by Nathan Long
Sei-Sien didn’t look impressed. “There have been so many of those over the years. All failures. What might this one be?”
Lhan smiled. “One of your main complaints against the church is that, though it creates water using the gifts of the Seven, it distributes it only to the rich, leaving the poor to die when the droughts come, correct?”
Sei-Sien and the others said nothing, but Shal-Hau played along.
“Correct, Lhan. It is the greatest of their crimes.”
“Not so. There is one greater, for, despite their claims, they do not in truth create water. They steal it, from us. The Temple of Ormolu and the six others are not temples at all, but immense moisture gatherers. They suck the moisture from the air and store it in great tanks. The only thing the priests of the Seven create is drought.”
Gaer-Zhau’s eyes bulged out of his head. “By the One, is this true? This is what we have waited for since—”
“I do not believe it.” Sei-Sien sat back. “How could anyone know this? One would have to enter a temple to see it, and no one enters the—”
I tapped my chest. “I have. I’ve been in the Temple of Ormolu. I saw the machines.”
Then it wasn’t just Sei-Sien rolling his eyes. It was everybody.
“She is a liar like her friend.”
“None enters the temple!”
“And those that do never come out again!”
“Only the priests can go in and out.”
Shal-Hau held up a hand and everybody shut up. He looked me in the eyes.
“Describe it.”
This again? “Yeah, okay. Fine. Uh, white walls, sliding doors, elevators—ah, I mean rooms that move up and down between floors—a big tank of water in the middle with see-through walls, and, uh, ‘living stones’ that let you pop in and out without going through the walls. There’s also big fans and condenser coils behind the scenes, but…”
I trailed off as Shal-Hau blinked. It was the first time since I’d met him that he looked like anything had surprised him.
“She is correct.”
His posse all started babbling at him at once. He cut ’em off again.
“There is one other man besides a priest who can return from the temple. Once each year the current Aldhanan is brought within to confer with the high priests and receive their blessing. It is said the priests swear the Aldhanans to secrecy with such terrible vows that they fear to speak of what they saw, but there have been one or two who have written of it in private correspondence, and I have been privileged to read two such accounts.” He smiled at me. “Both match Mistress Jae-En’s description in nearly every detail.”
Sei-Sien stared at me. “And you told your tale of moisture gatherers to the Aldhanan?”
Gaer-Zhau did too. “And he believed you?”
I shrugged. “Well, I had to go through the same rigmarole with him, but once he realized I’d been in the temple too, yeah. He believed me. He knows the priests are stealing water and causing drought, and he’s mad as hell about it.”
Lhan nodded and looked around at them all. “You see? For the first time since the reign of his grandfather, Kor-Karan, Ora has an Aldhanan who understands the true nature of the church, and is prepared to fight it with all the resources at his command. But unlike Kor-Karan, he has the ammunition that will bring them down. The secret of the stolen water.” He stabbed the little coffee table in front of him with a finger. “That is why I am here. The Aldhanan will soon go on a covert journey to beg his Dhanans for their support in the coming war, but he knows that even all their money and troops will not be enough. Without the people behind him, he will not win. And to win the hearts of the people, he needs you. As he travels from city to city, visiting the Dhanans in their castles, the Flames of Truth will travel with him, meeting in secret with other far-flung heretic groups and urging them to spread the word in the tap rooms and halga houses of their—”
All of a sudden everybody—well, everybody except Shal-Hau—was on their feet, shouting at once.
“You come from the Aldhanan?”
“You have told him of us?”
“You have led him to us?”
Gaer-Zhau was looking for the exit. “We’ve been trapped!”
Sei-Sien had turned red in the face, which, since he’d started off kinda blueberry yogurt, meant he was now more of a blackberry sorbet. “You have betrayed us! Given our names to our enemies! We are ended. The Flame is extinguished!”
I stood up and punched the ceiling, which shook the room and rained plaster dust down on everybody. It did the trick, they clammed up like I’d fired a gun.
“What the fuck is wrong with you fucks? Lhan told me that all you’ve ever wanted was to bring down the church, and now you’re gonna chicken out when you’ve finally got the chance?”
