Eagle grunted wordlessly, but he did drink the toast.Wolf waved for the servant in the corner to come and refill the glasses.

Eagle unwrapped the sword. He had forgotten just how fine an Ironhall blade felt to handle, the damask, the perfect balance. "I suppose I can regard this as my due." He admired the engraving:Stoop."Thank you. I will write and thank Grand Master."

"What was the good news you were going to tell me?"

"Oh, nothing to get in a froth over," Eagle said, squinting along the sword."El Caudillois in Mondon, Don Severo de la Cuenca himself ! I told you they barely missed the hurricane. Even so, their ship got badly battered. He's on his way Home to fame and riches.The King has made him a marquis."

Although they were speaking Chivian,Wolf waited until the glasses were filled and the boy had gone before he responded. "I suppose he earned it. The world is certainly a better place without El Dorado.

No more mass sacrifices, no more half-human monsters."

"Nary a one," Eagle said."Not a building left standing in El Dorado itself, apparently, and he leveled every pyramid in the Hence Lands, so no more altars."

"And no survivors?"

"None in El Dorado, anyway. Except the Marquesa, of course."

"Who?"

Surprised by his vehemence, Eagle said, "The Marquesa. She's pure blue-blood Distlish, apparently.

She'd been a prisoner in El Dorado and was rescued during the sack.El Caudillotook a fancy to her and now he's married her! The gossips barely pause for food or drink. A striking woman with red hair, I understand."

Wolf stared very hard at him. "A prisoner in El Dorado?"

"So they say." Eagle thought it over. "I don't know if I believe it, though." He chuckled."Come with me next week and hear it from her own lips. Cuenca will be in Mondon for a few weeks; he and his wife. If you want to meet them, I can arrange it."

Don Lope seemed to be studying the sunset. A group of boys went 385.

Dave Duncan P.

racing past, kicking a ball and screaming at the top of their lungs in a mixture of Distlish and Tlixilian. In among them, fair-skinned and red-haired but as loud as any, went Edwin. Despite the awkward, lopsided gallop dictated by his twisted foot, he was keeping up. Only after the ball went bouncing away with the raucous gang still in hot pursuit didEl Diabloturn to answer his guest's invitation.

"No! Thank you, but no! I have absolutely no desire to meetEl Caudilloor his Marquesa. I'd be much obliged if you see I am not even mentioned-brother."

"Why ever not-brother?" Eagle smiled anI-told-you my-storysmile.

Wolf scowled. "In confidence?"

"Upon my sword!"That was a good Blade oath he had not heard in years.

"Because if that Marquesa is who I think she is, she will take Edwin away from me."

"You're joking!"

"I am not joking!"Wolf's snarl was fearsome. "And nothing on this earth will make me give him up to the likes of her!" He drained his glass and banged it down on the table beside him. "That boy saved my life. I mean that, literally. I needed a reason to keep going and I found some-one who needed me as much as I needed him. I came from the same sort of background myself, and I had forgotten just how terrible it was-houses like holes in the ground, food that would sicken cattle. I rescued him. And he rescued me, because he's why I'm still here."

After a moment he shrugged as if ashamed of his vehemence, for he was not a demonstrative man. "I'd made a promise, see?"

386.