Toth Read online

  “They are put here for the benefit of His Chosen People, Zeb. Our Lord does not condone murder. How can you say—?”

  “Talk to Davos, then, and get his story. Jezrul has told you lies to protect his own skin, and you’ve believed him. You talk to Toth and the Counselors, and ignore the rest of us.” Zeb leaned forward and put his head in his hands. “I’ve said enough. Do what you want with me. It will change nothing.”

  “No,” said Diego softly, “but for the moment it will ease your pain.”

  He held out his staff so that the black cap on its end was near Zeb’s head, twisted the thick shaft between his hands until he heard a single click. The fisherman moaned, and then looked up at him in surprise as The Pleasures swam through his body. He arched his neck and closed his eyes as something within him responded to the power of the staff. It washed away his pain and bitterness for what Diego knew would be only the moment at hand. And when it was over, Diego put a hand on Zeb’s shoulder. “For now, it is all I can do, old friend, but we will talk about this later. Go home to your family, and try to trust me. Be careful about what you say. I will be watching.”

  Diego turned, left the room and marched directly to the sanctuary, the staff gripped tightly in his hand. Jezrul was waiting for him, pacing back and forth in front of the altar. Diego went directly to the throne in front of the altar, sat down, and gestured to the nearest pew with his staff. The young man sat down slowly, looking suspiciously at him. “You summoned me, First Counselor, and I’ve been waiting.”

  Diego conjured up his sternest look and laid the staff across his knees. “I’ve had other things to attend to, Counselor. There are many problems in the village, and you have become one of them. This meeting is overdue.”

  Jezrul’s eyes narrowed. “I’m a problem, My Counselor? I’ve only today solved one for you.”

  “And raised the suspicions of our visitors by forcefully bringing Zeb here as you did. It could have been done more discretely after darkness had fallen.”

  Jezrul said sullenly, “There was no time for discretion. The man was making remarks to frighten our visitors, to make them feel there is danger here for them.”

  “As indeed there is. You know it, and I know it. How you know is not clear to me; perhaps you’re favored with direct communication with Our Lord, and no longer have need of my counsel.”

  Jezrul stiffened, eyes darting. “Toth speaks to you, First Counselor, and I receive His commands in your words.”

  “Does he command you to use your staff to discipline the people? I can’t recall saying that to you.”

  “No, but part of my function is to enforce The Laws of Our Lord, and preserve our society as He wills it. You have said this.”

  “I have said that all punishment, large or small, is a function of me and the temple staff personnel. Those of you who counsel the people on a day-to-day basis have been forbidden to carry a staff in the village. You have repeatedly violated this.”

  Jezrul growled, “Who has said this to you?”

  “I’ve seen it myself,” said Diego, and was thrilled by his own lie. “Do you dare to deny it?”

  Jezrul paused, nervous but defiant. “No, I do not. I work for the protection of our society, and there are those who work against it, those who would change The Laws of Our Lord. I have sworn to uphold them, and soft words of admonishment are not enough for simple people. Just this evening I overheard a villager, Gina Veium, speaking in secret to Leader Queal about dangers here, warning him to leave. She seeks the help of our visitors in destroying what Toth has given to us.”

  “And for this you would punish her?”

  “I—I gave her a warning, and her conversation ceased.”

  “A tingling, perhaps a bit of pain, Jezrul? A show of your power, a power that has not been given over to you, a power that has been given only to ME!”

  “I am sworn, First Counselor.”

  “Where is your staff?” asked Diego softly.

  “It is in the Jiskra house.”

  “You’ll bring it to me by morning, and I’ll keep it here. When you go out to sea you’ll come here to receive it, and return it when the day’s work is done, and for the next six weeks, on Toth’s Day, you alone among the Counselors shall stand without your staff of office. It is my message to the people that you have violated my confidence, and usurped power.”

  “Has Toth decided this?” said Jezrul, a dangerous look on his face.

  “I am His Right Hand. There is no other. Kneel before me. NOW!”

