Impossible! came a gasping denial.

You forget the nature of this mortal, came a surprising taunt from the Goddess, slapping Val in the face for his failure. It is not his power that defeats you, bound one, it is mine. Face it, my worthy adversary. You won't win this easily. My power protects him, and so long as his faith in me is strong, you cannot harm him in such a manner. If you try to strike him down, I will prevent it.

Seek you to unmake all in a direct confrontation, cursed witch? came his hissing retort.

If that's what you want, then bring it on, she said pugnaciously. I'm feeling rather energetic today. What about you?

There was a long silence.

I'm not as cautious as the others, Val, the Goddess taunted. My power isn't vital to the world. The world can survive without me. That's why it's my task to oppose you. So any time you want to gather up your insignificant little power and face me, just let me know. I'll come and strike you down with all the power of a true god.

Tarrin sensed the incalculable levels of insult his Goddess had just unleashed against Val, and he clearly heard the howl of fury coming from his divine adversary. But then the howling stopped, and he could actually sense Val as he regathered himself.

Thy mission will end here, Were-cat, he warned. I will send a servant for what thou carries. Relenquish the Firestaff to me now, or thy daughter suffers for thine stubbornness!

"Listen to me," Tarrin said audibly in one of the most evil voices Jesmind had ever heard come out of him, "if you so much as touch my daughter, I'll make sure you will never get the Firestaff," he hissed with all the sincerity he could muster. "I understand the secret of the amulet, you bastard. If I destroy my amulet while the Firestaff is locked within it, it will be forever destroyed. If you harm her, you will never- never!-get the Firestaff. You'll be cursed to being forever bound inside your icon, with all your mighty power, but no way to bring it to bear against anything you cannot see!"

With some satisfaction, he realized he hit a nerve. The rage that swelled up against him was almost indescribable. Rage and fury and hatred, raw, sheer, utter hatred, a hatred so intense it almost had a life of its own.

"I am coming for my daughter," he said in a cold voice. "If you want a piece of me, you'll get your chance. But if you touch my daughter, if there's so much as a hair out of place on her head, I'll give you a reason to scream!"

That sent the imprisoned god into new throes of furious raging. Val had a temper. Tarrin filed that bit of information away for future use as the god somehow managed to get control of himself. Thou art quite brave to speak so to a god, he said in a smug kind of self-inflating way, as if to remind himself that he was one.

"When my daughter is concerned, I don't care who you are," he seethed.

Tarrin's disrespect seemed to flare the god's anger, but he kept it under control If thou art so insistent on death, then come, he said hotly. Come. I will allow thee to stand in the might of my presence and understand the folly that grips thy mind and soul.

"I'll be there, on my terms," Tarrin flung that back at Val. "So chew on that. I'll come at a time of my own choosing, and you will face me on my terms. What I have is more important to you than what you have is important to me. I know it, you know it. So wait for me, impotent godling, wait for me and know that you march to the drum of a mortal."

Val fled from him then, but it was a retreat marked by infuriated screams. Tarrin had managed to pretty thoroughly irritate and anger the god Val, and that was exactly what he wanted to do. Tarrin had learned the hard way that anger was more a weapon to one's opponent than it was to one's self. He wanted Val angry when they met face to face, because that anger would help him.

If you wanted him mad, you certainly did a good job, the Goddess said to him, her voice amused. Is that a part of your ultra-secret plan, kitten? So secret you won't even let me see it?

"I have my reasons."

I know you do. That's why I've respected your privacy, came her light response.

"I'm surprised you faced him like that."

I took a risk, she admitted. This isn't the first time me and Val have thrown rocks across the fence, kitten. You know that. He knows I'll face him if he pushes me, and that keeps him from trying. Val is just as afraid of losing as we are. When you're a god, you have a lot more to lose.

"Not as much as anyone else."

You misunderstand, kitten. Val won't be banished, he will die. His very soul is caught up in what he is. If he is destroyed, if he dies, that destruction will be utter. Where the soul of a mortal goes on to either reap the rewards or suffer the penalties for the actions they took in life, Val's soul will not do that. It will be destroyed in his death along with him, and he will face total annihilation, kitten. He fears that, as anyone would. That is the price of using the Firestaff, kitten. You become a god, but you commit your very existence to your new state of being.

He was a bit surprised at that, but it made sense, given Val's pattern of behavior. "I understand," he said. "So what's coming will be nothing more than a battle between armies."

I don't know. Val fears me, but he doesn't fear the other gods as much as he does me. He knows I'll take him on, and I won't have much fear in doing it. The other gods will be just as terrified of the idea as Val, but Val would be the one initiating it, so he'd probably feel more confident about it. After all, he'd have gotten himself ready to do it. This is why I've always been the one to deal with him, kitten. My power is the only one that can oppose him significantly enough to reign him in. I've kept him in check for five thousand years, but with the time of the Firestaff's activation so close, he's started gambling. Just as we have.

He understood that, understood it more deeply than she probably realized. Val's fear of destruction had kept him working behind the scenes for five thousand years, preparing everything for the day he got his hands on the Firestaff and could use it to become more powerful than even the Goddess could withstand. He had committed five thousand years of work, planning, sweat and toil to this, to the item Tarrin carried with him, and he had set plans in motion to move forward with his dreams of conquest. And being surprisingly forward-thinking, he had set things up so he could make his attempt to conquer and rule whether he got the Firestaff or not. Val had grown tired of working behind the scenes. He was willing to gamble on how involved the Elder Gods would get and try to conquer, maybe gain a foothold for himself and establish a kingdom in the West from which to operate as he consolidated his forces and waited another five thousand years for the chance to free himself of his prison.

And if he failed, it wouldn't matter. In a few thousand years, after everything had returned to normal, he could begin again.

It was a win-win situation for Val. Win the world, or lose his army and simply pull back and wait to try again. And again, and again, and again, continuing to try, continuing to test, until he did finally win. Because the gods were afraid to put an end to him, he could thumb his nose at them and simply wait for another opportunity to overthrow their power in the world.

Releasing the power of Sorcery, Tarrin felt an icy resolve grip him. If that was the way it was, then so be it.

"I take it something big just happened?" Jesmind asked.

"Val tried to kill me," he said in a grim voice. "Mother stopped him. He can't kill me because I'm under Mother's protection. Now he's waiting for us, Jesmind. He's waiting for us at Gora Umadar."

"Then let's not disappoint him," she said shortly.

"We won't, but we still have to get there on Gods' Day," he told her. "That hasn't changed. But now we can move and only worry about the Demons and the patrols. Val knows he can't kill us directly, so we only have to worry about the servants he tries to put in our path."