Thomas noticed that the young cleric was approaching him, followed by the two young swordsmen. "Excuse me," she said, tossing her head to throw her long, chestnut hair out of her eyes, "but I couldn't help overhearing most of that. You're all wizards?"

     "Yes," said Thomas, smiling his pleasure at being addressed by such an attractive young woman. "My name's Thomas, this is Lirenna and Jerry. It's good to find a friendly face around here." He looked around at the trogs, none of whom seemed to have anything else to do but stare darkly at them from between the folds of their head coverings.

     "I'm really pleased to see you," said the cleric, turning a triumphant look at the men accompanying her. "Really, really pleased."

     "It doesn't mean anything," said the taller of the two men with gentle patience. "It's just a coincidence." He turned to the wizards. "We are glad to see you, though. Amongst this crowd, I think we're going to need some allies to watch our backs. I'm really not comfortable being here, with you being here." This last was addressed to the young woman. "This is dangerous, really dangerous, and I don't just mean fighting goblins. I'm more scared of those guys over there than I am of goblins." He indicated the other three swordsmen with a slight nod of his head. "Allow me to introduce us. My name is Shaun Winterwell. This is my little brother Matthew, and my sister Diana. She's the one with the big imagination."

     "I did not imagine it," the girl said angrily, "and you shouldn't say such things. My Lady might refuse to grant me the power to heal you next time you get a little scratch. Surely you must believe me now. I told you we'd find three young wizards, and here they are."

     "Just coincidence," repeated Shaun resolutely, clearly the continuation of an argument that had been going on for some days.

     "How did you know we'd be here?" asked Jerry.

     Diana suddenly looked embarrassed, as if she'd endured nothing but ridicule and scorn from everyone else she'd told and expected to receive more, but then she looked up defiantly. Let them laugh, that look said. I don't care. "I had a dream about you. I know that might be a little hard to believe..."

     "A dream?" asked Lirenna, looking interested. The shae folk took dreams seriously. "What kind of dream?"

     "A dream sent by the Lady Caroli, my mistress," said Diana, encouraged by her response and brightening. "About a week ago, in the early hours of the morning, I dreamed that I stood in a wide underground tunnel. The three of you were there with me, and I heard the voice of my Lady telling me that She had a task of great importance for me. She told me to go out into the world, and that the nature of my task would be revealed during the course of my journey. Then She told me that I would be given companions to help me carry out my mission, three wizards. I saw your faces, as clearly as I'm seeing you now!" Behind her, Matthew gave a sad shake of his head. "She said ‘The way will be hard for you, Diana. Dangerous, and at times seemingly hopeless, but have no fear, for I will be there with you always. Go with My blessing.’ Then I woke up." She stared at them, her eyes wide as she waited anxiously for their reaction.

     "And then she woke the whole house up, at three in the morning, to tell us all about it," said Matthew, sharing a grin with his brother.

     "If this mission is so important, how come She sends a little acolyte like you?" asked Shaun. "Why not send an older, more experienced person like Father Bryon? And why them? They're even younger than we are! You don't send a bunch of kids on a mission to save the world. And besides, chasing a few little buglins out of a few trog tunnels is hardly of world shattering importance. Come on, Di, it just doesn't make sense!"

     "I didn't say that Dermakarak itself was the mission," said Diana, getting cross again. "She said that the nature of the mission will be made clear somewhere along the way. We just have to wait and be patient."

     "I'm afraid your brothers are probably right," said Thomas as gently as he could. "We don't know anything about any great mission. We're just here to earn a bit of cash, so we can replace a few things we lost along the way. After that we're going home, and I expect to spend the rest of my life in the safety and comfort of my own home town, doing nothing more important or dangerous than routine domestic wizardry."

     "So you might believe now," said Diana firmly, "but my Lady has a great task for you, and it will be revealed before you arrive back at your homes. My Lady has spoken."

     "That mouldy bit of cheese you ate the day before has spoken, more like," said Shaun.

     "If that's the way you feel, why don't you both go off and chase a few goblins somewhere?" said Diana irritably. "I'm safe enough now that I'm with all these people. There's nothing to keep you here."

     "You know we promised mother we'd look after you. We couldn't talk you out of this crazy notion of yours, so we're going to stick with you until you come to your senses. Besides, what if you turn out to be right? We don't want to miss the chance to be heroes, sung about by bards and minstrels for centuries to come."

     "When we're done in Dermakarak, I'm going home, to Ilandia," repeated Thomas. "My friends here are coming with me, and then they're going on to their own homes. We'll be splitting up."

     "No you won't," said Diana, smiling her certainty.

     "We're going home!" repeated Thomas adamantly.

     "Then I'll come with you."

     She would as well, he saw. There was a look of determination in her eyes that he would grow very familiar with over the following months and years. "I'll camp out on your doorstep, you'll have to step over me every time you go outside."

     "Come on, Sis," said Matthew. "Time to be sensible..."

     "I am confident that our great task will be revealed to us before we arrive at your home," she told Thomas. "You may visit your home, but you won't be stopping there. Your destiny lies elsewhere. The Lady Caroli has revealed it to me."

     "Fine, fine," said Thomas with amused exasperation. "It's going to be crowded, though. Our home's just a couple of rooms." Then he smiled. "But it is good to meet you. I'm sure we'll get on splendidly." He held out his hand, and the two fighters and the cleric shook it. He noticed that they all had rough calloused hands, even the woman. The men doubtless toughened their hands from regular practice with the sword, but he couldn't think why a cleric should have rough hands. Perhaps she does a lot of manual work as a penance or something, he thought.

