The Fireseed Wars

TWENTY-SIX

Verkan followed Kostran into the Chief's Projection Room, just around the corner from his office, where his deputy had set up a three-dimensional view of the Northern Continent, Minor Land Mass. The focus was set just above the big inland seas that Kalvan called the Great Lakes. This view was provided by three camouflaged anti-grav cameras hovering over the Nythros City States. With their Second Level optics, these sky-eyes could count the freckles on a redhead's face.

"Before you tune this viewer, what do you have to report?" Verkan asked. "Last I heard, it was none too healthy in Greffa for ex-employees of the Verkan Fireseed Works."

"You're right, Chief. Things went straight to Regwarn after we blew up the Fireseed Works, but what a fireworks show! They're still talking about it in Greffa. Since we used timers, everyone on the Team had a good alibi. However, Theovacar doesn't trust anything he hasn't seen with his own eyes. He had us all grilled unmercifully."

Verkan's chin was rigid, forcing his pipe to jut out. "Any torture?"

"No, Theovacar wasn't that sure of his suspicions. But things have been getting worse. He nationalized all of your property two ten-days later. Zinna and I got out with the rest of the Study Team in plenty of time. Right now we're supposed to be on a galley on our way to Ragyath, which is the Yaddstrung Equivalent-right above Thagnor and Gytha. It's centered around a town called Algonac on Europo-American. We figure from there we can keep an eye on things and maybe help Kalvan out with the Ragyathi, who are not overly fond of Greffa."

"Good choice, Kostran. The Ragyathi weren't fond of Prince Varrack, either. I'll make sure we get a conveyer-head setup going there within a ten-day."

"Thanks, Chief. Now, let me show you what's going on south of Kalvan's new base."

"Where's Rylla's Army of the Trygath?"

"Only a few days away from Thagnor. They should be together again shortly. The locals are avoiding the Hostigi migration like the plague! Which it is, in a way. Kalvan's innovations will change their lives more than an outbreak of the Great Pox."

"Is Rylla going to run into any problems going through Morthron?"

"No, Prince Eythart knows a Khiftan berserker when he sees one. Queen Rylla sent an advance party to negotiate free transit rights over Morthroni territory. In return, Rylla's envoy's promised the Prince a wagon of Styphon's Best and some older calivers. Eythart's walking a tightrope since he's allied with Grefftscharr; the last thing he wants is for King Theovacar to think Eythart's getting cozy with Nos-Hostigos. On the other hand, Kalvan is his new neighbor and the Morthroni army couldn't hold out against Rylla's gang for half a ten-day!"

Kostran manipulated the image from the Trygath sky-eye with his handheld controller, magnifying the area around Vathardt Equivalent-or Cleveland, Ohio as it was known on the Europo-American Subsector-to where Verkan could see individual soldiers scurrying over a large break in the city walls. It looked as if a whole section of the wall had come tumbling down all at once.

"That's Nythros City, Chief. This is one of six breach points in the city walls that Styphon's Grand Host used to enter the city. It took them about two ten-days of intense bombardment, but they were implacable. The Nythrosi had no choice but to dig in and retreat into their fortifications."

"The Grand Host did all this with just those old iron-hooped cannon of theirs?"

"Not quite, Chief. They brought some thirty-two and sixteen-pound guns with them into Hostigos and they scavenged several more off Ardros Field after the Hostigi were driven away."

"There doesn't appear to be any resistance."

"There's been heavy fighting from both sides for several days, but this was not where the Nythrosi chose to make their big stand."

Kostran punched in a request on his controller and the picture dissolved and was replaced by the main city gates, one of which was down on the ground; the other hanging to the right wall by its iron hinges. He upped the magnification: The area was swarming with soldiers in the blue and orange uniforms of Hos-Ktemnos. The Ktemnoi Sacred Squares were dressed in blue shirts and breeches, with orange sashes and plumes on their high-combed helmets. The musketeers wore brown boiled-leather jacks while the billmen had polished steel breastplates.

