‘There was a war, I’m told,’ Althalus replied. ‘The way I understand it, back in those days the priesthood ruled all of Medyo and the surrounding lands. They got a little too greedy finally, and the army decided that the world might be a nicer place without so many priests, so they marched in to see if they could arrange that. The priests had an army of their own, and those two armies had some extended discussions in the streets of Awes.’
‘It must have been a long, long time ago. They’ve got full-grown trees standing in the streets over there.’
‘Althalus,’ Emmy’s voice murmured, ‘I need to talk with Eliar directly, so I’m going to borrow your voice. I think it might be easier if he’s holding me while we do this.’
‘Why’s that?’
‘Just do it, Althalus’, she replied. ‘Don’t keep asking silly questions.’
Althalus took her up and held her out to their youthful companion. ‘Here’, he said. ‘Emmy wants to talk to you. Hold her.’
Eliar put his hands behind his back. ‘I think I’d rather not’, he said.
‘You’d better get over that. Take her, Eliar.’
‘I don’t understand cat-talk, Althalus,’ Eliar protested, taking Emmy with obvious reluctance.
‘I’m sure she’ll make you understand.’
‘Get out of the way, Althalus,’ Emmy’s voice commanded. ‘Count trees or something. I’m going to be using your voice, so don’t interfere.’ Then Althalus heard his own voice saying, ‘Can you hear me, Eliar?’ His voice seemed lighter, and it had a higher pitch.
‘Of course I can hear you, Althalus’, Eliar replied. ‘You’re only a few feet away. Your voice sounds a little odd, though.’
‘I’m not Althalus, Eliar,’ the voice coming from Althalus’ lips said. ‘I’m just using his voice. Look at me, not at him.’
Eliar looked down at Emmy with astonishment.
Emmy wrinkled her nose. ‘You need a bath,’ she said.
‘I’ve been a little busy. Ma’am,’ the boy replied.
‘You can pet me, if you’d like,’ she suggested.
‘Yes, Ma’am.’ Eliar began to stroke her.
‘Not quite so hard.’
‘Sorry, Ma’am.’
‘He’s such a nice boy’, Emmy murmured in her borrowed voice. ‘All right, Eliar, listen to me very carefully. There’s a distinct chance that we’ll encounter enemies over there on the other side of the river. What do you do when you meet an enemy?’
‘Kill him, Ma’am.’
‘Exactly.’
‘Emmy!’ Althalus overrode her usurpation of his voice.
‘Stay out of this, Althalus. This is between the boy and me. Now then, Eliar, we’ll be meeting priests over there. I want you to show the Knife to every one of them we meet. Can you pretend to be stupid?’
Eliar made a rueful kind of face. ‘Ma’am,’ he said, ‘I’m a country boy from the highlands of Arum. We invented stupid.’
‘I’d really prefer it if you called me “Emmy”, Eliar; we don’t have to be so formal. This is the way I want you to do this: when we talk to a priest, put on your best Arum expression and hold the Knife out for him to see. Then you say, “Excuse me, yer priestship, but kin you tell me what’s wrote on this here Knife?”’
‘Probably not with a straight face, Emmy,’ Eliar said, laughing. ‘Is there really anybody in the whole world who’s that simple-minded?’
‘You’d be surprised, Eliar. Practice saying it until you can do it without coming down with the giggles. Now, most of the priests won’t be able to make any sense out of what’s written on the Knife. They’ll either admit that they can’t read it, or they’ll pretend to be too busy to take the time. The one we’re looking for will read it in exactly the same way you did when you read it, and the Knife will sing to you as soon as he reads it aloud.’
‘I sort of thought that was what was going to happen, Emmy. What’s this got to do with enemies, though?’
‘If you do happen to show the Knife to an enemy, he’ll scream and try to cover his eyes.’
‘Why?’
‘Because the sight of the Knife will hurt him – probably more than anything has hurt him in his entire life. As soon as somebody does that, drive the Knife right into his heart.’
‘All right, Emmy.’
‘No problems? No questions?’
‘No, Emmy, none at all. You’re in charge of things. If you tell me to do something, I’ll do it. Sergeant Khalor always told us that we’re supposed to obey orders immediately without asking any stupid questions, and your orders are really very simple. If somebody screams when I show him the Knife, he’ll be dead before the echo fades away.’
Emmy reached up one soft paw and stroked his cheek. ‘You’re such a good boy, Eliar,’ she purred.
‘Thank you, Emmy. I try my best.’
‘I hope you’ve been listening very carefully, Althalus. Maybe you should have taken some notes for future reference. It saves so much time when people know how to follow orders without all the endless discussion I get from some people I know.’
‘Can I have my voice back now?’
‘Yes, pet, you may. I’m done with it – at least for right now. I’ll let you know when I need it again.’
The barge took them across the west fork of the River Medyo, and they rode on into the ruins of the city. The priests who lived there wore cowled robes, for the most part, and they had built crude hovels among the ruins. There were some noticeable differences between the various groups of priests. Those who lived in the northern part of the ruins wore black robes, the ones in central Awes were robed in white, and the ones closest to the river fork wore brown. Althalus noted that they tended not to talk to each other very much – except to argue.
‘No, you’ve got it all wrong,’ a black-robed priest from the northern end of town was saying to a fat priest in a white robe. ‘The Wolf was in the ninth house when that happened, not the tenth.’
‘My charts don’t lie,’ the chubby priest replied hotly. ‘The sun had moved to the fourth house by then, and that definitely moved the Wolf to the tenth.’
‘What are they talking about?’ Althalus silently demanded of Emmy.
‘Astrology. It’s one of the cornerstones of religion.’
‘Which religion?’
‘Most of them, actually. Religion’s based on a desire to know what’s going to happen in the future. Astrologers believe that the stars control that.’
‘Are they right?’
‘Why would the stars care what happens here? Besides, most of the stars the priests argue about don’t actually exist any more.’
