gestures sufficed for Shinn and Bantril. In moments our 'shaw's wheels were whirring again down the highway.
We triple-timed it down the highway in good order. Through the forest, across the river bridge we trotted, our footfalls perfectly synchronous, our demeanor dignified and grave. But the truth of it was we were running pell mell, fleeing in terror. We'd encountered our first god. We'd thought ourselves braced for it, but how utterly unprepared we were in the event. Unprepared for the shame, for one thing. The abasement of having to leave a still-living man in the jaws of that alien abomination! It was humiliating to have to confirm—by our abandonment of that poor person—the monster's entitlement to human food. The Covenant was everyone's nightmare.
When we had gained the next ridgeline, the sun hung scarce an hour above the western hills. I felt a craven relief to be up in the wind-licked grasses of the heights, a world above the spidery thickets and bosks of the dark valley floor. A new valley lay below us, but our route now followed the ridgetop for a while, and we meant to pass the night in a highland village just ahead. Hagia is a lush and lovely land. The tawny highland grasses rippled with the winds like licked fur. The valley below us was a great green bowl half full of shadow, and in the unshadowed half the neatly appointed farmsteads, and some grand stonework structures as well, wore the lovely gold light of late day.
As I mused on the prospect, I heard Nifft's cheery voice: "I say, Olombo—yonder stone-walled cluster of little domes and spires—just past the shadow-line there? Could that, Olombo, be one of this land's renowned monastia? I have heard they are marvellous specimens of the native architecture."
Olombo, guileless as he always was with another hail-fellow sort whose prowess he respected, affirmed that the little structure so far below did indeed resemble such descriptions as he had heard regarding those fabled coin vaults.
Meanwhile I was thinking that, coming from Nifft, an interest in monastial architecture had a disingenuous sound. Extravagant though the notion was, I actually wondered if the man were not merely a chiseller and swindler, a cozzener and sharper. Could it be that the man was an out and out thief ? That he had come— here of all places—to steal ?
I was glad to let this wild thought go—our association was unpleasant enough without indulging in hyperbole. Still, I meant to have his skulking business in the A'Rak Fane accounted for. For if our mission was some witch's trumpery, as now appeared, we stood in that much more danger of the god's being offended by it, and that much more in need of information.
"I am in some puzzlement, Nifft," I declared, advancing to point and falling in step just behind him and Olombo. "I recall you most emphatically telling me you were wholly ignorant of the A'Rak's worship. But what I can't get out of my mind is the oddest coincidence. For you see, yesterday morning I chanced to see you—before I knew you in the least, of course—chanced to see you . . . how shall I phrase it? Well, it was in the Big Quay Fane after morning service, and you appeared to be . . . quietly shadowing the Ecclesiarch of the Church back towards his private quarters! I don't wish to pry, but can you in fact be wholly ignorant of the A'Rak's rites?"
"But indeed, Nuncio Lagademe," the lanky rogue protested, "I am ignorant of the spider god's worship. I know that tomorrow at the Choosing, some score or so of lot-chosen victims will be devoured by Grandfather A'Rak, and that this is done every summer solstice. There you have the whole of my knowledge on the matter."
I waited for more, but evidently he would still have left me uninformed. I goaded him, betraying some exasperation. "Will you tell me the subject of your visit to the fane yestermorning? I do not idly pry. If our, ah, mortuary mission is after all bogus, some cover for our witch's hidden aim, then we
We triple-timed it down the highway in good order. Through the forest, across the river bridge we trotted, our footfalls perfectly synchronous, our demeanor dignified and grave. But the truth of it was we were running pell mell, fleeing in terror. We'd encountered our first god. We'd thought ourselves braced for it, but how utterly unprepared we were in the event. Unprepared for the shame, for one thing. The abasement of having to leave a still-living man in the jaws of that alien abomination! It was humiliating to have to confirm—by our abandonment of that poor person—the monster's entitlement to human food. The Covenant was everyone's nightmare.
When we had gained the next ridgeline, the sun hung scarce an hour above the western hills. I felt a craven relief to be up in the wind-licked grasses of the heights, a world above the spidery thickets and bosks of the dark valley floor. A new valley lay below us, but our route now followed the ridgetop for a while, and we meant to pass the night in a highland village just ahead. Hagia is a lush and lovely land. The tawny highland grasses rippled with the winds like licked fur. The valley below us was a great green bowl half full of shadow, and in the unshadowed half the neatly appointed farmsteads, and some grand stonework structures as well, wore the lovely gold light of late day.
As I mused on the prospect, I heard Nifft's cheery voice: "I say, Olombo—yonder stone-walled cluster of little domes and spires—just past the shadow-line there? Could that, Olombo, be one of this land's renowned monastia? I have heard they are marvellous specimens of the native architecture."
Olombo, guileless as he always was with another hail-fellow sort whose prowess he respected, affirmed that the little structure so far below did indeed resemble such descriptions as he had heard regarding those fabled coin vaults.
Meanwhile I was thinking that, coming from Nifft, an interest in monastial architecture had a disingenuous sound. Extravagant though the notion was, I actually wondered if the man were not merely a chiseller and swindler, a cozzener and sharper. Could it be that the man was an out and out thief ? That he had come— here of all places—to steal ?
I was glad to let this wild thought go—our association was unpleasant enough without indulging in hyperbole. Still, I meant to have his skulking business in the A'Rak Fane accounted for. For if our mission was some witch's trumpery, as now appeared, we stood in that much more danger of the god's being offended by it, and that much more in need of information.
"I am in some puzzlement, Nifft," I declared, advancing to point and falling in step just behind him and Olombo. "I recall you most emphatically telling me you were wholly ignorant of the A'Rak's worship. But what I can't get out of my mind is the oddest coincidence. For you see, yesterday morning I chanced to see you—before I knew you in the least, of course—chanced to see you . . . how shall I phrase it? Well, it was in the Big Quay Fane after morning service, and you appeared to be . . . quietly shadowing the Ecclesiarch of the Church back towards his private quarters! I don't wish to pry, but can you in fact be wholly ignorant of the A'Rak's rites?"
"But indeed, Nuncio Lagademe," the lanky rogue protested, "I am ignorant of the spider god's worship. I know that tomorrow at the Choosing, some score or so of lot-chosen victims will be devoured by Grandfather A'Rak, and that this is done every summer solstice. There you have the whole of my knowledge on the matter."
I waited for more, but evidently he would still have left me uninformed. I goaded him, betraying some exasperation. "Will you tell me the subject of your visit to the fane yestermorning? I do not idly pry. If our, ah, mortuary mission is after all bogus, some cover for our witch's hidden aim, then we
Similar Books
