He looked dubious, but he went to his bookshelf and pulled down the last volume on the left of the top shelf.

‘You’ll find a sealed piece of parchment pinned to the page, Baron,’ I advised him. There’s a word written on that parchment. It’s a sort of password that’s there to identify me.’ I pushed a scrap of paper with the name ‘Ontrose’ written on it across his desk. ‘I think you’ll find that this is the word.’

Baron Stilnan blew the dust off the heavy account book, leafed through, found the page, and unpinned the parchment. This is the royal seal of King Fundor the Magnificent!’ he exclaimed.

‘Yes,’ I said, ‘I know. Fundor was kind enough to take over the management of the account. The name I gave you matches the name on the parchment, doesn’t it?’

‘Yes, it does. The entry says that the original deposit was made by the Duchess of Erat. Are you her descendant, madame?’

‘I am the duchess, Baron, and I haven’t any descendants.’

“The entry’s a hundred and eighty years old, my Lady.’

‘Has it been that long? Where does the time go?’

‘I’ll have to consult with King Falben about this, my Lady. The account’s under royal protection, so he’s the only one who can release funds.’

I sighed. ‘What a bother. Please keep this to yourself, Baron. I have reasons for not wanting my business here to become general knowledge.’

‘Only the king shall know of it, my Lady.’

King Falben of Sendaria was a plain-looking man dressed in sober brown. He was about forty, and there was a bustling sort of air about him that you see in people who have a dozen or more things to do all at the same time. ‘Now,’ he said as he entered the office, ‘what’s this all about, my Lady? Stilnan here was babbling something about a very old account in the royal treasury.’

‘The baron summed it up fairly well, then, your Majesty,’ I replied with a formal curtsey. ‘I placed the funds in the royal treasury some years back. I need some money right now, so I’m here to withdraw part of the account. Why don’t you show his Majesty the entry in the account book, Baron Stilnan?’ I suggested, ‘and the attached document? It might save some time.’

Falben read the relevant material quickly. ‘You claim to be the Lady Polgara?’ he demanded of me, his tone suspicious.

‘She doesn’t claim to be, your Majesty,’ Geran told him. ‘She is Lady Polgara.’

‘My nephew, Geran,’ I introduced the young man.

‘I’ll need something more than just his word, my Lady,’ Falben said. ‘There are all sorts of swindlers running around these days.’

‘Oh, very well,’ I sighed. Then I elevated the King of Sendaria. I’ve found that to be the fastest way to prove my identity to sceptics. There’s something about standing on empty air that almost immediately brings people around to my way of thinking. ‘Satisfied?’ I asked the startled monarch. He stood frozen in mid-air, his eyes wide with astonishment. He nodded violently, and I gently lowered him to the floor. ‘I’m sorry, your Majesty,’ I apologized. ‘We’re both busy, and that usually settles these tiresome arguments in the shortest possible time.’

‘I can see why,’ Falben said in a strained tone of voice Then he went to Stilnan’s desk and looked at the open account book. ‘Did you want to withdraw the entire balance, Lady Polgara?’ he asked, sounding slightly worried.

‘How much is there? I haven’t been keeping track of it.’

The last entry shows something over a half million nobles, my Lady.’

The noble’s a one-ounce gold coin?’

He nodded.

‘I don’t think it’d be a good idea for me to leave here with fifteen tons of gold in my pocket, do you?’

He laughed weakly. ‘You could do it if you wanted to. Lady Polgara. I’ve heard stories about you.’

‘Exaggerations, your Majesty. I think five hundred nobles should cover my current expenses.’

‘Fetch it, Stilnan,’ the king commanded. ‘I have a confession to make, Lady Polgara.’

‘Honest confession is good for the soul, your Majesty.’

‘I’m ashamed to admit that your account’s a little encumbered. We’ve occasionally used it as security for temporary loans when our tax revenues fell a little short of our current needs.’

That’s a legitimate use for dormant money, your Majesty,’ I forgave him.

‘Might I ask the source of this fortune?’

‘Rents, your Majesty. My duchy was extensive and I’ve been renting out farmsteads for quite a long time now. I don’t really charge that much rent, but it does seem to be piling up, doesn’t it? Maybe I’ll buy something with it someday – Tol Honeth, perhaps.’

He laughed. ‘It’s probably for sale, Lady Polgara. Everything the Tolnedrans own is for sale.’

Baron Stilnan returned with two large canvas bags of jingling coins. He insisted that I count the money, and then he entered the transaction in the musty old account book.

‘Oh, one last thing, your Majesty,’ I said. ‘I’d rather that word of this visit didn’t get noised about.’

‘Which visit was that, Lady Polgara? I have a terrible memory.’

I laughed, curtsied, and then Geran and I left the royal palace.

‘He seemed like a nice enough fellow,’ Geran noted, plodding along beside me through the streets of Sendar with those two jingling canvas bags.

‘I rather liked him,’ I agreed. Then I frowned. ‘When gold coins rattle together, they make a very distinctive sound, don’t they? I think I’d better devise some way to keep them quiet. We don’t want to attract attention.’

‘Are we going home now, Aunt Pol?’

‘No, Geran. Actually, we’re going to Muros.’

‘Muros? Whatever for?’

‘I haven’t raised you to be a hermit, Geran. It’s time for you to get out in the world and meet people.’

‘Who do I need to meet?’ he asked curiously.

‘I thought it might be nice if you and your wife met each other before the wedding,’ I replied. ‘That’s up to you, though. If you really like surprises, we can go back home and I’ll just send for the lucky girl.’

He blushed furiously and let the matter drop.

Muros hasn’t changed very much over the centuries. It is – and probably always will be – a dusty town permeated with the strong odor of the stockyards. For obvious reasons, there’s a lot of money in Muros. The vast Algar cattle herds have been called ‘gold on the hoof’, and the town literally seethes with cattle-buyers from all the kingdoms of the west. Geran and I took lodgings in a sedate inn on a quiet street, and I went looking for a suitable house for us to occupy on a more permanent basis. I’ve spent a lot of time over the years shopping for real estate, and I’ve developed a kind of instinctive reaction that saves time in the long run. When I see the right house, I know immediately that it’s the one I want. This time, the house was a well-built place on a quiet back street. It didn’t come up to the standards of my town house in Vo Wacune nor my country house on Lake Erat, but I didn’t really want it to. Geran and I would be posing as members of the minor nobility, and the house was suitable for a baroness who was well off, but not exactly rolling in money. It fit our fictional status quite well.