He made his way to where the lesser priests were
quartered. His presence aroused no suspicion as it was not unusual
for warriors to have business within the temple. He came at last to
a chamber where several priests were congregated after the evening
meal. The rites and ceremonies of the sacrifice had been concluded
and there was nothing more of a religious nature to make call upon
their time until the rites at sunrise.
Now the warrior knew, as in fact nearly all Pal-ul-don knew, that
there was no strong bond between the temple and the palace at
Ja-lur and that Ja-don only suffered the presence of the priests
and permitted their cruel and abhorrent acts because of the fact
that these things had been the custom of the Ho-don of Pal-ul-don
for countless ages, and rash indeed must have been the man who would
have attempted to interfere with the priests or their ceremonies.
That Ja-don never entered the temple was well known, and that his
high priest never entered the palace, but the people came to the
temple with their votive offerings and the sacrifices were made
night and morning as in every other temple in Pal-ul-don.
The warriors knew these things, knew them better perhaps than a
simple warrior should have known them. And so it was here in the
temple that he looked for the aid that he sought in the carrying
out of whatever design he had.
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