more ale and another flask of wine.
‘Why did you ask me, of all this crowd, to sit here?’ Lythande asked.
‘Because…’ Wess paused to try to think of a way to make her intuition sound
sensible. ‘You look like someone who knows what’s going on. You look like
someone who might help us.’
‘If information is all you need, you can get it less expensively than by hiring
a sorcerer.’
‘Are you a sorcerer?’ Wess asked.
Lythande looked at her with pity and contempt. ‘You child! What do your people
mean, sending innocents and children out of the north!’ He touched the star on
his forehead. ‘What did you think this means?’
‘I’ll have to guess, but I guess it means you are a mage.’
‘Excellent. A few years of lessons like that and you might survive, a while, in
Sanctuary – in the Maze – in the Unicorn!’
‘We haven’t got years,’ Aerie whispered. ‘We have, perhaps, overspent the time
we do have.’
Quartz put her arm around Aerie’s shoulders, for comfort, and hugged her gently.
‘You interest me,’ Lythande said. ‘Tell me what information you seek. Perhaps I
will know whether you can obtain it less expensively – not cheaply, but less
expensively – from Jubal the Slavemonger, or from a seer -‘ At their
expressions, he stopped.
‘Slavemonger!’
‘He collects information as well. You needn’t worry that he’ll abduct you from
his sitting-room.’
They all started speaking at once, then fell silent, realizing the futility.
‘Start at the beginning.’
‘We’re looking for someone,’ Wess said.
‘This is a poor place to search. No one will tell you anything about any patron