The Fireseed Wars

Roxthar snarled. "Don't you dare threaten the Holy Investigation of heathens and apostates! If you dare, the streets of Balph will flow with rivers of blood." Then he leaped, like a beast, over to the drapes and pulled them apart-revealing Yagos, with blowpipe in hand. He held up the smaller man by the front of his black robe, lifting him half a rod off his feet. Yagos face was stretched in terror.

"What does this mean?"

"It means I don't trust you, Archpriest. Now, release my Deputy. I have work for him."

The look of gratitude in Yagos' eyes reminded him of his favorite hound's face after he'd removed a brace of porcupine quills from its hindquarters.

Roxthar reluctantly released Yagos, but not without a loud slap across the face.

"That was unnecessary. Archpriest, obviously you've spent far too much time amongst the helpless women and children of Hostigos. We will not tolerate such arrogance here in Balph." He made a motion of dismissal to his Deputy:

"Yagos, go and bring Archpriest Grythos and have him bring the Sephrax Guard with him. I would hate to see Archpriest Roxthar lose his self-control again."

He could hear the grinding of Roxthar's teeth.

While his Deputy scurried out of the room, he said, "In the future, I do not want to see any more of your Investigators within a hundred-march radius of Balph. If I do, I will have my Guard tie them up, fill their orifices with boiling lead and shoot their worthless bodies out of the Balph guns. Are my words clear enough, Archpriest?"

Roxthar's mouth was gaping open like a deep water ocean fish just come to surface with a hook in its mouth. When he'd recovered, he spat out, "High Marshal Xenophes will have something to say about that!"

"About what?" Archpriest Grythos asked, as he entered the room-a silvered back-and-breast over his yellow robe with a red border. Four Sephrax Guardsmen wearing silvered armor chased with gold with a red Styphon's sun-wheel with sparks at all four corners enameled on their breastplates, and tall-combed morion helmets, followed behind. They were four of the biggest men Anaxthenes had ever seen.

Archpriest Grythos, who had organized and trained the Sephrax Guard, had handpicked veterans of the border wars from the Princedom of Sephrax. Sephrax was the youngest and westernmost of the Ktemnoi Princedoms and bordered the Sastragath. Many of its subjects were of Urgothi descent. They were known throughout the Five Kingdoms for their height and girth, and feared for their fierce temper and fighting prowess. There were over three hundred of the Sephrax Guard stationed around and inside the Great Temple and all the important Temple buildings, including the Temple Treasury.

With Styphon's Own Guard subject only to its own commanders and Archpriest Roxthar's orders, Anaxthenes had commissioned Archpriest Grythos to establish a new Temple guard. They were to be his own personal bodyguard and owe their loyalty to Styphon's Voice alone. He was their de facto commander and paymaster. If events had given them another year before Roxthar's return to Balph, Grythos would have had time to raise enough loyal troops to face down Styphon's Own Guard.

Roxthar's eyes darted around the lavishly furnished apartment, as though trying to find an answer or escape route. He noted the four guardsmen who stood still as statues with the studied boredom of skilled arena knife fighters. There was no doubt in anyone's mind-least of all Roxthar's-that if so ordered they would step forward with their huge halberds and carve the Investigator into beefsteaks.

"You have won this round, Your Divinity," Roxthar said, with a mocking little bow. "I have more important work to do in Hostigos and in Hos-Agrys. But, do not believe for a moment that I will fail to remember this-"

For a moment, Roxthar was at a loss for words. Anaxthenes felt as if he should fall to his knees and say a prayer to the gods; unfortunately, he didn't believe in any. Begrudgingly, he admitted to himself, they can be useful at times like these.

"But return, I will. I promise you that!" The threat in Roxthar's eyes was almost palpable. "I will be at the head of a great army and will clean the Temple from floor board to attic, starting here."

Anaxthenes, despite the chill that worked its way up his spine, nodded as if he heard these threats every day. "Just remember Archpriest I will have my own army waiting for your return."

Roxthar, his white robes flapping against his bony limbs, turned and stalked out of the room like a man-sized preying mantis.

"I don't know if it was a good idea to whip him up into such a lather," Archpriest Grythos observed.

"Maybe not, but I sure enjoyed it. Besides, this is nothing compared to how he's going to squawk when I call a State of Emergency and take dictatorial power over the Inner Circle."