Guns of the Temple (The Polaris Chronicles Book 1)

by Choi, Bryan

  Taki patted his cheeks and rose to his feet. It was time to play to his strengths. As usual, Draco and Hadassah were bickering again. When an opportunity came, he snatched the book from Draco’s hand.

  “Oy, what’re you doing?” Draco asked.

  “Remember that I said I’d teach you how to write, and Mikkelsen how to read? I intend to keep my word. So, no more leisure until you’ve learned your letters.”

  Hadassah twirled a lock of hair around a finger. “I said I didn’t wanna learn.”

  “So you like it when the major insults you?” Taki scoffed.

  “No, but…”

  “How sweet are Thy words unto my palate! Yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth,” Taki intoned. “A psalm of the most renowned king of the Israelites. A command to his people to be literate so they could know the word of the Lord for themselves. If you won’t do that then you’re not one of them.”

  “T-that’s really underhanded, Newboy.”

  “Dassa, you should let him teach you,” Draco said. “It’s your only chance to learn. Else, you’ll spend your old age scrubbing floors and whelping kids for the only nice Jewish boy in the Temple. And he lies to his own mother.”

  Hadassah crossed her arms, rolled her eyes, and let out a fitful sigh. “Oh, fine!”

  “Oh, hush. I can tell you’re actually excited about it.”

  “Shut your gob, schoolboy.”

  Draco clapped his hands. “Then it’s decided! Natalis, you’ll teach Dassa to read and me to write.”

  Taki nodded. “I’ll teach both to each of you. We’ll start now by scratching in the dirt, but ideally you should have a quill, ink, and parchment.”

  “Oh, I can get those now,” Hadassah said.

  “In here?” Taki scrunched his brow. “In the brig?”

  “Yeah. Our pudgy little gaoler needs ‘em to fool his mother into thinking he’s a respectable academic.” She slunk up to the cell door, grasped two of the rusty iron bars, and started to shake them with her prana gates fully opened. A deeply unsettling rattle echoed off dripping stones and forced Taki to clap his hands over his ears. Before long, the masked executioner stomped up to where Hadassah was and slammed his cudgel against the bars.

  “Enough! You’ve giving me indigestion,” Herschel whined. “Why can’t you just be good?”

  Hadassah stuck her hand out and poked him in the belly. “I want to use your scribe set. Give it up, fatty.”

  “No.”

  “I promise to return it, and return it looking used. You know how valuable that is for you, right?”

  Herschel crossed his arms. “But you can’t write. How do I know you won’t just draw cocks all over the parchment?”

  “You don’t. But there’s also a kid in here who wants to teach letters, so maybe I’ll just draw a few and make you look like you actually scribble for a living.”

  Herschel pouted, but then shrugged in defeat. “If that’s the case, I suppose I can lend you the set. If I see more than one dong on it, though…”

  “Yeah, yeah. You’ll shove the pear of anguish up my hoo-hah and turn the needle to eleven.”

  Herschel seemed taken aback, even through his mask. “What? No, that’s horrible! I really wouldn’t do that to you! Not even if the Archangels ordered it.”

  “Aw, you’re a sweet boy,” Hadassah said with a smile, and patted Herschel’s cheek. “That is, when you’re not being a leather fetishist.”

  “Oh, just shut up and take the set,” Herschel said, and grumpily tromped away. A few beats later, he returned and shoved a goatskin roll through the bars. Hadassah let out a melodic giggle and flitted back to Taki.

  “Here, all the stuff we need,” she said.

  Taki accepted the roll and opened it on the floor. Within were pristine wooden quills with sharpened metal nibs, fresh bottles of inks in black and blue, a flat-bladed ruler that doubled as a scraper, sealing wax, and several sheets of unmarred vellum. A far finer array of tools than any he had used back at the academy. He pressed one of the velvety sheets to his nose and inhaled its musky fragrance.

  “This is great, Mikkelsen!” Taki gushed.

  “It’s really nothing,” Hadassah said, suddenly looking embarrassed. “I just know a guy, that’s all.”

