Hederick, The Theocrat

"These precious objects will be better used in the holy setting of the temple Erolydon than in the lair of heretics," Dahos proclaimed. "We will consecrate them first, of course."

"My husband will avenge this!" Ceci snapped. "What are you going to do with us-pitch a woman and children off the walkway, pious coward that you are?" Ceci's daughter burst into tears, but her mother continued her brave but foolhardy speech. "My husband will have your head for this, High Priest. He'll go to the Highseekers Council in Haven! We are under Hederick's protection, I tell you!"

"Silence!" Dahos thundered.

Yellow Eyes flourished a short-handled sword before Ceci's face. Discomfited as much by his rancid breath as by the violent gesture, she clamped her mouth shut and glared at the smelly creature. Her children swarmed around her, but the goblins forced them back into line.

Then Ceci heard the screams in the distance. Loons, she thought at first. But the only loons in Solace would be nesting out at northern Crystalmir Lake, out of earshot. Along with the screeches came the unmistakable thrum shy;ming of wings. The strange sound grew nearer.

Defiance drained from Ceci Vakon. Her youngest son spun around.

"Mama!" he cried. "Huge bats!" She whirled. "Night hunter bats!" she breathed. Ceci lunged forward to drag her children into the house. But Yellow Eyes and the others easily pinioned their captives. There were eight giant bats-each one seven feet long. Their eyes, some red, some violet like their fur, glowed in the night. They could kill easily with the claws that glit shy;tered at the end of their papery wings. They could kill just as deftly with their rapier-sharp, triangular tails. And, of course, like any Kry

"Death to heretics!" Dahos bellowed again at the silent houses of Solace. "Gather by your windows and watch, sinful people. Witness the fate of those who reject lives of holiness offered in the sanctity of the New Gods!"

Each bat plucked up a human in its claws. Holding their captives by the scruff of their nightclothes, the bats fluted and screeched as they bore away their screaming victims.

"Take them to the slave trader Arabat!" Dahos shouted over the noise. "He waits on the southern edge of town."

Mindless of the consequences if the bat dropped her, Ceci twisted back toward the high priest, her nightrobe swirling in the humid air.

"My husband …" she shouted.

"… is dead, Madam," Dahos finished for her. "Or soon will be."

* * * * *

Mendis Vakon heard faint screams as he crouched in the darkness before Erolydon's wrought-iron gate. He was north of Solace, and whatever emitted that caterwaul shy;ing was headed in the other direction. Small blessing, he thought; the screeching gave him gooseflesh. He scrambled to his feet and stood before the long, solid, white walls of the temple.

Avoiding the bustle of Solace, Hederick had chosen to build his blessed temple on the shores of peaceful Crys shy;talmir Lake less than a league north of the city. Hederick hated dirt, and cities, even treetop communities like Solace, had a lot of dirt. Hederick also loathed noise- unless he himself was making it, Mendis Vakon thought sourly. Solace had plenty of pandemonium, too. Espe shy;cially now, with refugees arriving every day, telling their unbelievable tales.

This wooded place, however, was as quiet as a crypt. Unfortunate thought. Mendis tried to pretend his heart was not hammering like that of a terrified mouse.

The silver and scarlet moons of Kry

The stout wooden i

From inside the compound, the scrape of a footstep on cobblestone sent Vakon jumping, and he cursed inwardly. In a short time I will be well away from here, he said to himself. I'll have money to last to the end of my days. And I'll not deal with this madman, or any of his Seekers, again.

The i

"Over here, idiot!" came a whisper. "Do you want someone to see you?"

Mendis Vakon peered toward the shadow of the wall and spied the short, lumpy man whom all Solace had come to fear. Despite the languid heat, the High Theocrat wore a heavy dark cape over his brown and gold-braid robe. His gray hair was unaccountably dark and thick, and Valcon realized Hederick was wearing the ludicrous wig he sometimes do

as near as anyone could guess, with bulging blue eyes that had faded long ago, a spongy, bulbous nose, thin hair, and the mottled complexion that came from imbibing too much mead for too many years.

Vakon held himself with his most military bearing and strode toward the High Theocrat. He was taller than the religious leader, and he relished the fact that it a

"You took your time opening the gate," Vakon com shy;plained. "Anyone could have seen me out there."

"At midnight?" Hederick retorted. "I opened it at the promised time, no sooner and no later." He motioned for Vakon to follow him. They headed between the outer wall and a lower, i

Mendis hesitated, then spoke warily. "I want my money. Where are you taking me?"

"To get it, fool. Did you think I would just open the gate and throw it through?"

"Where is it, then?" Just to be safe, Vakon lingered a few paces back.

Hederick stepped from the outer corridor, opened a door into Erolydon's central courtyard. Keys jangling, he unlocked a plain wooden portal that was off to one side of the temple's huge main entrance. He stepped into a pitch-black hallway. Vakon stopped just outside the door. "Why aren't we using the main doors, Hederick?"

The High Theocrat's carefully modulated voice, which had lulled thousands of Seeker converts over the past decades, echoed out of the tu

The floor was slick, scored with deep striations. Vakon could feel the ruts through the thin soles of his dress slip shy;pers. The tu

"Of course, lunatic," Hederick snapped back. "I declared a night of prayer and fasting for priests and novitiates alike. I have ordered all to remain in their quar shy;ters tonight."

"So? We're safe then."

"That means they'll be confined-but awake-you fool. Now be silent."

Vakon started to retort, then he reminded himself of the wealth that soon would be his, and held his tongue.

Mendis Vakon believed in no gods-Old Gods, Seeker gods, or otherwise. The Seekers, true, were manipulative, cu