[b]Chapter 1[/b]

"Blessed is he who comes after. Blessed be his name on the tongues of men. Blessed be his feet on the parched earth. Blessed be his words on ignorant ears."

The words droned incessantly, grating his ear. The Milaen's voice was a rat squeaking in its trap, hissing and spitting. Samnos could feel the rat's raw terror, the pungent aroma of its impending death. And yet it squeaked.

Samnos hated squeaking and bawling and weeping. He lifted his fat hand and slapped the Milaen hard across his face. He felt the teeth crack behind the cheek. The bound man gasped momentarily, coughing up the broken tooth. But his liturgy continued unabated.

Samnos grunted in irritation and slapped him again, harder.

"Hail the Liberator, blessed be his name on the minds of the Missenes. Hail the Dismantler. Hail the Emperor of the Sun!"

Samnos rubbed his palm on the cloth offered by the young kronto and motioned to the Captain. Immediately the armoured men moved in muttering dirty oaths and nasty promises. They did not use their weapons. Two of them grabbed the Milaen's hair and in one long and slow motion, ripped it from his scalp. That stopped the infernal drone.

"Apparently even mythical prophets scream like pigs," Samnos noted with an air of indifference.

"I assure you, Lord Governor, he is a heretic. We do not support his views one bit! He is no prophet!" The Mahdi protested as he prostrated, staring devotedly at Samnos's knees.

"And if he was?"

"Lord Governor, it's… My lord, you must understand. He is a blasphemer! A heretic! What he says goes against the doctrine of the Sura, of all the things we hold sacred. Never…" he sputtered. "Never will we ever think of sedition! The Emperor, may He-"

What the Emperor may was cut out by another piercing scream from the Milaen as the soldiers were now resorting to their knives for the finer cuts. Despite himself, the Mahdi turned to look at the spectacle. Samnos could see the curiosity, disguised badly as revulsion, on his swarthy face.

The soldiers were skinning the Milaen. And not with skill, Samnos saw. "Shepherd boys in Damora can do a better job than you clumsy girls," he chided. "I ask the Emperor for soldiers and he gives me bloody Missene-loving village idiots!"

"The Empire of the Sun is at hand!" screamed the Milaen. "He is coming! Aaaah! I can see his gleaming chariot! I can see his luminous eyes! Father!"

Samnos laughed gleefully, thoroughly enjoying the lunatic's babble. "He is going mad! How extraordinary! He is seeing his father, poor rat!"

"Show them, Father! Show them your Empire! Show them your light! Burn these oppressors and liberate me, Father!"

The Milaen's flesh from the neck down was exposed and the soldiers were clumsily working on his chained feet, cutting off his soles. They also seemed to have cut some vein or other, for there was a growing pool of blood under their captive. His eyes, however, glowed. White fire. They were staring up ahead in rapture. Glistening. Samnos tried to peer at whatever it was that the Milaen was seeing but only saw the stained stones of the Hall of Sacrifice.

"Yes, show me father," Samnos said, getting into it. "Show us this fantastic Empire of yours! We never tire of hearing about it!" He looked at the soldiers and the men all laughed and jeered. Even the Mahdi managed a weak smile. Bloody Missene degenerate! He would have to go too.

The Milaen was slow in dying. Many of his veins had ruptured, owing to the clumsiness of the soldiers. It was said that when a Damoran horseman skins his prisoner, he would do it with such care that the death screams would seem unwarranted to any onlooker. But there was no finesse in the Turmen soldiers. They skinned like they fought. With no love.

Samnos waved his hand and the soldiers stepped back. Lifting the hem of his embroidered tunic, he picked his way across the bloody floor and looked into the hallucinating face of the Milaen. He felt a phlegmatic cough welling up – no doubt a result of the bottle of wine he had consumed earlier, not to mention smoking all that maltahil. He worked his fat throat muscles, and spat on the Milaen's murine face.

"I want his head placed at the Temple entrance. Cut the rest into pieces and feed them to the dogs. All his accomplices are to be impaled upside down and displayed on Mount Buku. The village of Milee is to be razed to the ground. The men are to be castrated before they are killed. Sell the women and children."

The Captain did not flinch even once as he rigidly placed his fist on his heart. "As the Lord Governor commands!"

"Where will you hide…" It seemed like the Milaen still had his vocal chords. "When the Master flays your soul? Where will you hide, puda?"
 
The Captain hissed in anger at the foul word and made a move towards the Milaen, but stopped short at Samnos's gesture.

"I have no reason to hide, kunta. I will be waiting for your master right here in your filthy temple! And when your master arrives, he can clean my urine from your holy altar!"

The soldiers cackled.

"Matre tu kunta!" shouted one of them. They laughed louder.

Samnos patted his forehead with his scented towel. This was getting rather tiresome. The Mahdi was again hovering anxiously near him, bobbing up and down stupidly.

"Lord Governor… I… I petition you. The Temple has nothing to do with this…this disturbance or this heretic. There is no reason to desecrate the sanctity with his head hanging in the entrance. The Market Square will be better suited-"

Samnos quelled him with a look. The man had the nerve to demand! He certainly had to go.

"I don't care about your heathen temple. If I had my way, you Missenes will go the way of the Gurgs and the Balenians and renounce your fake gods. If I had my way, this whole temple will be turned into a whorehouse for lepers!"

The Mahdi continued mumbling under his breath. Something about the Emperor. Samnos would deal with this boneless maggot later.

"See to it," he said curtly to the Captain. Taking care to not get any blood on his tunic, he walked out of the room.

Behind him, a crazy man sang songs about an imaginary hero while his body was chopped up carelessly.