Read those old chronicles again, Smoke suggested. How numerous were the Black Company when they came here before? Yet before they were driven out our ancestors very nearly witnessed the Year of the Skulls. You cant traffic with this darkness. It wakens the devil in everyone. You cant invite the tiger into your house to keep the wolf away. There are no greys. There is no tightrope to walk. No one can hope to play this off against other darknesses. This is the deep and ultimate evil beyond all evils. Consider what the woman did last night.

The Prahbrindrah Drah said, I was put out by the damage done. Master Gupta and his predecessors worked on that for a century.

Not the damned plants! Smoke almost lost control. A man is dead, killed by sorcery. Seven more were carried off to who knows what fate? Tal and his cronies were slain in their very temples. Strangled!

They asked for it, the Radisha said. They did something stupid. They paid for it. You notice the other Gunni priests werent put out.

Ghapors bunch? They probably encouraged Tal and didnt mind when he came out on the short end.

Probably.

Dont you see what shes done? A year ago no priest would have considered murder. Now its accepted. Nobody is distressed.

Tal is gone. You say he was stupid and asked for it and youre right. But he was one of the most important men in Taglios. So was Jahamaraj Jah. He asked for it, too. When she picks off the next one, well, maybe everybody will say the same thing again. He asked for it. And the next one and the next and then its you and the Prahbrindrah Drah and after that the deluge. Never mind professionalism as a soldier. She might be the best that ever was. Maybe she can ruin the Shadowmasters in her sleep. But even if they never cross the Main again, if they never come north of Dejagore, if they never win another skirmish, if shes in charge, Taglios will lose as certainly as if we hadnt resisted at all.

The Prahbrindrah Drah started to speak. The Radisha jumped in first. He has a point. Taglios wont ever be the same.

Oh?

If we give the woman a free hand shell make Taglios over into the image of the Shadowlands because thats what it will take to win. Smoke, I see that. Even if youre obsessive about the Stranglers and the Year of the Skulls. Ive watched the woman. I doubt if anyone but that man Croaker ever had any influence on her. Brother, hes right. Shell turn us into what we fear in order to save us.

Then were damned if we do and damned if we dont. We let her go on, were done. We dont, the Shadowmasters eat us.