Now, this was interesting.
“Tell me more.”
“I was only able to catch a few glimpses of the incriminating scrolls, but from what I could gather, the Lord of Light allied himself with one of the old gods, a traitor, in order to crush the rest of the old gods.”
“Which old god?”
“I do not know; I did not get to read that far.”
“A pity,” I said. “I’m sure many of the old gods, those who are left alive—barely alive, from everything I’ve seen—would love to get their hands on the traitor who did this. And if I’m able to resurrect a few more of them and find out who the traitor god was, I can make that happen.”
“It will require more investigation, but, unfortunately, since my desertion from the Splendorous Army—which happened right after I stole the map, before they realized that it was I who stole it—I am now a highly wanted criminal in Luminescent Spires and anywhere else where the Church of Light holds power. I’ll never be able to gain access to the treasury again.”
“Oh, I’m sure I could work out a way to get my grubby little fingers in there once I’ve taken care of my own business,” I said. “Tell me, when you deserted, why didn’t the Splendorous Army come after you? I mean, you committed two very serious crimes—well, serious in the eyes of those assholes anyway—so why did they just allow you get away unpunished?”
“That is a question I do not know the answer to,” Rollar admitted. “The first night after my desertion, I prepared for battle. My scouts had seen a column of the Splendorous Army pursuing us, you see. However, for some reason, that night, the army column simply turned around and left. For what reason I have no idea. I can only speculate that the Lord of Light called them back because he had more important things to deal with than the disciplining of a few deserters. This was about the time, I might add, that rumors of Bishop Nabu’s blood sacrifices began to reach my ears.”
“You think the Lord of Light recalling his army had something to do with that? With the Blood God, maybe?”
“It is possible. But we cannot know for sure, not yet, not without a lot more information.”
“That’s true. Well, with this map you’ve got, what was your next temple going to be after Kroth?”
“There are no more temples between here and Brakith,” he said, “so I was planning on taking my troops over to Brakith afterward, to see if there was any way we could get into your uncle’s vaults. From everything I’ve learned in recent times, it seems that he has a more extensive collection of artifacts of the old gods than almost anyone else in Prand.”
“How the hell did you think you would get into his vaults with this ragtag bunch of troops?” I asked. “No offense, they’re decent enough soldiers, but you don’t have nearly enough of them to pit against the kind of army my asshole uncle is able to field.”
Rollar stared at the ground, looking sheepish. “I didn’t really have much of a plan,” he admitted. “I was just going to journey to Brakith and hope that fate intervened somewhere along the way. And it has! I ran into you, and now look where I am. With you and your forces joined with mine, we are sure to be able to get into Brakith. It will be a bloody and costly battle for us, I know, but I believe that with the right strategy, we can prevail, and—”
“We could,” I interrupted, “but I don’t want to wage war on my own town. Innocent townsfolk caught in the crossfire wouldn’t exactly do wonders for my reputation there, which is one of the main things I’m hoping to get back. No, I want to use a more subtle way to get in, and I want to–need to–capture my uncle alive, so that he can confess before the entire town his lies and explain to everyone how he made it all up to steal the lordship from me.”
“A reputation is a delicate thing, easily damaged and difficult to repair. And, from what you’ve told me, you must have your uncle’s confession in order to repair your reputation. Well, I will help in what ways I can to get you into the city in a stealthy manner. Hmm, come to think of it, there’s an item that would be most useful for this purpose, if we can somehow find it. The rumors I’ve heard state that it was last seen in Brakith, in fact.”
“What item is that?”
“The Beauty Mirror, a magic mirror once owned by Lucielle, the Charm Goddess. With the power of the Beauty Mirror, the user is able to trick people into thinking that they—the user—are someone else. Your own mother could be talking to you, face to face, and if she were using the Beauty Mirror, you wouldn’t know her from a bar of soap.”
“That sounds like a useful object for my purposes.”
“Let us hope we can find it then.”
I wondered what Isu knew about a traitor god allying with the Lord of Light to vanquish the old gods and whether she’d heard of Lucielle’s Beauty Mirror. Actually, I figured she knew all about the betrayal of the old gods—I mean, she had to—but the question was, of course, how much she was willing to divulge. I thought it might be a better idea to ask her about the Beauty Mirror first, since she would be likely enough to open up about that.
“Rollar, you go on ahead for a while,” I said. “I need to have a few words with Isu.”
“Will do, Vance.”
Rollar kicked his bear’s furry flanks, and the huge beast jogged on ahead, while I ordered Fang to slow down a little and beckoned to Isu to come ride next to
