Alberich smiled sourly. “It would take the Sunlord Himself to protect someone like that.”

“I fear so, and I am very, very glad it isn’t me.” Geri drained his cup and poured himself another, then smiled. “So, since I am not going to give you any answers, what can I do for you?”

“Give me an opinion.” He outlined, as best he could, what he was doing with his four putative agents. “They have seen the very best that Karse is, in the form of Father Kentroch, my protector and teacher, and if I’m reading them correctly, they have warmed to him just as I did, and more importantly, responded to his ideas of responsibility and honor. We’re just about up to the point where I first learned I had a witch-power; I suppose each of them will have a similar experience, but the witch-power will be his or her own Gift in real life.”

“If you’re wondering if you have somehow betrayed your vow to protect the people of Karse, let me tell you now that both Henrick and I are positive you are doing nothing of the sort,” Geri said firmly. “If anything, you are going to put four more protectors in place, just as you had hoped. Did you know that all four of them have been coming down here for practice in the language? Or so they say.”

Alberich shook his head, surprised.

“Well, they have—and what Henrick and I figured out after the first two visits was that they didn’t want lessons in Karsite—their accents are impeccable, by the way—but an understanding of how our version of the Sunlord differs from what they’re going to encounter in Karse.”

Something about the way he said that made Alberich stare at him. “Oh, no—” he said, feeling his heart sink. “Please do not tell me that they want to convert.”

“We wouldn’t accept them as they are now if they did,” Geri said with a laugh. “No, actually, I think they’re integrating their two personae; then once they know how things are now, they’ll react as a Karsite who was brought up in the old ways would.”

Alberich felt a profound relief. The last, the very last thing he had wanted to do was to change anyone’s religion. “That’s sensible. Geri—” He hesitated.

Only now did Kantor interject something. :Geri is your priest. This is surely a question for your priest.:

“I’m torn,” he said at last. “It feels as if there must be something more I can do, for Valdemar. Valdemar has given me so much—what should I be doing in return?”