"I'll be checking that."
"It's true that the tanner has disappeared," Stoll put in. "His whole family were just gone one morning."
Gabriella thought about this. "A strange thing, especially if he was indeed involved in seducing people to either Dreamweed or the Divine Path."
The prisoner was nodding eagerly. "He just went. No word to the Brothers. No word to the…"
"Needy?"
"And, if it means anything to you, there were some real heretics in town: the Church of Syrall."
"Never heard of it."
Stoll spat. "Syrall was some hermit from the Sardenne a hundred years ago. He preached that the Lord of All was really the Lord of Nothing and just a myth to hide people's true natures from themselves."
Gabriella felt sick at the thought. Anyone who looked at Kerberos could see the Lord for themselves.
"Well, they were certainly no friends of the Brotherhood." The prisoner said. "They had a place in a waggoner's shed next to the bakery. They disappeared too, before we could finish them off."
The news didn't surprise Gabriella. The Brotherhood and the Faith did worship the same God, after all. An attack on that God was an attack on both factions.
"All right…" She turned to Stoll. "You can hear his confession in private. We'll check out the tannery and this Church of Syrall thing. Then perhaps one of us should have a chat with Warrigan."
"Perhaps I can help you with that?" Stoll suggested. "He and I do know each other a little. It won't seem odd if I say hello and ask how he's doing."
"Good enough," Erak said happily. "Between the three of us, we should get our answers quickly enough."
Gabriella couldn't help but agree. The Lord was with them and it showed.
"Enlightened One," she said quietly, out of the prisoner's hearing. "Find out if he knows the location of the Golden Huntress. It's supposed to be a source of Dreamweed as well as fallen women, so if he's been in need of a new source since the tanner left…"
"I'll do my best," Stoll promised.
The Brotherhood man's information about the old tanner's Dreamweed den had been correct. Gabriella and Erak had broken into the old tannery and found that it hadn't been used for some time. Thick dust coated the floor and here were footprints, other than their own.
"This place hasn't been used for months," Erak said.
"No… Come on." The pair paused to judge which of the nearest houses to approach and began knocking on doors and asking about the old tannery. It wasn't long before they found an answer. A sad-looking woman with lank hair said she had known about the immorality there, though obviously she had never been inside, being female.
"My brother used to go there," the woman admitted. "But I haven't seen him in a couple of months."
This was unusual. In rural communities, few people tended to move around much unless they joined a mercenary band. People grew from their roots and those roots tended to remain planted in the same fields.
"You have no idea at all, where he went?"
"Only what I heard one of his friends say. Then he disappeared as well."
Gabriella gave her a sympathetic look. "Tell me what you've heard."
"He said he was going to his freedom. Somewhere there was no Final Faith."
"Freiport?" Erak said.
"Not according to Joca. He said he was going to a place far from the Final Faith. I think that he said it was south of here."
"Now I know he was dreaming."
The woman looked offended. "He wasn't dreaming. He had a map to where he was going. He called it his map to freedom, and it was definitely south."
"Do you still have a copy of this map or did you ever see it?" The woman hesitated and Gabriella knew her answer. "What did it show?"
"I don't remember many details."
Something that the woman had said did strike a chord with Gabriella, though. She had heard the word 'freedom' used as though it referred to more than just the usual concept once before.
"Did Joca know a man called Scarra? Karel Scarra?" Gabriella asked.
"Not that I know of. If he did, he never mentioned him to me."
"Goran Kell?" The woman shook her head again and Gabriella thought hard. What was that rank that the Brotherhood had given to Kell? "Did he ever mention a Bishop?"
"Yes," the woman said, sounding surprised. "He did once say something about a Bishop getting him his freedom."
Gabriella knew that the woman deserved some punishment for having known about the Brotherhood and their Dreamweed den and not reporting them, but she had clearly suffered enough. She needed the Faith's help to help herself.
"Will you do something for me?" she asked. The woman nodded. "Recite the Prayer of Atonement each day, from the next Tenthday until the one after." The woman nodded again, more gratefully this time and Gabriella knew without a shadow of a doubt that she would do just as she had been told.
The Church of Syrall in the old waggoner's shed had a strange octagonal altar and a portrait of an old man on the wall.
The Church was deserted and had been for some time. A few fragments of rotted scrolls lay in the corners. Gabriella wasn't sure whether to be happy about that, or troubled.
"All gone."
"Could they have been warned that we were coming?"
Gabriella laughed mirthlessly, and used a fingertip to draw a line in the thick dust. "Dust and decay, Erak. Nobody has been in this place in weeks. Not running from us," she said to herself, "but just disappeared into thin air."
"Could it be true, what that woman said?"
Gabriella looked sceptical. "A land to the south bereft of the Faith? I suppose if it was a Brotherhood stronghold, perhaps… But here's a thing. Joca mentioned a Bishop to his sister. A Bishop holds the same rank in the Brotherhood as an Eminence does for us. He would be the highest ranking man in a particular area."
"This area, in Kell's case."
"Exactly. So the Bishop for here is Kell, and Scarra said Kell had gone to Freedom. If it's an actual place, it must be south of here?"
Erak nodded thoughtfully. "We still need to find the Golden Huntress. Even if Kell's not there and its not this Freedom place, there must a link onwards from there."
They walked back to the church. While Erak went through to see how Stoll was getting on with the prisoner and to keep the Enlightened One informed with what they'd learned, Gabriella went into the vestry and looked for the copy of her map to Warrigan's place. There was no sign of it, though she distinctly remembered putting it down on the table before.
"Gabe!" Erak burst into the vestry with a shout. He had drawn his sword, and Gabriella drew hers instinctively, before even asking what the threat was.
"What is it?"
"Where's Stoll?"
"Isn't he with the prisoner?"
"See for yourself."
They went into the cloister where the door of the cell was hanging open. Gabriella looked inside and was shocked to see that it was completely empty. There was no sign of either the prisoner or Stoll. "He must have sobered up quicker than we expected."
"Or was faking it," Erak suggested grimly. "Not every man responds to alcohol the same way."
"He might have taken Stoll. Perhaps as a bargaining chip," And then she was running through the church.
"Enlightened One!" She called out. A couple of altar boys looked round. "Have any of you seen Enlightened One Stoll?"
"He left about half an hour ago," one of the boys said.
"Who was with him?"
The children looked at each other then back at her. "No-one."
"Did he say where he was going?" Erak asked.
"No."
"Damn!" Gabriella ran the length of the church and took the steps down to the plaza in one jump. Erak followed, as she ran round to the stables and threw a saddle onto a horse. "Taken Stoll, my arse, Erak!" She threw a saddle to him.