The Palace (Bell Mountain Series #6) by Lee Duigon Page A

in Obann, inviting him to come to the city under cover of peace talks and then be recognized by them as First Prester. The thing could not possibly be done, wrote Merffin Mord, unless Goryk was there in person.
     
    “The College of Presters has elected this man Orth,” Merffin wrote, “but there are those who hold that, College notwithstanding, the election cannot be valid because there is no Temple of the Lord. And as for this rigmarole preached by Orth about an imaginary Temple not made by human hands, we know not what to make of it, & neither do most of the people in the city. Better a Temple at Kara Karram, we say, than no Temple at all! But for us to prevail in the argument requires your presence in the city.”
     
    Goryk had not yet decided what to do. Just to go to Obann would be difficult. There was an army in Lintum Forest that might come out and attack him. It was King Ryons’ army, and Goryk feared it. Had it not annihilated two invasion forces sent into the forest to defeat it? To say nothing of what the people of Obann would think if he came to the city with Obannese blood on his hands and a Heathen army at his back!
     
    “You worry needlessly,” Zo said. “Let the Lintum army come out after us—we have the means to destroy it.”
     
    He was referring to another secret, the most closely guarded secret he and Goryk had: a power against which there could be no defense.
     
    “I would rather not have to use those means against King Ryons’ army,” Goryk said. “If Obann recognizes me as First Prester and submits to our master the Thunder King and to his New Temple in Kara Karram, we shall have won a decisive victory without the risk of a battle. I would rather not have to stake everything on a power that I don’t understand.”
     
    “But how will you get to Obann, except escorted by your army?” Zo said. “That new baron controls the traffic on the river, so we cannot go by boat, nor march along the River Road. As for any risk involved in battle, it seems very small to me!
     
    “No one understands the power of the ancients. No one remembers what spells the ancients used to bind demons and make them obey. But I have seen that power: you know I employed it to put down a rebellion on the Great Lakes. It would have taken a mighty army a long time to put down that rebellion, but the demon did it in the blink of an eye. It caused men to drown themselves in the lake. Those who weren’t driven mad were struck blind. All in an instant! You should have seen them throwing themselves out of the canoes and into the water, never to come up again.”
     
    So far, the terror of the Thunder King’s name, and Goryk’s liberal application of the gallows and the whipping post, had been adequate to keep the peace in Silvertown. So far, he’d been afraid to use the power that Zo had brought to him in a box, all the way from Kara Karram—a gift from the Thunder King, infinitely rare, beyond all price.
     
    “We’ll defeat the Lintum army,” Zo said.
     
    “Only to have to fight again, under the walls of Obann!” Goryk said. “I’d rather win without fighting. These foolish councilors in Obann have offered us a golden opportunity.”
     
    Zo shrugged. “I’m only here to serve our master, side by side with you,” he said. “Perhaps between the two of us we’ll find the perfect plan.”
     
    “Perhaps,” Goryk said. And now, he thought, he had this boy from Ninneburky, whom Ysbott thought to be the king. Was this a new piece on the board, Goryk wondered, that he could use to his advantage? How many people in Obann would realize that this boy was not the king? It seemed to him the Council would be eager to say he was the king, even knowing that he wasn’t. “We must think on this, Zo. We have our chessmen in position for victory. It’s just a matter of finding the correct moves.”
     
    Zo didn’t play chess, and the analogy was lost on him, but he wasn’t averse to devoting more thought to the