"Hello, Dras."
"Chief, I didn't expect to find you down here," he said with a welcoming smile. They clasped hands and began to walk toward the antigrav lift.
"I'm here to debrief Inspector Ranthor."
"Oh, the Man in Green, as Styphon's House calls him," Danthor said, with a smile. He turned to Ranthor: "You've caused the Inner Circle no end of headaches!"
"That's the plan."
"Well, it's working. I've been questioned by everyone from Styphon's Own Voice to some Blethan upperpriests about what to do about the Hos-Bletha rebellions. I'm the only Archpriest in the Inner Circle from Bletha so that's made me the local expert on all things Blethan. Fortunately, Anaxthenes has needed me to spy on Great King Cleitharses so no one's considered sending me to Bletha, so far."
"That could prove to be a problem. How is the old king?" Verkan asked.
"He died a ten-day ago from colon cancer," Danthor said, with a frown. "The horrible diseases these outtimers suffer… I don't know where they get their courage. Cleitharses lived three ten-days longer than anyone, including myself, expected. I think he was hanging on in hopes that his nephew would arrive."
"I read your report. Did he ever get Anaxon's reply to the phony letter?"
"No. If he had, it would have killed him right away. I still feel bad for giving that document to Anaxthenes and counterfeiting the new letter."
"Don't feel too bad," Verkan said. "When it comes to Outtime work, we all have to do what's necessary to maintain our covers, and, as an Archpriest of the Inner Circle, you're at the top of the heap on Kalvan's Time-Line."
"I've done worse things in my career than betray the old King, but I really liked him. Cleitharses was a good man and never meant anyone harm. Unfortunately, he was a weak ruler and allowed himself to be bullied by Styphon's House."
"Cleitharses should have been born a shopkeeper or music teacher," Verkan observed.
"He would have been much happier. Has anyone in Agrys City received word of Styphon's spring campaign?"
Verkan shook his head. "If Grand Master Soton bulldozes through Agrys City like he did with Hostigos Town, there won't be an independent kingdom on the eastern seaboard by the end of next year."
"That wouldn't be good for your friend Kalvan."
"Agreed. It would be a disaster. The fall of Hos-Agrys would allow Styphon's House to concentrate all its military, political and economic strength toward removing Kalvan no matter where he goes."
Danthor paused to remove his clay pipe from an inner pocket in his yellow robe.
"Come on, let's go to my office, Danthor. You, too, Ranthar."
The three of them took the antigrav lift to the Paratime Police Chief's office. All three were smoking by the time they reached Verkan's horseshoe desk in his private office.
"My whole life, I never thought I'd be invited into this-the inner sanctum of the Paratime Police," Danthor said, "at least, not as a free man."
They all chuckled.
Danthor's disdain for the Paratime Police had been legendary. Or at least up until a year ago, Verkan thought. Thanks to fast-unfolding events at Balph we settled our mutual differences and found out we actually liked one another.
Before sitting, Verkan took out a flask with a fancy glass stopper in the shape of a halberd head and of obvious outtime manufacture, offering everyone a drink.
"I haven't had that in a while," Ranthar Jard mentioned.
"This is pretty raw brandy," Danthor said, making a face and drawing back from his glass. "What time-line is this from?"
"Kalvan's Time-Line. This is the famous Hostigi brandy, invented- with some help from King Kalvan-by that time-line's first scientist and distiller. The Hostigi call it Ermut's Best, after the inventor. He's the new Rector of the University of Hostigos. It's crude, but it grows on you."
Danthor nodded, taking a small sip. "It's stronger than most of the swill on Aryan-Transpacific, but it definitely needs some work. Now, if we can just get Kalvan and his Hostigi through this next winter or two, he might have a chance to improve on it."
Verkan and Ranthar nodded in agreement.
"I may even have an idea that will help Kalvan."
"What's that?" Verkan asked, sitting up straight.
"What if I send one of my Balph Study Team assistants to Agrys City? I have one or two that I've helped climb the hierarchical ladder of the Balph priesthood. Mathrov Verth would be ideal; he's a savvy University undergraduate that I've helped promote to Highpriest. He uses the name Mathros on Kalvan's Time-Line. He'll lose his usefulness to the Balph Study Team, but he might have more value as a Styphoni turncoat in Agrys City. I can have him travel overland to Hos-Agrys, where he can inform one of Kalvan's allies about Soton's plans to besiege Agrys City If that doesn't wake up Great King Demistophon, nothing will."
"Does Kalvan have any friends inside Agrys City whom I can use as a contact?"
Verkan took his pipe out of his mouth and emptied the dottle into an ashtray. He opened a small pocket knife to clean out the ash while he used his First Level perfect recall to run through the possible Hostigi exiles in Agrys City.
"I've got it, Chief," Ranthar said. "Old Xentos, isn't he Primate of that Dralm outfit that's headquartered in Agrys City?"
"Yes, but I don't know how much of an ally of Kalvan's he is these days. Xentos left a trail of broken promises behind when he left Hostigos. If he'd spent half as much time helping Kalvan as he did to promote his own career, things might have turned out differently."
"Don't be too rough on the old priest," Ranthar said. "He's way over his head with this Fireseed War business, and no one expected Styphon's House to react so quickly and decisively."
"That's true," Verkan replied. "What do you think, Danthor?"
Danthor gave a self-satisfied smile. "It doesn't matter. If Xentos is the top ecclesiastical figure at the High Temple of Dralm, he'll do just fine. No one connected with Dralm will want to see Styphon's House conquer Agrys City. The Primate is a big enough fish that even Demistophon will have to heed his warning. Plus, I'm sure that the King has his own agents within the League of Dralm."
"Of course, he does," Verkan said.
"Good. Maybe they'll even have time to prepare a proper welcome gift for Grand Master Soton and his army."
TWENTY-EIGHT
Kalvan and most of his top aides were touring the top floor of an abandoned mansion formerly owned by one of Prince Varrack's cronies, who had fled the city sometime during the short siege. Most of the furnishings were gone and the floors were stripped to the base boards. Kalvan suspected he'd sold everything that was portable, or had squirreled them away somewhere. He was trying to determine if this three-story mansion was a good home for the new University of Hostigos. Guildmaster Varianos, head of the Stone Masons Guild, had sworn to the integrity of the foundation and walls; the only problem was that the building was too close to the city's second wall.
Do I really have time to do this? The answer was, of course he did. This building would hold the key to Hostigos' future, the young minds and bodies who would flesh out his ideas and reinventions. The problem Hostigos would face in the future, assuming they survived the present onslaught of Styphon's Grand Host, would be avoiding some of the pitfalls of his own world's history. Already, he'd brought the concepts of religious war and total war to here-and-now. What he didn't want to do was bring unbridled change and out-of-control industrialization. Slowing the coming industrialization is not going to be easy-if it's even possible. Once some local booster comes up with manifest destiny-look out!