B00BFVOGUI EBOK Read Online Free PDF Page A

were armored, Kolvax’s trademark golden collars ringing their necks beneath their helmets.
    Tellmer rushed into the fray, armored arms waving. “The Black Priest is in contemplation! He cannot be—”
    One of the intruders lashed out with a whirling fire-bolo that caught Tellmer just beneath the elbow. A sizzling flash later, and Tellmer was screaming on the ground, right next to his detached arm.
    Kolvax looked not at his howling assistant but at the weapons he thought he’d hidden away. So they’ve been into the armory . It had amused the Xylanx rulers to supply the exiles with weapons; they expected exactly this.
    “Pick up your arm,” Kolvax said, stepping over Tellmer to enter the chapel. He could see the anger in the rebels’ faces — which meant something all on its own. “What goes on here?” he yelled, slapping the rusty club against his gloved hand. “I can see your faces, adepts. You know facial screens should be set to opaque in this holy place!”
    “Holy, my ass,” the lead invader said. Kolvax recognized him as Gerrok, one of his more annoying pests. “This ‘holy place’ of yours was a counting room for a bunch of tentacle-heads,” Gerrok snarled. “And it still reeks of it. I can’t take off my helmet even in private — and we’ve been so long without a supply visit that our filters are clogged!”
    “True cleanliness is in the—”
    “Enough!” Gerrok shouted as he fired the shockpulse cannon in his hand. The blast struck the lectern just to Kolvax’s left, blowing it into pieces.
    Kolvax looked drily at it. “Fine. You have grievances?”
    “We live in grievance,” Gerrok’s female companion said. “We’ve heard enough of your sermons! You’re a prattling has-been. I can’t believe we let you lead us into treason!”
    “Into exile,” another said. “Into prison!”
    “ Into oblivion! ” Gerrok yelled.
    Kolvax set his faceplate to transparent. It was better for them to see him now, his dark eyes. “Do you recall when you took the pledge to join my sect?” He pointed to the modest yellow ring at Gerrok’s neck. “Do you recall when I affixed those collars to your uniforms?”
    Gerrok moved menacingly closer. “If you’re about to ask what the collars mean to us — forget it! We’re loyal to the ideals, Kolvax. We have no attachment to you!”
    “That’s not what I was going to say.” With his free hand, Kolvax touched a control on the wrist holding the bludgeon. “I was going to explain that they’re not for decoration.” He looked at the six rebels. “Right now, the emitters inside your collars are generating microscopic laser beams. That would be that stinging feeling you’re experiencing.”
    Kolvax watched Gerrok’s eyes freeze. One after another, the other intruders dropped their weapons and began pawing at their necks.
    “Don’t worry about the sensation,” Kolvax said. “As the deflectors within the collars come online, an energy field develops, much like the ones we use in our prison doors — our real prisons, mind you. And that should be the end of your problems.”
    Eyes bulging, Gerrok raised his weapon high and began to move…
    …and then his helmeted head tumbled off his shoulders. Around him, five more heads followed, bouncing on the floor of the holy chapel. The bodies followed, gushing geysers of vital fluids.
    Kolvax looked down at Tellmer, writhing nearby. “Now they’re really the Severed,” he said, grinning.
    Tellmer didn’t laugh. He pawed anxiously at his own collar with his surviving hand. “Are all our collars like this?”
    “Don’t worry, Tellmer. If I didn’t kill you over your cooking, you’re immortal.” Kolvax turned back to the office. He stopped by the doorway and picked up Tellmer’s oozing left forearm. “Here,” he said, pitching the limb into his assistant’s lap. “Take an hour off. See what the medic can do with that. But I want dinner on time. And it had better be good.”
    “Thank you,