The Hidden City

army under my roof.’
    ‘How much?’ Tynian cut him off.
    ‘A half-crown?’
    ‘He doesn’t seem very certain. does he, Sergeant?’ Tynian asked his friend. ‘I think you misunderstood,’ he said then to the nervous innkeeper. ‘We don’t want to buy the room. We just want to rent it for one night.’
    Ulath was staring hard at the now-frightened little Tamul. ‘Eight pence,’ he countered with a note of finality.
    ‘Eight?’ the innkeeper objected in a shrill voice.
    ‘Take it or leave it—and don’t be all day about it. We’ll need a little daylight to find the Commissioner.’
    ‘You’re a hard man, Sergeant.’
    ‘Nobody ever promised you that life would be easy, did they?’ Ulath counted out some coins and jingled them in his hand. ‘Do you want these or not?’
    After a moment of agonized indecision, the innkeeper reluctantly took the coins.
    ‘You took all the fun out of that, you know,’ Tynian complained as the two went back out to the stable to see to their horses.
    ‘I’m thirsty,’ Ulath shrugged. ‘Besides, a couple of ex-soldiers would know in advance exactly how much they were willing to pay, wouldn’t they?’ He scratched at his face. ‘I wonder if Sir Gerda would mind if I shaved off his beard,’ he mused. ‘This thing itches.’
    ‘It’s not really his face, Ulath. It’s still yours. You’ve just been modified to look like him.’
    ‘Yes, but when the ladies switch our faces back, they’ll use this one as a model for Gerda, and when they’re done, he’ll be standing there with a naked face. He might object.’
    They unsaddled their horses put them into stalls and went on into the taproom. Tamul drinking establishments were arranged differently from those owned by Elenes. The tables were much lower, for one thing, and here the room was heated by a porcelain stove rather than a fireplace. The stove smoked as badly as a fireplace, though. Wine was served in delicate little cups and ale in cheap tin tankards. The smell was much the same, however. They were just starting on their second tankard of ale when an officious-looking Tamul in a food-spotted wool mantle came into the room and walked directly to their table. ‘I’ll have a look at your release papers, if you don’t mind,’ he told them in a loftily superior tone.
    ‘And if we do?’ Ulath asked.
    The official blinked. ‘What?’
    ‘You said if we don’t mind. What if we do mind?’
    ‘I have the authority to demand to see those documents.’
    ‘Why did you ask, then?’ Ulath reached inside his red uniform jacket and took out a dog-eared sheet of paper. ‘In our old regiment, men in authority never asked.’
    The Tamul read through the documents Oscagne had provided them as a part of their disguise. ‘These seem to be in order,’ he said in a more conciliatory tone. ‘Sorry I was so abrupt. We’ve been told to keep our eyes out for deserters—all the turmoil, you understand. I guess the army looks a lot less attractive when there’s fighting in the wind.’ He looked at them a bit wistfully. ‘I see you were stationed in Matherion.’
    Tynian nodded. ‘It was good duty—a lot of inspections and polishing, though. Sit down, Commissioner.’
    The Tamul smiled faintly. ‘Deputy-Commissioner, I’m afraid, Corporal. This backwater doesn’t rate a full Commissioner.’ He slid into a chair. ‘Where are you men bound?’
    ‘Home,’ Ulath said, ‘back to Verel in Daconia.’
    ‘You’ll forgive my saying so, Sergeant, but you don’t look all that much like a Dacite.’
    Ulath shrugged. ‘I take after my mother’s family. She was an Astel before she married my father. Tell me, Deputy-Commissioner, would we save very much time if we went straight on across the Tamul Mountains to reach Sepal? We thought we’d catch a ferry or some trading ship there, go across the Sea of Arjun to Tiara and then ride on down to Saras. It’s only a short way from there to Verel.’
    ‘I’d advise staying out of the Tamul Mountains, my friends.’
    ‘Bad weather?’ Tynian asked him.
    ‘That’s always possible at this time of year, Corporal, but there have been some distirbing reports coming out of those mountains. It seems that the bears up there have been breeding like rabbits. Every traveler who’s come through here in the past few weeks reports sighting the brutes. Fortunately they all run away.’
    ‘Bears, you say?’
    The Tamul smiled. ‘I’m translating. The ignorant peasants around