by Choi, Bryan
“I’ll ask again,” Aslatiel said. “What happened? Why were you all piss-drunk and getting into a barfight?”
Lotte shrugged and downed a glass of wine. “Why’d you think it was a good idea to walk into a tavern full of besotted Polaris who’ve lost friends to your kind?”
Aslatiel shook his head. “I concede that, but I thought Principality Mezeta had warned you of our arrival. I sent a letter by courier weeks ago. When we arrived at the Temple, we nearly had to fight your gate watch. We only ended up in this town by coincidence.”
“That was your first mistake!” Draco said. “Never trust Mezeta. Hide her missives. Leave rooms when she is present. That’s how you survive being us!”
Lotte shushed him with a gesture. “You wouldn’t have known it, Imperial, but the principality is a fickle sort. She takes great pleasure from causing strife and hardship.”
“I believe you,” Aslatiel said, and shook his head. “Now, to the business at hand.”
“Hold a second!” Draco waved frantically and sprayed water around him. “Sorry, Imperial, but this chance doesn’t come every day. Now that you aren’t trying to kill us, I want you to tell me why your armies haven’t advanced past the ruins of Berlin. You know, the big pit of burning rubber. Why have your forces been doing nothing for years? Surely that’s ruinously expensive? Are you saying we should’ve set more stuff ablaze to stop you?”
“You’re the one who said they’ve got this animalistic fear of fire,” Hadassah said.
“All animals fear fire,” Lucatiel said. She rose from a squat in front of the small fireplace warming the suite and withdrew a poker from the embers. She then stood over Draco and fixed a scowl at him. Steam and sizzle erupted from the water when she plunged the red-hot metal in and let it hover right over his manhood. “I bet you do, too.”
Draco paled and shrank away from her. “I said atavistic, not animalistic!”
“That’s the same thing!”
“Dear sister, not now,” Aslatiel said. “And unfortunately, Master Emreis, I cannot answer your question. That’s classified information.”
Lotte cleared her throat. “Now I’ll ask again. Why are you here?”
“We came here to retrieve a member of your squad.”
“Who?”
Aslatiel pointed. “Cornet Taki Natalis.”
Bile rose in Taki’s throat. He blinked, cowlike and stupefied. “Me?”
“Yes, you.”
Lotte stepped closer to Aslatiel and bored her gaze into the top of his head; she was almost a hand’s breadth taller than he. “For what purpose, Imperial?”
Aslatiel cleared his throat. “Come the morrow, Cornet Natalis will no longer be a Polaris of the Temple. He will be Spetsnaz in service of the padishah of the Imperium. I’m also permitted to conscript the rest of you as I see fit—”
“Whoa!” Hadassah said before losing her balance and falling backward off the edge of the tub. Her foot clipped Draco on the chin, and the pumice stone flew in the air to smash into fragments against a wall. She rolled to her feet and pointed accusingly at Aslatiel. “Whoa!”
“Dassa, what the hell?” Draco reeled and rubbed his chin.
“These guys tried to kill us!”
“Did you just realize that right now? And they are not ‘guys.’ There are two women and a man. Be polite.”
“Don’t sass me! This is really suspicious! Why are you Spetsnaz even here? Are you here for revenge? Have you come to do Natalis in the butt? He’s a virgin, you perverts!”
“There will be no further aggression,” Aslatiel said. “We have no scores to settle—”
Hadassah shook her fist. “Don’t tell me we’re supposed to go and follow your orders now. We listen to our captain, not you. I don’t give a damn what colors I’m supposed to wear.”
“Shut up,” Taki said. His earlier shock was now replaced by realization. “He came for me, Dassa. You were there with me when we spoke with the basileus. Now I see what her ‘other option’ was.” He let out a ragged chuckle. “Just never figured she’d go to these lengths.”
“Natalis,” Lotte said, “what the hell are you talking about? What’s this business with Her Grace?”
“Oh, Captain,” Taki said, “I’m being banished. I met with the basileus when you sent me to the capital. She told me I couldn’t stay in the country but promised not to execute me all the same. So I’m being exiled. I’m sorry I kept it from you. I didn’t want you to get involved.”
