The Worlds of the Sheaf

Fechlon - Part 6

     They changed clothes with the outlaws, keeping their moon trog glass ceramic armour but discarding their heavy steel breastplates and pulling the dirty, smelly rags on instead. Thomas also changed clothes, in case the soldiers had a description of a man dressed all in blue. He shuddered with loathing as he felt the greasy cloth against his skin.

     Only Drenn objected to the disguise. "I am a priest of Samnos," he declared. "It is my duty to proclaim the glory of Samnos wherever I go. I will not creep through the night like a thief."

     "Look," said Matthew as reasonably as he could. "There's no point in the rest of us dressing up unless we all do. If you enter their city dressed like that..."

     "I accept what you say," replied Drenn, "but a priest of Samnos must always proclaim his faith. It is our duty to bring others into the glory of Samnos at every opportunity. I have no wish to endanger your lives, however. I suggest we split up. Travel separately..."

     "But we don't know where we're going!" cried Thomas. "Once we split up, we've got no way of getting together again. We're already separated from Saturn and the others. The rest of us have got to stay together. We've got to!"

     "I see no alternative. You have to disguise yourselves, but I cannot. Therefore we must split up. Don't worry about finding me again. If it is His will that I rejoin you, He will guide my feet. He will lead me to where I have to go."

     Matthew was looking thoughtful, though. "You have to proclaim your faith, I understand that," he said, "but that doesn't mean you have to wear the whole uniform, does it?" He waved a hand at the priest's blood red robes and spiked helmet.

     "What do you mean?" asked Drenn doubtfully.

     "Well, I was in Fort Battleaxe when the Sceptre of Samnos passed through..."

     "Truly?" cried the priest in awe and envy. "Did you see it?"

     Matthew waved the question aside, not wanting to be sidetracked. "The thing is," he said, "the priests carrying the Sceptre had to pass through hostile territory. There was a real danger of the Sceptre being captured by the enemy, so they travelled in disguise, in a coach made up to look like a nobleman's carriage..."

     "But it still bore the badge of Samnos..." began Drenn, but then he fell silent as he realised what the Flight Leader was getting at.

     "That's right," agreed Matthew. "They refused to travel without some emblem of their faith, proudly displayed to the world, but they limited it to a small badge, almost lost to sight amongst all the decorative gold paint. You could do the same thing. Just carry some small emblem of your faith amongst the clothes of a local."

     Drenn nodded thoughtfully. "I suppose I could wear the golden griffin outside my clothes, visible to the world..." He nodded slowly, and the others breathed a sigh of relief as he began removing his uniform.

     A few minutes later they were all dressed alike, in the dirty rags of the outlaws, except for Drenn who also wore his holy symbol, the golden griffin pendant, on a chain outside his clothes. The neck and sleeves of his glass ceramic armour peeped out where his clothes were a little too small for the big man, but there was nothing they could do about that. The priest looked regretfully at his uniform as he laid it carefully and reverently in the hole Matthew had dug, alongside all the other uniforms and Thomas's blue clothes, and then the soldiers began filling it in.

     Suddenly Drenn stiffened, fully alert, his ears pricked for the slightest sound. "They're here," he said. "The soldiers following us. They're searching the area."