"Aren't people going to be a little startled if we all just suddenly appear out of nowhere?" Leitha asked.

"Is there some way around that?" Bheid asked her.

"Why not just go in through the door? We'll be going through a door anyway, so it'll seem more natural to us-and to anybody on the other side."

"Make it so that this side of the door is here and that side of the door is there?" Gher asked.

"Nicely put, Gher," Leitha complimented the boy.

"Thank you, ma'am." Gher dipped his head slightly. "Maybe sometime, though, we could just pop out of nowhere."

"Why would we want to do that?"

"Because it'd be funner that way," Gher said, grinning. "I'd love to see somebody's eyes pop out." Then he looked at Althalus. "That'd be a slick way to rob somebody, wouldn't it, Master Althalus? You know-pop out, grab his purse, and then pop back in again. We could steal most of the money in the world that way-and never really leave home."

"Well, now," Althalus said in an almost dreamy voice. "Well now indeed."

"Never mind," Dweia told him flatly.

Andine set Eliar's plate down on the table in front of him. "Eat it before it gets cold, Eliar," she instructed.

"Yes, Andine," he replied, picking up his spoon.

There was something slightly unnerving about the intensity of Andine's expression as she watched Eliar eat. Althalus shuddered slightly and looked away.

"When did you get back home, Eliar?" Rheud, the kilted, red-bearded armorer asked when they all trooped in through the door to his arms room.

"Just now, Rheud," Eliar replied.

Althalus felt just a bit light-headed as he stepped through the doorway. There seemed to be a peculiar sort of dislocation involved in stepping across all those miles.

'Just relax, Althalus,' Emmy the cat purred softly to him from her customary place in the hood of his cloak. Althalus realized that it was ridiculous, but he had missed Emmy during the past several weeks.

'I wasn't sure it was really going to work, Em. Looking through a doorway at a place hundreds of miles away is one thing, but crossing all those miles with a single step is something altogether different.'

'You didn't trust me?'

'Of course I did, Em-at least out in front.'

'But not in back, I see.'

'Talking about it is one thing, Em. Actually doing it is something else.'

'It gets easier as you go along. Pay attention, Althalus. Don't let Eliar blurt out any trade secrets.'

"I see that you found our boy, Master Althalus," Rheud said. "Did he have that knife you were looking for?"

"Oh, yes," Althalus told him. "It was a little complicated, but everything's pretty much the way it's supposed to be now."

"You don't seem to be traveling alone anymore," Rheud observed, stroking his bristling red beard and eying Andine and Leitha.

"Just a few old friends I hadn't met before," Althalus replied. "Is Chief Albron in the main hall right now?"

"He should be," Rheud replied. "He usually lingers over breakfast. He's all business first thing in the morning, and he says that he can get about half of his day's work done before he leaves the table. Did your cousin's assassins give you any trouble down there in the low country?"

"No, not really," Althalus replied. "I managed to give them the slip."

"You might want to thank our Chief for that," Rheud told him. "He sent out the word that anybody asking questions about you-or about that fancy knife-was to be detained. You definitely came down on the good side of Chief Albron, Master Althalus."

"We got along well. Did he intercept very many of my cousin's henchmen?"

"There were a few," Rheud replied. "There was one bulky sort of fellow with no forehead to speak of who was a bit of a problem, I understand. From what I hear, it took a dozen men to swarm him under."

"Oh?"

"He said that his name was Pegoyl, or something like that."

"Pekhal, maybe?"

"That might have been it, yes. The clansmen who took him in charge finally just slapped an iron collar around his neck and hitched him to a team of six oxen to drag him here-after they discovered that a two-ox team couldn't budge him."

"Is he still here, Rheud?" Eliar asked intently.

"No, he managed to escape-ate his way through the door of the dungeon, some men say. You're lucky you didn't come across that one, Master Althalus. He was more animal than man."

"I know," Althalus replied. "I've met him. It's been good talking with you again, Rheud. I'd better go see if I can catch your Chief before he finishes his breakfast. I've got a little business proposition for him."

"Albron's always ready to talk business."

Althalus led them back out into the corridor.

"Interesting," Bheid said. "You must be making Ghend very nervous, Althalus, if he's got his primary henchmen out looking for you."

"That's a little hard to say for certain, Bheid. Pekhal may be acting on his own. I didn't treat him too well the last time we met. He might have taken it personally."

"May I carry Emmy?" Andine asked, her huge, dark eyes filled with a kind of longing.

Althalus felt a sudden, hot, irrational surge of jealousy. "I think we'd better leave her where she is," he replied. "She might want to give me some instructions when we talk with Eliar's Chief."

"That's a cheap excuse," Andine flared.

"Just let it go, Andine," he replied wearily.

Chief Albron was still seated at the breakfast table in the main hall when Althalus and the others entered. "Why, blast my eyes if it isn't Master Althalus!" the kilted young Chief exclaimed, rising to his feet.

"It's a pleasure to see you again, Chief Albron," Althalus replied with a florid bow.

"Now maybe we can get to the bottom of what happened down there in Osthos," Albron said. "I see that you still have Eliar with you."

"Yes, he's been quite useful. Oh, speaking of that, I think I still owe you for his services."

"We can settle that later. What in the world were you doing down there? Those boys you sent home all kept babbling sheer nonsense when they got here."

"We might want to discuss that privately, Chief Albron," Althalus replied cautiously. "There's quite a bit going on that you should know about, and some of it's on the peculiar side."

"Eliar!" a stern voice barked from the far end of the table. "Have you forgotten your manners?"

