C f bentley, p.30
C. F. Bentley, page 30
“Nothing of import,” Sissy replied. She hated lying to the girls. But she had to protect them from this latest prophecy. Here, deep within the womb of Harmony, both she and Jilly had experienced this special gift more and more often. Rarely did they remember what they said.
Jake recorded it all in a notebook he kept sealed within a secret pocket in his uniform full of pockets.
“Laudae, I’ve found something!” Spacer Scientist Barba du Annalyse pu Science Fleet called from far down the tunnel.
“Let’s go see!” Jilly exclaimed, completely recovered and oblivious to the concern of her elders.
The scientist eagerly waved to Sissy to join the group huddled around a tumble of rock halfway back to the new cavern.
For four weeks they had all skirted the fallen rocks warily. They had so many new things to explore, so much other work to be done, the rockfall hadn’t pricked anyone’s curiosity. But Scientist Barba loved rocks. How they were formed. Why this one lay next to that one. The elusive minerals hiding in a matrix of other, more common minerals. She’d finally succumbed to her curiosity and started sifting through the tumble. Milton the weasel had joined her, eager to explore tiny places in the dark.
He’d eaten his weight in cave mice every day. The cats caught and played with other rodents while the dogs lazed in the sun at the entrance.
Sissy joined the throng of scientists, as eager as they to see what lay behind the rockfall. “Stay behind me, girls, until we know that the rocks are stable.”
Three men rolled away a three-foot-tall boulder. Above it, they could already see a blacker-than-black opening into yet another cavern.
“Why would they seal off some rooms and leave others open to all?” Sissy asked.
“This is the oldest section,” Barba said, mopping sweat off her brow with her sleeve. “Maybe, in olden times, before the Covenant with Harmony they had different customs.” She shrugged.
“Before the Covenant with Harmony?” Sissy asked. According to every myth she’d been told growing up, and all she’d read since, the Seven Gods created humanity with the Covenant intact. There should be nothing before that.
“Prehistory gets confusing when facts disagree,” Jake muttered in her ear. He was never far away from her, even when he helped the scientists sort and catalog their findings.
“Facts cannot disagree,” Sissy insisted.
Jake just looked at her long and hard. His expression made her stop and think. He used it often. And every time she came up with more questions than answers.
“We’re clear,” Barba exclaimed. Sweat glistened on her face in the torchlight. Why was she sweating now? She hadn’t put her back into rolling away the big rock.
The girls edged closer. Sissy glared at them to back off. They ignored her, but obeyed Jake’s hasty gesture.
“Laudae, I think you should be first inside,” Matteo, a Spacer scientist, offered her a torch.
Sissy gulped. What had Jilly said about Discord hiding?
“I’m right behind you, Laudae,” Jake said quietly.
She knew he’d already loosened his weapons. If anything hid in the dark, he’d be on it in seconds.
“It helps if you put the torch in first and look around.” Physician Gaila du Jenn pu Crystal Temple Hospital thrust her own light through the opening. The coroner was rather quiet and so caught up in her work she didn’t socialize much. Sissy had hardly spoken to her.
Sissy followed suit with her own torch, then peered cautiously through the arched opening. A perfectly carved arch, not a rough natural break in the wall. The dust of the ages swirled and rose before her. She stopped breathing.
“I see color on the walls.”
Enthralled she took one step into the new cavern. She had to squeeze around a tumble of smaller rocks that still clogged the entrance. Forgetting the dust, she gasped at the spectacle. Her lungs froze. She fought the cough, oblivious to the scientists who crowded in behind her, pushing her out of their way in their hurry.
Seven girls followed them, darting beneath outstretched arms to be the first ones to touch the brilliant colors painted on a smooth wall.
Jake handed Sissy an inhaler and stood by her shoulder. Together they watched as the bevy of professionals “oohed” and “aahed” over the mural that spanned a good ten feet of the fifteen-foot wall and ran from four feet off the floor nearly to the ceiling, twenty feet up.
