The last Pater Tomm had heard, Klaaz was still trying to make Tonk work.
All by himself.
Tomm had heard the last known domicile of the Great Klaaz was said to be an ancient castle, made entirely of burned ice, located at one of Tonk's two arctic poles.
After two orbital circuits, Hunter's long-range acquisition scan finally located a huge structure sitting nearly on top of the planet's north pole. Even though a blizzard was in full blow across Tonk's high arctic region, this structure was so enormous that, once acquired, it registered hot and solid on Hunter's main scan screen.
"Good Lord, look at it!" Pater Tomm exclaimed, studying the image over Hunter's shoulder. "Have you ever seen such a thing as this?"
Hunter shook his head no. Never.
This was not just a castle. This was a fortress, with hundreds of spires and parapets and weapons mounts, an immense sparkling mountain of burned ice that soared nearly a half mile into the sky. The outer walls were more than a thousand feet high; they encompassed an area at least a couple miles square. Running like spokes from the dozen or so main gates, tubes built just above the surface led to clutches of smaller buildings next to the main structure. From one hundred miles up, they looked like tiny cities.
The place seemed fit for a hero of such stature as described by Pater Tomm. Hunter imagined there was a huge army in place behind these walls, with massive amounts of firepower on hand. Maintaining a well-armed fortress on the edge of nowhere — there was something Hunter could admire about that. He already regarded this man Klaaz with honor. It was a great warrior who was smart enough to know that one had to have muscle to back up his good fortune. Who knew the wealth of information such a man could provide for them? For the first time in this long, tiring trip, Hunter actually felt that they might be getting somewhere.
But then he ordered his LRAS to zoom in — just to get a better look at this magnificent monstrosity. It showed something entirely different from the view in orbit. From this perspective, it first appeared that the centuries had not been so kind to this ancient place. At least half of the spires of the main quarter were in the process of deterioration. Some of the fortress's outer walls were slowly crumbling away, too. Hunter telescoped his scan device even further; soon they were looking at an extreme close-up of the main structure. There was more evidence of decline here. Not only were many of the soaring spires in disrepair, the roofs of several attached buildings had caved in as well. In fact, there were hundreds of holes and craters pock-marking the entire building.
That's when a more startling truth became apparent: There was more than the harsh weather and time at work here. Hunter recognized battle damage when he saw it. This huge structure looked as if it had suffered thousands of massive weapons hits recently. More extensive damage could be seen around the compound's smaller buildings. Even through the dirty gray blizzard, smoke from recent explosions was clearly blowing in the wind.
Alarmed, Hunter called over his shoulder to Pater Tomm, "I know your friend is beloved in these parts. Any chance he made some enemies out here, too?"
"A few, maybe," was the priest's muted reply.
Hunter pulled back the LRAS and surveyed the area immediately surrounding the battered ice fort. What it registered hardly surprised him now. Two huge armies were encamped close by the fortress, one to the north, the other to the south. Though hidden by the storm, it was obvious both bivouacs were substantial in size. They boasted extensive barracks complexes, power-producing systems, and gigantic weapons arrays, including enormous Z-gun blasters.
The situation below suddenly became very clear: The ice fortress was under armed siege.
Tomm groaned as Hunter put the flying machine into a steep dive through the dirty atmosphere.
"God's children always manage to find each other's throats," the priest whispered, holding on for dear life as they plunged through the grimy clouds. "Even way out here."
The flying machine quickly descended to 500 feet and sped above the dirty surface, approaching the battered ice fort from the south. About one mile out from the fort's main wall, a sheet of blaster fire suddenly appeared just off the flying machine's nose; the barrage came not from the castle's defenses but from forward outposts belonging to one of the besieging armies.
Hunter simply pushed his power lever forward and did a lightning-quick bank to avoid the enemy fire. The maneuver worked to perfection but also managed to turn Pater Tomm onto his head. Just as quickly, Hunter pulled back on the power, banked hard right, then hard left, righting the elderly priest again. Another jink, another jag, and they were suddenly over the wall. One last dip, and an instant later the flying machine came screeching to a halt just inside the ice fort's main gate.
It was quickly surrounded by heavily armed troops.
Hunter couldn't believe it. True, he had approached the landing spot at high speed, and this tended to blur one's vision for a few moments, but he could have sworn the courtyard was empty before he set down upon it.
Yet now, scraping the frozen condensation from the inside of his canopy, he could see dozens, no hundreds — no thousands of armed soldiers forming concentric rings around his aircraft. It was snowing fiercely, and the wind was blowing hard, so Hunter could not get a good look at them. But each soldier appeared to be holding a gigantic blaster rifle with a massive ray gun as a side arm. They were dressed in harsh blue and white uniforms, ones that seemed hard and flexible at the same time, and their helmets were opaque glass globes, their features barely distinguishable beneath. Hunter had envisioned a massive army inside this place. At the moment, it seemed as if he'd been all too right.
He spoke over his shoulder to Tomm: "Well, at least your friend has plenty of company down here with him."
But again, Pater Tomm seemed to know better. "Maybe," he replied cautiously. "But then again, maybe not."
At that moment, Hunter saw the hundred or so soldiers standing just off the nose of his plane raise their blaster rifles at him. The soldiers standing off to the left and right did the same thing as well.
"These boys are getting serious, Padre. Maybe we should have called first?"
"Patience, my brother," Tomm said, tapping his shoulder. "Let's see what happens."
See what happens? The way Hunter figured it, they only had one option here: Depart the area in the blink of an eye. But Pater Tomm had other ideas. Suddenly, the priest began banging furiously on the inside canopy glass.
"Open it, my brother!" he was telling Hunter excitedly. "I'm convinced we have nothing to fear here!"
Hunter had to disagree. The hundred or so soldiers in front of him were taking dead aim at the flying machine. Other soldiers were now popping up along the battered walls, and they were aiming down at them as well. Hunter's aircraft was a bit magical, but it was not invulnerable. He tried to point all this out to Pater Tomm in as few words as he could.
But still the priest kept banging on the glass, insisting that Hunter let him out. So with a shrug, he did. He hit the canopy release button and the aircraft's hat lifted up with a whoosh.