Free Witch Doctor - Wiz in Rhyme-3 by Christopher Stasheff Page B

this arachnid autocrat. "Where can I find him?
    Maybe he can send me home!" Could I dispel the hallucination by working through its own terms?
    "None knows, nor do I think he would send you hence, for he must have brought you here for a purpose of his own." He frowned down at me for a few seconds, then forced a smile. "Still, be of good cheer! It may be you were transported here by a saint!"
    I shuddered, deciding that, saint or Spider King, I was dealing with superstition.
    That was what this whole scene was, of course. Was that what was really underneath my rationalist mind-a superstitious subconscious?
    The commander turned away and started walking again. "Still, if you waked in Allustria, whatsoever it was that brought you must have work for you there. Mayhap you should not be fleeing that benighted land."
    "Or maybe I should," I gritted. "After all, I didn't apply for the job.
    I wasn't even consulted."
    We do not always choose our paths." He knelt by the river and filled each leather bucket with a single swing of his arm, then stood again.
    /, Have you?" I asked. "Chosen your path, I mean." He nodded slowly. "We have chosen to go into Allustria, no matter the risk. There do be yet a few good folk there, who strive to maintain their virtue in a sink of absolute corruption. The sponsor of our order, Saint Moncaire, came to our abbot in a dream a fortnight agone, to reveal the plight of one such poor family, who hold by God and goodness, though they dare not do so openly ... I1
    I felt the anger of outrage ring through me. Superstition or not, people have a right to worship as they please, without having to hide it. "But they've been careful, so they haven't been bothered?"
    "oh, nay! They were gentry, but over the span of generations, they suffered again and again, because their rulers sought to rob them of their faith by driving them into despair-first by taxes, then by spells."
    "But how'd these rulers know about them?"
    "Because the good souls of this household never left off doing good for their neighbors and aiding those who were poor or beset. Thereby did the witches and warlocks who were given jurisdiction over their parish know them for what they were and seek ways to bedevil them."
    "Sounds like some petty bureaucrats I know." I nodded, with a bad taste in my mouth.
    "Now," the knight said, "they live without land and are tenants on the acres their ancestors owned-for they were squires, and their holdings held a whole parish within their boundaries. All its people, following the example of this family's goodness, forsook their dog-eat-dog ways and persevered in the face of all the harassments and abuse their masters did heap on them. Those harassments have grown more and more frantic as the decades have passed, for such fortitude and perseverance in virtue is bound to attract the attention of the queen, who will no doubt punish her henchmen for failing to drive these virtuous folk into sin. Therefore they will harry this family out, root and branch-for they persevere in their faith and charity, even though they are poor and must ask aid of others, which none dare grant. One child is dead of poor food and chill; another is ailing. They are at wits' end and near to despair. Therefore hath our abbot sent us forth, to win glory by bringing these poor folk out of the land of spiritual misery, and into the light of Merovence."
    "That could be dangerous," I suggested, "if there really are so many evil sorcerers around-and even more, so many evil knights."
    "Most dangerous indeed, and 'tis quite possible we shall lose our lives in the attempt." His jaw firmed and his eyes flashed. "Yet 'tis for us to seek to ward the godly, unheeding of the peril-and if we die, we die. Spending our lives in so worthy a cause, we shall surely not linger long in Purgatory, and it may be that we shall even be accorded the crown of martyrdom."
    I winced; I wondered how many people had been lured into unnecessary suffering and early death by