Guns of the Temple (The Polaris Chronicles Book 1) (13 page)

“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.

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 goodness 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.”

“Maybe our ancestors did go out of control at one point, but it doesn’t mean we’re at fault. That’s why I don’t give to those damned beggars.”

“You don’t?” Taki crossed himself, aghast.

“Of course not!” Draco crossed his arms and laughed. “They’re all fakers, anyway. They spend your 'grad in the cathouses.”

“That’s heresy.”

“No, that’s just Emmy being jealous,” Hadassah said. “The real problem is that the priests all claim they’re praying for the restoration of the old world, but look around you. All that’s survived is rubbish, plastic, and crumbly ruins that smell like rotten eggs. For every good relic there’s a whole mountain of shit. Was that really all the golden age was? If that’s the case, I don’t want it back. I’d rather live my life in the now.”

“As long as you only fight easy enemies and have unlimited time to loot the dead,” Draco said.

Hadassah flared her nostrils. “You think this is a game?”

“Alright, enough bitching! You three, fall in!” Lotte ordered.

“Captain, how’re your wounds in this rain?” Draco asked.

“A bit sore, but I’ve had worse. I’m angrier about what the blue-eyed girl did to my shield and armor.”

“The look on her face was priceless when we stormed the place. I’ve never had a woman look at me with such malice. She was poetry come to life! ‘All that’s best of dark and bright met in her aspect and her eyes,’” he sighed, wistfully.

Lotte shook her head. “No, the bitch was just crazy. I hope we won’t be encountering her again.”

“Captain,” Taki began. He almost raised his hand but remembered not to. “Speaking of those Imperials, who was that old, asiatic man? He didn’t seem like the rest of them.”

“Oh yeah, that guy! The way he and the major talked to each other, you’d think they were a married couple,” Hadassah said with a snide chuckle.

“I can’t say, Natalis. I’ve never seen him before,” Lotte said.

“Mikkelsen, did you understand what they were saying?” Taki asked.

“Of course not,” Hadassah said. “But a lover’s spat sounds the same no matter the tongue.”

“You’ve never had a lover,” Draco said.

“I’ve also never gotten the pox, unlike a certain someone,” Hadassah sneered.

Syphilis?
Taki grimaced. Draco didn’t seem quite so pretty anymore.

“That’s a…a nasty rumor,” Draco huffed. “I’ve never had the sores.”

Hadassah snickered. “They say it settles in your brain and drives you mad!”

“Enough!”

“Venereal disease aside, she has a point,” Taki said. “The old man and the major definitely know each other from before. They also had similar facial features, and spoke the same language.” He frowned, scratching his chin in thought. “Captain, you have the major’s ear. Have you asked her about what happened back there?”

Lotte shook her head.

“After we got back home, she went off to the capital with the exarch. I know nothing that the rest of you don’t. The best we can do right now is to concentrate on our mission.”

Taki nodded. Lotte had to know more than she was letting on, but he decided to drop that line of inquiry for now. Appearing too persistent would make him lose esteem. “We’re to meet up with this Duke Gul and help him quash rebellion, right?”

“Yes. We’re to aid him in driving out insurgents. Mainly Imperialists, I’m told.”

“Captain,” Draco began. “You have to wonder. Why are all the rebels trying to go over to the Osterbrands, anyway? The Ursalans also love to incite the rabble, and their lands are practically next door. So what are the Imperials offering that’s so enticing to your average peasant?”

“I know not, Emreis,” Lotte said. “But it’s better for you not to persist with that line of thought. Trying to understand the enemy is an easy trap to fall prey to. They’ll entice you with sweet lies and then slaughter you when you’re drunk on their poppycock. But you will always find the truth in war and blood. Split someone open and you will see her true character: the shit in her guts and the pus in her womb.”

“Aye, Captain,” Draco said.

Taki swallowed in awe. Lotte hadn’t simply been performing for Hecaton, earlier. His captain was an unyielding warrior and a born killer, and he very much wanted to be like her in that moment.

Lotte continued. “Also, we’re to investigate the fate of one of our own. One of the Archangel Jibriil’s men, a certain lance corporal Gillette who disappeared recently. If he’s dead, we’re to recover his remains. If he’s alive, he’s going to have to explain why he hasn’t sent a single report to the Temple for months.”

“You don’t suppose he’s turned traitor?”

“It’s always a possibility. If that really is the case, we’re to execute him and await further instructions.”

“Ugh, if he’s dead, why can’t we just leave him for the crows?” Hadassah asked. “I don’t want to lug a body around. They always smell like poo and ooze juices on you.”

Taki wanted to ask her how she knew that, but decided against it. He had seen dead bodies being readied for final rites at the Temple, but had never touched one himself. There had been little time to remember the recent battle, and the three he had killed. When the enemy attacked, he had countered without needing to think, and this pleased him. The academy instructors always told scornful tales of new graduates who upon seeing an enemy for the first time froze with indecision and were struck down. He had avoided that disgrace, but now had blood on his hands. It was important to not feel guilty, though. If he started to imagine the men’s faces in an idle moment, he simply repeated to himself what the instructors had taught him:
They died gladly for their masters. You will one day do the same.
For now, it worked. Still, the thought of hauling a corpse across hundreds of kilometers…

“Even in death, we’re still the exarch’s property,” Lotte replied. “You wouldn’t just leave a brass casing out on the field after battle, right? That’s valuable stuff—it can be melted down or reloaded.”

“But we all just get cremated anyway,” Hadassah said.

“That’s just because there’s no space for a graveyard. But more importantly, it’s so that the impurities in our flesh aren’t used for evil purposes. There are creatures out there that’ll mutate into even more dangerous forms if they consume one of us. Plus, well, the Ursalans.”