Guns of the Temple (The Polaris Chronicles Book 1) (16 page)

“Just don’t let him find your real hoard, right?” Karma asked.

“Exactly. You deserve what you get in that case.”

Karma chuckled. “You’re spiteful. I like that”

“And you’re a poxy rake yourself, Mister Gillette.”

“Can the flirting already, we’re on duty,” Lotte said. “Has anyone seen Draco?”

“He needed to go rub one out, Captain,” Hadassah said.

“Enough slander, you crappy reformist,” Draco said as he emerged from around the corner of an alley. “I was just pissing. And I also brought a friend.” Held by the back of his collar was a dirt-smeared boy in his early teens.

“You were pissing on a little boy? You cock-monster!”

“Oh, give it a rest! I can’t believe that’s the first thing that crossed your filthy little mind!”

“Quiet, Mikkelsen! Emreis, where did you find him?” Lotte demanded.

“He was trying to sneak out over the wall,” Draco said. “I saw him just as I finished up. Almost cut myself on my britches, too.”

“Y-you people are witches, right?” the prisoner gasped, wide-eyed at the sight of the group.

“That’s ‘polaris regiment of foot’ to you, kid,” Draco snapped.

“Corporal, shackle his wrists and administer any necessary first aid. We’ll hand the prisoner over to the duke’s men when they come around,” Lotte said.

The boy started to flail in panic. “W-w-wait! Please! If you hand me over, I’ll die!”

“No one’s going to kill you. Maybe rough you up or make you shovel shit for a while, but that’s all,” Draco scoffed.

“Y-you don’t u-understand! It’s not like that. It’s-” The boy began with a stammer and ended with a sob.

“A jeni shqip?” Karma asked, crouching. The boy shook his head. “Kako se zoveš?” he tried again.

“Marko. Marko Princip.”

“Žao mi je. I mean it,” Karma said, patting the boy on the shoulder before turning away.

“Gillette, what’s going on here? What did you say?” Lotte asked, her eyes narrowing in suspicion. Karma looked stricken for a moment, but shook his head with a dismissive smile.

“It’s fine. Kid’s got nothing useful, so we should let him go. No one will care about it.”

“Step aside,” she said, brushing past him. “You, prisoner, tell us exactly what’s going on.”

“They’re killing everyone, even the ones who didn’t fight you. Even the ones who didn’t do anything. They do it to any village where people want to rebel against the Duke. I heard about it from my cousin who escaped Derthona. They come and round everyone up in a forest outside the village and shoot them in the back of the head, and anyone still alive afterwards they stab with their swords. Even the elderly and the babies! They take the girls and…”

“That’s not possible!” Taki blurted out.
A hero doesn’t do that! A hero punishes justly!

“Comport yourself,” Lotte snapped, and clapped a hand on Taki’s shoulder.

Taki nodded, feeling chastened. If he was to impress his captain, he needed to be more coolheaded than this. “In that case,” he asked, “should we retreat now and warn the duke?”

Lotte shook her head. “We still don’t know whether the accusation is true or not. I will not slander our fellows without cause.”

“You seem like you know something,” Draco said to Karma. His eyelids narrowed.

“I can’t say. I don’t mix with the grunts,” Karma huffed, and turned away.

Lotte bit her bottom lip in thought, and turned back to the prisoner. “Marko, was it? Do you have any proof?”

“If...if I show you, will you let me go?”

“No. But as long as you are bound, you fall under our protection,” Lotte replied.

“Do you promise? Do you promise you won’t hand me over?”

“We serve the exarch Constantin Choniates. You will have to trust in that.”

“How can I trust in a man I’ve never met?”

Hadassah punched Marko lightly on the arm. “Don’t be so stubborn, you little bastard. We’ll protect you. The captain’s a hardass but she’s a just person. We’re not the bad guys, you know.”

Marko hung his head, before shaking it hopelessly.

“I’ll take you there. It’s going on right now,” he said glumly.

