"I did not return to stay behind these walls," Kirtar said with obvious exasperation. "The fight is to the west, against the creatures of the forest." The bird warrior looked at the captain as if the stupidity of the original question could not be believed.
"I ordered you back to oversee the deployment of militias. Your fighting has changed nothing except to strew corpses amongst the trees." Pianna drank quickly, trying to gain breathing room, to the ambassador's eyes. "Ever since your entry in the Cabal tournament you have lost interest in the Order. Have you succumbed to the lure of wealth and prizes?"
"Wealth is a tool we can use to build the Order," Kirtar said, hammering down a goblet with a peal that split Laquatus's ears. "As for the prizes, I procured one that was worth any number of villages that fell while I competed."
The lieutenant ignored the captain's indignant gasp and opened his pouch. Pianna looked down into the pouch, her eyes locked on the sphere. The lieutenant's fingers cupped it and raised it before her. The room fell silent as Order mages detected the throb of contained power and looked to the officers. Laquatus felt a surge of envy as the lieutenant pushed the sphere back into his pouch. The ambassador was surprised by the sour expression of the officer's face and could barely hear him mutter, "It's dimmer still."
"Impressive enough," the captain said agreeably. "And I can understand your fascination with it. But what have you done since you received it?" The silence seemed to echo in the merman's ears.
"I see," continued Pianna as several seconds passed without response. "Your prize was not used nor provoked any response other than influencing you to ignore your recall and engage in indiscriminate slaughter." She shook her head sadly.
"You are less than you were when you left," she stated emphatically. "You had plans, but once you held that power in your hands you could only use violence. It corrupted you without doing anything but offering you magic you had not earned." Bitterness and resolution filled her tone. "I have never seen a better example of an artifact curbing and shrinking a soul. You must give it up."
"I will not!" replied the lieutenant hotly. "It is only that I don't know how to use it," he confessed, his pale skin flushing in the dim light. "It was bright with glory once, but every time I look at it, the visions grow fainter. I don't know what to do. I know only that this is valuable, and it represents the salvation of the Order."
"It is a chain that is dragging you down. You speak of what you can do, what you know," she said gently. "You must give it up, even if it must be destroyed."
The bird warrior started but with visible effort stifled his initial response and nodded.
"The Order and the Strictures must come first," he said reluctantly. "Only give me time to examine it a little more. You are right that I have done nothing with it other than let dreams of glory lead me astray. Give me a chance to investigate it a little more before we give it up to those who use the crushers." The captain nodded doubtfully as Laquatus tasted his heart in his mouth. Give the orb to the fanatics who thought the past should be erased? Those who spurned objects of enchantment and condemned wonders to the grinding wheels of their one sanctioned machine? He would see the Citadel ground to dust before he allowed the orb to be damaged.
Kirtar excused himself and left. It took a moment for the ambassador to break his trance and send his jack after him. Perhaps it would take an obvious intervention to take the sphere from these fools. He hoped the underground explorers would find a route soon.
Turg lurked behind a pile of heavy canvas, waiting for the lieutenant to speak. The frog had followed the officer and stayed at a distance. Laquatus soon begged off any further talks with the captain or her representatives, citing his exhaustion from the journey. Now the ambassador rode the frog's spirit, nudging him closer to hear the conspirators.
At least that was merman's belief. The bird warrior left, but instead of retiring directly to his room he spoke to several knights before visiting the armory. Laquatus had a bad moment when he saw the shape of a great crusher filling a building's interior. Several squires pushed a capstan, driving the interior mechanisms. A robotic bird was thrown into the machine's gaping mouth, and a series of smashing collisions sounded, then died down as tiny pieces of the forbidden technology came out the other end. A pile of mechanical limbs and less definable work filled a basket that the presiding officer continued to empty.
Laquatus very nearly sent his champion charging for the orb at that moment. Kirtar had shook himself and left the crusher with a look of fresh determination on his face. Once more he stopped to give a message, and this time Turg was able to hear.
"The dungeon just after midnight."
The frog spent hours waiting in sight of Kirtar's quarters, but the bird warrior did not come out again. Dinner came and went, and the frog's belly grumbled.
In camouflage, he raided the remnants of the evening meal, then headed for the dungeon. Rather than the vast cavern that Laquatus expected, just several empty cells in a tower's base served as the Order's prison. Only the distinc-tive smell allowed the frog to find it without asking for directions. Laquatus was heartened that even the Order's ideals could not negate the need for small rooms reeking of despair and filth. The frog breathed the odor in deeply before hiding behind stores in the main room.
Kirtar arrived first, inspecting the chamber carefully. Laquatus fed a minute portion of power to Turg, and the spell, combined with the champion's natural camouflage, prevented his discovery. Other knights arrived until five moved to a table. Laquatus noticed with little surprise that all were aven bird warriors. Kirtar spoke, and the others listened silently. The door was not whisperwood, so the lieutenant talked softly.
"I and my fathers have served the Order loyally. You have all been warriors in the Order without any blemish on your service. None may say otherwise."
Turg could hear the rustling of nods and crept out a bit beyond the bags to see the conspiracy.
"But to be loyal to the Order means that sometimes the Strictures must be disobeyed, ill- conceived commands must be ignored."
There were fewer signs of agreement, but there was an affirmative air about the group,
"I won a great prize while competing in the tourney," Kirtar continued. "While defending the helpless, even in that evil city, I defeated a dragon."
Another nod of assent and a bit of pride showed among the warriors at one of their own overcoming such a beast.
"These are difficult times for the Order," the lieutenant said quietly. "The forest has risen and assaulted our lands as never before."
"Aye," said a grizzled voice as one of the others interrupted. "So many refugees have arrived that they are filling up the town. The captain says that soon we will have to start bringing families within the Citadel walls."
"Exactly," said the lieutenant, showing irritation at being interrupted. "The captain has a good heart and believes in the Strictures, but that is not enough in these difficult days. It will take boldness, and while Pianna is no coward, she is not bold. The best way to protect the refugees is to stop them from being displaced." A murmur of agreement filled the room. "We must take the fight to the forest."
The dead silence through Turg's ears told Laquatus that this extreme step was not popular. The lieutenant seemed to know that and quickly continued.
"The prize that the rumors speak of I have with me," he said, opening his pouch. The thrill of power shook everyone in the room. Turg's camouflage flickered, but such was the group's fascination that no one saw. "The captain saw its strength but in blind obedience to the Strictures wants it destroyed. She would not consider using it and never held it. Touch it now," Kirtar said and laid it on the center of the table.