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She kissed me again and I let her go reluctantly, saying, But you haven t said when you ll be back.
When you see me. Then she relented, and said, I ll be as quick as I can, I promise.
I saw her to the voller. And it was no joke; she d selected our fastest four-place craft. I saw the way she
solemnly observed the fantamyrrh as she stepped aboard.
I stood back. The guards and the retainers stood in a ring, all looking up.
The voller sprang away, with Melow looking over the side like some frightful gargoyle, and rose up into
the limpid air with the streaming mingled lights from the Suns of Scorpio lighting up her side and blazing
like a beacon.
Remberee, my love!
Remberee, my heart!
And the flier spun up and away and soared over the glittering rooftops of Vondium.
Damned independent in their ways are the girls of Kregen.
But, then, that is just as it ought to be.
Eleven
We sing the songs of Kregen
All praise to Papachak of the Tail! said Laka Pa-Re, and he thumped his empty flagon back onto the
stained sturmwood table with a crash. All around the low-ceiled room of the tavern men were drinking
and shouting, a few were brawling, some were trying to play Jikalla and being continually interrupted. The
clatter of dice sounded from the corner and on the opposite side a Pachak was tail-wrestling a comrade
amid spilling wine bottles and toppling ale flagons.
This was the famous tavern The Savage Woflo, an example of the warped Kregan humor that either
amuses or infuriates, for the woflo is a wee creature of extremely timid nature, overfond of cheese.
Among the tables ran remarkably pretty girls of various races carrying wide wooden trays stacked with
foaming jugs or exotically shaped bottles. These serving wenches were, unfortunately, slaves. They were
clad in transparent draperies, with tawdry bangles and beads, with colored feathers, all designed to
enhance their natural beauties. Well, I suppose that in some cases they did. But generally cunning old
Urnu the Flagon, landlord of The Savage Woflo, had an eye for female beauty and his wenches I
dislike the commonly used wordshif for these serving girls for it indicates a contempt I do not feel
were every one carefully chosen at the auctions and paid for above the standard price.
Normally I avoided places like this and when in Vondium and in need of a quiet drink I would go down
to Bargom s Rose of Valka by the Great Northern Cut. Bargom, a Valkan, did not employ slaves and
aroused some bemused envy that he managed so well without their unwilling aid.
Now the Pachak paktun, Laka Pa-Re, yelling for more ale, handled these slaves girls with a courtesy I
fancied was not assumed for my benefit. This tavern, the famous Savage Woflo, was much patronized by
the guardsmen. No female customers were allowed. Such a thing was still possible in Vondium. This was
a male preserve and, I suppose, on Earth would have been choking with smoke as well as the fumes of
alcohol.
By Mother Zinzu the Blessed! I said, lowering my flagon. I needed that!
Saying that little aphorism cheered me up, although Laka had never heard of Mother Zinzu the Blessed,
the patron saint of the drinking classes of Sanurkazz.
You do me great honor, my Prince, in drinking with he said, until I shushed him.
I wore simple buff tunic and breeches and swung a rapier, as we all did here, where brawls and
good-humored swishings of blades were common occurrences. I wished to look inconspicuous. Laka
also wore plain buff, out of uniform.
If you must call me anything, let it not be prince, I said. Rather, merely call me Nath and have done.
Aye, my Pri Nath! he bellowed, and used that cunning tailhand to whip a fresh flagon from a passing
girl s tray. She squeaked and laughed all simulated, for that was how the customers liked to think
these girls behaved and ran on with slender flashing legs to fetch more ale. There were Fristle fifis, and
sylvies, and shishis here, as well as other races of beautiful girls. There were no Rapa girls or Och
maidens, but then there were few of their menfolk in the tavern either.
A parcel of Chuliks sat glowering at a table, steadily drinking. When the singing began the Chuliks would
depart to find a place where a fighting man might drink without having to sing. That is the way of Chuliks.
I had come here because and then to admit the true reason would be to betray more, perhaps, than I
cared to. I knew that I would hear gossip here that might be overlooked in the echoing corridors of the
palace. Also, I felt sure that one of the emperor s agents would be here listening. What he would report
might not tally with what he heard.
For the emperor s position had been steadily eroded.
Covell of the Golden Tongue had said the tavern plots were all moonshine. Maybe they were. But I felt
the need for a drink and a song in masculine company.
Most great nobles of Vallia kept up their villas in Vondium even if they only visited them once or twice a
year, and their guards patronized establishments like this, so there were many varieties of uniform and
colors among the civilian dress. The Vallian Air Service was notable by its absence. Also, Laka was one
of the few high-ranking officers present. I noticed three other Jiktars and quite a few hikdars, but the
majority of the drinking, gambling, shouting men were deldars and swods.
When I had quizzed the Pachak paktun as to why he had said he was pleased to see me, he had
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