Maq and Fritz decided to scout the walled garden before approaching the house's front door. Maquesta knew that though she had bluffed the constable into thinking the gnome was her family's servant, trying the same ploy on the merchant would be more difficult, especially if he had spotted her in the Sea Reach Inn. Fritzen knelt so Maq could climb on his shoulders, then stood up slowly.
"You're very light, you know?" he quipped. "I could carry you all day."
"Shhh!" she scolded. "Someone might hear you."
Peering over the top of the wall, Maq saw an extensive garden consisting of a number of vegetable and flower plots as well as a small cherry orchard. At first, Maquesta could not spot anyone. Then movement at the back of the garden, where it met the hill, caught her attention. She saw Lendle emerge from behind a door that blended into the rugged hillside so well she never would have noticed it if it hadn't opened.
He carried two hoes, a rake, and several other garden tools over to one of the vegetable gardens, where it looked to Maq as if he had already set up a pole on a cart with two wheels and a handle for pushing. Arms like spokes in a wheel extended out from the top of the pole. Despite the precariousness of her position, Maq chuckled. The gnome went about attaching the hoes and various other garden tools to his contraption. It looked as if Lendle were contriving some type of automatic weeding device, with the hoes positioned at just the right height to chop off the heads of the garden's vegetables. Salomdhi didn't know what he was in for.
"You know what I said about your being light?" Fritz whispered. "Forget it. You're getting heavier."
"Shhh!" she scolded again. "I'll just watch for a moment more."
Taking another look around the walled enclosure, Maq thought Lendle was alone, but she couldn't be sure. The place was too big. Even if he were alone, calling out to him would be risky. Sun glinted off the rows of windows that lined the back of Salomdhi's house. Because of the sun's reflection in the glass, she couldn't tell if someone were behind one of those windows, watching the garden.
Pondering what to do, Maq saw a rotund man with slicked-back hair and a prosperous air bustle out of the house. Maq ducked down slightly so her head wouldn't show above the top of the wall. She recognized the man from the card game. The merchant, no doubt Salomdhi, motioned the gnome to come to him, calling his name, "Lendle Chafka!" as if it were a disease. Luckily, the summons brought Lendle closer to Maq's vantage point, so she could listen in on the conversation.
"What's happening?" Fritzen whispered.
"Shhh. I'll tell you in a minute," Maq whispered back.
"No more shhhhs. What's going on?"
She poked her head up again. "I see Lendle. Shhh!"
"I have a business appointment," Salomdhi announced self-importantly. "Here, lift up your pantleg."
Maq didn't hear what response, if any, the gnome made, but she couldn't imagine he was very happy. She raised herself a little higher to get a better view. It looked as if Salomdhi were bending over and attaching something to Lendle's ankle. Maq ducked down again as the merchant stood up.
"There's no way out of this garden except through the house, and the servants will not allow you in," Salomdhi said. "You may as well not bother to think about escape. That charm locked around your ankle will allow me to track you, and I have the only key to unlock it. Of course, you're welcome to try to escape. That will give me your service for many more months. I've needed a gardener for quite some time."
As the merchant disappeared into the hillside cave, Lendle started to trail after him. Before the gnome got to the doorway, though, Salomdhi emerged carrying a burlap sack. The merchant looked around the garden, seeing little evidence of work having been done.
"Remember, I want all three vegetable gardens weeded by nightfall. You can start pruning the cherry trees tomorrow." With that, he left the garden as officiously as he had entered.
When Maq peeked over the wall again, Lendle, momentarily distracted from his plight by the introduction of this new toy, was fingering the ankle bracelet the merchant had put on him.
Maq jumped down to confer with Fritzen, who rubbed his shoulders and feigned a grimace. "The merchant's left," she said. "I don't think there's anyone in the house except servants. It would be easy to get him out, except…"
"Except what?" Fritzen demanded.
"Except that Salomdhi put some sort of charm on Lendle's ankle. Said it would let him track Lendle if he tried to escape."
Fritzen looked doubtful. "That merchant didn't look like the type to have magic charms lying around his house. Maybe it's a trick. Let's get inside first, talk to Lendle. Then we can worry about the trinket. Besides, maybe it's valuable and we'll want to take it along with us."
"All right," Maq agreed. She began climbing onto Fritzen's shoulders again.
This time he offered a weak protest. "I'm not a ladder."
"Just give me a minute," she sputtered. "I can lift myself over the wall by standing on you. But whose shoulders are you going to stand on?"
"No one's," Fritzen said as Maq stood on his shoulders. "Some of us need a helping hand," the half-ogre teased, "while others of us are self-sufficient."
At that remark, Maquesta kicked back at Fritzen, only half in jest, narrowly missing his nose. Looking up at the sky, Maq saw the sun had shifted a bit so there were shadows along the garden wall here that would provide her some cover in case anybody was watching from the house. With her arms braced on the top of the wall, she began to lift herself up and over.
Only when Maq had dropped lightly down to the ground on the other side was she noticed by Lendle. Showing no surprise, he hurried up to her, a scowl playing under his big nose. "Wherehaveyoubeen?" he asked crossly. "DoyouhaveanyideahowlongIvebeenwaitingforyou?"
"Stop right there, Lendle. With all the trouble gambling has caused us recently, I'd think you would have known better than to get involved in a Bounty Hunter game, and then a brawl when you lost," Maq scolded. "We don't have time for this. My father. The morkoth. Remember?"
Lendle at least had the good grace to blush, a deep red suffusing his nutty brown skin, before plunging into his defense. "Ididntlose," he fumed. "Itwasatemporarysetback."
Maq rolled her eyes.
"ThatbaboonSalomdhidoesntunderstandcardplayingetiquette," Lendle complained, warming to his subject. "Hedoesntunderstandhowtogardenorhowtosetupaproperweedingsystem." Lendle grabbed Maq by the hand and began dragging her toward the back of the garden, toward the door she had seen him use.
"But, Maquesta Kar-Thon-" Lendle's speech started to slow, signifying growing excitement on his part. "You must come with me. That fool must understand something." Lendle said, continuing to tug at her hand.
"Hold on a minute, Lendle, I think Fritz is going to be joining us."
A thud against the outside of the garden wall signaled the half-ogre's imminent entrance. Fritzen had taken a running jump at the wall, leaping up as high as he could and using the small purchase his feet found on the vertical surface to push himself higher, so that his hands could grasp the top of the wall. In one smooth movement, he pulled himself up and over, doing a backward flip into the garden and landing easily on his feet.
"Show off," Maq said coolly. Fritzen grinned.
"What about the charm?" he asked.
"It looks as if you have enough charm," the gnome remarked, then resumed dragging Maq along with him.