Guns of the Temple (The Polaris Chronicles Book 1) (21 page)

Lotte scowled and adjusted her grip on her weapon. “
Sirrah,
you seem to have mistaken us for limp-dicked mercenaries scooting around on our knees to fellate the first invader we come across. In truth, we all want nothing more than to rip open your throats and piss on the Imperial flag. Also, my mother’s a raging bitch.”

She reached down and pulled a ring attached to her torso. A daisy-chain all of the hand-held explosives she could carry fell from her waist, attached to a length of braided paracord. She swept the deadly charm necklace forward and then snapped it like a whip, sending its bangles flying at Alfa Gruppe. A catastrophe of pull-pins, striker levers, and live grenades clinked on the ground around their feet. Aslatiel
glowered when realized what had happened, and he instantly whirled to make his escape.

“
Now
!” Lotte screamed as she yanked Taki and Draco by their scruffs and hurled them with all her might. They hit the locked gate and the padlock broke against the strain. The doors fell open and they tumbled through. Karma dragged the bloody duke through with Hadassah’s help. A second later, the alleyway was enveloped in blinding firelight.

Taki cuffed the side of his own head again to drive back mounting tinnitus. A migraine made him feel as if one of the Alfa had driven a spike from the top of his head all the way to his groin. Although he knew that wasn’t really the case, he was beginning to wish for the lethal side-effects of an actual impalement. He counted his blessings, though. Draco had gotten the worst of the pressure wave from the blasts and leaked eschar from his right ear. The man could barely walk and streaks of vomit stained the rubble wherever he trod.

Hadassah had volunteered to watch over Draco, and secure one end of the maze-like complex they found themselves in. As far as anyone could tell, they occupied what had once been an expensive private dwelling, virtually a castle. Centuries of conflict had shaved off all but the bottom three floors of the place. Fortunately, it had good chokepoints and narrow hallways that would make getting to the duke a deadly ordeal. Their only chance to hold out against their attackers was to turn everything around them into a horrific maze of traps and ambush points. Hadassah’s guns were out of ammunition, so Taki had lent her his Bastard in exchange for Draco’s sidearm.

Taki looked down at the antiquated revolver and realized he had not the faintest clue how to reload the thing. There were five shots left, including the slug in the secondary barrel. He considered saving the big one for himself. Ursalans usually tortured prisoners to death unless promised a sizable ransom. Taki had no land, servants, or even spare milligrad to his name, so there was no telling what the Imperium would do to him. Especially after what his captain had said to the spetsnaz commander. Remembering her words made him tingly and brought a smile to his face.

Lotte and Karma were up on a higher floor guarding the duke. Gul’s men had been scattered by the attack on the parade, but given enough time, they would be able to repel a poorly-armed rebel force and recover their master. Tirefire the Lesser was there to buy time until that happened, but with the Imperials stalking the premises, Taki wasn’t sure the strategy would work.

At the edge of his vision, a shadow flitted past a crumbling doorway. Taki was savvy enough to not believe he was merely seeing things. He gripped the revolver, squatted against a broken concrete partition, and tried to calm himself. The fact that he was still alive meant that the enemy didn’t know where he was. Concealment was the most important factor in survival now. The enemy could not kill what he or she could not see.
Now we dance, Spetsnaz.

The top of the crumbling barrier exploded above his head and showered him with gritty, gray dust. Taki clamped his mouth shut to stifle a shout of surprise and willed himself with all his might to stay still. The enemy was trying to provoke him into moving or firing back. Such a course of action would only serve to expose him to concentrated fire, but if he could stay still and focus on where the shots originated from, he would know where his attacker was.
Set guard, O Lord, over my mouth; keep watch over mine lips.

