“That would be fine,” agreed the ambassador. “I do not think we will need all of the soldiers at court. I doubt that they’re going to do anything there in front of everyone.”
“OK, then,” said Calvin, “here’s what we’re going to do...”
* * * * *
Chapter Sixteen
In Front of the Purple Treeji, Remurn, Epsilon Eridani ‘a’, May 4, 2019
The Terrans were waiting outside the inn when Blin came to get them in the morning. The planet’s star had just risen, and it was cool out, although the day promised to be much warmer once the star climbed a little higher. Along with Yokaze, Calvin had decided to bring Sergeant Hans Fleischer and the twins along with him as the ambassador’s escort. Top had elected to stay back with Deadeye and Gurp, and had convinced Calvin that Cristobel Contreras was better off remaining at the inn as well. The Chilean’s temper had almost landed them in trouble once; taking him to court would just be asking for trouble.
Blin looked at the group waiting for him and asked, “Where are the other members of your group?”
Calvin shrugged. “They aren’t feeling well this morning,” he explained. “They must have eaten something that didn’t agree with them, and now they’re sick in bed. It will just be the six of us.”
It was Blin’s turn to shrug. “OK, let’s go then,” he said. “We don’t want to be late.”
The local led them into the city. The number of people in the streets was already considerable, and the soldiers had to stay close to each other to keep from getting separated. It didn’t help that all of the locals seemed to sense Blin’s presence and made way for him, only to close back up after his passage, sometimes shouldering the Terrans in their haste to get wherever they were going.
Although not as stocky as the locals, the Terrans were generally taller and kept sight of one another long enough to make it to the palace, which Calvin guessed was located in about the center of the plateau. It overshadowed the buildings in its vicinity, with soaring towers and minarets. The castle sat atop a raised earthwork, with a large stone tower dominating the center of an open courtyard surrounded by 30 feet high walls. None of the city’s buildings were within 50 feet of the walls, nor were any of the nearby buildings taller than the castle’s walls.
Soldiers were present in great numbers, both on the walls and manning the gatehouse. Unlike the other soldiers that the Terrans had seen, Calvin noticed that all the soldiers in the palace area were dressed in red uniforms. It must be a special unit or an elite ‘guards’ unit, Calvin decided, as the soldiers guarding the gatehouse snapped to attention as Blin approached and opened the gates. Blin appeared to have done this many times; he neither said anything to the troops, nor did his pace slow. He just expected the gates to be open for him upon arrival.
The ambassador noticed, as well, and looked at Calvin with a raised eyebrow. Obviously, Blin was a man of some power within the society, despite the manner of his introduction.
As the group walked through the gatehouse, they got a better look at the central tower, or keep. The palace was generally rectangular in design with corner towers that extended above the rest of the keep. A large tower soared over the center of it, with a flag flying from a pole at its peak. There were two large doors at ground level that faced the direction of the gatehouse, which soldiers were already opening for them. A group of about 20 soldiers was practicing hand-to-hand combat in the back of the courtyard.
“SIR!” commed Bad Twin, “The soldiers on the wall have guns!”
Calvin looked back in time to see that all of the soldiers on the wall had guns resting on the wall alongside them. They were the first guns that the Terrans had seen. It was difficult to make out all of details, but it appeared that the Eridanian guns were some sort of early flintlock with muzzles that flared outward at the end. They wouldn’t be very accurate at long range, Calvin knew, but if all of the soldiers inside the castle had guns...the Terrans were quite literally outgunned. The thought made him very uncomfortable.
“I see them,” he replied. “Everyone just stay cool. We have technology they don’t know about, too.”
Blin crossed the courtyard quickly and entered the palace with the Terrans close behind him. As he walked through the doors, his pace slowed noticeably, assuming one a bit more ‘stately.’ He looked at the doorman, who was dressed in elegant robes and holding a large metal-shod staff and said, “Lord Flowers, Ambassador of Terra, to see King Bling Pirle II.”
The doorman announced them, and the Terrans entered the castle. The large chamber that spread out before them was over 100 feet long and at least 35 feet wide. The ceiling arched above them, 20 feet high at its central peak. Two rows of columns lined the sides of the central pathway to where the king waited for them on a raised platform; each of the columns was almost five feet in diameter.
As they marched toward the king, Calvin saw that there was a large crowd of people waiting for them. Nearly 100 people were in the audience chamber. They split in half when the doorman announced Calvin’s group, making a path to the front of the hall. Before Calvin reached the group and couldn’t see the walls any more, he noticed that there were soldiers about every five feet stationed along both of the sides. All were armed with guns. Now that he was a little closer, he thought they looked like an early version of a blunderbuss from Earth. All of the guards also had a smaller, pistol-sized version of the blunderbuss pushed through their belts.
As they neared the throne, Calvin saw that it sat upon a platform that was nearly four feet high, with steps leading up to it. The king sat on the throne with an advisor standing on either side dressed in fine robes. Looking at the king, Calvin realized with a start that the royal couldn’t have been more than about eight years old. Although dressed in large robes and bedecked in golden jewelry that made him look older, the boy was fidgeting on the throne and seemed bored. He stilled somewhat as the advisor on his right leaned over and said something to him.
