"Three sons you are having?"

I must have nodded again. (At another time I will write about Green.) When I regained consciousness, I was lying on the floor beside Hamer's desk, and he was questioning Azijin. "With Mysire Horn talking while s...o...b..und you are. Of twin sons he spoke?"

Azijin stood at attention. "Yes, Mysire Rechtor."

"More than a yes from you I ask."

Azijin gulped; the sound was soft, but the sellaria was so still, and I lay so near him, that I was able to hear it. "Of his family to me speaking often he is, Mysire Rechtor. Of his sons who twins are, of his wife and older son, of his daughter, who asleep fell and could not we wake--"

"Not permitting it he is?"

Another gulp. "No, Mysire Rechtor. Permitting he is, but not waking she is."

Hamer grunted. "Of twins he speaks? Sons that twins are?"

"Yes, Mysire Rechtor."

I suppose he must have beckoned to Hide, because Hide came forward.

"This son with him then is, Sergeant?"

"Yes, Mysire Rechtor."

"Not the other it is?" (I held my breath and shut my eyes.) "The other, Mysire Rechtor . . ."

"The other it is?" I did not have to see Hamer to know that his face was crimson with rage. "This you saying are?"

"No, Mysire Rechtor."

"This son it is?"

"Yes, Mysire Rechtor."

Hide burst out, "Who is this, and why's he lying about me?"

There was a lengthy silence. At last Hamer said smoothly, "Mysire Strik, charged with the prisoner Hide you were."

"Here he is!" Strik protested. "Before you he stands, Mysire Rechtor."

"No, mysire. Escaped he has. His brother his place has taken while you slept."

"But--but--"

"To me plain this is. Mysire, your name Hoof it is?"

Hide nodded. "Yes, Mysire Rechtor."

"Mysire Hide your brother is?"

"Yes, Mysire Rechtor."

"When your father Mysire Nat confined, you in your own town were?"

Hide coughed nervously. "Can I say something, Mysire Rechtor? It's about something that's been bothering me a long time."

"Speak. Of you what I ask it is."

"That man there isn't really my father at all. He says he is, and he must've talked to my real father a lot, because he knows a lot about me and my brothers and our whole family. But that's not him."

"Not your father he is? Lying he is?"

"I don't know if he's lying, Mysire Rechtor. Sometimes it's like he believes it himself."

Judge Hamer rapped his desk. "Nearly finished we are. Sergeant, Mysire Hide who with you in the inn was, this man his father calling he was?"

"Yes, Mysire Rechtor!"

"Good." Judge Hamer sighed with relief; I heard his walking stick rattle as he laid it down. "Good! From Mysire Nat a disposition I have. By Mysire Horn and Mysire Hide he was bound and beaten. Mysire Horn we have."

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 antic.i.p.ation.

"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 gla.s.s 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 gla.s.s 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 gla.s.s, 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. hungry. I foun' thish woman in a alley." 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 sho hungry," she repeated. 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.