'That might not have been the wisest move.'
She swung round. It was Arducius.
'Think I care? And where have you been? Didn't you see it coming?'
'Who do you think caused all that dust that masked your escape? Come on, Hesther, now is not the time for questions like that. We were all taken by surprise.'
'Where is Ossacer?'
Arducius shrugged and took her arm, hurrying her along the corridor towards the Chancellery where the boy had been taken inside by the guards.
'How's Cygalius?' he asked.
Hesther shook her head and put a hand over her mouth. The scene replayed in front of her eyes and she felt physically sick.
'I don't know,' she said, swallowing back a sob. 'It all happened so fast.'
And so it had. The act of what she had thought was mercy for a poor man having a heart attack in the basilica. The deliberate attack. The fists, the feet and the knives. All so fast that the guards could not save Cygalius from massive injuries. The shouting and the roaring in her ears as she tried to drag people away. The thundering of feet as palace soldiers had flooded the basilica. The dust that had sprung up in the courtyard and funnelled around the fountain. Running feet. Pursuit. Choking sounds. All on such a perfect genasrise day. All from nothing but hideously premeditated. The satisfied sneer on Felice Koroyan's face.
'Where did they all come from?' demanded Arducius.
'Where they always come from,' snapped Hesther. 'It was a petition day. The Hill is full of citizens. It's open. She, that bitch, she used it.'
They reached the Chancellery and Hesther saw Ossacer was already in there. His
face
was white but his blind eyes swam with complex colours. Ther
e was a sheen of sweat on his br
ow and he knelt beside poor Cygahus, waving the guards back.
'Hot water and clean linen,' he said. He laid his hands on the boy. 'Dear God-surround-me, what have I done?'
Hesther frowned but ignored the words. So much was said in confusion that made no sense. Instead, she looked at Cygalius. Just seventeen. Just trying to do his best and use his skills to save a dying man. And now look at him. His Ascendancy toga was dark with his blood. His face was battered. His nose, mou
th and ears all bled. There was
more running down from his scalp under his beautiful brown hair.
'Do you need me, Ossie?' asked Arducius.
Ossacer nodded. 'I'll need everything I can get. He's a mess. Eight stab wounds. Skull fracture, broken ribs and jaw. Compressed cheek fracture. Bruising everywhere. Omniscient save us but it was animals did this.'
'No, just the Chancellor's lackeys,' said Hesther. 'Like I said,' said Ossacer. 'What a fool I am. What a fool.' Under his hands, Cygalius moaned. Blood ran anew from his shattered mouth.
'Shh,' said Arducius. 'Calm.'
He placed his hands on the boy too and at once, his body relaxed. 'Thanks,' said Ossacer. 'I'll need your stamina to save him, though.' 'Can you do it?' asked Arducius.
Ossacer looked at him and the expression on his face was guilt and fear. 'I have to. This is all my fault.'
'Don't be stupid,' said Arducius. 'Just do everything you can. Tell me what you want of me.'
'All right,' said Ossacer. 'First we have to stop all the internal bleeding.'
Hesther couldn't watch. She walked over to a window and looked out across the courtyard to the basilica. Calm was beginning to descend on the scene. The basilica itself was all but clear though she could see some people moving about in it. The Leader of the Estorean Senate,
Lorim Aurelius was standing on the steps surrounded by guards. He had been taking petitions in the Advocate's stead. An old but strong and competent administrator, he was shaking like a leaf.
Down in the courtyard and around the fountain, hundreds of palace guard were herding a still angry mob out of the Victory Gates to where thousands more were standing, waving flags, banners and shouting chants. Marcus Gesteris walked with the soldiers, lending his considerable presence and authority to the evacuation. Marshal General Elise Kastenas was with him. Both had been in the basilica answering questions on the invasion, calming fears that had risen with the lighting of beacons across the Conquord and visible to Estorr's citizens.
The orchestrated demonstration, attack and subsequent semi-riot had been planned terribly well. None of them had seen it coming. Crowds walking under the Omniscient banner had been patrolling the streets for days now. No Ascendant had been allowed to leave the gates. The Chancellor had worked hard on the rumours and intelligence reaching the city and had whipped a good part of the citizenry, mainly the poor and the dispossessed, into an effective disruptive force.
But they had stayed away from the Hill. Until today, that was.
Today had been well chosen. Petitions wit
hout the Advocate. So much
of the senior government absent. A
nd it had been so easy to plant
murderous, violent elements in the basili
ca. Indeed it seemed to Hesther
that most of the audience had been give
n specific roles. She wanted to
look in the eyes of the man who had sta
ged the fake heart (attack. She
wanted him to see what he had done.
'
A bitter taste rose in her throat. There was the Chancellor. Standing by Aurelius and shaking her head as if .she too could not believe the scenes that had so recently overtaken the Estorean seat of government. She was talking with the senator. Her arms were moving and her hands gesturing. More than once, she pointed to the Chancellery.
Hesther became aware that people were chanting the Chancellor's name. They had stopped moving toward the Victory Gates on seeing her emerge from the basilica. There was even a move back against the press of guardsmen. The atmosphere changed. From angry pointing to fevered excitement.
The Chancellor held up her hands and the crowd fell silent. There was pushing and shoving as people struggled to hear what she was saying. Hesther looked quickly at her window. It was sealed and the distance was too great for Koroyan's words to be carried in. Hesther wasn't sure she wanted to hear the lies anyway.
'Treacherous bitch,' she said. 'Someone needs to get to Aurelius. Tell him what really happened.'
'What really happened?' asked Arducius.
