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have.”
    “This is the first I have heard of these atrocities,” Tephe said.
    “You are not the only faithful of late enjoined to silence,” said the third bishop.
    “There was only one Gavril on Smar and on Breese allowed to speak beyond his own planet, as is so on every world,” Ero said. “All of their messages come through us, here. It is not difficult to keep a secret if we wish it so, and we have wished it.”
    “It is not yet time to concern the faithful with this matter,” Chawk said. “We prefer at the moment to have them believe that these minor gods and their followers are yet looting and hostage taking.”
    “With deference, your Eminences, this deception is not a thing which will long endure,” Tephe said. “These minor gods have gone from small incursions to wholesale slaughter of the faithful. This is not a change in survival tactics. This is a change in underlying intent. Something has changed to take them out of hiding and into bald and murderous assault.”
    “Clever captain,” Ero said, after a moment.
    “I am not clever, Eminence,” Tephe said. “I can read a map when it is laid out in front of me.”
    “There is a new god,” Chawk said. “We do not know from whence it came. It has come to the edge of Our Lord’s dominion. Its strength is considerable. We believe its presence provokes these little gods to misbehavior.”
    “They ally with it,” Tephe said.
    “Gods do not
ally,
” growled the third bishop.
    Tephe bowed his head, deeply. “With deference, bishop, if what I have heard here is correct, then these gods are acting in a manner that suggests coordination and an underlying strategy. It does suggest an alliance.”
    “There is no alliance,” said the third bishop, leaning forward in his chair. “
He
would know if there were. He says there is not. He says the gods hate each other as ever they have.”
    Tephe realized with a growing coldness who the third bishop must be. “Yes, Eminence,” he said. The third bishop reclined into his chair once more.
    “Whatever the cause for these actions, Our Lord has been lately weakened,” Chawk said, drawing the conversation to himself. “His primacy over His dominion is not threatened, yet neither would it be wise for Him to ignore the threat that exists at His doorstep.”
    “I will do all that is asked of me to aid My Lord,” Tephe said. “Though it cost me my life.”
    Chawk smiled. “We hope it will not come to that.” The bishop produced an image from his documents and motioned for the captain to take it. It was of a planet, the coordinates of which were unfamiliar to him.
    “That is your destination, captain,” Ero said.
    Tephe scanned the image. “There is no name for this place.”
    “Names have power,” Chawk said. “Names call attention. We choose not to call attention to this place.”
    “Yes, Eminence,” Tephe said. “What shall I find there?”
    “Faith,” said the third bishop.

Chapter Five
    “I do not understand,” Captain Tephe said.
    “Captain, recall for me that which the commentaries compare our faith,” said Bishop Chawk.
    “ ‘Our faith is as iron,’ ” Tephe said. It was one of the first phrases children learned in their schooling.
    “As with so many things in the commentaries, this is neither a shallow nor metaphorical comparison,” Chawk said. “It is direct and accurate. The quality of faith increases its power, and its ability to sustain Our Lord. Your faith, as an example, Captain. It is the weakest of all.”
    Tephe felt himself straighten involuntarily. “My faith is not in doubt, Bishop Major,” he said.
    Chawk waved this away. “I am not speaking of the depth or sincerity of your faith, good Captain Tephe,” the bishop said. “Neither is in question. But your faith is the faith of your fathers, and their fathers, and their fathers before them, reaching back, no doubt, to the Time Before, when men chose the gods they would follow. Is that not right?”
    “We have