The distribution of food went ahead without a problem, and soon the news that there was an alternative source of food in the city spread among the commoners. Those that Tomsk was sure could be trusted, anyway. It was inevitable, however, that those who knew would tell their friends, who would tell their friends in turn, and five days after the distribution of  food packets began, word found its way to an informer.

     The informer didn’t know about the Tharians, or that there were clerics of Caroli in the city, so he was unable to repeat these things to his contact, but the alternative source of food was dynamite all by itself so that the news was rushed not just to Silus Vart but to Lord Basil himself, who had his own, although much smaller, network of spies and agents. It took him about half a second to make the connection with the large, bulky objects ‘about the size of Pantrys’ that Sejanus and his men had been seen carrying, and he flew into a rage, ordering them to be seized and the General to be arrested.

     Sejanus was at home at the time, asleep in his bed, when the guards started hammering on his door. Answering it, he was bundled out into the street in his nightclothes, but they were intercepted within moments by soldiers loyal to Sejanus himself. There was a brief tussle, the guards fled and the soldiers led Sejanus to an apartment converted into a guardpost which they immediately began fortifying. Sejanus and the six soldiers were soon surrounded and under siege, but a great many of House Konnen’s soldiers gave more loyalty to the General than to Lord Basil and soon battle lines were being drawn in the corridor-streets of Kronosia as everyone in the army chose sides.

     Meanwhile, another troop of guards was marching down Pantry Street, heading for the apartments indicated by the informer, and the Tharians fled back to their hiding hole, cursing in frustration and disappointment as they guessed what had happened. Their revolution was over before it had even begun, or so they thought.

     They didn’t understand the depth of the hatred the commoners felt for the Nobles and the army, though, or how high their spirits were at the thought that those terrible days might soon be over. The anger and frustration they felt when they saw the guards breaking into the apartments and carrying out the Pantrys was so great that a number of young men ran out into the street and grappled with them by hand. The first of them died on a guard’s sword, but that only fired the others on and soon the other guards were under attack by a howling mob armed with carpentry tools and kitchen implements. They continued to hack and slash at the guards long after they were all dead.

     Gradually it dawned on the commoners what they’d done. They had dared to strike back at the monsters who’d oppressed them all their lives. They’d been victorious against trained men armed with swords and they had no need to fear punitive starvation because they still controlled the Laxu Pantrys. The news spread like wildfire throughout the city, and citizens fell upon guards and soldiers who had the misfortune to be alone or in small groups at the time. The mobs then burst into the homes of those who were asleep in bed, dragging them out into the street and clubbing them to death.

     By the time the Tharians crept cautiously out of their hiding hole, unaware of what had happened, most of the city belonged to the commoners and angry mobs were converging on the mansions and on the area where the army had gathered. At first the Tharians were unable to believe what had happened. It had been so fast, so unbelievably fast! They had gone into their hiding hole with the city firmly in the grip of the Nobles, and emerged less than an hour later to find the city in anarchy, with dead guards lying in the streets and gangs of commoners dashing past in all directions, searching out the few remaining military men who were hiding in corners and waiting for help. Diana gave a wail of anguish at the sight and fell to her knees beside one of the corpses, searching it for signs of life and then saying a prayer over it.

     “What happened?” she asked the others, tears in her eyes. “What in the name of the Gods happened?”

     “It looks as though the revolution you wanted has started,” replied Shaun.

     The cleric put her hands over her mouth in horror. “But I didn’t want it to be like this!” she cried. “Not like this!”

     Thomas stopped a boy who was running past and asked him what was going on. “The army’s gathered by the Konnen airlocks!” the boy replied. “There’s going to be a battle!”

     “Oh no there isn’t!” declared Diana firmly. “We’ve got to put a stop to this! Come on!” She stormed off in the direction of Konnen sector and the others, unable to stop her or even slow her down, could only follow on behind, shaking their heads in uncertainty and apprehension.

