"What?" Aristocles asked, as the blood drained from his face. "That course is madness! The Urgothi here have their own Pantheon of Gods, but many are similar to those we worship in the Great Kingdoms."
Lysandros nodded. "To us, maybe, but not to the Investigator Roxthar. To this madman, there is only one god-Styphon!"
"But this is true lunacy, Your Majesty. If we allow Roxthar to Investigate the Urgothi of Nythros, we will open Hadron's Own Pit. Who knows what further devils and demons will spill out?"
"None that we want to see, I can assure you of that," Lysandros stated. "But it is clear that allowing the Investigation to operate here will turn everyone in the Middle Kingdoms against us! We will not only have to defeat Kalvan, but every other ruler. Not even King Theovacar, if we allow Roxthar to begin his Investigation of Heresy, will be able to overlook such impiety. If Roxthar wants to leave for Hos-Agrys, let him. Otherwise, let us cut his throat like a mad dog and kill all his Investigators, too."
"I swore an oath to Grand Master Soton that I would not murder Roxthar and I swore that I would keep him out of the Five Kingdoms. I cannot break my word."
"Would you rather break the back of the Grand Host?" Lysandros cried. "You will have to break one of your oaths, or I will do the deed myself. I know what the Grand Master would do now, were he here. Soton would send Roxthar on his way with a spear up his mount's bung hole to hurry him along! Things have changed since he left. We have not been able to catch up to Kalvan's forces. We are now facing at least one, maybe more, winters in this frozen land. We need to make allies here, not turn everyone into enemies by blaspheming their gods and torturing their citizens.
"If we allow Roxthar to Investigate the Urgothi, we have given Kalvan the greatest gift we could give him! Can't you see that, Dralm-damnit!"
"Yes!" Aristocles said, nodding. "You are right. For our own survival, I will have to allow Roxthar to leave. Maybe Soton will understand…"
"Of course, he will!" Lysandros cried, slapping his second-in-command on the back. "The Grand Master strikes me as a man who knows the difficulties of command and the price of dealing with priests. Let us leave it to Soton to slip a dagger between Roxthar's unholy ribs."
Aristocles nodded. "I fear you are right. Roxthar is a liability the Grand Host can no longer afford. I must send a letter to Grand Master Soton and the Inner Circle telling them of our decision."
"Do it," Lysandros answered, "but hurry. Blame the decision on me, if you like. Tell him I wanted to kill the madman and you convinced me instead to allow him to leave! Now that we agree on what to do with Roxthar, we have to consider our own predicament. With all our recent losses of soldiers, we badly need to find an ally against the Usurper Kalvan. I suggest that King Theovacar might be worth approaching."
The Grand Commander paused to pick up his pipe and fill the bowl with tobacco "As far as King Theovacar goes, why don't we offer him Nythros City as bait. We will have no use for the City once our work here is done."
"Excellent," Lysandros said with relief. He'd thought of that idea himself, but was afraid that the Order might want to hold onto Nythros as a base of operations in the Upper Middle Kingdoms. "I will leave for Greffa after Nythros falls. I will bring Tneovacar the Koynig's head as a present along with a thousand barrels of fireseed and five hundred arquebuses."
III
This has been a terrible season for the Temple's finances, Xentos observed as he read over the account books. Tithes and donations were down by almost a quarter despite the record fall harvest, even attendance at the High Temple had dropped noticeably. It wasn't the Temple's fault that Kalvan had gone down to defeat against the Grand Host of Styphon's House in Hostigos, although it was difficult to try to explain that to superstitious peasants and townsmen who still believed their amulets protected them from the spirits of their ancestors. Unfortunately, too many here in Agrys City, and elsewhere, linked the fortunes of Great King Kalvan with the Temple of Dralm.
For a while, Xentos acknowledged, this linkage had been a good thing; that is, while Kalvan was winning battles against the ungodly House of Styphon and gaining converts to the Allfather. Now, the Temple's association with Kalvan was a huge problem.
Recently, Haltor, Styphon's House Highpriest of the Agrysi Great Temple, had been demanding and getting prohibitions against the High Temple of Dralm. Great King Demistophon was not only an impious and odious ruler, but a cowardly one as well. Although, one never knew when the Great King would lose his temper and suddenly gain a spark of courage, as he had with his foray into Thaphigos. Although, Xentos knew that Demistophon would have never dared to take so bold an action if King Lysandros had been in his seat and not some two thousand marches away.
Still, it wasn't fair to blame all of the Temple's problems upon Kalvan and Demistophon. Styphon's House with its Investigation and persecutions of the Allfather's followers deserved the panther's share of the blame. To compound matters, the Primate still felt badly whenever he pondered the fate of his former parishioners and friends. Too many, such as Ptosphes, Harmakros, Thalmoth and Phosg had died during the Siege of Tarr-Hostigos. Those that had survived the military attack had then suffered the depredations of Styphon's Investigation, the horrors of which he found hard to believe.
There was a very small community of Hostigi exiles in Agrys City who had fled the Styphoni persecutions. He did his best to protect them, but lately that didn't seem to be enough. Twice now Styphon's bravos had attacked the pitiful band of Hostigi, leaving several dead and many badly beaten.
The time had come to face up to the fact that the Temple of Dralm was under attack from all corners. It was time to marshal the Temple's forces. But how? King Demistophon was an impious fool and the League of Dralm was more interested in internal squabbles than fighting Styphon's House. Maybe a prayer to the Allfather was the Temple's only hope.
Allfather Dralm, forgive me because I have been blind to your enemies and their black hearts. I have failed you in Your greatest hour of need. Please provide me a sign!
There was a loud knock at the door.
Xentos felt his heart quicken, like that in a bird's breast. Could this be the sign from Allfather Dralm that I just requested"?
There was an explosion and the door blew open, knocking Xentos off his feet. The last thing he remembered was the smell of brimstone and an overpowering bright light.
When Xentos awoke it was to find himself stretched out in a cot in the Inner Sanctum of the High Temple. His head hurt terribly and he had the taste of burnt fireseed upon his tongue. "What happened?" he croaked.
"Praise Dralm, the Primate lives!" a voice cried out that he didn't recognize.
"Let me through," Highpriest Davros ordered. "Can you move your limbs?"
Xentos stretched his limbs one at a time, and except for a terrible pain in his left ankle all appeared well. "Yes, I'm all here. Dralm be praised!'
"Primate, you are truly under Allfather Dralm's protection," the Highpriest declared. "A gang of ruffians forced the door of our back portal and two entered the Temple and fought their way to your bed chambers. If it were not for the two Brothers who fought them off, they would have killed you with their swords."
Davros held up two wickedly sharp short swords. "These were hidden under their cloaks, along with the petard they used on your door. We believe they are agents of Styphon's House."
"Why?"
"Both were circumcised, Primate."
Xentos nodded. It was true that in the Great Kingdoms only the Temple of Styphon practiced such a barbaric rite upon its priesthood. All initiates to Styphon's House's temples were circumcised as part of their initiation rites. Those young men who survived the rite were deemed worthy to serve their evil god and granted permission to wear the white robe of the outer circle. It was also not unknown for those who wished to curry favor with Styphon's House to undergo the circumcision surgery; it was a dangerous stratagem as many who underwent the surgery died from the fester devils.