“Sergeant, your Ladyship.”
“Oh? Is there a difference?”
“Never mind, your Ladyship. Hurry along now. You wouldn’t want to miss any of the fun.”
Velvet laughed gaily and moved her horse out at a steady trot.
“Who is Count Norain?” Durnik asked her curiously when they were out of earshot of the patrol.
“A figment of my imagination, Goodman Durnik,” Velvet laughed.
“She’s a Drasnian, all right,” Belgarath murmured.
“Did you have any doubts, Eternal One?”
“Exactly where are you taking us, Liselle?” Polgara asked as they rode on down the foggy street.
“There’s a house I know, Lady Polgara. It’s not a very nice house, but it’s built up against the south wall of the city, and it has a very useful back door.”
“How can it have a back door if it’s up against the city wall?” Ce’Nedra asked, pulling the hood of her green cloak forward to shield her face from the rainy mist.
Velvet winked at her. “You’ll see,” she said.
The street down which they rode grew shabbier and shabbier. The buildings looming out of the fog were built of plain stone instead of marble, and many of them were windowless warehouses, presenting blank faces to the street.
They passed a rank-smelling tavern from .which came shouts and laughter and snatches of bawdy songs. Several drunken men burst from the door of the tavern and began pummeling each other with fists and clubs. One burly, unshaven ruffian lurched into the street and stood swaying in their path.
“Stand aside,” Velvet said coolly to him.
“Who says so?”
The impassive Toth moved his horse up beside Velvet’s mount, reached out with one huge arm, set the tip of the staff he carried against the man’s chest, and gave him a light push.
“Just watch out who you’re shoving!” The drunken man said, knocking the staff aside.
Without changing expression, Toth flicked his wrist, and the tip of the staff cracked sharply against the side of the fellow’s head, sending him reeling, vacant-eyed and twitching, into the gutter.
“Why, thank you,” Velvet said pleasantly to the mute giant, and Toth inclined his head politely as they rode on down the shabby street.
“What in the world were they fighting about?” Ce’Nedra asked curiously.
“It’s a way to keep warm,” Silk replied. “Firewood’s
If expensive in Tol Honeth, and a nice friendly fight stirs up the blood. I thought that everybody knew that.”
“Are you making fun of me?”
“Would I do that?”
“He’s always had a certain streak of flippancy in his nature, your Majesty,” Velvet said.
“Liselle,” Ce’Nedra told her quite firmly, “since we’re going to be traveling together, let’s drop the formalities. My name is Ce’Nedra.”
“If your Majesty prefers it that way.”
“My Majesty does.”
“All right then, Ce’Nedra,” the blond girl said with a warm smile.
They rode on through the unlighted streets of the Imperial City until they reached the looming mass of the south wall. “We go this way,” Velvet told them, turning down a rainy street lying between the wall and a long string of warehouses. The house to which she led them was a stout, two-story building, its stones black and shiny from the rain and fog, and it was set about a central courtyard and had a heavy front gate. Its narrow windows were all tightly shuttered, and a single small lantern gleamed over its gate.
Velvet dismounted carefully, holding her skirt up to keep its hem out of the slush. She stepped to the gate and tugged at a rope. Inside the courtyard a small bell tinkled. A voice from inside answered, and she spoke quietly for a moment to the gatekeeper. Then there was the sound of a clanking chain, and the gate swung open. Velvet led her horse into the courtyard, and the rest followed her. Inside, Garion looked around curiously. The courtyard had been cleared of snow, and the cobblestones gleamed wetly in the still-falling drizzle. Several saddled horses stood under an overhanging roof, and a couple of well-appointed carriages were drawn up to a solid-looking door.
“Are we going inside?” Ce’Nedra asked, looking about curiously.
Velvet gave her a speculative look, then turned to look at Eriond. “Perhaps that might not be such a good idea,” she said.
The muffled sound of laughter came from somewhere inside, followed by a woman’s shrill squeal.
One of Polgara’s eyebrows went up. “I think Liselle is right,” she said firmly. “We’ll wait out here.”
