Pug spoke. ‘Those who serve him often have no idea on whose behalf they labor. They have need to do things, but no reason.’
Dominic said, ‘The other gods gave to my order the Tear of the Gods. It is why we have any power at all. All clerical magic is prayers answered, but with Ishap dead, we have no one to answer our prayers.’
‘So every one hundred years, this mystic gem is born, in a cave high in the mountains,’ said Pug, ‘and it is transported to Rillanon, where it is placed in the inner sanctum of the Temple of Ishap.’
Dominic said, ‘It is there so we may speak to the other gods, and so we may work magic and do good works, and cause men to come to the worship of Ishap so that someday he will return to us and restore the balance.’
‘But until then,’ said Macros, ‘we have a problem.’ Miranda said, ‘That’s one way of putting it. Let me try another: the Valheru, the demons, the wars and destruction, all are tiny diversionary tactics by a Mad God who is so powerful that the other Greater Gods and Lesser Gods combined can’t destroy him, so it’s up to us to face him?’ Macros said, ‘Something like that.’ Miranda could only sit in stunned silence.
TEN - Dedication
Miranda yawned.
After trie initial shock of the enormity of the task before them wore off, boredom set in. Macros, Pug, and Dominic had resolved not to leave the Garden of the City Forever until a plan of some sort had been worked out.
They had spoken for hours, or at least Miranda had gotten hungry a couple of times, and had napped once. The only person who had seemed completely enthralled by the experience was Nakor.
The little man was sitting on a bench and seemed lost in thought when Miranda approached him with an armful of pears. ‘Want one?’ she asked.
He grinned as he nodded and took one. ‘My orange trick still works, if you want one of those.’
‘Thanks, maybe later.’ Then she said, ‘But how does it still work?’
‘I don’t know,’ he said with a perplexed smile. ‘Maybe the stuff I’m moving around doesn’t care where I am.’
‘But we’re nowhere.’
‘No,’ Nakor disagreed. ‘We’re somewhere, we just don’t have any idea of where.’
‘Or a frame of reference,’ she added.
‘Yes, you do understand.’
‘You seem impossibly cheerful for someone who has just been told he’s got to go fight a god.’
Nakor shook his head as pear juice ran down his chin. ‘No, not yet. And I don’t think ever, maybe. We need to find a way to defeat his plans, not him. If four Greater Gods can’t destroy this one, then who are we? Besides, the plan is already in place, we just have to realize what it is.’
‘I’m not sure I understand.’
He stood up and said, ‘Come along, I’ll explain.’
He led her to where Pug, Macros, and Dominic sat, under a large tree of alien foliage, and said, ‘How are you doing?’
Pug said, ‘We’ve restated the problem many times, but we seem without a hint of what to do next.’
‘That’s easy,’ said Nakor.
Macros’s eyebrows raised. ‘Oh, really? Care to share this insight with us?’
Nakor nodded and in a single motion sat cross-legged on the ground. ‘We have to fix what’s broken.’
Dominic said, ‘That is what the Order of Ishap has been doing.’
‘I know,’ said Nakor. ‘I mean all of it. Look, you’ve got to take some time to bring back the dead god. That’s not an easy thing to do.’
The old Abbot’s eyes narrowed. ‘Thank you for understanding,’ he said dryly.
‘But there’s a lot of mischief that’s gone on since this all began, that we need to do something about now!’ said Nakor.
‘Such as?’ asked Pug.
‘Well, one thing,’ answered Nakor, ‘we have those demons. We can’t have them running around. They cause much too much trouble. Even the little ones can be very dangerous.’
‘I remember when Murmandamus’s magicians gated in some flying demons years ago, before the Great Uprising was crushed. That should have alerted me that something was amiss. I mistook it for a common spell of summoning,’ admitted Pug.
‘We can spend a lifetime in regrets,’ said Macros, ‘if we let ourselves.’ He looked at his daughter, who returned his scrutiny with a natural expression.
‘Yes,’ said Nakor. ‘Regrets are foolish. Now, your other question. As for putting things right, that’s simple. We defeat the Emerald Queen, get this invading army turned around and headed home, kill all the Pantathians who are left alive - because we can’t change their nature - and make sure no one gets to the Lifestone. Oh, and chase all the demons back to their own realm.’
‘Is that all?’ Miranda said sarcastically, with mock wide-eyed wonder.
Dominic said, ‘Nakor, you pose very interesting questions, intriguing solutions, but little advice on how to go about reaching those solutions.’
‘That’s easy,’ said Nakor. ‘We have to go plug up the hole.’
‘What hole?’ asked Macros.