platform.Ghromdur, the high priest of Muz-Azin, was edging backward andreaching under his robe. At the same time, an officer shouted anorder, and the Chuldun archers drew arrows from their quivers andfitted them to their bowstrings. Immediately, the ultrasonicparalyzers of the advancing paratimers went into action, and themercenaries began dropping.
"_Lay down your weapons, fools!_" the amplified voice boomed at them."_Lay down your weapons or you shall surely die! Who are you,miserable wretches, to draw bows against Me?_"
]
At first a few, then all of them, the Chulduns lowered or droppedtheir weapons and began edging away to the sides. At the center, infront of the throne, most of them had been knocked out. Verkan Vallwas still watching the Muz-Azin high priest intently; as Ghromdurraised his arm, there was a flash and a puff of smoke from the frontof Yat-Zar--the paint over the collapsed nickel was burned off, butotherwise the idol was undamaged. Verkan Vall swung up his needler andrayed Ghromdur dead; as the man in the green-faced black robes fell, ablaster clattered on the stone platform.
"_Is that your puny best, Muz-Azin?_" the booming voice demanded."_Where is your high priest now?_"
"Horv; face Yat-Zar toward Muz-Azin," Verkan Vall said over hisshoulder, drawing his blaster with his left hand. Like all First Levelpeople, he was ambidextrous, although, like all paratimers, hehabitually concealed the fact while outtime. As the levitated idolswung slowly to look down upon its enemy on the built-up cart, VerkanVall aimed the blaster and squeezed.
]
In a spot less than a millimeter in diameter on the crocodile idol'sside, a certain number of neutrons in the atomic structure of thestone from which it was carved broke apart, becoming, in effect, atomsof hydrogen. With a flash and a bang, the idol burst and vanished.Yat-Zar gave a dirty laugh and turned his back on the cart, which wasnow burning fiercely facing King Kurchuk again.
"Get your hands up, all of you!" Verkan Vall shouted, in the FirstLevel language, swinging the stubby muzzle of the blaster and theknob-tipped twin tubes of the needler to cover the group around thethrone, "Come forward, before I start blasting!"
Labdurg raised his hands and stepped forward. So did two of thepriests of Yat-Zar. They were quickly seized by Paratime Policemen whoswarmed up onto the platform and disarmed. All three were carryingsigma-ray needlers, and Labdurg had a blaster as well.
King Kurchuk was clinging to the arms of his throne, a badlyfrightened monarch trying desperately not to show it. He was a bigman, heavy-shouldered, black-bearded; under ordinary circumstances hewould probably have cut an imposing figure, in his gold-washed mailand his golden crown. Now his face was a dirty gray, and he was bitingnervously at his lower lip. The others on the platform were in evenworse state. The Hulgun nobles were grouped together, trying todisassociate themselves from both the king and the priests ofMuz-Azin. The latter were staring in a daze at the blazing cart fromwhich their idol had just been blasted. And the dozen men who were tohave done the actual work of the torture-sacrifice had all droppedtheir whips and were fairly gibbering in fear.
Yat-Zar, manipulated by the robed paratimer, had taken a positiondirectly above the throne and was lowering slowly. Kurchuk stared upat the massive idol descending toward him, his knuckles white as heclung to the arms of his throne. He managed to hold out until he couldfeel the weight of the idol pressing on his head. Then, with a scream,he hurled himself from the throne and rolled forward almost to theedge of the platform. Yat-Zar moved to one side, swung slightly andknocked the throne toppling, and then settled down on the platform. ToKurchuk, who was rising cautiously on his hands and knees, the bigidol seemed to be looking at him in contempt.
"_Where are my holy priests, Kurchuk?_" Stranor Sleth demanded in tohis sleeve-hidden radio. "_Let them be brought before me, alive andunharmed, or it shall be better for you had you never been born!_"
The six priests of Yat-Zar, it seemed, were already being brought ontothe platform by one of Kurchuk's nobles. This noble, whose name wasYorzuk, knew a miracle when he saw one, and believed in being on theside of the god with the heaviest artillery. As soon as he had seenYat-Zar coming through the gate without visible means of support, hehad hastened to the dungeons with half a dozen of his personalretainers and ordered the release of the six captives. He was nowescorting them onto the platform, assuring them that he had alwaysbeen a faithful servant of Yat-Zar and had been deeply grieved at hissovereign's apostasy.