“There is no chance,” said Sei-Sien. “I see it now. You have come here with a lie—a finely crafted lie, I admit—fed to you by the Aldhanan, and designed to make us walk into his dungeons of our own free will. You will forgive me if I do not take the bait.”
“You are a fool, Sei-Sien.” Lhan stood too. “If the Aldhanan wished to arrest you, he would arrest you. He would need no lie, nor would he send someone you hate and mistrust to try to trick you into some snare.”
Gaer-Zhau curled his lip. “So why would he send someone we hate and mistrust to try to win our support? That makes even less sense.”
“Because I was witness to the ambush that nearly killed him. Because Jae-En knows the truth of the water. Because I know you. Because he has no one else!”
Sei-Sien waved all that away. “More lies, but let us pretend for a moment it is true. Why should we agree to help? Even if the church were somehow defeated, we certainly would not live to see it. We will not even live to see the beginning! You tell us the Aldhanan would woo his Dhanans—his personal friends—in their castles, but we would be seeking out unknown conspirators, never knowing if we spoke instead to a Temple spy, and risking arrest and torture at every turn. Did you truly think we would fall all over ourselves to volunteer for that?”
Lhan snarled. “You see, Mistress Jae-En? This is why the church still stands. Because these dilletante demagogues see the great cause only as a diverting thing to discuss over wine and issae. They may talk blood and fire, but they have always been more interested in saving their own skin than risking it out in the wider world.”
“As were you, if I recall,” sneered Sei-Sien.
Lhan blushed at that, but didn’t look away. “At least I had the decency to leave the society when I realized my cowardice. You aspire to lead it, and yet you will not—”
Old Shal-Hau stood at last. He didn’t look like anybody’s grandfather anymore. “There is none here without fault! We have all let our ease and comfort keep us from taking the steps that might win us what we talk of so fervently.” He turned to Lhan. “Well no more. If the offer you make is real, if the Aldhanan wants our help against the church, if our voices might turn the tide, then I will gladly—”
“If.” Sei-Sien spit it out like it was a cockroach he’d found in his salad. “If! We still have not one shred of proof that any of this is true. You line up for the slaughterhouse, Shal-Hau. I will not follow. Not without proof.”
Lhan threw up his hands. “And what proof would suffice? Had the Aldhanan himself come to you, you would have said it was but another ruse. I—”
I’d had enough. “You know what, Lhan? Fuck these guys.” I kneed past the coffee table, then stomped for the door. “Why would you want ’em anyways? Who would listen to ’em? They’re all just a bunch of whining pussies. Let’s get out of here.”
I looked back and saw Lhan trying to hide a smile behind a snotty look as he started after me. “Yes, Mistress. An excellent idea. The Aldhanan has no need of limp weeds such as these. There are other heretics in Ormolu, younger, more stout-hearted fellows—the Third Moon, the Rain Makers, the Voice of Dead. We will see what they say.”
Well, I hadn’t meant it
as a trick. I’d really wanted to get out of there. Those guys were making me sick. But if Lhan thought it would work, fine.
We went into the entry hall and started pulling on our cloaks and masks, and I thought we weren’t gonna get any takers after all, but then, just as we were reaching for the door, Shal-Hau came in.
“I will go with you, pupil. Perhaps Sei-Sien is correct, and you lie, but the chance to finally see an end to the church—I cannot turn away from it.”
And once the boss said yes, pretty soon the rest of ’em trickled in and said they’d come too, even Gaer-Zhau, until it was just Sei-Sien standing all by himself in the living room, trying to look dignified, but shaking like a dog shitting a peach pit.
Finally he came too. “Very well, I will come. How could I bear to be free knowing all my fellows were in chains?”
I opened the door. “Whatever you gotta tell yourself, dude.”
CHAPTER THIRTY
PREPARATIONS!
We slipped back into the palace the same way we’d slipped out, and one of the Aldhanan’s servants led us up a lot of back stairs and passages until we ended up right where we’d started, in the Aldhanan’s private suite, twiddling our thumbs in some kind of fancy waiting room with chairs all around.
