Chapter Six

"And it is written in the Dread Book Of Balthazarkar, that none may read and remain sane (except on Tuesdays), of the first Paladin, Angrim The Unyielding. Of how Angrim slew all of the monsters whose forms Chaos had warped, knowing them by their vile mutations that affronted the senses. Of how she slew all those whose spirits had been corrupted and seduced by that dark power, knowing them by the polluted taint in their life-auras. And when that was done, how she slew without mercy those who had associated with them, in which the taint was still so slight as to be invisible save to her inspired vision.
	And when the faint-hearted ones who bewailed that association was no proof of turning to Chaos, nay, for many of the Turned had hidden well their betrayal of the world, then did Angrim call upon her God, Staravol The Pure, whose sharp new-forged blade she was. Then did the people wait to hear what judgement would be past upon Angrim, who had in truth slain more than the pit-foul fiends that had troubled the land.
	Then did Staravol smile upon his Chosen, and the multitude did hear these words as spake he thus:
	"Better Safe Than Sorry."

	"You know," Kazuko Leclerc commented lightly, running her fingers through the wet mane of her mount as they sat looking out at the view, "I always think there's something so ... dynamic about a flood, don't you ? Something so Elemental, so Powerful - all that grey water powering along downstream, sweeping everything in its path. Remember that time we went to Adachara Mountain, Mangana ? That was amazing - we'd go out and just watch the cataracts and waterfalls all day."
	Her cousin forced a smile. "Scenic landscapes are what this world's got a lot of. But ..." she waved a hand at the surging water that lay before them "sometimes I'd trade a lot of it for one ugly, rusty, factory-made bridge."

	It was after they were already in distant sight of the Tower that the real trouble began. Three days of expected travel had stretched to four and then five, as pounding rain turned the streams of the Twisted Zone into roaring torrents, where hours were wasted just looking for a safe crossing where they would have simply splashed through earlier. And although Suzuko was the last one to ever go looking for trouble, it found her.
	"A peaceful place, this," she commented as they crested a long rise, halting to peer through the heavy curtains of rain that swept across the landscape. "I suppose you can't have it both ways - shut up, Kazuko - I mean, we haven't had anything like the Chaos Wars back home, and there's a LOT of overcrowding. Folk'd pay to come here, even if some of the wildlife's a bit unfriendly."
	"Sounds a paradise," Meridy commented bitterly, riding at her side. "Every breed as pure as your Gods made it in the first place - nothing but petty mortal squabbles to sort out. What could you possibly have to worry about ?"
	The vixen's hood twitched as her ears dipped. "Believe it, we've got enough. I wasn't going to come on this trip - but I ran into some - er, trouble."
	Suddenly she felt a strange sensation, and recognised a Truth spell as she noticed Gralius watching her. Evidently the priest was still being cautious.
	"Trouble ?" Meridy asked bluntly "What sort of trouble ?"
	Suzuko winced. "I had rather an - argument, with three of the felines who run the place I'm studying at. I wanted to get time off to see my mate - his ship would have been stopping about half a day's travel away. They'd normally let folk do that - in my condition. I'm only really interested in males eight times a year, and I wanted it to be him."
	"Nice, eh ? " Kazuko had been listening; she urged the mare Riord forward to ride alongside Suzuko. "You ought to see Pathwan - Lovely, from the photos I've seen."
	Suzuko's ears dipped. "They wouldn't let me go. I sort of expected that - I had to say who I was meeting, and a lot of folk just Hate his sort. We're kind of strict back home - you can't even live in Japan unless you're a Citizen. Which means both your parents had to be registered Citizens too - and everybody's genes are on file. But it was what they called him, that got me ... upset."
	Kazuko nodded eagerly, her blonde mop of hair flying in the damp breeze. "If someone called MY mate a "half-breed harlot", you can bet I'd throw them out of the window, too." She paused reflectively. "Unless it was, like, technically speaking, true . Anyway, it was the way they said it."
	The vixen's ears blushed, clearly visible through the light covering of fine fur on the inner surfaces. "I didn't MEAN to do it - but I get sort of .. volatile, that time of year." She sighed. "So I came along with Mangana till things cooled down back there. And the other two I didn't really hurt THAT badly."
	From behind them, Gralius barely had time to break off his truth spell to shout a warning. The paladin's aura was starting to smoulder like a piece of paper held close to a flame.
	"Meridy !" Gralius put much of his power into the command. "Stop !"
	There was a confusion of milling horses and mules as everyone reined in. Meridy slid off her mount, the human's face a pale mask of fury.
	"You've revealed yourself." Her voice was cold and level. "The mistake was speaking under the spell. Now I know."
	Suzuko's muzzle wrinkled in puzzlement. "What ? What's got your tail in a twist this time ?"
	"You confessed. We too have cultists who are only found out by association - when they are caught with tainted-blood Enteropes like yours !" Drawing her sword, she suddenly leaped towards Suzuko.
	"Look out, Suki !" Kazuko threw herself in the way, her slight forty kilograms barely deflecting the grim paladin. She grappled, wrapping herself round Meridy's legs and tripping her.
	Suzuko dived: not to get away, but towards them. The rest of the party were strung out over two hundred metres of trail, save for Gralius - Beauvette and Machsan were charging full-tilt, but still vital seconds away.
	The vixen suddenly felt the century-old Arisaka rifle bayonet in her paw, though she scarcely recalled drawing it. Everything became very sharply focussed, as she closed on the struggling pair.
