‘Does he have to do that?’ Oscagne complained to Sparhawk.

‘Ulath? Yes, I think he does, your Excellency. It’s something in the Thalesian nature – terribly obscure, I’m afraid, and quite possibly perverted.’

‘Sparhawk!’ Ulath protested.

‘Nothing personal there, old boy,’ Sparhawk grinned, ‘Just a reminder that I haven’t yet quite forgiven you for all the times you’ve euchred me into doing the cooking when it wasn’t really my turn.’

‘Hold still,’ Mirtai commanded.

‘You got some of it in my eye,’ Talen accused her.

‘It won’t hurt you. Now hold still.’ She continued to daub the mixture onto his face.

‘What is that, Mirtai?’ Baroness Melidere asked curiously.

‘Saffron. We use it in our cooking. It’s a kind of a spice.’

‘What are we doing here?’ Ehlana asked curiously as she and Sparhawk entered the room to find the Atana spreading the condiment over Talen’s face.

‘We’re modifying your page, my Queen,’ Stragen explained. ‘He has to go out into the streets, and we want him to be unobtrusive. Mirtai’s changing the colour of his skin.’

‘You could do that with magic, couldn’t you, Sparhawk?’ Ehlana asked.

‘Probably,’ he said, ‘and if I couldn’t, Sephrenia certainly could.’

‘Now you tell me,’ Talen said in a slightly bitter tone. ‘Mirtai’s been seasoning me for the past halfhour.’

‘You smell good, though,’ Melidere told him.

‘I didn’t set out to be somebody’s supper. Ouch.’

‘Sorry,’ Alean murmured, carefully disengaging her comb from a snarl in his hair. ‘I have to work the dye in, though, or it won’t look right.’ Alean was applying black dye to the young man’s hair.

‘How long will it take me to wash this yellow stuff off?’ Talen asked.

‘I’m not sure,’ Mirtai shrugged. ‘It might be permanent, but it should grow out in a month or so.’

‘I’ll get you for this, Stragen,’ Talen threatened.

‘Hold still,’ Mirtai said again and continued her daubing.

‘We have to make contact with the local thieves,’ Stragen explained. ‘The thieves at Sarsos promised that we’d get a definite answer here in Lebas.’

‘I see a large hole in the plan, Stragen,’ Sparhawk replied. ‘Talen doesn’t speak Tamul.’

‘That’s no real problem,’ Stragen shrugged. ‘The chief of the local thieves is a Cammorian.’

‘How did that happen?’

‘We’re very cosmopolitan, Sparhawk. All thieves are brothers, after all, and we recognise the aristocracy of talent. Anyway, as soon as he can pass for a Tamul, Talen’s going to the local thieves’ den to talk with Caalador – that’s the Cammorian’s name. He’ll bring him here, and we’ll be able to talk with him privately.’

‘Why aren’t you the one who’s going?’

‘And get saffron all over my face? Don’t be silly, Sparhawk.’

Caalador the Cammorian was a stocky, red-faced man with curly black hair and an open, friendly countenance. He looked more like a jovial innkeeper than a leader of thieves and cutthroats. His manner was bluff and good humoured, and he spoke in the typical Cammorian drawl and with the slovenly grammar that bespoke back-country origins. ‘So yer the one ez has got all the thieves of Daresia so sore perplexed,’ he said to Stragen when Talen presented him.

‘I’ll have to plead guilty on that score, Caalador,’ Stragen smiled.

‘Don’t never do that, brother. Alluz try’n lie yer way outten thangs.’

‘I’ll try to remember that. What are you doing so far from home, my friend?’

‘I mought ax you the same question, Stragen. It’s a fur piece from here t’ Thalesia.’

‘And quite nearly as far from Cammoria.’

‘Aw, that’s easy explained, m’ friend. I storted out in life ez a poacher, ketchin’ rabbits an’ sich in the bushes on land that weren’t rightly mine, but that’s a sore hard kinda work with lotsa’ risk and mighty slim profit, so I tooken t’ liftin’ chickens outten hen-roosts – chickens not runnin’ near ez fast ez rabbits, especial at night. Then I moved up t’ sheep-stealing – only one night I had me a set-to with a hull passel o’ sheep-dawgs which it wuz ez betrayed me real cruel by not stayin’ bribed.’

‘How do you bribe a dog?’ Ehlana asked curiously.

‘Easiest thang in the world, little lady. Y’ thrun ‘em some meat-scraps t’ keep ther attention. Well, sir, them there dawgs tore into me somethin’ fierce, an’ I lit out – leavin’, misfortunate-like, a hat which it wuz I wuz partial to an’ which it wuz ez could be rekonnized ez mine by half the parish. Now, I’m jist a country boy at hort ‘thout no real citified ways t’ get me by in town, an’ so I tooken t’ sea, an’ t’ make it short, I fetched up on this yere furrin coast an’ beat my way inland, the capting of the ship I wuz a-sailin’ on wantin’ t’ talk t’ me ‘bout some stuff ez had turnt up missin’ fum the cargo hold, y’ know.’ He paused. ‘Have I sufficiently entertained you as yet, Milord Stragen?’ he grinned.

‘Very, very good, Caalador,’ Stragen murmured. ‘Convincing – although it was a trifle overdone.’

‘A failing, Milord. It’s so much fun that I get carried away. Actually, I’m a swindler. I’ve found that posing as an ignorant yokel disarms people. No one in this world is as easy to gull as the man who thinks he’s smarter than you are.’

‘Ohh.’ Ehlana’s tone was profoundly disappointed.

‘Wuz yer Majesty tooken with the iggernent way I wuz atalkin’?’ Caalador asked sympathetically. ‘I’ll do ‘er agin, iff’n yer of a mind – of course it takes a beastly long time to get to the point that way.’

She laughed delightedly. ‘I think you could charm the birds out of the bushes, Caalador,’ she told him.

‘Thank you, your Majesty,’ he said, bowing with fluid grace. Then he turned back to Stragen. ‘Your proposal has baffled our Tamul friends, Milord,’ he said. ‘The demarcation line between corruption and outright theft is very clearly defined in the Tamul culture. Tamul thieves are quite class-conscious, and the notion of actually co-operating with the authorities strikes them as unnatural for some reason. Fortunately, we Elenes are far more corrupt than our simple yellow brothers, and Elenes seem to rise to the top in our peculiar society – natural talent, most likely. We saw the advantages of your proposal immediately. Kondrak of Darsas was most eloquent in his presentation. You seem to have impressed him enormously. The disturbances here in Tamuli have been disastrous for business, and when we began reciting profit and loss figures to the Tamuls, they started to listen to reason. They agreed to co-operate – grudgingly, I’ll grant you, but they will help you to gather information.’