“What is it about?” Sissy asked when she got her breathing under control. “Bella, Martha, keep your hands down. You don’t know if you’ll damage the paint!”
All she could see were faded splotches of rusty red, chipped sky blue, and lots of different shades of green.
“Looks like a version of the Creation,” Barba said, standing back to look at the entire picture while her colleagues examined tiny portions with magnifying glasses.
“We need photos,” someone shouted.
No one seemed willing to leave the spectacle to fetch the equipment. Sissy looked at Jake.
“I’m not leaving the room without you,” he said quietly.
“Oh, for Harmony’s sake.” Sissy marched out of the room, and turned left toward the central cavern.
Two more scientists passed her, running, each with a camera in hand. They didn’t even look at her, too intent on their destination to notice.
“Knowing them, two cameras won’t be enough. They’ll want them all,” Jake grumbled. “Girls, we need your help!”
All seven of them crawled around the blockage and assembled at his side.
They returned to the new cavern, arms loaded with cameras, light bars, (the rule against artificial light had to be modified to accommodate the cameras) battery packs, and everything else they could think of that might remotely be required. The entire crowd of scientists centered on one tiny section down in the right-hand corner.
“What?” Sissy shouldered her way in and under to pop her head up in front of them all. Her eyes focused on an array of figures, each with a sacred glyph above their heads, like halos.
There was elegant Lady Harmony wearing green in the center, slightly raised above the others. Empathy, a bright male in golden robes, and Anger, a short blocky man wearing red stood to her left. Nurture, small and delicate in blue, and Greed big and flamboyant in orange to Harmony’s right. Unity, a swirl of many colors and blurred outlines, and Fear, a hard knot of anxious bilious yellow knelt before Harmony. As they always did, in every icon in every Temple throughout the Empire.
The symmetry was off, though. A black figure standing just below Harmony’s dais, facing out in defiance, looked as if someone had tried to chip it out, obliterate it, then been interrupted before finishing.
“Discord,” Sissy breathed. “Discord included in the sacred family.”
The torches smoked. Darkness crept in from the edges of her vision. Her face and hands grew cold.
She couldn’t find up or down, right or left. Nothing fit or stood in place anymore.
Discord hides in the open.
“It’s done,” a husky, androgynous voice whispered into Gregor’s portable telephone.
“What do they think of it?” he asked, suppressing a yawn. Three hours past midnight. Dawn only a few hours away. He should be in bed. Asleep. He thrust aside the mound of paperwork he’d dallied with while waiting for this call.
“They can’t agree on anything. Half cling to the old myth that the scene depicts Harmony banishing Discord. The other half are considering rewriting history.”
“And the Laudae?”
“Hasn’t said a word. She just sits, staring out the window. No lights on in her room, but I can see her outline in the moonlight.”
“Suggest to someone who will suggest to someone else that perhaps it’s time she comes home.”
“That will just make her more stubborn about staying.”
“I know. Amazing how peaceful the Temple is without her.” Meaning how malleable the HC was without her interference. He hadn’t even had to bring up the issue of Holy Day work shifts to bring Lord Chauncey back to his way of thinking.
As long as Chauncey voted the way Gregor wanted him to, Gregor would let the extra shifts work. Any deviation, and Chauncey faced heavy fines and possible removal from the HC.
Gregor stretched and yawned again. “Keep me posted. Good work. I’ll arrange a bonus for you when you return.”
“I want the bonus in my bank account by open of business today.” The husky voice turned hard.
“That was not our agreement.”
“It is now. I went to a lot of risk setting this up. Sooner or later that snoopy Military is going to try to analyze and date the paint.”
“The bodyguard is supposed to be guarding Laudae Estella, not asking questions.”
“Not him. The other one. The forensics officer. He’s got the skills and the equipment. Next thing you know, he’ll try to tell us the oldest bones are not human. He’ll announce that humans came to this planet from the CSS seven hundred years ago.”
