Dan Willis - The Survivors

Arbuckle ground his teeth but smiled pleasantly before reaching for his gavel. “All in favor of rescinding the ordinance barring street preaching, say ‘aye.’”

The room thundered with assent.

“Any opposed?”

There were none, not even Bladehook, who dared dissent.

“Then I declare the ordinance against street preaching rescinded.” He nodded toward Sarru. “I’ll leave it to you to deliver the news to the faithful.”

Sarru harrumphed then turned and left, his staff rapping sharply on the floor.

“Everyone go home and get some sleep,” Arbuckle roared once Sarru had vanished. “Jon, Bradok, not so fast, you two,” he went on. “I’d like to see you in my chambers for a moment.”

Bradok looked warily at Jon Bladehook, but Bladehook simply looked annoyed. As it turned out, Arbuckle met with them separately. Bladehook went in first, staying almost an hour while Bradok waited in an overstuffed chair outside Arbuckle’s heavy office door. Toward the end, Bradok became aware of raised voices inside.

“You move too soon!” Arbuckle was saying.

“And you do nothing but bide your time,” Bladehook replied vehemently. “We passed an ordinance, correct? All I did was tell my brother-in-law to enforce that ordinance to the letter.”

“But you didn’t give the people time even to learn about the law, Jon. You have incited them and called our motives into question.”

“What do we do now?” Bladehook asked, clearly piqued.

“We wait, Jon,” Arbuckle said. “We bide our time.”

A moment later the door burst open and Bladehook stormed out. He marched past Bradok and down the hall without a backward glance.

“Sorry about that, Bradok,” Arbuckle said, standing in the doorway to his office. “Jon can be a little high-strung at times. Come in.”

Bradok rose and followed Arbuckle into his office. The round room had been cut from the wall of the cavern. Cabinets of dark, polished wood curved along the back wall. They had glass fronts so Bradok could see that they were full of thick leather-bound books. Arbuckle’s oval-shaped desk stood in the middle of the room with two comfortable-looking chairs before it. Papers, books, and blotters littered the top of his desk.

“Sit down,” the mayor said, waving his hand in the direction of the chairs.

“If this is about that ordinance,” Bradok said, sinking down into the seat, “I just-”

“I know you had nothing to do with what happened,” Arbuckle said, some of his easy manner evaporating. “I brought you here tonight because you seem to have a level head and a keen mind.”

“Uh, thank you,” Bradok said uncertainly.

“Your ordinance was a good one,” Arbuckle said. “A sound idea.” He got up and began to pace back and forth behind his desk. “But it seems we have quite a few citizens who took it the wrong way.”

“Starting with our captain of the guard,” Bradok ventured.

Arbuckle cleared his throat nervously and went on. “I don’t want something like this to happen again,” the mayor said in a pained tone. “Things could have gotten out of hand tonight. People could have gotten hurt.”

“What do you want me to do?” Bradok asked.

“Ah, that’s what I like about you, Bradok,” Arbuckle said with a beaming smile. “You get right to the point.”

He sat back down at his desk and leaned forward on his arms, giving Bradok an intense look.

“We need to find out what the people really want,” he said. “I want to know what they think of the street preachers.”

“I think they made that clear tonight,” Bradok said hesitantly.

“No,” Arbuckle said with a sly smile. “Tonight they showed that they don’t want to lose their religious freedoms. That’s a long way from whether or not we let wandering preachers annoy them in the public square. The problem of those preachers is still with us, and I think most of the town would like a solution.”

“I see,” said Bradok, nodding. “So you want to know what they want done about the preachers. Ideas for a better solution.”

“Precisely,” Bradok said. “Let’s say you make up a survey that we can hand out to the people of Ironroot, something innocuous and nonthreatening. We’ll use the pages here at city hall and ask them to take your survey and canvass the city.”

Arbuckle’s eyes sparkled, and Bradok couldn’t help but notice that the mayor was sweating. Something about the unnatural gleam in his eye made Bradok uncomfortable with his plan.

“So,” Arbuckle said. “Can I count on you?”

Bradok thought about it. The task seemed simple enough, just find out what the people wanted done with the street preachers. Yet something about Arbuckle’s overeagerness was unsettling.

“I’ll do it,” he said at last.

Arbuckle’s smile widened, seeming more genuine. He rose and extended his arm to Bradok.

“I knew I could count on you, Bradok,” he said as Bradok clasped his forearm. “Take a week to prepare and conduct your survey; then let me know the results. I’m sure this will be helpful.”

Bradok agreed, thanked the mayor for his confidence, and left the office.

A few minutes later, he had exited the building and was making his way through the cool air of Ironroot. The street was dark and empty. Everything had returned to normal, and that meant the streets were dark and deserted in the predawn.

Bradok should have been happy. No blood had been spilt. Those falsely imprisoned were going to be turned free, yet he couldn’t shake the feeling that it was merely the calm before the storm.

He resolved not think about it.

It was a resolution he wouldn’t keep.

Over the next few days, an endless parade of city guardsmen came and went from Bradok’s house, carrying copies of his carefully worded survey. As per Mayor Arbuckle’s instructions, the guards moved through the city, interviewing every citizen, getting their thoughts on the problem of the street preachers.

Bradok had divided the city into small districts in order to disperse guards throughout the city efficiently. After the near-riot caused by his ordinance, he wanted to make sure the citizenry wouldn’t be alarmed by large groups of guardsmen going door to door. Every couple of hours, one of his teams would return and present Bradok with a written record of their findings.

After sweeping two-thirds of the city, Bradok found that the mayor was right: Well more than half the populace considered the preachers a nuisance. Most of them, however, were not in favor of laws restricting freedom of speech as a solution to the problem.

“It’s about time,” Sapphire remarked as Bradok sat at his desk, preparing one of the daily reports he sent to Arbuckle.

“About time for what, Mother?” Bradok asked idly, without looking up. In the time since his father had died, Sapphire often would seek out her son at odd hours, desiring to speak with him at length about things that Bradok couldn’t care less about.

“It’s about time Arbuckle and those fools on the council learned who their enemies are.”

Bradok sighed. One of Sapphire’s favorite topics of conversation revolved around her hatred of the believers.

“This is just a public survey, Mother,” Bradok said in a strained voice. “It has nothing to do with enemies or fools.”

Sapphire chuckled. Her laugh had a derisive note in it, as if she were directing it at a willfully ignorant child.

“That’s what you think,” she said. “Once they have that list, Arbuckle and Bladehook will know who sides with them and who is against them. Then it will be just as I say: fools versus enemies.”

Bradok looked up from his desk to find his mother filling the doorway. Her face was flushed, and her eyes shone with malice.