The Gold Falcon - Katharine Kerr [76]
“True-spoken. And the answers?”
“We are eternal spirits, we came from between the stars, we live in a prison, we are children of light still, and we are going to Alshandra’s country.”
“Also true-spoken.”
Varigga sat back down.
“At the beginning of the world,” Rocca continued, “Alshandra did make a green and lovely land, where pure water runs in crystal streams. Ripe fruit hangs heavy on every kind of tree, and when a fruit, it be plucked, a new one grows in its place. In her beautiful orchards the smell of ripening fruit wafts like perfume. And the flowers! I have seen in vision the banks of flowers, purple and pink and rose red, blossoming along the crystal streams. I do swear to you, my friends, that in her world all be color, and fragrance, and light.” Rocca paused for effect. “But why, then, does this world lie shut away from us? Why lack we the power to travel there? Why did she, the goddess of all things good, hide it from us?”
Lady Adranna stood up and laid her right hand over her heart in an obviously rehearsed gesture. “She hid it not from us, but from the Dark Lord Vandar.”
“True-spoken,” Rocca said. “And what did the evil Vandar steal from her?”
“Her daughter, her only precious child.”
“True-spoken. And why does Alshandra not appear to us? Once she walked among us, but she walks here no more.”
“Because she searches for her lost daughter over all the world, wailing as she goes.” Adranna paused briefly. “Why can she not find her daughter?”
This time the priestess gave the answer. “Because the Dark Lord has set evil guardians over the child and over the world.”
Adranna sat down, and Varigga stood again.
“What minions did Vandar send?” Rocca asked her.
“His dragons of evil, spewing poison,” Varigga said. “Huge they were, bent on destroying our goddess’s creation.”
“And did she slay them?”
“She did slay the mother and father of all dragons, but unknown to her their evil spawn still lived.”
“True-spoken.”
Varigga sat back down. Rocca leaned forward, staring into the crowd as if she wished to look each person there in the eye. “To this very day,” she said at last, “the silver wyrm and the black dragon do roam and ravage. They do slay by night, they do poison by day, rabid, evil in the foulness of their hearts.”
Ye gods! Salamander thought. She means Rori and Arzosah.
“The Dark Lord Vandar did set them at their post,” Rocca went on. “By his orders they fall upon her people and destroy them. Until Vandar at last does die, they will have strength, but once the Dark Lord be slain, all his minions will sicken, fail, and pass utterly away.”
Salamander was seized by the mad impulse to step forward and shout, “but Evandar’s already dead” simply because doing so would have had such a splendid effect on the crowd. He managed to keep his urge toward drama under control, even when the assembled worshipers cheered in anticipated triumph.
“Soon, my well-loved friends,” Rocca said, “soon that day will come on a wave like silver moonlight. But until that day does come, we have a task, a holy burden. What be that task?” She paused only briefly. “To witness unto her power over death. Indeed, it be upon us to witness even with our deaths, for what holier deed could we be about doing but to die with her name upon our lips?”
In unison the assembly shouted, “There be none!”
“True-spoken!” Rocca shouted as well. “Let us give thanks, let us pray.”
Those sitting on benches fell to their knees, even the aged Lady Varigga; those sitting on the floor rose to theirs. Salamander followed Honelg’s example and knelt as well. Apparently her followers believed that Alshandra took great delight in prayers. Rocca droned on and on, the crowd murmured responses, the room grew warmer and stuffier, until Salamander had to fight to stay awake. Since the prayerful kept their gaze on the floor, he could take comfort in knowing that no one would notice him yawning. In fact, he heard once or twice the distinct sound of a snore, hastily cut off, and knew that he was