Voyage of the Fox Rider Read Online Free PDF Page B

ultimate evil.
    “Heed me, if in every instance you were in distress or doubt you called upon your god to aid you, and if that god answered and resolved your woe, then I ask you, what would happen to your initiative? Why struggle when there is no need? Your god will see to all. Yet, would that not lead to your god controlling every aspect of your life? And if that happened, then what would be the challenge of living?
    “Let me ask you this as well: if your god was not benevolent but instead were a selfish, jealous god, then would you have Him control every aspect of your life? And heed, even were He a beneficient, loving god, still, would you give up your free will for the generous life He would afford you? Would you surrender your very being in order to live in the comfort of a golden prison? And if you did surrender your very being, then what would be left of you? What would you have become?”
    Jinnarin shook her head. “All this merely from speaking to a god and receiving a reply?”
    “Mayhap, Jinnarin. Mayhap. For who knows where events will lead, given even an innocent start?”
    “I find it difficult to believe that they will lead to the ultimate evil, Alamar.”
    “Then let me ask you this, Jinnarin: what is the nature of evil?”
    Jinnarin’s mouth dropped open. “Why, Alamar,
everyone
knows that.”
    “Oh? Is that so? Well then, Pysk, tell me.”
    “Evil is bad,” responded Jinnarin.
    “Don’t be stupid,” snapped Alamar. “To say that evil is bad is the same as saying evil is evil. Or good is good. Or tall is tall. And to define a thing in terms of itself is the sheerest of folly.”
    Jinnarin bristled at Alamar’s remarks, yet at the same time she realized the truth of his words. She rode along in silence for a while, at last saying, “This is not an easy question, is it.” Her statement was a declaration, not a query. “Even though I believe I know evil when I see it, still, to say what it is, to define it, well…”
    Again the Pysk fell silent, contemplating. Rux padded along, easily keeping pace with the Mage, the elder plodding slowly. Once again it was Jinnarin who broke the quiet. “How can it be that something I had always thought so simple could be so complex upon reflection? Everything that I can think of has exceptions, exemptions, times when evil in one thing is virtue in another. Like, say, killing: Farrix killed a boar to save your life, but he would not kill a boar just to have done so, just for pleasure.…There is no easy answer, is there, Alamar?”
    The elder grunted in affirmation, then added, “The nature of evil has been pondered for millennia, and you are right, Jinnarin, there is no
easy
answer…but there
is
an answer, though even it is hedged about with qualifications.”
    “Don’t tell me what it is, Alamar. Let
me
ponder some more.”
    Alamar looked down at the Pysk in surprise, a glint of admiration in his sharp gaze.
    On toward the lights of Kairn they went, the city drawing closer. At last they came in among dwellings, and Jinnarin and Rux slipped into the shadows, wheredarkness seemed to gather about the Pysk and fox, cloaking them, and even Mage eyes were hard pressed to spot them in the gloom. The road they followed continued westerly, paralleling the river, and alongside these stony banks they trod, passing before rows of buildings, crossing side streets now and then, some cobbled, others not. And all along the way they encountered people, hurrying to and fro or strolling in leisure or lounging. Yet, though many of these glanced at Alamar or stepped aside to let him pass, none seemed to see Jinnarin or the fox cloaked in shadow flitting through shadow—it was as if the two were invisible to ordinary eyes, though now and again, Alamar could make them out.
    They passed by a bridge crossing the river, the lantern-lit span supported by pontoons floating on the water. In the near distance downstream, Jinnarin could see an island mid river, several towers rising