Lhan gave Sei-Sien a smug smile. “Not the dungeons after all, eh, brother?”
Sei-Sien shrugged. “Not yet.”
Finally, after a half-hour or so, the Aldhanan strode in with Sai, Wen-Jhai, Captain Anan, and two guys I didn’t recognize. The first one was a big, beefy bastard with a hard jaw and harder eyes. He was dressed like a civilian, but had ex-military written all over him, mostly in scars. The other guy was the Don Knotts to his Andy Griffith, a goggle-eyed little goop who looked like he’d shit himself if you looked at him hard. I didn’t want to look at him at all. He kept licking his lips. They were red from it. Made me kind of queasy.
The Aldhanan was something to look at too. He’d had an extreme makeover. His beard was gone, his hair was shorter and died black, and he was dressed in a navy uniform. He looked like a completely different person.
“Welcome, friends, I am very pleased to see you. Your help in this endeavor may be the saving of Ora.” He rubbed his hands together like an excited gameshow host. “You have heard what we intend to do from Lhan-Lar and Mistess Jae-En? Good. Good. Now let me tell you how we will accomplish it. As you know, I mean to visit each of my Dhanans personally to enlist their support. This, of course, must be done in secret, or the church will move against us before we are ready. So I have asked the help of my old comrade Aur-Aun.”
He motioned to the military guy, who gave us a tight-lipped nod.
“Aur-Aun was once my standard bearer in battle, as brave and fierce as a ki-ten, but is now a tax collector for my treasury. With the help of his assistant, Yal-Faen—” He indicated the nebbish with the red lips, who twitched at the mention of his name. “He twice yearly visits my Dhanans, and takes from them the tithes they have gathered from their people. Now, to protect his person and the tithes, Aur-Aun is accompanied by an armed retinue. I and my guards will become this retinue and travel with him, allowing us to make a complete tour of Ora without the church any wiser.”
Lhan raised his hand. “Will you not be missed, my Aldhanan? Such a trip will take more than a moon. Surely the church will begin to wonder if you do not appear in public.”
The Aldhanan looked at Sai and Wen-Jhai. “I will put it about that the wounds I took fighting in Durgallah have sickened me and sent me to my bed, and that my daughter and her consort will rule in my stead until I recover.”
I had to bite the inside of my cheek at that. I mean, Sai and Wen-Jhai were good kids at heart, but they were about as qualified to run a country as I was. It was like giving the keys to Fort Knox to a couple of third graders and telling ’em to keep the bad guys out.
I could see that Lhan felt the same, but with Sai and Wen-Jhai standing right there, what could he say. He just bowed. “Very good, my Aldhanan.”
But Shal-Hau had a question too.
“Forgive me, my Aldhanan, but do you think that in a ship full of sailors and marines there will not be one set of lips that will not slip? Your secret will be out in one stop.”
The Aldhanan smiled. “That is why the secret will not leave this room. Even the captain of our ship will not know who I am. To all but you who hear me now, I will be nothing more than the captain of Aur-Aun’s retinue. You will address me as Captain Zhiu, and you will dispense with all the formalities due an Aldhanan.”
“It won’t be enough.”
At first I didn’t know who’d spoken, but the Aldhanan turned to Aur-Aun. “You still fear I will be recognized?”
The tax man shook his head. “I know we spoke of this before, my Aldhanan, and I will of course obey your commands, but I must speak again.”
Holy shit! I suddenly realized why I hadn’t known who was talking. Aur-Aun was like a Schwartzenegger action figure. He could talk without unclenching his jaw or moving his lips.
“The church is too powerful, my Aldhanan, and too rich. Even the most loyal of your subjects might betray you if the church offered them unlimited amounts of water. Every Dhanan you take into your confidence adds to your risk of betrayal. Someone will speak, and ruin will follow. You must abandon this plan now.”
The Aldhanan put a hand on Aur-Aun’s shoulder. “I thank you for your concern, Aun, but it is precisely because the church inspires such fear that I must do this. And also, thanks to Dhan Lhan-Lar and Mistress Jae-En, we can offer water of our own.”
