"It's better without her," Vash of Veltan's Domain declared.

"No, Vash," Big-Me disagreed. "Actually, it's worse. We're one god light now, and that throws everything out of balance. If we don't do something to correct that, it won't be long, I'm afraid, before we'll all be joining her."

"Don't be absurd, Balacenia," Mother told Big-Me. "All you have to do is replace her."

"With who?" Enalla, still holding Lillabeth in her arms, demanded. Then she turned to speak to Dahlaine. "You'd better come up with something very soon, big brother, or we'll all be turning into gleaming dust."

Mother, quite naturally, was about three jumps ahead of Enalla—and all the rest of us as well. "The answer is really very simple, dear Enalla," she said. Then she smiled at me. "You'll have plenty of time to get used to the idea, Eleria," she told me. "It's going to be twenty-five eons before you'll have to take Aracia's place as the goddess of the East. Your childhood with the pink dolphins has separated you from Balacenia—or 'Big-Me'—so much that you aren't the same anymore. That leaves you floating around with nothing to do, so you'll replace poor Aracia." She paused a moment and then threw my own favorite remark right back in my face. "Won't that be neat?" she demanded.

THE DECLINE OF THE TEMPLE

Chapter One

Sorgan Hook-Beak of the Land of Maag was sleeping in his imitation fort that night. He'd have much preferred sleeping on the Ascension out in the harbor, but it was fairly essential for him to keep up the pretense of the mock invasion of the bug-people, and sleeping on board a ship out in the harbor might just make Lady Aracia more than a little suspicious. Now that she'd come to her senses and ordered all of her fat, lazy priests to help build the defensive walls around her temple, staying on the good side of her was fairly important.

It was just after midnight, as closely as Sorgan could determine, when cousin Torl came into Sorgan's room, accompanied by Lady Zelana's Dreamer, Eleria.

"What are you two doing running around at night like this?" Sorgan demanded.

"Lady Zelana told me to bring the little girl here so that she can tell you something that might be fairly important, cousin," Torl replied.

"What is it now?" Sorgan grumbled.

Eleria gave him a little smirk. "The Beloved thought that you ought to know that the lady who hired you isn't around anymore."

"Where did she go?"

"That's a little hard to say, Captain Hook-Big," Eleria replied. "She broke one of the rules, and she went poof."

"Poof?"

"That's about as close as I can come to describing what happened. She came into Lillabeth's room and commanded her to 'be-no-more,' but now she's the one who no longer exists."

"Who did it? I mean, who ordered her to stop being alive?"

"She did—all by herself. I think it's built into the gods. They're not allowed to kill things, so when one of them tries to do that, it comes back and hits them right in the face. Didn't the Beloved explain that to you when you first came here to work for her?"

Sorgan blinked as a horrid possibility crashed in on him. "My gold!" he exclaimed. "Did that all go 'poof when she did?"

"I sort of doubt that, Hook-Big," Eleria replied. "The temple's still there, so the gold probably is as well. You could go look, I suppose, but we've got something else to worry about now."

"What's happening?" Sorgan demanded.

"There are a lot of people in the temple who just lost their god. I don't think it's going to be much longer before a war breaks out. Now that Aracia isn't around to tell them to behave, things are probably going to get a little messy in the temple. I think you'd better send somebody down there to keep an eye on things."

"And to find the storeroom where Aracia kept all her gold," Sorgan muttered to himself. That could wait, though. He turned to look at cousin Torl. "Did that young Trogite Keselo leave the harbor yet?" he asked.

"I doubt it," Torl replied. "It was almost dark when he went out to the Ascension. He'll probably go north again when daylight comes along."

"Good," Sorgan said with a certain relief. "Go on out to the Ascension and tell Keselo what just happened here. We definitely want Narasan to know about it, so as soon as Keselo reaches Long-Pass, he'd better climb up on his horse and go up the pass to whatever fort Narasan's holed up in and tell him that Lady Zelana's sister isn't around anymore."

"Sound thinking, cousin," Torl agreed.

"I'm glad you liked it. Then I want you to nose around in the temple and see what's going on there—and see if you can locate the strong-room where Aracia kept all of her gold. She doesn't need it anymore, but we do."

"I'll see what I can find, cousin," Torl replied. Then he took Eleria by the hand, and the two of them went back toward the main temple.

Sorgan gave some thought to Eleria's warning. The priests of the temple didn't really pose much of a threat, but there was no point in taking any chances. He went to the chamber where Ox and Ham-Hand slept and woke them up.

"What's afoot, Cap'n?" Ox asked.

"We just got a nasty surprise," Sorgan told him. "It seems that Lady Aracia lost her grip on things again—probably because that little priestess—who's really a bug—turned that smell loose on her the way she did before, and Lady Aracia went crazy. She rushed into the room where her Dreamer lived and ordered her to stop living. I guess that's against all the rules, so Aracia's not around anymore."

"She just fell over dead?" HamHand asked.

"From what Eleria said—and she was there—there wasn't enough of Aracia left to fall over. Eleria used the word 'poof to describe what happened. I guess Aracia's body just faded away, and it was replaced by little speckles of light. Then the light went out, and there wasn't anything called Aracia anymore. That probably sent all those fat, lazy priests right straight up the wall. When they come down, they'll start scheming against each other, and the 'holy temple' is very likely to be ankledeep in blood."

"What a shame," Ox said.

"Isn't it, though?" Sorgan agreed. "We don't want them out here, though, so take some sizeable parties of men along the corridors that lead to the main temple and block them off."

"We've already been paid, Cap'n," HamHand said. "Why don't we just take that money and run?"

"Because there's probably a lot more money piled up somewhere in the main temple. I'm not about to just walk away and leave it behind. My cousin Tori's in the main temple right now to see what's really happening there, and in his spare time, he's checking every room in that part of the temple for gold. Once he finds it, we're all going to become very, very rich."




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