"Kill her!" Peren and the Oberls howled.
"You would leave her alive to lead others into blas shy;phemy?"
"Kill her!"
"The Seeker gods watch you now, people of Garlund, to see if you will prove your faith. Do you love the New Gods, villagers of Garlund? Do you fear them, adore them?"
The people screamed and shouted. They danced, leap shy;ing into the night air as though ecstacy forced them to take vigorous action or die.
"Kill the sinner!" Hederick shouted. He swept his hand toward Venessi. She struggled against the women who held her, then cowered as strong, determined hands twisted her arms and vicious fingers pinched and pulled at her.
"Let not such an evildoer remain alive to infect you and your children. Kill her!"
With a roar, the crowd fell upon Venessi, drowning out her screams with their cries of righteous rage. Hederick caught one last glimpse of his mother's terrified face, then she was swept under clawlike hands and booted feet like a leaf in a whirlwind.
At length, the people drew back. Some looked bewil shy;dered, as though they had awakened only that moment to find Venessi inexplicably trampled and beaten to death on the ground before them.
"People of Garlund." Hederick held the dragon aloft and offered another silent prayer to Sauvay. "See what you have done," he remonstrated quietly. "This dear woman lived only for you. She risked her life bringing you out of the decay of Caergoth to the richness of these plains. Venessi gave up her beloved husband for you because he had sinned and no longer could set the exam shy;ple she knew you needed. She sent her daughter away for the same reason: to keep you safe. It was through her actions that you, the people of Garlund, came to the altar of the New Gods. She tried her utmost to warn you about the false priest, yet you have so little love in your hearts that you…"
Hederick sighed, gesturing at the body. He clasped the dragon so tightly that the diamonds cut his hand; tears welled in his eyes. He let a few drops spill onto his cheeks. "She was my mother, never forget." He forced more tears to flow, and several villagers began to cry. All avoided looking at Venessi's dead body.
"This is murder," Hederick whispered, so piercingly that all could hear him. "You have sinned, people of Gar shy;lund. You know such a heinous act cannot be expiated by prayer and fasting, or by sacrifices and gifts to the gods and their priests. There is only one punishment for such a crime.
"Willad, Jerad, Peren, attend me." The three men straightened as if hypnotized. "I order you, in the name of Sauvay, god of power and vengeance, to execute the sin shy;ners of this village." To the villagers, Hederick said, "I order you, in the name of Sauvay and the Seeker pan shy;theons, to accept your just punishment."
The villagers stood, sheeplike, awaiting their fate. Hed shy;erick rejoiced inwardly to Sauvay.
The three men set silently to work. Not one villager ran or struggled. The Oberl brothers and Peren Volen stran shy;gled the life's breath out of each. Frideline Bacque, who'd worked so hard to attract Peren Volen, did not even blink when he killed her.
When there were but the three men left, Hederick ordered Peren to slay the Oberls. Then, at Hederick's com shy;mand, Peren Volen walked obediently down to the river and drowned himself, and the people of Garlund were no more.
Soon Hederick had the Oberls' best horse harnessed to the wagon. A short time later, the back of the vehicle was piled with items for his travels. Then he set fire to Gar-lund.
"Fire purifies," he murmured, reveling in the heat and cleansing power of the blaze. Once again flames lit Heder-ick's way as he left a place of sin. Soon he and the horse and wagon were miles away, and the sun had begun to rise.
"Think of the converts I can bring to the Seekers, and to Sauvay!" he whispered to himself. He wrapped the dragon figurine in a scrap of leather, tied a thong to it, and slipped it around his neck, inside his shirt.
Hederick faced the world alone, but he knew a god watched over him.
* * * * *
For more than three decades Hederick traveled the lands, a wandering Seeker priest, bringing the words of the New Gods to the people. The Praxis, his constant com shy;panion, served as both inspiration and confirmation that his purpose was preordained by the gods themselves. As he grew older and more experienced in the ways of the world and its peoples, his gift of oratory grew accord shy;ingly. Soon he was able to assess a crowd in moments and know how best to handle it. Some needed fire and brim shy;stone, some only gentle persuasion.
And just as he made good use of his gift for speaking, he made use, also, of the sleight-of-hand tricks that Tarscenian had taught him so many years ago.
Fame followed him. Hederick, the holy man of the north, converted hundreds of thousands of people to the New Gods.
The devout cheered as Hederick entered their towns. He always took care to hold the Diamond Dragon against his palm as he entered a village. Time and again, townspeople vied to offer him lodging for as long as he wanted it, presented him with fine clothes, and fed him the very best their tables had to offer. He lived well-as was proper for a prophet of the gods. He was the favored of Sauvay, after all.
Always, upon arrival in a new location, Hederick was careful to ferret out the irretrievable sinners. The Dia shy;mond Dragon, macaba root, and Sauvay helped him ease them out of this world. They were poor and rich, of low status and high, men and women, young and old.
No one stood above Seeker doctrine.
Finally, when Hederick was well into middle age, Sauvay sent the Highseeker Elistan to persuade him to come to Haven to join the main body of Seekers. Elistan seemed to have no awareness of Sauvay's hand in his mis shy;sion-a sign, to Hederick, that much of the recognition Elistan had received was undeserved. Elistan told Heder shy;ick what the wandering priest already knew-that the Highseekers Council in Haven had need of his powers of oratory.
The pious and crafty Hederick rose quickly in the Seeker hierarchy. He knew Seeker law well. It was a simple matter for him to have superiors removed for transgressions that few others had detected. Those few who were impervious to slander or blackmail succumbed readily to the poison of the macaba root.
Through all of this, Hederick basked in the approval of Sauvay.
* * * * *
"There," Eban said, dumping the huge scroll on the desk in the Great Library. Olven sat at the desk, quill pen in hand, before an empty piece of parchment. "I've done my part, and in only half a day! Hederick s background"-Eban lovingly patted the curl of paper-"all set down here in black and white. I could have gone on twice as long as I did. Oh, you should see the scrolls back there, you two! And the bound parchments. By the gods!" Eban whistled. "More books than I've seen in my life, all together in one room. It's absolutely amaz… Why, what's the matter?"
Olven was looking sourly at the red-haired youth. Marya, leaning against a bookshelf, also scowled.
"Your youthful enthusiasm is wonderful, child," she said sar shy;castically, "but we seem to have a problem."
"We?" Eban echoed. "Me, too?"
"We're in this together," she reminded him in a surly tone. "Loot"
Eban followed her gesture and finally took in the empty parchment before the luckless Olven. "Nothing?" Eban cried, prompting a duet of "shhhh" from his fellow apprentices. He dropped his voice to a whisper. "You two have been here for four hours, and you haven't written a thing? Not a word? What have you been doing?"
"Well, I sharpened all the quills," Olven muttered.
"And I went for an extra supply of ink," Marya added mul-ishly. "We didn't have the luxury of writing down things that are already well in the past and skillfully recorded. We three have all done countless research papers, Eban; anyone can do that. Olven and I were in charge of writing the present-and the present as it occurs nowhere near Palanthas. That's consid shy;erably harder, I'd say." She sniffed.