	Meridy broke out of Kazuko's grip in a second, scarcely exerting herself. Though divine support had been lost to her, a lifetime of training and combat was still as valid as ever. Almost contemptuously, she picked Kazuko up and slammed her to the wet ground - then swung a deliberate kick, connecting with the anime-eyed girl's head like a football, the solid thump ringing like an axe-bite into timber.
	The paladin turned to Suzuko, contempt on her face. "Wouldn't dirty my good blade on her." Without another word, she swung at the vixen.
	Suzuko might not have had Meridy's experience, but she was fast and desperate - the first blow she parried with the bayonet, though the impact almost wrenched it out of her hand.
	She's a professional, and I'm not, Suzuko found time to appreciate the fluid, effortless-seeming move as Meridy recovered and swung again. I miss one move and I'll be dead in a second...
	The second blow she barely dodged, feeling the razor edge of the sword clip fur from her left elbow. In her left hand she swung her belt, the heavy leather with its brass webbing clips and metal-tipped bayonet scabbard forcing Meridy to pick her openings rather than power straight through.
	The Paladin's face was expressionless, almost bored, like a lumberjack or a slaughterhouse worker. This was simply something she Did, because of what she Was, Suzuko realised even as she desperately dodged : Paladins don't argue - End of discussion. Then she screamed, dropping her weapons in the shock of agony as the sword-tip sliced into her left forearm with a solid thud, feeling more like a crushing blow than a cut in that first instant. 
	Expressionless still, Meridy's sword came swinging up again, now red-spattered with vixen blood. Suzuko dived away, falling over backwards and tumbling down the slope, as she clamped her right paw over the spurting gash on her arm, the fine fur already clotted in crimson.
	Just at that moment, there came an enraged bellow. Beauvette could move surprisingly fast for her size, and had closed the gap even before Horst or Mangana could spur their horses into the fight. A huge hand grabbed the Paladin's swordarm, and squeezed like a hydraulic press cold-forging steel. There was a sickening crackle as bones broke, and the sword dropped from the ruined hand.
	Meridy had made no sound, and still her face was a pale death-mask. Her left hand was suddenly clutching her double-edged dagger, ready to rip up beneath the minotaur's ribs or throat. 
	Beauvette kept her grip tight - and heaved on the arm, swinging the lighter human round and away, out of immediate range. Minotaur eyes gleamed a lethal red, and her battle-axe suddenly filled her great fists as she snatched it from her back harness.
	Meridy scooped up her sword left-handed, and slowly circled. She dived and rolled with lightning agility, seemingly uncaring of her smashed wrist, ducking under the whistling arc of the great double-bitted axe as it swung at her head. This was a battle that at least one of them was not going to be walking away from.
	"Ha !" Beauvette grunted, reversing her axe's sweep to pull the iron-bound haft back towards her, sparks flying as she parried the swordblow. And then she kept the momentum moving, flicking the blade round in a left-handed move of her own, looping and bringing it shatteringly down on the sword now thrusting towards her !
	Meridy parried, and connected - but what she held now was a mundane carbon-steel blade, its runes of strength now grey and dull as ashes. There was a bright burst of sparks and the sword broke, smashing like thin glass as the magic-shielded stresses of a hundred past battles finally caught up with it !
	Beauvette's immense blow simply could not be pulled back; there was a hefty thump as the axe dug itself deep into the turf. Without an instant's pause, Meridy seemed to almost run up the haft, straddling it as her weight pinned it further into the ground, and the dagger drawn again in her left hand.
	The minotaur bellowed. For a second, it looked as if she was just going to stand there - then she dropped the axe, and lunged forward to meet the attack. A fast duck and weave, and the dagger sliced into her ear rather than her throat. But that had been the price for getting Meridy in the position Beauvette wanted - having no natural weapons of their own, humans often forgot about the potential of horns.
	Beauvette's massive neck and shoulder muscles stood out like cables as she caught Meridy under one armpit with her right horn, and tossed her like a novice matador caught by a thousand-kill fighting bull. This time there was no armour to save her as the human arced flailing through the air, crashing to the hard stones five metres away. She twitched once, and lay still.
	"Suki !" Mangana leaped off her galloping horse, performing an elegant forward roll to reach her friend. Her black hair framed eyes wider than ever in shock, as she pressed her own hands on the bloody morass of scarlet that was her friend's spraying lifeblood. For a second, she concentrated the diagnostic side of her talent. "Ow. This can't wait. Muscles, tendons, nerves cut - I'll have to do it Major, which'll take some time." She cast a glance at Kazuko's still form. "Horst ! See to Kaz. This might take all I've got."
	The firm pressure that was slowing down her bleeding was a clamp of agony on Suzuko; she whimpered helplessly like a hurt cub as Mangana focussed on her wound. Then her friend gave a tense smile.
	"Hold still. I'll close it first - then we'll see to Kaz. If I've anything left, I'll come back and finish this. It won't even scar."
	Huge green eyes closed in concentration, as Mangana bent to her task. She saw the infinitely complex tracery of the vixen's aura threads: rivers of energy like a mapped-out city at night. Even if Suki had lost the hand altogether, these would have persisted as a phantom tracery, fading only with the years. And like a torn map, they showed where the edges should be joined and hearty. These were structures that wanted to be whole: the young vixen's life-forces were already desperately trying to repair the savage injury - but slowly, terribly slowly.
	Drawing on all her skill and strength, Mangana shifted her own aura to bathe the wound like a comforting cloud. And then she began to pour her own life-spark in to fuel her friend's own, feeling the sinking sensation as vitality drained out. This was the price she paid for relying on no God but her own Will: had Suzuko been critically injured, Mangana might have paid the price of saving the vixen's life with her own.