The next shot punched a jagged exit wound in the concrete, mere millimeters from Taki’s shoulder. He trembled. Did the enemy know where he was hiding? If so, the next round would hit him for sure. He closed his eyes and started to bite his nails. His armor would hopefully stop the round if it lost enough velocity from boring through stone. Though the thought of getting hit filled him with wretched anxiety, it was essential not to move. The shots were coming from the northeast corner of the crumbling floor, and if the bullets weren’t ricocheting, that meant there was a direct line of sight.

Another gunshot rang out, but this time the bullet hit more laterally than the one which had almost maimed him. Taki’s eyes widened. Now he knew where the spetsnaz was. Trying to slowly flank his attacker was one option, but a smart enemy might already be on the move. What was needed was a direct, devastating attack. Taki inhaled, opened his gates, and collected power again. When he was almost at the breaking point, he whirled into the open with his palms outstretched.
“Plei Khala!”
he rasped.

The energy wave exploded forward and punched into Lucatiel at almost point-blank range as she rounded a corner with her pistols raised to blow his head off. The impact lifted her off her feet and flung her back through rotting drywall before punching her mass through the crumbling brick exterior. The last Taki saw of her were sapphire eyes flaring with vengeful indignation before gravity reasserted itself and she disappeared from sight.

When he realized what had transpired, Taki pumped his fist in victory. He was avenged now. Despite the triumph he felt, however, something nagged at him. Lucatiel wouldn’t have been able to traverse that much broken flooring in so little time after the last shot. That meant…

He heard the kiai shout a millisecond before he felt Aslatiel’s heel slam into his torso from a flying kick. As Taki hurtled through the air and crashed through termite-eaten studs, he retched a stream of yellow bile. His vision blurred when his back hit the front of a chest of drawers, but the softness of millions of accumulated moth and beetle cocoons within cushioned the blow and prevented him from losing consciousness. Through the man-shaped hole he’d made, Taki saw Aslatiel reach into a holster and draw a pistol. Fueled by adrenaline, Taki dove away from the shattered armoire before three rounds crashed into the spot where he’d been. He whipped around and tried to send another Khala burst at where he thought Aslatiel was. The sutra went wide and hit a solid pylon, causing the entire ceiling to buckle wildly. This sent a blinding plume of dust everywhere and plunged the entire floor into a haze of white.

Taki tried to breathe through the thick fabric of his neckerchief to avoid coughing and giving his location up. While the result of his spellcasting wasn’t quite what he had intended, it had at least bought him some time to recover and think. He was out of usable prana for the moment, so he readied his revolver and drew back its hammer. The damned antique clicked and clacked far too loudly, in his opinion.

“Well-done, Corporal Natalis,” Aslatiel said. “I am glad to see your injury wasn’t permanent.”

Taki tried to aim at the voice but saw nothing. He remained silent.

“Worry not about betraying your position,” Aslatiel said. “I’m as blind as you are in this mess, and even if I were drawn to the sound of your voice, I’d just get tripped up along the way. Why don’t we chat for a bit while this clears?”

“Why are you even here?” Taki demanded. “The front’s elsewhere.”

“We’re here because the people of this land need our help.”

Taki spat. “You’re here because you want territory for your padishah.”

“Wrong. We are the only Imperial force in the duchy. You seriously think we could occupy this place by force?”

“Don’t tell me you’re opposing the duke out of the goodness of your hearts,” Taki scoffed. He pricked his ears up and tried to locate his opponent. Aslatiel’s voice sounded reassuringly distant. Still safe.

“I saw the aftermath of New Petrovic. And if I’m not mistaken, you were there, too.”

“And if I was?”

“Then you know exactly why the people of this land asked for our assistance,” Aslatiel said. “Thus, I have a question for you. Why do you fight to protect the duke, and the men above him who foster such conditions? You don’t seem like an evil person.”

“You’re assuming a lot! I just pitched your sister off a building, you know.”

“Lucatiel is a plum blossom. Beautiful and impossible to kill. But you’re dodging my question, Corporal.”

“I was ordered to protect and serve the duke. That’s all there is to it.”

“So if you had been ordered to kill each and every one of those villagers at New Petrovic, would you have done so?”