  The young man knew what was coming, but seemed strangely unconcerned. He even smiled as he knelt before Diego, and looked directly into his eyes.

  “Those who lust after power shall feel it,” said Diego, and he stretched out his staff, twisting it between his hands until he heard the third click and Jezrul had gone rigid, head thrown back, mouth open “Ah—ah—ah—ah,” he gasped, shivering.

  Diego felt no pity, no compassion, only anger. He twisted the shaft again, and there was a fourth click. Jezrul remained on his knees, still upright, his body convulsing with great heaves, and still Diego stretched forth his staff. Finally, his arms grew tired, and the staff tip wavered towards the floor. He shut it off as Jezrul cried out, “Ahhhhhh!”

  “Now get out of here, and bring your staff back to me before the sun rises again.”

  He’d expected Jezrul to collapse, but he did not. Instead, he saw a horrible grin and wild eyes as the young man lurched to his feet and said, “Yes, My Counselor.”

  Jezrul stumbled away from him and into the near darkness of the sanctuary. Diego sat shivering with fear and anger on the throne of Toth, thinking, I’ve heard of such things. Even Toth has warned me of such people in the past, Counselors who used their own staffs of power to give themselves The Pleasures—or pain.

  This was no punishment for Jezrul. He enjoyed it.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  A throbbing pain at the base of his skull awakened Rudy Hoffman. He sat up in bed; saw flashing red light below the video screen in his cramped quarters, and leapt to it. “Yes, My Lord?”

  “I’ve been calling you for several minutes. Get down here, something is wrong with the system again!” Toth’s voice shook.

  “Right away, Lord,” said Rudy. Fear clutched at him. The day had been long, with tedious observations of the ship orbiting above them. Their calculating and recalculating had been continuous as the thing kept changing orbit. Each time he reported a change to the four crews manning the laser and microwave cannons it seemed the men grew surlier, and reacted with increasing hesitation. Their expressions and unspoken words seemed an accusation of stupidity on his part. The orbital changes had begun only that morning, as if the captain of their target had suddenly sensed the presence of the awful weapons tracking his course. There was no way he could know this, of course, no signature of any kind to be seen beyond the tightly closed panels of the great palace dome. The huge fusion reactor itself was buried hundreds of meters below the island.

  Rudy hurried down the hallway, past stairs to an elevator that took him quickly down to Toth’s chamber. He was still rubbing the back of his neck when the doors opened to a sight that horrified him, the holographic image of his Master writhing on His Throne as if in terrible pain. His head was thrown back, hands clutching at the arm rests.

  “My Lord! What’s wrong?” Rudy rushed across the room, stopped just short of the image as a searing pain surged through him. He staggered back a step, legs wobbling. “Please, My Lord, I’m here to help. What is happening?”

  “My chest,” gasped Toth. “I—I can’t breathe. What have you done to Me? WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?”

  Rudy screamed, and sank to his knees. Flickers of light danced before his eyes. He rolled over on his side and cried out, “Release me, Lord. I’m your hands, and now I can do nothing for you. Please, Dear Lord, I’ve come to help. Release me!”

  Toth groaned, and the pain was gone, replaced with numbness in Rudy’s legs and chest. He lurched to his k
nees and crawled three meters to a computer terminal mounted before six screen filled with the output of Toth’s life support system. He pulled himself up into a chair, and called up a routine that immediately displayed the status of the seven critical points of the system. All were normal: saline, oxygen flow, mineral levels, pace-rate, and the myriad of circuits for nerve stimulation. “You’re having another attack, Lord Toth! The system is fine. Going to Beta-Choline. Hold on.” Rudy’s fingers flew over the keyboard, and there was a whine ascending in pitch behind the panel in front of him, then a thud. And Toth gave out a loud grunt.

  “Beta-Choline flowing now, Lord. You should feel it any second.”

  “Ahhh,” said Toth. “Yes—there it is. Oh, that’s much better.”

