Off Armageddon Reef by David Weber Page A

the journey to the Temple at least once in his life. Obviously, that wasn’t actually possible for everyone , and God recognized that, yet enough of His children managed to meet that obligation to keep the cathedral perpetually thronged with worshippers. Except, of course, during the winter months of bitter cold and deep snow.
    The cathedral pavement shone with blinding brightness where the focused beams of sunlight struck it, and at each of those points lay a circular golden seal, two feet across, bearing the sigil of one of the archangels. Like the icon of Langhorne atop the Temple dome and the dome itself, those seals were as brilliant, as untouched by wear or time as the day the Temple was raised. Each of them—like the gold-veined lapis lazuli of the pavement itself, and the vast map at the entry—was protected by the three-inch-thick sheet of imperishable crystal which covered them. The blocks of lapis had been sealed into the pavement with silver, and that silver gleamed as untarnished and perfect as the gold of the seals themselves. No mortal knew how it had been accomplished, but legend had it that after the archangels had raised the Temple, they had commanded the air itself to protect both its gilded roof and that magnificent pavement for all time. However they had worked their miracle, the crystalline surface bore not a single scar, not one scuff mark, to show the endless generations of feet which had passed across it since the Creation or the perpetually polishing mops of the acolytes responsible for maintaining its brilliance.
    Dynnys’ and Broun’s slippered feet made no sound, adding to the illusion that they were, in fact, walking upon air, as they circled to the west side of the cathedral and passed through one of the doorways there into the administrative wings of the Temple. They passed down broad hallways, illuminated by skylights and soaring windows of the same imperishable crystal and decorated with priceless tapestries, paintings, and statuary. The administrative wings, like the cathedral, were the work of divine hands, not of mere mortals, and stood as pristine and perfect as the day they had been created.
    Eventually, they reached their destination. The conference chamber’s door was flanked by two more Temple Guards, although these carried swords, not halberds, and their cuirasses bore the golden starburst of the Grand Vicar quartered with the Archangel Schueler’s sword. They came smartly to attention as the archbishop and his aide passed them without so much as a glance.
    Three more prelates and their aides, accompanied by two secretaries and a trio of law masters, awaited them.
    â€œSo, here you are, Erayk. At last,” one of the other archbishops said dryly as Dynnys and Broun crossed to the conference table.
    â€œI beg your pardon, Zhasyn,” Dynnys said with an easy smile. “I was unavoidably delayed, I’m afraid.”
    â€œI’m sure.” Archbishop Zhasyn Cahnyr snorted. Cahnyr, a lean, sparely built man, was archbishop of Glacierheart, in the Republic of Siddarmark, and while Dynnys’ cassock bore the black scepter of the Order of Langhorne on its right breast, Cahnyr’s showed the green-trimmed brown grain sheaf of the Order of Sondheim. The two men had known one another for years…and there was remarkably little love lost between them.
    â€œNow, now, Zhasyn,” Urvyn Myllyr, Archbishop of Sodar, chided. Myllyr was built much like Dynnys himself: too well-fleshed to be considered lean, yet not quite heavy enough to be considered fat. He also wore the black scepter of Langhorne, but where Dynnys’ graying hair was thinning and had once been golden blond, Myllyr’s was a still-thick salt-and-pepper black. “Be nice,” he continued now, smiling at Cahnyr. “Some delays truly are unavoidable, you know. Even”—he winked at Dynnys—“Erayk’s.”
    Cahnyr did not appear mollified, but