  “She knows everyone in the Temple, practically,” Draco said, patting her on the back. “Despite her disagreeable personality.”

  “I’ll show you disagreeable, goatfucker.”

  “Now that’s just rude.”

  Taki cleared his throat. “If you don’t mind using the floor as a desk, we can start now.” He took the largest of the precious leaves of calfskin and a quill, uncorked a bottle, and inked the nib before starting to scrawl away. Before long, he finished and laid out the sheet before his would-be students.

  “This will be your master reference. I’ll write numbers in later, since they’re another subject entirely and I don’t want to confuse things. Here,” he said, pointing to the top-left of the page. “This is Aelph, also called Alpha. Next is Ve, once known as Bet: Hence, ‘AlphaBet’ as the name for this chart. Combine the letters of the alphabet and you form words. Combine words and you can make sentences. Combine sentences and you have stories and books.”

  “So I could be an author one day?” Hadassah asked, her eyes widening.

  “Yes,” Taki said. “Anyone who can write can make books to be read later. You can tell truths, you can lie, you can go in between. It doesn’t matter what your sex is or if you’re a demonspawn or a human. As long as words are written, most readers will assume them true. But before you compose histories, let’s have you both start simple and write your given names. That way, you’ll have a signature that no one can duplicate. Prepare your quills and get a sheet of vellum each. Don’t worry about writing small or in straight lines for now, because we’ll just scrape the ink away later. Use the alphabet in front of you as a guide to how to form your letters.”

  “Let’s see,” Draco said, and dipped his nib in ink. “Probably for me it’s a Delta, then Rho, then Aelph, and then Gammad?”

  “I’d use Chi, with or without an Omicron. Otherwise, you made good choices,” Taki said. He turned to Hadassah. “Your name is longer, but still doable. What do you think you’d use as the first character?”

  “That thing that looks like crosshairs, except with an ‘X’ through it,” Hadassah said, triumphantly.

  “That’s Zhe, so it won’t work. But you have some options, even though our Alphabet doesn’t have the same ‘chha’ sound as the original Hebrew. You can use Ghe or Khe. Notice how the overall pronunciation ends up the same.”

  “But it doesn’t look as cool,” she pouted.

  “Not spelling like a bumpkin is much cooler,” Taki said.

  “Oh, fine. Is there a character for ‘ahh?’”

  “Use Aelph. Then Delta, Aelph, Sigma once or twice, then another Aelph.”

  “Wait, which one is Sigma?”

  “This,” Taki said, and pointed to a spot on the chart. “It looks like a snake, doesn’t it? Think ‘sss’ like a hissing serpent.”

  “I guess that makes up for the lameness of the first character. I can have double snakes.”

  “Yes, you can. So, write it down.”

  After a few minutes of tense concentration and a chorus of scratching, Draco proudly presented his efforts.

  “What’s this?” Taki asked with a frown.

  “My name. Right?”

  “No, this is gibberish. It’s full of hesitation marks and stray ink, and I can tell your hand trembled like a leaf. Also, you used Omega instead of Omicron. Failure.” With that, Taki whipped his hand out and rapped Draco atop his head with the flat of the ruler.

  “Ow! Damn you, Natalis, I thought you said you wouldn’t go at this like they did at the Academy,” Draco said while rubbing at his aggrieved scalp.

  “It’s the only way you’ll learn as an adult,” Taki said with a shrug. “Children get sweets and coddling. Men get whacked.”


  “In that case, I quit.”

  “You should quit being a pansy,” Hadassah said to Draco, and swatted at his rump. “Didn’t you tell me you wanted to be a historian, and write lies and blasphemy for saps like you to read thousands of years later?”

  “I did, but—”

  “This is the only way you’ll ever get to do that. So harden the hell up and write gooder!”

  “Godrotting heretic,” Draco whined and writhed. “Okay, fine! I won’t quit. Do your worst, Natalis. I’m a man. I can take it.”

  “Thank you, Mikkelsen,” Taki said. “Now, show me yours.”

  “Ta-da!” Hadassah shoved her vellum forward. Taki looked at it and then looked blankly at her.

