“No,” said Roo. He looked at Dash, who shrugged.
“You have to see this,” said Nakor, setting off without bothering to see who was following.
Roo looked at Dash, who said, “We’d better see what this is all about.”
They hurried after Nakor, so as not to lose sight of him, and the little man walked briskly through the city, all the way to the eastern gate, the one which opened on the King’s Highway.
By the time they got to this destination, Roo was almost out of breath. “We should have ridden.”
“I don’t have a horse,” said Nakor. “I had a horse once, a beautiful black stallion, but he died. That’s when I was Nakor the Blue Rider.”
Dash said, “What did you want to show us?”
“That,” said Nakor, pointing to the statue he had erected a week earlier.
A dozen people were gathered before the statue looking and gesturing.
Dash and Roo left the road and moved to where they could see what the travelers were looking at. Roo asked, “What is that?”
Down the face of the statue, two red streaks could be seen below the eyes, marring the otherwise perfect face.
Dash pushed his way past the onlookers, and said, “It looks like blood!”
“It is,” said Nakor. “The statue of the Lady is crying blood.”
Roo hurried over and said, “It’s a trick, right?”
“No!” said Nakor. “I wouldn’t stoop to cheap tricks, at least not where the Lady is concerned. She’s the Goddess of Good, and . . . well, I just wouldn’t.”
“All right,” said Dash. “I’ll take your word for that, but what’s causing this?”
“I don’t know,” said Nakor, “but that’s nothing. You’ve got to see the other thing.”
He hurried off again. Dash and Roo exchanged glances, and Dash said, “I can’t wait to see what this other thing is.”
Again they followed the hurrying little man. Once more they entered the city gates, crossed through the eastern quarter of the city and back across the city toward the market. Only this time, they skirted the market to the south and headed over toward Temple Square.
Roo was laughing as he struggled to keep up with Nakor. “Why couldn’t he have two marvels across the street from one another?”
Dash said, “I have no idea.”
They reached the empty lot between the Temples of Lims-Kragma and Guis-wa. Clerics from several other temples were gathered nearby, peering at the crowd gathered before a tent that was erected there.
Where Nakor had found the tent, Dash had no idea. One day it wasn’t there, the next day it was—a huge pavilion with enough room under it to comfortably accommodate a couple of hundred people.
Dash firmly shoved his way through the crowd. Some people began to object until they saw the red armband. When they got to the entrance, Nakor and Roo a step behind, Dash stopped, and his mouth fell open.
“Gods,” said Roo.
Directly before them, his back toward them, in a meditative position, sat Sho Pi and a half dozen other acolytes of this new temple. In the center of the tent was the young woman, Aleta. Only she was neither standing nor sitting. She was in a position identical to Sho Pi’s: legs crossed, hands in her lap. And she was bathed in a nimbus of pure white light which seemed to emanate from within her, suffusing the tent with light. But she floated six feet above the ground.
Roo put his hand on Nakor’s shoulder, and said, “I’ll give you a ship.”
Dash whispered, “Why my great-grandfather? Why not ask the other temple clerics?”
“Because of that,” said Nakor.
Directly below the woman something hovered. Dash and Roo hadn’t noticed it when they first entered, because of the startling sight of the young woman afloat. But now they could see there was a blackness hanging in the air, a cloud of something vile and terrifying. A clear certainty struck both Dash and Roo at the same time: the light from the young woman was confining that black presence, keeping it penned up.
“What is it?” whispered Dash.
Nakor said, “Something very bad. Something I didn’t think I would see in my lifetime. And it’s something Pug must know about as soon as possible. The temple clerics will know about it soon enough, and they have an important part, but Pug must know about this.” He looked Dash in the eyes. “He must know soon.”
Roo grabbed Nakor by the arm. “I’ll take you out to Fishtown myself, right now. I’ll put you aboard a ship and you just tell the Captain where you want to go.”
“Thank you.” To Sho Pi, Nakor shouted, “Take care of things. And tell Dominic he’s in charge until I get back.”
If Sho Pi heard Nakor, he said nothing. As they left the tent, Roo said, “I didn’t think you went anywhere without Sho Pi going with you.”
Nakor gave a slight shrug. “That used to be true. But I am no longer his master.”
Roo dodged along the street. “When did that happen?”
Using his walking stick to point over his shoulder, Nakor said, “When she started floating in the air a couple of hours ago.”