"Not in those exact words. But she is… impressed." She gestured at the divan opposite her, and sat down. "I am Janna, High Priestess of Struth. I bid you welcome in the name of the goddess."
"It was an invitation I couldn't refuse," Toren said sarcastically.
"Indeed," she said kindly. "Geim and Deena inform me that you understand why we had to abduct you."
"They've told me about the Dragon. I believe them when they say he is a threat-perhaps even to my people. But I have yet to be told precisely why I have the means to help you."
"Really?" she asked. "You haven't discovered new things about yourself in the past weeks?"
"Well, yes," he admitted. "But nothing that would allow me to kill a dragon."
"What you can do with training may surprise you." She held out her palms. "Give me your hands."
After some hesitation he did as she asked. Her eyes bore into him. He felt her presence come… closer. "Be at peace," she said, and he relaxed. Soon she disengaged.
"Struth was right. You are an astounding candidate."
"I haven't agreed to help you," Toren reminded her.
"Yes. That is the question. But it needn't be answered now. It is your turn to make requests."
Instantly Toren held up his bracelet. "I want my totem back."
"Of course. For that, we must see Struth."
She stood and walked to the center of the chamber. She held her hand out over the floor, and uttered a single word. With his recently developed senses, he saw a glow of power extend from her palm into the marble.
A square hole opened in the floor, revealing a set of stairs. "Follow me," she said.
They descended a straight flight of over one hundred steps, guided by an eerie cerulean werelight of no apparent source. At the bottom they emerged into a chamber so large that the glow from the tunnel would not reach the far corners of the room. The blackness also hid the ceiling. Toren smelled an essence that he identified as frog. Water dripped loudly; the drops echoed, as if across a vast empty space.
"Mistress, we have come," Janna called.
"Welcome." The word reverberated in Toren's mind. Out of the dim recesses of the cavern there took shape an enormous amphibian. Shortly thereafter the werelight spread outward from the tunnel entrance, and he realized that the statue of the frog in the amphitheater was not, after all, larger than life. Here was its model.
"I am Struth."
Each of her bulging eyes was as wide as Toren was tall. She could have gobbled him up like an insect. She towered above him, awesome and intimidating, her smooth green skin rendered grayish and shadowy by the werelight. Toren found it hard to respond to a being whose very eyeblinks frightened him, but he kept the tremor out of his voice. At last he had before him the proper target of his anger. "I am here to collect something that is owed to me," he said.
"I apologize for my methods. I couldn't afford a refusal. You are the best candidate I have found."
"For what purpose? Why me?" Toren asked.
"Of all the people alive in the world today, your energy pattern most closely matches that of the great wizard, Alemar Dragonslayer. With proper training, you may be able to use his talismans to near their full potential. I speak in particular of the gauntlets that were retrieved from the Eastern Deserts by the great wizard's descendants, Alemar and Elenya of the House of Olendim, which were made specifically to fight the children of Faroc and Triss."
Toren tapped his foot against the stone, skeptical. "You're going to keep my ancestors, then, force me to do your bidding?"
"You have no confidence in us. It is understandable. But I will keep the bargain. Put the bracelet on the floor."
Toren hesitated, then did as he was ordered.
The only movement Struth made was a minute shifting of the pupils of her eyes, yet almost immediately one of the bracelet's gems began to glow. In reverse of the spell cast by Ivayer back in the Wood, Toren's tortoise appeared in a facet of the stone, growing larger and larger until it stood, full-sized, straddling the talisman. Toren, hands trembling, lifted it into his palms. Warm, vibrant, it nuzzled its chin against the base of his thumb.
"As soon as you return to the surface, Janna will restore it to your body."
"And then am I free to go?"
"If you wish."
Toren frowned. It was impossible to read sincerity or guile on the face of a giant frog. "I don't believe you. Without me, your plan is ruined."
"Nearly. We have other candidates, though we have found them lacking. However, if we lose you, we will resort to one of these others and hope for the best. Your role is too critical to fill with an unwilling participant. However, I think I can demonstrate that it would be in your best interests to aid us."
"How?"
"Recall your battle with the wizard. It is proof of a great fear of mine. When I cast the spell to search for individuals who might be able to use the talismans, I invoked great magic. There was a residue created which other adepts can detect. Gloroc apparently has discovered these traces. He knows the nature of the spell. He is searching both for me and the persons that my spell located. He knows that an extremely high-level, non-human magician is somewhere in this city, and he was able to duplicate the talismans I created to track you and the others. Thanks to his efforts you nearly died. One of the other candidates, whom I had been hiding in a nearby province, was recently murdered. I am now exerting a considerable effort to screen you and them. Thus far, I have succeeded. If you should decide not to aid our effort, you are naturally free to go. But it is a long walk, and if you are not an ally I won't be able to justify the expenditure necessary to protect you from the Dragon's eyes. His wizards will be able to find you. Moreover, if he learns that you are a Vanihr, it will be unlikely for you to hide even from common bounty hunters. You are too noticeable here in the north."
"So you have found a different way to coerce me."
"I realize the choice is not fair, but I can hardly do anything about it now. You have seen a taste of the Dragon's resources. I must use any tool at my disposal to thwart him. However, I can also offer positive incentives."
"Such as?"
"Consider the talents you've discovered in yourself since you left the Wood. If you are anything like the Dragonslayer, you won't be willing to let that potential go to waste. I can teach you how to use your power. In fact, I must, if you are to use the gauntlets."
Toren stroked the shell of his totem pensively.
"As I said, you may leave at any time. If you stay, Janna and I will begin our training of you. By the end of that process, you will have to decide whether to take the gauntlets and kill Gloroc, or leave with our best wishes. Think about it after your totem is restored. That experience will be enough to deal with for the moment."
Struth's tone seemed sympathetic as she uttered the last sentence; that worried the modhiv. "Go with Janna now."
Toren had more questions, but none of them seemed as urgent as getting his ancestors back. The high priestess tapped him gently on the arm. He followed her up the stairs. His totem murmured anxiously.
XVI
TWO TAVERN BOYS, bare to the waist, sweating in the kitchen heat, lifted the roast pig away from the bed of coals and set it on the butcher table, where the head cook prepared to remove the stuffing. A girl hurried through with clean steins for the pub room. Owl the tavernmaster surveyed the activity with a critical eye. "Nearly sundown," he cautioned his workers. In fact, Achird had already dropped behind Cilendrodel's giant trees. The light had not yet dimmed because Motherworld, the Sister, and Urthey were all in the sky. A good night for business, Owl predicted. The lack of darkness would mean more traffic.
"Mind you don't run short like last Sisday," Owl warned the cook.
"Never fear," the man replied, his bald head nearly obscured behind the steam rising from the pig's belly.