When Boyce and Lloyd returned home, Zoro flew down to his master's shoulder from the mansion's roof top.
"Zoro! There you are!" said Boyce. He had wondered what had become of him, at the cathedral.
They went into the house and soon found Empal waiting for both of them in the room that was Brook's viewing den.
He had come in through the underground passage from the Joenine Forest.
"Empal, our dear friend!" said Boyce, and he and Lloyd shook hands with him.
"I'm surprised that the passages, beneath this place are still in very good shape." he said.
"Have you told the alignment to mobilize for its advance on Phoride?" asked Lloyd.
"That was why you sent me back there, and I have done your bidding."
"Very good, General!" praised Boyce.
"I had also brought some things for you. A gift from Lloyd's father, Harvard." he told them and Lloyd wondered what his father could possibly send to him and Boyce from Besten.
Empal opened the passage door and went in, soon coming back into the room with two large and heavy looking sacks.
"This is yours, Boyce!" Empal said handing him one of the large sacks.
Lloyd took the other one when handed to him, and when they opened up the sacks, what they found was the beautiful sight of armour.
The armour was of gilded gold, bolted onto sweaters made of woven lead and steel, fitting perfectly over the wearer's form, as it was the nature for such armour to behave.
Electrophore-laser rifles were in each sack with two energy cells for each weapon, and to supplement fighting, arm-length tempered sabres were given to them, as well.
Both men received helmets characteristic of their own personalities.
Lloyd had received a helmet made of silver, symbolising steadfast loyalty and promise to serve. it had a low fall to the back and the front, covering the forehead was square and moulded into the figure of a computer.
Three great spikes jutted along the centre crest of the helmet from the frontal section to the hinges of the fall.
Boyce's helmet was also very impressive. It was perfectly rounded and was made of thick gold. The round front section, that covered half of his forehead, had a horizontal, oblong inset of the bluest sapphires that could be found and on the top back of his helmet was a cluster of three long plumes, of straight blue horse-tail hair.
Each single knot of hair was of a slightly different shade and hue of blue, and when the light hit the clusters, they all shimmered like a clear waterfall.
"Your father has exquisite taste!" Boyce said to Lloyd.
Lloyd nodded and Empal continued to help the men to remove a large box from each bag, and the men opened them. Within each box was a shiny cross bow.
"These are beautiful!" sighed Lloyd.
"I wonder if we'll use them?" asked Boyce.
"Where will you keep these things?" inquired Empal and Boyce smiled at him, raising his finger to the air.
He took from around his neck a key and put it into the slot of the cabinet doors and opened them.
The cabinet was empty but Boyce pushed a part of the back panel and the inside compartment swung around to reveal the men's maps and hand guns.
Everything was hung on certain hooks and the entire case was beautiful.
Before Boyce was to close the cabinet, Empal took out of Boyce's sack one more piece of armour. It was a body harness with shoulder protectors made of gold and long strips of black onyx, resembling feathers.
Boyce and Lloyd laughed a little when they saw the beautiful Virunese air command epaulette.
Empal wondered why they were laughing at the gift that he had included for Boyce. He was somewhat irritated and insulted by it until he was told the reason.
"Black feathers jutting, Lloyd." Boyce grinned while he spoke.
"I thought of Zoro when I first heard them say it!" admitted Lloyd.
"I believe that they did, too, but it didn't fit their interpretation.
That's why they called us to talk to them." said Boyce.
He put the epaulette-body brace into the cabinet and swung the interior around to the empty false front, and he closed the cabinets.
"Later this evening Tucker and his cousin Tellis are flying in two eagles for you." said Empal. "He will bring them to the back of the mansion, on the base of the hill. No one will see them there or think of checking there."
Empal conveyed to them the expectant time of arriving invasion force, letting them know that most of the main fighting force would be in Phoride within a week, with the second wave being a day behind.
Zoro cawed. He enjoyed looking at the shiny metals of the armour but the discussion that took place afterwards was making him restless.
When Boyce asked Empal to stay for supper, Zoro flew out the den's window and flew around Pomperaque for a while until he disappeared.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
There was a great dinner party at Halls the next evening.
Orren was against the idea of having it but the ArchBishop apparently was very warm for his idea.
It has reached the point for Manguino that his whole days spent with Eckma in the act of fornication was beginning to tire him. He wanted an interesting diversion in order to get his life to seem fulfilling and exciting once again.
Orren didn't participate. He went up to the cathedral's spire early and watched the sky for hours.
At the height of the gala this evening the urge returned to Manguino and he left his higher cardinals to entertain the guests while he took Eckma back to their chamber.
When they entered the chamber, disrobed and were just to get into their pool, Manguino looked to the window and saw Jessuum Benitar standing there.
"Jessuum!" exclaimed Manguino, walking towards him, still naked.
This was quite disturbing for the prophet but he said nothing about it.
"I thought that I'd never see you again!" Manguino said to him.
Jessuum looked about the chamber and saw Eckma staring right into his face while she stroked the nipple of her left breast.
He looked away from her and turned slightly away from her direction while he spoke to the ArchBishop.
"I come to ask if you remember the prophesy that I gave to you, once upon a time?" he asked Manguino.
"Yes, and don't repeat it to me!" Manguino replied in a hostile voice, then continued. "But, you can tell me something, Seer. Are the two men from Besten, Boyce Loebh and that Lloyd friend of his, part of that prophesy?"
"I am not here to inform one someone, or to falsely accuse another." answered Jessuum. "I am here to tell you that you will soon answer for your life and for all those things which you have done throughout it. Be warned and prepare yourself!"
Manguino began to stomp in anger and he boiled with a fit of temper, brought on by Jessuum's strange way of frightening — by not saying very much.
He turned back to Jessuum but Jessuum was gone. This made the
ArchBishop even more angry.
"Where'd he go?" he hollered.
"Out the window!" Eckma said in an apathetic tone.
Manguino looked about the window and saw nothing but a little bird circling around the windows below him.
"That strange man will be the end of me!" Manguino said, then he sprinted back to the pool, jumped in and had his usual violent sex with Eckma.
Up in the spire of the cathedral, Orren was staring at the moon and at the rest of the sky; and not long after midnight he once again saw the Angels of Mons coming towards Pomperaque, from the northern sky.
They were the same four Mons that he saw before but this time they all separated and descended upon the streets of the city.
However, the Mons did not ride the streets. They did, in fact, ride a meter above them.
Cardinal Orren was nervous and frightened beyond his reasoning and he couldn't sleep. He spent the remainder of the night in his bed chamber reading the scripted words of Jessuum Benitar, to see what more he could recover from its cryptic verses.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
The week was nearing its end and the invasion force, including the intended second wave support, would soon be pouring into the northern perimeters of Upper Phoride.
Boyce and his right arm, Lloyd, ran around the mansion and parts of Pomperaque wishing all those who were voluntarily enlisted to their cause, the greatest of luck and they let them know that the forces would be along.
Everyone knew that they would be the advance lines that were to try and take Pomperaque, and the rest of Phoride, from within.
They had all noticed a sudden concentration of monastic police, walking the streets and securing certain important streets and buildings.
Mingo and bix were worried that those at Halls knew something but Lloyd had explained to them the prophesy that the Seer from Mount Benitar had given to the ArchBishop and they were becoming lunatics because of it.
"Just relax, men. They will wait until they see more signs in the sky, like there were last night. They will interpret those as bad omens. They expect a takeover that is more supernatural than a take-over made by the discontented people of this city."
Lloyd somehow made sense to them and they became calm again and they were sent to round up all those who offered their support to Boyce and they took them to the underground passage running beneath the Blue Mansion.
Lloyd and Boyce had gone to the other side of Bimini Hill, at its base, where Tellis was keeping the two eagles calm and happy.
"Beautiful, are they not?" asked Tellis and the two men nodded with admiration and helped to feed the majestic birds.
"I am amazed that men could domestic them!" Lloyd said in a soft exclamation.
"They are fit for kings to fly!" Tellis looked at Boyce when he said that and Boyce was pleased by it.
They made their war up the hill when they were finished with Tellis and they didn't go into the mansion right away.
They were silent for the most part, while climbing, but when they came to the back of the mansion, where the beautiful garden was, they sat down on a warm marble bench and reflected on the past for a while.
"We have gone through much in our lives." Boyce said as he sighed. "Now, the hour approaches. I hope that I will take Phoride as mine — as we had promised my father."
"Those were great years." agreed Lloyd. "We learned much, and have seen more than the most men see in ten lifetimes."
"That is so, my friend. What's more, we could never have done it without you and your family. I needed your guidance and you obliged by giving me the fullest possible education that you could."
"I had learned just as much through your help, Boyce." said Lloyd, with a degree of modesty that made what Boyce had said before, less than fantastic.
As the two men talked so did Orren, at Halls. He had a private council with the high cardinals and he arranged with all of them to bring into Pomperaque, the entire monastic army.
It wasn't unusual that all the high cardinals would give their consent to Orren's requests. They, too, had seen the strange signs in the skies and each one of them had their own ideas concerning the meaning to the Seer's prophesy.
When Manguino found out about the armies being put on a battle alert status he was enraged. He didn't want to have a battle because he believed that the city had nothing to fear. Only he, he thought, had a threat on his life and rule.
Jessuum Benitar had told him that he would answer for his actions and that he should prepare himself, but in that, there was no indication of war. He had imagined that the ancient Christ would judge him. That was odd since he had kept that ancient religion from the people, as did the Canon Di'Vaticanus, from so long ago.
The ArchBishop didn't know what to do and no one could give him advice that sounded sane. His prophet didn't come to him any more and he knew that it was his own fault for being lewd towards the only one who could possibly help him.
He should've controlled Phoride and his life differently, he now began to think. He thought that he could have had the same power, as he now has, if he had half as many people executed and had partaken less in his debauchery with whatever women he could invade, under the excuse of wanting progeny. Maybe he cursed himself, and it wasn't Brook's curse that produced horrid creatures and idiots as his children.
He wondered if he could save himself if he got to his knees and prayed for his forgiveness from the True Living God, which he still didn't love or believe in.
He promised to kill no more or crave to look upon or participate in sexual obscenities with women and, like a few untold times, with men and animals.
He didn't know how to react to Orren himself. Orren had been rash and quick i having all his men take their respective positions in the city, but Manguino couldn't tell him why he should not have done it.
Boyce and Lloyd saw the interesting manoeuvres of the Cardinal Orren's army, all stationed facing outward from the city, waiting for an attack from outside.
There was news from Orren's spies in the north. The messages stated that the Bestenese army had disappeared.
Orren waited for an invasion.
All the activity amused Boyce and Lloyd. They predicted that the monastic army would be called to defense ready alert when the ArchBishop's spies informed Halls about the move south by the Northern United Alignment forces. The surprise attack from within the city would take Orren's army, totally by surprise.
In the evening the ArchBishop called Orren to the office and Orren became impatient during their talk.
Orren wanted to go to the spire and watch the skies again, but Manguino wanted to talk about himself and his thoughts about the prophesy. He came to the office with the prophesy rolled up in a sheet of off-white paper. He had read the words some more this afternoon and became angered at the great ArchBishop's naivete of it.
He stormed into the office and just stared at Manguino.
"With the drug that Polis had developed from the old formula," said Manguino while staring out of the window, "I thought that I would live forever."
He looked at Orren for a moment and thought about the remarkable resemblance he had to his father, the late Cardinal Allen.
"I do so love power. Anything that I wanted I would get, no matter what it was!" he said to Orren, then looked out of the window again.
Orren came closer to him.
"So are the benefits of having no one above you to be afraid of, Your
Grace." he told Manguino.
He laughed and with wet eyes he continued to speak in a soft voice while he rubbed his groin.
"Power is beautiful. If I demanded to someone to kiss my scrotum, it would be done. If I commanded someone to rub my refuse over themselves, or even to eat my refuse, it would be done."
