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shapes behind tattered curtains. He smelled the familiar perfume of sex and secrecy that went with being in a house of women.
    “I know why the baron is hunting for you ,” the stooped woman leading them said to Madd. “But what does he want with the oversized one?”
    “Counter spell first, Ibeena.” Madd’s fingernails worked at a forearm.
    Ibeena smirked. “Perhaps I shall leave it in place while I question you to be sure I get all the answers.”
    “Or until the big guy here gets irritated enough to go on another rampage. Trust me, he can knock down walls.”
    Vorgell took that as his cue to scratch at his forearm and put on his most threatening snarl. Ibeena’s composure barely slipped, but she apparently reconsidered.
    “Very well,” she said, stopping to take a pinch of some kind of powder from a pouch at her belt. She tossed it in their direction at the same time she muttered a few words. Madd ceased scratching and managed an eye roll in Vorgell’s direction. Vorgell heaved a sigh of relief. He’d actually begun to itch simply out of sympathy. “Out with it.”
    Madd flashed Ibeena a grin. “Flemgu likes to watch men screw, and Vorgell here sports a dragon atop his balls.”
    At hearing the praise, Vorgell’s dragon started to raise its head, but a look from Ibeena made it beat a hasty retreat. For the first time since partaking of unicorn horn, he faced someone around whom he could not become erect.
    “Let me see.” She poked her staff at the front of his trousers. “If that’s true, you might be useful.”
    “Hey!”
    “He’s modest. But he’ll let you see it if you allow us to use the bath.”
    “A bath?” Ibeena narrowed her crafty little eyes. “There’s more to this.”
    Madd said, “We’re on the run. Now you know why. Usdan, the Grand Wizard, is in Baron Flemgu’s fief, collecting witches for his damn fiends. Having Vorgell screw a few witches was supposed to be part of the entertainment.”
    Vorgell wondered if that were true. Baron Flemgu had seemed unusually interested in his appetite as well as his size. But why the screwing of witches would appeal to wizards escaped him.
    “Entertainment—and necromancy too.” Ibeena settled back into her stooped and usual posture. To judge by her curdled expression, Madd’s explanation satisfied her. “Baron Flemgu removed all protection from our villages. He has been richly rewarded by the Wizards’ Guild for handing so many over to their custody. He feeds Usdan’s lust for death and his own lusts as well.” She eyed them critically. “What is it you came for?”
    Madd shrugged. They’d resumed walking again, deeper into the jumble of corridors, courtyards, and rooms. “I told you. We’re hunted, we can’t go to the usual places… and we would like a bath.”
    “Ha! You abuse our hospitality.”
    “I’m filthy, in case you haven’t noticed. And I’m not about to discuss anything more until I’m clean.”
    She cocked her head like a bird, as though by doing so she could peer into Madd’s mind. “Flemgu knows your habits, does he? Well, so do I. From the day you first came to Gurgh to the day you left it to save your life, not a week ever passed but you would return with your tail between your legs, barking for a bath. Good thing we move often.” She stopped walking and frowned at Madd then Vorgell, lingering on him the longest. “Both of you will require too much water. You can have one tub filled to the rim, but you must share it.”
    Madd shot a look at Vorgell. “I go first.”
    Vorgell little cared. The prospect of seeing Madd unclothed made him quite agreeable. “As you wish. But I get to stay in the room.”
    “Right.”
    Madd turned to Ibeena again, haggling for soap and the services of someone good with a razor. At length they entered a small room with high windows, well-scrubbed stone walls, and a floor that sloped toward a drain tile in one corner. In the middle of the room squatted a large copper tub.