Then she discovered a stream by almost falling into it. Where had that come from? It crossed her path in a deep gully, whose sides were muddy and crumbly. She slid and floundered down to the water, and was infuriated to discover that it was flowing from right to left. As far as she could remember, the pilgrim path never crossed a creek, so she must be on the correct side already. She struggled back up again, and set off to follow the gully—it could only flow to the river, and the cliff.
It certainly did not flow directly to the river. It wound and twisted until she lost all sense of direction and began to think that the sun was setting in the east. Her legs shook with weariness; her hip ached fiercely. Soon she was tempted to turn back and forget stupid T'lin Dragontrader and his idiotic interest in ruins. Trouble was, she would have to follow the stream all the way.
In the distance, someone began whistling a solemn refrain. She halted and listened. It was not a tune she knew. It stopped suddenly. She started to move again, heading in that direction. Soon she saw steps rising out of the undergrowth, the edge of the plinth. Directly above her stood a stub of stone pillar as thick as a man's outstretched arms and furred with dense ivy.
She heard a murmur of someone speaking.
Step by step she approached. When she reached the base of the mossy, crumbling stair, the voice was clearer, and apparently coming from just behind that same pillar. Barefoot again, she tiptoed up until she stood beside its ivy-coated bulk, and then she could make out the words.
"...the boy to bring her to my camp. I went and told my men to expect them. Then I went back into town and reported to Narsh Prime."
T'lin himself!
That was better. Eleal eased around the curve of the stone like growing moss.
A man chuckled. “And what did he make of all that?"
A Thargian! He was speaking Joalian, but the guttural accent was unmistakable.
T'lin again: “He thought the Service would be interested."
"He was right, of course."
T'lin sighed. “Glad to hear that! Well, we thumbed through the Testament—as much as we had time for—and found her name, as she had said. Funny, that! I've known the brat for years and never guessed she was anyone of consequence. She's an incredible little busybody. I always thought she might make a good recruit when she's older."
"Sounds like she might."
"Well, Prime agreed I ought to bring her if I could. When I got back to my camp, I found the kids had arrived safely—much to my surprise. So I loaded them up on mounts. What I hadn't realized was that the old nun was skulking in the herd. I geared up my own dragon and turned my back for a moment. Before I knew it, she'd scrambled into the saddle and taken off.” He paused, then added diffidently, “In the end I had to bring her also."
The other man chuckled. He sounded quite young. Peering with one eye around the pillar, Eleal made him out. He was seated on a fallen block of stone, his back to her. T'lin must be at his side. They were facing into the empty paved space within the Sacrarium.
"I'm not surprised! The Filoby Testament has turned out to be astonishingly accurate. It said the girl would come with a blue nun, so she came with a blue nun. Only a miracle could have prevented it."
"It's a miracle I didn't strangle the old witch!"
The Thargian chortled loudly, as if that were a good joke. “Violence is not advisable with her kind!"
Eleal eased herself a few more inches around the ivy so she could watch with both eyes. The two men were sitting in shade, and had removed their hats. The Thargian was as tall as T'lin, but he was leaning back on his arms, and they were sinewy, youthful arms, well burned by the sun. He was a much younger man. His hair was black and when he turned his head she saw that he was clean-shaven.
He wore a small gold circle in his left ear!
"She's back at the hostelry now, sir,” T'lin said. “So what do I do with her?"
Sir? T'lin Dragontrader addressed this stripling as Sir?
"Good question!” The Thargian straightened up and ran his fingers through his hair. “What do you get when you cross a wallaby and a jaguar?"
T'lin said, “Huh? Oh! ‘Fraid I don't know, sir."
"That's all right. Just means there are some things I'm not supposed to tell you. Don't feel slighted, now! I'm sure you have secrets in the political branch that I don't know. This is a religious matter, that's all."
T'lin uttered his familiar snort. “I had gathered that! Subversion and infiltration I can understand. I'm totally out of my depth with something like this."
"You're not the only one, believe me! How much have you put together?"
"Very little. There's supposed to be some child born in Sussland during the festival. The girl delivers it. The Karzon and Eltiana faction is trying to prevent this. Tion and Astina seem to be in favor. I gather the Service is in favor also?"
The younger man grunted. “We are. Zath and Ois are opposed, certainly. Karzon and Eltiana, probably. But don't ever trust Tion! He plays his own dirty games."
Eleal gasped. Blasphemy!
"Tion sent the boy to rescue the girl,” T'lin demurred.
"Kirb'l did, you mean! I shudder to think what his reasons may be. Kirb'l is an outright maniac. Astina herself is staying out of things at the moment."
"That was her grove got burned this morning."
The Thargian sighed. “No! That was Iilah's grove. Iilah is more or less on our side—or she was. She may be dead now. Listen, I'll tell you some things I'm not supposed to, so be discreet, all right? The priests’ theology is totally muddled, understandably. Their idea of five great gods, the Pentatheon, is a useful simplification, but it has definite limits. Yes, the five are all very powerful—Visek, Karzon, Eltiana, Astina, Tion. But some of the others carry a lot more weight than you'd expect, and their loyalties are not always what you'd expect either. All the aspect-avatar business is stable washings. Iilah is not Astina; Kirb'l is not Tion; Garward is not Karzon! Ois is not Eltiana, either. She's an utter bitch, that one, with her ritual prostitution—and immensely powerful because of it, of course. She probably can cause avalanches as she claims. For all his patronage of art and sport, Tion is just about as depraved as she is."
This was foul, foul heresy! Why was T'lin Dragontrader listening to such blasphemy?
"Fortunately,” the stranger added, “they don't all support the Chamber. There's some decent types, and a lot of fence-sitters."
After a moment, T'lin laughed ruefully. “And I thought politics was complicated! Thargdom's going to annex Narshia, you know. Any day now."
"Doesn't surprise me,” the Thargian said. “And the Joalians won't stand for it. Idiots! But that doesn't matter much compared to this. Wars come and wars go. The Liberator may turn out to be far more important than any war. You arrived in Sussland after dawn?"
"Well after. After noon."
"Ah! Garward's mob sacked the Filoby grove before that. So he didn't succeed."
Silence followed. Eleal resisted a temptation to scream. She was relieved when T'lin said, “Succeed in what?"
There was another pause then. The Thargian bent over and produced a bottle from near his feet. He drank and passed it to T'lin. “I'll have to explain a few things. First of all, the birth thing is a misinterpretation. We're not expecting a baby. This Liberator the Testament mentions will be a grown man."
T'lin chuckled. “My young friend will be relieved. She did not enjoy hearing she was going to be a midwife."