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People ran past Bayle Do too ether, then scattered pairs giggling and clutching each other, then twenty in a raucous knot Fireworks crackled in the sky, gold and silver bursts against the black There were alleeht for fireworks, or for the Hunt He was on his way toto kill hie of Flowers, over one of the city’s many canals, into the Perfumed Quarter, the port district of Illian The canal sn that there had ever been flowers near the bridge The quarter smelled of hemp and pitch from the shipyards and docks, and sour harbor mud, all of it h to drink Domon breathed heavily; every time he returned from the northcountry he found himself surprised, for all he had been born there, at the early suel, and the other hand rested on the hilt of the short sword he had often used in defending the decks of his river trader frohts of revelry, where the pickings were rich and most were deep in wine
Yet he was a broad, ht hih, in his plaincut coat, to risk his size and his cudgel The feho caught a clear gli froed back till he ell past Dark hair that hung to his shoulders and a long beard that left his upper lip bare framed a round face, but that face had never been soft, and noas set as grih a wall He had men to meet, and he was not happy about it
More revelers ran past singing offkey, wine rand on to And my life, Fortune prick , whitestriped badger dancing on its hind legs with a er, it was called, though not even Nieda Sidoro, the innkeeper, knehat the name meant; there had always been an inn of the name in Illian
The common roo a twelvestringed bittern in one of the Sea Folk’s sad songs, ell lighted and quiet Nieda allowed no coh to carry a man out with either hand Sailors, dockworkers, and warehouseer for a drink and ame of stones or darts The room was half full now; even men who liked quiet had been lured out by carnival The talk was soft, but Doon the Murandians had taken, and of the one the Tarens were chasing through Haddon Mirk There seemed to be some question whether it would be preferable to see the false Dragon die, or the Tairens
Doons! Fortune prick me, there be no place safe these days But he had no real care for false Dragons, any more than for the Hunt
The stout proprietress, with her hair rolled at the back of her head, iping aa sharp eye on her establish, or even look at him, really, but, her left eyelid drooped, and her eyes slanted toward three men at a table in the corner They were quiet even for the Badger, almost somber, and their bellshaped velvet caps and dark coats, embroidered across the chest in bars of silver and scarlet and gold, stood out ahed and took a table in a corner by hi of brown ale fro s When he lowered thebeside his table He esture, to let Nieda know that he did not need Bili
"Captain Domon?" They were all three nondescript, but there was an air about the speaker that made Domon take him for their leader They did not appear to be armed; despite their fine clothes, they looked as if they did not need to be There were hard eyes in those so very ordinary faces "Captain Bayle Doave a short nod, and the three sat doithout waiting for an invitation The sa; the other two just watched, hardly blinking Guards, Doht, for all their fine clothes Who do he be to have a pair of guards to look over hiht from Mayene to Illian"
"Spray be a river craft," Domon cut him off "Her draft be shallow, and she has no the keel for deep water" It was not exactly true, but close enough for lands smarter
The man seeiving up the river trade"
"Maybe I do, and o back upriver, back to the Borderlands, for all the silk shipped in Tairen bottoms Saldaean furs and ice peppers were not worth it, and it had nothing to do with the false Dragon he had heard of there But he wondered again how anyone knew He had not spoken of it to anyone, yet the others had known, too
"You can coast to Mayene easily enough Surely, Captain, you would be willing to sail along the shoreline for a thousand gold led It was four tih to make a man’s jaw drop "Who do you want me to fetch for that? The First of Mayene herself? Has Tear finally forced her all the way out, then?"
"You need no nae leather pouch on the table, and a sealed parchment The pouch clinked heavily as he pushed the the folded parch Sun of Cairhien "Two hundred on account For a thousand marks, I think you need no names Give that, seal unbroken, to the Port Captain of Mayene, and he will give you three hundred er I will hand over the re as you have e’s identity"
Doe if there be never another penny beyond what be in that sack And a thousand was more money than he would clear in three years He suspected that if he probed a little e involved hidden dealings between Illian’s Council of Nine and the First of Mayene The First’s citystate was a province of Tear in all but name, and she would no doubt like Illian’s aid And there were many in Illian who said it was ti more than a fair share of the trade on the Sea of Storms A likely net to snare him, if he had not seen three