Hell's Foundations Quiver (20 page)

“This is all very interesting,” Sharleyan said, “but is it really relevant to the contents of his diary?”

“In a way,” Nahrmahn said. “You see, we found him in the original passenger lists, along with a description of what he did before Operation Ark. It seems that before he became
Seijin
Kohdy, and before he became a simple Adam named Cody Cortazar, he was
Sergeant Major
Cody Cortazar, Terran Federation Marine Corps, and he'd spent the better part of fifteen years as an unarmed and close combat instructor. He'd been first runner-up in the Fleet
moarte subită
competition twice and a championship fencer.” He smiled crookedly as Nimue and Merlin both sat up straight, eyebrows rising in unison. “I think they might have been after more than his ability to fly an air car when they started poking around in Sergeant Major Cortazar's ‘lost' memories.”

“I believe you could safely assume that was the case,” Merlin said dryly.

“That's what we thought, too.” Nahrmahn nodded. “But one thing we're very sure of from having read the Spanish portions of his diary is that no one meant for him to remember his native language. It seems to've come back to him gradually, and he comments on his decision to keep that a secret.”

“Because he was already considering the possibility that the ‘Archangels' had lied to him?” Rahzhyr Mahklyn asked.

“No, it was more as if he was afraid this strange, unnatural language might have been somehow implanted in his mind by Shan-wei and the Fallen. Or, at least, that his fellow
seijins
and the Archangels would
think
that was what had happened, at any rate.”

“What about the ‘demons'?” Sharleyan asked, her expression intent. “Where did
they
come from?”

“
Seijin
Kohdy's diary puts a rather different face on the histories of the War Against the Fallen,” Nahrmahn told her. “You can see the same basic events in both accounts, but he fills in a lot of background that's quite different from the ones in the
Writ
or
The Testimonies
.

“For one thing, there were a lot more of the ‘Fallen' than the
Writ
suggests. According to Kohdy, they weren't so much a faction of the command crew as they were the Navy and Marine personnel who'd served as the planetary police force under Commodore Pei once their warships had been discarded. He specifically refers to them as ‘the Angels who looked to Kau-yung before his Fall,' at least. We can't tell how many of them there were, but Owl and I both believe there were more than the
Writ
ever admitted.

“For another thing, they had more technological resources than we thought they had. There are all those references to ‘servitors' in the
Writ
and
The Testimonies
, but it wasn't until we started reading the diary that we realized the Fallen were actually building additional ‘servitors' for much of the war. Obviously, that meant they'd possessed a deeper manufacturing base than we'd assumed; one they must've spent some time hiding away in the mountains, a lot like the Commodore and Shan-wei hid Nimue's Cave.”

“Why didn't the Commodore mention that in my—our—briefing?” Nimue asked.

“Probably because he didn't know about it,” Nahrmahn said. “The
Writ
implies that the War Against the Fallen started immediately after the Alexandria strike—that the Fallen were found out by Schueler and Chihiro at the same time Kau-yung killed Langhorne and the others. In other words, the War Against the Fallen was essentially a seamless continuation of a conflict that began with the destruction of Alexandria. But according to Kohdy, it didn't begin for at least two years
after
Armageddon Reef.”

“The Sisters have always known that.” Sandaria's eyes were intent, her expression deeply interested. “Saint Kohdy told us that much before he shifted to Español.”

“Yes, he did.” Nahrmahn nodded. “But according to the ‘demon' who kicked Kohdy's arse without killing him, someone inside the command crew—someone Schueler and Chihiro
trusted
—diverted that capacity to the ‘Fallen' from either the Zion Enclave or from
Hamilcar
itself only
after
the Alexandria strike.”

Cayleb's lips pursed in a silent whistle, and Paityr Wylsynn's hologram leaned forward in his chair.

“Did Kohdy have any idea who that someone was, Your Highness?”