Eliar winced. "Sorry, Sergeant Khalor," he said quickly. "I didn't want to interrupt."

"That's no excuse! Report!"

"Yes, sir!" Eliar drew himself up into a rigid posture and snapped a smart salute to Chief Albron. "Soldier Eliar reporting, sir!" he announced.

Albron returned the salute. "You're still growing, I see, Eliar," he noted, "and you seem to be filling out quite a bit."

"Yes, sir!"

"Relax, boy," Albron said, smiling. "Your mother told me that you'd paid her a visit late last summer. Why didn't you report in then?"

"I ordered him not to, Albron," Althalus stepped in. "We were on a sort of secret mission, and I didn't want any unfriendly eyes catching sight of our boy. That's one of the things we'll want to talk about when we're alone."

"You're definitely stirring up a lot of curiosity, Althalus. Why don't we adjourn to my study where we can talk more freely? I feel a long, interesting story in the works here-and I'd really appreciate an introduction to these two lovely young ladies."

"If I might suggest it, maybe Sergeant Khalor should sit in," Althalus said. "I think he's going to be involved before long, so he might as well hear this from the beginning."

One of Albron's eyebrows went up.

"I'm hiring, Chief Albron," Althalus said bluntly." Are you interested?"

"I'm always ready to talk business, Althalus," Albron replied, rubbing his hands together.

"What really happened in Osthos, Eliar?" Sergeant Khalor demanded as they all followed Chief Albron down a long, torchlit corridor toward the back of the stone castle. "Your friends were very confused when they finally got home."

"I'm not really all that sure myself, Sergeant Khalor," Eliar confessed. "There were a lot of things going on that I didn't understand back then, and they still don't make too much sense. Althalus bought me and the others from Andine. He told her that he was going to sell us to the Ansus to work as slaves in the salt mines."

"As I remember it, Andine wanted to drink all your blood along about then. What made her change her mind?"

"Emmy took care of that."

"Who's Emmy?"

"She works with Althalus. I think I'd better let him explain that: if I tried, I'd get it all scrambled. There's a whole lot going on that I don't understand."

The room Chief Albron had called his study was a comfortable sort of chamber with a large fireplace and a rush-strewn floor. It had a number of books, as well as quite a few scrolls, on a long shelf. "Do you read very much, Althalus?" the kilted young Chief asked.

"I've studied quite a bit, Albron-mostly one fairly large book. You've got quite a few volumes here."

"A hobby of mine. I've taken a fancy to Treborean poetry here lately."

"And who's your favorite?" Andine asked.

"I rather like the sweep of the epics of Sendhri, madam," Albron replied, "one of the major poets of Kanthon."

"You're wasting your time, Chief Albron," she told him vehemently. "Kanthonese poetry isn't worth the parchment it's written on."

"Our dear Arya has opinions, Chief Albron," Leitha said with a faint smile.

"Arya?"

"How forgetful of me," Althalus said. "Chief Albron, the dark-haired young lady with the musical voice is Arya Andine, the ruler of Osthos. The blond lady with the clever tongue is Leitha, the witch of Kweron."

"Witch?" Albron's eyes looked startled.

"I'll get you for that, Althalus," Leitha threatened. "Actually, Chief Albron, it was a misunderstanding. Our local priest had some unpriestly appetites, and since he was so unspeakably holy, he assumed that any young lady who stirred those appetites absolutely had to be a witch. He had some plans to use me for firewood, but Althalus and Bheid persuaded him not to do that."

Chief Albron bowed. "My house is honored, ladies," he said formally.

"Young Bheid here is a priest of Deiwos from Awes in Medyo," Althalus continued, "and the boy's name is Gher. He's from Hule, and I'm training him to be a thief."

"You have an oddly assorted group of companions, Althalus. Oh, by the way, did you ever find that knife you were looking for?"

"Oh, yes. Eliar's got it tucked under his belt right now."

"I thought you were going to take it to your uncle back in Ansu."

"Ah . . . Actually, the story I told you when I was here last time wasn't entirely true." Althalus made a slight face. "When you get right down to it, Albron, I just made it up out of whole cloth. If I'd tried to tell you why I really needed the Knife, you'd have had me chained up as a dangerous lunatic. I hate to admit it, but I'm sort of working for God."

"You struck me as a man with better sense than that, Althalus. Is that what this is all about?"

"I'm afraid so. It wasn't really my idea, but God has ways to make people do what she tells them to do."

"It's fairly complicated."

Albron shook his head with an expression of profound disbelief. "I thought better of you. You aren't going to have much luck here in Arum, I'm afraid. We don't get involved in religious wars. They're too messy, for one thing, and we'd rather not have our young men coming home after a war with assorted lunacies sticking out of their ears. Arums fight for money, not for religion."

"I'm paying money, Albron, and nobody has to believe in anything to work for me." Althalus reached into his tunic and took out two of the oval bars of his gold. "Do these sort of get your attention, Chief Albron?" He handed the bars to the startled Chief.

Albron hefted the two bars. "Well, now," he said, breaking into a broad grin. "I'd say that these definitely give us something to talk about."

"I rather thought you might see it that way. I'm offering gold, Albron, not eternal life or a seat at God's supper table. There's a war in the works, and I need soldiers, not converts."

"If you can keep it on that footing, Althalus, I'd guess that every clan in Arum's going to fall in behind you."

Althalus took back his two bars of gold. "Now, then," he said, "as a demonstration of my sense of financial responsibility, why don't we settle up the Eliar account? How much do I owe you for his services this past summer?"