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.