Telis would have thrown himself to his knees before the spiritual head of all Laurr had he not suddenly remembered that he was a prisoner here, abducted like any thieving Commoner.
He looked stolidly around the room then, and for the first time he saw the girl.
A noble of Laurr had plenty of opportunity to become something of a connoisseur in the matter of woman flesh, but the moment that Telis' eyes found the girl's he knew that here was something special.
Her hair was black and her skin fair, a combination seldom found on this side of the planet where bronze skin and brown hair were almost universal, but Telis had heard tales of such women from brother officers who had carried the Laurr's battles of unification to the southern hemisphere. The clothes this woman wore were strange ... a blouse covered her where most Laurrian women went nude, and a short skirt descended from a harness not unlike Telis' own. Her belt was hung with various pouches and holsters. And over all, she affected a transparent jumper of stuff like flexible glass that covered her from neck to ankles like a chrysalis. Her eyes were deeply shadowed, and she seemed either ill or terribly disheartened ... or both.
She stood in silence, a liveried escort at her side, to all intents and purposes a prisoner like himself, for she wore no swords and to be disarmed upon Laurr was to be a prisoner ... even the peace-loving Temple Priests packed their full complement of weapons.
There was an air about the girl that touched Telis deeply, a deep-seated strength and quality, even through her obvious illness or discomfort. He wondered at her crime. Heresy, perhaps? He had never heard of the Temple arresting heretics ... the Water Goddess was more a wishful personification than a demanding deity. But perhaps this girl was something special in the matter of heretics as she obviously was in the matter of beauty.
But the explanation was not a satisfying one. There was something more. Then it came to him like a swordthrust. Could the girl be ... a Tellurian? Was it possible?
The intoned words of his escort interrupted his thought.
"Reverend High Superior, here is Lord Telis of Lars, Captain-General of the Laurr of Laurr's Armies."