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“Do you think he kept us in the dark because he’s begun to distrust us?” Salgahn asked.
“I think he kept us in the dark because he doesn’t want his own shadow to know what he’s doing, much less anyone else,” Varnaythus snorted. “Which, to be fair, doesn’t make him so very different from us. And he did at least warn me he’d taken measures to ’distract’ Tellian.” The wizard twitched his shoulders in another shrug, his smile tart as alum. “He probably wouldn’t have given me any specifics, whatever he expected, but I doubt very much that he anticipated a result quite this … spectacular. After all, who would have expected the girl to bolt this way?”
“I can see that,” Salgahn said thoughtfully. “On the other hand, I wonder what else he’s working on that he hasn’t bothered to mention to us?”
“He’s operating exactly the same way we are,” Varnaythus replied. “We’re certainly not going to tell him what we actually have in mind, are we?” He took one hand from behind him and waved it in a dismissive gesture. “Our whole object, where he’s concerned, is to keep him convinced he’s the prime mover and that he’s simply using our services. I’m sure he’s intelligent enough to assume we have ends of our own in mind, however, and that means he’s not stupid enough to trust us. So he’ll tell us just enough about his plans to make us useful to him … just as we’re doing where he’s concerned. Of course, however much he may distrust us, it’s probably never occurred to him that we intend to destabilize the entire Kingdom and let him take the blame for it.”
“I’m sure it hasn’t,” Sholdan agreed, working his way back into the conversation. “After all, he’s a baron, and he doesn’t know who we’re really working for. He sees us only as tools, not anyone who could seriously threaten someone as powerful as he is.”
“Which is why They wanted him brought into this in the first place,” Varnaythus said. “I only wish I felt more confident that They aren’t overreaching.”
“Of course They aren’t!” Sholdan stared at him, eyes wide in shock. Salgahn seemed much less appalled by Varnaythus’ temerity, but dog brothers weren’t especially noted for piety even where their own patron, Sharna , was concerned.
“Oh, don’t be an old woman, Jerghar!” Varnaythus snapped. “Of course They can make mistakes! If They couldn’t, They’d have finished off the other side twelve hundred years ago. What bothers me this time around is how many balls They expect us to keep in the air simultaneously. If it all works—or even if only half of it works—the results will be all They could hope for. But the more complex the plan, the more opportunities there are for things to go wrong, too. All I’m saying is that, speaking as the person responsible for making it all fit together at the critical moment, I wish They could have kept things a bit simpler.”
“All you have to do is follow orders,” Sholdan protested, and Varnaythus snorted.
“If that were all I was required to do, They wouldn’t need me here at all, Jerghar! But They do need me, because someone has to adjust when bits and pieces of the master plan go to your Lady’s Seventh Hell in a handbasket! All I have to say is that it’s a good thing the other side can make mistakes, too. Especially this time around.”
A fine sheen of perspiration dewed Sholdan’s forehead. He seemed genuinely horrified by the wizard’s attitude.
“If you offend Her—or any of the rest of Them!—Varnaythus, no power on earth—” he began, and Varnaythus laughed.
“I don’t intend to offend anyone—certainly not any of Them! But They picked me to oversee this operation—all of this operation—because I’m not afraid to use my brain. They need someone who’s willing to remember there are at least two sides in any war, and that the other sides work just as hard at beating you as you do at beating them. And do you really think for a moment that Their counterparts are unaware of what They’re doing?”
“Well, of course theyknow She and the others are working against them. But if they really knew all we’re doing, surely they would have acted directly against us by now.”
“You do have a brain, don’t you, Jerghar?” Varnaythus asked. The banker swelled with anger, but Varnaythus continued calmly. “I’ve always assumed you must, because without one, you couldn’t be as successful at amassing wealth as you’ve been, even allowing for all the business your Lady’s church throws your way. But when you say something like that, I find myself questioning my basic assumptions. Perhaps it has something to do with your diet.”
“And just what do you mean by that?” Sholdan demanded.
“By what? You mean the bit about your diet?” The wizard’s smile was deadly, and Sholdan shook his head sharply.
“Not that!” he snapped. “The rest of it. What did you mean by the rest of it?”
“I meant that you have a dazzling ability to overlook the obvious when reality isn’t to your liking.” Varnaythus shook his head. “Both sides are limited in what they can do,” he continued in an elaborately patient voice. “Not even They dare to intervene directly and personally very often, and the other side chooses to do it even less frequently. Which—we might as well be honest here, since it’s just us plotters—is a very good thing for Them, since the other side is more powerful than They are.”
Sholdan’s eyes darted around the i
“Oh, calm down, Jerghar,” Varnaythus said wearily. “Of course the other side is more powerful! Not only individually, but in numbers, as well. But what of it? How powerful one god or another may be is really immaterial to us mortals.” Sholdan goggled at him, and he snorted. “Any god could evaporate any one of us with a thought, if he or she decided to,” he pointed out acerbically. “Does it really matter if one of them decides to turn us into purple vapor, instead of orange vapor?”
“B-b-b-but—” Sholdan stuttered.
“The point is,” Varnaythus said, “that even the weakest god is so much more powerful than any mortal that any differences of power between deities aren’t particularly significant. The fact that Tomanak, say,” he watched Sholdan flinch physically at his offhand use of that hated name, “is individually more powerful than any one of Them doesn’t matter a solitary damn to you, me, or any other mortal. There’s only so much power any deity can apply to the physical universe without smashing the whole thing, which would defeat his own purpose, and either side is perfectly capable of doing that if they get too openly involved. That’s why both of them need agents in the first place, to avoid the escalation of direct confrontations that could get out of hand. You know that.”
“But—” Sholdan tried again.
“Oh, give it a rest, Jerghar!” Salgahn interjected. “And you stop needling him, Varnaythus!” Both of the others looked at him, and the assassin shrugged. “We can debate about agents, direct divine intervention, and the destruction of the world some other time,” he said impatiently. “What matters right now is that the gods on the other side have chosen to restrict their direct intervention, that they believe in free will, and, unlike certain gods on our side,” he carefully named no names, “that they expect theiragents to think for themselves. And, as Varnaythus says, Jerghar, even if they wanted to lead someone like Bahzell around by the hand all day long, they can make mistakes, too.”
“Salgahn’s right, Jerghar,” Varnaythus said. “I shouldn’t try to goad you that way. But if you want confirmation that the other side isn’t whispering the details of all of Their plans into their precious champions’ ears—or anyone else’s—look at what happened to the coursers. Do you think that precious stallion would have let any of his herd stay behind over the winter if he’d realized my Lady was influencing their minds? Or do you honestly believe the Sothoiiwould have allowed an entire herd of their precious coursers to walk right into destruction if they’d known what was about to happen?”