men who have lived as long as I. Now You ring me round with thunder and compass
me with lightning though I am here to expand Your worship among these infidels.
I am building Your accursed temple as fast as I can. I am no priest, to be
terrified by loud words and bright manifestations. Get Thee hence, and leave
this slum unenlightened. They do not deserve me, and they do not deserve You!’
A gust sighed fiercely, flapping Tempus’s woollens against his mail beneath.
‘I have sent you hither to build Me a temple among the heathens, 0 sleepless
one! A temple you will build!’
‘A temple I will build. Yes, sir, Vashanka, lord of the Edge and the Point. If
You leave me alone to do it.’ Damn pushy tutelary god. ‘You blind my horse, 0
God, and I will put him under Your threshold instead of the enemies slain in
battle Your ritual demands. Then we will see who comes to worship there.’
‘Do not trifle with Me, Man.’
‘Then let me be. I am doing the best I can. There is no room for foreign gods in
the hearts of these Sanctuarites. The Ilsig gods they were born under have seen
to that. Do something amazing: strike the fear of You into them.’
‘I cannot even make you cower, 0 impudent human!’
‘Even Your visitations get old, after three hundred and fifty years. Go scare
the locals. This horse will founder, standing hot in the rain.’
The thunder changed its tune, becoming canny. ‘Go you to the harbour. My son,
and look upon what My Majesty hath wrought! And into the Maze, where I am making
My power known!’
With that, the corral of lightning vanished, the thunder ceased, and the clouds