It wasn't often that a Jhesta Tu mystic would be well received in Chom Deiru, for the Yatols of Behren had spent centuries condemning the Jhesta Tu as heretics and demon worshipers. The mystics were particularly disliked by the Chezhou-lei, the Behrenese corps of elite warriors, who considered them as rivals.
When Pagonel arrived at the gates of the Chezru palace, dressed in his telltale robes, the initial reaction to him was consistent with those notions. The two warriors standing guard outside the great doors of the building stared at him wide-eyed and mouths agape, and after recovering from the initial shock, both dropped their spear tips level with the mystic's chest.
"Peace," Pagonel said to them, holding his empty palms up in a non- threatening manner. "I am Pagonel, who is well-known to Yatol Mado Wadon.
I am he who traveled to Dharyan on behalf of your Yatols upon the death of Yakim Douan. I am he who represented the wishes of the Yatols to the Dragon of To-gai, thus ending the war."
As he spoke, the spears gradually eased to the side and down, and when he finished, one of the guards nodded to the other, who fast disappeared into the palace.
A few moments later, Pagonel was ushered through the doors, and though more guards surrounded him and a few shot threatening glances his way, the mystic understood that he had done well in coming here, that he would indeed get his desired audience with Yatol Mado Wadon.
They escorted him into a small waiting room and left him there, and he heard the door lock behind them as they departed.
Pagonel put his back up against the wall opposite the door, sank down into a low and comfortable crouch, and waited. The minutes turned to an hour, and still he waited, digesting all that he had seen on his journey from the west, replaying all of the events and conversations in an attempt to understand better the depth of the situation in this tumultuous land.
Finally, the door opened, and Pagonel was surprised to see that it was Mado Wadon himself who entered. The man was quite old, with hair thinning to wisps of nothingness and heavy drooping lids half-hiding his dull eyes. He moved his withered little frame into the room just a step, then turned and motioned for Pagonel to follow. The Yatol said nothing as he walked with Pagonel in tow through the arching corridors of Chom Deiru, past the great artworks of the Chezru religion, the tile mosaics along the wall depicting the great struggles within the Behrenese church and culture.
How meaningless many of those murals now appeared to Pagonel, given the revelations of the previous Chezru Chieftain! The actions of Yakim Douan, using the soul stone to steal the bodies from unborn babies so that he could live on in a new corporal mantle, mocked the murals depicting the Abellicans of the north as heretics for using those same stones. The great deception of Yakim Douan laid waste to the many Chezru images of glorious Transcendence, the process that the Chezru had considered as a passage of knowledge, the incarnation of a new God-Voice to be found among the children of Behren. Only in walking these halls now, in looking at the murals that formed the core of Chezru beliefs, did Pagonel truly appreciate how profound an effect the deceptions of Yakim Douan would have on this land. The very core of Chezru had been shattered.
What emptiness must now follow? They went into a small private room, with two chairs set before a glowing hearth and food and drink already put out on a table between them.
"You have come with word from Brynn Dharielle," Yatol Mado Wadon remarked before Pagonel had even sat down. His voice sounded as old as the wrinkled man looked, and as weary, cracking slightly on nearly every syllable.
"I have come hoping to receive word from you that I might relay to her,"
the mystic replied. "My road to the south showed me growing problems within your kingdom, Yatol."
"Yatol Bardoh has not been among those sending their well-wishes," Yatol Wadon said dryly. "He left the field of Dharyan - "
"Dharyan-Dharielle," Pagonel corrected.
"Dharyan-Dharielle," Yatol Wadon agreed. "He left the field with a great host of soldiers at his disposal, and with all of them knowing only that great tumult had come to Jacintha. They are uncertain, and in such a state, they are likely open to the suggestions of Yatol Tohen Bardoh."
"Suggestions that you suspect will not be in favor of the present situation in Jacintha, nor the present leadership," the mystic reasoned.
"Tohen Bardoh has ever been an ambitious man."
"As we have discussed before, to a degree," Pagonel remarked. "Your agreement of a joint, open city under the command of Brynn Dharielle was based primarily on these very fears, was it not?"
"And now I pray that your friend the Dragon does not disappoint me. It is in the interest of Brynn Dharielle and of To-gai that the present leadership in Jacintha overcome any threat by Tohen Bardoh. If Behren is united under him, he will not tolerate the addition of Dharielle to the name of the city Dharyan. He opposed the end of the siege of the city, vehemently so. You know this as well as I."
