It was weak humor but they were weaker and everybody laughed. Nobody had seen champagne since the Citadels and the origin of the term was buried in antiquity. His Grey Aspect tried to tell Killeen something about Family France but he lay back in the warming sun and ignored her. Bishops repeated Shibo’s joke and he could hear the tired laughter work its way along the ridgeline.
A rest can seem to last a long time when you need it and so Killeen came back from a place far away when the voice said loudly nearby, “So you have rejoined us?”
His Supremacy stood with his marching escort talking to Jocelyn. Killeen had not registered any of the conversation until this point, but when he did sudden anger spiked through him.
“You left us out there,” Jocelyn said flatly.
As Killeen got up, His Supremacy said grandly, “I determined that your feint was insufficient.”
“We lost plenty people!”
His Supremacy coughed slightly as a wreath of greasy smoke drifted up from the valley. “In our heroic struggle there are martyrs, of course.”
“You ran off!” Jocelyn’s fists were clenched.
“I used your diversion to effect an escape—”
“You turned tail!”
“—from our untenable situation. And I expect you to keep a respectful tongue while addressing myself.”
“We could have withdrawn if you’d told us. Before we reached the valley floor.”
“As I said—”
“I couldn’t even raise you on deep comm. You wouldn’t—”
“That is enough!” His Supremacy’s eyes flickered with a strange pale cast.
“I demand that you—”
“No one demands of God. You will now—”
“Some God! You’re just a—”
His Supremacy made a small gesture with his hand. One of his guards stepped smartly forward and clipped Jocelyn expertly on the side of her head with a pistol, as if he had done the same thing many times. She went down heavily and lay still.
“Stake her,” His Supremacy said. “She is obviously ridden by the demons she has battled.”
He gazed out over the ridgeline where Bishops were gathering. A knot of them had formed behind Killeen, who stood absolutely still.
“And as well, I see there are others among the Bishops who seem to neglect the holy nature of my office.” This was plainly calculated to throw fear into the Bishops.
A Bishop man shouted, “You’re bunch cowards!”
“You turn ’n’ run pretty quick, for a God,” a woman called sarcastically.
Some Bishops’ hands began to creep toward their weapons but His Supremacy’s escort leveled theirs immediately, catching them by surprise. His Supremacy said hotly, “I believe I see demons dancing in the eyes of many here. Careful of your wild talk.”
“Keep your damn hands off Jocelyn,” a voice yelled from the knot behind Killeen.
“Yeasay!”
“Gutless bastard!”
“Yellowbellies!”
“Fatass poltroon!”
His Supremacy gestured slightly and two men in his escort started toward the knot. They trotted forward, trying to see who had yelled.
Killeen said, “Stop them or you’ll have a fight.”
His Supremacy gazed at him as though looking down at an insect. “You would threaten the deputy of All Living Holiness?”
“Just predicting,” Killeen said evenly.
—and as he finished saying it he clenched his jaw solidly shut against a sudden boiling turmoil inside. The wedge at the back of his mind was a swelling sore. Pressure bulged through him. His vision narrowed down to a tight blue cone centered on the swarthy face of the strutting little man.
His Supremacy raised a hand and his guard stopped. He licked his lips and assessed the gathering crowd of Bishops. Killeen wondered if the man had the stomach for a shootout at close quarters. If so, a lot of people would die very quickly.
But then the curious vacant look came into His Supremacy’ s eyes and Killeen saw that the man would try to talk himself out of this.
Talk. Endless empty talk. All Killeen’s buried anger and sorrow rushed into his throat. Bile stung his mouth. A storm swept from the jellied presence at the back of his mind, blowing through him.
His Supremacy went on, “We are marching to meet again the bountiful grace of God as it descends from heaven. I say to all you brethren, turn away from these decriers of the immaculate path. Your Cap’n Jocelyn has erred gravely. She caused you many, many tragic losses upon the exalted battlefield. Be rid of her. Let—”
—and compressed rage ripped the air like a scalding release. Killeen felt a squeezing pulse of electromagnetic energy hum past his shoulder. It refracted the air with its wake and struck His Supremacy solidly in the head.
