Review: And All the Sinners, Saints by Paul Kemp

From Dragon Magazine issue 297 from July 2002 we have another Erevis Cale story from Paul Kemp: And All the Sinners, Saints. This story takes place after Shadow's Witness, of the Sembia series, and before The Erevis Cale Trilogy. If you have read the latter you may remember references to this short tale in the trilogy. It can be found on pages 68-77.

Erevis Cale is the butler at the Halls of Stormweather, the home of the noble house Uskevren of Selgaunt, Sembia. He was a former assassin of the Night Masks who escaped (the story of which is told in Another Name for Dawn) and later worked for the Night Knives. He is awoken in the night after receiving dreams from the god Mask.

Riven is an assassin who was an associate of Cale's in the Night Knives. He also is getting unsettling dreams from Mask.

Cale attend's with his master, Thamalon Uskevren, to the Hulorn's Palace with a meeting with the Hulorn, the ruler of Selgaunt whom plans to announce a new Proxy. We learn of a handy Sembian word: wolmoner, literally "vigil man" and over time a term that denoted a bodyguard, advisor, spy, or servant. I'll probably add it to my Sembian word usage article.

story art by Greg Staples

An unlikely partnership is stuck temporarily has Mask has need of a certain servant of the rival god, Cyric, out of the picture. In the story political intrigue intersects with street toughs, and evil gods and magical items: ideal Dungeons & Dragons.  This story is peak Kemp writing, it is Exceptional.

"We work well together, Cale."

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