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collection plates at their feet. These men they were always men, even though women could aspire to
the Priesthood as readily as men were clean, erudite, and well-spoken, pitching their trained,
modulated voices to carry their words over the heads of the crowds.
It was this third type of preacher that had the messages that were very disturbing.
" come from God are alone pure and righteous," the first of these was saying, as they came within
hearing distance. He had a very well-trained and sonorous voice, and he already had a crowd three deep
around him. He was brown of beard and hair and eye; his well-kept robe was a dark brown, and he
should have blended in with his surroundings. But he didn't he stood out from them, as if he was a
heroic statue, the focus for all eyes. "No matter what the ignorant and unholy will tell you,all things called
'magic' are inherently evil. Magic can only be the tool of demons and false gods; there is no truth in it, and
none in those who practice it."
He looked around at his audience; Kestrel was very careful to school his features into a semblance of
sober interest. This man was no fool; any show of resistance to his words would cause him to single that
person out for special attentions and special messages. The onlookers would notice. Things could
become very awkward, very quickly.
"Perhaps you have heard somewhere that there are mages within the Church itself, but I tell you that this
isnot true. Whoever has told you this has lied to you," he said, lying gracefully and believably. "Magic is
deception ; magic only counterfeits the real and holypowers granted only to Priests by God. Those
powers practiced within the Church come directly by grace and blessing of the Sacrificed God, and they
arenothing like magic! And only those within the Church,within the ranks of the ordained will be
blessed with those powers. Those who claim to achieve the same ends through their magic are false,
deceptive, and evil. They seek to mislead you, seduce you to muddled thinking and questioning, and then
to lead you astray down the paths of darkness."
Neat, Jonny thought, admiring the Priest's command of rhetoric, though not his words.Redefine magic
as anything that is not performed by a Priest, and thenyou can condemn it without condemning
the Priests .
"Not only is the magic itself inherently and by its very deceptive nature evil," the Priest continued,
warming to his subject, "but anyone,anyone who uses itor allows himself to be touched by it is evil!
Magic is a mockery of God's powers! God will not be mocked! He will not permit his servants to be
mocked! The day is coming when all those evil ones who practice magic will perish, and those who
permitted them to work their magic will perish with them! Those who live by magic will die by the hand of
the righteous!"
There was more in this vein, although Jonny noticed that the Priest was very careful not to saywho
would be dealing out this punishment to the "evil magicians." Given the tales that had been spreading of
musicians using magic to manipulate their listeners, it was easy to see wherethis was going. He might not
have brought up the "evil musicians" yet, but it was only a matter of time.
Nightingale had been only too right, and so had Harperus.
He felt a sudden sickness in the pit of his stomach,and it didn't take any effort at all on his part to
persuade Gwyna away and get out of hearing range. The Priest was still going strong when they left, and
as far as Jonny could tell, it was more of the same. No mention, as yet, of musicians. But given the fact
that there were no musicians anywhere in sight, perhaps he saw no need to mention them, in his
condemnation of every other person who ever made use of magic and mages.
About the only encouraging note in this was that the Priest was losing listeners at a fairly steady rate
perhaps people who had used the services of a Healer, or those who had employed a mage for some
minor work in finding a lost object, locating water, or taming a beast that would not respond to normal
efforts. It would take more persuasive means than simplysaying that magic was evil to convince most
folk that it was bad.
After all, most people in their lives saw many instances of the use of magic, all of it hired and completely
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