"Not alone," said Egil. "I will go with you."

"As will I," said Delon.

"Me, too," added Ferret.

"I'll guard the camels," said Alos, drawing back from the dark entrance. "But not by myself."

Arin looked from one to the other, and then sighed. "I will stay with thee, Alos."

Egil turned to the Dylvana and embraced her and said, "Be ready to flee." Then he kissed her and stepped away and hefted his axe.

Delon lit a small oil lantern, and weapons at the ready, they entered the dim opening.

The tunnel floor was level, and within ten strides the corridor turned sharply to the left. "It reminds me of the way beneath Gudrun's fortress walls," whispered Egil.

"Just so," said Aiko. "Carved to keep siege engines at bay."

"There are no murder holes," hissed Delon.

"Not in this stretch, at least," replied Egil.

Again the corridor turned sharply, this time to the right, and ahead they could see a portcullis down and a glimmer of the dying day beyond.

"Put out the light," sissed Aiko. As Delon quenched the lantern, Aiko added, "Go softly. The peril lies just beyond the gate."

Cautiously they approached the heavy grille, and in the dim light, just as they reached the bars a voice called out, "Min int?"

Startled, they flattened themselves against the walls in the narrow way. And again the voice called out, "Min int?"

It came from above.

Egil looked up, but saw nought. He took a deep breath. "We are friends."

There was a slight pause, and then: "Friends?" replied the voice, a woman's, accented as was the 'alim's. "Yet you come with weapons in hand?"

Egil glanced at Aiko. "We sensed peril."

"Ah. Many things are perilous. What do you seek?"

Again Egil looked at Aiko, and then at Ferret and Delon. At a nod from each he replied, "We come in urgency and seek a keeper of faith in the Temple of the Labyrinth."

Long moments passed, but finally, with a clanking and grinding of gears and the clack of a ratchet, the heavy portcullis screeched upward in its tracks. It stopped at the halfway point.

"Enter," called the voice.

Egil started to stoop under, but Aiko stopped him. He turned to her and said, "If the temple is here, we must take risks."

She looked at him, her gaze impassive, and then nodded.

Together they ducked under the teeth of the grille, Delon and Ferret following.

They came into a vast opening, a sheer-walled circular basin nearly two full miles across, hemmed in all 'round by vertical red stone reaching up to the evening sky above.

"Stand!" came a command from behind.

They stopped and slowly turned.

Behind a low castellated parapet upon a wall above the portcullis stood perhaps fifty dark-haired women of varying ages, all dressed in red robes matching the stone and armed with bows drawn to the full, nocked arrows aimed at the foursome's breasts. Among them and in the center, at a notch in the wall where leaned a ladder, stood a tall man dressed in a red robe as well. Looking to be in his early thirties, he was some six feet four and weighed perhaps two hundred twenty lithe pounds. His hair was a sunbleached auburn, his skin desert tanned, and his eyes were ice-blue. His hands rested upon the hilts of a great two-handed sword, its point grounded on the banquette above.

Aiko looked at him, puzzlement in her eyes, and she sheathed her swords and said to Egil, "I do not understand. He is not the peril, yet the peril is within him."

CHAPTER 52

You say you come seeking a keeper of faith," called down one of the women, an elder, standing to the left of the man. She wore no veil, nor did any of the women. "We are all keepers of faith herein."

Egil slipped his axe into his belt and motioned Delon and Ferret to sheathe their weapons. As they did so, the woman called out in a low voice, "Wakaf lataht'." The women released the tension on their bows and lowered the weapons.

Empty-handed, Egil said, "We have come far and have a tale to tell."

"Before you begin, do you wish me to send someone to bring in your last two companions along with your camels?" she asked as she signaled to the man to descend. Shouldering his great sword, he started downward, the woman following.

Egil glanced at Aiko. Keeping a wary eye toward the big man descending, the Ryodoan nodded and said, "Unless provoked, there is no peril in these women. But as to the man, I cannot say. Even so, Dara Arin should be safe."

By this time, the man and woman had reached the base of the ladder, and now many of the other women started down, though some stayed on the banquette.

The woman turned to Egil. "Well?"

"Indeed, Lady, send someone to fetch our companions, for 'tis the Dylvana who should speak of our mission."

"Dylvana? An Elf?"

At Egil's nod, the woman turned and commanded, "Maftuh ilbauwabi!" As the portcullis began clanking the rest of the way upward, she motioned to a young woman and said, "Kawam, Jasmine, jab iljauz kharij." The acolyte bowed to the elder and spun on her heel and hastened toward the rising bars and the passageway beyond. "Kanma fiz 'an!" the older woman called out after her, then she turned to the foursome. "I told her to be not afraid, for she may think the Dylvana a djinn."

As the elder woman gave her attention to the foursome, Ferret asked, "Are all of you priestesses of Ilsitt?"

At the naming of Ilsitt, on each hand the woman ritualistically touched forefinger to thumb to make small circles, as did all the women within earshot, as well as the sword-bearing man. "Indeed we are. All but Burel, here." She turned a hand toward the big man. "Though he is a keeper of faith as well."

Delon stepped forward. "We are forgetting our manners. My Lady, may I present Lady Ferai of Gothon, Lady Aiko of Ryodo, Master Egil of Fjordland, and I am Delon of Gunar."

As they were introduced, Aiko and Ferret pulled down the scarves veiling their faces. The priestess inclined her head to each, her eyes showing some surprise at Aiko's golden hue and tilted eyes.

"I am-" She turned to the man and spoke rapidly in Sarainese.

"Abbess," he replied.

"I am Abbess Mayam, and this is Burel, who has no title, though his father was known as, um"-again she turned to Burel- "ya sidi? Ya sidi Ulry?"

"Sir," rumbled Burel, leaning on his sword. "He was Sir Ulry, of Gelen."

Behind them they could hear camels complaining at being coerced through the tunnel. Shortly Jasmine appeared, hauling a string of four of the recalcitrant beasts behind, followed by Arin tugging four more, and then came Alos after, four grumbling camels in his wake, the old man complaining as well. As the last camel emerged, the portcullis was lowered in its track to bottom out in socket holes in the stone.

Arin and Alos were introduced to Mayam and Burel, the abbess clearly dazzled by the diminutive Dylvana, though she tried to conceal her fascination.

"You must be hungry," said Mayam. "Come let us go to a place where, after vespers, we can sup and talk, and you can tell me why you have journeyed here."

At a nod from Arin, the abbess turned to the waiting women and spoke in Sarainese, and acolytes came forward to take the camels away. Then the abbess and Burel led Arin and her companions angling across the great, sheer-walled basin as twilight began to fall. And nearly all the women followed.

Ahead, they could see a great portico, with columns carved into the vertical face of the looming wall. Soon it was clear that this was their destination. As they drew closer it also became clear that this was not a full portico, but instead was sculpted in high relief. Two acolytes bearing tiny oil lamps emerged from the central opening, a doorway into the stone, and they set the lights upon free-standing pedestals, then went back inside.