Gregor froze. That was information only he and one other had access to. He’d learned it from his predecessor and been sworn to secrecy. The other one had stumbled on it accidentally.
“The money will be in your account by noon. I can’t do it before then.”
“Noon. No later, or I tell Laudae Sissy what you are up to.”
Chapter 46
Have you heard from Bethy?” Penelope demanded. She leaned across Gil’s desk, giving him a spectacular view of her cleavage.
Gil gulped and pushed away his first thoughts. Almost eighteen years with this woman and he never got tired of her.
“No. She is supposed to report to you,” he answered, carefully putting aside his current report. It would wait. Except that there were fifteen others beneath it awaiting his attention.
“She calls by radio relay every afternoon. But not today.” Worry lines drew Penelope’s mouth into a deep frown.
Gil checked his clock. Well after dinnertime. Late enough that he worried, too. “Communications in the mountains are spotty. A gathering storm could interrupt… “
“That hasn’t stopped her in the month she’s been gone.”
“Oh.”
“I’m worried, Gil. Gregor is up to something. If Bethy gets caught in the backlash… I’m scared.”
“Gregor would never hurt another Temple, especially not a young girl.”
“Not directly. But if Sissy outlives her usefulness to him, or he changes his mind… He’s ruthless. And unforgiving.”
“I know. I’ll make inquiries.” He half stood, just enough to brush her lips with his own. “At this point, no news is good news.”
“Are you sure, Gil?”
“Yes,” he lied.
“It’s just that after the driver died, I worry. I wanted Sissy out of the Temple, not assassinated.”
“I know, Penny. Sissy has requested some unusual supplies for her scientists. I need to call to verify them. I’ll make sure Bethy is okay at the same time.”
“Do it now.”
“Now?” He surveyed the masses of paperwork left to complete before he could justify retiring for the night and act upon the invitation of Penelope’s breasts.
In an instant he decided that some things were more important than paperwork. He pulled Penelope into his lap (no fear of being observed together, Gregor had gone off to a party with the HC and a few select Nobles) and the ‘phone in front of him.
After many long delays, relays, and clicks and pops on the line, he managed to connect to the Temple residence in the mountains.
Bethy herself answered. “Daddy, have you heard?” she asked breathlessly.
Gil hoped her shallow breathing was excitement and hurry and not the thin mountain air affecting her lungs.
“Heard what, sweetheart?” He tried to picture his daughter in her current location and only came up with the memory of the day she’d proudly displayed a gap in her mouth when she lost her first milk tooth; all bright smiles and dark curls floppy about her round baby face as she bounced about the room.
Penelope rested her head against his, listening as closely as he.
“We’ve found a truly ancient mural. It’s got some… anomalies. Is that the right word?” She asked the latter in an aside.
“Anomaly sounds correct. So you’ve been too busy to call home. What kind of anomalies?”
“I’m not supposed to say until Laudae Sissy makes a formal announcement.”
“And who do you suppose is going to write up the report she announces?” He had to smile.
“But, Daddy!”
“Tell him, sweetie,” Penelope coaxed.
“Hi, Mama, I should have known you ordered Daddy to call.” “Stop stalling and tell us, Bethy,” Gil commanded. She did.
He went absolutely still inside. Something was wrong. He couldn’t put his finger on it. Just something out of place. He needed to… to what? Dig up the original Covenant Stones?
Not a bad idea. Then he groaned at the amount of work required to get that to happen. Unless he found a back entrance into the chamber. Jake had suggested the corridor outside the archive basement.
Penelope ran her fingers through his hair.
The Covenant Stones had been hidden away for centuries. They’d wait another day.
“Be careful, Bethy,” he warned, very uneasy in his mid region. “This is dangerous information. The ‘no bones’ cult might take this as a license to make Discord an equal to Harmony.”
“I know, Daddy. That’s why Laudae Sissy doesn’t want us talking about it to anybody. So you’d better not tell anyone either. Even Laud Gregor, until Laudae Sissy says so.”