Manguino's tone of speaking was soft and had a pleasurable quality about it, as if the imagery that he was conveying to Orren was pleasing to himself.
Orren felt disgusted but tried not to let it show, and he began to speak of something other than the fantasies that go with power.
"You do not have to worry about being overrun, Holiness!" he told
Manguino. "My army is out there ready to die for you, if necessary."
"That would be a beautiful sight to see, I think. I will bless each one in paradise when they die." he muttered.
"My men also fight for the survival of our ways, in Phoride." Orren reminded the ArchBishop that there was more than just he, as a reason to fight in Pomperaque.
"There has been a great error on your part, so I believe!" Orren said.
"I cannot make errors!" the ArchBishop rebuked him. "Watch your words, Orren. No matter if you are my most favoured cardinal I will have you killed if you continue."
"Have me killed, then! If you can find someone who will do it!" Orren threatened back to his master.
Manguino was angry, and like a child, he turned his face back to the window and pouted as he stared out.
"I have found that the prophesy is clear, and yet we all have sought interpretations." he explained. "Yours is an error of trust. You have disregarded the two Bestenese and their crow, and you have disregarded my vision of the mons, as being omens of our destruction. I am prepared for anything, even if you are not!" he blurted at Manguino.
"Prepared!" Manguino screamed. "Prepare yourself! — that's what
Jessuum Benitar said before my ejaculation!"
"You are behaving as if you are mad, Manguino!" Orren pointed at him as he drew nearer. "It's not becoming of someone of your greatness."
"Yes, I see that — and I also see that you are not kind towards me while I am troubled about what is being done to me!"
Orren shook the written prophesy in his hand and he returned to a steadier and more controlled way of speaking to his master.
"We can only see that which is written but after it happens." Orren sounded as if he understood the prophesy and he wanted to reveal his knowledge to Manguino. "I have read about my vision of the Mons, that bird on the stranger's shoulder, your trust of the two men and your feast afterwards — "
" — What are you talking about?" Manguino interrupted him.
"I am talking about the prophesy, Your Grace. It is clearly states and no interpretation is needed."
There was a convulsive silence in the room. It lasted only for a blink of an eye, but seemed like an eternity.
"Let me see that, Orren!" he demanded.
Orren unravelled the document and read aloud from it:
"Four elements, ride on high
Come from the greatest fears inside.
All suspicions end with feast
Of gilded skins and threaded beads — "
Manguino began to stomp his feet as he screamed at the top of his voice, that carried through every part of Halls, for Orren to stop.
"Stop. Don't read it! Don't read it!"
He rushed to him but tripped on the robe that he was wearing over his naked body, and Orren skipped to another familiar part of the transcript.
"Black feathers from his shoulders jut
As promised in the Holy verbal blab
Shall come and take his place that day
And rule the city where he once did play."
Manguino raved, screaming to Orren to stop reading the words out loud to him.
"Stop it, you fool! You don't know what you're doing!"
Suddenly there was a silent spell, after Manguino went down on his knees and pounded the floor with his fists.
Far in the distance the cawing of Boyce's crow, Zoro, was heard as it circled around the city in a frenzy.
Orren helped Manguino to his feet and they went over to the window.
The moon was out and it was full, its light filling in the shadows of the buildings made by the city pole lights.
As they watched, red streaks began to etch themselves across the surface of the moon. It looked as if it was bleeding and very soon the entire surface was red.
Manguino and Orren both felt ice-cold as they watched the four Angels of Mons appear before the moon and ride towards the city.
The sky around the Mons flashed with lightning that was absent of thunder, and overhead they saw a great comet slowly pass into the horizon.
They fell aback as if hit by a huge boulder.
"What happened?" cried Manguino as he held on to Orren's arm.
Orren pushed him away and as he got to his feet he felt the floor tremble beneath him.
"It was an earthquake, or maybe it wasn't — I don't know!" said
Orren, a little bit irritated by Manguino's effeminate actions.
They thrust their heads out the window and watched the Mons slowly walk their horses through the streets. The horses' clip-clop echoed throughout the city, replacing the thunder when the lightning flashed.
Halls shook, but the rest of the city appeared to be calm and oblivious to the signs.
"You are truly stupid for reading the manuscript to me. I have told you many times, never read it to me. I made that a law. You have brought doom to Phoride."
Cardinal Orren listened to the ArchBishop and when he was finished, turned to him.
"How you have ruled Phoride for such a time is beyond me, Manguino, but if you will, I will take responsibility for whatever befalls this great land." he promised Manguino, then added. "You go back and practice your bestial arts with Eckma, and with whomever else strikes your fancy. I have served you for a long time, and I will continue to serve you until one of us dies!"
He huffed towards the office doors before he exited the room and he stopped.
"Jessuum should've warned me about you!" Manguino hollered at Orren.
"You can go fornicate with Jessuum, as well. He may just give you the pleasure that you have been searching for."
Orren slammed the door of the office and Manguino turned his head and looked out of the window.
Zoro was flying around squawking his head off while the stars, in the dawn sky, began to fade away.
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
Something strange had taken place over the last couple of weeks in Pomperaque and the rest of Phoride, as well. Under normal circumstances, something like this happening would have been welcomed by those at Halls, especially if they were the monastic guards — the police force.
Cardinal Hint, who headed the guards, had made a report to Cardinal Orren, that there has been a steady decrease in crime within Phoride over the last few weeks. He added a footnote to that by telling Orren that many of the known criminals had disappeared, not to be found anywhere in Phoride.
Orren had revealed this observation to Manguino when he went to his office to tell him that he should start arming himself.
Manguino listened to Orren, even though Orren was beginning to get on his nerves, and he agreed to prepare himself.
"I wouldn't have to do this if you didn't bring on this craziness!" the Archbishop said to
Orren, making certain that Orren knew that he would never be forgiven for his act of disobedience towards him.
