Now Alberich went icy cold all over with sudden dread, and was glad he was sitting down. Hiring one or two of the Tedrel Companies, he could just barely see. Aksel was not high enough in the ranks for his warnings to be heeded overmuch on that score. But all of them? There was only one reward that would tempt all of them together. “Madness,” he said flatly. “Surely not—” Surely not even the maddest and most fanatical of priests would hazard all to cast their lot with the Tedrels! That would be insane. As Aksel had described them, having the Tedrels in one’s midst was like playing host to a large pack of wild dogs. So long as they were full-bellied and content, the worst that would happen was that there would be a little damage to small towns here and there, if the scum that now filled out the ranks of the Tedrels grew bored. Perhaps rape, a bit of looting, possibly a few houses burned.

The “worst” that would happen if they are satisfied… rape. Looting. Oh, my poor people… His stomach turned over. He thought about his border villages, and his throat and chest tightened, his gut roiling.

No worse, perhaps, than the bandits were already doing on the Borders.

But to face it from bandits, and then receive worse from those beasts—who in turn were hired by the Priests supposed to protect them!

That would be bad enough, But if the paychests were not as full as promised, or stopped altogether—the pack would turn…

And fire and the sword would reign, at least until the paychests came again.

His chest felt too tight; his heart ached at the mere thought.

If this were true, the only way to hire the whole nation was to promise a homeland. Would Karse offer Menmellith?

Possibly. Menmellith was no great prize, but would Karse then want the Tedrels as neighbors?

So it would be Valdemar. The priests hate Valdemar enough to allow anything so long as Valdemar is left gutted, Kingless, and without the Heralds…

Karse as a new homeland probably would not tempt them; it was too hard a land. They wanted something like that dream that their land had become for them, a place fat and rich, soft and sweet. But they would take out their spleen on Karse if it promised them such a homeland and failed to deliver it into their hands.

“That’s what we’ve heard,” Dethor said, shrugging. “Anything more you can tell us?”

Alberich shook his head; what more could he say? Dread was a sickening lump in his belly. “This rumor—I hope it false proves.”