“Our lips are sealed, Bethy. Watch your step and your back. You never know who up there has a different agenda from Laudae Sissy.”
“I need your help,” Colonel Jeoff da George pa Law Enforcement HQ H Prime whispered in Jake’s ear.
Jake pretended to startle out of a light doze. He never slept hard, less so now that he guarded Sissy day and night, taking what rest he could on a cot placed across the door to Sissy’s bedroom. He’d charted Jeoff’s quiet footsteps from the moment he entered the residence wing of the Temple.
Jeoff’s hand covered his mouth, just enough to keep him from crying out.
“What?” Jake mouthed against the hand.
Jeoff motioned Jake to follow. On silent stockinged feet they threaded their way through Sissy’s sitting room crowded with sleeping acolytes. Jake carried his boots.
Once outside the residence, Jeoff sat on the stoop to pull on his own boots. Jake sat beside him to do the same. Chill mountain air cut through the thick cloth of his uniform, sending goose bumps up his arms. He yawned and shivered slightly, more to put the colonel off guard than to express his own discomfort.
Jeoff was young for his advanced rank. Not more than mid-forties. Still vigorous and strong, with a full head of tight sandy-blond curls and only the beginnings of a middle-aged spread around his gut. This guy worked in the field as much as at his desk. Someone to be wary of.
“What?” Jake asked again, this time aloud.
“I need a closer look at some of those bones, without mind-blind Temple enthusiasts peering over my shoulder.”
“So go look. Who’s stopping you. It’s three in the effing morning.” Another yawn. This one real.
“I can’t do it alone. I need good lights and someone to hold them for me. Someone to bear witness that I’m not tainting the evidence I find.” Jeoff heaved himself upright.
Jake continued sitting, playing with getting his boots on just right. Stalling for more information. “What do you expect to find?”
“That the oldest bones, everything over five hundred years, are not human. And that those at the five hundred mark were slaughtered. By human weapons.”
“Let’s go.” Jake smiled. At last. Someone more interested in the truth than faith. His agenda just took a baby step forward. The next step would be to convince Sissy. “You might also want to date the paint on that controversial mural.”
“Started the chemical analysis an hour ago. Do you know something I should know?”
“Don’t want to taint your tests. Let the facts speak for themselves.” “You aren’t just a bodyguard.” “I am a bodyguard. Now.” “And before?”
“Law Enforcement HQ H Prime, before that on H6.” He didn’t add that he’d only been on H6 three weeks before coming here.
“There is something more you are not telling me. I’ll figure it out. I always figure it out. I have a one hundred percent success rate at solving crimes based upon forensic evidence.”
“Then look at the evidence and let it tell you everything you need to know.” Jake hoisted to his shoulder a battery operated light bar from Jeoff’s pile of equipment and headed uphill.
The local clergy weren’t happy about all the electric equipment going in and out of the caves. Sissy’s command to give the scientists every tool available overrode their objections. Barely.
Something about desecrating the dead. Not fanatical “no bones” but worth watching. He had Morrie da Hawk doing background checks on them from the city data banks.
Jeoff followed Jake with a big black suitcase and another light bar. He handed Jake the suitcase that measured nearly a meter square. “I outrank you. I think. At least play at being my subordinate. And I’ll run a DNA test on you in the morning. Just to make sure you are as human as I am.”
“I can guarantee you that I am as human as you are,” Jake said behind a smile.”
Gregor parked the little dark blue electric car in front of the comm tower. The spot was reserved for the colonel, but he wasn’t about to need it at three in the morning.
A single light glimmered in an upper-story window. His listener was hard at work, deciphering the coded messages recorded throughout the day.
The CSS tried hard to mask their signals. They changed codes and frequencies often. Gregor’s technician was only half a step behind them. He always caught up. And he was an absolute genius cryptographer. He’d even broken the Maril language. Something the CSS had yet to do.