     They then shook hands with Lirenna and Jerry, after which the six of them began chatting about their various backgrounds. The fighters had never met either a shae or a nome before and directed most of their questions towards them, leaving Thomas to chat with Diana. Thomas told her all about life in the University, and she told him all about the church of Caroli the Healer. “I’ve known Father Bryon my whole life,” she said. “He’s been the town’s healer since before I was born, since old Father Paribas died, but I’d never spoken to him and I was just another of the town’s children to him. My family would go to the temple every week, attend his services and my father would speak to him sometimes as we were leaving, but that was it. The first time I spoke to him myself was after I was attacked by a mad dog.”

     “The shakes?” asked Thomas. “I’ve heard that can be really nasty.”

     Diana nodded. “It just came out of nowhere while I was helping mother hang out the washing. A huge great beast, nearly the size of a pony. Well, probably not really that big but that’s how it seemed at the time. It was growling and barking, shaking its head like it had bees in its ears. Mother grabbed my hand and dragged me towards the house but it came at us before we could get inside. Chewed me up pretty badly while mum was screaming like a demon. Dad came out, grabbed an axe and killed it, then he ran off to get Father Bryon, shouting loudly enough to raise the whole town.”

     “You look okay now,” said the wizard, eyeing her up and down.

     “They tell me it almost chewed my arm right off.” She pushed her sleeve up to show him, but the skin was smooth and flawless. “He told me it was so serious he almost decided to send for help, a more senior member of our order. He told me that he’d never channelled that much of the Lady’s power before, that he’d never healed anyone that seriously hurt. He paid a lot more attention to me after that. I think he sensed something, that our Lady was interested in me.” Thomas nodded but said nothing. “I felt something as well, some kind of connection. There was something about the temple that appealed to me, that seemed to draw me. I volunteered to work there, cleaning and tidying, that sort of thing. He would talk to me in his spare time, tell me about the Faith, about life as a cleric. I can see now that he knew all along what would happen, that he was preparing me. About a year after the dog attack I formally requested to be taken on as an apprentice and he agreed straight away, without any hesitation.”

     “I’ve heard the same thing about wizards,” replied Thomas. “That old,  experienced wizards can sense people with wizard potential. I didn’t know that clerics could do it as well.”

     “They can if the God they worship tells them,” replied the cleric. “Makes me wonder if She sent the dog to attack me. It completely ignored my mother, it went straight for me, as if it was being directed.”

     “I think that might cause me a little resentment,” said Thomas with a slight, apologetic smile. “What about your dad? I can’t imagine any father being pleased with a God who sent a mad dog to attack his daughter.”

     “I never said this to Dad. You’re right, he wouldn’t like it, but if Caroli sent the dog, She did it to bring me to the faith and I thank Her for it.” She hesitated a moment. “I’ve never told that to my brothers either.” She glanced over at where they were still engrossed in conversation with Lirenna and Jerry, too far away to overhear her.”

     “I won’t say anything,” promised the wizard. “So, you became a cleric...”

     “Not right away,” replied Diana. “I studied and prayed for many months, doing all the menial work in the temple and doing various odd jobs around town. The necessary kind of menial labour that all novices have to do in order to learn the twin virtues of humility and servitude. My family was wonderful, they gave me every support...”

     “They probably liked the idea of having a cleric in the family,” said Thomas. “Probably did wonders for their standing in the community.”

     Diana frowned with disapproval at the comment but didn’t deny it. “Caroli finally accepted me as one of Her own three months ago. Father Bryon was out of town, helping the wife of a homesteader with a difficult pregnancy, when Mistress Charlon came running into the temple carrying little Suzy. She’d been run down by a runaway horse and carriage.” She shuddered. “Her injuries were terrible. She was crushed and broken... I sent a rider to get Father Bryon as quick as possible, then dressed her injuries as best I could. Then I just prayed.”

     She began pacing up and down, fingering the silver caroli flower hanging around her neck. “I prayed and prayed. I prayed like I’ve never prayed before. I took her to the altar, held her in my arms as I knelt before it and I cried and prayed and cried and prayed... I don’t know how long I prayed for, but suddenly Mistress Charlon was pulling at my arms, trying to get little Suzy back. I didn’t know why, I thought there must be something wrong. I thought maybe she’d died.” She stared up at the wizard. “For one terrible moment I thought I’d killed her, that I’d been holding her too tightly. Oh Gods, that was terrible! Even though it was only a moment it was the worse moment of my life! But then Mistress Charlon got her out of my arms and the little girl was alive! And healed! Completely healed! It had happened while I’d been praying and I hadn’t noticed!”

She laughed at herself, and both her brothers looked over and grinned. Thomas guessed that she told that story every chance she got, and that he was merely the latest one to hear it. Jerry and Lirenna still had it to look forward to.

     “Father Bryon was delighted when he got back and found out what had happened. We spent the whole rest of the day praying in front of the altar, giving thanks to Caroli. I’ve never been so full of joy. I just cried with joy!” She began to tear up again just remembering it, and Thomas found himself becoming a little embarrassed. He wondered whether he could find a way to change the subject.

     “I took a greater part in the town’s spiritual life after that, occasionally conducting services and giving sermons when Father Bryon was absent. My place as the village's spiritual leader when the Father was gathered to the Lady's loving embrace seemed assured, much to my family's delight, but then I had the dream that brought me here, the dream commanding me to find three wizards. The next morning I told my parents that I’d be leaving town. Father Bryon was surprised, but he accepted the news calmly enough. He knew I'd received a genuine visitation and he offered me every support. My family were much less understanding, though. They lectured me endlessly on how dangerous the world is and all the terrible things that can happen to a young woman all by herself. They couldn't see that followers of the Gods must confront evil, not run from it. There were some ugly scenes, I'm afraid, with everyone crying and shouting, but when they saw that my mind was made up they insisted that Shaun and Matt should at least come with me, to keep me out of trouble.” Thomas nodded, glancing over at the two brothers.