THE SWORD Teo and Ana had exited through the temple gatehouse with a mumbled excuse about picking plant specimens, using the same ruse Lewth had employed months earlier. Now they left their horses picketed in the grass and looked for an opening in the wall. “Is this it?” Ana peeked into a narrow crack. “I think I see a mill.” She stepped aside as Teo approached. “Good. That’s it.” He thrust his head into the crack, glanced around, and wriggled through. Ana’s slender form slipped inside much more easily. The place appeared deserted. High walls hid it from the rest of the temple. The largest structure was a gristmill for grinding grain, an odd thing to find so far from any arable fields. Its large external wheel could be turned by horses. Wagons stood outside other smaller buildings. “Do you think Master Maurice is being kept in the spire?” Ana glanced at its foreboding height. “We need to find a way in.” “It looks the like millhouse is connected to the rest of the temple. Let’s see if it is.” They crossed the open space to the stone building, seeing no one, yet feeling exposed as they ran. Inside, wooden shafts and gears were connected to the horse wheel outside. The gears turned two massive millstones, each as tall as Ana. The stones were set into a shallow depression coated with a residue of black powder. It emitted a sharp aroma. “That’s not flour,” Ana remarked. Teo glanced around the strange room. It was cluttered with barrels and sacks. He pointed to a flame emblem stamped on the side of a barrel. “Look at this—Vulkain’s symbol.” Ana lifted the lid. “And this is his brimstone!” The barrel contained the yellow rock that the Vulkainian priests wore around their necks as an amulet. “I wonder what it’s doing in a temple of Astrebril?” Teo knelt beside a pile of sacks, each marked with the laughing-goat symbol of Pon. One of the sacks was ripped, and he pulled something black from it. “Charcoal! Pon’s followers make it in the deep forest along the Tooner Sea.” “And then they go to their filthy parties.” Ana scrunched her face and shuddered. “Let’s not bring up that touchy subject.” 330
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