“Very well,” Lotte said. “I’m warning you though, if you try to escape, or if you’re lying to set some plan into action, you will die first. Do you understand?”

Marko nodded.

“Emreis and Mikkelsen, stay behind on guard. Myself, Gillette, and Natalis will go with the prisoner. If we’re not back in a half-bell, flee to the Cloud Temple. Do not wait for us, but make sure the exarch knows that we perished.”

Taki swallowed hard. Being chosen to accompany the captain like that was a sign of her favor, and yet anxiety welled in his chest all the same. Draco’s words from earlier had called to mind a drily-written passage about the wars that ravaged the region before the Fall, and about something called “ethnic cleansing.” It sounded like a wholesome pursuit on its surface, for reducing mutation was always commendable. But to cleanse could also mean to destroy. He looked at Marko.
Is it possible to destroy an entire people?

When he passed through the town square, Taki could not contain the increasing dread lapping at his mind as he gazed on the utter desolation mixed with fresh signs of life. Overturned carts had spilled vegetables onto the street that had been crushed by hobnailed boots. Half-eaten food cooled on metal plates on tables near an eatery. More perceptive eyes saw fresh bullet holes studding stucco walls and bloodstains spattered on cobblestones.
Something is wrong. Something is terribly wrong.

“Where are the bodies?” Taki asked, frowning at a pool of crimson that slowly spread along mortared crevices.

“If I were trying to purge a place and yet remain discreet, I’d simply have bodies carried away and dumped somewhere,” Karma said. “And I’d use the people who were still alive to do the work.”

“Why not just set it all alight if you wanted to drive everyone away?” Taki asked.

“Because the people have little value, whereas the buildings and farmlands are the important stuff. That way, you can quickly resettle a place with the people you want, and offer your supporters and friends a nice bunch of houses in the process.”

“Where did everyone go?” Lotte asked the prisoner. Marko pointed his bound wrists ahead to the rear gates. Splintered posts hung from wooden hinges and swayed pathetically in silence. The ground below was well-worn, but the dust and dark stains were fresh at the precipice. Further on, the grassy fields were trampled and broken, as if dozens of people had trudged their way along the path to the woods nearby. Karma’s gaze flicked over streaks of blood dappling the leaves, but he kept quiet. After the acrid stink of smoke and lingering sweat, the piney smell of the woods was a relief.

Gunshots rang out in violent overture, causing them to dive to the ground with weapons drawn and curses flung. After a few minutes, however, it was apparent that there was no more danger to be had. Taki briefly indulged in the fantasy that perhaps Lotte would permit them all to lay low in the grass for a time. Nothing good would come of advancing. Here, under cover, it was safe and secure. They could simply remain there for a good long time before slowly retreating from harm.
It’s not our fight. This has little to do with the Imperium. I don’t want to go on.
Taki shoved his words back down his throat before they could erupt and unman him. Lotte was signaling for them to rise and advance.

They penetrated the treeline, quickly following the trail of trampled shrubs and torn branches. No special skill or training was needed now but following one’s nose. The humid, acrid air bit like burning gunpowder shoved up a nostril and left to smolder. Finally, as Taki crested a low ridge, he saw the killing field.

A twenty-meter-long trench was crudely dug in the loamy topsoil of a clearing, within which were bodies wreathed by settling gunsmoke. The sight spurred a regression into calculation. Numbers were safe. Numbers did not cause him to feel overcome with terror and nausea. How many bodies were there? If he went with five corpses per meter, that meant at least a hundred; some large and developed, some small, some hunchbacked with old age. Some still writhed, whether out of pain or as the last reflexes of a dying brain. How many were women? How many had died clutching their children? Taki bit the webbing between his thumb and index finger to stifle further speculation.