     A crowd of over a thousand people had gathered in the Hewlak forecourt around the divided army, now torn between their respective loyalties towards Sejanus and Lord Basil and their sense of self preservation in the face of an angry mob. A ring of swords was keeping the commoners back for the time being, but inside more soldiers were still keeping watch over the fortified guardpost within which Sejanus was taking refuge, and about fifty more soldiers loyal to him were lined up against the soldiers loyal to Lord Basil with swords drawn. Violence would probably have broken out between them by now had the angry mob not shown up and surrounded them, and now they were wondering whether it might not be a good idea to put their differences aside for the moment until the rebellion had been put down. The trouble was that neither side wanted to be the first to turn their backs on the others.

     “Get them!” shouted a commoner, a large, muscular man with a beard. “Get ‘em like we got the others!”

     Going up against heavily armed soldiers in battle formation was a lot different from picking off stragglers, though, and nobody was prepared to make the first move. The soldiers, meanwhile, were close to reaching a decision, and those on both sides over the dispute over Sejanus were talking to each other, working out a solution. Very soon there was going to be a massacre.

     Then cheering broke out among the assembled commoners, and the soldiers craned their necks to see what was going on. The Tharians had arrived, and were being welcomed like heroes, particularly Diana whom many recognised from her religious services. “Our saviour!” they cried jubilantly. “The one who led us to freedom!”

     Diana wasn’t smiling, though. Instead, her face was dark with fury as she pushed her way to the front of the crowd to stand between the mob and the soldiers.

     “This has got to stop!” she cried as her brothers and the wizards gathered protectively around her. “There must be no more killing!”

     “They’ve been killing us for years!” called out a woman from the crowd. “My husband, executed for treason, but he was never a traitor!”

     “My brother!” agreed a man. “Murdered by Konnens!”

     “My father!” “My Son!” called out others, and soon the whole crowd was screaming out names. “They deserve to die!” someone cried out in tearful rage. “They all deserve to die!”

     The crowd surged forward with murderous hatred, pressing the Tharians back towards the soldiers, but Diana held up her arms, whispering a prayer to Caroli, and the fury of the crowd ebbed away as the soothing power of the Goddess flowed over them.

     “Suppose you kill them,” she said, raising her voice once again to reach the whole crowd. “What then? You want to bring peace and justice to this city, and that is a fine and noble aim, but cold blooded murder is no way to do it. If you massacre them, you’ll be making yourselves no better than they are.”

     “You think they’re going to just lay down their swords?” shouted a man in the crowd. “They’re just waiting for the chance to massacre us!”

     Diana turned to the soldiers, and saw that Sejanus had emerged from the guardpost to stand with his men. “You’re outnumbered ten to one,” she said to them. “You’ve got swords, but that won’t save you if they attack. They’ll tear you apart. Lay down your weapons and they’ll let you live.”

     “Who are you to make promises on our behalf?” demanded the man in the crowd again, now pushing his way through the crowd to confront the cleric. “You’re not one of us! You know nothing of what we’ve suffered through the centuries! Go back where you came from and leave us to sort out our own affairs in our own way!”

     Cheers of support and agreement came from the crowd who began to surge forward again, and Diana searched for words to say that would make them stop and prevent a massacre. “No!” she cried desperately. “Stop! Stop! This isn’t the way!” but the crowd was no longer listening to her and her voice was drowned out in the uproar.

     Then, suddenly, there was a slender, goldenhaired figure beside her, and she looked around to see Clarissa smiling hopefully at her, equally determined to stop the slaughter. She cried out at the crowd, but her voice was also drowned out until the thunderous roar of one of Jerry’s auditory illusions shocked them into silence.

     “My people!” cried the girl as loudly as her young throat permitted. “My name is Clarissa Nescar. Many of you know me. I’m a healer. I use my skills and knowledge of herbs and medicines to heal the sick and injured. What you didn’t know, however, was that most of my cures were effected by the holy healing power of the Goddess Caroli. I am a cleric of Caroli.”

     “Clarissa!” said one of the soldiers, stepping forward. “You don’t know what you’re doing!”

     “Private Nescar!” shouted the Sergeant angrily. “Get back into rank!”

     The girl’s father ignored him and went to stand beside his daughter. “Think about what you’re doing!” he pleaded.