  Rudy jumped from his chair, staggered a few steps to stand before the image of his Lord and Master. Tears streamed down his face. He held out his hands until they were bathed with green light. “It’s all I can do, Dear Lord. It’s all I can do.”

  Toth let out a long sigh, and closed his eyes. He breathed deeply, and in a moment seemed to relax, one hand moving to touch his forehead, then his eyelids. “Calm yourself, Rudy. It’s better for both of us that way. Whatever it was has passed as before, but never with such severity. It reminds me I’m mortal, Rudy. It’s another warning. I’m old beyond old at a time when I’m most needed by My People. You’ve saved my life again, and I’ve rewarded you with pain. In my agony I’ve lashed out at the one closest and dearest to Me. I’m sorry.”

  Rudy’s eyes gushed tears and he fell to his knees. “You are immortal as long as I’m allowed to care for you, My Lord. Your pain is mine.”

  Toth opened his eyes and smiled, reached out towards Rudy with a slender, bony hand. “In my transfigured state there cannot be touch between us, but I wish it were not so. Arise and touch me, Rudy, and feel my gratitude for what you have done.”

  Rudy rose to one knee and reached out to touch the image of his Master’s Hand, and as his own fingers glowed green, the waves of Pleasure flowed through him gently at first, and then rose to a crescendo that left him gasping. A warm tingling washed up and down his spine even after he’d slowly withdrawn his hand. “My life is for your use, Lord Toth. It will always be so.”

  Toth sighed again, and rested his chin in the palm of one hand. “Loyalty is admirable, Rudy, but it’s not shared by your brethren. Over the years of my absence they’ve begun to bicker among themselves with ambitions for personal power. They’ve lost touch with the people, and there’s growing unrest. Our visitors have arrived at a very bad time, a dangerous time in our history. Their presence here can only make things worse.”

  “We’re tracking the ship, Lord, but since this morning it has been changing orbits in an erratic way. Even so, all weapons can be locked in well before they reach the horizon.”

  “You have data on the target?” asked Toth.

  “Little, My Lord. There were two drop vessels, and a small force was deployed on the mainland. If it’s indeed a survey, it’s likely similar to the escorts used when you first made planet-fall, with engine pod aft and bridge pod forward. Our telescopes have not been able to clearly resolve the image, but it appears to be oblong. We’ve programmed for a three-beam spread within the image, and have the power to cut them to pieces if we’re on track for a minute or so.”

  “Such a long burst might be dangerous for us, Rudy. I suspect their power to retaliate is equal to ours, and our laser beams give them a highly resolved target.”

  “There is risk, Lord Toth, but I’m confident one sustained exposure to our fire will reduce them to fragments incapable of retaliation.”

  Toth rubbed his chin reflectively. “It appears to me the issue is when we attack, not if. It’s time for the people to see my power, and reconsider their ways.”

  “Even the islanders, Lord?”

  “Especially them. You’ve seen the infrared halo there often enough to know there’s growing technology on the island. They’re planning something. I know it. Their boat crews grow bolder each year, circling the palace to observe us. I’ve hoped the islanders would remain where they are, and no longer contaminate those who expelled them. But contamination continues from within on the mainland. I tell you, Rudy, the day rapidly comes when I will excise all dissenters, and destroy those who will not follow The Law.”

  “Yes, Lord Toth,” said Rudy, frightened by the words and the rising pitch of his Master’s tone. Toth glowered at him, lost in the sound of His own voice.

  “I will begin with visitors from the worlds we fled from to find this sanctuary of purity and simplicity.”

  Rudy’s heart pounded. “I await your command, Lord.”

  “We will bring the people together again under The Law, and there will be peace and tranquility as before, without troublemakers, or interference from outsiders who seek to destroy what we have here. You will go to the weapons crews and tell them my words. My orders to them will come soon. Very soon. The future of our society depends on their vigilance and quick action, Rudy. Tell them that.”

  “I will, Lord Toth. We’ll be ready to release the fullness of Your Power at a moment’s notice. The ashes of those who oppose Your Word will be scattered in space and on the sea.”

