The Seeress of Kell

they're going, I could make a few guesses."
    There was a polite tap on the door. "There's a Cherek out here, your Imperial Majesty,” one of the guards outside the door announced. “He's a sailor, I think, and he says he needs to talk with King Anheg."
    "Send him in," the emperor instructed.
    It was Greldik, and he was slightly drunk. “I think I’ve solved your problem, Anheg. After I dropped you off on that pier, I wandered around on the docks for a while to see what kind of information I could pick up."
    "In taverns, I see."
    "You don't find sailors in tearooms. Anyway, I came across the captain of a Tolnedran merchantman. He'd picked up a cargo of Mallorean goods, and he was coming south across the Sea of the East toward the southern end of Cthol Murgos."
    "That's very interesting, but I don't quite see the point."
    "He saw a ship, and when I described Seabird to him, he agreed that it had been the ship he saw.”
    "That's a start, anyway. Where's Barak going?"
    "Where else? Mallorea, of course."
    After about a week's voyage, the Seabird made port at Dal Zerba on the southwest coast of the Mallorean continent. Barak asked a few questions and then led his friends to the offices of Silk's factor in the port city.
    The factor was a very thin man, not so much undernourished as he was emaciated.
    "We're trying to locate Prince Kheldar," Barak rumbled to him. "It's a matter of some urgency, and we'd appreciate any information you might be able to give us as to his whereabouts."
    The factor frowned. "The last I heard was that he was in Melcene on the other side of the continent, but that was over a month ago, and Prince Kheldar moves around a great deal."
    "That's Silk, all right," Hettar murmured.
    "Do you have any guesses about where he might have gone from Melcene?" Barak asked.
    "This office is fairly new," the factor said, "and I'm sort of at the tail end of the route of any couriers." He made a sour face. "The factor up at Dal Finda was a bit put out when Kheldar and Yarblek set up this office. I guess he felt that I might be in competition with him. Sometimes he forgets to pass things on to me. His office has been well established for some time, so the couriers always stop there. If anybody in this part of Dalasia knows anything abut Kheldar's location, he would."
    "All right. Where's Dal Finda, then?"
    "Upriver about forty leagues."
    "Thanks for the help, friend. Do you happen to have a map of this part of Mallorea?”
    "I believe I could find one for you, yes."
    "I'd appreciate it. We're not familiar with this part of the world."
    "So we go upriver?" Hettar said when Silk's factor was out of the room looking for the map.
    "If it's the only place where we can find out where Garion and the others are, we'll have to," Barak replied.
    The current in the Finda River was sluggish, and the oarsmen made good time as they rowed upstream. They reached the river town late the following day and went immediately to Silk's offices there.
    The factor here was almost the reverse of the man in Dal Zerba. He was bulky more than fat and he had huge meaty hands and a florid face. He was not particularly cooperative. "How do I know you're the prince's friends?" he demanded suspiciously. "I'm not going to reveal his location to complete strangers."
    "Are you trying to be difficult?" Barak asked.
    The factor looked at the big red-bearded man and swallowed hard. "No, but sometimes the prince wants his whereabouts kept secret."
    "Probably when he's planning to steal something," Hettar added.
    "Steal?" the factor objected in a shocked voice. "The prince is a respectable businessman."
    "He's also a liar, a cheat, a thief, and a spy," Hettar told him. "Now, where is he? We'd heard that he'd been in Melcene awhile back. Where did he go from there?"
    "Can you describe him?" the factor countered.
    "Short," Hettar replied, "sort of thin. He's got a face like a rat and a long, pointed nose. He's got a clever mouth and he thinks he's funny."
    "That's a fair description of Prince Kheldar," the factor conceded.
    "We have heard that our friend standeth in a certain amount of danger," Mandorallen said. "We have sailed many leagues to offer our assistance."
    "I was sort of wondering why most of you were wearing armor. Oh, all right. The last I heard was that he was bound for a place called Kell.”
    "Show me," Barak said, unfolding his map.
    "It's over here," the factor said.
    "Is that river navigable?"
    "As far north as Balasa."
    "Good. We can