“Is this because of…”
“Yeah.”
Lotte grimaced and started to pace.
“I can assure you, Captain, that he’ll be well treated,” Aslatiel said. “I came here for a recruit, not a prisoner bound for the gallows.”
“Tell me, Sir Aslatiel,” Taki said, “am I right? Is this what Her Grace desired?”
Aslatiel smiled. “Your new liege wanted you sent to a forgotten outpost on the frontier. But when her request came to my attention, I could not ignore it. Luckily for me, Ba’gshnar listened.”
“But why me?”
“Because although we first met as enemies, I was impressed by you, Taki Natalis. Impressed in a way I haven’t been for a long, long time.”
“So you do want his ass!” Hadassah said.
Taki wheeled on her. “Dammit, Mikkelsen, no one wants my ass!”
“Actually, a few girls I know and at least one of the guys do. You’re just awkward and unlucky. And a kingslay—”
Lotte cleared her throat. “Do I have any say in this, Imperial?”
Aslatiel shook his head. “Even if you did, would you defy us and place Natalis in danger? This s the only way.”
Taki averted his gaze. He did not want to see what was on Lotte’s face. If he did, there was a chance that he would make a stupid decision that would end in his death. But if I let go and start anew, especially under someone like Sir Aslatiel…he balled his hands into fists. He’d miss Lotte, and perhaps even the rest of them, but his life and career were at stake again. He straightened his back. “Then I’m your man, Sir Aslatiel.”
Aslatiel nodded. “I hoped you’d say that, Natalis. In the morning, you’ll be given your severance papers and pension. The arrangements have already been made. And, as I’ve said before, I’ve also been given permission to conscript your squadmates. But only if they agree.”
“Hell, no,” Hadassah grumbled. “I’m definitely not fighting for the celestial glory of the Paddy-shaw or some nonsense.”
“I won’t go if she won’t go,” Karma said.
“The padishah is neither a god nor a megalomaniac, and he should not be regarded as such,” Aslatiel said. “His dream is to enlighten all sentient beings through the Way.”
“Great,” Draco huffed. “Buncha fanatics after all. Count me out as well.”
Lucatiel hit Draco with a gimlet stare, and he sank back down to eye level. “Dassa, help. The Prince of Maladies is looking at me funny.”
“And how about you, Captain?” Aslatiel said. “I would welcome someone of your strength and prowess to our number. The Temple clearly doesn’t respect your skill.”
Lotte shook her head. “I can’t do that, Imperial. I swore to serve the Temple and will do so until I perish. I cannot change my stars. Not now.”
Aslatiel nodded. “So be it.”
The squad sweated out their hangovers trudging up the road to the Temple. The Black Cross’s blockade had been lifted that morning, and a trickle of Polaris wound the ancient path like ants from a tankard of spilled beer.
Draco yawned and stretched his arms. His breath steamed in the mountain air. “The Imperials aren’t coming with us, eh?”
“Well, there’s no reason for it,” Karma said. “After all, we’re just here to see Natalis off. What’re they going to do in the meantime? Go sightseeing? Get a blowie from the archangels?”
“Ew, Karma,” Hadassah said. “I was actually feeling patriotic until you mentioned those creeps. Now I almost want to strip naked
and dance in front of some Imperial altar.”
“If you want to join up, I won’t hold it against you,” Karma said. “The padishah may have pretensions of divinity, but he controls half the known world. Our ‘angelic’ masters are a creep, an obsessive witch, and a thug who runs a prison for cursed children.”
“You know,” Hadassah said, “we could just tell the shrine that we’re switching sides. Then they’d have to give us our discharges and bullets. We’d have our freedom and a sack of grad. We could be sellswords and travel the world!”
“Ye gods, Dassa, you’re right!” Draco said. He smacked a fist into his palm. “Natalis, you won’t rat on us, right? I mean, it makes no difference to you what we do from here on. We’d visit you, I swear!”
