their horses, their mules loaded down with food, wine, vuksibah (the very
expensive malt whisky imported from a far north land), goods of various kinds:
clothing, bowls, braziers, ropes, camel and horse hides. Their camels bore huge
panniers full of feed for chickens, ducks, camels, horses, and hogs. They also
purchased steel tools: shovels, picks, drills, hammers, wedges.
They were tall, and though they were very dark, most had blue or green eyes.
These looked cold and hard and piercing, and few looked directly into them. It
was said that they had the gift, or the curse, of the evil eye.
They were enough, in this dark night, to have made Masha marble with terror. But
what was worse, and this galvanized the marble, they were the servants of the
purple mage! Masha guessed at once what had happened. Benna had had the guts
and the complete stupidity – to sneak into the underground maze of the mage on
the river isle of Shugthee and to steal a jewel. It was amazing that he’d had
the courage, astounding that he could get undetected into the caves, an absolute
wonder that he’d penetrated the treasurehold, and fantastic that he’d managed to
get out. What weird tales he could tell if he survived! Masha could think of no
similar event, no analogue, to the adventures he must have had.
‘Mofandsf!’ she thought. In the thieves’ argot of Sanctuary, ‘ Mind-boggling!’
At that moment Benna’s knees gave, and it was all she could do to hold him up.
Somehow, she got him to the door to the next room and into a closet. If the