The Alabaster Staff - Edward Bolme [63]
"If you please," asked the priestess, "would you tell me exactly what happened here?"
Kehrsyn gave a full accounting of what she had seen and heard, carefully skirting her involvement in the issue and especially avoiding any reference to the fact that she had been the one who'd stolen the necromantic wand in the first place. Tiglath nodded throughout the retelling, staring at an empty bit of space off to her left somewhere.
"In short, ma'am," finished Kehrsyn, "I guess maybe it was a raid or something."
"Indeed," replied Tiglath. "That fits the evidence." She stared straight at Kehrsyn. "I note your story neatly omits any reference to your involvement, but as I surmise your involvement was with Furifax and not with this worm, I'll allow your secrets to remain yours. You've been satisfactorily forthcoming with the information I need. Thank you for killing him, though it's a pity he didn't remain alive for interrogation."
"Who was he?" hazarded Kehrsyn, as it appeared Tiglath was in a mood to talk.
"He was one of my inner circle," answered the priestess, "one of my trusted advisors."
"If he was considered trustworthy," observed Kehrsyn, "I'd sure hate to have your advisors."
Tiglath snorted, and with a half-smile, said, "I suppose so. There's a feeling you get when the ground just starts to give way beneath your feet, or when the axle breaks on your wagon, or right after you've drunk too much. It's a feeling that there's something wrong, something imminent and close, but you can't put your finger on it and everything seems normal. I have had that feeling for some time within my church and most especially among my advisors. I dismissed those feelings as worry brought by the war. Now I know the feelings were right. I find that my most trusted people have been operating behind my back."
"You're sure that's what's happening?" asked Kehrsyn.
"I know they have not been pleased with some of my choices. I continued our alliance with Furifax and his people, and refused the aid of other, more aggressive, more ruthless factions. I did this to ensure that we did not save Unther only to yield our sovereignty to a foreign power. Not everyone sees the wisdom of this choice.
"Further, now that the god-king Gilgeam has been killed, I wish to replace his despotic thearchy with a government modeled after some of the younger nations, a meritocracy where the power resides in the hands of a council that rules for the betterment of the nation, not their own vanity. This decision has also met with resistance. My advisors do not understand that seizing control of Unther for the church of Tiamat only replaces one thearchy with another, and I will not see my life's work perverted in such a manner."
Tiglath sucked in her lips and drummed her fingers.
"It seems," she said, "that those beneath me, some of them at least, have made other plans." She chuckled mirthlessly. "Curious that a high priestess learns more from a street-smart refugee than she does from her own people."
Kehrsyn shrugged.
"I am thankful that I spared you," said Tiglath, rather kindly for a woman of her imposing demeanor.
"Yeah, well, so am I," said Kehrsyn, sheathing her weapons.
An uncomfortable silence hung in the air for a few moments, until Tiglath slapped her knees and heaved her bulk to her feet again.
"Well," she said, "you said they were after something?"
"Yeah, a magical relic that someone told me might be the Staff of the Necromancer. About so long," she added, gesturing.
"Let's see if we can find it, shall we?" asked the priestess.
Tiglath's voice rang with forced cheer, but then, Kehrsyn mused, at least the priestess was trying to be friendly, even if it didn't come naturally