«I have heard everything,» said the Guardian, «and your life is mine to take as I will. You know this is true. You came here to do murder, without an oath protecting you, and disguised as a Holy Wanderer. Three times over, your life is mine to take.»

«That is so,» said the Wise One. It was the first sound she made.

«But I will not give you to Winter Owl or to Blade of England to kill slowly,» the Guardian went on. «Instead, I give Challenge. Meet my Challenge, here and now, without calling your friend Ellspa, and if you win, you may go free. «

The Wise One's eyes widened in surprise. «You swear this by the Wisdom?»

«Father-!» began Eye of Crystal, but Winter Owl gripped her arm.

«Do not shame him,» he whispered, so low that he probably thought no one heard him, and indeed no one except Blade did.

«Better dead than shamed?» Crystal replied in the same tone.

«Yes.»

She muttered something that sounded like a curse on all men in general, but then fell silent.

«I swear by the Wisdom that this shall be the Fourth Challenge,» said the Guardian.

«Then I shall meet you as Wise Ones and Guardians have met thrice before, and Ellspa shall not know of this.» She knelt and spread her hands on the ground. The Guardian knelt and spread his hands on top of hers. The Wise One was so graceful that Blade's mind flashed back to how he'd held that slim brown body locked to his.

After that there was nothing for everyone except the two shamans to do except leave the hut and let the Challenge proceed. Winter Owl led Eye of Crystal out, keeping a watchful eye on her, as if he was afraid she would speak out of turn again. Blade suspected that he might agree with Eye of Crystal if he knew more about this Challenge. He also knew that he couldn't say or do anything about it. The Guardian was going to do things his way and that was all there was to it.

The villagers who'd been inside the hut formed a ring around it, keeping the other villagers back at a safe distance. Two went and brought the Sweet Wisdom, in case either shaman's telepathy needed help. One of these was Winter Owl, and with him gone, Blade had a chance to talk to Crystal. He put down Moyla's body near Cheeky and led Crystal aside.

«What is this Challenge? A duel with the Voice?»

«Yes. They go together into the Sphere of Wisdom and fight with every weapon that may be used there.»

Blade frowned. Even if he hadn't experienced Latan telepathy, he would have known this could be dangerous. There were too many Home Dimension tales of paranormal powers being used to kill; not all of them could be dismissed as nonsense.

«He did not have to do it,» she said. She was as close to bursting into tears as Blade had ever seen her. «The Wise Bitch's life was his to take! But he knew the glory that came from the Challenge, and wanted it more than anything else!»

«It must be great glory, to make him want it so badly. «

«It is. His name will live forever. But Blade, in the last three Challenges, all six of the Guardians and Wise Ones died.»

«Damn,» said Blade softly. It was inadequate, but then he himself felt just a little inadequate in the face of a man blithely going to his death so that his name would live forever. Perhaps the Guardian was not showing the highest degree of wisdom, but he was certainly showing a kind of courage Blade wondered if he had himself.

He put an arm around Eye of Crystal's shoulders, and a minute later Cheeky joined them.

(«Is this Mistress a friend to the Master Blade?»)

(«Yes. «)

(«Then I want to be a friend to her. «) Cheeky put one arm around Crystal's leg, barely reaching her knee. It might have looked silly, but Blade felt no urge to laugh. Cheeky was bearing up remarkably well after killing Moyla with his own hands. He shouldn't have had to learn about this dirty side of the spy business-the betrayal of friends-so soon.

Chapter 20

After all the furious preliminaries, the actual Challenge seemed almost tame, at least to Blade. After Winter Owl left the Sweet Wisdom in the hut and shut the door, the two Challengers might have gone to sleep for all anybody outside could tell.

«This is as it must be,» said Crystal, seeing Blade's annoyance. «They go so far into the Sphere of Wisdom that anyone with a weak Voice could go mad in there with them. «

«If they go so far and their Voices are so strong, isn't there danger of their Voices-leaking out?»

After a moment Crystal understood the image. «There is danger, that is all we know. Much danger. During the first of all Challenges, it is said that forty other people died or went mad. So this is not the time for you to learn more of the Voice. Would you put your hand into a fire to learn how hot it was?»

Blade shook his head. At least there was one consolation. No one in the village was allowed to use telepathy while the Challenge was being fought out. That eliminated the danger of some undiscovered enemy agent sending a warning to Ellspa. Such an agent might still be able to leave the village and warn her in person, but from Cheeky's account her hiding place was quite secluded. It would probably be daylight before they could find her. By then the warriors of the village would be scouring the countryside.

Blade also didn't mind not having anyone overhearing his thoughts, not even Cheeky. He was feeling more than a little angry with the world, Latan, and all the people in it, especially telepathic shamans with more courage than sense. Between them the Guardian and the Wise One probably knew the answers to every question about telepathy, including some he didn't know enough to ask. Now they were about to carry all their knowledge to the grave.

Blade knew that the two shamans had no obligation to him. He told himself that over and over again. It didn't help. He still wanted to pick up both shamans by the scruffs of their necks and bang their heads together until he'd pounded some sense into them.

In this mood, it was probably just as well he had no communication with Eye of Crystal. He doubted it would be very pleasant for her to learn what he was thinking about her father.

At least Winter Owl seemed to be having second thoughts about the Challenge. Perhaps he'd realized, now that it was too late, that the Guardian's glorious death was a very poor trade for the shaman's leadership in the war against the Rutari. The warrior paced up and down like a caged tiger, and when he thought no one was looking at him his face was twisted into a grim mask.

At last Winter Owl's pacing brought him close to Blade. «You took your life in your hands when you entered the hiba-gan's hut, I must tell you.»

You can't show you've got nerves like the rest of us, thought Blade.

«That was not wisdom,» Winter Owl went on. «Indeed, there may be some who doubt if you have wisdom. That is not a good thought, especially about a man with a Voice as strong as yours.»

That is not a thought at all. It's just you fussing like an old woman.

«I had thought to take you among the warriors so that you might fight the Rutari beside us. Now, I do not know if that can be. Your slaying the shpuga and your skill at nor may not be the wisdom needed by a warrior of the Uchendi. «

Blade swore under his breath. He'd been kept locked up among the Rutari because he was too valuable. Now he was likely to suffer the same fate among the Uchendi because he wouldn't kowtow to their bloody taboos!

«That must be as you wish, Winter Owl,» Blade began, more calmly than he wanted to. But Eye of Crystal had overheard the conversation, her patience was gone, and now she had to confront her uncle.

«Mother's brother, you have already been as big a fool tonight as you should be. For the love of all who may think you better than a shpuga, do not try to be a bigger fool. You say that Blade has no wisdom and that you will keep him from the battles against the Rutari. Yet he had the wisdom to see what lay under the hiba-gan's cloak and defeat the Wise One. He might not have been her only victim, either. Would your Spirits call it well done if you and my father had both joined Blade in dying because he gave too much thought to laws made by fools and children?»