feet above the ground. Their arms were outstretched as if their wrists had been fastened to the wall, and their feet were bound together. Their heads lolled.
'That's the God Wall,' Ogram said. Paul couldn't take his eyes from the limp bodies. He saw no movement. 'Are they dead?'
'Probably. Karyn said they were strung up three days ago. That means three days without food or water, with Jacowicz coming out from time to time to question them.' Ogram placed a slight, bitter emphasis on the word question. 'I'm sure they're dead by now.'
'Who were they?'
'We don't know. They were probably found guilty of being heretics. Translated, that means they were accused of helping us.'
'Were they?'
'No. We have a lot of friends in Fairhope. Some William Greenleaf
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of us even have family there. But we don't let them give us any help. Too dangerous for them.'
'Why would Brill put them on the wall?'
'To make a point. He must have found out I followed Deacon Bekman when he went after
Dorland. High Elder Brill didn't like that, so he did this to make sure we understand.'
Paul lowered the binoculars and stared at Selmer incredulously. 'He would do that to people who aren't even connected with your group . . . just to make a point?'
Selmer nodded. 'This isn't the first time. He wants to pressure us into turning ourselves in.' Paul lifted the binoculars again and saw something along the bottom of the wall that he at first took to be light-colored vegetation. He focused the binoculars and realized they were piles of bones that had fallen from the wall and collected on the ground. He shuddered and turned the binoculars back to the temple. The area around it had been cleared of rubble and vegetation, and landscaped with a flat lawn, graceful trees and clumps of flowering shrubs. That alone made the temple grounds stand out, but even more conspicuous was the white spire. Selmer shrugged when Paul asked him about it.
'It's original. The Tal Tahir used the spire in a lot of their architecture.'
'A symbol?'
Selmer shrugged again. 'I don't know. I've heard that the Holy Order had the others torn down a long time ago. They left that one as a landmark for their Godsday services.'
The smaller buildings clustered behind the temple were of obviously human design. Compared with the primitive look of Fairhope and the crumbled ruins around it, the temple complex had a sound, well-maintained look. Walkways connected the buildings to the temple and to one another.
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'The deacons live down there?' Paul asked.
'Yeah. High Elder Brill lives in that first building just behind the temple. Hit the zoom—you may be lucky enough to see him on the porch. He likes to sit out there and lord over his flock.' Paul touched the control and the image expanded until he could clearly see the building Selmer meant. It was sturdy, made of sawed planks, from the look of it. In the front was a wide, covered porch bordered by hedges and flower beds. A paved walkway led up to it. A white-robed sentry stood on each side of the set of dark-stained doors. As Paul watched, a man emerged from the door and stopped to speak to one of the sentries. He, too, wore a white robe, but this one was trimmed in scarlet. Paul described the man.
'That's Elder Jacowicz,' Selmer said. 'He spends a lot of time with the High Elder.' Jacowicz was scarecrow-thin. His eyes were lost in the shadow cast by the porch's roof, but the rest of his face was clear—long, thin nose, high cheekbones, straight slash of a mouth. He stepped down from the porch, then made his way slowly along the walkway to another building farther back. After he had gone inside, Paul turned the binoculars to the temple again. Beyond it was a large area where the vegetation was thinner, and Paul could see more of the domed structures. He studied several of them. The Tal Tahir obviously hadn't gone in for elaborate architecture. What he could see of the city was boringly monotonous. Then he realized he was seeing something he hadn't noticed before. He took the binoculars away for an overall view.
'It's laid out in a pattern,' he said.
'What?' Selmer's thoughts had been elsewhere.
