Raven's Shadow (Raven #1)(42)

"So you waited," said Seraph.

Hennea nodded. "For a year or so I bided my time and learned what I could. We were in Taela secreted within the Emperor's own palace. The wizards ruled over a group of solsenti called the Secret Path of the Five Gods. I saw only the wizards, who are relatively few, but there are apparently many others, all men - noblemen and high-ranked merchants and the like - men of power."

"Volis seemed sincere in his devotion," said Seraph. "Obsessive even. Not a man who is seeking after political power."

Hennea nodded. "Oh, they take themselves very seriously, including this religion that someone thought up a few centuries or so ago as a way to encourage bored young noblemen to join up. Can you think of anything a young man would like better than to shock his family? Worshiping like a Traveler is beyond offensive."

"Travelers don't worship gods," said Rinnie, who'd been brushing Skew as Hennea talked.

"No, indeed," agreed Hennea. "But Volis doesn't believe that. We Travelers like to keep our secrets, and he thinks he knows them. He likes me to spout his own theories back to him. I don't think he really knows how this geas really works. He thought it made" - she glanced over her shoulder at Rinnie and gave Seraph an ironic smile - "made us friends. But he likes to believe in lies. One night, while we were still in Taela, he came into his rooms a little worse for drink - something he seldom did. He was wearing a crude ring made of silver and rose quartz and reeking of tainted magic." She sat down abruptly on the small bench Rinnie used as a mounting block.

"Unto Raven it is given to know the Order," she whispered. "Somehow they had stolen Moselm's Order and put it into the ring. Volis was drunk from celebrating Moselm's death - and worried because it hadn't gone quite as planned. It seems that capturing the Order once it's taken from a Traveler is very difficult and sometimes fails."

"They did what?" asked Seraph, appalled.

"They killed him and retained the power of the Order in the stone," said Hennea with Raven calm. "Their spell slowly rips the Order away from a Traveler over a period of some months. Many of the stones are all but useless, but the ones that work can be worn in a ring or necklace. Then the solsenti wizards become Raven, Falcon, or Cormorant as they wish."

Dread closed Seraph's throat. It was starting again, as if the mermori had been harbingers of things to come. Tier had died, and now Seraph would be forced to live as she had before she met him.

"I don't know what I can do to help you," she said at last, because, in the end, there was no choice. "I can take a message to the clans, though I don't know where any are at present. I will give you what aid I can."

"You don't understand," Hennea said. "I've come to help you."

Chapter 6

"You are going to help me?" asked Seraph. "With what?"

Hennea smiled grimly. "Your new Sept travels with quite an entourage."

"Including you and Volis," Seraph said. "Is the Sept one of the... what did you call them, something stupid... the Secret Path?"

"The Sept?" she said. "No, not him, at least I don't think so. He's charismatic, the Emperor's best if not only friend, and he's very good at political games. No one is surprised at the number of people who follow him around. Volis said that someone called in a few debts and offered a favor or two so that the Sept would agree to build a Temple of the Five Gods here."

Hennea stood up and began pacing in abrupt, quick steps. "The Secret Path decided to bring the religion out into the public. They don't tell people that they get their five gods from the Travelers' Orders, of course."

"There are six Orders," observed Rinnie.

"They don't know about the Guardian," said Jes. "Travelers don't talk about their mistakes."

"You are not a mistake," said Seraph, though Jes was more right than wrong about the Travelers' reasoning regarding the Guardians. "Travelers protect the Guardians' secrets because your Order works better that way." As if that settled the matter, Seraph turned back to Hennea, and sorted through her story for some way to change the subject. "Why did this Path of yours change and decide to bring their church to the masses?"

Hennea shook her head. "I don't know. Volis thinks that it's because the truth must be made known - but Volis wouldn't know the truth if it tore his throat out. I don't think that all of the wizards believe in their made-up gods, so there must be another reason."

"Volis told me they chose to set his temple here because of Shadow's Fall."

"I've heard him say that, too," agreed Hennea. "I don't know what they want with Shadow's Fall, but I suppose that whatever power still lurks there can defend itself more than adequately."

"Indeed," said Seraph. "My husband is proof of that."

"No," said Hennea. "I don't think that he is."

Seraph stiffened. "Oh?" she said softly.

"There were some wizards who traveled with us from Taela. They stayed with the Sept when Volis moved us into the new temple." She stopped her pacing to frown down at Seraph. "Understand, please, that I've had to take a few facts and string them together. A few days ago, Volis got some correspondence from Taela. It wasn't signed, but from the content I think that it was from one of the wizards who came here with us. The letter devoted an entire paragraph to your family - unless there is another family with a Raven, Falcon, and Cormorant?"