"The Wandering Kin have their own tradition. They own nothing but the clothes they wear and a sleeping robe for when they must spend the night beside the road. The peasants feed and shelter them and give them clothes, regarding it a privilege. Only in unpeopled stretches do the Wandering Kin own even a hut, built by themselves in the wilderness, where they can shelter in bad weather."

Raadgiver also taught him how psis influence the thinking of non-psis. A psi cannot influence a subject to a conclusion or action incompatible with the subject's nature. But his reaction to a specific idea or event commonly can be modified. For example, the influence of a psi advisor on his feudal lord depends on:

1. Selection of a lord who is not particularly suspicious of him or adverse to advice, followed by the cultivation of the lord's confidence.

2. Sound insight into the lord's personality. An important element in psi training is training to interpret thoughts and emotions and to integrate them into a reasonable model of the subject's subconscious so his reactions can be predicted.

3. Correct reading of the lord's mood of the moment, which is automatic for a trained psi.

4. Ability to translate the psi's objective, or an approximation of it, into an objective harmonic with the lord's tastes or at least compatible with them.

Nils also was instructed in geography, map reading, and use of the psi tuner. Raadgiver also passed on odd bits and pieces of subjects from geology to philosophy. As far as possible, instruction and conversation were in Anglic.

The man Nils was to assassinate was a psi named Kazi. The Alliance had first become aware of him several decades earlier as the ruler of a powerful Near Eastern despotism. One of the Kinfolk equipped with a psi tuner had been sent to spy on him and was captured. Apparently he succeeded in suicide, however, for Kazi seemed to have gotten little information from him. But he clearly deduced the existence of a European psi organization. For a time Kazi had sent psi spies of his own into Europe, losing several but assassinating three of the Inner Circle. Apparently he concluded that so loose and nonmilitary an organization as the Alliance was no threat to him, for no more spies had been detected for a number of years.

Meanwhile, Kazi had expanded his empire to include much of the Balkans.

Reports and rumors gathered by the Wandering Kin in peripheral areas and from refugees indicated that Kazi's rule was one of deliberate depravity, and that he was clearly psychopathic. His subjects lived in a pathetic state of fear or apathy, and his army was thought to be invincible.

Legends described him as the Never Dying. Evidence indicated that he actually was either ageless, extremely old, or more probably a dynasty.

Apparently he intended to conquer Europe. He had planted a cult to Baalzebub throughout much of the continent, Baalzebub referring to himself. Under the influence of drugs, initiates practiced such obscene depravities that they felt themselves afterward totally alienated from their culture and either dedicated themselves completely to the cult or committed suicide.

It had few adherents now, however. Initiates were easily detected by the Kinfolk, and using the information they provided, the feudal lords had suppressed the cult harshly. And the Wandering Kin preached against it.

Recently trolls had appeared along the coasts of western and northern Europe, and the rumor had been spread that Baalzebub had sent them because the people did not worship him.

The Alliance had been looking for someone who might stand a chance of assassinating Kazi. Raadgiver told Nils frankly that success seemed less than likely, and that Kazi could well come to rule all of Europe.

Nils left the castle in the dry haze of an October day, alone.

"After two months you still dislike him, Signe," Raadgiver thought. "Shall I tell you why?"

"He has no sensitivities," Signe answered aloud.

Raadgiver continued as if she hadn't spoken. "Because he doesn't think as we do nor feel the same emotions. I sensed that in him when I first saw him, at his audience with the greve. He didn't think discursively except when he spoke. His mind receives, correlates and decides, but it does not 'think to itself.'

"Because of that difference you dislike him; yet if we weren't so different ourselves, we wouldn't know it. Everyone else at the castle likes him because he is so mild and pleasant.

"Signe, we are told that before the Great Death, when psi was not secret, many people disliked or even hated psis. And not because of the ways they acted or the things they said, but because psis were so different and, in a way, superior.

"Nils is still another kind of human, different and, in an important way, superior to us. It bothers you to hear me say it, yet you sensed that superiority at once, and watched it grow.

"Yet we have our part in it, for without us it would not have matured. His mind was impressive from the first, but its scope has broadened and deepened greatly during his weeks with us, and as he absorbs experiences through psi… "

Signe's thought interrupted his angrily. "And he isn't even grateful!" she flared.

"True. He knows what happened, what we did, and accepts it as a matter of fact. That's his nature. And it seems to be yours to dislike him for it. But remember this while you're enjoying the questionable pleasure of indignation. At our request he is going to probable death without question or hesitation. And who else would have a significant chance of success?"

During his training under Raadgiver, Nils worked out for a time each morning, mostly giving Kuusta lessons in the use of sword and shield. The Finn already knew the basics and was strong for his size. Also, he had grown up in a relentless wilderness environment, as a hunter, with hunger or a full belly as the stakes. His senses were sharp and his reflexes excellent. By late September Kuusta had more than thickened in the arms and shoulders; he had become one of the best swordsmen among the men-at-arms, and afoot could have held his own against some of the knights.

Generally, however, the life of a man-at-arms had palled on Kuusta Suomalainen. First, it was dull. Under the gentle influence of his chief counselor, the Greve of Slesvig had been sufficiently impressed by the mobilization of Jylland forces to offer homage to Jorgen Stennaeve as King of Denmark. So there was no war. Second, Kuusta was homesick. He had compared the wide world with his memories of Finland and was beginning to find the wide world lacking.

Jens Holgersen had appreciated his woods cunning and assigned him to night patrol for poachers, which had been pleasant enough until the evening they had caught a peasant with a deer.

His main satisfaction was in training with Nils, sweating, aching, feeling the growth of skill and strength. So when Nils told him that he soon would be leaving, alone, Kuusta also began to think about leaving, and with Raadgiver's influence he was released from his service.

On the evening before Kuusta was to leave, he sat with Nils outside the castle, by the moat. "Why have you decided to go home instead of searching for the esper crystal?" Nils asked. He knew Kuusta's mind, but asked by way of conversation.

"The esper crystal?" Kuusta grunted. "It seemed real and desirable enough to me once, but now I'd rather see Suomi again. I want to hunt, sweat in the sauna, and speak my own language in a land where men are not hanged up with their eyes bulging and their tongue swelling while they slowly choke to death. And all because they wanted some meat with their porridge."

"And how will you get there?" Nils asked.

"I've seen a map showing that if I ride eastward far enough, I'll come to the end of the sea, and if I go around the end, I'll come to Suomi."