  “This is a picture of a cock. Failure!” Before she could hop away he swatted her shoulders with the ruler.

  “But I’m a woman! I thought you said only men get whacked!”

  “No man desires a woman who doesn’t take her education seriously. Do this right or don’t do this at all.”

  “How’d you suddenly turn into such a hardass, anyway?” she complained. “Weren’t you just bawling your damn eyes out at a little paddling?”

  Taki glowered. “My letters are my strength, and without them I’m a worthless virgin. I can at least do something right with my life. Now, write your names again. We won’t stop until you’ve got it correct. Then, we’ll start making basic words.”

  “How do we write ‘virgin,’ anyway?” Draco chortled. “Ve then Upsilon?”

  Taki swung his ruler and whacked Draco again.

  An hour later, Draco’s scalp was red with welts and Hadassah’s shoulders looked as if she had spent days harvesting deuterium salt on the beach. However, their hands were steadier and their letters more legible, and now, each could write his or her name without looking at the Alphabet as a guide. So engrossed were the trio in their studies that when the door to their cell bloc finally opened from afar, they almost didn’t notice it.

  “I hear the Captain talking!” Hadassah whispered and bounded excitedly to the door. Unbidden, Draco also sidled up next to her and strained to peer out between the bars. Taki set his vellum down and carefully cleaned the nib of his quill before joining them.

  “You have my answer, milord,” Lotte said to someone they couldn’t see.

  “No. You can’t continue like this. Mezeta will only lead you to ruin.” Taki’s eyes widened with recognition. The voice belonged to the archangel Jibriil.

  “The major owns me. I owe her a debt, and am bound to pay it.”

  “She forces you to accept humiliation, and me to punish you and your men. Be my wife, instead. I’ll treat you well. I’ll protect you from Yuriel and Michail.”

  “I can watch out for myself.”

  “Damn you, Lieselotte! I grant you salvation and you repay me with indifference. What must I do to gain your affection?”

  “Nothing. I have none to give you.”

  “But I love you!”

  “And I lie back, open my legs, and think of the Dominion.”

  The unmistakable sound of a slap rang out through the cell bloc and Taki flinched to hear it.

  “One day,” Jibriil growled. “One day, you’ll learn to be grateful. I’m giving you a chance to restore your honor in Kosovo, and I expect you to have a better attitude when you get back.”

  “I will carry out my mission as ordered,” Lotte said. “Jailor, escort me to my squad.”

  Hadassah signaled to her compatriots to step back and try not to look as if they had been eavesdropping. A few moments later, the cell door swung open and Herschel gently prodded Lotte to step in. After she did so, he left without locking the door again.

  “Officer present!” Draco bellowed to the others. He straightened his back, clunked his bare heels together, and saluted. Taki and Hadassah did the same. Lotte smiled and returned the salute.

  “At ease.” She looked around the room at the sheets of vellum and bottles of ink, as well as the welts on scalps and shoulders. “I see you’ve been studying while I’ve been gone. Do I have Natalis to thank for this?”

  Taki blushed. “Yes, Captain.”

  “Try not to smack them too hard, ‘Confessor Natalis,’” she said blithely. “I appreciate your efforts, though.”

  Taki swelled with pride and relief to hear this. Good, she’s noticing me. “Just doing my duty, Captain.”

  “Now hear this, Tirefire the Lesser,” she continued. “The Agia Triada has deigned to release us from bondage, that we may go fight again for the glory of His Grace the basileus.”

  “To the Duchy of Kosovo?” Almost immediately, Taki knew he had made a mistake. Hadassah shot him a toxic glare. Shit.

  Lotte chuckled. “I see you’re an eavesdropper, too. You’re fitting in quickly.”

  “Sorry, Captain. I overstepped my bounds.”

  “No, it’s fine. Our kind must think more independently than other soldiers. As you must have heard, we’re going to the duchy. I’ll fill you all in on the details later, but for now, get your gear and weapons back from impound. We depart immediately.”

  “The triada didn’t give us much time to recover, did they?” Draco frowned.

  Lotte shook her head. “No rest for the condemned, I’m afraid.”