Resistance was stiff from the red-coated defenders, but crumbling. It appeared that most of the Nythrosi were using spears, crossbows and winch-drawn arbalests. They might as well been firing rubber bands for all the good their missile weapons were doing against the attacking Sacred Squares.

The view shifted to another sky-camera to show more invaders, some already at the heart of the city in an area dominated by monolithic structures that looked like something plucked out of Fourth Level, Roman Imperial. The wide city streets were vacant except for occasional clots of red defenders and the inexorable flow of Styphoni soldiers. Many of them near the center of town were wearing the black cloaks of the Zarthani Knights.

"There's more news," Kostran said. "I'm not sure whether or not it counts as good news for our friend Kalvan, or bad news."

"Shoot." Verkan said.

"Prince Anaxon was killed in the initial attack. For some reason the idiot wanted to lead his troops, like some Fourth-Level Alexander!"

Verkan frowned. "He did this before at the Battle of Phyrax Field and got a bop on the head as a result. Anaxon's memory was affected and he went missing for a couple of days. You think he might have learned better. Prince Anaphon-not Lysandros' general, but Anaxon's twin brother- accompanied him in his folly. The Prince was hit in the leg by a mace blow that fractured most of his upper thigh, and as a result of his wound the leg was amputated. He died after two ten-days of severe pain, when gangrene set in. At the time, it was hard to tell if his death was a result of Aryan-Transpacific's barbaric medical practices or whether he was a tragic 'casualty' of convenience orchestrated by Styphon's House.

"Now Anaxon is dead, too. Leaving the throne of Hos-Ktemnos open for grabs, which is awfully convenient for Styphon's House. Danthor Dras mentioned that Prince Anaxon was breaking free of Styphon's reins and that Anaxthenes himself had targeted the Prince for discorporation."

"I'll have our agents on the ground look into that, Chief. If we could roundup some evidence that the Inner Circle ordered Anaxon's death, it would go a long way to stirring animosity to Styphon's House in their home base. Maybe even enough trouble they'd have to bring the Royal Ktemnoi Army back home, as well as Styphon's Own Guard to protect the Inner Circle. That would effectively castrate the Grand Host!"

Verkan grinned. "Yes, but what you're suggesting is Paratemporal Contamination. We've got enough problems now with the Paratime Commission and the Executive Council. Besides, it might implicate Archpriest Danthor. Dras is our only window into the Inner Circle. But, getting back to Nythros, aren't they the same people who helped ferry Kalvan into Thagnor? If so, why isn't Kalvan coming to their aid?"

"It was purely a mercantile transaction on both sides," Kostran said. "Kalvan, according to Tortha, was able to pass them some of his Styphon's House bearer bonds in exchange for his passage to Thagnor."

"That's a neat trick."They both laughed. "I wouldn't want to be the city controller who tried to collect on those bonds!"

"Boss, they don't have very good record keeping on Aryan-Transpacific. Those runes are fine for letters, but their numerical system takes up a lot of characters. Kalvan's been trying to introduce the Europo-American numeric system to the Hostigi and they've taken to it pretty well. In another twenty years, even Styphon's House will be using it. But right now the banking houses mostly work on trust. Anyone who's caught committing forgery loses his right hand for the first offense. As a result, they don't get many repeat offenders."

"I should say not. Didn't Danthor tell us now that he was in the business of forging documents?"

"Yes, but that's with official sanction from Styphon's Own Voice. It's only a criminal offense if it's committed by someone who's not among the power elite."

"Moral relativism in its basest form. The Opposition Party could take pointers from this bunch."

Kostran laughed. "It wouldn't surprise me if they made Danthor Dras' Gunpowder Theocracy mandatory reading for new Party members."

"Like they did with that Europo-American text, The Discourses, four to five centuries ago," Verkan said. "I hope not. We might get a better class of opponent. As it is we have our hands full with the dupes we're facing now."

"They're still giving you gas about the Kalvan Study Team?"

"Yes, I've spent more time this year before the Paratime Commission and the Executive Committee than I have in my own office. It doesn't look like I'm going to be able to transpose to Kalvan's Time-Line any time soon."