Tarnmetwell, the Brigadier had heard somewhere, meant the Hill of the Blue Flowers in some long dead language. It was one of seven residences possessed by the Imperial family and was the only one of them that stood within the walls of the capital. As the carriage came to a stop in the courtyard of the huge, magnificent palace and the Brigadier disembarked, he reflected how fortunate it was that the Emperor had been in the city for the entire duration of his visit to this country. He could just as easily have been in Jhatov Villa, a thousand miles to the south, or one of the others even further away, which would have presented the Brigadier with a serious dilemma. Either to make his presence felt in the capital in the hope that the Emperor would come there at some point, or make his play in whatever far flung part of the Empire that was currently being honoured by his presence and hope that he didn't leave before he was able to arrange a meeting.
Around the gravel driveway was a formal arrangement of flower beds containing the blue flowers after which the palace had been named, but the combination of perfectly manicured lawns within the walls surrounding the palace grounds and the built up urbanisation of the city outside meant that they were probably the only specimens of the plant remaining in the city. In the Brigadier's imagination, though, the palace was gone. The tall, black and gold towers that overlooked the grounds were gone, and all that was left was the hill, covered with grass cropped short by horses and wild sheep and scattered with tiny, star shaped blue flowers looking like sapphires shining in the sun.
Two Kelvon soldiers in dress uniform came forward to meet him. “Brigadier Weyland James,” he said. “Come in answer to the Emperor's summons.”
“Thank you for coming,” one of the soldiers said. “Please come with us.”
They took him inside to a reception room. The Brigadier was prepared to wait for at least two hours, even longer, for the Emperor to meet him, and so was moderately surprised when Tyron appeared less than five minutes after his arrival. “Brigadier,” he said, holding out his hand. The Brigadier shook it and bowed his head.
“I have agents in the Carrow army,” the Emperor then said, waving him to a chair. The Emperor then sat, and the Brigadier sat opposite him. “I doubt this comes as a surprise to you. They report that they have just launched a full scale invasion of your country.” He stared at the Brigadier. “This also comes as no surprise to you.”
“We've been expecting it,” the Brigadier replied, but he was wondering how his agents had managed to report back so quickly. He must also have an agent in King Nilon’s palace. He wondered whether Wombat and the Kelvon agent ever came into contact with each other. Whether they ever came into conflict with each other, neither knowing that the other was also a spy.
“Yes, of course. Anyway, our agents report that shortly before the armies of Carrow broke through your Steel Curtain, Radiants went ahead of them. Dozens of them, more than have ever been seen in one place before, except in their own cities. They summoned earthquakes to tear your country's defences apart, then summoned mists to conceal the approach of Carrow troops. They also reported that the Radiants cast curses against high ranking Helberion officers and even attacked physically, with their tentacles. By the time the Carrow troops arrived, they crossed the border with almost no resistance, almost no losses.”
The Emperor stared at the Brigadier as he remained silent and stroked his large, neatly trimmed moustache thoughtfully. “I brought you here to ask whether you could cast any light on this unprecedented situation,” he said. “You will then say that you explained it all upon our last meeting, and that I grew angry and dismissed you.”
“I would have put it a little more diplomatically, Majesty.”
“It was your assertion that elements within my own government were conspiring to bring down the Empire that I could not stomach.”
“I had no evidence then, Majesty. Nothing but the testimony of Princess Ardria concerning thoughts she overheard while in telepathic communication with the Radiants. Physical, tangible evidence has since come to light, however.”
“What evidence?”
“There is a man acting as an advisor to Undersecretary Tiver, a man by the name of Rastor Fienwell. I now know, almost beyond doubt, that he has been adopted by the Radiants and raised to the point where he can communicate with them and other adoptees telepathically. Such people can be recognised by the fact that their skins glow, just like the Radiants themselves. They cover their skins with powder so that they can pass as normal humans. Two days ago I broke into Fienwell's house and discovered that he has radiant skin. This almost certainly means that he is part of the conspiracy to bring down human civilisation.”
“Almost certainly?”
