there to attach a magnetic grab.”
“You can’t go down there, Karl,” Fellburg protested.
“There isn’t time to argue. Give me that line.”
Fellburg clipped the auxiliary line to Zambendorf’s harness, then took a
rigger’s tool belt from the doorway locker and attached it over his own suit.
“You’re crazy, but you’ll still need some help,” he said. “I’m coming too.”
“Get right above the net and steady up, Clarissa,” West called over the
intercom. “Karl and Joe are going down with a magnet.”
Below, the Kroaxian crowd was in pandemonium. All had seen the miracle of the
heavenly beast descending to preserve the Enlightener as the Cliff of Judgment
delivered its verdict, and the false priests who had condemned him being smitten
to the ground by the Lifemaker’s wrath. Once before had the Enlightener preached
the true Word to the people in the marketplace, and the people had ridiculed
him; but such was his wisdom and forebearance that in place of anger or
retribution, he had chosen this way to open their eyes to the light, and to
demonstrate the powerlessness of the priests before him. This time the people
would listen and be grateful for the mercy that had been shown them.
“Indeed the Enlightener teaches the true Word of the Lifemaker!” they cried. “We
shall not kill. We shall not enslave. We shall not be enslaved.”
“Down with the false priests who teach hatred!”
“Down with the King and his ministers who wage war!”
The roaring of the voices was swollen even louder as the first contingent of the
returning Kroaxian army came round the hill and joined in.
“We have returned to unseat the tyrant! We shall not kill!”
“All Carthogians are our brothers!”
“See, the Enlightener awaits us and has converted the citizens of Pergassos as
he promised! Praise the Enlightener!”
The citizens howled louder, and the crowd began closing in around the
dignitaries’ enclosure.
“Our soldiers have returned from the Meracasine. Indeed has the Enlightener
spoken truly!”
“Out with Eskenderom!”
“Out with Frennelech!”
“No more shall we cringe beneath the heels of tyrants!”
“No more shall we tremble at the words of charlatans!”
“Out with them! Out with them!”
In the canopied enclosure, all was chaos as priests and courtiers, officials and
dignitaries, counselors and ministers dashed backward, forward, and in circles
shouting for guards to close ranks and for servants to fetch mounts. In the
middle of the panic, Eskenderom and Frennelech collided. “Traitor!” Eskenderom
screamed into the High Priest’s face. “Thou holy vermin! Sump sludge! What
bargain didst thou conclude with thy aliens that they should cheat me thus?”
“I?” Frennelech howled, outraged. “I?—thou royal emetic! Thou pox-blistered
discharge vent! It is through thy contract with the sky-devils that they have
defrauded met”
“What sayest thou? Is this spectacle not thy final triumph that shall take away
my crown and remove me from my realm?”
“Nay. What gibberish dost thou prattle? Is it not the fruitful consummation of
thy design to promote this imposter, thy creation, before the people and thence
to subordinate to royal command all authority hitherto invested in my office?”
Eskenderom shook his head. “Would I, by my orders to my handpicked agent,
command the disintegration of my own army? What kind of priest’s babbling is
this?”
Eskenderom stared at Frennelech; Frennelech stared at Eskenderom. Both arrived
at the same conclusion at the same instant.
“Zounds! Egad! Forsooth!” Eskenderom shrieked. “I see it now—the aliens have
outwitted us both! We have been betrayed!” He raised his fists high in the air.
“Arghh! The leaching-tank scum! The drain-filter dregs! I’ll have at them! I’ll
smear their jelly bodies across the valley of Gornod. Mormorel, rally the guard
and let us ride now to the camp of the alien deceivers. All who value honor and
dignity, follow me! And if we be blasted to rivets and strewn across the
deserts, then at least it will be said that we were dismantled gloriously. To
Gornod!”
“Have the equerry fetch the mounts,” Frennelech called to Jaskillion. “Muster
the Palace Guard and tell them we will ride with the King to the valley of
Gornod to avenge this alien treachery. If the nation of Kroaxia is to be rent