ourselves involved. We slipped into the temple in disguise and went for the High Priest -- figuring if he was the one in charge, that might solve the problem. We didn't know he was a puppet, though I had guessed he might be, and then dismissed the idea.' Kethry sighed. 'Then we found our troubles had only begun. He had used this as a kind of impromptu test of the mettle of his servant; when the servant failed, he offered me the position. I was tempted with anything I might want; nearly unlimited power, beauty, wealth -- and him. He was incredibly seductive, I can't begin to tell you how much. To try and give you a notion of his power, every one of his victims ran to him willingly when he called her, even though they knew what their fate would be. Well, I guess I resisted him a little too long; he became impatient with me and knocked me into a wall -- unconscious, or so he thought.'
'Then he made me the same offer,' Tarma continued. 'Only with me he demonstrated his power rather than just promising things. He totally transformed me -- when he was done kings would have paid money for the privilege of laying their crowns at my feet. He also came damned close to breaking my bond with the Star-Eyed; I swear to you, I was within inches of letting him seduce me -- except that the more he roused my body, the more he roused my anger. That was his mistake; I pretended to give in when I saw Kethry sneaking up behind him. Then I broke his focus just as she stabbed him; he lost control over his form and his worshipers' minds. When they saw what he really was, they deserted him -- that broke his power, and it was all over.'
'She' enedra, you were in no danger of breaking; your will is too strong, he'd have needed either more time to work on you or power to equal the Warrior's.'
'Maybe. It was a damn near thing; too near for my liking. Well he was absolute evil for the sake of it -- and I should well know, I had that evil crawling around in my mind. Besides that, there were other things that came out afterward. We know he took a few innocent girls who just had the bad luck to be in the wrong place; we think some clerics went in to try and exorcise him. It's hard to say for certain since they were hedge-priests; wanderers with no set temple. We do know they disappeared between one night and the next; that they did not leave town by the gates, and that they had been talking about dealing with Thalhkarsh before they vanished.'
She trailed off, the set of her mouth grim, her eyes bleak. 'We can only assume they went the way of all of his victims, since they were never seen or heard from again. So Thalhkarsh had plenty of opportunity to see good and the Light -- and he apparently saw it only as another thing to crush.'
The little priest said nothing; there seemed nothing appropriate to say. Instead, he took a sip of his wine; from the distant look in his eyes he was evidently thinking hard.
'We of Anathei are not fools, Sworn One,' he said finally, 'Even though we may not deal with evil as if it were our deadly enemy. No, to throw one's life away in the foolish and prideful notion that one's own sanctity is enough to protect one from everything is something very like a sin. The arrow that strikes a friend in battle instead of a foe is no less deadly because it is misdirected. Let me tell you this; when dealing with the greater evils, we do nothing blindly. We study carefully, we take no chances; we know everything there is to be known about an opponent before we face him to show him the Light. And we take very great care that he is unable to do us harm in his misguided state.'
Tarma's eyes glinted with amusement in the shifting light. 'Then it may well be your folk have the right of it -- and in any case, you're going about your conversions in a practical manner, which is more than I can say for many. Once again we will have to agree to disagree.'
'With that, lady, I rest content.' He bowed to her a little, and the bench creaked under his moving weight. 'But we still have not settled the point of contention. Even if I were willing to concede that you are right about Thalhkarsh -- which I am not -- he was still a demon. Not a man. And -- '
'Well if you want irredeemable evil in a human, we can give you that, too! Kethry, remember that bastard Lastel Longknife?'
'Lady Bright! Now there was an unredeemable soul if ever there was one!'
Kethry saw out of the corner of her eye that Oskar had not moved since the tale-telling had begun, and was in a fair way to polish a hole right through the table. She wondered, as she smothered a smile, if that was the secret behind the scrupulously clean furniture of his inn.
'Lastel Longknife?' the priest said curiously.
'I doubt you'd have heard of that one. He was a bandit that had set up a band out in the waste between here and -- '
'Wait -- I think I do know that story!' the priest exclaimed. 'Isn't there a song about it? One that goes 'Deep into the stony hills, miles from keep or hold'?'
'Lady's Blade, is that nonsense going to follow us everywhere?' Tarma grimaced in distaste while Kethry gave up on trying to control her giggles. 'Damned impudent rhymester! I should never have agreed to talk to him, never! And if I ever get my hands on Leslac again, I'll kill him twice! Bad enough he got the tale all backward, but that manure about Three things never anger or you will not live for long; a wolf with cubs, a man with power and a woman's sense of wrong' came damn close to ruining business for a while! We weren't geas-pressed that time, or being altruistic -- we were in it for the money, dammit! And -- ' she turned to scowl at Kethry. 'What are you laughing about?'
'Nothing -- ' One look at Tarma's face set her off again.
'No respect; I don't get it from stupid minstrels, I don't get it from my partner, I don't even get it from you, Fur-face!'
Warrl put his head down on his paws and contrived to look innocent.
