Torgo nodded, grinned. "She won't allow the first. And her schedule ofexaminations is set."
Azel loosed his wickedest smile. "The old man anticipated that. I'd guess hefigures this is a good time to define relationships more clearly."
"Eh?" Torgo looked uncomfortable.
"He understands the Witch. He knew her before Dak-es-Souetta and Ala-eh-din Beyh. He feels her desperation will lead her to bow to his superior wisdom."
"Or what?"
"Or he seals the Postern of Fate and pursues his war with Herod by othermeans."
Torgo snapped, "You get of a whore!"
"Not my idea, friend. I argued against it. But he's a stubborn old shit withnothing to lose and some right on his side. Her-activities are a danger to theLiving. There's a rumor the Living are behind the child-stealing. There'vebeen too many kidnappings. People are getting upset. He wants her to back off.
He wants to decide when, where, and how the children are taken."
"She won't agree."
"Her choice is agree or get no more children."
Azel watched closely. Torgo was angry but, like Azel himself, was restrainingboth anger and personal animosity. The stakes went beyond personalities. Torgopaced. He fiddled with things, flicked away specks of dust, made minuteposition adjustments. "I'll get hell for it but I'll go out on a limb. You cansee the boy. The rest will have to wait on her."
Thank you," Azel figured that would rattle Torgo.
"Bring him in blindfolded. Don't let him know where he's at or what we'redoing."
"Don't worry about me. Worry about putting the kid somewhere where he can beseen without giving away where he's being held. I'll pay my respects to Nakarnow. May he find Gorloch's favor again."
Torgo mumbled the formula sullenly. Azel grinned as he left. That ball-lesswonder couldn't root for that because it would mean losing out on hisfantasies.
Right now Torgo was as close as he was going to get to the woman he loved.
Aaron broke stride when he saw Mish with the Dartar. He glanced at the pasty- faced prisoners, the man watching them. That man looked back blandly.
Arif and Stafa arrived, whooping. Aaron settled the smaller boy on his left hip, took Arifs hand. He tried to keep his expression neutral as he looked at Mish and the younger Dartar. Arif babbled steadily as Aaron moved closer, telling him about the Dartar and his family. As he came up, Mish said, This is Yoseh, Aaron. He's the one who got hurt trying to catch the man that took Zouki."
The Dartar looked embarrassed. Mish looked frazzled.
"Why?" Aaron asked. He didn't know what else to say.
"What?" The Dartar looked perplexed.
"Why try to rescue the child?" The Dartar looked more perplexed.
The other came to his rescue. "A quaint perversion of us barbarians, Qushmarrahan. We care for children. Not something you would understand, perhaps." He spoke carefully, making sure he did not lose his meaning by slipping into dialect. He underscored by staring at Arif and Stafa. Aaron smiled. He looked at the younger Dartar. Thank you.
The boy was the son of a friend. I hope you weren't too badly hurt."
"Failure hurt more."
Aaron did not know what else to say. He glanced around. There were eddies in the human river as people paused to watch what might be a confrontation.
Uneasy, he looked at Mish, who was watching the Dartar boy in a kind of heatedwonder. "How soon will your mother be home? Are you supposed to have somethingready when they get here?"
"Oh! I forgot!" She ran for the door.
Arif said, "Yoseh, tell my dad about the time your father and Fa'tad
"He wouldn't be interested, Arif."
"My dad was a soldier. Weren't you, Dad?"
"In those days everybody was a soldier, Arif. It isn't anything to brag about."
Stafa was playing peekaboo with the other Dartar, looking round front of Aaron, then behind, while the man pretended to hide behind his face cloth.
Stafa giggled.
Aaron wondered if he was losing his grasp on reality. That man had five prisoners at his feet and a spear in his other hand and he would stick themwithout compunction if they moved, but he was playing peekaboo with Stafa.
Yoseh did not know what to do or say. He was very uncomfortable. He wished theveydeen would go away. He wished he had snarled at the boy when he had comeout. But then he would have had no chance to talk to the girl ...
It did not occur to him that the man did not know how to break awaygracefully.
The man said, "I suppose barracks food is pretty bad. It was when I ..."
"It is bad," Yoseh admitted, surprised by the turn of conversation.
"Maybe Mish can bring something out. By way of thanks for what you tried todo. If she hasn't destroyed whatever she was trying to make."
Yoseh smiled, but the veydeen could not see that. He could think of nothingmore to say. He was spared the need to reply.
Mahdah and Kosuth came out carrying a corpse. It was not fresh enough to beone they had made. Its face had been obliterated by a beating. Entrails hungout through tatters that served as clothing. They dropped it amongst theprisoners.
The veydeen man-Aaron?-grabbed his older son's shoulder and said, "Come on, Arif." He moved out fast.
Mahdah and Kosuth watched him go. Mahdah asked, "What was that?"
Medjhah said, "Too complicated to explain. What's this?" Kosuth was not in agood temper. "What the hell does it look like?"
Mahdah was less upset. "Came out of the same nest as these beauties. They musthave been having some fun in there last night."
Medjhah dropped his lancehead toward the one prisoner who had a little spirit, who might have been the leader of the group. He slipped the tip under theman's nose and lifted, forcing him to look up or be cut. "You'll find us moreimaginative but no less certain. Unless you care to help us?" The man spat atMedjhah.
Medjhah drew the razor-sharp edge of his lancehead along the man's cheek.
Yoseh turned away from that casual cruelty-and let out a bark of astonishment.
"Medjhah! That man! The one who took the boy ... Hell! He's gone now."
Medjhah said something to Mahdah and Kosuth, came over. "The one Fa'tadwants?"
"Yes. I saw him up the street. But he disappeared in the crowd."
"Let's take a walk. See what we can see." He gave Yoseh a gentle push. "You goup the far side of the street."
They climbed halfway to the acropolis, saw nothing, gave it up. It was time, anyway. There were other things to do. The masons had arrived with their mud bricks and tools and somebody had to show them where Nogah wanted two mazepassages sealed.
Too, Joab was working his way up the hill, stopping to give instructions tothe watchers outside the alleys.
Tamisa's mother and sister returned from marketing. Yoseh watched, wonderingif Tamisa would age as they had. He barely overheard Joab tell Medjhah to tellNogah that he should leave three men in the alley overnight. Fa'tad had beenrunning units in and out the Gate of Autumn all morning. The ferrenghi couldnot have kept track of how many were inside and how many were out.
Yoseh wondered if even Joab knew what Fa'tad had in mind.
Yoseh was amused when he heard Medjhah take his earlier notion and turn itinto a suggestion that some men be clad as veydeen if they were going to beleft in the city. Joab looked like that was about the craziest idea he'd everheard.
Sadat Agmed had been stalking his quarry for six days, with no luck, and hewas out of patience. It was not that the child was abnormally inaccessible. Nomore so than any daughter of a well-to-do family of the Astan. But she wasinaccessible enough. He'd seen her only three times since he'd received thecommission from the Witch.
He hated collecting girls. They were much more difficult.
He had spent too much time on this one already. People would remember seeinghim around. He ought to report in, say he could not do the job, let her giveit to somebody who could. But he had not failed a commission yet. There waspride at stake here.