The syndicate will probably lose their paratime license; any
of its officials who had guilty knowledge of this will be dealt with
according to law. You know, this was a pretty nasty business."
"You're telling me!" Stranor Sleth exclaimed. "Did you get a look at
those whips they were going to use on our people? Pointed iron barbs a
quarter-inch long braided into them, all over the lash-ends!"
"Yes. Any punitive action you're thinking about taking on these
priests of Muz-Azin--the natives, I mean--will be ignored on the First
Level. And that reminds me: you'd better work out a line of policy,
pretty soon."
"Well, as for the priests and the torturers, I think I'll tell Yorzuk
to have them sold to the Bhunguns, to the east. They're always in the
market for galley slaves," Stranor Sleth said. He turned to Brannad
Klav. "And I'll want six gold crowns made up, as soon as possible.
Strictly Hulgun design, with Yat-Zar religious symbolism, very rich
and ornate, all slightly different. When I give Kurchuk absolution,
I'll crown him at the altar in the name of Yat-Zar. Then I'll invite
in the other five Hulgun kings, lecture them on their religious
duties, make them confess their secret doubts, forgive them, and crown
them, too. From then on, they can all style themselves as ruling by
the will of Yat-Zar."
"And from then on, you'll have all of them eating out of your hand,"
Verkan Vall concluded.
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