"I was just thinking, maybe whatever was coming after us was one of those old-time G.o.ds that wanted human sacrifices. It was almost dark when the bishop fell down and killed himself. Maybe that woke it up."

"That's as good a hypothesis as any," Doneto said. "But suppose we just let ourselves recover? Let's fuss about it later. Hecht. Will you be all right?"

"I pa.s.sed some gas. The pain isn't as bad now."

Ghort snorted. "Swamp Boy pa.s.ses gas. The rest of us fart or cut the cheese."

DESPITE GOOD INTENTIONS AND A UNIVERSAL l.u.s.t TO GET THE h.e.l.l out of the Knot, movement did not commence until noon.

Everyone needed to recuperate. Else felt drained of will and strength.

Last night had been no simple brush with a mischievous sprite or malign minor shade. That presence was the dreadful equal of the thing in Esther's Wood. And it had not been vanquished.

Darkness threatened again before they exited the Ownvidian Knot on its northeastern side. Prisoners and captors had redefined their relationship, somewhat, though, as Ghort observed, "I don't hear n.o.body making wedding plans."

Plemenza maintained a small garrison in a watchtower on the Knot side of a village named Tampas. A dozen Imperial soldiers waited there, guarding supplies.

The Braunsknecht captain disappeared immediately. Professional to his core, he would prepare a report for his superiors. His own needs he would see to later.

After an enthusiastic meal, Bronte Doneto bellowed, "Hecht! Ghort! Come here."

Else and Ghort joined Doneto away from the others. Doneto said, "Something remarkable happened last night. A thing called a bogon came after us. Luck or G.o.d's favor saw us through. Which doesn't matter. What does is, the Instrumentalities of the Night fear one Episcopal Princ.i.p.ate enough to raise something ancient to attack him. Which doesn't happen in modern times. I'm astounded to see it anywhere outside of Scripture."

Else was pleased. Let Doneto think that whatever happened had to be about him. And that just might be.

He asked, "You sure the darkness did that on its own."

"What do you mean, Hecht?"

"I was wondering if some unfriendly sorcerer was behind it."

Doneto took time to consider. "That's plausible. But I don't see how it could be managed. I don't know of anyone powerful enough to do it."

Ghort volunteered, "Maybe you p.i.s.sed off one of the G.o.ds."

Doneto's face darkened. He was a prince of the Church. That Church acknowledged the existence of only one G.o.d.

"Excuse me," Ghort said. "Amend that to say some devil or demon."

Else nodded. "Slick, Pinkus." His own coreligionists handled the matter that way. There was the One G.o.d, the Merciful, the True G.o.d, There Is No Other, and everything else out there belonged to that vast host of lesser supernatural beings sworn to serve the Adversary.

Bronte Doneto relaxed. "You could be right, Ghort. Having endured the impossible already, we shouldn't discount any possibility."

"An open mind is a mind that has a chance to see the one path leading through darkness to tomorrow's safety."

"Of course. A child's lesson."

Else tried not to look baffled but failed.

Ghort told him, "It's from Kelam. Letters to the Toscans."

"I missed that, I guess."

"Most people do who don't spend some time in the seminary."

Else did not have a clue, now.

Doneto chuckled. "I suspect that Brother Hecht had very little opportunity to acquire a solid religious foundation growing up on the verges of the Grand Marshes."

Else grabbed that straw. "My family was never particularly devout. So don't expect me to have anything memorized."

Doneto said, "That is of no consequence. Survival and the work of the Lord is."

"Sir?"

"G.o.d has given me a calling. I didn't see that at first. I went to the Connec full of arrogance. Those a.s.sa.s.sins failed to waken me. Our Lord was forbearing. He sent you. He brought me out of the Connec. He saw me through the Ownvidian Knot. And now I'm ready to hear Him. I'm prepared to do His work." Doneto was intense. He continued, "All right. I didn't expect you would experience the same epiphany. But I do want to talk about what our situation means."

"It means we're out of work," Ghort said. "We can't protect you here. They chunk you in the dungeon, you don't need us anymore. Even if they don't, you couldn't pay us."

