On the day following, Moonflower told him seriously that she might have beenmistaken in forbidding him to see Mignureal; perhaps gods were at work, here.That day only three persons were slain, one way or another, by the Fish-EyedFolk-From-Oversea, but many more lives were ruined by them and their doings.That evening while three of her siblings peeked and giggled from this vantagepoint and that, Hanse and the very young S'danzo Mignureal discovered togetherthat they had both had the same dream last night, and that gods must be at workhere.

Considerably later a much-bejeweled Beysib amused herself by punishing an Ilsigioffender-never mind the minor offense-by handing the youth a pouch from herbelt. When he opened it, the beynit inside bit him at once. The snake'sneurotoxin worked swiftly. The Sanctuarite was dead in less than a minute, andthe Beysib was not punished. The PFLS burned a wagonload of hay on theProcessional. That was the day Hanse received the message to meet Zip in Sly'sPlace.

(Rumor was that Throde the Gimp was set upon that night after closing, but hewas fine next day, limping around Sly's without a mark, and no one took therumor seriously.)

She had been a fixture of the Maze for a hundred years, or maybe it was a dozen.She sat outside the family home/shop in which her husband sold... things, andraised their several children well while keeping her husband happy. And she Saw.She did not charge a great deal of money for her Seeings, this S'danzo namedMoonflower. She Saw danger and felicities to come, pain and pleasure to come,and she Saw linkages.

She had Seen enough once to let Hanse know that he was involved in a very largeplot emanating from Ranke itself; a treacherous governor's concubine had quitecharmed Hanse and, with a treacherous Hell-Hound, aided him into the palace onenight to steal the Savankh.[i] Warned by Moonflower, Hanse had wriggled outof that one, and the two plotters paid the supreme penalty. Moonflower hadSeen other things for Hanse, whom she could not help liking and thinking of as agood boy even though she knew he was not. And she had Seen many things formany others. Ilsigi and Twanders, Mrsevadans and Rankans, Syrese andAurveshi... and now Beysibs.

Oh yes, even the newest conquering invaders came to the gross diviner Hansecalled "Passionflower" (for he did charm that woman and bring out the kitten inher), sitting just outside the shop on a stool which she overflowed all around,wearing yards and yards of fabrics in divers colors and hues and patterns andmore colors. She made a Seeing for the Beysib Esanssu on Anenday, and again onIlsday, and the following Anenday as well. The fish-folk woman complained aboutthe brevity of the first reading, and then on her return she dared complain ofits accuracy even though it did help her rediscover both lost objects she hadsought. And so Moonflower gave her another divining at half-rate, and damned ifthe oversea bitch didn't complain that this time she was not treated withsufficient respect. (An eight-year-old child, Moonflower's, stared at her wasall; it was hard, not staring at freaks.)

At least she went away all elated after the third session, because the S'danzohad Seen an upturn in Esanssu's love-life. All races had losers, evenconquerors, and Esanssu botched it. Naturally she came back to blame Moonflower.She railed and screamed and threatened to such an extent that Moonflower'shusband came rushing out, fearful for his wife. Blind with rage, Esanssu hardlysaw him as she drew and slashed him. He fell spurting blood.

Moonflower screamed. All huge-eyed, she started to collapse, but caught herself,or perhaps it was adrenaline that caught her and powered her to her feet in alurch and flaring rustle of skirts and shawls of many colors and hues andpatterns. All on automatic she slapped the murderous creature from oversea, withall her considerable weight behind the blow. The Beysib was dashed against thewall of the shop with frightful impact. Her head struck first. She slid down thewall, leaving a bright red smear on the stucco, until she reached a sittingposition. Her eyes were open and her legs twitched. To Moonflower's horror (hadshe not been crouched over her wounded husband, weeping but curbing her wailswhile she ripped skirts to stem the tide of his blood) Esanssu was dead.

All that was bad enough and everyone knew that Moonflower was in trouble.Justice was a word, and the Beysib were conquerors. Unfortunately there wasmore; a Beysib soldier, just insulted by three Ilsigi children who had run andseemingly vanished into a warren of alleys and alley-like streets, camearunning. Already irate, and having lost her head along with having taken on thearrogance of all conquering occupation forces everywhere, she drew her longsingle-bladed sword from her back and struck, all in a rush. Moonflower'shusband would live; Moonflower died there on the street.

Hanse arrived only a few minutes after that flurry of senseless violence andmurder. Half in shock, he tried to cope with the weeping of Mignureal and thescreams and wails of her siblings, and could not. He was too choked with griefto talk coherently and too blinded with tears even to see. Without even knowingit he ran, blindly and full of the agony of grief. And rage.

Upon turning a comer a couple of blocks away he ran full into a Beysibpeacekeeper. He never knew whether it was the same who had murdered Moonflower,beloved Moonflower, mother of Mignureal.

"Here you, what's all this ru-"

"Excuse me," Hanse said sobbing, and buried his dagger in the creature's belly,and twisted it and drew it out and, hardly having paused, ran on. Everyone gotout of his way, for Hanse called Shadowspawn seemed to have gone mad.

"Here, you-what the (deleted) are you doing here?- this is Zip's turf. Mazer,and you're carryin' an awful lot of sharp metal. Me an' my buddy here will justtake-"

That one of Zip's Boys named Jing broke off. He knew this interloper at the edgeof the several blocks of Downwind that Zip controlled, and he'd never seen thesinister fellow look so-so sinister. Mean. His black eyes below his black hairand above his russet peasantish tunic looked so ugly. His face was working aswith a tic and his expression was one of rage barely controlled by mightyeffort.

"I don't know you but I know Speaklittle there with you. You reach for one ofyour weapons and you are deader than the Stare-Eye froggy I ran into a few hoursago. I promise not to use the same knife on you, though-don't want tocontaminate the blood of a fellow Ilsig with the cess they have for blood...even if you are busy dying at the time." An arm jerked up and pointed. "I'moutside Zip's line. Go and tell him I'm here to see him. Zip and I know eachother and he's expecting me. I'll see him but I'll be wearing my stickers when Ido, and I expect him and you and his bodyguards to be armed, too. Go on, Speaky,hurry! Get Zip!"

Jing frowned, made a sneery face, and reached for his sword. That quick, he waslooking at a slender throwing knife in the hand poised just above theinterloper's left shoulder. It stayed there, ready, and Jing left his shortnasty sword where it was. The world knew that the former Down-winder named Hanseknew how to throw a knife, and Jing thought that continuing to live was justwhat he wanted to do.

The knife went back into its sheath so fast that Hanse might just have flippedit there, except that he hadn't. With an expression of seething and only justcontrolled rage, he looked at Speaklittle.