"Do you believe that he is strong enough to go against the Jacintha warriors?"
"Many of those warriors have still not returned from the field outside of Dharyan-Dharielle," Yatol Wadon explained.
"They stood down readily enough when word came to them from Jacintha."
"True, but I assure you that at that time few in Behren wished to continue battle against the Dragon of To-gai. This is a different matter.
All across the kingdom there is war now, as old disputes renew without the control of the Chezru Chieftain to mute them."
Pagonel sat back and considered the startling admission. To have a Behrenese leader revealing such a weakness within his country to a member of the Jhesta Tu was incredible enough, but when that Jhesta Tu was well known to be in league with the To-gai-ru, the admission became even more unbelievable.
Pagonel sat back and folded his hands before him. That Yatol Mado Wadon was able to speak so bluntly and openly to him here confirmed the level of desperation that was obviously growing within the man. That Yatol Mado Wadon would even receive Pagonel in anything more than a polite manner in a general audience chamber was a clear indication that the man was deathly afraid of Bardoh. Apparently, the rumors of the Yatol of Avrou Eesa building a tremendous army were not understated.
"Brynn Dharielle has fewer resources at her disposal at this time than you may believe," the mystic honestly replied, for he understood that such information would not imperil Brynn in any manner. Certainly Yatol Wadon was in no position to even think of striking against her.
"Her dragon alone - "
"Fewer than you may believe," Pagonel interrupted. "And there is no formal agreement between Dharyan-Dharielle and Jacintha."
Yatol Wadon's dull eyes widened and he gripped the arms of his chair, seeming ready to spring up and assault the mystic.
"Her course seems clear, though," Pagonel remarked, and that settled him back just a bit. "What do you ask of her?"
The simple question seemed to catch Yatol Wadon off-balance for a moment, for what indeed might Brynn be able to do? She wouldn't march her army from Dharyan-Dharielle to Jacintha to protect the ruling Yatol from another Yatol, after all! "I have come to understand that she is no friend of Yatol Bardoh," Yatol Wadon said hesitantly.
Pagonel merely smiled in response to that monumental understatement.
Yatol Bardoh was the man who had ordered Brynn's own parents murdered. He was the Behrenese leader who had conquered To-gai so brutally a decade before, a man who had never expressed anything but contempt for the To- gai-ru and their traditions. Bardoh had left the field outside of Dharyan-Dharielle, but he had not done so with a light heart. More than anything else, he had wanted to retake the city and be rid of the Dragon of To-gai.
"To fully engage Jacintha, should it come to that, Yatol Bardoh will need the north road," Yatol Wadon explained. "He will need Dahdah Oasis, else the promises he feeds to his soldiers will die in the desert sands."
"You would like Yatol Bardoh to be looking over his shoulder at another enemy as he marches toward Jacintha," Pagonel remarked.
"Or looking over his shoulder at another enemy as he marches on Dharyan- Dharielle," Yatol Wadon was quick to reply. "He covets Jacintha, agreed, but he covets Brynn's city for even more personal reasons, and he may come to believe that retaking Dharyan for Behren will elevate him among the people and make his march toward Jacintha all the more plausible."
That disturbing thought had carried Pagonel every step of the way to Jacintha.
"It is time to open a dialogue between our two cities," Yatol Wadon said.
The mystic nodded. "Your words are wise, Yatol. I will carry them to Brynn Dharielle. You must prepare your emissaries to accompany me quickly, for the road will grow more difficult with time, I fear."
"They are already prepared," Yatol Wadon told him. "They would have left this very day had not you unexpectedly arrived in Jacintha. Upon hearing of your arrival, I had hoped that you would present yourself as a formal emissary from Dharyan-Dharielle, and I would be lying if I told you that I am not disappointed to learn that this is not the truth. Your friend is not so seasoned in her role as leader, I suspect, and so her ignorance of the present mounting danger is forgivable."
Again Pagonel nodded, though he hardly agreed with the assessment.
Certainly this issue with Bardoh was more Mado Wadon's fight than Brynn's, though the consequences to Brynn and to To-gai could be dire, should Bardoh prove victorious. Still, it was not a point worth arguing with Yatol Mado Wadon over at this time.
There would be plenty of other more important arguments to make, Pagonel was sure.