"Possibly. Johannes wouldn't be that bold, though. He'll just put me under house arrest until Sublime ransoms me by acknowledging the Emperor's claims somewhere. It'll all be handled quietly. Then I'll be on my way to Brothe again, with a need for lifeguards."

Else considered Doneto. He had arrived too late to experience the old Doneto but he had heard plenty from survivors of Doneto's original bodyguard. He did not believe that men changed their basic nature. They just pretended for tactical reasons.

"I'm trying to tell you that I want you to stay with me, despite this setback."

Else grunted. There could not be a more advantageous position than that of officer in the lifeguard of a member of the Collegium. "I'll stay."

Doneto nodded. "We'll see how onerous the Emperor makes our captivity. You may not miss a payday."

PLEMENZA WAS ONE OF THE WEALTHIER CITIES OF FIRALDIA." Nominally, it was a republic. An independent city-state. In truth, as with most Firaldian cities, the real rulers were a handful of families. Here, however, those had less influence than elsewhere because here there was a bigger dog.

The Grail Emperor had ancestral ties with the House of Truncella, the n.o.ble family whose firstborn sons were the Counts of Plemenza but who no longer much mattered locally. Johannes had been a minor n.o.ble himself when the Electors chose him Emperor as a compromise candidate who could be manipulated easily and pushed aside shortly. But Johannes Ege revealed a potent personality, was pa.s.sionate in his convictions and persuasive in his arguments. The grasping cupidity of recent Patriarchs made Johannes particularly appealing to Firaldian n.o.bles eager to slip the squeeze of the Church.

The Grail Emperor was staying in the Dimmel Palace with his son and two daughters. The Dimmel Palace had been the seat of the Truncella Counts for centuries. His stay had no stated date of termination.

Johannes's presence underscored his abiding interest in Firaldia. His expansionist interest, his enemies would say. Though Hansel himself insisted that he had come to Plemenza only to establish his daughters there, in a city where they could avail themselves of cultural and educational opportunities absent in the bleak agricultural lowlands of the Kretien Electorate.

The daughters were of interest for their political value. No match had been made for either, yet. Johannes's reluctance to entertain suits was causing strain amongst the Electors-some of whom secretly hoped to become Hansel's successor.

Johannes was looking for sons-in-law-if he had to tolerate such beasts at all-who would bring him treasure and soldiers and, most of all, enthusiasm for his struggle with the Patriarchy. There were few suitors of sufficient stature who shared his abiding loathing of the Patriarchy. And those matches all wanted bequest of the Empire itself. Because Johannes had only the one sickly son, Lothar.

Lothar's sisters and nurses doted on him, mainly because he was not expected to survive to succeed his father.

Hansel himself loved Lothar with an unreasonable fervor but could not deceive himself about the boy's prospects.

Else learned most of that from Doneto on the road to Plemenza.

Pinkus Ghort fell in beside Else. "Pipe, do we really want to stick with this weasel?"

Else chuckled. "I can be a weasel, too. I plan to gouge him for a better deal."

Ghort snickered but nodded. "When you make decisions, don't forget you're making them for more than just you."

"Excuse me?"

"Wherever you go now, for reasons they couldn't explain themselves, Bo, Joe, and Pig Iron are likely going to follow. You're just one of those kind of guys. That Pig Iron is a good soldier. But the rest..."

Pig Iron was a good soldier. The mule did more than his share of the work. He never complained, unlike Joe and Bo. Pig Iron was content just to go where Joe went.

Else had no trouble imagining schemers like er-Rashal al-Dhulquarnen trying to breed a race of warriors as placid and pliable as Joe's favorite mule.

Ah. The Sha-lug were not that way? The ideal Sha-lug. Not those Sha-lug like Else Tage, with a regrettable tendency to think for himself.

"Pinkus, here's an original notion. Instead of worrying about that stuff, how about we concentrate on getting out of this alive?"