Calvin got his second surprise as the man straightened. It was the same person that had met them at the city gates the day before. He would recognize the thin greasy mustache anywhere. Calvin hadn’t been impressed with his manners or grace yesterday in the center of the city; he doubted that the man would be any more civil in his own element.
A third surprise followed shortly after, as Yokaze commed, “Sir! The man on the left of the king is the man from the stables!” The gang’s all here, thought Calvin, a bad feeling coming over him.
Stopping five feet from the steps that led up to the throne, Blin turned and commanded, “Kneel!”
“I’m sorry,” began the ambassador, “but as the senior civilization, protocol demands a full bow. We do not kneel to anyone.” He bowed long and full. The ambassador looked up to see the king staring at him.
The man to the king’s right said, “See, Your Highness? They have no courtesy. I told you they would not kneel to you.”
The king stood. “If they cannot do as they should, then I will have no more to do with them.” He turned his back on the Terrans. “Take them away!” He began walking away, and the advisor went to walk alongside him. Calvin’s augmented hearing just barely caught the king ask his advisor, “Was that good?” and the advisor’s reply of “Yes Your Highness.”
Listening to anything else became more difficult as armed soldiers surrounded the group. The civilians ran to get out of the way, leaving the six Terrans surrounded by almost 50 men, who pointed their blunderbusses at the group. Although inaccurate from long range, from 10 feet, it would be a slaughter. The locals might shoot some of their own men on the other side of the ring, but the Terrans were sure to be hit in the initial volley as well.
The leader of the troops stepped forward and commanded, “Get down on your stomachs!”
“Shall we fight them?” asked Yokaze via his implant.
“While military matters are up to you,” commed the ambassador, “I would rather see how this plays out.”
“I agree,”
answered Calvin. “Do as he says,” he added out loud as he got down onto the floor. “We can always call for extraction or more support if needed.” The soldiers quickly tied them up and led them off.
The Purple Treeji, Remurn, Epsilon Eridani ‘a’, May 4, 2019
“Top, watch out,” Calvin commed. “We’ve just been apprehended by soldiers. They’ll probably come for you next.”
“Too late,” Top answered, looking at the 15 men that had just stormed into the room. “They’re already here. By the way, they’re armed with blunderbusses and dragons. Ain’t that some shit? Where did they get those?”
“No idea,” replied Calvin, “but ours were armed, too. What’s a dragon?”
“It’s the pistol version of a blunderbuss,” Top answered. “What do you want us to do?”
“Go along with them for now,” Calvin told him. “If they don’t bring you here, we’ll work out an alternate way of getting back together.”
“Roger that sir,” commed Top. “We’ll come along quietly,” he said out loud, “as long as you have some way of transporting my wounded soldier.”
The Tall Tower, Remurn Castle, Remurn, Epsilon Eridani ‘a’, May 4, 2019
“So they’re not gods?” asked Plung, the Second Advisor to the King.
“Of course not, you idiot!” replied his cousin Stref Pirle, who was also the uncle and First Advisor to the King. “The only thing you did right in the whole sorry mess yesterday was to confirm that!”
Plung looked confused. “What do you mean?” he asked.
“Let me spell it out for you,” replied Stref. “I’ll even use little words.”
“Thank you!” interrupted Plung.
“That wasn’t a compliment,” Stref said with a sigh. He continued, “I asked you to bring me a poor, idiot farmer so that we could question him on what he knew about the foreigners. If they acted like gods. If so, what were their powers? Not only did you not bring me the farmer, you got six of our best men killed in the process.”
“The foreigners were good fighters!” his cousin interjected.
“One of them was,” said Stref with a small smile. “The other was definitely not, and she also got wounded in the process and had to be assisted back to their inn.”
“Yes?” asked Plung, not seeing where the conversation was going.
Stref sighed again. He probably should end his cousin’s family line. It was obviously too hopelessly inbred to be of any value. “Have you ever heard of a mortal hurting a god?” he asked.
“No,” said Plung. “Gods don’t get hurt by...oh, I see!” he nearly shouted. “The girl got hurt, so she wasn’t a god. And if she wasn’t a god, the others probably weren’t either. That’s why you had them thrown in the dungeon!”
“Exactly,” said Stref. “Now that we have the lizards taken care of, we need something for our troops to do. We can interrogate these foreigners and find out where they came from and what kind of weapons they have. If their weapons are better than ours, we will torture the secrets of how they work out of them. If their weapons are not more powerful than ours, we will crush them with our new guns, just like we did the lizards.”
“Do you think the king will go along with that plan?” asked Plung.
“I’m sure he will,” said Stref, the smile back on his face. “His mother will suffer greatly if he does not.”
* * * * *
Chapter Seventeen
The Dungeons, Remurn Castle, Remurn, Epsilon Eridani ‘a’, May 4, 2019
Calvin’s group was led into the dungeon and chained to the walls. While the soldiers did not go out of their way to mishandle the Terrans, they also did nothing to try to alleviate the misery of being tied up or chained. The Terrans found that, no matter how gently it was accomplished, being chained to a wall was not fun.
