“Yes.” Juran glanced at each of the White in turn. “Whoever does will be absent some weeks. Auraya hasn’t completed her training yet. Mairae is occupied with the Somreyans. Dyara is training Auraya. I would go myself, but…” He turned to Rian. “You have not dealt with a sorcerer before. Do you have the time?”

Rian smiled grimly. “Of course not, but I will make time. The world needs to be rid of this Pentadrian and his vorns.”

Juran nodded. “Then take one of the Bearers and go.”

Rian straightened. A gleam had entered his gaze. As the young man rose and stalked from the room, Auraya felt a moment’s wry sympathy for the Pentadrian sorcerer. From what she had seen so far, all but the more severe rumors of Rian’s ruthless fanaticism were true.

6

“What do you think of Dreamweavers, Danjin Spear?” Danjin looked up in surprise. He was sitting opposite Auraya at the large table in her reception room, helping her examine the terms of the proposed alliance with Somrey.

Auraya met his eyes steadily. He thought back to the day news of her mother’s death had arrived. At her bidding he had sought the location of the man who had delivered the message to the Temple. To his surprise, the man was a Dreamweaver.

Later he had been even more surprised to learn that Auraya had visited the man in disguise. He wasn’t sure if he was more disturbed by the idea of a White paying a social visit to a Dreamweaver, or that Auraya had tried to do so secretly—which indicated she knew she was doing something that might be considered ill-advised or inappropriate.

Of course, she was reading all this from his mind right now. She must also know that he had looked into her past and learned of her childhood friendship with Dreamweaver Leiard and that she had been known in the priesthood for her sympathetic view of the heathens. She would have seen that her second meeting with the Dreamweaver had been noted, and that he had heard people, inside and outside the Temple, gossiping about it. She also had to know that he didn’t respect or like Dreamweavers.

In the weeks since he had found Leiard she had not discussed Dreamweavers with him at all. Now that she was working on the Somreyan problem they could not avoid the subject any longer. He had to be honest. There was no point pretending he agreed with her.

“I don’t think much of them, I’m afraid,” he admitted. “They are at best pitiful, and at worst untrustworthy.”

Her eyebrows rose. “Why pitiful?”

“I guess because they are so few and so despised. And misguided. They do not serve the gods, so their souls die when their body does.”

“Why untrustworthy?”