15
THE PASSING OF KNOWLEDGE
Arch Bishop Daliius sat brooding behind the Alter of the Heavens, the enormous Tome of the Names of Light open and ignored on its rose marble stand in front of him. Eyelight from the arch of stained glass behind him flooded the cathedral with a riot of clashing colors, but the air seemed to reverberate with unforgiving emptiness. Strange, he thought, how vast rooms such as the Hall of Light could seem to echo when nobody made a sound.
Whatever else he contemplated, his mind always circled back to the same thing. The Grace’s attempt to take Maresg had failed, but she’d blocked the canal, permanently. Most would consider that a draw, and a draw should have been good news, but something grated in his chest the more he thought about it. The Skald mercenaries he’d
