The lie of wisdom is best hidden in monologue. Dialogue exposes it. Most people purporting to wisdom dare not engage in dialogue, lest they reveal the paucity of their assumptions and the frailty of their convictions. Better to say nothing, to nod and look thoughtful.

Was that notion worth a treatise? Yet another self-indulgent meander for the hall of scrolls? How many thoughts could one explore? Discuss, weigh, cast and count? All indulgences. The woman looking for the next meal for her child has no time for such things. The warrior shoulder to shoulder in a line facing an enemy can only curse the so-called wisdom that led him to that place. The flurry of kings and their avaricious terrors. The brutal solidity of slights and insults, grievances and disputes. Does it come down to who will eat and who will not! Or does it come down to who will control the option? The king’s privilege in deciding who cats and who starves, privilege that is the taste of power, its very essence, in fact!

Are gods and goddesses any different!

To that question, she knew Anomander Rake would but smile. He would speak of Mother Dark and the necessity of every decision she made-even down to the last one of turning away from her children. And he would not even blink when stating that his betrayal had forced upon her that final necessity.

She would walk away then, troubled, until some stretch of time later, when, in the solitude of her thoughts, she would realize that, in describing the necessities binding Mother Dark, he was also describing his very own necessities-all that had bound him to his own choices.

His betrayal of Mother Dark, she would comprehend-with deathly chill-had been necessary.

In Rake’s mind, at any rate. And everything had simply followed on from there, inevitably, inexorably.

She could hear the rain lashing down on the temple’s domed roof, harsh as ar-rows on upraised shields. The sky was locked in convulsions, a convergence of in-imical elements. A narrow door to her left opened and one of her priestesses hurried in, then abruptly halted to bow. ‘High Priestess.’

‘Such haste,’ she murmured in reply, ‘so unusual for the temple historian.’

The woman glanced up, and her eyes were impressively steady. ‘A question, ii I may.’

‘Of course.’

‘High Priestess, are we now at war?’

‘My sweetness-old friend-you have no idea.’

The eyes widened slightly, and then she bowed a second time. ‘Will you sum-mon Feral, High Priestess?’

‘That dour creature? No, let the assassin stay in her tower. Leave her to lurk or whatever it is she does to occupy her time.’

‘Spinnock Durav-’

‘Is not here, I know that. I know that.’ The High Priestess hesitated, and then said, ‘We are now at war, as you have surmised. On countless fronts, only one of which-the one here-concerns us, at least for the moment. I do not think weapons need be drawn, however.’

‘High Priestess, shall we prevail?’

‘How should I know?’ Those words snapped out, to her instant regret as she saw her old friend’s gaze harden. ‘The risk,’ she said, in a quieter tone, ’is the gravest we have faced since… well, since Kharkanas.’

That shocked the temple historian-when nothing else had, thus far. But she recovered and, drawing a deep breath, said, ‘Then I must invoke my role, High Priestess. Tell me what must be told. All of it.’

‘For posterity?’

‘Is that not my responsibility?’

‘And if there will be no posterity? None to consider it, naught but ashes in the present and oblivion in place of a future? Will you sit scribbling until your last moment of existence?’

She was truly shaken now. ‘What else would you have me do?’

‘I don’t know. Go find a man. Make fearful love.’

‘I must know what has befallen us. I must know why our Lord sent away our greatest warrior, and then himself left us.’

‘Countless fronts, this war. As I have said. I can tell you intent-as I understand it, and let me be plain, I may well not understand it at all-but not result, for each outcome is unknown. And each must succeed.’

‘No room for failure?’

‘None.’

‘And if one should fail?’

‘Then all shall fail.’

‘And if that happens… ashes, oblivion-that will be our fate.’

The High Priestess turned away. ‘Not just ours, alas.’

Behind her, the historian gasped.

On all sides, water trembled in bowls, and the time for the luxurious consider-ation of possibilities was fast fading. Probably just as well.