"If one of the journeymen saw you, it would be bad." He was still considering. "Only in that black robe he might think you were one of us, if he didn't see your face."

"It would be better if I had a hood, wouldn't it?" I made one for myself in imitation of the journeymen I had seen, and added the decorations worn by Master Gurloes, thinking my white beard and hair deserved them. "Will this pass, do you think?"

"Blacker." (He was certainly a young man of courage.) "Ours are fuligin. Like soot."

I did what I could.

"I might be able to get you a sword. Want me to try?"

I shaped a sword such as I had seen in the hands of their journeymen, with a two-handed grip and a long straight blade.

"Can I hold it for a minute? Is it real?"

"Of course you can." I gave it to him. "No, it isn't."

"It feels heavy." Holding it clearly gave him pleasure.

"It's my old friend Pig's, as well as I remember it. Could you carry it for me? I'm no longer young, I'm afraid."

"We don't do that."

We went out, I through the door and he through the doorway.

To town this morning, determined to make my report, sat until midafternoon in Gyrfalcon's reception room, and returned here. Tomorrow I intend to go to Marrow's first-or at least, to the house that was his. I do not doubt that he is dead; Hoof would never lie to me about such a matter. But as I sat with little to do but think, it occurred to me that Marrow may have left a message for me. That is worth investigating, surely. It cannot be a waste of time worse than I endured today.

When the Prolocutor had me sacrifice in the Grand Manteion, I thought it no worse than a minor waste of time as well. Now I see clearly that it tipped the scales toward failure. Had I not acceded to his request, I might have found Silk, whom I heard was staying at our inn, although only when it was too late. Time wasted can never be recovered. I mean time that accomplishes nothing, and in which we have no enjoyment.

I have been playing with Oreb and scratching Babbie's ears. None of which I count as time wasted. I enjoy it, and so do they. Besides, I feel entitled to a little recreation after so much dreary sitting and staring. I find I cannot pray when others who are not praying are present.

No, I find nothing of the sort. I did not try. I will go again tomorrow, and if Gyrfalcon (who sent me out as much as Marrow and the others) keeps me cooling my heels again, I will pray. Perhaps others will join me. There's a cheering thought! I'm looking forward to trying already.

Silk prayed aboard the Ayuntamiento's boat with Doctor Crane looking on. If he could do that, I can do this.

Jahlee returned, cheerful and eager to talk. Our cool, damp, dark weather suits her. "It's much better than the snow, Rajan. Much! I have to keep moving to stay active, but I've slept so much already. I feel as if I'll never sleep again. And I'm getting hungry. It's wonderful!"

I made her promise that she would not attack children.

"Or the poor. You always say that."

"Very well. Or the poor. No one who doesn't have enough to eat. You'll agree to that, won't you?"

She smiled, briefly displaying her fangs. "I won't bite myself, if that's what you're worried about. Is it all right if I go back and bite the Man of Han?"

"He's dead, I believe."

"They'll have a new one by now. No, seriously, I want a goodlooking woman, someone like me. I won't kill her either."

"Or keep going back to her."

"Not more than once. You've got my word." She rose to go, the very picture of a good-looking young woman herself in her white furs. "Do you think I'd be better as a brunette?"

"Possibly." I considered her. "No, you couldn't be better. No conceivable change would be an improvement."

"Bigger breasts?" She tossed her hips, what Vadsig calls wiggling. "Smaller waist? I want your honest opinion."

"Bad thing!" This from Oreb.

"My honest opinion is that you shouldn't try it. You might break in two."

She laughed. She has a very pleasant laugh, but it seemed to me then that at her laugh our tent became a trifle darker. "I want to have sex with one of you. With one of your women, and feed afterward. Won't that be fun?"

She was baiting me; I waved it aside. "Jahlee, I've been wanting to talk to you about something serious. Perhaps this is the time."

"Do you want me to go? I can't blame you." Lifting her skirt, she danced toward the door of our tent.

"No," I said. "Not at all."

"That's good, because I can't keep it up long." She raised her skirt higher to display her legs. "Pretty, aren't they?"

"Very."

"But not strong. They're as strong as I can make them, though. I need to find another animal I can ride."

"You could have ridden your white mule from Dorp. It would have taken a great deal longer, of course."

She shrugged. "I might not have gotten here at all, and if I had, it would have been-you know."

"Flying."

"Don't say it. It's not wise. Anyway, I would have lost my mule even if I didn't lose my life, and I would have been separated from you. I don't want to be separated from you."

"Any other man or-"

"I don't think so. Anyway, I'm going into town to try to buy a new mule or something, if I can get a boat to pick me up."

I wished her luck.

"Merryn had trouble with animals, too," Jahlee said as she went out.

For some minutes I have been puzzling over that name. My first thought, naturally enough, was that "Merryn" was another inhuma we had known in Gaon; but there could be little point then in saying that Merryn, too, suffered difficulties with animals, since all inhumi do.

When the torturer's apprentice and I went to Jahlee's cell, there was an unhealthy-looking young woman with her, so pale and gaunt I feared that Jahlee had been feeding until I recalled that on the Red Sun Whorl Jahlee could eat (and could not eat) as I did-that the differences between our digestive systems had been erased, so to speak, since neither of us had any.

"This is my father," Jahlee explained to her, "but I don't know who the boy is."

The young woman had smiled, and seeing that smile I resolved not to trust her. "He's my brother," she said. "We're brothers and sisters, we witches and the torturers." Her voice was shrill and unpleasant.

"I brought her," the apprentice told me. "She's a witch," he indicated Jahlee with a nod, "and I thought another one might be able to help her."

Here I want to write that the young witch smiled again; but it was the same smile, which had remained upon her face as if forgotten. "She has no powers."

"You don't know her," the apprentice said.

"I sense none in her, and she says she has none." The witch rose, moving like a woman stiff with age.

"I don't," Jahlee told the apprentice. "I am a perfectly ordinary human woman." The happiness she had in saying it warmed my heart.

"I will go now," the witch announced; he opened the door for her and went out with her, locking it behind him. Through its barred window I heard him say that he wished to show us his dog. Possibly the witch made a reply that I did not hear.

Stepping through the door Jahlee said, "I'd like to see it. I love dogs." I followed her in time to see the witch's gaping mouth and the utter blankness of her large, dark eyes.

(I must remember to ask Jahlee about the secret. I cannot reveal it to Nettle, no matter how much I want her to know and understand. Jahlee could. She seemed in a good mood, and I should have detained her.)

We have a boat! The Outsider, seeing we required one, has arranged that we be given one at no expense and with very little trouble. But I am ahead of my story. This morning I located the house that had been Marrow's. It had been sold, but the new owner kindly referred me to a good woman named Capsicum who is disposing of Marrow's possessions.