"I had considered these criminals some time ago, when the renovations of the Blue Mansion were taking place, and those men used them. It strikes me as odd that these criminals have begun to vanish. There must be a reason for it!"
Orren paced around the office then sat down in the large chair in front of the ArchBishop's desk, as he spoke. He watched the ArchBishop's face. It was a as stern and rugged as he once knew it to be and Orren believed that Manguino had accepted what was happening to Phoride and himself.
"It's my opinion that we need a show of merciless strength, here in Phoride, in order to avert internal rebellion." Manguino finally said to Orren while he stood before him.
Orren looked up at him from the chair and had an expression of deep thought.
"How do you suggest we do this, Holiness?" Orren inquired. He was calm and she still respected Manguino, even though the problem between them was severe a few nights ago.
"Those criminals that have not disappeared; Cardinal Hint's men will round them up and take them to the square for execution." he answered Orren.
Orren's expression still showed deep thought and he took a deep breath and sighed.
"Do you think that executing those criminals is a good idea?"
"I have had enough people executed to be sure that I am doing rightly with this decision." answered Manguino. "It's too late, anyway, to turn compassionate!"
Orren thought so, too, and he made a little jerky nod and rose to his feet.
"I want you to do it, immediately, Cardinal Orren!"
"I had presumed as much, Almighty One!"
Orren exited the office, heading for his own command office near the defence room.
He dressed in his command uniform and headed for the defence room where some high cardinals and officers waited for him.
His uniform was impressive and frightening. His helmet was high and sickle shaped, that went from the front to the back. On the crest of the helmet, below the sickle, was a small ridge that looked like the knots of a rope. Sticking out from these knots were many barb-like pins, about finger length. It looked menacing when it was on his head and especially when he wore his chromium armour with it.
He stepped into the defence room and stood at the front of the room beside a large table.
"We have been instructed to take and execute what criminals we can find and use this act as a show of our strength. The Almighty feels that by doing this, it will deter any possible rebellion from within the city."
Cardinal Orren stood there, resembling a majestic statue of a demigod, waiting for the men that he spoke to, to ask him questions. To his surprise, the men in the room accepted the ArchBishop's suggestion and so were not opposed to the performance of the order.
"Seeing that there are no questions or statements to be made, we should go ahead with the order, immediately."
Orren left the room and went up to the cathedral's spire and gazed over the entire city of Pomperaque, as-well-as some of the surrounding countryside. The beauty of the panorama before him faded within his heart. What he observed was no longer that to which he had become accustomed. Everything looked dark and ominous even with the sun shining brightly overhead.
Scores of criminals were rounded-up and chained. They were herded, like cattle to a slaughterhouse, to the town's square. Many of them guessed what was going to happen but they couldn't believe it, and yet, there was a remarkable absence of fear within them.
The citizens of Pomperaque were already beginning to gather in the square. They, too, displayed no great fear. This disturbed Orren to his very core. He was certain the people would be touched by the event. There have been countless executions in Phoride, ordered by the ArchBishop, but always there was some semblance of trial. This time all the deaths were to be summary but there was no outcry.
The criminals knew that something unpleasant was about to happen. They realised, immediately, there was no trial. Nevertheless they remained calm and oddly curious to what was about to happen to them. Not one of the criminals — man or woman — struggled against the monastic guards who were fastening their arms and legs to the shock wall.
Word had finally reached the Blue Mansion and the hundreds of men within its underground passages. Everyone had a friend or relative that was about to be killed. Many felt they could no longer wait with their new leaders, to prevent the carnage.
Soon, five of them made their way out through the shorter passage, to the south east, to where the sea coves on Canon's Butte hides the exit.
Mingo, Bix and three other men circled around the butte and through the back streets on their way to the square. They merged with the crowd forming there then remained in their one place, watching everything that was transpiring and waiting for Orren to arrive.
Orren was riding slowly from Halls and could be seen approaching, like a demon on a cloud,
his armour glinting ominously with every fall of his horse's hooves.
Boyce was told by Cavander that Mingo, Bix and several others had gone to the square.
"They were afraid for their people, my Lord. They couldn't wait for you!"
For a moment, Boyce was angered. Lloyd, as well, especially when they found out that those men had taken with them the new electrophore-laser weapons, issued to them.
"I suppose this changes our plans somewhat!" Lloyd stated.
"It does but we'll have to go with it, now." Boyce replied as they made their way to the viewing den. "I sent Cavander to keep them from using their weapons too soon, in case something goes wrong and helps Orren's army to prepare itself for our attack. I just pray that he gets to them quickly."
"That was a wise precaution!" Lloyd praised Boyce's tactical handling of this little inconvenience.
They entered the viewing den and Boyce opened the cabinet and its secret space, revealing their treasure of armour and weapons.
They donned their armour and set their weapons in their respective holsters. Their laser rifles were strapped onto their right legs, the hand guns on their right hip belts and their sabres were hanging on their left side. They were ready for battle and they quickly made their way down tot he rear base of Bimini Hill where Tellis was keeping watch on the eagles.
Tellis was not surprised with their requests for him to prepare the birds for immediate flight. He didn't ask any questions or said a word. He did what he was told and he waited for further orders.
The saddle harnesses were quickly but effectively put on the eagles and Boyce ordered Tellis to go to the passages and order all those inside to attack the army and the guards near the centre of the city.
Tellis ran up the hill and into the mansion.
Orren had arrived at the square and he quietly looked at the people while Cardinal Hint and his police, the monastic Guards, were grouping the prisoners into fours and lining up two on each side of the shock wall.
Motorized freight cars moved near to the square and slaves were brought also, to heave the carcasses of the prisoners into the cars for shipment to the city incinerators.
Orren straightened up and motioned to the executioners and several dozen criminals were killed, each group of four being brutally forced in front of the wall, and attached to it, after seeing their friends killed. Yet, even with this, the people in the square did not respond with fear.
Orren motioned again and the executioners stopped. He turned tot he people and hollered to them.
"It was a divine order … every criminal should be executed. It's an example of what will happen to anyone that is disloyal or rebellious to the ArchBishop's ways." he said to them.
