gift.’
The bodyguard moved towards them, its steps making no noise. ‘Hold, spirit.’ It
stopped, glaring. ‘Bring that bottle here.’
As One-Thumb and Amoli walked towards Mizraith, a low table materialized in
front of him, then three glasses. ‘You may serve, Lastel.’ Nothing had moved but
his head.
One-Thumb poured each glass full; one of them rose a handspan above the table
and drained itself, then disappeared. ‘Very good. Thank you. Cheated, now? My,
oh my. Stolen? Hee. What could you have that I need?’
‘It’s only we who need it, Mizraith, and I don’t know why you would want to
cheat us out of it – especially me. You can’t have many commissions more
lucrative than mine.’
‘You might be surprised, Lastel. You might be surprised. TeaY The girl decanted
a cup of tea and brought it over, as if in a trance. Mizraith took it and the
girl sat at his side, playing with her hair. ‘Stolen, eh? What? You haven’t told
me. What?’
‘Krrf,’ he said.
Mizraith gestured negligently with his free hand and a small snowstorm of grey
powder drifted to the rug, and disappeared.
‘No.’ One-Thumb rubbed his eyes. When he looked at the pillows, they were
pillows; when he looked away, they turned to blocks of gold. ‘Not conjured
krrf.’ It had the same gross effect but no depth, no nuance.
‘Twenty grimales of black krrf from Caronne,’ Amoli said.
‘Stolen from both of us,’ One-Thumb said. ‘It was sent to me by a man in Ranke,
payment for services rendered. Your son Marype picked it up at the caravan
depot, hidden inside a cheese. He extracted it somehow and sold it to this