	"Ah..." she gave an exhausted shudder. A lambent Blue-white glow suffused the air around them, as she felt the healing spell go to work. Bone chips re-knitted, slashed tendons joined, and the nerves lit up with vibrant life. Muscles began to bind, enough to hold it all in place - but there the spell faded. 
	"That'd be enough to heal on its own," Mangana panted, struggling to her feet and brushing sweat-soaked black hair out of her eyes. "Got to check on Kaz."
	Horst turned round as she approached, and his face was grave. "I think she's in a bad way. Fractured skull, but she's alive - for the minute." He indicated her ear, where clear fluid was leaking. "I'd say she has to be in a hospital NOW." He pressed a soothing hand on Riord; the mare was standing over her new mistress's still body, shielding it with her own.
	Mangana winced, as she crouched down and her own senses confirmed her mate's diagnosis. "This is BAD. You know, we haven't got such thick skulls as regular squinty humans." The manga-eyed races had various adaptions to cope with their large heads, such as cartilage hinges on the pelvic girdles to make childbirth possible - and the infant skulls were more flexible by far. Unfortunately, increased brain capacity usually meant greater reliance on manufactured rather than natural defences - and no Manga-gened species lasted long as professional boxers.
	Gralius crouched down a metre away, his whiskers drooping. "I feared as much," he said flatly. "Meridy may be dying - but I'm bound to aid Kazuko first. Will you accept my aid ? I promise, it will be nothing Primane will hold binding on you, or on her."
	Mangana nodded, tight-lipped. "Do it," she gestured towards her cousin, now lying in the recovery position with a green cape over her already puddling with rain. "I've got to rest - I'll be better in a few minutes." She sat down heavily, and gratefully accepted the pack of dried fruit Horst offered wordlessly. Casting major spells on the spur of the moment was like running a marathon after donating a litre of blood, she thought fleetingly as she wolfed the sweet fruit down - right now, she didn't trust herself to cure a nosebleed.
	Gralius kneeled, and sent his earnest plea out to Primane, Preserver of the World. Restore her to us, this child of the Goddess Dhoreen, he asked return her to health, so she may aid the mission you commanded on us....
	For a brief instant, the world seemed to waver - as if he was suddenly looking down from a great height - yet every raindrop, every bowed blade of grass was in perfect, pin-sharp focus. He saw his own bowed form, hands resting gently on the yellow fur of the almost-human girl - and then energy began to pour, bulging through his aura like water filling a canvas hosepipe.
	This is a Gift, this is how Primane sees us... he found time to marvel. But there were more things in the vision than his mortal mind could immediately understand - the Gods saw with other senses than eyes. Something was happening over to the right; another Presence was there, seeming to pull something out of the ex-paladin's body, and carry it away.
	A few heartbeats later, he fell flat on his snout in the wet grass, back again in the mundane world. "HE did it..." he said in amazement. "Normally, Primane just hands out whatever his petitioners justly ask him for  - but this time, He came in person !"	
	"And did a good job," Mangana's own voice held amazement enough as she checked her cousin's condition. "Fracture's repaired, brain bleeding stopped, blood vessels clean, not a trace of a clot anywhere ... Thank you, Primane."
	"She's still unconscious," Horst remarked warily. "Could be concussion yet."
	Gralius's wry grin exposed sharp feline teeth. "Primane's got a whole world to fix. If we absolutely needed to have her on her feet right now, he'd have spent the extra and done it, I'm sure of it. But -" he gestured at Kazuko "I'm pretty sure she'll be able to recover on her own. We've enough to do." He frowned. "I think Meridy's dead. I saw her spirit depart, I believe."
	The boar's gaze was hard as grey steel, as he touched his rune-graven dagger. "Perhaps it's as well. We've a saying, where I come from - some people are greatly improved by Death."
	Just at that moment, they heard Vazeeq give a startled cry. They turned, to see him scrambling away from the paladin's body, dressings and bandages scattering.
	"She just... woke up !" He scampered over towards them on feet and knuckles, forgetting dignity in his haste. "All her wounds just healed up as I watched - I saw her wrist come straight, and I could SEE bits moving back into place inside !"
	Gralius's whiskers stood out straight as wire. "Preserve us," he gasped "That either means Staravol's forgiven her - he's given her powers back - or .. she's become a Dar-shen."
	"Dar-shen. Just our luck." Mangana's face lost what colour it had regained. "Horst, get your Vrill power ready to roll - it's what happens when Chaos Gods devour the soul and reoccupy the body. Hasn't happened for ... well, not in my lifetime. You can probably stop her - but you'll have to blast her all over the landscape to do it..."
	Horst stood up, and concentrated his Will on the figure, which was rolling round oddly - not in agony, but more like someone exploring zero-gravity for the first time, unable to work out how to move. His triangular nose twitched in surprise.
	"Take a look at her aura, "he invited, relaxing slightly. "You're right one way, Gralius - it may not be a Chaos monster, but that's not her any more."
	
	An hour later, they were back on the trail, with Kazuko still semi-conscious, and Meridy securely fastened to a pack-saddle. They had watched the paladin trying to stand up, and never quite succeed; Gralius had confirmed from a safe distance that whatever was possessing her was neither chaotic or even actively hostile.
	"I'd say she was brain-hurt, more than Kazuko," Suzuko offered. She was still effectively one-handed; in seconds she had reached a stage of about two weeks' worth of "natural" healing - but it would take weeks more, or more spells than Mangana could currently raise, to fully restore her.
