Hide started to protest, but fell silent.

"You may not me interrupt, mysire! Mysire Horn your father he is?"

"That's his name, Mysire Rechtor, but-"

"Then this man another Mysire Horn to me he is, because Horn himself he calls. This Mysire Horn we have. Mysire Hide we do not have. Meren Jahlee not I have seen, but little guilt she has, and ill she lies." This was said portentously, and there was a slight stir of anticipation.

"For this preliminary hearing I will decide. In the matter of Meren Jahlee, no reason to charge I find. Dismissed though absent she is."

Although she spoke softly, Vadsig surprised me enough to make me open my eyes by saying, "Thanks, Mysire Rechtor. We really appreciate it." At an angry gesture from Azijin, a legerman hurried to replace her gag, which lay in her lap.

"In the matter of Mysire Hide, escape his guilt confirms. With unlawful restraint he charged is. Not here he is to plead, so for him not pleading down I set. This the law requires. With his escape Mysire Strik I charge."

I was watching Strik through narrowed lids, and he looked stricken. Hide asked, "What about me, Mysire Rechtor?"

"With you my court no business has, Mysire Hoof. Free to go you are."

"Thank you," Vadsig said again. Azijin went over to fasten her gag himself, but Judge Hamer told him to free her instead.

Strik was trying to say something, but was silenced. "Your preliminary hearing not this is, mysire. A date for that I will set. Notified you shall be." Hamer cleared his throat. "Mysire Beroep."

Hesitantly, poor Beroep stepped forward.

"Mysire Horn you for us have kept. Mysire Strik also you must keep."

Aanvagen answered for him. "That we will do, Mysire Rechtor. Safe with us he will be."

"In the matter of Mysire Horn, for himself he cannot plead, for him also not pleading down I set." Just then Cijfer burst in to announce that Jahlee had escaped. But I must go.

I have been out raising money. It was not easy, as the loot we took was mostly jewelry; but after searching and pounding on doors I was able to trace one jeweler to his home, wake him, and persuade him to buy six pieces. I stopped at a dram shop when I left him, a very foolish thing to do when I was carrying so much money; but I told myself (correctly, as it turned out) that I would be able to sit down with a glass before me and rest for an hour or so before I had to find my way back to Aanvagen's, and I might hear something of value. It was a clean, decent place, and had very few customers so late at night.

Sit down, Patera.

Auk sat across from me, more dour and more threatening than I ever imagined him when we wrote about his meeting with Silk. I blinked and he was gone, but he soon returned. Eventually I called the owner of the shop over, saying quite truthfully that my head ached, that I was very tired and much in need of company, and that I would be happy to stand him a glass of his own brandy if only he would tell me the gossip of the town.

"A foreigner you are?" He bent over my table, a bald and beefy man of more than forty.

"A foreigner much in need of companionship, mysire," I said.

"A girl you want?"

I shook my head. "Just someone real to talk to. Are you about to close?"

"No, mysire. At shadeup we close, but soon my son comes so sleep I get."

"Most people here don't say shadeup anymore," I told him, "or shadelow, either."

"For this my son at me laughs, mysire." He sat on Auk's stool, to my great relief. "The old place I do not forget. Back I cannot go, but remember I do. Old as me you are, mysire. Why come you did?"

For a moment I could not decide whether to tell him that I was told to (as I was by Silk) or that I was made to (as I was by Hari Mau and his friends); in the end I decided to change the subject and said, "For the same reasons as many others, I suppose. Would you like that drink? If you'll get it I'll pay for it, as I said."

"No, mysire. In my house sometimes, but here never I drink. For my trade ruin it is. From where to our Dorp do you come?"

"New Viron."

"A long voyage it is, but last night another from New Viron to my tavern comes. For you it is he searches?"

"I doubt it. What was his name?"

The shopkeeper scratched his bald head. "This forgotten I have, mysire. What yours is? Him I tell if again he comes."

I smiled and told him, "Horn it is, mysire. To him this you say. Mysire Horn for your company asks. Your townsman he is. With Beroep he is to be found. Help you he will."

The shopkeeper laughed. "Better talking you are, mysire."

"But not perfectly? How would you say it?"

" `For' not you say."

As I sipped from my chipped glass, I struggled to recall just what I had said. "Mysire Horn your company asks?"

"Yes, mysire. That the right way it is. Also must you say, with Beroep to be found he is."

"I see, and I appreciate your instruction. I'll wait a bit before I try again."

"A good man where we are Beroep is." The shopkeeper winked and pretended to drink, then turned gloomy. "Soon ruined he is. Destroyed he is. His boats they want, mysire."

A younger man joined us. "Strik already ruined is."

The shopkeeper introduced him. "My son, mysire. Wapen he is."

Wapen said, "Strik tried will be. Everything they take."

"For what tried?"

Wapen shrugged. "If not wanted it is, too heavy it is."

His father told me, "They us destroy, mysire. One man and another."

"My father's tavern soon they take." The younger man was not tall, but he looked tough; and as he leaned toward me I saw a scar that must have been made by a knife or a broken bottle across one pitted cheek.

"Soon, not now, it is," the shopkeeper said.

"Better the tavern we sell and a boat buy. Back not coming, we are."

I said, "Better destroying those who would destroy you, you are."

The shopkeeper looked around fearfully, but his son spat on the floor, saying, "What more to us they will do?"

Soon after that the shopkeeper left for home, and Wapen excused himself to wait on another patron.

"They're y'are."

I looked around at the swaying woman behind me and said, "Chenille?"

"Tha' lady on Green? No, 's me." Jahlee dropped onto Auk's stool and leaned across the table her chin on her hands. "Guesh my faish's not sho good, huh?"

"Don't smile," I told her.

"I won'. I'sh jush show hungry. I foun' thish woman in a alley."

"Not so loud, please."

"I drank 'n drank, 'n I fell down 'n I knew I better shtop."

"Did you kill her, Jahlee?"

"Don' thin' sho. She'sh big woman." She paused, her eyes unfocused and her nose softening and seeming to sink into her face. "Never wash sho drunk. D'you like it, Rashan?"

I shook my head, wondering how long it would be before she was sober again. It could be a matter of minutes, I decided; it was also possible that what we were interpreting as drunkenness was permanent brain damage.

"I'sh jus' sho hungry," she repeated.

"A part of the blood you drink becomes your own blood. Surely you must know that."

"Washn't thinkin', Rashan. It'sh jush like th' cow." She waited, expecting (as I saw) to be scolded. "Sho then I shed go back to tha' big housh, only I'sh locked up there."

I nodded.

"An' I can' find it but I shaw you."

"Basically you're right," I told her. "We must get you out of sight, and it would probably be unwise to return to Cijfer's."

"My hair'sh crooked?" Her hands went up to it.

"No. But I wouldn't touch it if I were you." Seeing a face I recognized, I called, "Hoof, come over and sit with us."

He came to the table and offered me his hand. "I'm afraid I don't remember you, sir. Are you from New Viron?"

I was worried about Oreb and my trial and a dozen other things; but I could not help laughing, just as I was to laugh a few minutes later when Hide came in with his bruised face and swollen eye, still angry and eager to fight. "Yes, I am," I told Hoof. "I'm your father, and this is your sister, Jahlee."