"That had you not come blundering in, one more of Aptor's spies would have yielded up his secrets and then been reduced to ashes." She breathed deeply. "But he has his jewel now, and I have mine. Well, little thief, there's a stalemate. The forces are balanced now." She looked at Geo. "How do you think he came so easily by the jewel? How do you think he knew when I would be at the shore? Oh, he's a clever one, with all the intelligence of Aptor working behind him. He probably even had you planted without your knowing it to interrupt us at just that time." "No, he ..." began Urson. "We were walking by your door," Geo interrupted, "when we heard a noise and thought there might be trouble." "Your concern may have cost us all our lives." "If he's a spy, I gather that means he knows how this thing works," said Geo. "Let Urson and I take him ..." "Take him anywhere you wish!" hissed Argo. "Get out!" Just then the door opened. "I heard a sound, Priestess Argo, and I thought you might be in danger." It was the first mate. The Goddess Incarnate breathed deeply. "I am in no danger," she said evenly. "Will you please leave me alone, all of you." "What's the Snake doing here?" Jordde suddenly asked, seeing Geo still holding the boy. "I said, leave me!" Geo turned, away from Jordde, and stepped past him onto the deck, and Urson followed him. Ten steps farther on, he glanced back, and seeing that Jordde had emerged from the cabin and was walking in the other direction, he set Snake down on his feet. "All right, Little One. March!" In the passage to the forecastle, Urson asked, "Hey, what's going on?" "Well, for one thing, our little friend here is no spy," said Geo. "How do you know?" asked Urson. "Because she doesn't know he can read minds." "How do you mean?" Urson asked. "First of all, I was beginning to think something was wrong when I came back from talking to the priestess. You were too, and it lay in the same vein you were talking about. Why would our task be completely useless unless we accomplished all parts of her mission? Wouldn't there be some value in just returning her sister, the rightful head of Leptar, to her former position? And I'm sure her sister may well have collected some useful information that could be used against Aptor, so that would be some value even if we didn't find the jewel. It doesn't sound too sisterly a thing to me to forsake the young priestess if there is no jewel in it for her. And her tone, the way she refers to the jewel as _hers_. There's an old saying, from before the Great Fire even: Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. And I think she has not a little of the un-goddess-like desire for power first, peace afterwards." "But that doesn't mean this one isn't an Aptor spy," said Urson.