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emptying his pockets. Hederick looked around, even more pleased than before. Which god would
guide him next? Which onlooker would he draw power from? Then he spied her. Ancilla's Presence
occupied an aisle seat in the top row.
No one but Hederick appeared aware of her. The High Theocrat lost confidence momentarily, and
the Diamond Dragon slipped from his grasp. He heard the artifact clang to the floor.
The lizard-woman in the Great Chamber sat up immediately, eyes wide. In an instant, she vanished
from the bench and reappeared on the pulpit next to Hederick, apparently visible only to him. She
reached for the glittering artifact.
And her clawed hand went right through it.
Ancilla tried again, with the same result. For a moment, sister and brother locked gazes. Hers
brimmed with frustration, his with drunken joy.
Then the High Theocrat reached out to reclaim the Diamond Dragon. Unfortunately, the mead made
his brain swim, and he inadvertently knocked the artifact down the stairs.
Hederick took a step toward the staircase. But at the moment his outstretched hand brushed against
the mist of a scaly body, panic assailed him.
The Presence was chanting softly.
Despite the terror, Hederick fought to get control of himself. "Sauvay, come to me," he pleaded
softly. Sauvay, once Omalthea's consort, now god of vengeance, surely would dash this lizard-
woman to bits on the floor of the chamber. "Sauvay, attend me."
Hederick forced his thoughts away from Ancilla's Presence. "Sauvay, stand with me!" he cried. He
prayed desperately. His mind's eye still saw the green orbs of the Presence. The red smoke had
dissipated, but the metallic odor remained. The thing chanted monotonously.
Then, at last, Hederick felt the reassuring touch of the gods. Sauvay had arrived at Hederick's behest
and now demanded his turn to speak. It must be Sauvay. The High Theocrat forced himself to stop
thinking about Ancilla. The revelation was everything now. Ancilla could not harm him during the
revelation.
"I dreamed last night," Hederick whispered. Each word fell shimmering into the amphitheater like a
glass bead dropping into a lake.
But something was wrong.
Always before, Hederick had known that deep down, on some level, he controlled his words even
though the gods provided guidance from some distance. But this time he lost control. He stood atop
his vaulted pulpit like a gasping carp, words erupting out of the depths of his belly. Was this, then,
what a true revelation felt like? V\fere the New Gods physically directing him?
"I had a dream last night," he blurted. "I dreamed I was in my parents' house in Garlund." He'd
never never revealed his roots. Garlund didn't even exist anymore.
"I was in the root cellar. It was damp. We lived near the river, and the cellar was always damp."
Someone giggled; Hederick looked around the room, mouth agape. He could almost hear the priests
wondering aloud. The High Theocrat in a root cellar? And where was this Garlund?
Indeed, Hederick had had such a dream, between the executions of Mendis Vakon and Crealora
Senternal. But what purpose could the New Gods have in exposing him to ridicule like this?
The High Theocrat prayed to Sauvay, but no relief came. Just the voice, so much like Hederick's
own, spilling forth, babbling.
"I was alone in the cellar," the voice boomed. "It was dark, but I could see a crack of light. There
was a door somewhere. There'd always been a door, but now I couldn't find it. They'd moved it!
Venessi and Con, my parents, had hidden the door. On the opposite side of the cellar, they'd opened
a crack to provide air."
People in the audience glanced at each other nervously, but no one said anything. Several priests
looked curious, but none dared interrupt the High Theocrat during a holy revelation. That would be
tantamount to challenging the gods themselves. Dahos was standing at the bottom of the pulpit
steps, his face pale and worried, duties obviously forgotten.
Hederick's voice rose suddenly to a piercing shriek. "Don't you see people? Are you blind or
merely stupid? They'd locked me in! I could hear them piling dirt where the door had been. Con and
Venessi, my own parents! I heard them pounding nails into the doorjamb, sealing the basement
shut! And I was sealed inside1."
The words came in spurts now, like vomited blood. "And then I saw ... another light... a wider crack
... as wide as my hand.... And I knew ... that if I were careful ... and held my breath ... I could turn
sideways ... and escape through the crack. I could become that thin, as thin as that crack. I could! I
moved ... toward the light... in my dream I turned sideways...."
Sweat poured down Hederick's forehead. A breeze from the open doors caressed his damp hair, and
he shivered. His tongue was dry; his throat hurt. He yearned to swallow.
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