
Lhan looked like he’d rather go skinny-dipping in a swimming pool full of piranhas, but he only bowed and crossed his wrists.
“At your command, my Aldhanan.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
ORMOLU!
And that’s the problem with being friends with someone like the Aldhanan. Nice as he is, personal friend and all that, he’s still the fucking Aldhanan, and he still woulda thrown us in jail if we’d told him to go take a hike. So about half an hour later we were back in our surgeon’s duds, masks and all, sneaking out a back door of the palace and heading down into the city to go see about recruiting Lhan’s old college buddies to the Aldhanan’s crazy fucking plan—which he’d given us the lowdown on before he sent us on our way.
Lhan was hating it. I couldn’t see his face behind his pointy mask, but I didn’t have to. Everything about him, the way he walked, the set of his shoulders, the never-ending string of Waarian swears, all told me he was less than happy.
I cleared my throat. “So, who are these guys?”
Lhan didn’t look around.
“Lhan?”
“What is it?”
Jeez. Snap much? “Uh, I just wanted to know who these Flame guys were.”
Lhan sighed. “You recall after our rescue of Wen-Jhai from Kedac-Zir? Our picnic on the hillside above the palace? Sai and I spoke of our old tutor.”
I frowned, remembering. That had been right before we’d gone to hide at Rian-Gi’s place. Sai and Lhan had told me about some guy who’d been a “collector of forbidden knowledge.” Rian-Gi had mentioned him too. “Oh right. He was supposed to bring us a map to a living stone so I could go home, but I got grabbed by the priests before he had a chance.”
“Yes. Preceptor Shal-Hau, a teacher of the classics at the Aldhanan’s College—and the secret l
eader of the Flame of Truth. In my idealistic youth, I was one of them, until… until….”
I waited for him to finish the sentence, but he’d disappeared back inside of himself, and was walking along more clenched up than ever.
“So, uh, y’all had a falling out or something?”
“That would be an understatement.”
“What happened?”
“Nothing that need concern you.”
And that was about all I got out of him for about a half hour. At least I got to see more of Ormolu.
***
The last time I’d been here, all I’d really seen was the inside of a navy base and a coupla temples and palaces. I hadn’t really been to any of the places where people actually lived. Now we were walking through the heart of it, and there was a lot to look at. It wasn’t my first taste of Oran city life. I’d been to a place called Kalnah before, which was where most of Ora’s flying ships were built, but Kalnah was to Ormolu like Gary, Indiana was to New York City—two completely different animals.
We started in the government district, which was all ministries and temples and colleges, which Lhan said were for teaching bureaucrats how to be bureaucrats and priests how to be priests, and with the sun down it was as deserted as the City of Black Glass—a bunch of huge dark buildings with our wanted posters all over the walls. Kinda creepy.
After that was a ritzy area filled with the offices of trading companies, wholesalers and slave dealers, every one of ’em trying to outdo each other with the biggest tower, the fanciest entrance, the flashiest statues and curlicues. Next came an industrial district, with streets full of workshops and warehouses. This was deserted too, mostly, but a little bit further west and we were in a much livelier neighborhood—all tight streets with colorful three-story tenements squeezed together on either side, lots of people walking around, lots of open shops, and lots of folks with carts selling street food—and singing about it. This was where Lhan had been leading us. He called it the Academy District, ’cause the real colleges—the ones that didn’t get you into government or temple service—were there. He listed off colleges of philosophy, history, science, math, music, art, even a cooking school if you can believe it—and just like every college town I’d ever been in, there were bars and coffee houses—well, it wasn’t coffee, but you know what I mean—on every corner, and crowds of young guys in stupid clothes and funny hats hanging out and arguing about everything under the sun, and fighting about everything else. What was different from back home was that it was only guys. I mean, there were gals around, but only as waitresses, singers, or hookers. There were no female students.