Guns of the Temple (The Polaris Chronicles Book 1) (32 page)

“Well, you know, there was this hearth and potholder that we never actually used all this time, so I figured we’d start a fire for warmth,” Draco said as he dusted some salt on his portion. “And since it wasn’t a problem to get some old oil and a pot, I reasoned I’d try to fry up some meat for a snack.”

“Yeah, except the cooks are stingy bastards and wouldn’t even give us bones,” Hadassah said.

“Right, so potatoes,” Draco concluded. “And this actually makes them bearable!”

“Except for the whole one you tried to dunk,” Karma said as he used a wire sieve to fish out a handful of the sticks from the bubbling oil in the pot. He dumped the golden bounty into a metal bowl and passed it to Lotte, who greedily stuffed a pair of fat wedges in her mouth.

“It was still good, but cutting them up makes each bite taste richer,” Lotte said, licking grease from her fingers.

“I have to give Emreis credit, then. But why in the name of God are we still peeling?” Karma asked.

“Remember what you said, smartass? About how changes don’t happen overnight even with new masters?” Hadassah retorted.

“I know what I said, but this is just ridiculous. I mean, Niketas Palaiologos is
dead
. He’s the only one who got offended by the whole ‘Tirefire the Lesser’ thing, right? Why does my mother give a shit?”

“If Niketas actually knew about it we’d all have hanged a long time ago,” Taki said. “It was the triada who issued the sentence, and the alternative was being flogged. Like, every day.”

“So tell them to lay off with the punishment detail,
Cornet
Natalis!” Hadassah said, flicking a potato skin at him.

“In case you’ve forgotten, I’m still a lowly scrub in a unit of ill repute.”

“Then make the exarch intervene, jeez!”

“That would be even more impossible,” Karma sighed.

“Gillette, if your mother is the basileus, doesn’t that make you some sort of…I dunno, crown prince or whatever?” Draco asked.

“I wish. No, the pruny hag is a stickler for the rules. I’m property of the Cloud Temple like the rest of you, and don’t inherit any titles or holdings.”

“Then we need to get rid of your powers so you can stop being a creepy wizard and become a respectable man. I heard a circumcision does the trick,” Hadassah said. A clump of potato skins hit her on the face. “Look, aren’t we under Imperial rule, anyway? Doesn’t the basileus have to follow the padishah’s orders now? Just write to the guy!” she groaned, wiping starch from her hair.

“It’s not that simple,” Lotte chimed. “Aside from letting the Imperial army travel freely and allowing their educational corps to set up, Dominion law still prevails, and the basileus is still the supreme authority of the land. That means we still follow the Triada’s rules. And their punishments.”

“So basically nothing’s really changed. Figures,” Draco lamented. “At least we don’t have to fight those godrotting Alfa again.”

“Oh, now that you don’t have to kill each other on sight, the Prince of Maladies is totally available!” Hadassah said. “If you want, I’ll totally take her shopping and see if she likes you back. I’ll totally talk up your few good points. Maybe.”

“Isn’t that a bit sexist to assume she likes shopping?” Karma asked.

“Every psychotic killer bitch I know enjoys shopping, you peon.”

“Anyhow, there’s no way we’ll see them again,” Draco said. “They’re probably already storming Astarte by now. The holy primate’s got an ass-kicking in his future, that’s for sure. We were just a little stumbling block on their true campaign. Just as I told you before, Natalis.”

“I still can’t help but feel like this is against the rules, somehow,” Taki said, tilting his head at the bubbling pot.

“You’re one to talk, Cornet ‘I helped depose the basileus,’” Hadassah said.

Taki disregarded her quip and watched the flames dance along the bottom of the cookpot. “Actually, do we even know where the chimney goes?”

The door burst open with an accompaniment of screaming curses and orders to get on their knees. Taki had barely turned his head to face the threat when a buttstock punched into his gut and he fell back. No less than five men barged into the room, muskets and swords at the ready. Lotte’s eyes widened when she saw what they wore.

“We’re unarmed!” she shouted. She raised her hands and lowered herself to her knees. “Squad, do not resist!” she continued. A knife edge pressed against her throat and a pair of groping hands tore her dagger away from her belt. There was no mistaking who the intruders were: Black Cross.

Hadassah suddenly tackled Karma from behind while he raised his hands. A heartbeat later, one of the men fired and blew a hole in the wall where Karma’s head would have been. Stone crumbs dusted their bodies. “Cease fire, dammit!” she cursed as they pointed their guns at her head.

“By order of the exarch you all are under arrest!”
a lieutenant bellowed. He leveled his sidesword at Draco, who had been about to eat another piece of potato. Draco grinned nervously and dropped the fry.

“What are we being charged with?” Lotte demanded.

“Treason and sabotage.”

Taki swallowed to fight the hollow feeling in his chest. He had already accepted that Amilia Gillette, the Usurper, would eliminate him one day. If there was one crime that could never be forgiven, it was regicide. He deserved to die for his role in ending the Palaiologoi. Taki smiled sadly to himself and shook his head. He felt no regret, and better yet he had no family to disgrace. He had long-ago given up his future, and now it was time to yield the rest.

“The others are innocent, I am the one you’re aft—” he started to say.

“Sir! Here’s the source of the miasma!” One of the Black Cross swung the frying pot away on its hinge and pointed to the fire.

“Well put it out, then!” the lieutenant growled. One of the Black Cross came in from the kitchen with a bucket of water and sloshed it over the fire. While the flames died, their hissing embers only filled the storeroom with more smoke. “And take those damned potatoes as evidence!”