	Mangana shook her head, puzzled. "I've checked. She hasn't even got a headache; whoever did that full fix-up put a LOT of power into it. It's her aura that's changed; someone's definitely in there, but I don't know who. She's calmed down, at least. But now it's spooked the horses."
	Suzuko looked back to Riord, the war-mare that Kazuko would have been riding. The horse's eyes were wide, nostrils flaring, and she had proved impossible to ride. An improvised bit and blinkers had to be arranged, and the mare was now being stumblingly led by a stout rope to Pomegranate, the giant Northmarch stallion that Beauvette rode. "I hope she's not hurt," was her comment, "Kazuko really likes her."

	Although from a distance the tower had seemed to rise straight up from the barren rocks, as they got closer the party could see that it was only the highest point of a fairly substantial village. A steep-backed hill rose from a flat cultivated area, like an overturned boat on a green lake - and a substantial stone wall surrounded the whole hill.
	Mangana caught Suzuko's curious gaze. "Sorcerers have to eat, too," she shrugged. "We're fairly well self-sufficient - Mother's been here three hundred years, and that's too long to live in a howling wilderness. We've redecorated a few times."
	Beauvette gave an impressed-sounding grunt. "Never heard o' THIS place before," she ruminated, scratching the coarse fur between her horns "been all round the Zone a few times, too."
	"It's not exactly ... secret," Mangana offered "but the folk who come here, generally have reasons not to want to go back. There's all sorts of things that wouldn't be .. approved of."
	Gralius's ears dipped. Though sorcerers were tolerated, they were never trusted. Just thinking about what a major sorceress could have done in three hundred years of hiding from public view, made his blood chill.
	Just then, Machsan gave a shout. "Up there - something flying !" He pointed to a speck some hundreds of metres above the tower. "Too big to be a bird - doesn't look much like a dragon.."
	Beauvette unslung her crossbow. "Target practice." she grinned, her sharp teeth glinting. But Mangana shook her head, and began to wave her yellow silk scarf vigorously.
	"You might be in for a bit of a surprise - but the Natives are Friendly." She glanced at Gralius. "Have a Detection spell handy - my sister Ryko doesn't look very, er, conventional any more."
	Gralius promptly cast it at the bat-winged, horned, fork-tailed thing that swooped down on them to alight on a towering boulder. Despite appearances, Ryko was untainted by the tiniest hint of Chaos - though the return signal in the spell's sidebands hinted of unusual abilities and the touch of distinctly outlandish auras.
	Mangana grinned, slipping down off her mount and hugging Horst, as they walked over to make introductions. Ryko had been born with far more of their daemon grandfather than she had - and by the look of her now, she had been off-plane somewhere, enthusiastically embracing far more than the local culture.

	It was not until late in the evening that Suzuko saw Kazuko awaken. They had gone in through the main gates, past arrays of polished pure iron rods that bound the mage-crafted walls with more than mundane strength, right into the Tower itself. Mangana's mother had turned out to be a plain-looking human woman with shoulder-length raven dark tresses, looking no older than her mid-thirties. Older portraits on the walls attested to her inbuilt transformation being towards human form rather than away, since marrying her Japanese husband two decades before.
	Six hours later, Suzuko kept watch at her friend's bedside, in a cosy yellow-gold panelled room on the fourth floor, only the gentle curve of the outer wall reminding them of where they were. Kazuko had been anxiously examined, then carefully levitated upstairs to naturally sleep till she was ready to wake.
	The vixen looked around her. She was dressed in a loose white towelling robe, while her sodden travelling clothing was dried out. Even the spares in the leather saddlebags had been drenched in five days of heavy, persistent rain, that soaked through every pore and stitch hole; vainly she wished that something as simple as a plain plastic bag could get through Dimensional Customs.
	She stood up, stretching. The tower was huge; eight storeys above ground, and fully ninety metres across even at this level. Underfoot and all around were finely fitted and polished wooden walls that glowed warmly with a restful golden light. Somehow, she knew that this wood was not going to rot, warp or burn; it had already stood three hundred years and more, without a trace of wear that she could see.
	"Suki !" The voice came from behind her; she whirled, her tail a russet blur, to see Kazuko propped up in bed, looking tired but well. "You're all right ?"
	"I'll be fine," Suzuko pulled up a chair by the bedside. She exhibited a cleaned forearm; though she wanted a real bath as soon as possible, the blood had mostly been sponged out of her fur before entirely clotting, leaving a healthy-looking pink line that stretched almost from elbow to wrist. "But you - we thought we'd lose you. If Gralius hadn't managed to call for some serious Help - Mangana says she might not have managed..."
	Kazuko yawned. "I'm fine. Bit sleepy - I could do with a few hours sleep, and a good meal." Then her eyes widened briefly. "Did you see what happened to Meridy ?"
	Suzuko winced, her ears drooping. "She ... she's gone. Not dead, just Gone. Gralius said her body's healed but her spirit's departed - we're keeping her downstairs. She can't walk or talk, and she won't eat. Nobody's sure what's wrong."
	"Apples." Kazuko murmured, turning over in the soft bed "Try apples. Porridge, she likes that too..."

	An hour later, one of the human servants had taken over the bedside vigil while Suzuko joined her friends downstairs.
	"Great place, eh ?" Machsan toasted, raising a two-litre flagon as she walked into the Great Hall "Come on, try their home brew !"
