determined.
The message left at the little Watchpost at the corner of Shadow and Lizard’s
Way suggested that the ‘tall as a tree Hell-hound take a walk between stinky
market and the cat storage’ at the time of the fifth nightwatch ‘when the
shadows are spawning fear in all hearts’. The message was delivered to Tempus,
who ordered the sub-prefect to forget it, and looked fierce. The wriggly agreed
and got thence.
In private, his mind aided by a pinch of his powdered friend, Tempus worked
backwards at the cipher. The. last line had to be the signature: Shadowspawn.
Hanse wanted to meet him very privately, an hour past midnight. Good. So …
where? ‘Stinky market’ could mean lots of places. ‘Cat storage’ meant nothing.
Cat storage; cat – the granaries? – where cats not only were kept but migrated,
drawn by the mice drawn by the grain? No; there was no way to walk between any
of the granaries and anything deserving to be characterized as stinky market
beyond any other stenchy place. What stinks most? Easy, he answered himself. The
tanners – no! Don’t be stupid, second thought told him. Fish stink worse than
anything. Hmm. The fish market then, down on Red Clay Street – which might as
well be called Warehouse Street. So all the natives called it. The stinking fish
market, then, and … cat storage? He stared at the map.
Oh. Simple. The governor was called Kitty-Cat and a warehouse was a place for
storage. The Governor’s Warehouse then, down beside the fish market. Not a block
from the Watchpost at Shadow and Lizard, the rascal! Tempus shook his head, and