"s.h.i.t, we got no worries, Pipe. Things are so ugly right now that I guarantee you everything's going to turn out all right. That's the way the Pinkus Ghort story gets told."

16. Andorayans and the Black Mountain Ma.s.sacre

Blood and murder swirled around the Andorayans. The Connecten attack had caught them off guard. But they were shambling along through an alien time, unready for much of anything but being amazed.

The Andorayans could no longer refuse to believe that they had fallen into a world where the grandsons of the men they had pursued were long dead of old age. That truth hammered them constantly.

They were never a part of that army. Their presence was tolerated but to the Arnhanders they were less than remoras to sharks. Unpleasantness had hounded them since that day at the bridge in the Haunted Hills.

In the matter of the murder of Erief Erealsson s.h.a.got grew ever more suspicious of the G.o.ds themselves. The murder served them too well. He did not share his suspicions. Words spoken were words sure to be overheard by the Instrumentalities of the Night.

s.h.a.got had no idea what they wanted him doing knew only that he was supposed to recognize the moment when it arrived.

s.h.a.got was doubtful of any convictions he discovered when he explored his own inner landscape. Or was amazed at the depth of his own cynicism.

The rest of the band were deeper in the dark. All they could do was stick, protect him, and hope that a time would come when everyone would understand what they had to do. But there was no enthusiasm for the task.

When the Arnhander army entered the pa.s.s below the Black Mountain of the Steigfeit Range, s.h.a.got's companions were beyond complaining. They no longer talked to their leader much, either. They just trudged along, bent to the Will of the G.o.ds, indifferent to a world that betrayed no interest in them.

Thus, because of their self-involvement, they responded slowly when the attack came.

s.h.a.got said, "They don't see us."

Indeed. The attackers paid them no heed at all. Until they began to run toward those same trees whence the attack had come. Then a couple of infantrymen came at them. Svavar and Finnboga dispatched the two almost casually.

"Don't anybody move," s.h.a.got said. More attackers were headed their way.

The Connectens lost interest.

"Like old Trygg," Hallgrim said. "He was always forgetting what he was going to do."

s.h.a.got said, "Let's move. They aren't looking, now."

They covered maybe eighty feet before a lone horseman in heavy armor charged them. Sigurjon flung an axe. While the rider fended it s.h.a.got dropped his mount with a two-handed sword stroke to its forelegs. The others murdered the rider before he hit the ground.

Trial and error showed them that short bursts, a dozen yards at a time, followed by a minute of inactivity, let them travel without attracting attackers.

"Pretty d.a.m.ned feeble magic if you ask me, Grim," Svavar said.

"It's keeping your stinky a.s.s alive, ain't it? Once we get to them rocks over there we'll lay up until this s.h.i.t is over and the survivors go away."

It was clear who the victors would be. Already it was all over but the butchery.

THE BATTLEFIELD WAS QUIET. THE CONNECTENS HAD GIVEN UP looting the dead and murdering the wounded. Now they were coping with the enormity of what they had done. It was more difficult for them than for men of s.h.a.got's land and time. The Connec's only acquaintance with war was through those few adventurous sons who went to fight in the Holy Lands.

Svavar asked, "What do we do next, Grim?"

s.h.a.got had no idea. This disaster was nothing that the G.o.ds had foreseen. "I need to sleep on it. I'll let you know in the morning."

The others did not question that.

They were all weird men.

They had been to heaven and back.

Or maybe they had gone somewhere else.

But in this world all beliefs were true. In this world the G.o.ds came first, then men re-created them in images they preferred.

In time the victors went away. The surviving Arnhanders and Grolsachers were long gone by then. s.h.a.got and his friends took the opportunity to scavenge what they could.

They did not find much.

"SO WHERE ARE WE HEADED, GRIM?".

"Back the way we came. Staying away from people."

After s.h.a.got explained what he had learned in his dreams, Hallgrim wanted to know, "Who is this G.o.dslayer?"

"I don't know."

"So how're we supposed to recognize him when we find him?"

"I don't know."

"This whole thing is turning into a cl.u.s.ter f.u.c.k, Grim."