‘Outside the gate, my lord, there’s a couple of regiments out there, under the command of Suzerain Yetah.’
‘Tsatach’s fiery balls,’ Vesna groaned, ‘that’s the last thing I need right now.’
Now he realised why the Palace Guardsmen were looking so concerned. Kollen Yetah being here right now meant trouble in some form or another, though this was a curious twist, considering the nobleman’s words of a minute ago. Yetah’s family had been as entrenched in the Knights of the Temples as much as any man’s, for a century or more - although they had always complied with Lord Bahl’s edicts about the Devoted. Suzerain Yetah was an unlikely person to be bent on defiling temples.
‘He’s demanding the gate be opened immediately.’
‘I’m sure he is.’ To himself Vesna muttered, ‘Damn, what part is he intending to play?’ He didn’t wait for the men to respond; there was only one way he’d get an answer and that was by speaking to the man himself.
‘Open the gate,’ he ordered.
The sergeant saluted and directed his men to start the process of removing the great bolts locking the gate closed. ‘Lot of angry soldiers out there, sir,’ he commented in a neutral voice, not wanting to sound like he was questioning orders.
‘I know, but neither of us has the authority to deny a suzerain, and General Lahk is not here at present.’
Vesna confirmed the Ghosts with Count Feers were not being prevented from joining their comrades. The various troops under command of the cults hadn’t moved. They didn’t look happy about the situation, but as long as no one was raising weapons, Vesna was happy.
As soon as the gate opened a tall man with a mop of curly hair stormed through, four knighted hurscals at his heel. He looked good for a man ten summers older than Vesna, though he walked was a noticeable limp, favouring the right leg that had been recently broken when Lord Isak had called for soldiers to join his crusade.
Yetah wasn’t the only suzerain to have moved troops into Tebran, just the boldest. He was an experienced soldier, having spent almost ten years in Lomin commanding a cavalry division, but he appeared to have lost none of his youthful belligerence in that time.
He walked straight up to the count, making a dismissive gesture when Vesna made to kneel and offer his sword, and cried, ‘Good to see you again, Vesna- I hear congratulations are in order. Some filly broken you at last, or are you just getting old?’
A cuirass was plainly visible under the suzerain’s livery, and he carried a red broadsword with a lightning flash down the blade that reflected his family’s long-standing allegiance to the Devoted.
‘A bit of both, my Lord Suzerain,’ Vesna replied coolly. ‘I am glad to see you are recovering.’
Yetah pointed to his leg. ‘This? Pah, teach me to jump fallen trees on an old horse. Have you arrested Count Feers?’
Vesna blinked. Yetah’s information was better than he’d have expected; the arrest warrant had only just been issued and had barely been announced to the city. ‘He is in custody, my lord; the stand-off is over.’
‘But the bastards are still here?’ Yetah exclaimed, looking past Vesna. ‘They’re still armed? What’s stopping you? They should all be in irons and on the way to the gibbet by now!’
‘Gibbet? Sir, why are you here, and leading troops into the city no less?’
‘Doing what must be done,’ Yetah snapped. ‘If you will do nothing about this gradual coup by the cults, then it falls to the armies of the Farlan to protect our nation.’
‘Coup?’ Vesna said in a daze. ‘Yetah, you’re a member of the Knights of the Temples — ’
‘You will address me as “my Lord Suzerain” - need I remind you that we are not peers?’ Yetah replied sharply. ‘As for my allegiances, they are none of your concern. I am a nobleman of the Farlan and a loyal soldier of the tribe. Whether or not a usurper currently holds the ducal throne, my duty to the tribe remains. I will not stand idly by while bloody mutinous priests exploit the majesty of their Gods to take power.’
Vesna looked back and saw the penitents drawing back, but rather than fleeing they were taking a defensive position at the mouth of a side-street. ‘My Lord Suzerain, what you propose would result in a pitched battle in the streets of Tirah - we would have civil war — ’