30

We must know how it speaks," Control says.

It is night. You and the others sit around a campfire just south of the Triune's lodge. The Golden Eye gleams in the gray light of the False Icon on the far side of the village. Losh and his guards are huddled in a disused hut at the edge of the village. You can hear Losh singing quietly, but most of the villagers are asleep.

"Now I wonder if the idol does have some power," Vecla says.

"Don't be ridiculous," Alexius says. "There's someone down there throwing switches and yelling into a bone tube."

"How can you say that, Alexius," Therko asks, "when Vecla's grove healed you? I once served a worker of miracles, even if there were ropes and pulleys involved."

"I still suspect legerdemain," Control says, "but we must nonetheless begin a thorough investigation of the idol and the cog."