His touch did not yet lie heavy on the sea.

Off the coastal island of Armun, the one-time summer resort of Brothen emperors, Brother Candle gathered the religious spokesmen for the Plataduran crew and the Terliagan slingers. He was distracted. Armun was far south of Brothe, not far north of Shippen. Meaning they were off the coast of Alameddine, approaching that kingdom's frontier with Calzir. And the fleet showed no sign of turning inshore.

The amateur Praman priests remained wary but Brother Candle had worn them down some by insisting that he just wanted to learn.

"I'm wondering where al-Prama stands on the Instrumentalities of the Night. They never cooperate with dogma. They revel in contradicting doctrine."

These Praman chaplains were not inclined toward philosophical discussion. They were practical men interested only in supplying minimal spiritual support to men working far from home. They could perform the basic sacraments of their faith. And that was their limit

Brother Candle held an abiding interest in the old eternal questions. Did the minds of men create the gods and the lesser things of the night by shaping the power from the Wells of Ihrian and elsewhere? Or did the Instrumentalities of the Night feed upon that power to establish belief in the minds of those who beheld them?

The chicken or the egg riddle, some called it.

The debate often devolved into speculation about what the world would be like if there were no Wells gushing raw magical power.

For Brother Candle that was a question easily answered.

The Wells of Ihrian were not the only wellsprings of power, just the biggest and most concentrated. There were numerous smaller, remote wells where the power leaked into the world, though the flow there was more often a seep than a gush.

The calculations of generations of sorcerers found that 70 percent of the supernatural power entering the world did so within the Holy Lands. It was a big, strange world deeply scarred by the power, habitable because the power kept the ice at bay.

The world grew darker, colder, and stranger as you moved away from the magical leaks, into the bizarre realms of legend.

There were further, more troublesome questions. If human imagination created the gods and the vectors of the night, then who created Man?

Brother Candle could not conceive of a world without sentient beings to appreciate the Instrumentalities of the Night.

The Praman priests were laypeople. They saw sophistry as the work of the Adversary. They had learned the truth when they were young. No preacher who was a heretic within his own false faith would seduce them with Hell-born free thinking.

Brother Candle discovered that these Pramans believed pretty much what most Chaldareans believed. The significant point of conflict was who got to claim responsibility for the glorious revelation. The Holy Founders from Chaldar in the Holy Lands? Or the later Founding Family, from Jezdad in Peqaa?

One Praman observed, "The real contention is idol worship."

"Idol worship?" Brother Candle asked. "I'm a long way separated from my Episcopal childhood but I don't remember any idols."

"Chaldarean churches are filled with them."

"Those aren't idols. They're statues. Images of the Founders and the saints, not the Founders and the saints themselves."

"They're graven images. Isn't that an idol? By definition? Not the god himself but an image of the god that's there to remind everyone that the god is watching?"

"Not being an Episcopal anymore, I can't argue effectively. Maybe Bishop LeCroes can explain the difference."

Brother Candle had lived long enough to be skeptical of dogma. Dogma reflected the human need to believe mere was something bigger and more meaningful than the mayfly individual. That there was a cosmic plan.

Horns called across me water.

The Platadurans signaled between ships using a variety of horns where other navies used signal flags or drums. The Navayan navy had adopted the same system.

The admiral of the fleet was Plataduran. The commander of combined armies was King Peter, who had invited himself along because he did not trust Firaldians. Especially not Firaldians from Brothe. And, least of all, any Firaldian who was the latest in a line of false Patriarchs. Despite his support for the Church as an institution.

Peter's great talent was flexibility. He adopted methods and tools that worked. That included a Patriarch who was not legal but who did control the power of the Church.

The Platadurans and Navayans believed Peter would conquer all Direcia in his lifetime. Many of the peoples of Direcia looked forward to his success.

"What's happening?" Brother Candle asked as sailors flew around, taking in sails. Taro was a broad-beamed, long bireme, like most of the Plataduran fleet. She could fight if necessary but was intended for commerce. She did not normally put out oars while on the deep water, unless becalmed. Sails were Taro's preferred means of making headway.

A Plataduran told Brother Candle, "The captains have been called to a meeting aboard Isabeth."

The great lady of the war fleet was named for Peter's queen. The armada reduced speed and closed in. The ships dropped anchor and launched boats that carried the captains and leading soldiers to the flagship.

THE SHIPPEN COAST WAS LIKE NOTHING BROTHER CANDLE had seen before. Smaller vessels ran inshore to either hand of a fishing village named Tarenti, which possessed a small but deep harbor. Veteran Navayans isolated the town. Transports headed in to unload.

The same happened at other minor ports. Brother Candle was only marginally in the know. The plan seemed to be to deny Shippen's resources to mainland Calzir. Which should not stand up long if Shippen's produce was not available.

King Peter and Count Raymone meant to subdue an island more vast than half the kingdoms in the Chaldarean world. With Connecten and Navayan forces combined numbering fewer than four thousand men. The Platadurans would not fight ashore.

Brother Candle's military experience consisted of having been present at the Black Mountain Massacre. He did not understand that Shippen need not be conquered in its entirety in order to keep its resources from reaching the mainland.

Local resistance ended quickly.

Historically, Shippen never sustained a fight once an invader gained a solid foothold. The working population did not care who was in charge. The arrogations of the ruling classes had no abiding impact on everyday life. As long as the mines produced copper and silver and the fields and orchards yielded surpluses of grain and fruit. The weather was usually favorable and there had been no natural disaster since a series of volcanic eruptions in pre-Brothen antiquity.

The great disasters in Shippen's past were the handiwork of Man, sometimes a war but more often a demonstration of excess by some sorcerer self-deluded into thinking that he could master the Instrumentalities of the Night.

Only the most brilliant minds could convince themselves that they were capable of exempting themselves from the Tyranny of the Night.

BROTHER CANDLE AND TARO'S CONNECTENS NEXT WENT ashore at Caltium Cidanta. The town stank of decaying fish entrails. Clouds of shrieking gulls swirled overhead. Caltium Cidanta had no modern significance. In antiquity it was important, though. It was from Caltium Cidanta that the Colpheroen general Eru Itutmu left the Brothen Empire to go defend his homeland, Dreanger – after he and thousands who believed him to be a god spent a generation plaguing the adolescent empire. Eru Itutmu killed a quarter million Brothens but suffered defeat, both in Brothe and at home. Those early Brothens were stubborn. They fought Eru Itutmu for decades, and conquered every ally Dreanger found anywhere around the Mother Sea.