Conqueror

documents he carried and his confession are entered in evidence. Clerk, read the documents.'

One of the men sitting beside Suzette cleared his throat, opened a leather-bound folder, and produced the tattered message and several pages of notes in a copperplate hand.

'To His Mightiness, General of the Brigade, Lord of Men, Ingreid Manfrond, from the Priest of the Residential Parish, Paratier, servant of the servants of the Spirit of Man, greetings.

'Lord of Men, we implore you to deliver us from the hand of the tyrant and servant of tyrants Whitehall, and to forgive and spare this city, the crown of your domains.

'In earnest of our good faith and loyalty, we pledge to open to you the east gate of Old Residence and admit your troops, on a day of your choosing to be determined by you and Our representative. This man is in my confidence and bears a signet-'

'Produce the ring,' Suzette added.

A box was opened; inside was a ring of plain gold, set with a circuit chip.

'— which is the mark of my intentions. With Us in Our determination to end the suffering and bloodshed of Our people are the following noble lords-'

Paratier thumped his staff on the marble flags. 'Silence!' he said, his aged voice putting out an astonishing volume. 'How dare you, adulteress, accuse-'

'The prisoner will address the court with respect or he will be flogged,' Suzette said flatly.

Paratier stopped in mid-sentence, looking into her eyes. After a moment he leaned on his staff. Suzette turned her gaze to the man in the wheeled chair.

'Does the witness confirm the documents?'

'Yes, oh, yes,' the priest whispered. 'Oh, please. . don't, oh please.'

'Take him away,' Suzette said. 'Prisoner, do you have anything to say?'

'Canon law forbids the judicial torture of ordained clerics,' Paratier snapped. After a moment he added formally: 'Most Excellent and Illustrious Lady.'

'Treason is tried under the authority of the Chair, and witnesses in such cases may be put to the question,' Suzette pointed out.

'This is Old Residence; no law supersedes that of Holy Federation Church within these walls. Certainly not the fiat of the Governors!'

'Let the record show,' Suzette said coldly, 'that the prisoner is warned that if he speaks treason again-by denying the authority of the Sole Rightful Autocrat and Mighty Sovereign Lord Barholm Clerett, Viceregent of the Spirit of Man of the Stars upon Earth-he will be flogged and his sentence increased.'

Paratier opened his mouth and fell silent again. 'Does the prisoner deny the charges?'

'I do. The documents are forged. A man under torture will say whatever will spare him pain.'

Suzette nodded. 'However, torture was not necessary for your other accomplices, Your Holiness. Bring them in.'

Seven men filed in through the door, their expressions hangdog. A light sheen of sweat broke out on Paratier's face as he recognized them; Fidelio Enrike, Vihtorio Azaiglio, the commander of the Priest's Guard. .

'Let the record show the confessions of these men were read,' she said. 'Prisoner, you are found guilty of treasonable conspiracy with the enemies of the Civil Government of Holy Federation. The punishment is death.'

Paratier's lips whitened, and his parchment-skinned hand clenched on the staff. Raj stood and moved to Suzette's side.

'But,' she went on, 'on the advice of the Heneralissimo Supremo this court will temper the law with mercy.'

A pair of priests came forward; these were easterners themselves, military chaplains attached to the Expeditionary Force.

One carried a plain robe of white wool. The other bore a copy of the Canonical Handbooks, a thick book bound in black leather and edged with steel.

'You are to be spared on condition that you immediately take the oath of a brother in the Order of Data Entrists,' she said. 'From here you will be taken to the mother-house of your Order in East Residence. There you may spend your remaining years in contemplation of your sins.'

The Data Entrists were devoted to silent prayer, and under a strict rule of noncommunication.

Paratier threw down his staff violently. 'This is Anne Clerett's doing,' he hissed.

For the first time since the Priest entered the room, Suzette's face showed an expression; surprise. 'The Consort's doing?' she said.

'Of course,' the old man said bitterly. 'She and her tame Arch-Sysup Hierarch were trying to foist the absurd doctrine of the Unified Code on Holy Federation Church. As opposed to the true orthodox position, that the Interface with humanity is an autonomous subroutine only notionally subsumed in the Spirit Itself.'

'You are in error, Brother Paratier,' Suzette said helplessly, shaking her head. To the priests who stood on either side of him: 'Proceed.'

When the new-made monk had stalked out between his guards, she turned to the six magnates.

'As agreed, your lives are spared in return for your testimony.' She paused. 'Your property and persons are forfeit to the State, as are those of your immediate families. Clerk, announce the sentences.'

The room filled with silence as the prisoners were herded out; some defiant, others stunned or weeping. When the commander of the detachment had marched his men out, Raj rested one thigh on the table beside his wife and laid a hand on her head, stroking the short black hair, fine as silk.

'Thank you,' he said. 'Of all my Companions, the best.'

Suzette rose to her feet, so suddenly that the heavy chair clattered over behind her. She flung her arms around Raj. Startled, he clasped her in turn, feeling the slight tremors through her shoulders. She spoke in a fierce whisper, her face pressed to his neck:

'Anything for you, my love. Anything.'

CHAPTER ELEVEN

'Well, now we can see what they've been building,' Raj said. 'You know, I'd like to get ahold of the man over there who's been coming up with these clever ideas.'

'Whh. . what would you do to him?' the new Alcalle of Old Residence said. He shivered slightly in the breeze; it was another bright cold day, but the wind was still raw from the last week of drizzle.

'Give him a job,' Raj replied. 'I can use a man that clever.'

He bent to look through the tripod-mounted heavy binoculars. The. . whatever-it-was had just crept out of the Brigade camp, the one that straddled the local railway leading north. In normal times the line carried coal from the mines thirty kilometers to the north. He'd ordered those closed-the pumps disassembled and the shafts flooded-before the enemy arrived, although there had been some coal stacked on the surface. Now the enemy had come up with a completely different use. .

The railroad battery was mounted on the wheels of several rail cars. They had been bolted together with heavy timbers, and more laid as a deck. On that went three forward-facing smoothbore fortress guns, firing twenty kilo shot. Over the guns in front was a sloping casement; he estimated the iron facing was at least two hundred millimeters, backed by thick beams. The sides and top were covered in hexagonal iron plates, probably taken from the gun-rafts on the south shore of the lake. The whole assemblage was too wide to be stable on the one and a half meter gauge of the railroad, so hinged booms extended from either side of the mass. They rested on wheeled outriggers made from farm wagons, but reinforced and provided with iron shields to the front. The battery was pushed by a single locomotive, itself protected by the mass of wood and iron ahead of it.

'What do they intend to do with it?' Gerrin Staenbridge asked.

observe, Center said.

The scene before him jumped, with reality showing through as a ghostly shadow. At five hundred meters the battery stopped its slow forward crawl. The slotted ports on the forward face opened, and the muzzles of the