“I can’t see any reason why not,” she said, at the evening meeting after the first lot of cattle and goats was driven into the pens waiting for them, a meeting which Kiron was attending in his capacity of wingleader and strongly interested party. “And I can see every reason why you should. We have a much larger temple now—the one the Jousters were going to take and don’t need. It has an inner shrine and a proper sacrificial table. And I think it is a very bad idea to cheat the gods of what is, after all, rightfully theirs.”

“But—” The Thet priest looked at her askance. “They are not your gods, Lady.”

“Pah. Who was worshiped there before? It looked enough like Lord Haras as to make no difference, but it was probably called by a different name. And in a thousand years, the Falcon-headed One will probably have yet a third name. I do not think the gods care what names we use, so long as we do good and not evil. They are the gods of both Altans and Tians at this point, and it doesn’t matter a hair what name you call them by,” she replied instantly. “You have never consulted a woman about this, clearly. We women are pragmatic about such things; we call upon whoever we think might answer us, with no nonsense about whether it is your god or mine. I have even been known to invoke one of Heklatis’ Akkadian goddesses now and again.”

The Thet priest brightened at that. “It could be,” he said, with some deliberation, “that with the number of sacrifices from Tian altars growing fewer, and those from the Sanctuary altars growing more numerous, they might be inclined to actually remove their favor from Tia and bestow it here. The impression we are trying to create may become the actuality.”

“That, too, was my thought,” Nofret said briskly, as Kaleth smiled slightly and Ari looked very thoughtful indeed.

“Even if the Jousters had needed the temple, under the circumstances I would have said to take it,” Ari said gravely, speaking up for the first time this evening. “Let us give all the gods their due, Tian and Altan together. If they look with favor upon us, so much the better for us all.”