Mingo and Bix had tears in their eyes and the three other men moved to the back of Orren without being seen.
"Conspiracy and treason will be dealt with harshly, in the same manner as you all witness here, today. There will be no trials and even those who are only suspected of wrong doings towards Halls, will be executed."
Rising up behind the Blue Mansion were the two men on their eagles, riding on the base of the eagles' necks. They circled overhead, surprisingly unnoticed by those below them, and they were soon joined by Zoro, circling with them. Boyce was pleased to have Zoro near him, as luck.
Orren ordered more criminals to be killed and a dozen more men fell and were thrown into the freight cars as if they were piles of excrement being shovelled into a pit.
There was aloud cry that came from the midst of the crowd and everyone turned to it.
"DEATH TO ALL AT HALLS - DAMN THE ARCHBISHOP!!"
The cry was coming from Mingo and he began to fire his electrophore-laser towards Orren.
Orren was hit a few times but wasn't hurt, the chromium armour protecting him from the blasts. He was astonished to see that this man, who he recognized as the thief, Mingo, possessed that kind of weapon.
Soon, several more blasts were heard and Mingo fell dead, along with his brother. The others charged Orren, creaming death-cries, but Orren swung his horse around and brandished his sword at them, cutting them down, too.
"Get their weapons!" Orren ordered the nearest guard and the guard fetched them, but when he reached the dead men, there were no weapons at any one of the five bodies.
"Everyone here will die if those weapons are not recovered!" he threatened.
Above him was heard a ridiculous cawing and Orren looked up to see Boyce and Lloyd, in battle dress, gliding down towards him, with that wretched crow beside them.
Lloyd screamed down to him. "Will you die as easily by my hand, as did your father?"
Orren's eyes studied the two men's battle garb and he saw Boyce's feather-like, black onyx epaulettes. His attention, however, quickly focused upon Lloyd. An instant hatred overtook him at Lloyd's admission of killing the Cardinal Allen, his father.
"You will die, whoever you are and whatever devil had sent you here!"
"It is obvious that you are a progeny of a whore and a mad dog,
Orren!" Lloyd screamed down at him. "Get on your knees before the
son of Brook Scullion-Blue." Lloyd yelled to him and pointed at
Boyce.
A buzz rang through the crowd but it sounded both panicked and somewhat pleased. This caught Orren's attention, immediately.
"I kneel to no man!" maintained the Cardinal.
"You do when you kiss the ArchBishop's anus!" Lloyd taunted Orren and
Zoro cawed in a frenzy.
"You will die, scum!" declared the Cardinal.
"We will see, little man — and my name is Lloyd Bartlett!"
When he heard the name, Orren knew that this was the son of Harvard
Bartlett, and he was indeed the one that killed his father.
Lloyd brought forth the rifle from his leg holster and shot at the Cardinal, toppling his horse out from under him and sending him into a pile of corpses heaped beside the shock wall.
Orren got to his feet and ordered the guards to shoot them down but,
Boyce took his eagle and flew to the east, over the butte.
It was a godsend to Boyce that the armies of the alignment had reached the Joenine Forest.
The commotion had drawn curious eyes from those religious citizens of
Gothal. Lilith had a perfect view of the assembling army and she
finally caught sight of who she knew to be her beloved husband, with
Zoro still by his side.
Boyce landed and arranged for a short aerial battle to divert the monastic force's attention from the army that would charge into the city by surprise.
There was only some dozen eagles for this stage of the attack. The scores of eagles that were to fight were scheduled as the second wave that were to arrive tomorrow, but at least the cavalry was only an hour away.
Boyce hoped that Halls wouldn't know what hit them even considering the strange forewarning that they had for the invasion.
While Boyce was quickly taking charge of the operations from the
Joenine Forest, Lloyd had flown across the open ocean to find the
Bestenese navy. Before long he found them. The fleet was amassing
several kilometres to the south east of the Phoridene cost.
He landed on the flag ship and let the fleet commander know that they could make their way to Phoride, for a landing and their attack.
He soon made his way back to Pomperaque.
By this time, one of the high cardinals suggested to the ArchBishop that Lloyd had not flown out to sea for no reason and that there was probably an armada out there, somewhere.
With this suggestion, Orren was ordered t secure the coastline and he had one man placed every twenty meters on the southern shore.
If any kind of attack was to come from the sea, these soldiers would sink the modes of transportation, while still in the deep, annihilating the enemy.
Boyce was flying back towards the city as the sun began to make its way towards the far horizon.
Lloyd flew back to Halls and fought, from the air, with a few of the monastic guards that were there, keeping the ArchBishop safe.
Manguino was watching the entire show but he felt no real emotion for either side.
Cardinal Orren had come back to Halls after the two men flew off. He watched the battle
with Manguino and he was frustrated and furious.
"Look at those stupid fools!" he said to Manguino about his own guards. "They don't know what to do but die like rats in a burning pit."
"I do not worry. We will be victorious here, as always!" said Manguino, actually believing it. "I will give each of my men some of my godly power and I will fight through them!"
"You do that — but meanwhile I have to find some way to destroy their birds. Now their cavalry has come in. We have to regroup without their aerial observation of it." huffed the cardinal.
"Why don't we just shoot the birds? That shouldn't be too difficult!"
Manguino suggested.
"Our weapons don't have the range to shoot the birds that high up!"
He sat down for a moment and removed his great helmet and ran his fingers though his sweaty hair.
Manguino went to his desk and opened a side of it revealing a hidden recess. He took off a couple support bolts, a huge cross bow, similar to those that Boyce and Lloyd possessed.
He took it to the window and aimed at Lloyd's eagle as he soared by, and he shot the longest and thickest arrow, right at the bird.
The arrow pierced its way right though the bird and it convulsed in mid-air, and began to fall.
Lloyd was caught by surprise for a moment but he glided the bird to the road leading up to Halls.
He jumped off the great bird before the bird buried itself into the soft earth at the road side and he ran for cover as the guards, station above upon the quadrangle wall, shot down at him.
