Legacy of the Darksword by Margaret Weis, Tracy Hickman

Saryon,
adding dryly, “You would not have gone to this much trouble to recruit me
otherwise.”
    “No one knows about this except
the Duuk-tsarith, and they, as always, are sworn by their oaths of
loyalty to secrecy. Otherwise, Mosiah would have told you last night. Do you
remember Bishop Radisovik, whom you used to know as Cardinal Radis-ovik?”
    “Yes, yes. I remember. A good, sensible man. So he is Bishop now. Excellent!” said
Saryon.
    “The Bishop was working alone in
his study one day when he sensed someone in the room with him. He lifted his
head and was astonished to find a woman seated in a chair in front of his desk.
Now this was a very unusual occurrence, for the Bishop’s secretary has strict
orders never to introduce anyone into the Bishop’s office without an
appointment.
    “Fearing that perhaps the woman
was there to do him some type of harm, the Bishop talked to her pleasantly, all
the while using a secret button, hidden beneath his desk, to alert the guards.
    “The button apparently did not
work. No guards appeared. The woman, however, assured the Bishop that he had no
reason to be afraid.
    “ ‘I have come to give you
information,’ she said. ‘First, I suggest that you discontinue your war against
the Hch’nyv. You have no chance—absolutely none—of defeating the aliens. They
are far too strong and too powerful. You have seen only a smattering of their
entire force, which numbers in the billions of billions. They will not
negotiate with you. They have no need. They intend to destroy you and they will
succeed.’
    “The Bishop was astonished. The
woman, he said, was very calm and imparted this terrible information in a tone
which left no doubt in his mind but that she spoke the truth.
    “ ‘Excuse me, madam,’ the Bishop said, ‘but
who are you? Whom do you represent?’
    “She smiled at him and said, ‘Someone
very close to you, who takes a personal interest in you.’ Then she continued,
telling him, ‘You and the people of Earth and Thimhallan have one chance for
survival. The Darksword destroyed the world. It may now be used to save it.’
    “ ‘But the Darksword no longer exists,’
Bishop Radisovik protested. ‘It was itself destroyed.’
    “ ‘It has been forged anew. Offer it
to Thimhallan’s maker and find salvation.’
    “At that moment the Bishop’s
intercom buzzed. He turned to answer it, and when he looked back, the woman was
gone. He had not heard her leave, any more than he had heard her enter. He
questioned his secretary and the building’s security people, who said that no
one had either gone into or come out of the Bishop’s office. The button on the
desk was discovered to be operational. No one could say why they hadn’t heard
the alarm.
    “What was truly remarkable,”
Garald added, “is that the security cameras in the building show no evidence of
this woman, not even the camera which is placed in the Bishop’s office. Even
stranger—at that point in time we knew nothing of the fact that Smythe had been
to visit Joram or that Joram had, as the woman said, forged a new Darksword.”
    “To what does the Bishop
attribute this visit, then?” Saryon asked.
    Garald hesitated, then replied, “Judging from what the woman said, about
representing someone very close to the Bishop, someone who takes a personal
interest in him, the Bishop is convinced that he was visited by an agent of the
Almin. An angel, if you will.”
    I noted that General Boris
shifted in his chair and looked extremely embarrassed and uncomfortable.
    “An agent, maybe,” said the
General. “CIA, Interpol, Her Majesty’s Secret Service, FBI. But not of God.”
    “How very interesting,” said
Saryon, and I could see him mulling over this in his mind.
    “Whoever brought us this
information, our own researchers now want that sword,” said General Boris. “To
determine if there really is some way we can use it to stop the Hch’nyv.”
    “But that wasn’t what the an— the