     “I am,” replied the girl, squeezing his hand and then turning back to confront the crowd’s ringleader. “You accuse Diana of being an outsider, of not being one of us, but I am one of you. I know what you’ve all suffered because I’ve suffered as well. But not all the soldiers are bad. My father’s not a bad man, and I’m certain there are many like him. They don’t all deserve to die. If they throw down their weapons, will you let them live?”

     The girl’s father debated with himself for a moment, then dropped his sword and joined the crowd, unfastening the buckles of his armour. “Private Nescar, you’re under arrest!” screamed the Sergeant, but more soldiers were doing the same and the crowd parted to make a place for them as they crossed over to join them.

     Lirenna caught Sejanus’s eye and mimed the breaking of a sword with her hands, and the General nodded. “Men, lay down your arms,” he ordered.

     The Captain commanding the men sent to arrest him turned on him. “You no longer have any authority in this army!” he shouted. “Your days of giving orders are over!”

     Sejanus’s men disagreed, though, and crossed over to join the crowd, dropping their weapons as they went. “Don’t be a fool, Lockby!” the General told the Captain. “What do you think you’re going to achieve?”

     The Captain wavered doubtfully, glancing at the huge crowd glaring angrily at him and the much reduced size of his own army.

     “None of you will be harmed,” promised Clarissa with a warning glance at the man in the crowd. “I give you my word as a cleric of Caroli.”

     “How do we know you’re a real cleric?” demanded the mob's ringleader. “I say it’s all a trick! Your father’s one of them and you’re really on their side!”

     The girl’s father lunged at him, but Clarissa jumped between them and held them apart. “I can prove I’m a cleric of Caroli,” she said. She picked up one of the dropped swords, grunting with the effort, and put the blade to the soft, fleshy part of her arm. “No!” cried her father, but he was too late and the girl gave a brief cry of pain as she cut her skin, spilling rich, crimson blood down her ivory white arm and onto the paved floor.

     She held her arm up over her head so the whole crowd could see the trickle of blood running down to her bare shoulder and staining her white dress. “Behold the power of Caroli!” she cried, and then lowered her voice in a soft prayer to the Lady of Healing. Before the crowd’s astonished eyes the wound closed, leaving only the blood to show where it had been, and the ringleader gasped in disbelief, grabbing her arm and searching it carefully for any sign of the injury.

     “Impossible!” he cried. “The Gods abandoned us centuries ago.”

     “No,” replied Clarissa. “It was we who abandoned Them, but now They are back.” She raised her voice to speak to the whole crowd. “Who now doubts that I speak on behalf of the Gods?” Not a single voice broke the silence. “I have given my word that the soldiers will not be harmed if they lay down their arms peacefully. It is the will of Caroli that there be no more killing. Which of you is unwilling to follow the guidance of the Lady of Healing?”

     There was a hushed hubbub of conversation from the crowd, but no single voice rose above the others so the girl turned back to the soldiers. “Lay down your arms,” she said. “You will not be harmed.”

     The Captain still looked doubtful and a little afraid, but then he slowly turned his sword to hold it by the blade and offered the hilt to Clarissa. The girl took the sword, laying it down on the ground, and all around them the other soldiers began to do the same.

     The soldiers then dispersed, their eyes darting nervously to and fro as they headed for the safety of their own homes, and the men in the crowd moved in to gather up the weapons. “We did it!” cried Clarissa, weeping joyfully. “We did it!”

     “You did it,” corrected Diana. “You were wonderful! I’m so proud of you!” The two women hugged each other, Diana unmindful of Clarissa’s blood staining her dress, and around them the other Tharians breathed a sigh of relief.

     “That was a close thing,” said Matthew gratefully. “Thank the Gods it’s all over.”

     “It’s not over yet,” replied Shaun however. “There’s still the Nobles themselves, holed up in their mansions. The Gods alone know what they’re still capable of with all those magical weapons and other things in their treasure rooms.”

     “They’ll give themselves up once they find out we control the rest of the city,” said Diana confidently.

     “Most of them probably will,” agreed Thomas, “but I’m not so sure about Lord Basil. I suspect we’re going to have problems with him.”

     “Let’s go talk to him,” said Diana. “Maybe he’ll surprise us all and show some sense.”

     The others were shaking their heads doubtfully, though, as they set off in the direction of the Konnen mansion.