Oathbound

No one followed them out into the night, which was not overly surprising, given the fears of the populace.

'I hope it was worth it,' Tarma said, as casually as she could.

'It was,' Kethry replied, a little cooler. 'They were all very impressed with the whole ritual, and remembered everything they saw in quite lurid detail. It seems that it is the High Priest who is the one truly in command; from the sound of it, my guess was right about his plans. He conducts every aspect of the ritual; he calls the 'god' up, and he sends him back again. The god selects those of the females brought to him that he wants, the male followers get what's left, or share the few female followers he has. It's a rather unpleasant combination of human sacrifice and orgy. The High Priest must be the magician that summoned the demon in the first place. He's almost certainly having the demon transform himself, since the god is almost unbearably attractive, and the females he selects go to him willingly -- at least at first. After his initial attentions, they're no longer in any condition to object to much of anything. Those three back there were positively obscene. They gloated over all the details of what Thalhkarsh does to his 'brides,' all the while doing their best to get me out of my clothing so they could demonstrate the 'rites.' It was all I could do to keep from throwing up on them.'

'You sleep-spelled them?'

'Better, I dream-spelled them, just like I did with our 'customers' when I was posing as a whore back when we first met. It's as easy as sleep-spelling them, it's a very localized magic that isn't likely to be detected, and it will keep our disguises intact. They'll have the best time their imaginations can possibly provide.'

Kethry looked suddenly weary as they approached their inn. 'Bespeak me a bath, would you, dearheart? I feel filthy -- inside and out.'

* * *

The next night was the night of moon-dark, the night of one of the more important of the new deity's rituals, and there was a pair of spies watching the streets that led to Temple Row with particular care. Those two pairs of eyes paid particularly close attention to two women making their cautious way through the darkened and deserted streets, muffled head-to-toe in cloaks. Though faint squeals and curses showed that neither of them could see well enough to avoid the rocks and fetid heaps of refuse that dotted the street, they seemed not to wish any kind of light to brighten their path. Gold peeked out from the hoods; the half-seen faces were old before their time; their eyelids drooped with boredom that had become habit, but their eyes revealed a kind of fearful anticipation. Their destination was the Temple of Thalhkarsh. They were intercepted a block away, by two swiftly moving figures who neatly knocked them unconscious and spirited them into a nearby alleyway.

Tarma spat out several unintelligible oaths. The dim light of a heavily shuttered dark-lantern fell on the two bodies at her feet. Beneath the cloaks, the now unconscious women had worn little more than heavy jewelry and a strategically placed veil or two.

'We'll be searched, you can bet on it,' she said in disgust. 'And where the bloody Hell are we going to hide weapons in these outfits?'

In truth, there wasn't enough cover among the chains and medallions to have concealed even the smallest of her daggers.

'We can't,' Kethry replied flatly. 'So that leaves  -Warrl?'

Tarma pursed her lips. 'Hmm. That's a thought. Fur-face, could you carry two swords?'

The kyree cocked his head to one side, and experimentally mouthed Need's sheath. Kethry took the blade off and held it for him to take. He swung his head from side to side a little, then dropped the blade.

:Not that way,: Tarma heard in her mind. :Too clumsy. Won't balance right; couldn't run or jump -- might get stuck in a tight doorway. I want to be able to bite -- these teeth aren't just for decoration, you know! And anyway, I can't carry two blades at the same time in my mouth.:

'Could we strap them to you, somehow?'

:If you do, I can try how it feels.:

Using their belts they managed to strap the blades along his flanks, one on either side, to Ward's satisfaction. He ran from one end of the alley to the other, then shook himself carefully without dislodging them or getting tangled by them.

:It'll work:, he said with satisfaction. :Let's go.:

They left their victims sleeping in a dead-end alley; they'd be rather embarrassed when they woke stark- naked in the morning. They'd come to no harm; thanks to Thalhkarsh not even criminals moved about the city by night, and the evening was warm enough that they wouldn't suffer from exposure. Whether or not they'd die of mortification remained to be seen.

The partners left their own clothing hidden in another alley farther on. Muffled in the stolen cloaks, they approached the temple, Warrl a shadow flitting behind them.