The Hidden City

time Betuana called him, he had to put it down and go see what she wanted.’
    ‘I was very polite.’ Betuana smiled. ‘But I did keep asking. He’s very much afraid of you, Divine One.’
    ‘I know.’ Aphrael laid down her comb and picked up the brush. ‘He thinks I’m going to steal his soul or something. He won’t come anywhere near me.’
    ‘I let him know that I was going to keep on calling him until he gave me permission,’ Betuana went on, ‘and he finally gave in.’
    ‘They always do,’ Aphrael shrugged. ‘You’ll get what you want eventually if you just keep asking.’
    ‘It’s called “nagging”, Divine One,’ Sparhawk told her.
    ‘How would you like to listen to a few days of trumpet fanfares, Sparhawk?’ she asked.
    ‘No, thanks. It was good of you to ask, though.’
    ‘He definitely gave his permission?’ Aphrael asked the Queen.
    Betuana smiled. ‘Very definitely. He said, “Tell her she can do anything she wants. just leave me alone!”’
    ‘Good. I’ll take Engessa to the island then.’ Aphrael pursed her lips. ‘Maybe you’d better send a runner to your husband, telling him about Klael’s soldiers. I know your husband, so you’ll have to order him not to attack them. I’ve never known anyone so totally incapable of turning around as he is.’
    ‘I’ll try to explain it to him,’ Betuana said a little dubiously.
    ‘Good luck. Here.’ Aphrael handed over the comb and brush. ‘I’ll take Engessa to the island, thaw him out, and get started.’
    Ulath called a halt on the outskirts of town, and Bhlokw summoned Ghnomb. The God of Eat appeared holding the half-eaten hind-quarter of some large animal in one huge paw.
    ‘We have reached the place where the one called Berit has been told to come,’ Ulath told the huge Troll-God. ‘It would be well now if we come out of No-Time and go into the time of broken moments.’
    Ghnomb gave him a baffled look, clearly not understanding what they were doing.
    ‘U-lat and Tin-in hunt thought,’ Bhlokw explained. ‘The man-things have bellies in their minds as well as the bellies in their bellies. They have to fill both bellies. Their belly-bellies are full now. That is why they ask this. It is their wish to now fill their mind-bellies.’
    A slow look of comprehension began to dawn on Ghnomb’s brutish face. ‘Why did you not say this before, Ulath-from-Thalesia?’
    Ulath groped for an answer.
    ‘It was Bhlokw who found that we have mind-bellies,’ Tynian stepped in. ‘We did not know this. We only knew that our minds were hungry. It is good that Ghworg sent Bhlokw to hunt with us. Bhlokw is a very good hunter.’
    Bhlokw beamed.
    Ulath quickly expanded the metaphor. ‘Our mind-bellies hunger for thoughts about the wicked ones,’ he explained. ‘We can track those thoughts in the bird-noises the man-things make when they speak. We will stand on one side of the broken moment where they can not see us, and listen to the bird-noises they are making. We will follow those tracks to the ones we hunt, and they will not know we are there. Then we will listen to the bird-noises they make and learn where they have hidden Anakha’s mate.’
    ‘You hunt well,’ Ghnomb approved. ‘I had not thought of this kind of hunting before. It is almost as good as hunting things-to-eat. I will help you in your hunt.’
    ‘It makes us glad that you will,’ Tynian thanked him.
    Arjun was the capital of the Kingdom of Arjuna, a substantial city on the south shore of the lake. The royal palace and the stately homes of the noble families of the kingdom lay in the hills on the southern edge of town, and the commercial center was near the lake-front.
    Ulath and Tynian concealed their horses and proceeded on foot through the grey half-light of Ghnomb’s broken moments into the city itself. Then they split up and began to search for the food their mind-bellies craved, while Bhlokw went looking for dogs.
    It was almost evening when Ulath came out of another of the seedy taverns near the docks on the east side of town. ‘This is going to take all month,’ he muttered to himself. The name Scarpa had cropped up in a few of the conversations he had overheard, and each time he heard it, he had eagerly drawn closer to listen. Unfortunately, however, Scarpa and his army were general topics of conversation here, and Ulath had not been able to pick up anything that was at all useful.
    ‘Get out of my way.’ the voice was harsh, peremptory.