“I’m a grown woman, Lady Polgara,” Ce’Nedra objected.
“Not that grown, dear.”
“Will you accompany me, Prince Kheldar?” Velvet asked the little man. “The presence of an unescorted woman in this house is sometimes misunderstood.”
“Of course,” he replied.
“We won’t be long,” Velvet assured the rest of them. With Silk at her side, she went to the door, rapped on its panels, and was immediately admitted.
“I still don’t see why we can’t wait inside where it’s warm and dry,” Ce’Nedra complained, shivering and pulling her cloak more tightly about her.
“I’m sure you would if you went in there,” Polgara told her. “A little rain won’t hurt you.”
“What could possibly be that bad about this house?”
There was another squeal from inside followed by more raucous laughter.
“That, for one thing,” Polgara replied.
Ce’Nedra’s eyes grew wide. “You mean that it’s one of those places?” Her face suddenly went bright red.
“It’s got all the earmarks of it.”
After about a quarter of an hour, a slanting cellar door at the rear of the rain-drenched courtyard creaked open, and Silk came up from below carrying a gleaming lantern. “We’re going to have to lead the horses down,” he told them.
“Where are we going?” Garion asked.
“Down to the cellars. This place is full of surprises.”
In single file, leading their skittish horses, they followed down a slanting stone ramp. From somewhere below, Garion could hear the gurgle and wash of running water; when they reached the foot of the ramp, he saw that the narrow passageway opened out into a large, cavelike chamber, roofed over with massive stone arches and dimly lighted by smoky torches. The center of the chamber was filled with dark, oily-looking water, and a narrow walkway ran around three sides of the pool. Moored to the walkway was a fair-sized barge, painted black and with a dozen dark-cloaked oarsmen on each side.
Velvet stood on the walkway beside the barge. “We can only cross two at a time,” she said to them, her voice echoing hollowly in the vaulted chamber, “because of the horses.”
“Cross?” Ce’Nedra said. “Cross where?”
“To the south bank of the Nedrane,” Velvet replied.
“But we’re still inside the city walls.”
“Actually, we’re under the city wall, Ce’Nedra. The only thing between us and the river are two of the marble slabs that form the exterior facing.”
There came then the clanking of a heavy windlass somewhere in the dimness, and the front wall of the subterranean harbor creaked slowly open, dividing in the middle and swinging ponderously on great, well-greased iron hinges. Through the opening between the two slowly moving stone slabs, Garion could see the rain-dimpled surface of the river moving slowly by with its far shore lost in the dripping fog.
“Very clever,” Belgarath said. “How long has this house been here?”
“Centuries,” Velvet replied. “It was built to provide just about anything anyone could desire. Occasionally, one of the customers wants to leave—or enter—the city unobserved. That’s what this place is for.”
“How did you find out about it?” Garion asked her.
She shrugged. “Bethra owned the house. She told Javelin about its secrets.”
Silk sighed. “She even reaches out from the grave to help us.”
They were ferried in pairs across the foggy, rain-swept expanse of the Nedrane to land on a narrow, mist-shrouded sand beach backed by a thicket of willows. When Velvet finally joined them, it was perhaps three hours past midnight. “The oarsmen will brush our tracks out of the sand,” she told them. “It’s part of the service.”
“Did this cost very much?” Silk asked her.
“A great deal, actually, but it comes out of the budget of the Drasnian Embassy. Your cousin didn’t like that too much, but I persuaded him to pay—finally.”
Silk grinned viciously.
“We have a few hours left until daylight,” Velvet continued. “There’s a wagon road on the other side of these willows, and it joins the Imperial Highway about a mile or so downriver. We should probably travel at a walk until we’re out of earshot of the city. The legionnaires at the south gate might become curious if they hear galloping.”
They mounted their horses in the soggy darkness and rode through the willows, down onto the muddy wagon track.
Garion pulled his horse in beside Silk’s. “What was going on in that place?” he asked curiously.
“Almost anything you could imagine.” Silk laughed. “And probably a number of things you couldn’t. It’s a very interesting house with all sorts of diversions for people with enough money to be able to afford them.”