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"That's one side," he continued. "Warlocks cannot cause the same level of destruction you fear, so there's no
real need to destroy us. But there's another side. We can make any attempt to destroy us very costly."
"Go on," Ithinia said.
Hanner knew he had to phrase this carefully. He did not want to anger these people by seeming disrespectful
or by threatening them openly. "You know we can kill you without touching you. You've seen us be obvious,
smashing doors and so on, but we can be subtle. We can hide. We don't need to look like anything but
ordinary people-did you know I was a warlock before this morning?"
"No," Ithinia said, "but we do have ways of finding out."
"And if a wizard's heart suddenly stops in the street one day, can you find out which of the dozens of people
in the area is responsible?"
Ithinia frowned and glanced around at the others. "Go on," she said.
Hanner thought he heard someone whisper something faintly. He ignored that, as he had the earlier
muttering, and went on. "You may think that there are only so many warlocks, and that once you've disposed
of us all you're rid of the problem-but we can make others into warlocks. It's very easy, very subtle-the person
altered wouldn't necessarily even know it at first."
"Wait a minute," the white-haired wizard said. He drew a dagger and placed it on the table, then fumbled with
a pouch on his belt.
"What are you doing?" Ithinia asked.
"The Spell of Truth," the other replied. He mumbled something, gestured with the dagger, and did something
Hanner couldn't see with his other hand. Then he pointed the knife at Hanner and said, "Repeat what you just
told us."
"I said that we can make more warlocks. We can make anyone a warlock, easily, with or without their
permission or knowledge."
"Are you sure of that?" the white-haired man demanded.
Hanner hesitated. He wanted to say yes, but he couldn't honestly. He admitted, "No, I'm not sure. We believe
so, but there might be people we can't change. We can certainly change most people."
The wizard nodded. "Good enough," he said. "Then why haven't you? Why not turn all the World to
warlocks?"
"I'm not eager to do something irreversible when we don't know what the results will be," Hanner said.
"Besides, it's not as if most of us have found warlockry an unmixed blessing."
"But if you turned your enemies to warlocks-"
"They might still be our enemies-and they might be more powerful than us."
"But you have more experience."
"And we're closer to the Calling. We aren't in any hurry to go see what's in Aldagmor. If we did turn everyone
to warlocks, and the Calling took us all, we might destroy the entire World. We don't want that any more than
you do."
"Go on," Ithinia said.
Hanner sighed.
"That's most of it," he said. "If you do declare war upon us, we will fight, and we will fight with any means at
our disposal. Wizards will die of heart failure, die in their sleep, die as they walk down the street. Wizards will
find themselves transformed into warlocks, their familiar magic suddenly unreliable. Warlocks will appear
throughout the city, throughout the World, anywhere we can get within a few yards of some unsuspecting
innocent for a moment. You might win in the end, you might exterminate us or drive us all to the Calling, but
would it be worth the cost?"
"What alternative do you offer?" the white-haired wizard asked.
"The Council of Warlocks," Hanner said eagerly. "We propose to organize all the warlocks, as they're
discovered, and bind them by our rules. The warlocks who accept the Council's authority will obey the laws of
whatever land they live in-here in Ethshar-"
"You aren't in Ethshar here," a beautiful woman who had not previously spoken interrupted. "In fact, you aren't
even in the World."
"I'm sorry," Hanner said. "In Ethshar, then, they will obey the laws of the Hegemony and the commands of
the three overlords. In the Small Kingdoms they will obey the laws of the various kings and queens. In
Sardiron they will obey the barons. Whatever the law is, warlocks will be bound by it, and other warlocks will
cooperate, free of charge, in bringing to trial any warlock who does not. Council warlocks will operate openly,
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