William Forstchen - Down to the Sea

“Its guns?”

“One hit only. The damage to our aft turret was minimal. It barely penetrated the turret’s armor, and that was at less than a thousand paces. The size of it was about the same as our frigate.”

“Do they have anything larger?”

Does he know we sent spies? Hazin wondered. The operation had been very secretive.

“I doubt it, Your Highness. This is the third vessel like this that has been taken, nothing bigger. I believe it is all they can produce.”

Yasim walked over to his desk, an ornate affair in the style of Subuta, which had enjoyed a resurgence ever since the Emperor Hanaga had expressed interest in the school. Yasim produced a bound report bearing the imperial seal and held it up.

“These are the reports from the minister of ambassadors. I assume your spies already have obtained a copy.”

Hazin smiled and said nothing. Half the ministers of court gave copies to his order before they even reached the hands of the emperor, at the start for payment, but after a while out of fear of what would happen if they ever stopped.

“According to what we have learned from the Bantag, this human rebellion in the north started with half a thousand who came through a Portal,” Yasim said while casually leafing through the pages.

“Within two years they fielded an army, and not just an army, but with it the creation of steam-powered machinery to manufacture weapons and support their effort. The Tugars were defeated, followed by the Merki and finally the Bantag, each of them stronger and more advanced than the last.

“The Bantag developed steam machinery as well, the art of it learned from the captives taken by the Merki and traded. By the end of the war both sides had flyers, land cruisers, iron ships, rapid-fire guns, telegraphs, all of these things unknown to the northern world only twenty years before.”

Hazin nodded as if this information actually was anything new.

“We have been too preoccupied, Hazin, with our own affairs.”

“When the fire is in your kitchen, Your Highness, one does not think of what his neighbor is cooking.”

“Do you think these humans have control of a Portal?” The question caught Hazin off guard, but he quickly recovered. Did they in fact control such a thing and the emperor knew it?

“I doubt it.”

“Why?”

“Because if they did, they would be far more advanced. No one can control a Portal. It is beyond us and will remain beyond us for generations to come.”

The emperor looked at him with a crafty smile. “The dream of your order, isn’t it? If they had a Portal, you would already be there and controlling it.”

Hazin’s features remained impassive. Again, he wondered who was the traitor in his ranks. A Portal was the holy of holies of his order; the path to power, the path to the stars. It was the legendary Kalinvala, who had come through a gate more than two hundred years ago, who had transformed the Kazan from ignorance to all that they now had, and who had founded his order. Finding a Portal was the ultimate goal that he had established for them, shrouded in religious mysticism in order to control the ignorant.

“You know that the leader of the Bantag, the one called their Qar Qarth, came through a Portal.” As he spoke, the emperor nodded toward the report.

Again Hazin was silent. Of course he knew. Did this one take him for a fool? And the Qar Qarth was ignorant of how it worked or why he had come here. The information he had of his world was useful enough, it was the same world as Kalinvala’s, though far more advanced across the hundreds of years, but unlike Kalinvala, the Qar Qarth had little technical knowledge, only general information, though the information was intriguing enough, especially when it came to a weapon that could annihilate entire cities. To obtain such a thing would be a dream.

“So what do you advise regarding this human rebellion, this nation they call the Republic?” the emperor asked.

Hazin shifted, looking back out over the city so that the emperor could not see him smile. “Crush it.”

“Why? They are no threat. We’ve endured twenty years of war for control of this throne, and it is finished. Other issues here are far more pressing. In five years, ten, perhaps then.”

Issues here, Hazin thought. Such as turning on my order. “In ten years they might be the ones coming to dictate terms to us,” Hazin replied. “Realize as well that their existence has been kept a secret even from our own people. If word ever got back to our slaves of the success of the human rebellion in the north, it could be a threat.”

“The Shiv perhaps. Might they rebel against you?” Hazin laughed. “They are of my order and incorruptible.”

It was the emperor who now laughed. “No one is incorruptible, Hazin. You most of all know that.”

“The Shiv exist because of us, and they know it.”

“Your experiment with them is something that the other orders and even those of the nobility increasingly fear. You are playing with fire.”

“The breeding of a warrior race to do the dying for us? It is an interesting experiment, nothing more. They are chained to us by our selection and by the gods we created for them.”

The emperor shook his head. “The Republic. Answer that.”

“As I said, crush it.”

“And what of the other houses still to contend with if I should divert my attention elsewhere?”

…“Unify through this war, or should I say, this crusade. The Bantag are our brothers. What they are now enduring could happen to us. Tell the other houses that.”

The emperor came to stand by Hazin.

“Crushing them is a small thing, Your Highness, a very small thing.”

“And of course you will lease the troops. Yet more expenses on top of expenses I cannot now afford.”

Hazin smiled. So here at last they were getting to the true purpose of this summons.

“Go on, I am fully attentive, Your Highness.”

“The cost of the victory over my brother was rather excessive.”

“Yet you agreed to the contract.”

“Wouldn’t you in my position?”

Hazin laughed softly. “Your brother set the bid mark, which you had to exceed.”

“Don’t you think I know that? It will bankrupt the throne.”

“Your brother didn’t seem to think so.”

“He never considered such things. I have to.”

“Are we brokering a deal here, Your Highness.”

“I do not broker deals,” came the sharp reply.

“Then let me see if I can surmise the offer. The Grand Master with whom you negotiated with is dead. You agree to my ascension as Grand Master, and in return I forgive the debt owed to my house.”

The emperor said nothing, his gaze fixed on Hazin.

“I could say that I sent the Grand Master to his ancestors out of loyalty to you.”

The emperor smiled sarcastically and Hazin laughed. “Fine, then. The debt can be forgiven. You will declare a holy crusade to aid our beleaguered brothers to the north, revealing what happened to them, declaring your outrage that your brother knew of this but kept it a secret since he was too preoccupied with vying for the throne. Such a declaration will of course cast you in a positive light and at the same time divert attention to a new cause.”

Yasim looked at him warily. “Sometimes you are too cunning, Hazin. In thinking of me, what is it that you seek for yourself?”

“I must have some payment to the Order. To totally forgive the debt, especially after the effort made to secure your throne, would be unforgivable, and I would fall within hours of announcing it. Here is what I propose. We help you to crush the human Republic, you can make payment in part from the loot taken, the money counters of my house will be satisfied, and you shall appear as a liberator.