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that the deserving of the combatants received the gold. And ten gold pieces, in one zan-deldy coin, was a matter of consideration. I did not think Long Wil had fallen down drunk. That behavior tended to exclude folk from the ranks of my various guard units.
    As Hamdi the Yenakker sidled in, I reflected that this little aside with Rubin was not unimportant. Of little incidents like this was the trust between commander and men forged, for there was nothing here of the insulting patronage of handing out money as largesse without reason beyond the buying of men’s loyalty. My men and I swore our mutual loyalties by the edge of the sword.
    “Well, Hamdi?”
    “Majister. She is the woman I warned you of.”
    “So I gathered. This Pancresta. Sit down and take a glass. What else have you learned?”
    “She is from Pandahem. From south. I do not trust her. But she asks for an audience with you, majister.”
    “Does she? Well, Hamdi, you rogue, as you well know I do not trust you. Oh, we have done business in the past. But mayhap this time... Who knows?”
    Hamdi looked hurt. He was still the same tall and upright fellow, carrying himself with a swagger, now sworn to all things Vallian after our victory over mad Empress Thyllis. But he understood we knew he was a rogue. I feel that upset him only in that he felt less free to practice his wiles. Well, nothing much need be said about Hamdi the Yenakker. He sold us information. He provided contacts. He had his uses.
    And, so far, he had not betrayed us.
    “Have I not served you well, majister? Was it not I who took you and Kov Seg here to The Crushed Toad to meet Nath the Dwa? Have I not provided you with trustworthy information? Did I not save the life of young Strom Nomius?”
    “Aye, Hamdi, you did warn us in time to prevent his assassination. But to the matter of the woman—”
    “Yes, majister. I think she wishes to trick you by giving you false information.” He stood up for himself. “Unlike me.”
    Seg said, “I could wish Deb-Lu or Khe-Hi were here.”
    “Aye.”
    Had our two comrades who were Wizards of Loh been available on hand, they might well have riddled out if Pancresta spoke the truth. As it was, the Wizards were about their own business.
    Then Hamdi said, “Has... pressure... been exerted on the woman, majister?”
    “No,” I said. His look was sly, understanding, a tilt to his head and a sidelong glance conveying what he was hinting at. “Nothing like that, and nothing like that will be permitted while Kov Seg or myself remain in command.”
    “Well, majister, something made her wish to talk.”
    I would not open out on a speculation on the results of Nedfar’s threat. I said, “It is probably as you say. She wishes to trick us. I will see her.”
    Hamdi screwed up his eyes.
    “There is one thing—”
    “Yes?”
    “—She insists that she meet you privately, in the open, away from spying eyes.”
    Carefully, Seg said, “Can she insist?”
    “She was, kov, most insistent.”
    “She must be afraid of others of Spikatur. If she sells them, they will surely seek to kill her.”
    “That is right,” I said. “But it suggests there are loopholes in the security here.”
    “It is all Hamalese, now, apart from this wing of the palace.”
    “All right.” One woman, alone, deserved her fair chance of life. “I’ll see her as she wishes.”
    “1 shall arrange it, majister.”
    Hamdi rose, finishing his glass of parclear, and bowed. I let him. He put store by these things. When he had gone, Seg said, “All right, Dray. So you meet her and some hidden stikitche puts a shaft through your back.”
    “So I shall wear a breast and back.”
    “If it was me, I’d put one through whatever of you was unarmored. That’d be your vosk-skull of a head.”
    “Most assassins are not as good shots as you.”
    “Any stikitche worth contracting could hit your head.”
    The point of this wrangle was perfectly clear. Seg wanted to come along, too. I did not