“No. In fact, it could have been almost anyone. It's clear from his diary that one thing the
Writ
didn't exaggerate was the extent of Chihiro's authority after Langhorne and Bédard died, and he'd obviously put an iron lock on any advanced technology. But by the time the War Against the Fallen flared up, the people opposed to him had access to enough capability to build those servitors of theirs and keep on fighting for over six years. That suggests some of them, at least, must've gotten their hands on industrial modules almost as capable as Commodore Pei and Shan-wei left for Nimue, and they could have come from only one source.

“That came as a nasty surprise to Chihiro and his associates. In fact, sort of reading between the lines of Kohdy's diary, it sounds as if the Fallen probably would've won if one of Chihiro's supporters hadn't stumbled across some sort of evidence that a storm was brewing before they were ready to strike. Kohdy—” Nahrmahn met Paityr's eyes levelly “—makes it pretty damn clear it was Schueler.”

Father Paityr's jaw tightened. No one said anything else for several seconds, then Nahrmahn cleared his nonexistent throat.

“Anyway, the references in the
Writ
—and in Kohdy's diary—to ‘fastnesses in the Mountains of Desolation' suggest the Fallen had been preparing for some time. Once the fighting began, however, any small industrial modules they'd managed to hide away in the mountains were enormously outclassed, because
Hamilcar
hadn't yet been disposed of. According to the English portion of Kohdy's diary, that was because Chihiro had been wise enough to be on the lookout for any of Shan-wei's sympathizers who might've managed to hide among their unfallen fellows. According to the
Spanish
portion, however, Kohdy had started to suspect that Chihiro and his closest supporters had retained
Hamilcar
—although Kohdy didn't know what
Hamilcar
truly was; he refers to it throughout as ‘the Dawn Star'—out of his own ambition to replace and supplant Langhorne completely.”

“Excuse me?” Paityr sat back, his expression perplexed.

“We already knew from Aivah and Sandaria that the ‘demon' who defeated Kohdy had suggested Langhorne might not've been the one who ordered the strike on Alexandria in the first place. There's no way to tell whether that was true, and Kohdy's diary doesn't tell us everything that was passing through his own mind. He was clearly unwilling to record some of his thoughts and doubts even in Spanish, so it's possible he'd actually found evidence one way or the other and simply not written it down. But from several of his comments, some oblique enough it took Owl's analysis to tease them out of the underbrush, he'd come around—slowly and unwillingly—to the belief that Chihiro was … significantly modifying Langhorne's original plan. That's the reason he went to Schueler.”

“What did he expect Schueler to do about it?” Paityr Wylsynn's voice was calm, but there was something in his eyes, something almost desperate. Nahrmahn Baytz recognized that something and shook his head sadly.

“He didn't write that down, Paityr. All he said was ‘I must go to the one Archangel whose zeal has never faltered, who has always been in the forefront of the
seijins
fighting the Fallen. He has a will of iron, and I have served him faithfully from the beginning. He will not flinch before any test, and if I cannot trust him to tell me the truth, then I can trust no one.'”

“And he returned home from that meeting dead.” This time Paityr's voice was harsh and flat. “So much for being able to
trust
him!”

“We don't know what happened, Paityr,” Nimue said softly. He looked at her, his expression bleak, and she shrugged. “All we know is that he was killed. We don't know how, or by whom. All we really know at this point, I think, is
why
. And the why is that he'd become a threat to
Chihiro
, whether he was right about Chihiro's diversion from Langhorne's original intentions or not.”

“That much definitely seems to be true,” Nahrmahn agreed, drawing Paityr's attention back to him. “Another thing the diary does is explain how the struggle lasted as long as it did. For example, the
Writ
's always admitted that many of the Adams and Eves went over to the side of the Fallen. From what Kohdy says, a smaller percentage of them joined the rebellion
actively
than the
Writ
suggests, but that was still a significant number, and even more seem to have been willing to lend it their passive support. That's one of the
Writ
's explanations for why the war lasted so long … and also one of the justifications for the way the Inquisition's authority was increased afterward.