	"I just might." Suzuko sat down heavily on a bench, suddenly realising just how tired she was. She sat in a great semi-circular room, where windows looked out onto the wild lands below. She frowned. There were no windows visible from the outside of the tower.
	Benches flanked a long black table, that led up to two high chairs at the end. One of those was occupied; the sorceress Shakarna sat at the head of the table, chatting happily with her daughters Mangana and Ryko.
	Suzuko remembered her manners, and stood up to bow respectfully.
	Shakarna smiled cheerfully, and waved her closer. "Miss Hohki ! Come and sit here - clear a space, Mangana. " She waited till Suzuko sat, the vixen delicately moving her tail out of the way. "I've heard so much about you - glad to see you're healed." She offered Suzuko a plain silvery beaker of clear wine. "Our own special vintage - I laid it down when Mangana here was born. Kampai !"
	"Many Thanks," Suzuko gratefully accepted the beaker. And looked at it in puzzlement, even as she drained it. The vintage was excellent, fully the equal of a good Icelandic Chablis - but there was something odd about the container.
	"This is titanium, isn't it ?" She tapped the light, silvery metal cautiously. "You can get it through Dimensional Customs ?"
	Shakarna laughed, while her daughters looked on in silent amusement. "My dear girl, I Don't have to. I'm out here in the Twisted Zone for several good reasons - you've heard how it got this way ?" She gestured at the windows - and the view outside altered to show a writhing mirage, knots and eddies of sorcerous flame gushing out like a burning oil-well. "Someone transmuted lead to plutonium - and it was running in a Transformation circle at the time. Transformations are easy as nowhere else, here - I could turn that back into copper, without any difficulty."
	Suzuko realised what had been nagging at the back of her mind since she had arrived. The doors and windows were massive plates of grey steel, ten or twenty centimetres thick. She doubted that all the forges in the kingdom she had seen so far, could turn that much sheet armour out in a year. But if Shakarna could simply quarry stone and Transform it.....
	She licked the inside of her beaker clean politely, wishing as she sometimes did for human-style lips and cheeks; they made drinking SO much easier.
	"Tuck in," Mangana urged "We had a snack when we got in - sorry, we forgot to send you any up. So much to talk about." She squeezed Horst's muscle-corded hand reassuringly. "Still, we've time to make it up to you - we'll be here now until we go back to Earth."
	Gralius gave a discreet cough, and addressed the head of the table. "Many thanks for your hospitality, Lady. But we have a Mission to fulfil. I fear tomorrow, we will have to part company - our way lies South, over the mountains and possibly into the Witch-Queen's lands."
	Beauvette looked down at her friends, her ears twitching. She had grown to like the odd party - they had lent skills that she would never possess, and made the journey lighter by far than it might have been. Just then, an idea struck her.
	"Say," she rumbled "you still don't know how we're going to find out who's been after us all this time, do you ?" The silence in the room was suddenly impressive. "If you ever come back, to Dystope or wherever - you'll be in just the same fix, and without us to back you up."
	Mangana winced. "She's right, Mother. But what can we do ? Even with the time distortion between here and Earth, we've all got to be back in two weeks - and Kaz wants to get back as soon as she can, she says. We can't go haring off into the wilds for months - and there's no telling HOW long it'll take."
	Shakarna's brow furrowed, as she looked down the table at her guests and household. "Tricky," she admitted "definitely tricky."
	On the right-hand side of the table, Ryko whispered something to her, a scaled wing-tip shielding them. The sorceress brightened up, and nodded.
	"Enjoy the meal -" she rose, and gathered up various items in what Suzuko was shocked to recognise was a surplus nuclear-arming code bag. "Ryko's just reminded me - I have an experimental spell I'm working on, that just might help matters. Mangana, look after our guests, please." With that, she hurried out of the room with the demon-winged daughter following, her face a set mask of concentration.
	"What is that about ?" Horst asked curiously, watching them leave in the direction of the main tower staircase.
	Mangana shrugged. "I haven't caught up on ALL the news yet," she reminded him. "But last time, they'd stumbled across a way to tap into the family talent - you know the way my Danger sense looks forward in time ? Well, they had some ideas on selecting the future - spotting key events and all that. I'd no idea they were nearly ready to run an actual test yet."
	Gralius was looking distinctly unwell at the prospect. 
	"Cheer up !" Beauvette slapped him ringingly on the back, the minotaur's eyes glittering in the firelight that supplemented the sourcelessly glowing roof "they're only going to give us some advice. Don't have to take it if we don't want to, do we ?"
	"Aye," Machsan gestured with a huge joint of rare-cooked meat, his white-furred jaws stained red. "An' what about Meridy, eh ? You're bound to try and do something for her, aren't you ?"
	The feline priest's ears drooped. "I've tried all I know," he confessed. "The best thing'd be to take her back to a bigger Temple, let a higher Priest try to restore her. And - no offence meant, but I wouldn't be too happy at leaving her here. Not because of what you might do to her - but if she DOES get better, I'd like it to be a long way from the rest of you."
	Suzuko's ears blushed. After all her cautioning of Kazuko to try and avoid making trouble, she had put her foot in it herself - there had been no real reason to mention that her mate was an unlawful crossbreed. On this world, the Newbloods HAD been Chaos Hybrids, but that was before their saving by Dhoreen, who had transformed them back into stable species, albeit looking much like the best of the stock Enteropes had been stolen from. Not surprisingly, when all the hybrids on this world were associated with evil cults, folk tended to jump to hasty conclusions.
	"Apart from the dragons," she murmured under her breath "there's a sort of tradition of dragon crosses way before Chaos arrived here, so I've read.."