Standing over the corpses near the trench were the Khazari Hekmatyar legion, kalash rifles still smoking from the barrels. A few men dressed in village clothes still knelt in front of the pit, hands tied and blindfolded. They bobbed their heads in confusion, as if indignant to not receive a bullet like the rest. Their would-be executioners had probably used reloaded rounds with bad powder or just the wrong caliber altogether, Taki realized. One of the bound men tried to flee, only to have his head caved in by a mace. The rest of the survivors were quickly set upon with axes before being pushed into the trench. Another detail spread quicklime over the bodies. It was a common belief that the white, caustic powder would dissolve flesh faster and dissuade scavengers from spreading the remains. The footmen looked up now, muttering to each other and pointing at the new arrivals.

“I told you we should’ve just let the kid go,” Karma muttered.

One of the Khazari, with an ensign’s stripes, charged up to Lotte.

“Didn’t we tell you to stay at the entrance?” he shouted at her, his rifle sweeping her face.

“Watch where you point that,” she growled, gesturing at his muzzle.

He swept you with it, Captain,
Taki thought with oddly fierce anger.
He could have shot you. Kill him, now!
He gasped softly when he realized what had passed through his mind. To think like this was unlike him, but something within was starting to scream louder and louder as the seconds passed. Fortunately, the ensign lowered his rifle a small bit.

Lotte continued. “My men stand guard as we speak, and if we do not return, you may expect a legion of our Black Cross to come wipe you off the map!”

That’s not true, but the man doesn’t know any better,
Taki realized. The bluff seemed to work, as the ensign’s eyes went wide and he finally lowered his gun all the way.

“Explain this!” Lotte demanded.

The Khazari was silent for a moment before he let out a contemptuous laugh. White mist rose from the trench as shovelfuls of lime landed on bloody backs. Small, dusty mushroom clouds sprouted to mark the end of individual lives. A thousand deaths would probably make a much larger cloud, Taki figured. The other paramilitaries turned their attention back to smoking and taking sips of local moonshine from their flasks. From within the trench, someone’s moans were smothered by a shovel smashed into brain.

“You witches are good fighters but you’re kind of stupid. What the fuck does this look like to you? It’s a purge, plain and simple. We had the scum dig their own graves and then we plugged them in the heads.”

“My squad took care of all the resistance at the gates. None of these people were the ones shooting at you!”

“Look, wench, these are subhuman scum and rebels. They’re all plotting to kill us anyway.”

“That’s ‘captain’ to you. You could have arrested or exiled them. To execute the entire village is boorish excess, and no honorable man could recommend this,” she snarled, glancing at the boy prisoner. Strangely, he did not weep or flail or attempt to run. He simply stood there with a look of resignation on his face.

“Do you think you can talk to me about honor, witch?” The ensign scoffed.

Lotte leaned in to stare the man in the face. “Who ordered this?”

The ensign let out a quizzical frown. “Do you have the pox? This is a mandate of the greatest hero in the lands. He gives us law. He gives us justice. Who the hell are you? Just a grunt like us. Forget it and go back before you end up dead.”

“This isn’t justice. This is just murder, whether willed by a hero or not.”

“Whatever you want to call it, I really don’t give a shit. It’s either them or us.”

“I will be sending a full report to the exarch of the Temple. This will not go unnoticed. Your lord will be censured and it will be your fault.”

“Go ahead. Also, hand over that prisoner of yours. Then fuck off.
Captain.
”

“By the Hoplite’s Code, this prisoner is ours,” Taki blurted out.
Shit. Again I’ve spoken out of turn, and to an officer, no less.
But even this thought seemed tiny in comparison to the increasing indignation he felt. There was no possible way the Hero of the Dominion was really ordering these men. The only logical explanation was that the squad had been duped. Yes, these men were the actual Imperial agents, sent to discredit the Hero by committing dishonorable acts in his name. Taki could not help the people in the trench, but if he saved Marko’s life, the boy’s testimony would help inform the Hero of pervasive treason among the rank-and-file.

“Fine, keep him.” The ensign raised his kalash and shot Marko in the chest. The boy’s eyes widened in shock before he crumpled to the ground and bled out.