Swan looked at Blade, at the Radisha, at Cordy again. I missed something. Whos Kina? And whats got into Smoke? The wizard was shaking like somebody had dunked him in icewater. Mather and Blade shrugged. They didnt know. The Radisha sat down. Get comfortable. She chewed her lip. This will be difficult to tell. Then just go straight at it, Swan said. Yes. I suppose. The Radisha collected herself. Kina is the fourth side of the Taglian religious triangle. She belongs to none of the pantheons but terrifies everybody. She isnt named lest naming invoke her. Shes very unpleasant. Fortunately, her cult is small. And proscribed. Membership is punishable by death. The penalty is deserved. The cults rites always involve torture and murder. Even so, it persists, its members awaiting someone called the Foretold and the Year of the Skulls. Its an old, dark religion that knows no national or ethnic bounds. Its members hide behind masks of respectability. They sometimes call themselves the Deceivers. They live normal lives among the rest of the community. Anyone could belong. Few of the common people know they exist anymore.

Swan didnt get it and said so. Dont sound much different from the Shadar Hada or Khadi avatars.

The Radisha smiled grimly. Those are ghosts of the reality. Hada and Khadi were two aspects of the Shadar death god. Jah could show you a thousand ways Khadi is a kitten compared to Kina. Jahamaraj Jah was a devotee of Khadi.

Swan shrugged, doubting he could tell the difference if they drew pictures. Hed given up trying to understand the welter of Taglian gods, each with his or her ten or twenty different aspects and avatars. He indicated Smoke. Whats with him? He shakes any more well have to change his diaper.

Smoke predicted a Year of Skulls-a time of chaos and bloodshed-if we employed the Black Company. He didnt believe it would come. He just wanted to scare my brother out of doing something that scared him. But hes on record as having predicted it. Now theres a chance it might come.

Sure. Come on. Swan frowned, still lost. Let me get this straight. Theres a death cult around that makes Jah and his Khadi freaks look like a bunch of nancy boys? That scares the guano out of anybody who knows who they are?

Yes.

And they worship a goddess named Kina?

That is the most common of many names.

Why arent I surprised? Is there any god down here without more aliases than a two-hundred-year-old con man?

Kina is the name given her by the Gunni. She has been called Patwa, Kompara, Bhomahna, and other names. The Gunni, the Shadar, the Vehdna, all find ways to accept her into their belief systems. Many Shadar who become her followers, for example, take her to be the true form of Hada or Khadi, who is just one of her Deceits.