	"Come on, then," Beauvette urged. "At least wait till we hear what our hostess's got to say for hersself, eh ? An' if we don't fix Meridy, we'll HAVE to leave her here - there's nothin' this side of the Southwall Mountains, and we can't take her over those the way she's now."
	"And we can't carry her back to Whertondale, either - not without crossin' the Zone twice again, with far less of a party." Machsan clinched it. "So..." he gave a happy sigh, as a serving-boy refilled his huge flagon. "Time spent in reconnaissance is never wasted, as me old Commander used to say. An' he'd also say, ter save our strength for when it counted most - so why not let the Sorceress do some lookin' fer us ?"
	Gralius held up his hands in defeat. "All right, all right," he sighed, making a wry smile. "After today, I can't deny that Primane's still happy with our progress - he was actually here with us, watching." Suddenly, he frowned. "And he wasn't the only one. There was another divinity around Meridy to heal her body, and I somehow picked up the idea ... there was something else besides."
	Mangana shrugged. "There ARE seven Law Ladies'n'Lords," she reminded him "If you believe that. Which leaves five to pick from."
	He shook his head, the feline whiskers twitching. "I know what they're like, well enough to recognise their works when I see them," he insisted. "This was something - Different." He glanced at the anime-eyed girl. "Do you have a goddess of your own back home, something like your own image ? I got a definite impression she was ..." He frowned. "I really don't know if there's a word for it. Anyway, she was right here watching."
	Suzuko found herself reaching for the wine bottle, and pouring herself a generous cupfull as a horrible realisation hit her. The first half of it barely hit the sides as she tossed it back down her throat, trying to quell the sudden trembling. Gralius had at least chosen which God to follow - but Suzuko had been Chosen by a Goddess. The same new face in the pantheon that Gralius had caught a glimpse of had brushed past them today, she was certain.
	Beauvette watched her expression. "This'll be interestin'," she commented, reaching for her own flagon. "Never seen her tryin' to get smashed drunk before."

	Suzuko dimly remembered the rest of that evening. She vaguely recalled a concerned-sounding Horst and Mangana having to steer her upstairs, and Mangana pouring half a pitcher of water down her throat before setting her on the bed.
	She did recall being gently shaken awake, what felt like a few minutes later. Outside, it was still dark and stormy.
	"Wakey Wakey," Mangana was saying insistently. "I'd have let you sleep - but Mother wants to see you immediately."
	"Now ?" Suzuko's head was spinning horribly, in the unpleasant phase between being drunk and hung over.
	"Now. It's just after three in the morning - she's been working all night on this."
	Suzuko struggled to her feet, and padded through what seemed like endless dimly lit corridors, climbing to the top of the tower. And stopped.
	The upper ring of the tower was one colossal laboratory, with great glass panels beaded with rain to let the fitful cloud-cloaked light of the twin moons fight through the night. Shakarna was standing in front of a crackling display of electrical arcs, arranged in a dazzling ring on the floor. She waved Suzuko forward.
	Negotiating the open floor like the pitching deck of a ship, Suzuko finally stood glassy-eyed before the sorceress. 
	Shakarna shook her head sadly, her raven tresses swinging. "That really WON'T do you any good," she commented. "Divinities will find you out, whatever state you're in."
	"You ... Know ?" Suzuko gulped, her throat suddenly dry. "I thought you managed to - steer clear, Mangana says."
	"Oh, yes. I know your problem - don't forget, I'm looking at alternate futures here. In a lot of them, you become a Priestess in the Very near future. In Some of them, you get to like the job. Which is good - because you need to have it."
	The vixen's tail drooped. "And - what if I don't ?" She asked quietly.
	Shakarna looked at her sadly. "Some of them, you get away with it. But there's rather a lot where it's bad news for the folk around you - I'm afraid in half of those, Beauvette and her party don't even get to the Southwall foothills alive - and I haven't found one where they complete their mission. Bear up, please, Miss Hohki."
	Suzuko found herself sitting down hard on the floor. "And - you woke me up to tell me that cheerful news ?" She asked quietly, trying not to disturb her spinning head too much.
	A sympathetic nod. "Because you've got to make your mind up, very soon now."

	Some minutes later, Suzuko was back in her room, forcing hot sweet tea down herself and looking out at the black night outside. At last she sighed, and cast herself back on the bed. Relaxing, she thought of her unexpectedly Close Encounter of the night before.
	For a few minutes nothing happened, except that her head felt better. She recalled how Kazuko had entheused over her own experiences back on Earth, where Gods had only been taking a direct interest in "mortal affairs" for the past three decades. The anime-eyed girl had more than happily taken part in several such affairs herself.
	"What you give, is what you get," she had proclaimed, a faraway look in her huge eyes "and when I'm bedded down on some nice altar, you bet I give - Everything ! Mental as well as physical, I mean - you just don't want to hold anything back.  I definitely recommend it."
	Suzuko hoped her new divine acquaintance was not going to demand the same of her. She thought longingly of Home - and suddenly, realised she was no longer alone.
	HIDY ! Glad to see you ! The Presence waved cheerfully. It had taken on another form this time, a floppy-eared lepine avatar whose pink fur looked softer than thistledown. Suddenly, those mile-high ears drooped. Someone's been hurting you . Oh my. And I could have stopped them. 
