"
"How'd you learn that?" Verkan Vall asked.
"Oh, we have a man in Zurb, not connected with the temple," Stranor
Sleth said. "Name's Crannar Jurth; calls himself Kranjur, locally. He
has a swordmaker's shop, employs about a dozen native journeymen and
apprentices who hammer out the common blades he sells in the open
market. Then, he imports a few high-class alloy-steel blades from the
First Level, that'll cut through this local low-carbon armor like
cheese. Fits them with locally-made hilts and sells them at
unbelievable prices to the nobility. He's Swordsmith to the King;
picks up all the inside palace dope. Of course, he was among the first
to accept the New Gospel and go over to Muz-Azin. He has a secret room
under his shop, with his conveyer and a radio.
"What happened was this: These six priests were at a consecration
ceremony at a rabbit-ranch outside the city, and they didn't know
about the raid on the temple. On their way back, they were surrounded
by Chuldun archers and taken prisoner. They had no weapons but their
sacrificial knives." He threw another dirty look at Brannad Klav. "So
they're due to go up on the triangles at sunset tomorrow."
"We'll have to get them out before then," Verkan Vall stated. "They're
our people, and we can't let them down; even the native is under our
protection, whether he knows it or not. And in the second place, if
those priests are sacrificed to Muz-Azin," he told Brannad Klav, "you
can shut down everything on this time-line, pull out or disintegrate
your installations, and fill in your mine-tunnels.
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