around his neck. ‘I’m not sure. A wizard I’d done a favour for gave me this,
years ago. He claimed it’d protect me against spells and supernatural beings of
less than godly rank. But to make it work, I have to utter three truths about
the spellcaster or the creature. I’ve done that in two or three scrapes, and
come out of them intact, but I can’t prove the talisman was responsible.’
More customers entered, and One-Thumb must go to serve them. Cappen nursed his
ale. He yearned to get drunk and belike the landlord would stand him what was
needful, but he didn’t dare. He had already learned more than he thought the
opposition would approve of- whoever or whatever the opposition was. They might
have means of discovering this.
His candle flickered. He glanced up and saw a beardless fat man in an ornate
formal robe, scarcely normal dress for a visit to the Vulgar Unicorn.
‘Greetings,’ the person said. His voice was like a child’s.
Cappen squinted through the gloom. ‘I don’t believe I know you,’ he replied.
‘No, but you will come to believe it, oh, yes, you will.’ The fat man sat down.
One-Thumb came over and took an order for red wine – ‘a decent wine, mine host,
a Zhanuvend or Baladach.’ Coin gleamed forth.
Cappen’s heart thumped. ‘Enas Yorl?’ he breathed.
The other nodded. ‘In the flesh, the all too mutable flesh. I do hope my curse
strikes again soon. Almost any shape would be better than this. I hate being
overweight. I’m a eunuch, too. The times I’ve been a woman were better than
this.’
‘I’m sorry, sir,’ Cappen took care to say. Though he could not rid himself of