Lotte’s boots crunched the gravel with extra emphasis. “It’s far too early for this much treason. You mongrels can run the rest of the way up. On the double!” She swung her hands and smacked Draco and Hadassah on their rumps. They fled in terror, leaving a cloud of dust.
“But I didn’t say anything,” Karma cried. Lotte swung out her foot to kick him, and he bolted forward.
Taki shook his head, grateful that Lotte had spared him from yet another bout of harassment. In truth, he was now glad to be rid of the others. Once, he’d thought them his friends, but after the past few weeks of poverty and the accompanying nastiness, his esteem for them had all but vanished. A part of him had wanted to say “yes” to Hadassah’s plan, but likely such a scheme would have led to everyone’s executions. Melodic cursing echoed from above, courtesy of the rest of the squad. Perhaps I like them a little bit. Just not enough to waste my life for. Lotte, on the other hand, was a different story.
“Captain, I apologize for last night,” he said. “I drank too much and acted rashly.”
“You were stupid as hell,” Lotte said. “I should whip you for that.”
He gave her a cocky grin. “Are you even allowed to do that anymore?”
“Perhaps not. But I’ll warn you that the Imperial Army is a harsh place. Their punishments are brutal, and they demand more discipline than the exarch. If you don’t watch yourself, you could end up on the wrong side of a noose.”
“Aslatiel doesn’t give me that impression.”
“On a first-name basis already?”
“No!”
“Taki. Listen to me,” Lotte said.
He blinked. She’d never called him by his given name before.
She stopped and cupped his face in her hands. “Promise me you’ll be careful. The Imperials are different from us. They’ll want you to conform above all else. And for your sake, you’d better learn to see the padishah as not just your king but something more. Maybe even as your god. Learn from von Halcon, but remember that he’s not your friend. None of them are.”
“Aye, Captain.”
“And, if things should ever turn awry, if the Dominion should ever seek to rebel, if you face me or any of us on the battlefield…” She trembled. “Make sure you kill us first.”
His mouth was dry. “Cap—”
She shook him. “I’m not done yet! Just one last thing from me, and then you’ll need to start your new life. You have great power but also a kind heart. I’m happier having known you. If you’d been older, or we’d been closer in rank, I might’ve…we might’ve…” A tear coursed down her cheek. “But don’t worry about it now. Just promise me you won’t settle for any old wench.”
Taki felt his face tighten and his chest grow heavy. He clasped his hands over hers. “Dammit, Lotte, I’m sorry!”
“Don’t be sorry. You—”
“I’m sorry I ever got dragged into that mess! I didn’t mean to kill him. I just wanted to see things change. I couldn’t get those villagers’ faces out of my mind! I had to do something, and I got used like a tool and thrown away, and now I’ll never see you again. Shit, I’ll never see the others again, even though Dassa’s kind of a bitch and Draco’s a liar and Karma’s a creeper…” He started to sob in earnest. “I’m so sorry!”
Lotte threw her arms around him and held him for a long time. Eventually, they trudged up the mountain in silence.
On the opposite side of the barred window, a craggy-faced neokóros of the Shrine mumbled to himself while he stamped several pieces of vellum with a wax seal.
“Never thought I’d have the pleasure,” the man said, and pushed them forward. “I always thought I’d prepare your warrants for the gallows, but this will do just fine. Here’s for Cornet Natalis.”
Lotte took the precious roll of vellum, unfurled it, and checked the seal. The exarch’s signet ring had made a deep, clear impression in the wax, and only a few of the words were misspelled. The scroll was Taki’s only proof that he was not a deserter and not immediately subject to hanging or worse. “And…you’re free.”
Taki smiled and marveled at his new possession. “Aye, feels good.”
Lotte glanced expectantly through the bars. “Sir, aren’t you forgetting something?”
“I don’t believe so,” the neokóros said.
“Now’s not the time for jests. Where’s this soldier’s pension?”
The man cracked a smile of rotting teeth. “I thought you’d been apprised of that, milady Captain.”
“Apprised of what?”
