look upon his face - so smug, so self-assured.
So dangerous.
All of the reports that had followed Brynn home served to heighten that uneasy feeling. Bolstered by their great victory over their primary opponent, the Behrenese armies were on the march out of Jacintha. Several provinces and cities had already fallen back under the blanket of Yatol Mado Wadon and the principle city, which was what Brynn and her comrades had hoped from the beginning. But those armies were being accompanied by a large number of priests - not only Chezru, but Abellican! Many Honce-the- Bear soldiers were also filling the ranks of the "Jacintha" force, and at least one report from Dahdah Oasis claimed that it was the northmen, not the Behrenese, who were truly in command.
"You look as if you expect an attack from Jacintha at any moment," came a familiar voice, taking Brynn from her contemplations. She turned her head to regard Pagonel as he walked up beside her at the parapet.
"Abbot Olin seems to be an ambitious man," the woman remarked.
Pagonel nodded and stared out to the dark east.
"It is my fear that we fought not for Jacintha and Mado Wadon, but for Olin of Honce-the-Bear," Brynn explained.
"I have heard words to that effect," the mystic agreed.
Brynn turned on him. "What have we done?"
"We stopped Tohen Bardoh, and that bodes well for To-gai," Pagonel reasoned. "If your old nemesis had taken Jacintha, then we would have more than us two staring out to the east, and the expectation of attack would be a near certainty, I believe. And so do you."
"Bardoh would never have allowed the To-gai-ru to hold Dharyan- Dharielle," Brynn agreed.
"Then you have done well, yes?"
The fact that Pagonel had turned the statement into a question alerted Brynn to the fact that he was asking her to look deeper within herself here, to examine her feelings honestly and openly. That was why she valued Pagonel's company more than simple friendship. His calm demeanor went to the core of his rational being. His embracing of the Jhesta Tu code gave him a perfectly rational perspective on all issues, a clearheaded ability to weigh every situation in every context, large and small. When the Chezhou-Lei warriors had arrived at the Mountains of Fire, challenging the Jhesta Tu to battle, there had been little irrational emotion guiding the hand of the Jhesta Tu leaders, including Pagonel, just a simple estimate of the good and bad of it.
The Jhesta Tu were complete human beings, Brynn thought as she regarded the always-serene mystic. In Pagonel, she saw true contentment and harmony, and it was a state that she surely envied and aspired to.
"I fear that Abbot Olin has gained the upper hand over Yatol Mado Wadon,"
Brynn said after a bit more reflection. "The blanket of Jacintha takes on a decidedly Abellican point of view, by all that I am hearing from those cities that have capitulated to the marching army. Behren will soon be reunited, no doubt, north to south, east to west, but she will not be the same as before the fall of Chezru Chieftain Yakim Douan."
"How could she be?" Pagonel asked. "Douan's fall revealed a terrible betrayal, one that went to the heart of the Chezru religion and the leadership of Behren. The faith of the Yatols and of their flock was shaken, indeed, and perhaps shattered. Whatever form Chezru takes as it rises from the ashes of Yakim Douan's wreckage will, by necessity, be very different from the church as it was."
"But will it come to resemble the Abellican religion of Honce-the-Bear?"
Brynn asked. "For that is what Abbot Olin seems to be about, and Yatol Wadon is apparently not disagreeing."
"Would that be a bad thing? The Abellicans have had their own trials in recent years - perhaps one day I will tell you of the fall of Father Abbot Markwart and the rise of the followers of Avelyn Desbris."
Brynn looked at him curiously. She had heard a bit of that tale, from the Touel'alfar and in her time as leader of To-gai, when she had learned that Aydrian, her old training companion, had assumed the throne of the northern kingdom.
"Aydrian's mantle as king would seem to speak of that very event, since his mother and father were among those who rode with Avelyn."
"And now Honce-the-Bear has come down to Behren to aid in their crisis,"
Pagonel said. "Perhaps Abbot Olin understands well this type of trouble and is sharing his expertise with a devastated Chezru leadership."
Brynn stared