And Becho's-any place was dangerous if they frequented it, if they set up apattern, and her brother had a pattern. His habits led him here and led himthere. There was the smell of death about him, that terrified her. All theenemies the slaver Jubal had ever accumulated (and they were many) had come topick bones now that his power was broken; from the days that hawk-masks used toswagger in gaudy dress through the streets, now they wore ragged cloaks andslunk into any hole that would keep them. And that was, for all of them, abitter change.

Mor-am could not bear it. She gave him money, doled it out, hers and his; but hehad lied to her-she knew he had; and gotten that little more that it needed forBecho's. Or he had cut a purse or a throat, defying Eichan's plain orders. Hewas committing slow suicide. She knew. They had come up together out of thisreek, this filth, to Jubal's service, and learned to live like lords; and nowthat it was back to the gutter again, Mor-am refused to live on those terms. Sheheld onto him with all her wit and talents, covered for him, lied for him.Eichan might kill him himself if he had seen him go; or beat him senseless: shewished she had the strength to pound the idiocy out of him, flatten him againsta wall and talk sense to him. But there was no one to do that for him. Not foryears.

Mor-am flung off down the street, striding along with purpose none of thesleepers in doorways challenged, getting off the main road as quickly as hemight.

But something stirred another way. A beggar dislodged himself from his doorwaynear an alley and shuffled along until he reached shadows, then moved quitedifferently, hunker-ing down when he thought it might serve and running sprylyenough when there was need.

Then other beggars began to move, some truly lame, but not all.

And one of them had already gone, scuttling along alleys as far as a shack nearMama Becho's, at the back of which the White Foal river flowed its sluggish,black-glistening way beneath the bridge.

Guards dozed there, about the walls, unlikely as guards as he was unlikely as amessenger, in rags, one a little urchin-girl sleeping in the alley, who lookedup and went back to her interrupted nap, a huddle of bony limbs; and one a onelegged man who did the same; but that hulk nearest the door got up and faced themessenger.

"Got something," the messenger said, "himself'd want to hear."

The guard rapped at the door. In a little time it opened on the dark inside, anda shutter opened, affording light enough to someone who had been inside allalong.

The messenger went in and squatted down in a crouch natural to his bones anddelivered what he had heard.

So Moruth listened, sitting on his bed, and when the messenger was done, said:"Put Squith on it, and Ister."

Luthim left, bowing in haste.

Mama's latest boarder. Moruth pondered the idea, hands clasped on his knees,smiling and frowning at oruce because any link between his home territory andthe hawkmasks he hunted made him uneasy. There was, in the dark, on the backside of the door, a mask pinned with an iron nail, and there was blood on itthat had dried like rust in the daylight; but only those that came to this shackand had the door closed on them could see it. It was a joke of sorts. Moruth hada sense of humor, like his half-brother Tygoth shambling along the alleys byMama's, rapping his stick and mumbling slackwitted nonsense. He had one now, andordered Luth-im himself followed: the urchin was summoned to the door and givena message to take.

So Tygoth would know.

"Good night," Moruth told his lieutenant, and the man closed the shutters andthe door, leaving him his darkness and his sleep.

But he kept rocking and thinking, pondering this and that, shifting pieces onhis mental map of Downwind alleys, remembering this and that favor owed, and howto collect.

Hawkmasks died, and either they were loyal (which seemed unlikely) or ignorantwhere Jubal lay, even in extremity. He had had three so far. The one nailed tothe door had told him most, where these two lodged; but so far he had notpounced. He knew the homes and haunts of others.

And suddenly the trail doubled back again, to Mama's, to his own territory. Hewas not amused.

And just the other side of the bridge, in a curious gardened house with welllighted windows casting a glow on the same black water. ...

Ischade received quite another messenger, a slave and young, and handsome aftera foreign fashion, who appeared at her gate disturbing certain wards, who cameup the path only after hesitating some long time, and stood inside her dwellingas if he were dazed.

He was a gift, constantly held out to her. He had come and gone frequently, sentby those who had offered her employ, and stood there now staring at the floor,at anything but herself. Perhaps he had known in the beginning that he was notmeant to come back to his masters; or that his handsomeness was to haveattracted her and offered a reward; he was not stupid, this slave. He wasscared, perpetually, sensing something, if only that his mind was not what itought to be when he was here, and he would not, this time, look at her, not atall. She was, on one level, amused, and on another, vexed with those who hadsent him-as if she were some beast, to take what was thrown to her, even sodelicate an offering as this.

But they dared not come themselves. They were that cautious, these adherents ofVashanka, not putting themselves within this room.

She was untidy, was Ischade; her small nest of a house was strewn not with ragsbut with silks and cloaks and such things as amused her. Her taste was garish,with unsubtle fire-colored curtains, a velvet throw like a puddle of emerald,and it all undusted, unkept, a ruby necklace like a scatter of blood lying atopthe litter on a gilded table-a bed never made, but tossed with moire silks andhung with dusty drapes. She loved color, did Ischade, and avoided it for herdress. Her hair was a fall of ink about her face; her habiliments were blackerthan night; her eyes- But the slave would not look at them.

"Look up," she said, when she had read the message, and after a moment he must.He stared at her. The fear grew quiet, because she had that skill. She held himwith her eyes. "I did a service for one your masters knew-lately. They seem tothink this obligates me. Nothing does. Do they realize this?"

He said nothing, shaped a no with his lips. He had no wish to be party to anyconfidences, that was clear. Yes, or no, or whatever she wanted to hear; themind, she thought, was unfocussed like the eyes.

"So. Do you know what this says?"

No, the lips shaped again.

"They want the slaver. Jubal. Does that amuse you?"

No answer at all. There was fear. It bubbled against her nerves like strongwine, harder and harder to resist, but she played with it, stronger than theyjudged she was, despising them-and perhaps a little mad. At times she thoughtshe was, or might become so, and at others most coldly sane. Humor occurred toher, a private laughter, with this gift so obviously proffered, this-bribe.Animal she was not. She knew always what she did. She moved closer and herfingers touched his arm while she wove a circle round him like some magic rite.She came full circle and looked up at him, for he was tall. "Who were you?" sheasked.

"Haught is my name," he said, all but a whisper, she was that close, and hemanaged then to look past her.

"And were you born a slave?"

"I was a dancer in Garonne."