“Glabrio,” Froggie said, “you come with me. The rest of you wait for orders.”
Slapping his swagger stick into his left palm, he strode through the gate with Glabrio at his side. Queenie trotted along two paces behind, which was fine. Slats rotated his head in desperation, then scuttled after Froggie like a nervous cockroach.
Four of the barb axemen came too, which was no more than Froggie expected. Close up, the pink of their skins had a lot more blue and less red than the village elders did. They looked tough and no mistake.
“That’s the temple, huh?” Froggie said, eyeing the structure. It was impressive, all right: sixty feet at least to the top of the main spire. Ten or a dozen lesser peaks sprang from other parts of the wooden roof. The walls were built up from staves, not heavy timbers, and every finger’s breadth of the pieces had been carved with the images of plants and animals before they were pegged together.
“According to my briefing cube . . .” Slats said, facing Froggie very deliberately so that he could pretend that the four funny-looking barbs weren’t standing close holding their axes. ” . . . the chiefs are also priests just as the king is the high priest. This would be the chief’s residence as well as the temple.”
The temple’s lines were all up and down, but it covered a fair stretch of ground besides. There’d be room for the century to fit inside even if the height wasn’t divided into several floors.
“It looks impressive, doesn’t it?” Slats said nervously.
“It looks like a bloody firetrap!” said Glabrio, who’d come from Sicily a long time ago. “I’d sooner bunk in Etna than there!”
“Right,” said Froggie. “Slats, we’re not going to billet inside the walls, but it won’t be any problem—”
“Company coming!” Verruca called from the other side of the gate. “The bluebird’s returning to our happy meadows.”
“Seems the Commander’s paying us a visit, Slats,” Froggie said. “What do you suppose he’s got in mind?”
“If he were ordering us home,” Slats said in obvious disquiet, “he would call me instead of coming out here. It must be a tour of inspection.”
Froggie walked out and caught the wink of sunset on metal as the Commander’s chariot came over the eastern horizon. When the sun’s angle was just right, the light twisted as though Froggie were seeing the vehicle through the clear water of a pond.
Usually when barbs saw a flying chariot for the first time, they threw themselves face-down and prayed—the ones who didn’t run off screaming. The village elders looked scared, no mistake, but the axemen stood rock solid. In fact when the chief turned like he planned to run, the guard with gold wristlets—the others wore black—caught him and faced him around with a firm grip. It made you wonder who was really in charge of things.
The flying chariot hissed to the ground alongside where Slats had spoken to the village chief. The vehicle was the same one that had seen the century out of the Harbor, but the only ones aboard were the driver, the Commander and his two bodyguards, and Three-Spire.
“Is he sick?” Glabrio whispered. The Commander had a glassy expression and didn’t move when the chariot landed.
My guess’d be drunk, Froggie thought, but he didn’t let those words or any touch his lips.
While the Commander remained in his comatose half-sprawl, Three-Spire stood in the chariot and spoke to the village chief. The elders bent their heads back in a gesture of submission.
Their posture reminded Froggie of Sawtooth’s last moments, so he was smiling when Three-Spire turned and spoke to Slats. The administrator replied and, to Froggie, said, “Three-Spire says we are to enter our assigned quarters at once and dismiss the porters. Sawtooth will lead them back to the Harbor, Three-Spire says. He speaks with the authority of the Commander, who is indisposed. Three-Spire says.”
“I guess you’ll want to assure the Commander that you’ll inform your escort and other interested parties,” Froggie said. This wasn’t the perfect time to explain where Sawtooth was at, but Froggie wouldn’t have gotten as old as he was if he counted on perfection. “We’ll find a way to deal with the girls ourselves in the absence of Sawtooth.”