“This is what I feared,” he said quietly. “When I stopped being able to See what lay within Tian lands, I feared there were Magi there now, and that somehow they had wormed their way into the Tian King’s good graces.”

Another priest, considerably younger than Baket-ke-aput, who wore the amulet of Thet about his neck, leaned forward. “We should never have known, had they not been so greedy about draining so many of the children of their power until they died,” he said bitterly. “There were too many for the crocodiles to take them all, and so we found some of them. That was when I made to approach the Great King, and as soon as I was given audience, I knew that I should say nothing. Not only was there a shadow upon him, but he looked to be as he had been in the full flower of young manhood. And so did the three advisers.”

“That has a familiar taste to it,” Lord Khumun said, with controlled anger in his voice. For some time now, Kiron had been a little concerned about the older man. Being forced to flee his own land had taken something out of him. But now—now the old warrior was back. And Kiron was relieved to see it. “So did the Magi of Alta, and our rulers, when our Winged Ones began to be taken.”

The Thet priest looked angry, and resolute, and just as much a warrior as Lord Khumun. “I know the forbidden spells that can give one a second youth, though I am sworn never to use them; it is the business of those of Thet to be upon the watch for shadow magic and the powers of darkness. We know these spells so that we may combat them; I knew the signs of what was happening. Those children had been killed so that their power might be absorbed and their years might be stolen and given to the Great King and his advisers.”

Every time those words were spoken, Kiron felt colder. Bad enough to be profiting magically from the deaths of fighters in combat, but to murder children . . . !

“You said nothing,” Heklatis said shrewdly. “Else you would not be here. And do not feel guilt; if you had confronted them, I think none of you would be sitting here now.”

The Thet priest Pta-hetop nodded. “I made some excuse, some trivial request, and fled the abomination, before they realized that I knew them for what they were.”

“And Pta-hetop, here, wisely began by telling his own priests what was happening, then they in turn spread out by ones and twos to the rest of us,” Baket-ke-aput continued. “It was the gods’ own will that he went softly and secretly, rather than trumpeting the abomination to the world and being cut down for it.”