Wind Rider's Oath

couldn't, They'd have finished off the other side twelve hundred years ago. What bothers me this time around is how many balls They expect us to keep in the air simultaneously. If it all works-or even if only half of it works-the results will be all They could hope for. But the more complex the plan, the more opportunities there are for things to go wrong, too. All I'm saying is that, speaking as the person responsible for making it all fit together at the critical moment, I wish They could have kept things a bit simpler.'

'All you have to do is follow orders,' Sholdan protested, and Varnaythus snorted.

'If that were all I was required to do, They wouldn't need me here at all, Jerghar! But They do need me, because someone has to adjust when bits and pieces of the master plan go to your Lady's Seventh Hell in a handbasket! All I have to say is that it's a good thing the other side can make mistakes, too. Especially this time around.'

A fine sheen of perspiration dewed Sholdan's forehead. He seemed genuinely horrified by the wizard's attitude.

'If you offend Her-or any of the rest of Them!-Varnaythus, no power on earth-' he began, and Varnaythus laughed.

'I don't intend to offend anyone-certainly not any of Them! But They picked me to oversee this operation- all of this operation-because I'm not afraid to use my brain. They need someone who's willing to remember there are at least two sides in any war, and that the other sides work just as hard at beating you as you do at beating them. And do you really think for a moment that Their counterparts are unaware of what They're doing?'

'Well, of course they know She and the others are working against them. But if they really knew all we're doing, surely they would have acted directly against us by now.'

'You do have a brain, don't you, Jerghar?' Varnaythus asked. The banker swelled with anger, but Varnaythus continued calmly. 'I've always assumed you must, because without one, you couldn't be as successful at amassing wealth as you've been, even allowing for all the business your Lady's church throws your way. But when you say something like that, I find myself questioning my basic assumptions. Perhaps it has something to do with your diet.'

'And just what do you mean by that?' Sholdan demanded.

'By what? You mean the bit about your diet?' The wizard's smile was deadly, and Sholdan shook his head sharply.

'Not that!' he snapped. 'The rest of it. What did you mean by the rest of it?'

'I meant that you have a dazzling ability to overlook the obvious when reality isn't to your liking.' Varnaythus shook his head. 'Both sides are limited in what they can do,' he continued in an elaborately patient voice. 'Not even They dare to intervene directly and personally very often, and the other side chooses to do it even less frequently. Which-we might as well be honest here, since it's just us plotters-is a very good thing for Them, since the other side is more powerful than They are.'

Sholdan's eyes darted around the inn room with more than a hint of true panic. Salgahn, on the other hand, looked faintly amused.

'Oh, calm down, Jerghar,' Varnaythus said wearily. 'Of course the other side is more powerful! Not only individually, but in numbers, as well. But what of it? How powerful one god or another may be is really immaterial to us mortals.' Sholdan goggled at him, and he snorted. 'Any god could evaporate any one of us with a thought, if he or she decided to,' he pointed out acerbically. 'Does it really matter if one of them decides to turn us into purple vapor, instead of orange vapor?'

'B-b-b-but-' Sholdan stuttered.

'The point is,' Varnaythus said, 'that even the weakest god is so much more powerful than any mortal that any differences of power between deities aren't particularly significant. The fact that Tomanak, say,' he watched Sholdan flinch physically at his offhand use of that hated name, 'is individually more powerful than any one of Them doesn't matter a solitary damn to you, me, or any other mortal. There's only so much power any deity can apply to the physical universe without smashing the whole thing, which would defeat his own purpose, and either side is perfectly capable of doing that if they get too openly involved. That's why both of them need agents in the first place, to avoid the escalation of direct confrontations that could get out of hand. You know that.'

'But-' Sholdan tried again.

'Oh, give it a rest, Jerghar!' Salgahn interjected. 'And you stop needling him, Varnaythus!' Both of the others looked at him, and the assassin shrugged. 'We can debate about agents, direct divine intervention, and the destruction of the world some other time,' he said impatiently. 'What matters right now is that the gods on the other side have chosen to restrict their direct intervention, that they believe in free will, and, unlike certain gods on our side,' he carefully named no names, 'that they expect their agents to think for themselves. And, as Varnaythus says, Jerghar, even if they wanted to lead someone like Bahzell around by the hand all day long, they can make mistakes, too.'

'Salgahn's right, Jerghar,' Varnaythus said. 'I shouldn't try to goad you that way. But if you want confirmation that the other side isn't whispering the details of all of Their plans into their precious champions' ears-or anyone else's-look at what happened to the coursers. Do you think that precious stallion would have let any of his herd stay behind over the winter if he'd realized my Lady was influencing their minds? Or do you honestly believe the Sothoii would have allowed an entire herd of their precious coursers to walk right into destruction if they'd known what was about to happen?'

'Well, no,' Sholdan said.

'Neither do I. And while I'm about it, I might as well acknowledge that your Lady and Her servants succeeded brilliantly in that particular phase of the operation.'

'It would have been better if the shardohns had gotten them all,' Sholdan grumbled, but Varnaythus shook his head.

'No. It's much better this way-someone had to get home to tell the Sothoii what happened. You'll get all the rest of them in time, if the plan works properly, but for now those poor, pathetic survivors are bound to arouse every protective instinct the Sothoii have. And if there hadn't been any survivors at all, how could we have goaded them into responding?'

'I can see that,' Salgahn said. 'On the other hand, it was Tellian who was supposed to be sucked in, not Bahzell.'

'Yes,' Sholdan said. 'No one suggested we'd have to deal with a champion of Tomanak!' There wasn't much question that in this case the 'we' meant Jerghar Sholdan and his coreligionists, not Varnaythus and Salgahn or any of their associates.

'The possibility was always there,' Varnaythus pointed out, his tone less cutting but still a bit impatient. 'Ideally, Tellian would have taken his men out himself and been destroyed, of course. But there was always the chance-the distinct probability, really-that Bahzell would insist on accompanying him. It's what those interfering busybodies of Tomanak's do.' He shrugged. 'If the plan is sound and it's executed properly, it should be capable of dealing with 'Prince Bahzell.' And even if we don't manage to destroy him, we may manage to kill Brandark. That wouldn't be as good as getting Bahzell, of course, but it's almost as good as getting Tellian.'

'I wish They'd tell us why it's so damned important to kill two damned hradani,' Salgahn muttered. 'Tellian, I can understand. For that matter, Bahzell makes sense. But why Brandark? He's no prince or champion!'

'I'm sure we'll find out someday, if we don't manage to kill him,' Varnaythus said dryly. 'Always assuming we survive not killing him in the first place. Which, just between the three of us, is another reason I'm perfectly happy to see Bahzell and Brandark riding off towards Warm Springs without us. I'm just upset because Tellian isn't with them.'

'And because you don't know what else Cassan might be up to that could disorder our plans,' Salgahn put in.

'And because of that,' Varnaythus admitted.

'I'll have my people in Toramos see what they can find out,' the assassin said. 'I know your contacts with Cassan are probably better than mine, but I've got more sets of eyes and ears than you do.'

'Good!' Varnaythus grunted. 'I'll do what I can, as well, but there are too many magi in Toramos for comfort. Cassan may be more than a bit irrational on the subject, but they really do constitute a threat-to us, at least, if not to him. If you want real honesty, that's the main reason I haven't done more scrying, Jerghar,' he admitted. 'If I