Mars the Divine (Empire of Time Series) by John Argo

Page 17.

He looked up and met my gaze squarely. There was fire in his eyes. "That's what got Timony killed. Do you want to go that way too?"

"Timony came to warn me about an assassination. The Holy Mother was poisoned I was expelled from the city."

"There's more," he said. "Timony—Shan—he was looking for the seventh point."

I shook my head. "I can't think of anything in the literature or the scriptures that talks about a seventh point. What does it mean?"

"It's about a journey," he said. He came back from one of his trips all fired up. He'd been shot by a Triber, and needed time to recover. Sudie begged him not to go out, but he was like a crazy man about finding that seventh point. He kept saying 'It's geometry, Sam, it's all about geometry.' I had no idea what he was talking about, still don't. That was the last time I ever saw him."

"There is something more you haven't told me."

He seemed reluctant. "Think about this carefully, Farr. Sudie has already lost her brother, and she is happy that you've come. I need help with the farm, especially because she is getting frail and I'm scared of losing her."

I nodded. Inwardly, I knew I could not stay. I was restless, and it hurt me to see her as she had become. I really needed a place of my own, with a woman of my own, and I couldn't spend my life as a Triber farmer. I think he understood that as he read my eyes.

"Very well," he said. "What has to be has to be. That's what your scripture says about Fate."

I was well-versed, so to speak, and always ready with a rejoinder. "Scripture also says that Fate is like a stream that can be channeled."

He seemed to accept that. "When I came down here, I saw that Sudie had taken up with this Triber, and both Timony and I saw he was no good. His real name was Gufin or Goofin, but I thought he was worthless and called him Hang Me Now. He wouldn't hold his own on the work, you see, and he ate and drank more than his share. He liked bedding Sudie but he was mean to her. Timony was gone a lot, and didn't always see what went on. Then Timony came back that last time and started talking about this coin and what it meant. Hang Me Now only understood one thing: that Timony was after treasure. When Timony left here, it was to warn you and also to look for the seventh point. Hang Me Now made up his mind to follow secretly and ambush Timony after he found what he thought was treasure. Before he left, he cut Sudie up so she couldn't tell anyone else about the supposed treasure. He came looking for me to kill me, but I was in the wrong place that day, so he gave up and took off. When I came home and saw what he did to her, I got my gun and tracked him. He's the second man I killed. I made him get on his knees before me and beg. I wanted him to beg for forgiveness but that never occurred to the selfish bastard. He only begged for his life and offered to share the treasure with me if I let him life. I told him there was no treasure, not of gold or silver anyway, that it was a treasure of knowledge. I also told him what he did to Sudie couldn't be forgiven. I thought about making him die a slow and painful death, but that would have cheapened me, so I walked up behind him and put the gun to his head. I said, "Enjoy life one more minute because that's all you got." He chose to spend his last minute crying and sniveling instead of taking a deep breath and looking around in wonder. Then I pulled the trigger. I came home and took Sudie for my own, and for all I know his carcass is a rotten apple on the dusty slopes."

"You rid the world of him," I said. The finer points of criminal law are often lost amid the harsh facts of life down here in the Triber badlands.

"I think he figured out where the seventh point was," Sam said.

"Do you know?"

He shook his head. "He took that to his grave with him."

"I'd like to stay another day or two."

"I'd like that."

"I'll help you with the work."

"Thank you."

"I won't promise to stay, but I can promise to come back."

"She'll like that," he said.

I didn't say goodbye to Sudie when I left. I prepared her for my departure, so that it should come as no surprise. I told her stories about our childhood, and told her I would always come back to sit with them by the hearth. I told her it was the happiest time of my life, and she held my hands between hers with a light in her eyes that said she felt the same. Whether I would ever see them again was a matter for the Gods, but Fate can be channeled like a stream, so I would return one day or die trying.

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