"_Hear my word, Kurchuk_," Stranor Sleth continued through theloud-speaker in the idol. "_You have sinned most vilely against me,and were I a cruel god, your fate would be such as no man has everbefore suffered. But I am a merciful god; behold, you may gainforgiveness in my sight. For thirty days, you shall neither eat meatnor drink wine, nor shall you wear gold nor fine raiment, and each dayshall you go to my temple and beseech me for my forgiveness. And onthe thirty-first day, you shall set out, barefoot and clad in the garbof a slave, and journey to my temple that is in the mountains overabove Yoldav, and there will I forgive you, after you have madesacrifice to me. I, Yat-Zar, have spoken!_"
The king started to rise, babbling thanks.
"_Rise not before me until I have forgiven you!_" Yat-Zar thundered."_Creep out of my sight upon your belly, wretch!_"
* * * * *
The procession back to the temple was made quietly and sedately alongan empty roadway. Yat-Zar seemed to be in a kindly humor; the peopleof Zurb had no intention of giving him any reason to change his mood.The priests of Muz-Azin and their torturers had been flung into thedungeon. Yorzuk, appointed regent for the duration of Kurchuk'spenance, had taken control and was employing Hulgun spearmen andhastily-converted Chuldun archers to restore order and, incidentally,purge a few of his personal enemies and political rivals. The priests,with the three prisoners who had been found carrying First Levelweapons among them and Yat-Zar floating triumphantly in front, enteredthe temple. A few of the devout, who sought admission after them, weretold that elaborate and secret rites were being held to cleanse theprofaned altar, and sent away.
Verkan Vall and Brannad Klav and Stranor Sleth were in the conveyerchamber, with the Paratime Policemen and the extra priests; along withthem were the three prisoners. Verkan Vall pulled off his false beardand turned to face these. He could see that they all recognized him.
"Now," he began, "you people are in a bad jam. You've violated theParatime Transposition Code, the Commercial Regulation Code, and theFirst Level Criminal Code, all together. If you know what's good foryou, you'll start talking."
"I'm not saying anything till I have legal advice," the man who hadbeen using the local alias of Labdurg replied. "And if you're throughsearching me, I'd like to have my cigarettes and lighter back."
"Smoke one of mine, for a change," Verkan Vall told him. "I don't knowwhat's in yours beside tobacco." He offered his case and held a lightfor the prisoner before lighting his own cigarette. "I'm going to besure you get back to the First Level alive."
The former Overseer of the Kingdom of Zurb shrugged. "I'm still nottalking," he said.
"Well, we can get it all out of you by narco-hypnosis, anyhow," VerkanVall told him. "Besides, we got that man of yours who was here at thetemple when we came in. He's being given a full treatment, as apresumed outtime native found in possession of First Level weapons. Ifyou talk now it'll go easier with you."
The prisoner dropped the cigarette on the floor and tramped it out.
"Anything you cops get out of me, you'll have to get the hard way," hesaid. "I have friends on the First Level who'll take care of me."
"I doubt that. They'll have their hands full taking care ofthemselves, after this gets out." Verkan Vall turned to the two inthe black robes. "Either of you want to say anything?" When they shooktheir heads, he nodded to a group of his policemen; they were hustledinto the conveyer. "Take them to the First Level terminal and holdthem till I come in. I'll be along with the next conveyer load."
* * * * *
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The conveyer flashed and vanished. Brannad Klav stared for a moment atthe circle of concrete floor from whence it had disappeared. Then heturned to Verkan Vall.
"I still can't believe it," he said. "Why, those fellows were FirstLevel paratimers. So was that priest, Ghromdur: the one you rayed."
"Yes, of course. They worked for your rivals, the Fourth Level MineralProducts Syndicate; the outfit that was trying to get your Proto-AryanSector fissionables franchise away from you. They operate on this sectoralready; have the petroleum franchise for the Chuldun country, east ofthe Caspian Sea. They export to some of these internal-combustion-enginesectors, like Europo-American. You know, most of the wars they've