“In addition, the Fallen had apparently made hiding from Chihiro's sensors a high priority, and from some of the actions Kohdy describes, they obviously had SNARC capability of their own. They must've had some way to block or jam—or evade, at least—the other side's SNARCs, as well. They were
very
well hidden, and they only came out of hiding to launch guerrilla strikes against the ‘Archangels.' Apparently the Adams and Eves who supported them hid them in the towns and villages between strikes, and their own industrial nodes were hellishly hard to find.

“Chihiro's people knew which members of the command crew had disappeared and gone over to the other side, but just finding them was extremely difficult, and that was largely where the
seijins
came in. They were the mortal interface between the Archangels and the rest of Safehold, equipped with special abilities and powers—like Kohdy's sword and the night vision gear which let a
seijin
see in complete darkness—and they served the faithful communities in a lot of ways. They were forest rangers, militia organizers, teachers, explorers, search and rescue personnel, policemen … It was a long list, and they did their jobs so well that their service won them those communities' trust and loyalty. It also put them in the best position to do their
real
job—spot the Fallen hiding among the villagers and townsfolk and form strike forces once a group of the Fallen or their sympathizers had been located.

“That's what Kohdy was doing when the ‘demon' captured him and then let him go, and the experience shook him badly. The ‘demon' in question was actually the mayor of the town in which he lived, and he had Kohdy dead to rights. More than that, Kohdy had known him for over two years. They'd been friends, and when his friend told him he was on the wrong side and provided evidence to support the allegation, it shook Kohdy's faith. Badly.”

“Badly enough to send him to Schueler for an answer or reassurance,” Merlin murmured.

“Exactly.” Nahrmahn nodded heavily. “There's a lot more detail in here than I've summarized. I wish he'd been a little more specific about some of the evidence that convinced him his friend the mayor might have told him the truth, but that's the basic thrust of it. Owl's translated the entire Spanish section into English, and we've got hard copies of it for those poor souls among us who can't read the electronic version directly.”

Merlin surprised himself with a chuckle as Nahrmahn elevated his nose with an audible sniff, and the atmosphere around the table lightened perceptibly. Then Nahrmahn looked directly at Sandaria.

“I think you should read it,” he said quietly, almost gently. “Kohdy never knew the full truth, but this is the diary of a
good
man, someone who truly believed in what he was doing and only wanted to help other people. You might see some of your own journey in his, and I think you owe it to him, as well as to yourself, to
fully
meet the man behind the stories.”

Sandaria looked back at him for a moment, then inhaled deeply.

“I think you're right, Your Highness,” she said, equally quietly.

 

.XI.

Esthyr's Abbey, Northland Gap, Northland Province, Republic of Siddarmark

It was warmer than it had been for the last couple of days. In fact, the temperature was barely ten degrees below freezing.

“Don't see much sign of movement,” Corporal Paiair commented. He lay prone in the deep snow beside Sergeant Tahd Ekohls on a small but steep-sided hill, gazing down at the town of Esthyr's Abbey in the early—for a northern East Haven winter—morning light. Their hill rose above a thin belt of second-growth woodlot, between it and the river that supplied the town's water, which had somehow so far managed to avoid the woodsman's axe. Probably because woodlot in question was so far from the town and on the far side of the stream. The true object of their attention, however, was less the town than the bridge across that very same river.

“That's because there
isn't
any sign of movement.”

Sergeant Ekohls' tone mingled satisfaction with sour disapproval of incompetence, and he raised his spyglass once more. A light dusting of frost, like an icy spider web, had been frozen along one edge of the objective lens, despite how careful he'd been not to expose it to the sort of temperature shifts that produced condensation in even the best-sealed spyglasses. The new double-glasses were better about that, he understood, but he was used to the old style and he rested the barrel on his forearm for steadiness as he studied the spot where he would have located the picket that should have been guarding the bridge.