"Don't tell her any of this!” the Thargian said sharply.
"Of course not, sir. I won't tell anyone."
"Right. She has to act on her own volition. If she knows what's expected of her, she may do the wrong thing altogether. Not that I know what is expected of her either, so it probably doesn't matter, but we mustn't risk upsetting the prophecies now. The Chamber's been trying to do that for years, and whatever they want we don't want, if you follow me.” He paused again. “That's why Garward sacked Iilah's grove this morning—he wanted to break the chain of prophecy. I think he just strengthened it. He's a headstrong bully and none too bright."
This was a god he was insulting!
"Nevertheless,” the blasphemer continued, “the Chamber has much greater resources in this than the Service does, Seventy-seven. Zath is deeply involved, for one."
"Death!"
"The person who claims to be Death. The Liberator sounds like a personal threat to him."
"He's got a couple of his reapers here, apparently."
"More than just a couple. We're pretty sure he's done a foreseeing of his own—he's plenty strong enough to risk it. He probably knows exactly where the Liberator is going to arrive, and we don't.” The young man laughed ruefully. “At least we didn't until you came. I thought I had an easy watch here, and now you've thrown me right in the thick of things."
"Bringing the girl, you mean?"
The Thargian made an affirmative sound as he tipped the bottle again.
"I should have left her at some handy farmhouse and come on alone!” T'lin said, sounding annoyed.
The other passed him the bottle. “Maybe. Maybe that would have fouled up everything—who knows? Why did Narsh Prime send you here, to Ruatvil?"
T'lin wiped his lips. “Didn't. He suggested I go to Filoby and report to Thirty-nine. He mentioned this place as a backup. Said there was sure to be someone from religious branch here."
He tried to pass back the bottle and the Thargian said, “Finish it. See, as far as we know, there's only six places in Sussland where the Liberator can realistically be expected to appear. Tion's temple is one, the Thogwalby monastery's another. If he picks either of those, the Chamber's got him and he's dead meat. We were banking on Iilah's grove at Filoby, because she'd have sheltered him. Probably she would. Garward's taken care of that possibility! You can bet your favorite organ that he's left some henchmen there to look after matters if the Liberator does arrive. There's a roadside campground just outside Filoby that has loads of virtuality..."
"Loads of what?"
"Forget that. I just mean it's another possible choice. That leaves this place, the Sacrarium, and another node ... place, I mean ... up in the hills near Jogby. That was our second choice, after Filoby, because it's unoccupied."
"You've lost me, sir."
"Nothing there, I mean. No temple or shrine. Too obvious, perhaps? Well, never mind. Question is what to do now. The festival starts tonight."
He thought for a moment. “First, you've got to dump the boy. If he really is a Tion Cultist, then Kirb'l may have marked him in some way. So give him some money and send him off to the festival. That's easiest. After that, he can fend for himself. He'll never be any good to us. There's still a couple of hours of light. Take your dragons over to Filoby and see if you can help ferry survivors to Rotby. Go back and forth several times. You've drawn attention to this place with the dragons, so you'll have to try and muddy the waters."
T'lin seemed to swell. “They're tired, sir!"
"Kill ‘em if you have to and put it on your expense account!"
The dragon trader subsided again. “Yes, sir."
"Sorry, but the stakes in this are higher than you can imagine. Leave the girl at the hostelry."
"I'd best keep her away from this place, you think, sir?"
The young man laughed. “You can try, but I'll put my bets on the prophecy."
Eleal liked him a little better for that remark. She was fighting an urge to walk out and ask T'lin if he'd had any trouble finding the Sacrarium, just so she could see his face.
The Thargian stretched his ropy arms and yawned. “We've got a courier coming round tomorrow on a fast moa, so I'll pass word to the others and hope they can spare me some reinforcements. It's not likely. Got all that?"
And again the strangely humble T'lin said, “Yes, sir."
"It's a pity the Chamber identified the mysterious Eleal before we did, but perhaps our turn is coming. I suppose there couldn't be two Eleals, could there? She sounds too young."
"She's twelve, I'm sure."
"Mmph! Mostly she just appears in the bit that sounds like delivering a baby, but another passage says she will be the first temptation. Little hard to relate temptation to a twelve-year-old, isn't it?"
T'lin uttered a dragon snort. “There's many a time I've been tempted to thump her ear, sir!"
I will get even with you for that remark, Dragontrader!
The Thargian chuckled. “How about cavemen, then? You haven't run into any cavemen in your adventures, have you?"
"Cavemen, sir?"
"One of my favorite verses: Many mighty shall go humbly, even as Eleal took him to the caveman for succor, then they are going mightily again. That's about average for clarity."
"It doesn't mention the Liberator."
"No, it may have nothing to do with him at all. Or it may refer to events years from now, because there's lots of unrelated stuff about him: The-Liberator-comes-into-Joal-crying-Repent! sort of thing. But Eleal is only mentioned four times and that sounds like she is still helping the Liberator, so it may be relevant to what's about to happen this fortnight. Just wondered."
"No cavemen,” T'lin growled. “I wouldn't like anything to happen to the kid, sir."
"Nor I,” the Thargian said, rising. He was very tall and skinny. “But you could put the whole Joalian army around her and it couldn't protect her from the Chamber. Until the Liberator himself arrives, she's the obvious weak link in the chain. If Zath's reapers find her, she's dead. Nobody in the world could do anything for her then."
T'lin rose also. “The saints, sir?"
The younger man cleared his throat harshly. “Ah, yes. Well, of course we must pray to the saints to intercede with the Undivided. Come over to the tent and..."
The two men strolled away across the bare stone floor of the ruined temple. Eleal heard no more.
41
ELEAL STUMBLED DOWN THE STEPS AND PUSHED OFF INTO the bush.
The enormity of what she had overheard stunned her. She had trusted T'lin Dragontrader! Gim was only a boy, Sister Ahn a senile maniac, but she had thought that T'lin was a strong man and reliable and a friend. Now she knew that he bore no loyalty to her at all, except some vague idea of one day enlisting her to work for his diabolical “Service,” whatever that was. Her last protector had failed her.
T'lin had taken orders from the Thargian. He had not spoken out against the blasphemy. He was probably a Thargian spy himself! Eleal had never pondered her own political convictions very deeply. Had she been forced to declare her loyalties, she would probably have claimed to be a Jurgian, because she spent more time in Jurg than anywhere else and she liked the king, who clapped when she sang for him. She approved of the Joalians’ artistic principles and the concept of Joaldom, which gave peace to the lands she knew, and she had always heard bad things about the Thargians and their harsh military ways. Spying for them seemed like betrayal.
Her religious loyalties were in no doubt at all. Tion was lord of art and beauty. Ember'l, the goddess of drama, was an avatar of Tion. So was Yaela, the goddess of singing.