Hesther turned from the window briefly. He was watching her. Ossacer was working. One hand was on Arducius's head, the other feeding his healing genius into Cygalius's broken body.
'She tricked us, Ardu. She arranged the whole thing. She wanted a victim and she knew how to get one. Anything you like, she hoped it was Ossacer who came to help but Cygalius certainly didn't disappoint her.'
'You think she would do that? Even her?'
'There is nothing of which she is incapable. Just ask Orin D'Allinnius. God-embrace-me, just trawl your own memories of Westfallen. You think it's coincidence this happened while the Advocate was away?'
Arducius shook his head. 'Not really. But even so, the mood of the city has been angry ever since first reports came from Atreska and Gestern about the invasion. Lit beacons and battle flags make for scared citizens.'
'Yes, and she's brilliant at harnessing high feelings and bending them to her own ends. The fear of the Omniscient's wrath on them all is far more powerful than the Advocate's potential retribution on any individuals.'
'Even so, this is a Tsardon invasion. And you'd think with news of Gorian leaking out, they'd want us to help, not hound us and beat us.'
'You'd think,' said Hesther. 'But you'd be naive if you did. Sometimes I wonder if you ever listened to what Herine said about the Chancellor. Or to me. She doesn't have reason and logic, she has religion. And she is frightened of losing her power to you. Wake up, Ardu. This is only the beginning.'
'Can you keep it down?' said Ossacer. it's hard enough without you two chattering on.'
'How is he?' asked Hesther.
'With time, I think I can save him.'
Hesther looked back to the window and her relief fell flat.
'Be as quick as you can, Ossie. We've got visitors coming.' 'It's her, isn't it?' he said.
'Who else?' Hesther shook her head. 'Who else?'
Chapter Thirty-Eight
859th cycle of God, 37th day of
Genasrise
The chanting continued unabated. Though the Victory Gates were closed and the whole palace complex was ringed, inside and out, by Ascendancy and palace guard, the crowd had thickened, not dispersed. Koroyan had what she wanted. The ear of the Senate and the will of the citizenry.
'You can hear what they're shouting, can't you?' said Arducius. 'How has this got out?'
Ossacer looked at his feet. He was exhausted but his heart clamoured for attention and would give him no peace. He thought he might have saved Cygalius but it was really too soon to tell. And if the boy died, the blame would sit squarely with him. He, Arducius and Hesther were sitting with the other four emerged Ascendants of the tenth strand. All seventeen and all very scared. They were in the Chancellery, which had been cleaned of blood. Cygalius was in the care of the surgeons now and safe from further harm.
Felice Koroyan and Senate leader Aurelius were having a heated discussion in a chamber just inside the main doors of the Academy. Soldiers of the Armour of God had arrived to ensure her safety and were outside in the courtyard. Arducius reckoned them more likely to be jailers than personal guards.
'I told her,' whispered Ossacer. 'I told her because you wouldn't listen to me and I had to stop you preaching violence.'
He didn't need to use the trails to know that they were all staring at him. He could feel the weight of their anger and their surprise like multiple slaps in the face. He didn't expect them to understand or sympathise at this stage but they had to know nonetheless.
'You idiot,' breathed Arducius eventually. 'What possessed you?'
Ossacer looked up and let Arducius's outline trace in the brightness of the room. Unfocused blobs of yellow and red around his brother represented other people. But Arducius had gone that horrible calm pulsing deep green he always did when he was beyond furious and had reached a detached calm the other side.
'I wanted her to know that we weren't all evil like Gorian. That we would be a force for good. We all know there has to be death in war but if we deal it out, it just gives her ammunition to beat us with later.'
'Unlike what you've done now, of course,' said Arducius.
'I
don't believe this. I might wish to see the best in everyone, even her, but I wouldn't go to her and bleat out our plans. You had no business, no right.'
'Neither did you, agreeing that we should be used as battlefield weapons.'
A tinge of red had entered Ardu's map now. 'I will not go over this again. I will not remind you what Marshal Vasselis said to you and later to me. I love you for your morals and your principles but I hate you for what you have done to us now. You have betrayed us to Koroyan.'
Ossacer started and began to protest.
'Well, what would you call it?' said Hesther, her voice full of fire. 'You might as well have given her the key to the Chancellery again and a knife with which to kill us all.'
'What exactly did you tell her?' asked Arducius. 'And don't leave out a single detail.'
Ossacer told them all. He tried to apologise but he could see the lack of forgiveness in the maps of all six of them. He couldn't really blame them. He wanted to tell them he knew how stupid he had been, how acting in frustration and anger had been wrong but it would have done no good. He had acted like a petulant child and brought the house down on top of them all.
Arducius's voice remained quiet and under control. Ossacer shuddered as he spoke.
'You told her Gorian could animate the dead, her Omniscient dead, and expected her to react rationally? You told her we were planning to burn and blow up our enemies, and hence her Omniscient dead, and expected her to understand and provide you with her religious support?' Arducius shook his head and put a hand over his mouth. 'I am lost for words to describe your stupidity.'
'I know
...'
'Cygalius is—' began another of the Ascendants.
'I know!' shouted Ossacer. 'Mina, I know. I only wanted us to act in peace and I have brought down violence instead. Believe me, nothing you can say will make me feel any worse. I will go out and face her.'
'Oh, Ossacer, you don't understand,' said Hesther. 'Cygalius was just a sideshow for Koroyan. She was there to denounce you. She had a petition, and what she wanted more than that was a live example of an Ascendant trying to bring back from the rightful embrace of God, one whose time had come.'