'And I, a minor priest, was selected to track him down and to make him pay forhis crime. I've been looking for him for thirteen years. During that time, toeffect the vengeance of Weda Krizhtawn, I have had to break some of my own vowsand to commit crimes which I must pay for when I return to my land.'

'Won't she pardon you for these because you have done them in her name?' Mashahad said.

'No. She accepts no excuses. She will thank me for completing my mission, but Imust still pay. Look at me. When I left Sharranpip, I was as skinny as you. Iled a very exemplary life. I ate little, I slept in the cold and rain, I beggedfor my food, I prayed much. But during the years of my crimes and the crimes ofmy years, I have eaten too well so that Kemren, hearing of the fat fellow, wouldnot recognize me. I have been reeling drunk, I have gambled - a terrible sin - Ihave fought with fists and blade, I have taken human lives, I...'

He looked as if he were going to weep.

Masha said, 'But you didn't quit smearing yourself with butter?'

'I should have, I should have!' he cried. 'But, apart from lying with women,that is the one thing I could not bring myself to do, though it was the first Ishould have done! And I'll pay for that when I get home, even though that is thehardest thing for a priest to do! Even Kemren, I have heard, though he no longerworships Weda Krizhtawn, still butters himself!

'And the only reason I quit doing that is that I'm sure that he's conditionedhis real spiders, and his guardian animals, to attack anyone who's covered withbutter. That way he can make sure or thinks he can make sure, that no hunter ofhim will ever be able to get close. That is why, though it almost killed me withshame and guilt, I bathed this morning!'

Masha would have laughed if she hadn't felt so sorry for him. That was why his