setting up shop across the street.’
Narstil looked a little less certain of himself. ‘I’ll think about
it,’ he said.
‘Do that. And don’t get any ideas about trying to eliminate
potential competition in advance. Your bad-boys wouldn’t be
up to it, and my friends and I would sort of be obliged to take
it personally.’
‘Stop that.’ Sephrenia chided her sister as the four of them
moved through the corridorlike streets of Delphaeus toward the
home of Codon, the Anari of Xanetia’s people.
‘Edaemus is doing it,’ Aphrael countered.
‘It’s his city, and these are his people. It’s not polite to do that
when you’re a guest.’
Xanetia gave them a puzzled look. ‘
‘My sister’s showing off,’ Sephrenia explained.
‘Am not,’ Aphrael retorted.
‘Yes you are too, Aphrael, and you and I both know it. We’ve
had this argument before. Now stop it.’
‘I do not understand,’ Xanetia confessed.
‘That’s because you’ve grown accustomed to the sense of her
presence, sister,’ Sephrenia explained wearily. ‘She’s not supposed
to flaunt her divinity this way when she’s around the
worshippers of other Gods. It’s the worst form of bad manners,
and she knows it. She’s only doing it to irritate Edaemus. I’m
surprised she hasn’t flattened the whole city or set fire to the
thatching on the roofs with all that divine personality.’
‘That’s a spiteful thing to say, Sephrenia,’ Aphrael accused.
‘Behave yourself then.’
‘I won’t unless Edaemus does.’
Sephrenia sighed, rolling her eyes upward.
They entered the southern wing of the extended city-building
that was Delphaeus and proceeded down a dim hallway to ‘
Codon’s door. The Anari was waiting for them, his ancient face
filled with wonder. He fell to his knees as the light that was
Edaemus approached, but his God dimmed, assumed a human
form, and reached out gently to raise him to his feet again. ‘
“That is not needful, my old friend,’ he said.
‘Why, Edaemus,’ Aphrael said, ‘you’re really quite handsome.
You shouldn’t hide from us in all that light the way
you do.’ A faint smile touched the ageless face of the Delphaeic God.
‘Seek not beguile me with flattery, Aphrael. I know thee, and I
know thy ways. Thou shalt not so easily ensnare me.’
‘Oh, really? Thou art ensnared already, Edaemus. I do but toy
with thee now. My hand is already about thine heart. In time,
I shall close it and make thee mine.’ And she laughed a silvery
little peal of laughter. ‘But that’s between you and me, Cousin.
Right now we have other things to do.’
Xanetia fondly embraced the ancient Codon. ‘As thou canst
readily perceive, my dear old friend, momentous changes are
afoot. The dire peril which we face doth reshape our entire
world. Let us consider that peril first, and then at our leisure
may we pause to marvel at how all about us is altered.’
Codon led them down the three worn stone steps into his
low-ceilinged chamber with its inwardly curving, white plastered
walls, its comfortable furniture, and its cheery fire.
‘Tell them what’s been going on, Xanetia,’ Aphrael suggested,
climbing up into Sephrenia’s lap. ‘That may explain why it was
necessary for me to violate all the rules and come here.’ She
gave Edaemus an arch look. ‘Regardless of what you may think,
Cousin, I do have good manners, but we’ve got an emergency
on our hands.’
Sephrenia leaned back in her chair as Xanetia began her
account of the events of the past several months. There was a
sense of peace, an unruffled calm about Delphaeus that
Sephrenia had not perceived during her last visit. At that time,
her mind had been so filled with obsessive hatred that she had
scarcely taken note of her surroundings. The Delphae had
appealed to Sparhawk to seal their valley away from the rest of
the world, but that seemed somehow unnecessary. They were
already separate – so separate that they no longer seemed even
human. In a peculiar way, Sephrenia envied them.
infuriating, aren’t they?’ the Child Goddess murmured. ‘And
the word you’re looking for is “serenity”.’
‘And you’re doing everything in your power to disturb that,
aren’t you?’
‘They’re still a part of this world, Sephrenia – for a little while
longer, anyway. All I’m doing is reminding them that the rest
of us are still out here.’
“you’re behaving very badly toward Edaemus.’