	"I wasn't sure if I ought to call on you," Suzuko said, bowing respectfully. It was good policy to be respectful to deities regardless of their interest in you, she reminded herself. Only the term before, her enemy Shiitake had disdainfully set fire to an idol of Ukshasta, the Voodoo Pantheon God Of Accountacy, for being "Un-Japanese" - and the next week, mysterious banking errors had wiped out his entire credit-card suite.
	"Anyway -" she drew a deep breath. "I've got an answer. I'll be your Priestess - but first I've a request to make. It's not for me, it's for my friends. If you can do it, though, it'll help spread your name all over." She had heard of what various divinities asked of their worshippers, and Public Relations was a big part of it - though hopefully not in the same way Kazuko worshipped on a fine day.
	Nice. It's good to help people. What do you want ?
	Suzuko rapidly ran through what Beauvette and Gralius had told her of their mission, one that the Sorceress had seen foundering in future after future without assistance. She showed what had happened on their trip so far, spreading the problem out like a tangled skein for inspection. "I want, before we go back to Earth," she said slowly "I want an answer to ... THAT."

	Dawn saw a tired vixen standing on the rim of the upper tower, looking out into the cold wind. She shivered, her fur feeling greasy and her head still pounding. But her mind was clear; she was sure enough that she had made the best decision. Trouble was, she reflected - what's it going to cost me ?
	She turned at a footstep behind. "Gralius !" She exclaimed "Up early too ?"
	The feline priest fixed her with a level gaze. "I had a true-seeing dream, last night. And this, I have checked with Primane, after the cruel trick someone played on Meridy to throw her in our path. In ten days, the folk we seek will be in Helmahay, in the foothills of the Southwall Mountains. But..." he paused, and Suzuko felt the tingle of an Alignment spell pass over her "The true-seeing was associated closely with YOU. And just how did you manage that ?"
	The vixen winced. "You might say, I had a Religious Experience. If Primane approves of it, are you going to follow it up ?"
	Gralius sighed, and his whiskers drooped. "We'll have to. It's not far off the route we were going anyway. But I'd be a lot happier if I knew where the information came from."
	Suzuko's ears dipped, and her tail brushed the ground. "No you wouldn't. Trust me on this."

	"Yay ! Breakfast !" Kazuko Leclerc rubbed her hands together gleefully as they sat down to a well-spread table an hour later. "The best place to eat for miles, this is - of course, it'd be that even if it wasn't the Only place, too..." she began to heap fresh fruit and wheaten bread on her plate. "Got to stoke up on the ol' vitamins and minerals."
	"Feeling all right, Suki ?" Mangana asked cautiously. "You're not looking too bright."
	Suzuko cautiously shook her head, checking that nothing rattled. "Sorry about last night .... at least I've got things settled now." She grimaced. "Do you have any - ribbons I could borrow ? Broad, pretty ones suitable for a big bow or two. Yellow or pink would be best."
	Mangana's eyebrows raised. "I'll go check with Ryko - she goes in for that sort of thing. But I've never seen you wearing them before."
	"You will. Some things, you just have to get used to."
	"Attention, friends," Gralius stood up at the table. "As I said, we must be on our way today - myself, Beauvette and Vazeeq are pledged to go, and Machsan has offered to aid us. But none of you have reason to go further into danger - though we'd welcome you along. In twenty days we hope to be back, if all goes well - and possibly with some answers. But if we fail to return, will you see that Meridy is returned to our Healers ?"
	"Of course ! That is, if she still needs it." Mangana nodded to one of the staircases. "She's eating now - seems to only like fruit and porridge, and she's spilling half of it. But she's managed to stand up." She frowned. "Anyway - I'm coming with you. You need backup, and I know the Zone, so I'll be tagging along."
	"And I." Came Horst's  quiet tones.
	Suzuko eyed the well-stocked board before her hungrily. "What time are you leaving ? I'll go pack."
	"Oh, no, Suki." Mangana grinned. "You need to rest that arm. Sorcery's subject to the Law of Diminishing Returns, you know - to get the last tenth of your strength back, that'd take more power than you've had in total so far - you need to heal the rest naturally. And Kazuko, too - the Zone's no place to be worried about opening wounds."
	"Hey ! I'm fine." Kazuko objected. But then a gleam came to her huge blue eyes. "But of course... someone's got to stay and take care of Meridy, someone who knows her."	
	Mangana shot her a suspicious glance. "Right. Well, if you Want to volunteer, after what she did."
	Her cousin's pumpkin head nodded cheerfully. "Oh, you know. Dhoreen always tells us we should make the world a better place. She's not into Anger or Jealousy - in fact, she's got a definite "down" on them. You ought to see what happens to people when..." she broke off, and busied herself with wolfing down a steaming platefull of stewed apples.
	Suzuko relaxed. She would have dutifully followed her friends out again and shared their dangers - but Mangana was quite right, her left arm was still weak. She might manage a few shots with her bow, but from then on was liable to be a liability herself - and two or three weeks here at Mangana's ancestral home, would be a Very welcome change of pace.
	For a full ten minutes she concentrated on enjoying her meal - the first truly excellent Breakfast since they had left Whertondale, over a week ago. Though the alcohol stoves were tenfold better than open fires, still they could scarcely compete with a fully equipped kitchen. And one well supplied with fresh eggs, chicken and saucer-sized black mushrooms fried in bacon fat .... definitely, this was an experience she was looking forward to repeating.
	"So you'll be off, too ?" She looked over at Horst, who was tucking into crisp bacon himself. Horst no longer retained very decided views about his relations with other species, and had no objection to eating non-sentients even if they were distant relatives of his.
