Storm Warning

unfamiliar, as unfamiliar as most of the Valdemaran food, but even if he hadn't been starving, it would have been enticing. He felt ready to eat the pie and the plate it was baked in.

Rubrik dug into his own portion without hesitation. 'So,' he said, gesturing with a fork, 'what did your Solaris do next?'

'There was no question of naming anyone else the Son of the Sun, of course,' Karal replied, around a mouthful of sausage and crust. He swallowed; the pie was wonderful, and the spices weren't too different from the ones used at home. 'Everyone who would have protested was there for the Miracles, and they were terrified that any more miracles would target them. Solaris was invested right then and there with the White Robes—she already had a Crown—and the acolytes swept what was left of the False Son out with the ashes of last year's Fire. The next day she called a convocation, and told everyone that the duties of the Black-robes would change from that moment. She ordered that Black-robes would retain their rank, but they would serve exactly the same duties as the Red-robe Priests. Demon-summoning was declared anathema, forbidden, and the texts that taught the means of summoning the creatures were to be burned.'

'That's a good start, though normally I don't hold with burning books,' Rubrik observed. 'But destroying something so open to misuse instead of burning innocent people was a pretty good way of beginning her rule.'

Karal nodded enthusiastically and had another couple of bites before continuing. 'She said that she had been having visions for some time now, and that the event in the Temple merely confirmed that her visions had been from Vkandis and not mere dreaming and vainglory. She told us all that she had been shown that the ways of the Writ and Rule were not the ancient and true ways of worship.'

'I'd hardly expect her to say anything else,' Rubrik pointed out dryly. 'If she was going to establish herself as an authority, she would have to shake up things in your Temple right from the beginning. First day.'

Karal bit his tongue to keep from making a sharp retort, and took a little time eating before continuing, lest he say something he shouldn't. No matter what Solaris was, one thing she wasn't was a mere political creature. Yes, she understood politics, but it was only to take them into account. When politics didn't agree with what she was going to do, she worked around them.

'She made quite a few changes in the first week,' he told the Valdemaran, 'And later, when Ulrich and I were doing research into the older ways, we found out that the changes she had made were nothing more than a reestablishment of those ancient paths. 'The Sunlord has always been a God of life, not destruction,' she said. 'His Fire is the life-giving Fire of the Sun, not the Fires that eat the lives of children.' She decreed an end to the Cleansing Ceremonies as we knew them. She declared the Feast of the Children to be a time of testing youngsters for their powers and intelligence, but ordered that no child was to be dragged away from its family; children must come to the Temple by consent of their families and their own will.' He answered Rubrik's slightly raised eyebrow with a sardonic smile of his own. 'She also pointed out that in families with many children and limited resources, telling the child and its parents that from now on the Priesthood would feed and clothe it would get them to at least give the Cloisters a try. I have to admit that I was fed and housed better than my parents could afford when I was in the Cloisters, and on the whole I had less work to do. I'm told now that children sometimes cry when they aren't taken, instead of crying when they are.'

'Ah,' Rubrik said, with a twitch of his lips. 'As we say in Valdemar, presenting the apple instead of the stick.'

'Precisely.' He finished off his portion of pie and took a long swallow of ale. 'The changes she made with the children and the novices were that they were to be allowed full contact with their families and annual leave to visit them if they wished, just as if they were recruits in the Army. But that all came later; it was part of the changes she made that were really restorations of the old ways.'

'The old ways...' Rubrik finished his own food thoughtfully. 'So, just how did she come to know all these 'old ways'? More visions?'

Karal laughed. 'Oh, no, not at all! She appointed a number of friends of hers among the former Black-robes to find them in the archives!'

'Don't tell me—' Rubrik said quickly, holding up his free hand. 'One of the places where she used to spend a lot of her free time was the archives, right? And I already know that she is a linguist and a scholar and can read all the oldest records for herself. So that was how she just happened to know that the 'old ways' weren't exactly the same as your current—what did you call it?'

'The Writ and Rule.' Karal shrugged. 'I don't know, but does it really matter? The point is that she knew that there was a record of the old ways in the archives, and everything we found confirmed or added to what she had already declared. Ulrich was one of the former Black-robes she assigned to the archives, and since I was his secretary, I worked beside him.'

The serving-girl came to clear away their empty plates, refill their cups, and bring them a dessert of fruit and cheese. Rubrik said nothing while she was there, and spent some time carefully cutting up an apple without continuing the conversation. 'None of this ever got to Valdemar,' he said at last. 'We only heard that there had been some disturbance, and that suddenly the ruler of Karse was a woman. Then we learned nothing at all for a year or two.' He looked up from his apple dissection, and cocked an eyebrow at Karal. 'Is there any connection between your Solaris and the other woman that called herself 'the Prophet of Vkandis' about ten or fifteen years ago? The one that decided she was going to be the head of your army and damn near got herself a big chunk of Menmellith?'

Karal shook his head. 'No—and in fact, that woman is the reason the original Crown of Prophecy went missing. It was lost with her when she vanished.'

No point in getting into that; the story was much too complicated. And if Rubrik did not know the part of