Boyce swooped down from above and wiped out the men from the wall and
Zoro cawed in victory, directed at Lloyd.
He and Boyce waved back to one another and Lloyd ran to the centre of town, followed by Boyce, above him. By this time the great mass of the people that congregated down in the square were embroiled in the battle. Few were fighting on the side of Halls and the square was quickly secured.
Orren sent several of Hint's men, mounted on horses, to pursue Boyce. Each of them carried a cross bow and they road headlong towards the town, after Boyce.
The entire city was nightmarish in appearance. Like an abstract picture, a foggy dream, it was dark out but parts of the horizon was purple and orange colour, and it looked like it was aflame with yellow and blood red.
The entire sky was filled with birds, most of them white in colour and they shimmered when their flapping wings caught the remaining twilight and hurled it back towards Phoride, and Pomperaque.
Boyce flew by a tall building and set down on the flat roof of another nearby. He looked over the ghastly empty city and announced his mind to it.
"PHORIDENES! Come out and fight for peace! Come out and fight for the memory of your beloved Brook Scullion-Blue! Come out and fight, for me — his son!"
He took off from the roof top and quickly rose and swung around the tall building again.
Lloyd watched him from an alley near the square and he also saw the horsemen with the cross bows.
They dismounted and took a circular position, facing outward and upward. They raised their cross bows into the air and waited for Boyce to get closer.
Lloyd took aim with his electrophore and shot them but before they fell dead, two of the men let go with their arrows and their arrows found their mark.
Boyce's eagle writhed in pain and heaved in the air and Boyce could not control it. The bird collided with the tall building nearby and threw Boyce over the rock railing of the building's main balcony.
Lloyd watched it all and soon became extremely worried when Boyce didn't show himself, and there was the Cardinal Orren riding to the square with five other men, their own electrophores blazing their trail.
CHAPTER FORTY
Lloyd was extremely concerned for his friend so he sprinted over to the building, to help him.
It was almost totally dark when he reached the building.
Lloyd saw that Orren and the five other horsemen weren't far off, and as a matter of fact, were so near that s he climbed up the stairs inside the building, he could hear Orren's order to his men, to bring him the head of the enemy leader.
Lloyd couldn't let this happen.
He finally made it to the balcony and he peered through the gaps in the rock railing as the horsemen dismounted and headed towards the entrance, below.
Lloyd couldn't bring Boyce to consciousness. Boyce had been hurt and
Lloyd knew that he was passed out because of the pain.
Boyce's entire left shoulder was bleeding through his armour.
Lloyd had to get Boyce back to the mansion and have him bandaged up there. First, however, he had to make the squad below him less of a threat. He drew his gun, leaned over the railing and started to fire down on them. He managed to kill two of the men but the rest retreated with Orren, out of range from Lloyd's weapon.
When they became calmed and after they regrouped, they charged the building but then quickly turned and retreated back to Halls.
Lloyd was astounded then he looked up into the dark northern skies towards the strange thunderous clapping and searing whistling. He saw a great squadron of Kenttitian Eagles being led by Empal.
The eagles circled the city over the square.
The men controlling them weren't aware of Boyce and Lloyd below them, but they did see Orren's squad (or what was left of it), quickly withdrawing to the relative safety of Halls.
Some of them attacked Halls and others continued to circle.
This gave Lloyd the perfect opportunity to take his best friend back to the Blue Mansion.
Boyce had luckily regained consciousness and got to his feet with
Lloyd's help.
"I saw you crash into this building." Lloyd told him, then gently touched his shoulder. "Does it hurt very much?"
Boyce painfully looked into Lloyd's eyes and smiled.
"Just when I laugh …" he said, then continued. " … what do you think?"
They smiled at one another and Lloyd helped Boyce to slowly descend the stairs, while he watched out for the enemy.
For further protection he had Boyce keep his helmet on and his gun out.
The thrill of the fight and the accident was still with both men and
Boyce didn't really feel the pain in his shoulder because of it.
He was sluggish in his movement but he didn't have to be totally held up by Lloyd. All he needed was to be steadied by his friend while they rumbled up the road, back towards the Blue Mansion.
They were just about to reach the door of the mansion when there was a sudden escalation of fighting centred around Canon's Butte, but slowly spreading to the mansion's side of the city.
The Virunese were firing electrophora and lasers down at the monastic army that had a regiment of archers that were quickly grouped by Orren for the fight against the eagle power.
There was a huge, hot orange colour rising from behind Halls and the butte.
Lloyd felt devastated because he knew that the colours could only mean the unsuccessful landing of the Bestenese navy.
The great glow of the sky suggested to him that most of the navy was burning.
Bursts of laser shot over Halls from the other side. At least some of the force had landed and was engaged in a battle and Lloyd did so wish, with all his heart, that his friends from besten would be triumphant.
He helped Boyce into a large room that faced Halls. The room was being used as a hospital, to help those who were severely wounded.
Boyce was cared for by Cavander and it was good news for both him and
Lloyd.
Boyce wasn't very badly hurt, only having cut up his shoulder like a deep scrape.
Cavander told him that he would have to take it easy for a few hours.
Lloyd agreed with Cavander that Boyce should get some sleep, promising Boyce that he could handle the situation out there. Boyce was sure of that and subsequently submitted to their request for his rest.
The fighting that was at the butte and the square had now spread to the mansion itself. Several companies of men were inside the mansion, kept there on the off chance that the mansion would be subjected to a siege and they all readied themselves when they saw that the monastic army was steadily moving closer to the building.
The Virunese, on their eagles, were dropping out of the skies, being shot down by both electrophoric charges and arrows.
The fighting continued unbroken and soon those within the mansion were trying to keep the ArchBishop's armies from getting within reach of the doors and windows.
The outside of the building was pitted with holes and cracks, as well as burns, caused by the bolts of electrophora and laser heat, from the enemy.
From all those men shot down from the sky, Orren had commanded that their weapons be taken and used on them. Soon the two armies were closer to equal in their advantage over each other, but Orren's men fought harder as if the devil was in each of them.