Calvin looked around the room as the soldiers left. When he was in school, he had idly wondered during history classes if dungeons were really as bad as they were described. Surveying his surroundings, the answer was a definite, ‘yes.’ His chains were just long enough for him to be able to sit, but he had to keep his hands up. His arms were already getting sore and starting to knot up, and he’d only been there a couple of minutes. Within 15 minutes, he wasn’t sure he’d still be able to grip a weapon.
The dungeon was a long way below the castle, and everything was damp. Not only did the humidity make the dungeon nasty and smelly, it also made the metal rusty. The chains were already cutting into his skin, and he saw as a line of blood trickling down his right arm.
There were a few of the standard torture devices from Earth’s past in the room, he saw, including a rack that was exhibited prominently in the center of the room. A bed of nails along one of the walls was sufficiently blood-stained to let him know that it had been well-used during its time in the dungeon. The torture table by the wall was also bloodstained from use, and it had an impressive array of tools for cutting and doing other nasty things to a body. Some of the tools must have been designed with the lizard race in mind, because he wasn’t sure what purpose they would have served on a humanoid. There was even a fire going in the room’s fireplace, with a large basket of things that were obviously meant to be heated sitting next to it. On closer inspection, there were already three pokers glowing red hot inside the blaze.
As he thought about the lizards, he noticed that there were two chained to the opposite wall. Both looked like they had been well acquainted with the torture devices, as they had a variety of burns, cuts and missing scales. He didn’t know much about the lizards, but from the little he had seen, one of them was a female. He’d had about enough of this.
“Anyone else ready to end this charade?” Calvin commed.
“I have had quite enough,” replied the ambassador, “if I do say so, myself.”
A chorus of “Yes sir” and “Damn right” was also heard throughout the room.
“Top, where are you now?” Calvin inquired.
“It looks like we’re being led into a dungeon,” he replied. “It’s taking longer because of Deadeye’s knee.”
As he said that, the door opened, and a group of soldiers with guns brought the remaining Terrans into the room, along with Gurp. They were quickly chained to the wall, and the soldiers left, although one of them took the time to kick Deadeye in the knee as he walked by, eliciting a scream.
After they had left, a small voice said, “They’re going to start with her.”
Calvin looked up and realized that it was the female lizard that had spoken. “I’m sorry,” he replied. “What did you say?”
“They always start with the females,” the lizard answered. “It makes the males talk. Of course, they don’t stop once the men start talking; they like the act of torture too much.” She paused. “Pray to whatever gods you believe in that they make a mistake and kill you. It would be for the best.” She appeared to grimace. “It’s not likely, though. They are very good at prolonging the pain.”
She looked at the lizard next to her. “He has been here for ten days. He was to have been my husband. They leave him here so that his pain will torture me more.” A tear ran down her face.
“So you are the princess?” asked the ambassador, making the connection.
“Sadly, yes I was,” she replied. “He tried to rescue me. Now he suffers all day and night for me. If I could, I would kill him myself to end his misery.”
Calvin looked at Top. “Think you could bust one of these chains?”
“I’m ready to try,” Top answered. “Just give me the word.”
“It’s time to get out of here,” Calvin announced. “Anyone that can break their chains, please feel free to do so.”
There were a number of grunts around the room and the sound of metal being stressed. Two ‘pops’ were heard, and Top and Bad Twin stood up. Bad Twin looked at his brother and said, “Dude, you’re such a wuss!”
Seeing that his brother had escaped, Good Twin tried a little harder and ‘pop,’ he was free also. “I was
just waiting to see if you could do it, dude. I didn’t want to make you look bad.”
The princess was amazed. “No one has ever broken out of those chains,” she said as Top and the twins began releasing the rest of the Terrans.
“We’re stronger than we look,” said Calvin with a smile.
“Please sir, if you would kill my betrothed before you leave, I would be forever in your debt,” begged the princess.
“You’re not going to leave her...” commed the ambassador, but he was cut off by Calvin.
“I’m not going to kill him,” said Calvin. “We’re getting both of you out of here. Weddings just aren’t any fun without both a bride and a groom.”
“That would be nice,” the princess replied, “but I am afraid that we are both too greatly hurt to travel. We would only slow you down. Just kill us together, and we will be at peace.”
“Not going to happen, ma’am,” said Top, opening her shackles. Top helped her stand and then went to release her fiance.
“He will not be able to do much,” said the princess. “I’ll need help carrying him.”
Top looked at Calvin. “I think we’re going to need more help sir,” he advised. “Between needing someone to carry him and someone else for Deadeye, we don’t have very many combat effectives. Beside the fact that they have guns and we don’t.” He tried not to look at the ambassador as he said the last part, but couldn’t help it. Top had argued vigorously to bring at least laser pistols, but the ambassador had vetoed the idea.
“I already tried to contact the Gulf,” Calvin said, “but we’re too far underground to get a signal out. We’ll have to get closer to the surface if we’re going to call for help.
“Someone is coming!” said Yokaze from where he was standing near the door. “It sounds like many people.”
Theogony 1: Janissaries Page 22