  “I’d rather they’d waited, with all of us injured…”

  “We’ll manage. Don’t misjudge my strength,” Lotte said, patting him gently on the cheek. “Oh, Mikkelsen, shouldn’t you return those supplies to Executioner Cohen?”

  “Hold on, I’ve gotta draw more dicks on it, first,” Hadassah said.

  Taki bowed his head in silence. He was starting to wish he hadn’t heard her earlier words. What had Lotte endured to get them released back into duty instead of spending the next year peeling in the kitchens? Surely an Archangel, a paragon of justice, isn’t… The thought turned his stomach. Remember what they told you at the academy, damn you. He closed his eyes and rocked back and forth in place. See no evil. Hear no evil. Speak no evil. That’s how you survive. That’s how you prosper. That’s how you get out of this pathetic excuse for a unit and get your life back.

  6

  Hadassah grumpily uncrossed her arms and leapt off the back of the wagon. Mud splashed from her landing and spattered on her boots as well as on Taki’s legs. The roads were simply too boggy for their teamster and his oxen to continue, so they would have to make it on foot to the city and the palace.

  “Welcome to the swinging ballsack of the Dominion!” she announced aloud to the grumpy sky. “Woo!”

  “What’s so bad about it?” Taki asked, adjusting the hood of his poncho. Wads of rain spat from the clouds above smacked on his head. Against stiff waxed canvas the drops made popping sounds that reminded him of treats from his childhood. His swollen cheek throbbed angrily, as if he were already an old man with a wound that predicted the weather. The thought crossed his mind that he might bear a hideous scar from Lucatiel’s attack, but he was glad to have simply saved his eye.

  “Yeah, technically, since this is north of Athenaeum, it’s more like the sweaty armpit, not the hairy ballsack,” Draco said.

  “What’s bad about it? Let’s see…everything?” Hadassah said, rolling her eyes. “It’s completely ass-backward, the food sucks, and the people are schmucks. If it were me in charge, I’d pay the Imps to take this place off my hands.”

  “What she wants to say but can’t because of her underdeveloped brain, is that this entire area has been a clusterfuck of hatred and warfare since the beginning of time,” Draco began to lecture before narrowly avoiding a punch between his legs. “And it’s only gotten worse since the Hero took over.”

  “You mean the duke?” Taki said, interested now.

  “Yeah, Gul Hekmatyar, seventh of his line. Or was that sixth? Anyway, you know who I’m talking about.”

  “How are things getting worse? He’s the biggest hero in the land. Didn’t he save us all ten years ago at New Istanbul?”

  “Not out of the goodn
ess of his heart,” Draco sniffed. “Look, the guy was a minor Khazari prince who fled from an Osterbrand Liberation Army with his tail between his legs. Word was that the Imperium really wanted his head on a pike. So he makes an arrangement with the basileus and they stop the Imperial advance. His Grace gets a powerful ally and the duke gets this chunk of land as his personal fiefdom. It was just a business transaction, but they make it out to be this epic tale about the power of friendship and honor and such.”

  “Draco, how do you know about this stuff?” Taki could not help but feel impressed.

  “I liked the history classes at the academy. It’s always good to know who wants to kill who, because then you can make sure it’s not you.”

  “Emmy will believe anything he reads,” Hadassah said. “Like how once we all traveled to the moon and some place called Mars or something, on board ships set on fire. Such bullshit, isn’t it?” She snickered.

  “It’s not bullshit, we did travel to the moon and even beyond Mars!” he insisted.

  “Draco, the friggin’ thing is too far away.” she said, gesturing to the silvery orb cresting the horizon. “You can’t even hit it with bullets!”

  “You tried to shoot the moon?” Taki asked, furrowing his brow.

  “You haven’t?”

  “Look, I’ll show you when we get back,” Draco insisted. “There’s a picture of someone in white armor planting a flag on its surface. ‘Astromen,’ they were called, and they fought against chimerae in the stars.”

  “But even if that was true, our kind brought an end to it all,” Taki said. “That’s why we’re compelled to serve the basileus and donate to the priests.”