Boyce slept as he was asked to and he didn't seem aware of the trouble that was breaking all around him.
Lloyd had gone through the wall in the viewing den, taking the short underground passage to the cove exit, on the shore behind the butte.
He took off his helmet as he looked across the glassy ocean and saw that a few ships retreating from battle, while most of them burned on the rocks which rose out of the water.
The bodies of dead Bestenese were everywhere, with only a few of the bodies being those of the monastic armies.
He noticed that the powerful weapons, made for Boyce's cause, were nowhere to be seen, and he had no doubt that the enemy was now using them.
He looked up at the evil shape of Halls, reaching to the pitch black sky above him.
Monastics were no longer keeping an eye on the shore line. They believed that the Bestenese would never come back to shore for more of the same defeat that they had already suffered.
Lloyd was having doubts about seeing those who retreated, coming back for another go at out-flanking the ArchBishop. He didn't blame them, though.
He put his helmet back on his head and slowly walked to the base of the butte and started to climb the rocks.
The take over of Pomperaque, which both Boyce and Lloyd wanted to accomplish with the minimum of blood shed had become a blood bath.
Unknown to Orren's army, half of the Krolalin cavalry was held back from the initial battle. Now, however, under Tucker's capable leadership, the cavalry charged through Pomperaque from the north and began to annihilate the army that had the Blue Mansion under attack.
Orren retreated, with a few other high cardinals, back to the Halls Cathedral. They were soon followed by monastic lieutenants leading their own battalions back to the relative safety of Halls' quadrangle.
The men, fighting from the inside of the Blue Mansion, were relieved to see the cavalry because the energy charges that they did have in reserve, for their weapons, were all drained of their power during the battle around the mansion.
The cavalry spared a few dozen charges for the men within and a small celebration was started to express their pleasure at still being alive. Everyone took the opportunity to eat something while the retreat armies stayed away planning their next attack phase.
Lloyd had found his way into the Halls Cathedral and trying to keep himself from being see, he searched as many rooms as he could, looking for manguino or someone that was closest to him.
Tucker had made a decision to attack the Halls Cathedral with the help of Empal and what was left of the Virunese air support.
Word was sent to the Bestenese commander of the retreating naval fleet, which was comprised of only five ships (from an original compliment of fifty), and he agreed to give his landing another try, but farther up the shore.
The attack was swift and they caught Halls by surprise.
Tucker's cavalry hit them straight on while Empal's air force struck them from above, and the navy hit them from behind after the cliffs on the butte's north eastern side.
The battle escalated into a full conflict, and soon, both sides no longer had any power left in their energy cells. This didn't stop the battle however. In fact it spurred the fighting into more of a hand-to-hand mode, with swords and supportive cross bows.
As the fighting continued and turned more bloody, the moon began to rise over the Joenine Forest, adding a silvery-blue light to the arena of fighting, and giving the entire city the look of a necropolis, with bands of demons fighting over its control.
Boyce was looking out the window of the hospital room and was wondering how Lloyd was doing in battle.
Lloyd was wondering if Boyce was awake and fighting, but soon, this wondering left him when he found the largest and most luxurious looking bed chamber of those that he'd looked into.
He silently crept into the room, making certain that he wasn't seen, and he slowly walked while he cautiously drew his sabre. He looked ominous in his armour and parts of it did scrape and screech with every step that he made.
"Come in!" said a ratty feminine voice.
Eckma was in the chamber with her and Manguino's only living child.
The child was less than a year old and there was nothing physically wrong with it, and it acted normally but to Lloyd the child seemed to have a presence of evil emanating from it.
It wasn't a weak presence of evil, either. It was much like the light of a candle in a dark void, even seen for miles.
He followed the voice until he passed through some heavy blood-red drapes and saw Eckma lying naked on a huge round shaped bed, with the child beside her.
Cardinal Polis, the physician, hadn't given her a capsule of the age retardant drug, because of his prior commitment to the war. Now, sores were returning to many parts of her body and she picked at them.
Lloyd felt nauseous looking at her doing it and he didn't particularly get very excited when she took to stroking the fleshy layers of her vagina with her forefinger.
"The stories about you are true … you are foul looking!" he said to her.
She sat up quickly with anger on her face, only to recline again, with a smile.
"Come to my bed, dear warrior. Let me touch you!" she called him to her and almost unnoticeably spread her legs a little wider.
"Cover yourself, bitch. Man was not meant to fornicate with animals!"
She still smiled. She was apparently moved by him.
Besides Manguino, Lloyd is the only other man that she has felt like taking into herself.
His toughness and gruff manner towards her made her quiver all over with anticipation.
"You can hit me, if you so wish. You can rape me. I will not make a sound even if you decide to bludgeon me!" she told him.
"You wretched evil hag. You sexless bacterial malignancy! One such as you cannot be allowed to live!"
Lloyd grabbed the baby by its leg and cut the baby in half, in front of Eckma's eyes. After he did that, he cut the halves in half and did so again.
Eckma was terrified of him now and as he went for her, with his sabre, she let out a curdling scream that carried above the battle noise and throughout all of Halls.
Eckma became hysterical until Lloyd silenced her similarly to ridding the earth of her evil child.
Manguino was watching the battle from his office window and Orren called the battle tactics from a balcony, halfway up the side of the cathedral.
Both men heard the horrific scream and both of them left their positions and quickly went towards Manguino's bed chamber.
Lloyd had entirely hacked up the bodies of Eckma and the child until all that was left of them was bloody flesh, severed bones, and pieces of internal organs strewn all over the bed.
Manguino and Orren met one another in the long hallway that led to the main chamber and they didn't say anything to one another. They just continued on their way until they reached the ArchBishop's room.
They bowled through the door and pushed their way through the curtains to where the bed was.
Lloyd, in his beautiful armour turned around when he heard the noise and he saw the cardinal dressed in his battle garb and Manguino in his robes.
