He let that settle into his mind. :Even Karsites?:

:Well, since we’ve never had a Karsite Herald before, there’s no basis for comparison.: There was a definite undertone there. Alberich decided that he was getting rapidly better at reading around what Kantor was actually telling him to what Kantor would rather just—imply. The undertone was that not everyone would have been as… open to the possibility of an ally out of Karse… as Heralds Talamir and Joyeaus.

:Excellent again. I do believe we are rather well-matched, Chosen. I would not go so far as to say that other Heralds would have run you through on sight—but we have been fighting a rather nasty undeclared war with you for some time, and there are some hard feelings on our side of the Border as well as yours, even among Heralds.: A sense of pondering followed that statement. :In truth, especially among Heralds, since your lot enjoys killing us so very much. Now no Herald would ever slaughter someone who had been Chosen out-of-hand—but there are many, many of them who are not going to welcome you as a long-lost sibling.:

Just his good fortune that he’d never led troops against anything other than bandits, then. At least no one would be holding a personal grudge against him.

He licked lips that were dry and cracked, and stared into the darkness behind his bandages. Inexorably, it was creeping up on him, acceptance that he could never go home again.

He was in the enemy’s land, he was exiled inexorably from his own. He had witch-powers, and they were not the curse he’d been taught that they were. And one of the Hell-horses—which were not hellish at all, apparently—had selected him to become one of the Demon-Riders.

:Please, Alberich. Heralds, not Demon-Riders. And as for my being hellish—: a pregnant pause,:—well, although the people of Valdemar would say that we Companions are the sweetest, most marvelous of creatures, I suspect that the several of your men who got in my way would agree that I am “hellish.” Assuming any of them survived the experience.:

Oh.

On the other hand, if one of them had been that Voice—

:He was,: came the reply, with a certain grim glee. :Though I am not certain that anyone like that Voice of yours—someone who goes about blithely burning people alive—has any right to make any judgments about who is “hellish” and who isn’t.:

Ah…

:The fact that you have never personally fought against us will be useful towards having you accepted,: Kantor agreed. :And there is at least one thing I can promise you. We will never, ever, under any circumstances, ask or require you to do anything against your conscience with regard to your homeland. I shan’t promise we won’t ask you to act against those in power there—: