Most of the stalls in the Farmer's Market were shuttered now, but he was able totrade two coppers for a fresh melon, which he peeled as he walked into thebazaar, the krrf inconspicuous under his arm.

He haggled for a while with a coppersmith, new to the bazaar, for a brace oflamps to replace the ones that had been stolen from the Unicorn last night. Hewould send one of his urchins around to pick them up. He watched the acrobatsfor a while, then went to the various wine merchants for bids on the next week'sordinaries. He ordered a hundredweight of salt meat, sliced into snacks, to bedelivered that night, and checked the guild hall of the mercenaries to find ahall guard more sober than the one who had allowed the lamps to be stolen. Thenhe went down to the Wideway and had an early dinner of raw fish and crabfritters. Fortified, he entered the Maze.

As the eunuch had said, One-Thumb had nothing to fear from the regular denizensof the Maze. Desperadoes who would disembowel children for sport (a sport sadlydeclining since the introduction of a foolproof herbal abortifacient) tippedtheir hats respectfully, or stayed out of his way. Still, he was careful. Therewere always strangers, often hot to prove themselves, or desperate for the priceof bread or wine; and although One-Thumb was a formidable opponent with orwithout his rapier, he knew he looked rather like an overweight merchant whoseugliness interfered with his trade.

He also knew evil well, from the yiside, which is why he dressed shabbily anddisplayed no outward sign of wealth. Not to prevent violence, since he knew thepoor were more often victims than the rich, but to restrict the class of hispossible opponents to those who would kill for coppers. They generally lackedskill.

On the way to the Unicorn, on Serpentine, a man with the conspicuously casualair of a beginner pickpocket fell in behind him. One-Thumb knew that the alleywas coming up and would be in deep shadow, and it had a hiding-niche a few pacesinside. He turned into the alley and, drawing the dagger from his boot, slippedinto the niche and set the krrf between his feet.

The man did follow, proof enough, and when his steps faltered at the darkness,One-Thumb spun out of the niche behind him, clamped a strong hand over his mouthand nose, and methodically slammed the stiletto into his back, time and again,aiming for kidneys. When the man's knees buckled, One-Thumb let him down slowly,slitting his throat for silence. He took the money-belt and a bag of coin fromthe still-twitching body, cleaned and replaced his dagger, picked up the krrf,and resumed his stroll down the Serpentine. There were a few bright spatters ofblood on his houppelande, but no one on that street would be troubled by it.Sometimes guardsmen came through, but not to harass the good citizens norcriticize their quaint customs.

Two in one day, he thought; it had been a year or more since the last time thathappened. He felt vaguely good about it, though neither man had been much of achallenge. The cutpurse was a clumsy amateur and the young noble from Ranke atrusting fool (whose assassination had been commissioned by one of his father'sministers).

He came up the street south of the Vulgar Unicorn's entrance and let himself inthe back door. He glanced at the inventory in the storeroom and noted that itmust have been a slow day, and went through to his office. He locked up the krrfin a strongbox and then poured himself a small glass of lemony aperitif, and satdown at the one-way mirror that allowed him to watch the bar unseen.

For an hour he watched money and drink change hands. The bar-tender, who hadbeen the cook aboard a pirate vessel until he'd lost a leg, seemed good with thecustomers and reasonably honest, though he gave short measures to some of themore intoxicated patrons - probably not out of concern for their welfare. Hestarted to pour a third glass of the liqueur and saw Amoli, the Lily Garden'smistress, come into the place, along with the eunuch and another bodyguard. Hewent out to meet them.

'Wine over here,' he said to a serving wench, and escorted the three to acurtained-off table.

Amoli was almost beautiful, though she was scarcely younger than One-Thumb, in atrade that normally aged one rapidly. She came to the point at once: 'Kalemtells me you have twenty grimales of Caronne for sale.'

'Prime and pure.'

That's a rare amount.' One-Thumb nodded. 'Where, may I ask, did it come from?'

'I'd rather not say.'

'You'd better say. I had a twenty-grimale block in my bedroom safe. Yesterday itwas stolen.'

One-Thumb didn't move or change expression. 'That's an interesting coincidence.'

She snorted. They sat without speaking while a pitcher of wine and four glasseswere slipped through the curtain.

'Of course I'm not accusing you of theft,' she said. 'But you can understand whyI'm interested in the person you bought it from.'

'In the first place, I didn't buy it. In the second, it didn't come fromSanctuary.'

'I can't afford riddles, One-Thumb. Who was it?'

'That has to remain secret. It involves a murder.'

'You might be involved in another,' she said tightly.

One-Thumb slowly reached down and brought out his dagger. The bodyguards tensed.He smiled, and pushed it across the table to Amoli. 'Go ahead, kill me. Whathappens to you will be rather worse than going without krrf.'

'Oh -' She knocked the knife back to him. 'My temper is short nowadays. I'msorry. But the krrf's not just for me; most of my women use it, and take part oftheir pay in it, which is why I like to buy in large amounts.' One-Thumb waspouring the wine; he nodded. 'Do you have any idea how much of my capitalwas tied up in that block?'

He replaced the half-full glasses on the round serving tray and gave it a spin.'Half?'

'And half again of that. I will get it back, One-Thumb!' She selected a glassand drank.

'I hope you do. But it can't be the same block.'

'Let me judge that - have you had it for more than two days?'

'No, but it must have left Ranke more than a week ago. It came on the Anendaycaravan. Hidden inside a cheese.'

'You can't know for sure that it was on the caravan all the time. It could havebeen waiting here until the caravan came.'

'I can hear your logic straining, Amoli.'

'But not without reason. How often have you seen a block as large as twentygrimales!'

'Only this time,' he admitted.

'And is a pressed design stamped all over it uniformly, an eagle within acircle?'

'It is. But that only means a common supplier, his mark.'

'Still, I think you owe me information.'

One-Thumb sipped his wine. 'All right. I know I can trust the eunuch. What aboutthe other?'

'I had a vassal spell laid on him when I bought him. Besides ... show him yourtongue, Gage.' The slave opened his mouth and showed pink scar tissue nested inbad teeth. 'He can neither speak nor write.'

'We make an interesting table,' he said. 'Missing thumb, tongue, and tamale.What are you missing, Amoli?'

'Heart. And a block of krrf.'

'All right.' He drank off the rest of his small glass and refilled it. 'There isa man high in the court of Ranke, old and soon to die. His son, who wouldinherit his title, is slothful, incompetent, dishonest. The old man'scounsellors would rather the daughter succeed; she is not only more able, buteasier for them to control.'

'I think I know the family you speak of,' Amoli said.

'When I was in Ranke on other business, one of the counsellors got in touch withme, and commissioned me to dispose of this young pigeon, but to do it inSanctuary. The twenty grimales was my pay, and also the goad, the bait. The boyis no addict, but he is greedy, and the price of krrf is three times higher inthe court of Ranke than it is in the Maze. It was arranged for me to befriendhim and, eventually, offer to be his wholesaler.