“How did we commit treason and sabotage? This is a
kitchen!
We’re just
cooking!
” Lotte snarled.

“Captain, lies won’t save you this time.” The lieutenant sniffed. “You were clearly driven mad with resentment and constructed this chimney flue to vent directly into the quarters of the agia triada while they recovered from battle. Only by the grace of God and the sharp senses of the exarch did they avoid succumbing to smoke poisoning.”

Lotte’s lips parted slightly and she stared at him. She quivered, her face painted with disbelief. She hung her head, but a moment later, started to laugh so hard that she toppled to the floor. The lieutenant scowled as she beat the stones with her fists and convulsed in merriment.

“Take them all to the brig. We’ll hang them in the morning after a sound flogging.”

“That’s bullshit!” Draco cried. “Why the
hell
does this chimney go directly to the supreme commanders of the Temple? How would we even know that? Who the
fuck
designed this idiotic place?” A baton crashed between his shoulder blades and knocked him to the floor. Hadassah yelped as they dragged her away by her hair. Karma tried to push his way over to her but was answered by a buttstock to the groin. He fell back, groaning loudly

“Stop! I’m the one you want!” Taki shouted tearfully. “I know you’re here on the orders of the basileus! Just shoot me and be done with it, but
don’t hurt my friends!
”

“Why does the Usurper care about
you?
” one of the Black Cross said as he mashed Taki’s wrists together.

From the kitchen came a deep thump and the unmistakable ozone of electrical discharge. Men’s shouts and gunshots erupted only to yield to oppressive silence. The lieutenant whirled around and thrust his sidesword at a figure standing in the door. Metal twanged in protest at a sudden stop, caught between thumb and forefinger belonging to Hecaton Mezeta. She sneered at the lieutenant and then tilted her head at the door. He let go of the sword and bolted out, followed by his subordinates.

“I heard you lot were making fries. Where’s my share?” Hecaton asked. She lit a cigarillo and squatted with her elbows balanced on her knees. Lotte raised her forehead from the cobbles and looked blearily at her major.

“We didn’t invite you. But you can have mine,” she said with a half-smile.

Taki sniffed and blinked away tears of relief. He knew it was wrong to feel grateful to Hecaton, but what she didn’t know wouldn’t hurt her.

“As long as they’re still warm. I won’t abide cold leftovers. Now, I don’t know what happened here, but the triada are all a pube-hair away from croaking and Constantin is furious. I’ve never seen him so pissed. It’s great!” Hecaton cackled. “And to think I was growing bored of this place. Well, maybe I’ll stick around for a bit longer.”

“I’ll look forward to it,” Lotte said.

Hecaton grinned. “Silly barbarian, you’ll rue those words one day. My old bones feel another storm coming soon, and it is all our
joss
to be swept up again and tossed about. Frankly, I don’t think any of you will survive, though you’re welcome to try.”

Taki remained silent. By now, he knew that the old woman’s words carried a weight beyond that of idle, derogatory banter. Upheavals and crises loomed in his future. And yet he’d already endured the worst of what fate—joss, as Hecaton put it—had to throw at him, even if he hadn’t exactly triumphed over much. In the scarred and spiteful world he lived in, perhaps survival was good enough.

Keep going for a preview chapter of the sequel,
Swords of the Imperium
!

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Swords of the Imperium

Hadassah Mikkelsen licked the flat of her knife and smiled sweetly. “He’s being difficult. Let’s cut off his head, take his key, and open the chest already.”

“I don’t want to hang for fragging an officer,” Draco Emreis said. He unwound a length of hempen rope from around his fists and drew it tight. “If we all rush him at once, we can hog-tie him instead. Besides, who’s to say the key’s actually on him? What if he hid it somewhere?”

Karma Gillette smacked the wide end of a leather-wrapped cudgel against his palm. “I bet he shoved it up his rear. It’s like a hidden compartment for men.”

“I’m
definitely
not checking that,” Hadassah said.

“I’m in command,” Captain Lotte Satou said. “I’ll check.”

Draco looked surprised. “Captain? You sure?”

Lotte nodded grimly and spat into her right hand. “Mikkelsen, hold him down. He’ll feel more comfortable if women do the deed.”

Taki Natalis clenched his jaw as he swept his squad with the muzzle of his pistol. With his promotion to cornet came the privilege of carrying a side arm within the Temple. The Herstal he had been given was a third-rate castoff pockmarked by rust, but it
worked
. Taki was grateful to have the weapon, especially while backed into a corner and facing unspeakable acts. The only problem was that he only had a single dirty round to his name. “For the
last time
,” he said, “I’m not holding out on any of you! We are
out of bullets
.
That
is why you haven’t been paid.”

“Then go to the shrine and get more!” Draco flipped his hair in indignation. “I’ll hold your hand if you’re scared of being robbed.”

“You think I haven’t checked? There’s no more 'grad in our coffers. Hecaton Mezeta’s the one who fills our stores. She’s been missing for a
fortnight
!”

“Don’t we have savings?” Hadassah said. “Just give us our friggin’ pay! I thought we were
friends
! Why do you have to be so
mean
?”

“I’m not being mean!” Taki replied. “And
you’re
the one who wants to cut my head off or rape me or both!”

Hadassah sniffled and wiped at her nose.

Taki rolled his eyes. “Don’t you dare!”

Karma shook his head. “Are you really making a girl cry?”

“Don’t you feel bad about yourself, Natalis?” Draco asked.