‘You come along now,’ she said firmly, leaking tears and gulping. ‘Come along
with me!’
Hanse obeyed.
She went straight along the well-lit Governor’s Walk and turned down Shadow
Lane, conducting her bound, snivelling captive. At the corner of Shadow and
Slippery, a couple of uniformed men accosted her.
‘Why it’s Moonflower’s darter. Whafve you got there, Mineral?’
‘Mignureal,’ she corrected. ‘Someone put a spell on him – over on the
Processional,’ she said, choosing an area far from where she had found him. ‘My
mother can help. Go with Eshi.’
‘Hmm. A spell of fear, huh? That damned Anus Yorl, I’ll wager a cup! Who is it,
snivelling under your shawl that way?’
Mignureal considered swiftly. What had happened to Hanse was awful. To have
these City Watchmen know, and spread it about – that would be insupportable.
Again Mignureal lied. It was her brother Antelope, she told them, and they made
sympathetic noises and let her be on her way, while they. muttered about dam’
sorcerers and the nutty names S’danzo gave their get. Both men agreed; they
would make a routine check of Awful Alley and stop in at the Alekeep, just down
the street.
Mignureal led Hanse a half-block more and went into her parents’ shop-and
living-quarters. They were asleep. The tautly overweight Moonflower did not heed
summonses and did not make house calls. Furthermore her husband was an
irrepressibly randy man who bedded early and insisted on her company. At her
daughter’s sobbing and shaking her, the seer awoke. That gently-named collection