‘i’m trying to jerk him back to reality. He’s been off by himself
for the past hundred centuries, and he’s forgotten what it’s like
having the rest of us around. I’m reminding him. Actually, it’s
good for him. He was starting to get complacent.’ She slipped
down from her sister’s lap. ‘Excuse me,’ she said. ‘It’s time for
me to give him another lesson. ‘ She crossed the room and stood
studying him with her large, dark eyes.
The God of the Delphae was so engrossed in Xanetia’s account
that he scarcely noticed Aphrael and, when she held out her
arms to him, he absently picked her up and settled her into his
laP.
Sephrenia smiled.
‘And most recently,’ Xanetia concluded her report, ‘young Sir
berit hath been given further instruction. He is to turn aside and
go to the town of Sepal on the coast of the Sea of Arjun. He
hath advised the Child Goddess of this alteration of direction,
and she in turn hath made the rest of us aware of it. It is the
intent of the Troll-Gods to transport Sir Ulath and Sir Tynian to
Sepal and to conceal them there in what they call “No-Time”.
It is their thought that when our enemies produce Queen Ehlana
to exchange her for Bhelliom, they might leap from their concealment
and rescue her.’
‘No-Time?’ Codon asked, his face puzzled.
‘Suspended duration,’ Aphrael explained. ‘Trolls are hunters,
and their Gods have found a new place of concealment for them
so that they’re able to stalk their prey unseen. It’s clever, but it
has its drawbacks.’
Edaemus asked her something in that language Sephrenia had
tried several times to learn but had never really been able to
grasp. Aphrael replied, speaking rapidly in a rather dry, technical
tone and making intricate gestures with her hands.
‘Ah,’ he said finally, lapsing back into Tamul and with an
expression of comprehension flooding his face. ‘It is a peculiar
notion.’
‘You know how the Troll-Gods are.’ She made a little face.
‘Didst thou in truth wring acceptance of thine outrageous
demands from them?’
‘I had something they wanted.’ She shrugged. ‘They’ve been
trying to think up some way to escape from Bhelliom for three
hundred centuries now. They didn’t like my conditions, but they
didn’t have much choice.’
‘Thou are cruel, Aphrael.’
‘Not really. I was driven by necessity, and necessity’s neither
cruel nor kindly. It just is. I kissed them a few times when I
stopped by a couple of days ago, and that made them feel better
it did once they realized that I wasn’t going to take a bite out
of them, anyway.’
‘Thou didst not!’ He seemed aghast.
‘They aren’t so bad,’ she defended her action. ‘I suppose I
could have scratched them behind the ears, but that might have
insulted them, so I kissed them instead.’ She smiled. ‘A few
more kisses and I’d have had them licking my fingers like
Puppies.’ He straightened, then suddenly blinked as if realizing for the
first time where she was sitting.
She gave him another of those mysterious little smiles and
patted his cheek. ‘That’s all right, Cousin,’ she told him. ‘You’ll
come around eventually. They always do.’ And she slipped
down from his lap and walked back across the room to rejoin
her sister.
‘That’s my place!’ a burly fellow of indeterminate race asserted
threateningly as Kalten dropped his saddle-bags and bed-roll on
a clear spot under a large tree.
‘It was,’ Kalten grunted.
‘You can’t just walk in here and steal a man’s place like this.’
‘Oh? Is it against the law or something?’ Kalten straightened.
He was at least a head taller than the other man, and he bulked
large in his mail-shirt. ‘My friends and I are going to be staying
right here,’ he stated flatly, ‘so pick up your bed and all this
other trash and go someplace else.’
‘i’m not in the habit of taking orders from Elenes!’
‘That’s too bad. Now move away. I’ve got work to do.’ Kalten
was not in a good humor. Alcans peril gnawed at him constantly,
and even slight irritations rubbed his temper raw. Some
of that must have showed on his face. The other man backed
off a few steps.
‘Further,’ Kalten told him.
‘I’ll be back,’ the man blustered, retreating a few more steps.
‘I’ll be back with all my friends.’
‘I can hardly wait.’ Kalten deliberately turned his back on the
man he had just dispossessed.
Caalador and Bevier joined him. ‘Trouble?’ Caalador asked.
‘I wouldn’t’! call it that,’ Kalten shrugged. ‘I was just establishing
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