No, Abel. I am an advanced model. I am able to narrowcast to you using quantum uncertainties within the small bits called molecules that make up your brain. Zentrum will not have the means to detect this.
“Based on their direction of movement,” said Joab, “the Redlanders were coming from the northern borders of Treville. But, as we both know-”
“-Treville manufactures no gunpowder,” put in Zilkovsky.
“Exactly. So the point of origin must have been Cascade. That is also the Captain of Scout’s evaluation.”
“Sharplett,” said Zilkovsky. “Good man. Pity he’s of Delta stock.”
Joab nodded. Abel knew there was no use arguing against class distinctions in the Land. They were, if anything, more deeply carved in stone than the Stasis itself.
“The problem then becomes to figure out if this is a regular flow. Are the Redlanders planning something?” Joab said. “My Scouts report that the Blaskoye have been on a tear of consolidation in the past couple of years. They’ve incorporated at least five neighboring tribes by conquest or negotiation.”
“What are they up to, do you think?”
“I’m not sure, Mr. Prelate,” Joab answered, “but it can’t be good. I was hoping you might tell me.”
Zilkovsky sighed, sat back in his chair, took another swig of beer. “Unfortunately, this is a matter on which I’ve received no guidance from Zentrum. I do, however, have a few watchers in Cascade who send me the occasional report.”
Joab smiled a toothy smile. “I’d hoped you did, Mr. Prelate.”
“Cascade has problems. Rot at the top, I’m sorry to say. As you and I have long discussed, it’s a happy district when District Military Commander and District Prelate get along and truly share power with one another. You and I are blessed by Zentrum to be in such a relationship.”
“I agree,” Joab said.
“Many times in…more
“Or believes he does,” said Joab. “More than one DMC has found out the hard way that what he believes he has is a relative matter in actuality. Zentrum often finds a way to swat such a man down.”
“Yes,” said Zilkovsky, “quite. But the problem in Cascade is worse. Both the priesthood and the military have allowed themselves to become pawns of the gentry.”
“Surely this can be remedied,” replied Joab. “I’d think a lesson or two would go a long way to doing just that. Burn a farmhouse, save the Land.”
“It might,” Zilkovsky said. “But the monopoly on gunpowder production at the Bruneberg plant would continue, for that is the Edict of Zentrum. So the enormous inflow of wealth would likely tempt another group to misbehave. This is how it has been in…well,
Joab looked perplexed. “So what’s the solution, Hiram?” Abel had never heard his father use the prelate’s first name in another’s presence. He hadn’t even known Zilkovsky
Zilkovsky now turned to Abel and pointed to his father. “Behold the military mind,” he said mildly. “Your father wishes to order things that are fundamentally chaotic.”
“The Blaskoye are building up to something,” Joab replied. “We can’t resign ourselves to being unprepared for attack just because Cascade’s a dirty mess.”
“No, we cannot,” replied the priest. “I also do not believe Zentrum will allow it.”
Zentrum takes the long view, Center put in, in what, for Abel, had become a mantra akin to a Thursday school lesson. But it was a lesson he knew he ought to heed.
“At the moment, however, I am open to suggestions, Commander,” the prelate concluded.
Joab nodded grimly. “I’ll garrison the Escarpment strongholds with Regulars. Set the Scouts free to roam. We’ll need more supplies, and I have to secure a Valley water source. That means somebody’s water rights on the second plateau will have to be requisitioned. And we may as well requisition their fields as a way station, because it’ll be no good for grain.”
“I believe I can find funds in the temple coffers to cover such a requisition.”
“It’s still going to scare the hell out of the landowners.”
“As well it should.”
“I’m also going to need more Scouts. That means recruiting Delta elements. Unsavory sorts. I’ll keep them out of Hestinga proper as much as possible.”
“Yes, do.” Zilkovsky had a definite opinion about the social worth of Scouts, it seemed, no matter how much he might value their abilities. He nodded toward Abel. “And I would think twice about letting this young man associate with them overmuch.”
“Pardon me, Mr. Prelate, but I know my place,” Abel said. “And so do
Zilkovsky smiled thinly. “That may well be. But remember: all Scouts are borderline heretics. Heretics are hated of Zentrum, the same as infidel Redlanders. They’re outside the Law. And when you’re outside the Law, you’re outside the Stasis. And when you’re outside the Stasis…well, you are outside the Land itself.”
Abel started to reply, but thought better of it. He met the priest’s steady gaze as best he could.
“Here’s the real lesson I want you to learn from your recent adventures, Abel Dashian, son of Joab. You come from a fine line of soldiers on your father’s side. I don’t have to tell you the high standing of your departed mother’s family in Lindron. There is a clear path ahead of you to high command. Maybe even a place among the Temple Guardians one day.”
Zilkovsky leaned closer to Abel. A stray breeze from the fan caught the thin strings of hair on his scalp and lifted them up for a moment like a riding dont’s feathery crest. “So, my young friend, don’t fuck it up with heresy.”
PART TWO:
1
Bruneberg had not begun as a settlement, much less a town. It started as a scattering of unrelated clumps of families, a congregation of tribal settlements that had congealed in the area of the first cataract of the River, the cataract nearest the broad plain into which the River spilled itself after a thousand-league journey down its self- carved valley from the glacial drip of the Schnee Mountains. The Schnee were invisible from Bruneberg. They were over the horizon of northeast or, as all the Land referred to that cardinal direction: up-River.
The Collapse here was quite literal, Center explained. The River cuts through the alluvial remnants of an ancient mountain chain in this area, and as a result, the Valley constricts to a few leagues across. Duisberg’s original settlers found it a good place to build a dam to compound water for irrigation and recreational purposes. It burst, and the rocks of the cataracts are the remains of its duracrete masonry.
A good example of why the Galactic Collapse was so complete and all-obliterating,
