asunder by outworlders’ stratagem, its final episode of glory shall not be
Eskenderom’s alone. To Gornod!”
Then the voices of the crowd rose to a crescendo. “Angels! See, angels are
descending! Shining angels descend from the heavens!”
Above, two figures were lowering toward the Enlightener, who had returned to the
execution ledge after casting himself forth and allowing his fall to be
miraculously intercepted, and was now giving thanks at the sacred tree opposite
the top of the stairway. The creature from heaven was watching down over them
protectively, and at the far end of the ledge, the guard commander seemed to be
trying to reorganize his cringing soldiers.
“How is he?” Zambendorf barked, struggling to maintain equilibrium on the wildly
swinging line. The Taloids on the ledge had scattered from the falling cable
when Drew West cut the line to the net from above, and seemed to be keeping
their distance.
“Can’t tell,” Fellburg answered. “He seems out of it. The net’s all caught up in
this junk. We’ll have to cut him out.”
Zambendorf worked frantically to draw in the magnetic clamp on another line
while Fellburg hacked into the net with a pair of long-handled cutters. “What’s
the score?” West’s voice said over the intercom from the flyer.
“All a mess—Joe’s cutting Moses out,” Zambendorf answered breathlessly. “Is the
generator hooked up yet, Drew?”
“Ready when you are.”
“Hurry it up down there,” Abaquaan’s voice said on the circuit.
“Watch out behind you,” Clarissa warned.
Zambendorf looked round and saw that some of the Taloids seemed to have
recovered and were coming across the ledge, brandishing objects that looked like
weapons. “Get a move on, Joe,” he shouted, and braced himself against the
girders with his legs and one arm while helping to pull pieces of netting away
with the other.
“That’s it,” Fellburg called.
“Hit the switch, Drew!” Zambendorf shouted. “Clarissa, take it up! Take it up!”
Current flowed through the cable, and the flyer rose to take up the slack. At
the same time Zambendorf and Fellburg were lifted away as West began to haul in
the lines. Just as Moses swung clear of the girders, the other Taloids rushed
forward and were instantly caught by the magnetic field to form a daisy-chain of
six or seven figures joined head-to-toe, head-to-toe in a string extending to
the ground. They hung convulsing helplessly as the field passing through their
skins played havoc with their internal circuitry.
“Oh shit,” Fellburg moaned miserably.
“Hold it, hold it!” Zambendorf shouted in his helmet, “They’re stuck.”
“I can’t cut the current,” West called down. “We’d lose Moses. Jeez, what a
screw-up!”
“Let us down again. Drew, about ten feet,” Zambendorf ordered. “Joe, we’ll have
to grab him and hope we can hold on.”
They came back down, and a few seconds later Fellburg’s voice said, “I’ve got
one arm. Are you okay there on the other side, Karl?”
“Okay,” Zambendorf yelled. “We’ve got him! Cut it now, Drew.” West threw a
switch to deactivate the magnet, and the chain of Taloids fell apart into bodies
dropping all over the ledge among their terrified colleagues.
“We’ve got him!” Fellburg shouted. “Clarissa, let’s get the hell outta here.” As
the flyer at last lifted away, a wrench that had almost been dislodged from a
loop in Fellburg’s tool belt fell away into the darkness beneath.
Far below, the crowd had seen the High Priest’s Palace Guards snatched up into
the air and scattered like playthings, and the Enlightener being borne away
triumphantly by the angels. As he departed to join the Lifemaker, he sent
something tumbling down to the multitude gathered at the bottom of the cliff.
Figures rushed forward frenziedly to pick up the sacred symbol and hold it high
for all the faithful to see. “A sign! A sign! We have been given a sign! Behold
the form that has been given us to mark the Day of Miracles!”
“Behold the sign! Behold the sign!”
“We are saved! We are saved!”
From one side of the dignitaries’ enclosure, most of which had by now been
overrun, a ragged body of riders comprising the King, the High Priest, and a
couple of hundred or so of their loyal followers and guards broke through the