  Toth smiled, and waved one hand in benediction. “Go then. I’ll be with you in all that you say and do.”

  The image of Toth flickered and disappeared as Rudy bowed. He rushed from the sanctuary and went directly to the gun crews. All the men cheered in unison when he gave them the news. They were instantly alert and enthusiastic, their frustration with inaction answered at last. Rudy wondered how long they had indeed been mentally prepared for war. And when he was finished there, he called together his four ground-force lieutenants for a meeting in his room. They were astonished by his words, since six generations of the hundred-man force they commanded had served only as palace guards and observers of the sea. None had seen a single day of combat, had ever fired at another human being. Grim-faced, they voiced concern about the readiness of the men for hostile action, and their willingness to fire on people who even now could be relatives of their own families. Shrill voices expressed fear of the retaliatory power of the visitors, and demanded that threat be eliminated first and foremost, at any cost.

  Questions were shouted out. The islanders were an unknown to them. What technology had they developed in the forty years since their expulsion from the mainland? What weapons did they possess to match the laser and projectile arms of their own force? They left Rudy’s room quietly, faces etched with lines of deep concern, despite his assurance that once the visitors were eliminated, nothing could stand up to their firepower.

  Sobered by the questions of his lieutenants, and sitting in the quiet of his room, Rudy felt a deeper concern stir within him, a concern for the very fate of His Lord. Somewhere behind the instrument panels of the sanctuary there was a chamber where the transformed being of Toth lived by himself, a man connected to his people only by electronic images and sounds for hundreds of years. He was growing older and older, alone, and mortal by his own words. At times during Rudy’s youth, especially during the moments of Pleasures, he’d thought of Toth as a God, yet knew he was a man who had walked among the people in the distant past and brought forth the plants and the creatures of the sea by his own hand. He’d given the people a place that provided for their needs, and simple laws for living, a society for all the people without hunger or poverty or unequal justice.

  Rudy stood up and paced his room. Something had gone wrong on Tothwelt: original disagreements with The Laws, the separation of the farmers, the expulsion of the islanders, open dissent among the mainlanders, and now the visitors, much of this in the last forty years. Why? He frowned in thought, and then a new revelation surfaced in his mind. He had been with Toth for twenty years, now, had witnessed His first attack while still an apprentice. These attacks, whatever their cause, had steadily become stronger and more frequent over the years, and could now only be controlled by
Beta-Choline, a nerve stimulant which was at present a constant trickle in His Lord’s life support system. Beta-Choline acted on nerve synapses to stimulate muscle response and brain function, was used primarily with the elderly. And Toth, transfigured, was indeed elderly beyond imagination. His mood swings over the years had become greater, more erratic, and now he talked of killing, an act totally forbidden by His Own Laws.

  Rudy worried about the physical condition of Lord Toth and, quite suddenly, he worried even more about his mental state.

  There was no sleep for Rudy Hoffman that night, and in the morning his worries were still with him.

  CHAPTER NINE

  The beach was illuminated by clumps of glowing moss that hung from poles, and the salty breeze was cool on their faces as they plodded across soft sand to the skiffs lying upside down near water’s edge. Michael and Osen would go out with Davos Grigaytes and his crew. Vilos, Cletus, and Utaka had been assigned to other boats. Takey and Kari stayed on shore after Diego offered them an invitation to visit the sanctuary within the obelisk. He had offered the invitation in person, and now stood on the beach to see them off, a long staff in one hand. Kari and Takey were nearby. Kari still pouted. She had wanted to join the rest of them in the boats, and was feeling left out even though she understood the importance of getting a look inside the obelisk.

  Michael and Osen went out in separate skiffs with Davos’ crew, riding easily over light surf to where the boats were anchored in deeper water. There were ten boats, riding high, nets folded neatly over the railings. No engines were visible. When they neared the boats Michael smelled fish oil and oiled wood. He sniffed the air, and Davos, pulling on an oar, smiled at him. “A good way to wake up in the morning,” said Michael.