Manguino didn't seem to be overly disturbed seeing that his wife and child were mutilated.
"Thank-you!" Manguino said to Lloyd. "I was getting tired of her, anyway!"
"May the true living God forgive me for murder but evil must be destroyed. In my life I served my God and I served my earthly king and friend, Boyce Loebh Scullion-Blue. In death I shall only serve my God!" stated Lloyd.
"If you will!" replied Manguino to Lloyd's statement, the looked at
Orren and pointed his finger at Lloyd.
Orren raised his cross bow at Lloyd.
"The murder of my father, the Cardinal Allen, is avenged." he said then he shot Lloyd.
Lloyd didn't fall though. He stood straight and firm; his blood gushing from where the arrow penetrated his armour, right through to his back, and he even spoke.
"Your father's death was its own revenge!" Lloyd said to Orren, with blood spattering from out of his mouth. "You will not live Orren." Lloyd fell to one knee and Orren shot him a second time, nearer the heart, but lloyd continued before he fell forward. "You won't lice in the next life!"
While Lloyd lay dead on the floor, in a pool of scarlet that spread about him, Orren put another arrow into his cross bow and shot the body once more time.
When he did that a surprising shriek was heard and Zoro flew around the room three times.
Orren ran after it brandishing his sword, trying to hit it in mid air, but Zoro flew out of the window and towards the Mansion.
There was a very long pole that kept a canopy of lace up over the round bed, and Orren
pulled it down. He cut off Lloyd's head, after taking the gallant helmet off of the corpse and he shoved the head onto one end of the pole.
Orren and a party of men then made their way slowly from Halls to the
Blue Mansion, carrying the pole with Lloyd's head mounted on it.
The fighting had subsided, and the electric twang of the electrophore weapons was no longer heard. Only far in the background there could be heard the tinny sound of hand-to-hand sword fighting.
At the base of the cobbled walkway, leading up to the mansion, some twenty meters from the main door, Orren and his men planted the headed pole and left it there.
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
The first rays of sunlight illuminated the wisps and billows of smoke that rose from the damaged city. With every passing minute the sun rose higher into the morning sky, lighting the pole that was standing at the head of the cobble walkway. Soon, there was enough light to reveal the head that was on top of the pole, bringing out of the mansion several dozen men including Boyce, carrying his cross bow in his left hand. His left shoulder was in great pain but he was forcing himself to make use of it.
He walked out tall and straight, and from somewhere above, Zoro flapped his way down onto Boyce's other shoulder. It made no sound as the men slowly walked towards the pole, with Lloyd's head mounted atop it.
There was an odd, colourful aura around the head, probably caused by the play of the sun's light, but Boyce believed, with his whole heart, that it was God's presence blessing his dead friend.
The sounds of battle started up again in the distance. Electrophora blared and thunderous sounds followed.
Looking in the direction of the battle's origin, which was north, Boyce and his men saw laser light being shot into the air, and they knew that it could only mean one thing — the second invasion wave had arrived in Pomperaque, as planned.
Boyce fell to his knees and wailed, mourning his fallen friend and teacher, while he still held onto his cross bow.
His cries rose above the thunderous clamour of combat that was drawing nearer to the city.
The young sovereign finally rose to his feet again and looked at Halls with an ultimate contempt that he summoned from his soul.
His eyes had tears in them, and they were red and painful looking. He spat on the ground and took his sabre from its casement and lifted it to the air.
Boyce took a few steps passed the head of his dead friend, and in a voice that carried through the entire city, he yelled at those in Halls.
"Dirt of the world! — Fornicators of men and animals! — Oppressive son-of-whores and satyrs! — Welcomers of saturnine thought! — You foul children of Satan!" Boyce cussed at them. "Maybe you all die in the most prolonged and torturous pain!"
The fighting stopped as the battalions came upon the centre of the city and heard Boyce's booming anger shake all that was around.
Zoro quietly left Boyce's shoulder and then disappeared, unnoticed.
"Prepare yourself for damnation, Manguino. You will die, Orren!"
Boyce's hollering sounded like a promise, more than it did threatening, and he slid his sabre back into its scabbard.
He began to walk towards Halls with the men that came out of the mansion with him.
Those coenobites at Halls were all lined up on the wall of the quadrangle looking towards Boyce, when he yelled.
Cardinal Orren stood in plain sight and watched Boyce slowly approach with his men.
Manguino had listened to Boyce, also, from his office window and he was discomfited by it. He waited for Orren to return to his office. He needed advice on what to do with himself because he could not easily think on his own.
Orren waited for Boyce to reach the wall where he stood and he had ordered his guards not to fire at him. He stood on the wall dressed in his chromium armour and impressive helmet and he stared at Boyce as he stood at the base of the wall in his own majestic armour and helmet.
This was the first time that Orren actually had a good look at this man's battle garb. This time he was certain that he saw on his shoulders the black wing-like epaulettes bringing to mind the 'black feathers' line, in Jessuum's prophesy.
"We had known from the beginning," said Orren. "that you were not to be trusted!"
He looked at Boyce while he spoke and Boyce had a strange smirk on his face when he responded.
"It only means your own downfall, and don't stay under the misconception that you will live to see the end of this day!"
Orren laughed at Boyce, pointing at him, at the same instant.
"Your threats will lead you to the same end as your Bestenese friend!" said the cardinal. "It is to our utmost disappointment that the ArchBishop didn't let us destroy you when we first suspected you!"
Boyce shook his head in defiance.
"My uncle Manguino has never been very intelligent, and you can cease that elitist way of talking because it doesn't become you!"
There was silence for a moment while they exchanged hate-filled glares.
Boyce took a deep breath and called Manguino out to fight.
"Manguino!" he called then waited. "Uncle! — Come and we will settle this war's outcome between ourselves!"
There was no answer and Boyce looked at Orren, laughing menacingly at him.
"He will not answer you!" Orren told Boyce. "He will not fight either, and why should he? He has hundreds of us to fight you for him!"
"Then let me fight each of you until only he remains!" Boyce said provokingly.