He motioned to Anan, and the Captain lifted a satchel off his shoulder and opened it up. It was the water tokens! I shot a hard look at Lhan. So he’d donated our honeymoon money to the cause after all. Thanks a bunch, pal.
The tax collector’s eyes bugged out when he saw all the orange glass, but then he shook his head. “It is indeed a fortune, my Aldhanan, but not even a sixtieth of what the church can put on the scales.”
“We must still try. We must break their hold on us, or die.”
Aur-Aun looked like a bullfrog who’d swallowed a football. He was fighting so hard to keep his opinions to himself that he was shaking, but at last he lowered his head. “Then I will die at your side, my Aldhanan. And gladly.”
Wen-Jhai choked up a little at that, and looked at him with glistening eyes. Sai wasn’t so impressed. He shot the guy a dirty look, then looked at the floor. Something going on there?
Shal-Hau broke the moment with a cough. “My apologies, Aldhanan. This is, I think, for the most part a wise and well thought-out plan, but might I ask how you expect the heretic leaders you wish us to meet with to believe we are fellow dissidents when we travel as companions of the Imperial tax collector?”
The Aldhanan smiled. “It is simple. You will tell them you travel under false pretenses, that the Imperial tax collector is unwittingly helping you spread the word.”
Sei-Sien scowled. “But who else travels with the tax collector except his retinue? Will you disguise us as sailors? Some of us have not the correct physique.” He looked at me. “Nor gender.”
“Worry not. We have devised the perfect disguise.”
Oh hell. Not again. What the fuck was with Waarians and their fucking disguises. I couldn’t wait to see what they’d cooked up for me this time—robot? Sack of laundry? Dancing bear?
The Aldhanan grinned. “Mistress Jae-En shall be a priestess of Laef, while Lhan-Lar and two others will be her escorts.”
Sei-Sien had a coughing fit at this, and Shal-Hau and Gaer-Zhau burst out laughing. I shot them a hard look and turned to Lhan. He was as pink as a guy with purple skin can get. He couldn’t look me in the eye.
“What? What are y’all laughing about?”
The Aldhanan harrumphed. “If they find humor in it, Mistress, it is entirely their juvenile natures to blame, not your disguise. Laef is one of the Seven—the Goddess of Fertility, prayed to both by farmers hoping for bountiful crops, and couple
s hoping for children. More importantly for our purposes, her priestesses often travel with the Imperial tax collectors so that they might have their protection when they collect their own tithes from her outlying shrines. It will therefore be entirely natural for you to travel with us.”
I didn’t get it. It didn’t sound very funny to me, but when I slid a glance over at Shal-Hau, he was still tittering like a schoolgirl. Sei-Sien looked like he’d been kicked in the stomach. Lhan was still red in the face.
“Yeah, okay. So? Am I gonna have to do some kinda funny dance or pretend to be a wise woman or something? What’s the gag?”
The Aldhanan shrugged. “It is a baseless rumor, but priestesses of Laef, because of their connection with fertility, have a certain reputation among the unsophisticated. They believe them to be, how shall I put this….”
I put up a hand. “Don’t bother. I get it. You’re dressing me up as some kind of super hooker.”
The Aldhanan raised his eyebrow. “A-a what, Mistress?”
“A pro, a whore, a prostitute.”
He grimaced. “As I said, the rumors are baseless. The priestesses are highly respected women.”
Shal-Hau burst out laughing again. “They are also rumored to practice fertility rites with their escorts at every opportunity.”
Sei-Sien pounded his leg and stood up. “I—I refuse this disguise! I will not be thought of as the… plaything of some gargantuan love priestess! It is beneath my dignity!”
The Aldhanan shrugged. “Then you need not go. Besides Mistress Jae-En and Lhan-Lar, there is room on board for only two more. The rest of your society will stay behind and spread the word here in Ormolu. I would hope that you send your best orator, he who can stir hearts and minds to action, but you may decide that among yourselves.”
“I will go, for one,” said Shal-Hau, putting a hand to his chest. “I have done naught but sit and talk for too many years. Before I die, I wish for once to act. As to the other…”
He and the other heretics looked at Sei-Sien, who squirmed under their gaze like a three-year-old in church.
