Pawn of Prophecy

as they set out for Muros, fifty leagues to the south.

Chapter Nine
    THE ALMOST TWO WEEKS it took them to reach Muros were the most uncomfortable Garion had ever spent. Their route skirted the edge of the foothills through rolling and sparsely settled country, and the sky hung gray and cold overhead. There were occasional spits of snow, and the mountains loomed black against the skyline to the east.
    It seemed to Garion that he would never be warm again. Despite Durnik's best efforts to find dry firewood each night, their fires always seemed pitifully small, and the great cold around them enormously large. The ground upon which they slept was always frozen, and the chill seemed actually to seep into Garion's bones.
    His education in the Drasnian secret language continued and he became, if not adept, at least competent by the time they passed Lake Camaar and began the long, downhill grade that led to Muros.
    The city of Muros in south-central Sendaria was a sprawling, unattractive place that had been since time immemorial the site of a great annual fair. Each year in late summer, Algar horsemen drove vast cattle herds through the mountains along the Great North Road to Muros where cattle buyers from all over the west gathered to await their coming. Huge sums changed hands, and, because the Algar clansmen also commonly made their yearly purchases of useful and ornamental articles at that time, merchants from as far away as Nyissa in the remote south gathered to offer their wares. A large plain which lay to the east of the city was given over entirely to the cattle pens that stretched for miles but were still inadequate to contain the herds which arrived at the height of the season. Beyond the pens to the east lay the more or less permanent encampment of the Algars.
    It was to this city one midmorning at the tag end of the fair, when the cattle pens were nearly empty and most of the Algars had departed and only the most desperate merchants remained, that Silk led the three wagons laden with the hams of Mingan the Tolnedran.
    The delivery of the hams took place without incident, and the wagons soon drew into an innyard near the northern outskirts of the city.
    "This is a respectable inn, great lady," Silk assured Aunt Pol as he helped her down from the wagon. "I've stopped here before."
    "Let's hope so," she said. "The inns of Muros have an unsavory reputation."
    "Those particular inns lie along the eastern edge of town," Silk assured her delicately. "I know them well."
    "I'm certain you do," she said with an arched eyebrow.
    "My profession sometimes requires me to seek out places I might otherwise prefer to avoid," he said blandly.
    The inn, Garion noted, was surprisingly clean, and its guests seemed for the most part to be Sendarian merchants.
    "I thought there'd be many different kinds of people here in Muros," he said as he and Silk carried their bundles up to the chambers on the second floor.
    "There are," Silk said, "but each group tends to remain aloof from the others. The Tolnedrans gather in one part of town, the Drasnians in another, the Nyissans in yet another. The Earl of Muros prefers it that way. Tempers sometimes flare in the heat of the day's business, and it's best not to have natural enemies housed under the same roof."
    Garion nodded. "You know," he said as they entered the chambers they had taken for their stay in Muros, "I don't think I've ever seen a Nyissan."
    "You're lucky," Silk said with distaste. "They're an unpleasant race."
    "Are they like Murgos?"
    "No," Silk said. "The Nyissans worship Issa, the Snake-God, and it's considered seemly among them to adopt the mannerisms of the serpent. I don't find it at all that attractive myself. Besides, the Nyissans murdered the Rivan King, and all Alorns have disliked them since then."
    "The Rivans don't have a king," Garion objected.
    "Not anymore," Silk said. "They did once, though - until Queen Salmissra decided to have him murdered."
    "When was that?" Garion asked, fascinated.
    "Thirteen hundred years ago," Silk said, as if it had only been yesterday.
    "Isn't that sort of a long time to hold a grudge?" Garion asked.
    "Some things are unforgivable," Silk said shortly.
    Since there was still a good part of the day left, Silk and Wolf left the inn that afternoon to search the streets of Muros for those strange, lingering traces that Wolf could apparently see or feel and which would tell him whether the object they sought had passed this way. Garion sat