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He continued in that vein, explaining the self-evident to people who already knew the plan by heart. Rajiv ignored him. Looking ahead, down the tu
"You're doing good, boy," said the Mongoose. "Really, really good."
All things considered, Rajiv decided the Roman cataphract was right.
To be sure, this was not something he'd ever brag about. On the other hand…
When did you ever hear your father brag? came that little, back-of-the-mind voice.
The answer was: Never.
Rajiv had noticed that, in times past. Now, finally, he thought he understood it. And, for the first time in his life, came to feel something for his father beyond love, admiration and respect.
Simple affection. Nothing fancy. Just the sort of fondness that a man-a woman too, he supposed-feels when he thinks about someone who has shared a task and a hardship.
When they reached the shelter, even Valentinian took a deep breath.
"Well," he muttered, "this is where we find out. God damn all Biharis-miners down to newborn babes-if it doesn't."
The Ye-tai just looked blank-faced. Anastasius' eyes flicked about the small chamber, with its massive bracing. "Looks good, anyway."
It seemed fitting, somehow, for Rajiv to finally take charge. "Place the barrier." It seemed silly to call that great heavy thing a "door."
He pointed to it, propped against the entrance they'd just come through. "Anastasius, you're the only one strong enough to hold it in place. Valentinian, you set the braces. You"-this to the Ye-tai-"help him."
The work was done quickly. The last of it was setting the angled braces that supplemented the great cross-bars and strengthened the door by propping it against the floor.
There was no point in waiting. The shelter would either hold, or they'd all be crushed. But there'd be no point to any of it if Rajiv didn't blow the last charges before the surviving Malwa in the palace that was now over a hundred yards distant as well as many feet above them had time to realize what had happened.
"I guess you'd better-" Valentinian started to say, but Rajiv's hand had already driven home the plunger.
"Well, shit," he added, before the earthquake made it impossible to talk at all.
The Malwa general in command of the entire operation had remained outside the palace. After he was knocked off his feet, he stared dumbfounded as the walls of the palace seemed to erupt all around the base.
The palace came down, like a stone avalanche.
Some of those stones were large, others were really pieces of wall that had somehow remained intact.
Some were blown a considerable distance by the explosion. Others bounced, after they fell.
Scrambling frantically, the general managed to avoid all the ones sent sailing by the blast. But as close as he'd been standing, he didn't escape one section of wall-a very big section-as it disintegrated.
A few minutes later, his second-in-command and now successor was able to finally piece together the few coherent reports he could get.
There weren't many, and they weren't all that coherent. Only three of the soldiers who had gone into the palace were still alive, and one of them was too badly injured to talk. None of the soldiers who'd gone into the cellar had survived, of course.
But he was pretty sure he knew what had happened, and hastened to make his report to Emperor Skandagupta.
In his own far greater palace, the Emperor waited impatiently for the officer to finish.
When he was done, Skandagupta shook his head. "They all committed suicide? That's nonsense."
He pointed at the officer. "Execute this incompetent."
Once that was done, the Emperor gave his orders. They were not complicated.
"Dig. Remove all the rubble. There's an escape tu
Carefully-very carefully-none of his advisers allowed any of their dismay to show. Not with the Emperor in such a foul and murderous mood.
Not one of them wanted to draw his attention. It would take days to clear away all that rubble. Long, long days, in which the Emperor would probably have at least one or two more men executed for incompetence.
At least. As the advisers assigned to the task of excavation started filing out of the imperial audience chamber, Skandagupta was already giving orders to discover which incompetent-no, which traitor-in charge of the capital's munitions supply had been so corrupt or careless-no, treasonous-to allow such a huge quantity of gunpowder to slip through his fingers.
After the advisers reached the relative safety of the streets outside the palace, they went their separate ways to begin organizing the excavation project.
All but one of them, that is. That one, after he was certain no one was watching him, headed for Kausambi's northern gate.
The city was still in a state of semi-chaos, so soon after the word of Damodara's rebellion had spread everywhere from the telegraph stations, despite the secret police's attempts to suppress the news. The destruction of Lady Damodara's palace, right in the middle of the imperial quarter, would simply add to it.
The adviser thought he had a good chance of slipping out of the city u
True, the adviser had no co
Fortunately, his wife and two children had remained in their home town farther down the Ganges. With luck he could get there in time to get them out. He had enough money on his person to bribe the guards at the gate and even hire transport. There was considerably more money in their mansion. With that, they might be able to escape into Bengal somewhere…
Beyond that, he thought no further. There was no point in it. He could feel the Malwa Empire cracking and breaking under his feet. With that greatest of all the world's certainties shaking, what man could possibly foresee the future?
He made it out of the city. But, within a day, was captured by a cavalry patrol. The Emperor had soon considered that possibility also, and had placed a ban on any officials leaving Kausambi without written orders. By then, his savage punitive actions had terrified the city's soldiery enough that the guards at the gate whom the adviser had bribed prattled freely to the secret police.
Before noon of the next day, the adviser's body was on a stake outside Skandagupta's palace. Four days later, the bodies of his wife and two children joined him. The soldiers had some trouble fitting the boy, since he was only three.
Not much, however. By then, Skandagupta's fury was cutting through the imperial elite like a scythe, and small stakes were being prepared. Plenty of them.