“I’m a soldier of the Cloud Temple! I don’t have a choice!”

“So you’re just a tool?”

Taki grit his teeth. “Exactly.”

“Guns and swords are tools,” Aslatiel said. “They have no conscience or agency of their own. But you, Sir Taki, are a human being with ample measures of both. You cannot escape accountability for your actions. If you ignore your moral duty and just say ‘I was following orders,’ then it falls to people like me to dispose of people like you.”

“Then what would you do, Sir Aslatiel, if your padishah ordered you to kill a thousand innocents? Are you not beholden to his will as well?”

“Two shots to his chest followed by one to the head.”

“Isn’t he your better?”

“Maybe he is, maybe he isn’t. What matters, is you. Your willingness to speak up in the face of what you believe to be a grievous wrong.”

“But I can’t! I’m just not powerful enough!”

“Again, you’re wrong. We all have the power to change things, especially from within,” Aslatiel said. “I’ve studied the Dominion and its ways. And I think you and I both know that there’s something very wrong at its core.”

“It’s still my country. My kingdom! I know nothing else.”

“You can love your nation while acknowledging its faults.”

Taki’s eyes watered.
Just the dust.
“Look, damn you. I just want to help my friends live another day. It’s all I can do.”

“Then try to make theirs a home worth returning to.”

“Why are you even saying this stuff to me? Aren’t you trying to put a round in my head?”

“I was, but you’re worth saving, I think.”

“That’s presumptuous. Why the hell are you allowed to determine my worth?” Taki demanded.

“Because I've got the drop on you.”

Taki felt the unmistakable imprint of a muzzle resting against the back of his head. The LeMat was wrenched from his grasp in the same breath. His heart sank. He had fallen into Aslatiel’s trap. The speech about not being able to find him in all of the dust, about conscience and agency, all of it had been an elaborate deception. Lotte had been right.
Never talk philosophy with the enemy, you dimwit.
Now he would die a corporal in Tirefire the Lesser. Taki closed his eyes and prepared for ignominious eternity.

“It’s good to see you again,” Aslatiel said, and stepped back. Taki turned, his hands raised. It was the first time he had truly seen Aslatiel up close, and realized he was a Chung-Kuo.
At least my destroyer looks better than me
, he thought.

“Aren’t you going to kill me?” Taki asked.

“There’s no need at the moment. Next time we meet, though, I might have to. Use your remaining time wisely, Sir Taki. I will remember you.”

Aslatiel slowly slipped back into the haze of dust and vanished.

“Am I safe now?” the duke bellowed at Karma as the polaris set him down on a tattered mattress to examine him.

“Yeah, I think so,” Karma said. “You’re losing a lot of blood from your scalp, so hold still while I heal you.” He moved and spoke off-kilter, and his skin had an ashen look to it. Nevertheless, he placed his palms over the duke’s head wounds and concentrated. Within a few minutes, the bleeding cuts had turned into angry-looking mounds topped with scabs.

“Good. I feel better now,” the duke said. He rose from his seat and promptly sucker-punched Karma in the jaw. Unprepared for the assault, Karma went sprawling on the ground in a heap. “You stupid fuck! It is your fault they nearly killed me. I’m going to fucking kill
you!”
he screamed, stomping his iron-shod heels on Karma’s back and head.

“Milord! Stop this at once!” Lotte commanded, advancing on the pair. The duke merely slapped her across the face with his palm. She did not try to block it or strike back. Better he struck her with his palm then Karma with his metal boots. Were he anything else but a lord of the realm and a hero of the Dominion, his head would have been freed from his body. Lotte still followed the rules, fraying as they were in this instant.

“Shut up, stupid cunt! I am ennobled by the basileus! If you lay a fucking hand on me, you’re dead!”

“You have no authority to punish my men. Corporal Gillette is mine alone to discipline!” Lotte shouted back, her face turning an angry red where Gul had struck her.