“It could be argued that he has been blessed, as Princess Ardria was, by an enemy who wished him harm and that he is in the process of turning into a demon.”
“And you learned this two days ago. Why didn’t you report this to the Kelvon authorities? We could have picked him up two days ago!”
“If you had done that, and if he is indeed a Radiant agent, the Radiants would have learned that we are aware of their plans for us. It might have spurred them to advance their plans before we were ready for them. Now that they seem to have declared open warfare against us, though, this is no longer a concern. There is no reason for you not to take him into custody and question him.”
“If we do that, the Radiants might attack us directly, as they have attacked you. Earthquakes, storms...”
“Your Majesty, they are already attacking you. They are driving you to civil war. Undersecretary Tiver and the other members of the Radiant conspiracy within your government are taking draconian measures against the rebel workers, measures that are designed to aggregate them and fuel their grievances rather than restore order. Tiver and his fellows are not working against the leaders of the popular uprising. They are working with them, to drive the Empire to civil war.”
The Emperor gave a heavy sigh. “What you are describing is high treason. Tiver is not the most popular of men. His appearance goes against him, and his degenerate lifestyle, but I try to judge my people according to how well they do their job, not by their appearance. It's possible that I may have been overcompensating for his appearance, that I've been aware that he’s not right for the job and that I've been attributing this to an unconscious prejudice and giving him leeway on that account. That ends now, however. Tiver and this Fienwell character will be given the chance to explain themselves, to justify their recent decisions. If they have been guilty of what you claim, they will be arrested and executed.”
“You should act fast, then. Now that all pretence seems to have been abandoned, Fienwell may anticipate this move. He may already be on his way out of the city.”
“Then act fast I will. Please excuse me, Brigadier.”
The Emperor rose from his seat and marched from the room, calling for his personal secretary, and as the door closed on its sprung hinges the Brigadier gave a great sigh of relief. He’d done it! His mission had been a success! He could leave it to the Emperor now. Now that he was treating the possibility of rot in the very heart of his Empire seriously, he would find it and root it out. The danger was that the process of destabilising the Empire had already gone too far, that it had already gained too much momentum to be stopped, but there was nothing he could do about that. The Brigadier's duty now was to return to Helberion and play his part in the war.
Before he could do that, though, he had to make one more attempt to get Malone back from the activists before his luck ran out. His former Batman had missed the last two meetings in the King's Shilling and the Brigadier was beginning to get worried. It was Sunday tomorrow, the day they'd set for their weekly meeting. If Malone failed to turn up for a third time...
Then he would have no choice but to return to Helberion without him. He couldn’t abandon his duty to his country for the sake of one man, not even when the man was his adopted son. Not when he could simply ask a member of the embassy staff to stand in for him for future meetings. If more weeks went by and he still failed to turn up, then he was probably dead. It would mean he was probably dead already! If that turned out to be the case, he would seek out the individuals who’d killed him and deliver justice, as soon as the danger to Helberion was past and he had the time.
He wanted to leave immediately, but he couldn't go until the Emperor dismissed him. He remembered one tale, probably apocryphal, about an unfortunate man summoned by the Emperor whom the Emperor had then forgotten about and who had had to wait for two days, looked after by apologetic palace staff, until word could be gotten to the Emperor and leave given for him to depart. Fortunately, the Brigadier didn't have to wait that long. When half an hour had passed, the door opened again and two men in military uniforms entered, one of them a Colonel. The Brigadier stood again to greet them.
“Good evening, Brigadier James. I am Colonel Mossen Crow and this is Private Daniel Avebury. We work for the Kelvon intelligence service.” They both shook hands with the Brigadier, and then the Colonel indicated for the Brigadier to sit again. The Colonel then sat in the chair the Emperor had just left, while the other man sat beside him. “We want you to tell us everything you know about the Radiants, these powdered men who work for them and anything else you might know that can help us to combat this threat.”
“Of course. It was precisely in order to give you this information that I came to your country.”
“Good. Your cooperation is appreciated.”
The Private then took a notebook and pen from a pocket and began taking notes while the Colonel began asking questions.