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and thick-lipped mouth expressed no surprise that there were two more people suddenly appearing from
the shelter of his barn. But he was savagely annoyed and kept brandishing a cut-down pitchfork.
 I know who it was, he raved.  That crop-eared, no-good kleesh of a Sorgan! He must have betrayed
us  and they ll give him a dozen stripes quicker n a dozen silver sinvers.
 Never mind about who betrayed us now, Nod, said the woman.  Help get Barkindrar down off your
roof.
Tyfar said,  Do you all go on. I shall hold the roof and delay them 
The woman threw him a glance that I, for one, would not welcome. Although, by Krun, that self-same
look that says what a great ninny you are has been thrown at me in my time.
 Leave off, Nod, said Kaldu.  I will take Barkindrar on my back.
 You great dermiflon! jibed Nod the Straw. But he desisted in his efforts, and Kaldu took Barkindrar
up and bore him swiftly down over the roof of the bakery. Nath the Shaft followed with Nod the Straw.
 What are you waiting for? said Tyfar. He drew his sword.  I can hold them off for long enough 
  You think, then, said this woman in her imperious way,  that you are some kind of Jikai?
Tyfar s color rose up into his cheeks.
 I think I know where honor 
 Honor! She laughed, and, even then, even in all that thumping racket from below, and the peril in
which we stood, that laughter rose, pure and untrammeled, and exciting.
 Go on, Tyfar, I said.  There is time to get across into the shadows of the bakery.
 I shall not precede this  lady.
 Then, I said, and if you are surprised you still do not understand that old reprobate, Dray Prescot,
 then I shall go at once myself and leave you two to wrangle it out between you.
And, with that, I jumped down onto the adjoining roof and crabbed deuced swiftly across to follow the
others as they clawed their way down a crumbling wall to the alley. I had no compunction. I knew
Tyfar s honor would make him follow me, wasting no more time. If the woman wished to be last, no
doubt following some obscure honor code or discipline of her own, then we d only hold things up by
further wrangling.
Tyfar breathed down my neck as I jumped for the alley.
 That woman! Insufferable! Vosk-headed! Stubborn as a graint!
 Charming, though, you must agree.
 Yes, yes, of course. I noticed her at once. Although I would not say charming  in fact, charming is
the last word I d use. Attractive, alluring, beautiful  yes, she s all those. But who can put up with
seductiveness cloaked with superciliousness?
I peered suspiciously at Tyfar.  Isn t that San Blarnoi? Although, to be sure, I think the quote phrases it
somewhat differently from  put up with .
 San Blarnoi knew what he was talking about. That woman!
 Yes? came that smooth mellifluous voice, sweet as honey and sharp as a rapier.  What woman would
that be, horter?
Tyfar spun about. I was facing him, and he swung back to stare accusingly at me. His whole stance, his
shining face, screamed out:  You might have warned me!
I said,  Why, some shrewish fishwife who landladied it at our last inn. Now, we had best hurry. Those
paktuns looked as though they know their job. And if Sorgan did betray you they ll know we have an
injured man.
 Yes, she said, instantly forgetting the pettiness of impending annoyance at Tyfar s incautious words.
 We must get on. Kaldu! Make for Horter Rathon s.
  Quidang, my lady.
We all ran down the alley, and we ran away from Blue Vosk Street and headed for the thick stand of tall
timber.
 There is a section of bog in here, lady, said Nod the Straw.  No one ventures here. His eyes rolled.
 I do not like to go in  but 
 Needs must when you come to the fluttrell s vane, Nod.
 Aye, my lady.
 This Rathon, I said,  to whom we are all running like a flock of ponshos. Did Sorgan know of him and
his house?
 No, said Kaldu.
Tyfar wanted to bristle up at the incivility. But I restrained him with a quiet word. How odd it is that a
prince will stand for uncouthness when an arrow is aimed at his heart, and prickles up when it is not!
Although, to give Tyfar his dues, he wasn t the least afraid of arrows in the normal course of things. That
a beautiful and well-formed woman had been the person aiming the shaft at us  that, I think, had
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