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.