	The boar nodded. "Mangana's going as scout, so I'm going as backup. It's rough out there." He looked out of the strange one-way windows in the tower, to where scattered sunshine was falling on the tumbled lands.
	"Take care - Don't do anything I wouldn't do." Kazuko's huge eyes gleamed. "Oh, if you DO think of anything I wouldn't do, take notes."
	Mangana sighed, and put her arm round her bristly mate. Then she smiled, and pressed her snub nose to his ear, gently kissing him. "The Zone may have some dangers in it," she murmured. "But just think about it. No Kazuko ! I'm feeling better about leaving already."

	Back in her room, Suzuko stood in front of the mirror, and with a strange expression, adjusted the bright pink bows round her ears. They were much too big - in other words, exactly right for their purpose. Turning round, she tightened the even bigger one on her tail root, briefly flashing a smile as she remembered the happy occasions her own tail would be neatly bandaged. Then she winced, her ears drooping: possibly her new Goddess might tell her to give up taking the season suppressants. That would be welcome, assuming she could get to Pathwan at the relevant time....
	"This is doing me NO good," she told her reflection sharply. And then turned from looking in to looking out, down into the courtyard. 
	Kazuko was coming out of the stables, with what looked like a webbing harness - then she recognised it as horse harness, a fairly severe-looking restraining set of hobbles and straps. The anime-eyed girl was looking wide-eyed and grinning broadly, a sure sign that set Suzuko's Mischief Detector ringing.
	Adjusting her bows once again, Suzuko cast one last glance at her reflection and headed downstairs. On the ground floor there was a scullery facing into the courtyard, a wide well-lit place where sorcerously heated water splashed into stone sinks.
	"Great ! You're just in time - and I DO like the ribbons." Kazuko busied herself filling a bucket with warm soapy water, and dropped a sponge in. "Want to lend a hand getting things cleaned ? Meridy's sort of looking after things over there; Riord's going to take some grooming." Her eyes widened, and her tongue licked lips as her expression became very distant. "My, won't she just."
	"What ?" The vixen's ears went up in curiosity. "Of course I'll help - I didn't think they'd be short of folk to do the washing up, with all these servants and magic items around." She gestured at the banks of arcanely powered tumble-driers on one wall.
	Kazuko nodded, staying silent as Suzuko followed her across the courtyard, into the stables. And stopped, a fox tail going rigid at the sight before her.
	"Well," Kazuko grinned, as she gently walked Riord around the stable, hooves still shod in padded muffles "Told you Riord had been sort of conscripted as a Paladin's mount - that sort of replaces all her other interests in life. Which is something Dhoreen doesn't really approve of - so we've put things right. Just keeping her moving, will help matters settle." For a few minutes Kazuko led the shocked-looking mare up and down the straw-floored stalls; eagerly looking on was Meridy, or she who had been Meridy. The long-haired girl gave a strange whickering noise, and reached up to stroke Pomegranate's wide-nostrilled muzzle with a tentative hand. 
	The giant Northmarch stallion snorted gently in her face, Meridy responding in turn. Odd, Suzuko thought. Riord had shown no great affection for any of the party before, except his sharp-horned owner.
	Suzuko looked on wide-eyed and speechless as Kazuko happily went to work with sponge and soap on the two horses, now resting in separate pens. Unlike herself, Riord had NOT needed to wait long to see her chosen mate.

	"I'm not sure that was really a nice thing to do." Suzuko said under her breath two hours later, as she waved goodbye from the main gateway at the party departing for the Southwall mountains.
	Kazuko waved until they were out of sight. "Why not ? There they go, they won't be back for weeks. No time like the present - and I think I know now how Pomegranate got his name." She winked.
	Suzuko shuddered. In the stables, an ex-war mare had spent the morning being transformed into a brood mare. "Too late now, anyway." She turned to Meridy, who was standing obediently at Kazuko's side. "What are we going to do with her ? Maybe Mangana's mother can come up with a cure."
	Kazuko offered an apple, Meridy taking it gingerly, as if learning to grasp for the first time. She ate slowly, grinding her teeth from side to side as she chewed.
	"Oh. No, I don't think so. She says she's fine as she is - isn't that right ?" Kazuko ran a slender hand through Meridy's long hair, massaging her scalp almost as if she was skritching her. Meridy gave a strange sound, and affectionately butted her head towards Kazuko's moon-face. "It's just there's a lot she needs to get used to - and she's having a great time finding out. Still, she's got a whole lifetime for that now, three times the lifespan she's used to. Lucky girl, eh ? You might say, Dhoreen herself's got a personal interest in her." With a gentle tug on the leash, she motioned Meridy to follow her, stumbling slightly, back indoors.
	Suzuko watched them go. And then felt a strange sensation in the pit of her stomach. 
	A minute later, she was back in the stables, looking wide-eyed at the mare standing disconsolately in the stall, chewing through a hot bran mash from the feeding trough.
	Suzuko ran a nervous paw down the still-damp flank, and looked into the brown eyes as if trying to see some desperate spark of intelligence struggling inside there. Riord had been forced into service of an immortal deity, her normal mortal needs suppressed and denied by a Paladin who cared nothing for them. And a certain ex-Paladin had almost killed Kazuko, whereupon a strange set of events had sprang into being.
	"You brought it on yourself, Meridy" Suzuko said wryly, one ear dipped as she addressed the quivering brood mare. A human spirit was now trapped in one end of the equine body, and something quite different in the other. "I've heard the local deities do things like this - Dhoreen's said to have a sense of humour...... so you DON'T mess with her worshippers like that !"