“Why, just a few bells ago, I was visited by Principality Mezeta herself. What a lovely and fearsome woman she is.”
“Get to the point.”
“Aye, milady. Well, the principality informed me that she’d personally take care of giving Cornet Natalis’s payment to him. I had no right to question her, so I gave her the full sum. She also informed me that as of today, the squad disgracefully known as ‘Tirefire the Lesser’ had also been discharged from all duties as Polaris of the Temple. I was surprised that you only seemed interested in Cornet Natalis’s walking papers, when I’ve prepared them for all of ye. Then, she took all other pension payments as well.”
Lotte grew pale. “And where is the principality now?”
“Oh, milady, she gave me such a shock! After the principality received your funds, she disgracefully tore her chain of office from her neck and tossed it under the window to me. I believe she may have deserted and absconded with your milligrad. Naturally, I wasn’t in a position to stop her.”
“Wait a godrotting second,” Taki said. “You mean that Hecaton Mezeta fired everyone and ran off with our money?”
“You could say that, young master.”
Taki wrenched the bars so hard they shook in their casement. “You let her desert with five hundred rounds and didn’t tell anyone?”
“Remove your hands from the grate lest I call the Cross on you,” the neokóros said with a grin. “Now, I’ll kindly ask you civilians to leave.”
For the third time in his career, Taki found himself held at bayonet point by the authorities. Except this time, they were intent on shooing him out of the Temple as quickly as possible rather than trying to herd him into a cell or onto a scaffold. A hobnailed boot pushed roughly against his rear end, and he stumbled to the dusty ground outside the iron gates. Lotte followed right after, although without a kick to the buttocks. One of the Black Cross dumped a stack of vellum rolls on the ground, spat, and then turned his back. Taki slowly got to his feet and turned just in time to see the gates shut with an ear-splitting clang.
“Captain,” Draco said. He sat on a nearby boulder, nursing a swollen, purple cheek. “What in Christendom just happened?”
“We’ve been let go,” Lotte said. She pointed at the scrolls strewn on the gravel. “Those are our papers.”
“What do you mean ‘let go’?” Hadassah said. She picked up one of the scrolls and opened it. “What the hell is this? I thought they only let Natalis out!” Something frantic crossed her face, and she tromped up to the gates. “Hey! Let me back in! There’s been a mistake!”
A Polaris walking the ramparts overhead spat at her, and she barely dodged the revolting brown glob. She picked up a handful of g
ravel and chucked it back. The stones plinked off the walls. “Bastard, let me the hell in right now! My stuff’s in there! I have a wheel of cheese under my pallet! If it goes bad, I’ll kill you all!”
“Seems legitimate,” Karma said, sniffing at his vellum and pressing a nail into the wax. “Principality’s orders, and sealed by the exarch. We’re…we’re all free men now.”
Draco grinned. “Not the way I thought I’d end things. Thought I’d wind up dead in the mud or starving in an alley.” He started to pace. “Shit! Now what do I do? I should settle down. Buy some land and become a farmer. Maybe I’ll be a burgher somewhere! Captain, where’s the pension? I’ll take my share right now and…” He wrung his hands and skidded to his knees in front of Lotte. “And I might as well ask now! Will ye marry me?”
Lotte fixed a hollow stare at him. “It’s all gone. She walked off with our grad.”
Draco chuckled. “I understand if you want to take time and think about it. But I promise you I’d be a dutiful husband and my whoring days are behind me and…” He blinked. “What? The grad’s gone?”
“Gone.”
“But the Code promised us! I mean, we’ve just got our clothes and that’s it! H-how will I buy my farm? Who the hell took my bullets?”
“Hecaton Mezeta.”
“How?”
Lotte rubbed her temples. “She asked for them. She got them. She walked away. She…betrayed us.”
Something dark crossed Draco’s features. “Where is she?”
“I don’t know. She’s powerful. She could be anywhere. And you’re not strong enough to confront her, even if you somehow found her. None of us are.”
“Not individually,” Aslatiel said. “But together, with Ba’gshnar guiding us, even Hecaton Mezeta will have something to fear.”