Verkan was still blowing on his hands when Tortha opened the thick plank door. "You've got to do something about that knocker, Tortha. It's as heavy as a cannonball and in this cold it just about froze my fingers, through gloves yet!"
"Come on in. Sit down by the fire." Tortha had a roaring fire blazing in his big flagstone hearth. He passed Verkan a flask of Ermut's brandy.
Verkan took a swig and grimaced. "Very good. Thanks, Tortha, I can feel that all the way to my toes."
"What brings you out on this cold winter night?"
"Inspector Andar Valth just jumped in from First Level. The Prole Liberation Movement has really torn it this time; they've applied to the Council for membership in the Executive Council as a recognized party!"
Tortha nodded. "So the PLM has decided to go from being a gnat to a horsefly. What's the problem? We've been expecting that for decades."
"The problem according to our intelligence is that the Opposition Party has guaranteed their support and the Center Party is leaning in their direction."
"How did all this come about?"
"I don't know. Maybe I've been spending too much time here on Aryan-Transpacific. I'm out of the loop."
"Opposition has been out of power for a long time, but I never thought they'd get desperate enough to seek an alliance with the proles."
"They're playing with fireseed, that's what I think. At any given time there are maybe a billion citizens living on First Level, the rest outtime, while the remaining population on Home Time Line is proles, billions upon billions of them."
Tortha shook his head. "It didn't used to be this way. When I was a lad there were very few proles on Home Time Line; almost all of them lived on Fifth Level. It all started with this fad for personal servants, about the time you were born, Vall. I remember Chief Zarvan was opposed to it even then. Robots were plenty good, and they don't talk back or ask for longevity treatments!"
"It started before then. Tortha, how many Home Timeliners live on First Level fulltime? Not many. Most have their own mansions or plantations on Fifth Level like your 'little shack' on Fifth Level Sicily."
Tortha sputtered. "It's my dream home."
"Sure, but who does all the work? You must have three or four hundred proles there to handle the gardens, to say nothing of the housework. All this started six or seven thousand years ago. There must be a couple hundred proles somewhere on Fifth Level for every Home Timeliner on First Level, Fifth Level and outtime. And how many of them are really necessary, since we 'import' more stuff from Fourth Level alone than we can use? The government subsidizes Fifth Level production because we're afraid someday one of these Second or Fourth Level time-lines is going to discover the Paratime Secret and put our outtime firms out of business. We've had to turn the moon into a warehouse just to hold all the excess! It's a wonder the proles haven't thrown us off our own time-line."
Tortha sobered up. "They almost have, half a dozen times. And the last time was in my lifetime."
Tortha was referring to the Industrial Sector Rebellion when the proles on about fifty worlds on the Fifth Level had turned on the citizens running the factories and butchered them. The Army Strike Force Teams had flown in and put the revolts down, killing hundreds of thousands of poorly armed proles. A dozen of those worlds had been abandoned because there wasn't enough of the industrial base left standing, after the fires and looting, to be worth rebuilding. The surviving proles on those time-lines weren't living as well as the Zarthani on Aryan-Transpacific.
"I'm surprised there haven't been more revolts," Verkan said. "It could drive a man crazy watching his neighbors live five hundred years or more, while he's doomed to a mere hundred-even with First Level medicine and treatment. Maybe it's time to think the unthinkable and start giving the proles longevity treatments."
"You can't be serious, Vall! There's nothing more inviolate on Home Time-Line than longevity, unless it's the Paratime Secret itself. If the Citizens of First Level even thought you believed that, you would lose Management support faster than Styphon's House is losing worshippers since Roxthar began his religious murder spree that he calls a Holy Investigation!"
"But not fast enough to help Kalvan!"
"True. I can tell Kalvan is really worried about this Grand Host coalition that Styphon's House is supporting in Hos-Harphax. He's putting up a brave front, but he's drinking more and grasping for straws-such as this Hos-Bletha campaign of his."
"Yes. Unlike us, he can't bug out when things go bad."
"That's why it's 'unproductive' to form outtime emotional attachments, as they teach us at the Paratime Police Academy." Tortha paused to re-light his pipe. "Still, thanks to you, I've become friends with Kalvan, Rylla, Harmakros and Prince Ptosphes. So I'm here for the duration."
"What if Kalvan loses to the Grand Host and is forced into exile, or worse?"
Tortha rubbed his jowls in thought. "Then I'll join him. If it's 'worse,' and he's killed or captured by the Investigation along with Rylla-then I'll bug out. Other than that I'm staying. And that's final!"
"I'm not going to try and talk you into leaving! If it weren't for my job- thank you very much, sir!-I'd be staying myself. I do plan to be here in the spring. I'm not going to miss the next round of fighting, as I did this campaign season!"
"I'm too old for fighting, unless they want to make me a Captain-General!"
Verkan laughed out loud. "If word ever got out, the Opposition Party would drum you right out of the Paratime Commission."
"Let them. I've wasted most of my life fighting politicians. That's what I like about Kalvan's Time-Line; if you want to combat politicians, you take a sword or headsman's axe to them. Which is what I think Kalvan's going to end up doing to King Nestros if he keeps finding excuses not to aid his only ally."
"Nestros may not be Kalvan's ally for long. Prince Ptosphes and Harmakros should be arriving there soon, just in time to meet a delegation from Styphon's House led by First Speaker Anaxthenes and Grand Master Soton."
"Isn't Scholar Danthor Dras part of that delegation?"
"Yes, Dras has been invited. Somehow, within less than half a year of arriving at Balph, he's become Great King Cleitharses' trusted reader and advisor, as well as a member-elect of the Styphon's House Inner Circle!"
"I can see his next book already, Secrets of the Inner Circle?
Verkan laughed.
"Don't laugh, Vall. It'll probably top the bestsellers lists, too. Does Danthor think the Styphon's House delegation is going to be successful?"
"Actually, he does. Anaxthenes has done his research and is willing to offer Nestros the legitimacy as Great King he's always wanted-recognition of the new Kingdom of Hos-Rathon by the rest of the original Five Kingdoms. And, they're not asking for any military support as Kalvan's delegation is requesting. Finally, they're offering Nestros an opportunity to be on the winning side. If he's not smart enough to realize that when Kalvan's gone, it'll be his neck on the chopping block-well, then it's too bad, for him and Kalvan."