The Golden Sword by Janet Morris Page B

please everyone at once, soon found himself in the middle between them, and between Estri and Celendra also.” Khemi shook her head, remembering.
    Mid-Macara there was Feast of Conception for Genisha and Jerin of the Slayers. A man of Baniev, wearing the clothes of a Morrltan, died a mysterious death during the night. Its cause was never determined. The tension was thus heightened all around, for we waited to see if such awful death would come again upon the land.
    “Perhaps because of that, the Seven decided to take his one son, Tyith, apprenticed for the Slayer’s chain, with him upon the trail to Santha.
    “When Celendra heard this, she locked herself in her keep and commenced a fasting and a keening that lasted a full set’s time When she once again opened her door, she went straight to Vedrev and demanded an inquiry into what had occurred upon the trail. Vedrev answered her that it was doubtful they even reached the falls by that day. Celendra then informed Vedrev that her son was dead, that she had seen Sereth, in a vision, bind the boy up in a brist pelt and throw him into a great crevice. And that he had failed to protect Estri of Astria, who was lost now forever to the spirits beyond, and that Sereth had killed four chalded men and left them, their chalds upon them, for the hulions and the harths. I know this, because it was to my lecture hall she came, and demanded Vedrev at once attend her will.
    “This the Day-Keeper did, leaving us thirty would-be forereaders in the learning hall, waiting. Celendra’s unquiet voice rang through the hide corridors, and in our ears, as she charged Sereth with all the un-Sevenly acts I have mentioned, and more besides.
    “Vedrev tried to calm her, but the seeds of doubt were planted in his mind, and he went himself upon the trail to the Falls of Santha, taking with him Ganrom, Celendra, and at Celendra’s bidding, the Liaison, for it had passed between Dellin and Celendra that they would take the one-year couch-bond traditional between Keepress and Liaison.
    “One who should have known once said to me that but for this pledge to Celendra, Dellin would have stood for Sereth in his need, and had that been true, things might have taken a different turn. But he did not.
    “Let me point out that at the time Celendra first approached Vedrev, it was with forereader’s knowledge. It was her forereading Vedrev trusted, and as it proved true in some things, it seemed true in all. It was her forereading that destroyed Sereth.” Her voice was wistful, and I knew she saw him before her eyes, even as I did.
    “Just upon the plateau of Santha,” Khemi continued, “Vedrev’s party found some badly savaged bodies.
    “Embedded in the chest of one of them was a knife with the Seven’s device engraved upon the hilt. There was the Slayer convicted before trial, for he had not collected the chalds of his dead.
    “The body of Tyith was not among them. Celendra demanded that they press on, and the dharener’s party continued, until they found their way was blocked by a great crevice in the earth, Deeming it impossible to pass over the chasm’s width or around its length, they turned themselves around and headed back to Arlet. The fact that the crevice was as Celendra had described it was enough for Vedrev.
    “By this time I had finished my seminars and was released to my wellwork for a pass, to put what I had learned in the hide into practice upon the customers.
    “It was market day in the Inner Well, first first of Jicar. Vedrev and his party were still in the Sabembes. Sereth crill Tyris came riding through the gates with a coin girl at his side, and she upon one of his finest threx. Tyith was not with him, nor was the Keepress of Astria.
    “I was standing with a chalder near the outer gate. I had long coveted the Seven’s attentions, and always greeted him when the opportunity arose. He had in the past often stopped to speak with me. This day he did not stop, and his face was